From the publisher: There are some friends you never forget. It's the summer of 1955. For Ethan Harper, a biracial kid raised mostly by his White father, race has always been a distant conversation. When he's sent to spend the summer with his aunt and uncle in small-town Alabama, his blackness is suddenly front and… Continue reading The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones: A MG Review and Audiobook Giveaway
Here is my criteria for loving a book: I don't want it to end so I drag out reading the last few chapters. That was the case with my most recent read, The Means that Make Us Strangers, Christine Kindberg's debut novel. The book caught my attention when a friend tweeted that it had won the 2020 Christie Award… Continue reading THE MEANS THAT MAKE US STRANGERS: A YA Debut Novel Review and a Giveaway- Part I
Introducing Jo Hackl Over two years ago I had the pleasure of sharing Jo Hackl's path to publication. (Both Part I and Part II are great reading; Jo shared how she came up with the ideas for the book and the process of acquiring a publisher). Jo and I have been friends through SCBWI-Carolinas for over ten years, and… Continue reading Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe: A Review and ARC Giveway
Congratulations to Linda Phillips. Random.org selected her name to win an audio book off last week's blog. ********* Several weeks ago I pulled one of the books I received at Highlight Summer Camp, Hattie on Her Way (Candlewick Press, 2005) off my TBR shelf. Written by my friend and fellow blogger, Clara Gillow Clark, this girls' middle grade novel… Continue reading Hattie On Her Way: A Review and TWO Giveaways!
Image-driven poetry. A serious mental health issue. Deep point of view. Madeline Kuderick's debut novel, Kiss of Broken Glass, reminds me of another beautifully written novel-in-verse, Linda Phillips' book, CRAZY. Or to put it simply, if you liked CRAZY, you'll like Kiss of Broken Glass. When a "friend" finds fifteen-year-old Kenna cutting in the school bathroom… Continue reading Kiss of Broken Glass: A Review and a Giveaway
When Allan Wolf was thirteen, he lost a penny behind the baseboard in his bedroom. He grabbed a pencil and wrote, "Penny lost down here on the night of April 12, 1976 at 2 til 9 PM and 5 seconds by Allan Dean Wolf." In some ways, that was the genesis of Zane's Trace, a… Continue reading Zane's Trace