By: tanita✿davis,
on 11/13/2015
The second "episode" in the Nicki Haddon mysteries continues Chinese-born heroine Yu Fin's adventures with MI6, the FBI, and other super secret agencies that this sixteen-year-old manages to infiltrate and outthink. Summary: Since her involvement in... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 11/11/2015
Since a "cozy" is a subgenre of crime fiction where the mysterious doings (murder/mayhem) are off-screen and the sleuth is usually funny (either amusing or odd), this novel straddles the line between being cozy and being plain YA - because the... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 11/10/2015
The best thing about reading is the opportunity to observe, discover, and reflect about somewhere else, and someone else, and maybe begin to imagine yourself in someplace else, with another situation. Some of the very best "old-school" YA novels... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 11/3/2015
Mid-autumn might seem like a weird time to start reading about baseball again, but since the World Series victories are still echoing in our ears, I think it's a fine time to start thinking about spring training again. One of the first books my... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 10/13/2015
I don't often get a chance to read a book before my librarian friends hit it. True fact: they are some voracious people with a book. I saw a couple reviews for this going by in my blog and Twitter feeds, and did my best to not see them until I had... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 10/6/2015
The relationship in dysfunctional families between kids and parents isn't something often directly discussed in YA novels, but this one, from the first paragraph, is all about what happens when a kid is accustomed to taking care of a parent.... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 10/2/2015
I review this book with mixed emotions. It touches on an important piece of history, using fictional characters to give eyewitness accounts to a fictional and nonfictional events. In many ways, it is successful; its Kirkus and Booklist stars attest... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 9/30/2015
I remember M.E. Kerr. My sister had a book called DINKEY HOCKER SHOOTS SMACK, and I was in grade school and thought the title sounded awful. Who'd name their kid Dinky? With books, though, curiosity traps me every time, and the fact that Dinky was a... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 9/18/2015
While this adventure isn't technically YA nor marketed as such, the protagonist is a young man in a magical "university," but given the sort of Olde English wording in some spots and the kind of feel of the story, I think "university" might be a... Read the rest of this post
By: Sarah Stevenson,
on 8/31/2015
Happy Monday! We're back again today with the final installment in our interview with the wonderfully articulate and interesting Ashley Hope Pérez, who has stopped by on her blog tour for her forthcoming novel Out of Darkness. The story is based on... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 8/29/2015
Welcome back to our conversation with author Ashley Hope Pérez, author of the forthcoming YA historical novel OUT OF DARKNESS, which is based on real-life events of the March 1937 gas leak which caused a massive explosion and killed almost 300... Read the rest of this post
By: Sarah Stevenson,
on 8/27/2015
Welcome to Part 1 of our 3-part interview (we just couldn't stop chatting!) with Ashley Hope Perez, author of the forthcoming YA historical novel Out of Darkness, which is based on real-life events (and which we reviewed here).Not only was this a... Read the rest of this post
By: Sarah Stevenson,
on 8/10/2015
Summary: Ashley Hope Pérez's latest novel comes out on September 1. I tell you this so you can brace yourself. Out Of Darkness is historical fiction of the most wrenching kind: based on a real-life tragedy, with plenty of collective guilt to go... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 6/12/2015
Happy Friday!Welcome to another edition of In Tandem, the dual read-and-review blog series where both A.F. and I give our on-the-spot commentary as we read and team blog a book. (You can feel free to guess which of us is the yellow owl and which of... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 6/3/2015
This book is either a primer on how to find out stuff your parents are keeping from you, or a primer on how to make the most of your very best friends in the world. Its action-focused, galloping plot is a tale of family and chosen family, the ones... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 5/20/2015
I'd wanted to read this book for a long time because in my head I'd heard it was historical and was a story about a Chinese girl. Somehow, my mind equated "historical fiction" with an absolutely parallel true-to-life tale of someone back in time. I... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 5/12/2015
The cover of this novel is striking and colorful, signalling a South Asian tale. Readers may be surprised to discover that it's both a dystopia -- and, in part, a verse novel. The detail is absorbing and the political landscape surprising, and the... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 5/5/2015
"No, seriously, this is the LAST post-apocalyptic dystopian book I'm going to review." I say that frequently, don't I? And yet, I keep finding stories that, for me, at least, add to the sub-genre. Few are the novels which move past the end-of-days... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 5/1/2015
After being seriously blown away by Tina Connolly's alternate history as depicted in her Ironskin trilogy, I was a bit surprised to see this lighthearted-looking book in my mailbox. Stripey tights and a magic book? Huh. I shouldn't have been... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 4/23/2015
Welcome to another edition of In Tandem, the read-and-review blog series where both A.F. and I give our on-the-spot commentary as we read and team blog a book together. (You can feel free to guess which of us is the yellow owl and which of us is the... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 4/8/2015
Awhile back we met Hazel and Daisy in Murder Most Unladylike - or, in clunky American titling, MURDER IS BAD MANNERS (I have a horrible suspicion that ARSENIC FOR TEA will be marketed to Americans as POISON FOR LUNCH or another equally pedestrian... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 2/27/2015
"Have you ever had the feeling that you aren't the main character in the story of your life? That you fill a more minor role - supporting cast, maybe, comic relief, or even antagonist? If that is true - if you aren't the big deal in the story of... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 2/24/2015
This book is a 2015 Cybils Award YA Speculative Fiction Finalist. This is a review by a finalist judge, so will focus more directly on summary. We hope you pick up this Cybil nominee, read, and enjoy! Summary: Sixteen-year-old Ava is a dichotomy -... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 2/14/2015
This book is The Winner of the 2015 Cybils Award in YA Speculative Fiction. This year I was a finalist judge, and I know how this book was both enjoyed - and gave us nightmares. Please visit The Cybils page for more reveals on winners and additional... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 1/13/2015
This book is a 2015 Cybils Award YA Speculative Fiction Finalist. This is a review by a finalist judge, so will focus solely on summary and leave out additional discussion. Thanks! I'm not a great traveler, I'll admit. When I get on an airplane,... Read the rest of this post
