Well, not going to lie. It was not a great opening day for my Red Sox. As Stephen King put it best a few minutes ago on Twitter, “The Red Sox snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.” And yeah, that felt a little too familiar to how my Bearcats finished March Madness. Thankfully in… Read more »
Books
ARC Review: Counting Thyme
Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m a sucker for any book that’ll give me the feels. My debut is, admittedly, a tearjerker, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that I was drawn to another middle grade tearjerker, Melanie Conklin‘s debut Counting Thyme. Eleven-year-old Thyme Owens has just left her beloved home (and grandmother, and… Read more »
ARC Review: Hour of the Bees by Lindsay Eagar
Sometimes you read a book, and you’re surprised by how much it mirrors your life in unexpected ways. In Lindsay Eagar’s Hour of the Bees, I felt an immediate kinship with twelve-year-old Carolina (pronounced “Caro-leeen-a”), who goes by Carol. Instead of spending the summer before junior high with her friends in Albuquerque, she’s stuck in… Read more »
ARC Review: Fenway and Hattie
As a pet owner (or parent to a fur child, if you will), there’s a small amount of time each day that I spend pondering my cat. I wonder what goes on in her little head — what’s that internal narrative as I pet her or put down her food dish. When she suddenly decides… Read more »
The worst thing that could happen, or… maybe not?
When you’re just starting out as a writer contemplating your book going out into the world — querying agents, on submission to editors — there’s this one thing that you fear above all others. OMG, [insert published book here] is just like my book! Trust me, before the actual worst thing that could… Read more »
ARC Review: The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary
How much can change in one school year? For the eighteen kids in Ms. Hill’s fifth-grade class, the answer is: a lot. Knowing that their school, Emerson Elementary, is slated to be torn down at the end of the year to make way for a supermarket, the class is instructed to write poems for a… Read more »
Friday Reads: Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms by Katherine Rundell
When Katherine Rundell’s second novel won the Boston Globe Horn Book award, I immediately requested it from my local library. I think of myself as someone who reads a fair amount of the best-reviewed middle grade and young adult novels published every year, and yet somehow, I had totally missed this one. The moment it came into… Read more »
Can’t Wait Until #FridayReads: A Book Review of Orbiting Jupiter
The world is not fair. People don’t (or hardly ever) get their just desserts. Where are the angels that are supposed to watch over us? Orbiting Jupiter, Gary D. Schmidt’s latest young adult novel, is a slim book that packs a powerful punch. In the opening scene, sixth grader Jack, a good boy in a quiet… Read more »
Goodbye Stranger: Hello new Rebecca Stead
What is love? As she sits at the table wearing her cats ears, 7th grader Bridge tries to answer that question in her own words for a homework assignment. But she’s not sure what to write, and doesn’t think too much about what she scribbles down. Seventh grade seems to be the year that could test… Read more »
Friday Reads: Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley
When Penguin Random House puts out a monstrous heap of pretty galleys at ALA Midwinter, you know they’re not kidding around. One of the books I was most psyched to grab back in late January was Cassie Beasley’s debut. (Admission: Cassie graduated from VCFA the semester before me and I was completely blown away by… Read more »
