Tag: ya review

Time Out by Sean Hayes, Todd Milliner, and Carlyn Greenwald

June 18, 2024

Amy and Christopher also have unique voices that I really enjoyed reading. Amy is a funny and idealistic activist who always dresses as if she’s going to a punk concert. Christopher is a journalist for the highschool paper and the only openly gay guy in the highschool. I loved reading how his perspective of Barcley changed as the book progressed. … More Time Out by Sean Hayes, Todd Milliner, and Carlyn Greenwald

It Happened on Saturday by Sydney Dunlap

June 13, 2024

Sydney Dunlap draws from her experience as a former elementary school teacher working with at-risk youth to expertly craft a narrative that delves into the unsettling, yet realistic encounters tweens and teens may face without proper supervision. The novel’s strength lies in its unflinching portrayal of Julia’s harrowing experience trapped with a recruiter and a trafficker in a hotel room, highlighting the potential dangers lurking in the digital landscape. … More It Happened on Saturday by Sydney Dunlap

Mall Goth by Kate Leth

June 6, 2024

Readers learn more about Liv’s interests through Leth’s illustrations of her bedroom posters, the pins on her backpack, and her signature style including fishnets, combat boots, stripes, and lots of black. Leth also incorporates different mediums into her art, including views of Liv’s online messaging and the Daemon’s Thirst video game that Liv’s new friends invite her to play. Overall, the illustrations work to amplify not only the setting, but the characters as well, allowing a deeper connection between readers and Liv. … More Mall Goth by Kate Leth

Mountain Runaways by Pam Withers

June 4, 2024

Well-researched wilderness survival skills, such as how to start a fire without matches, how to carve into the side of a snowy mountain to check for avalanche risks, and how to snare a rabbit all work to make this story believable. I was there with the three Gunnarsson kids shivering under a Douglas Fur bough, hungry and waiting for my first morsel of freeze-dried food, and with them as they huddled together, dead quiet as searchers hike passed just metres away.  … More Mountain Runaways by Pam Withers

Kylie the Magnificent by Marty Chan

May 30, 2024

Although the beginning chapters make it seem that Kylie the Magnificent is a novel all about girl power and feminism, it quickly evolves into a book about friendship. Chan adeptly illustrates the harsh reality of friendship issues in a fast-moving plot that shows the highs and lows of working through challenges. The short chapters and accessible language told from the protagonist’s perspective, Kylie, simultaneously engage readers and allow them insight into how being a young girl in a male-dominated field can feel.  … More Kylie the Magnificent by Marty Chan

The Fifth Beethoven by Melanie Jackson

May 23, 2024

The writing in Melanie Jackson’s The Fifth Beethoven reflects its target age-range well. The book tackles some tricky topics, and I appreciated how the nuanced the approach was to the wealth imbalance and housing crisis in Vancouver. Another highlight of the book for me was Zandi’s character and personality throughout. She seems to be one of the main constants in the book. She is steady, knows what she wants, and is determined to get it. She is the real hero of the book, and while she is only meant to be the love interest to Nate, she does so much more. … More The Fifth Beethoven by Melanie Jackson

Miles Morales Suspended: A Spider-Man Novel by Jason Reynolds, illus. Zeke Peña

May 9, 2024

Miles Morales Suspended touches on themes of identity, censorship, and the “patterns” of Miles’ life and upbringing through a combination of prose and poetry. The reader joins Miles for a day of in-school suspension, and it soon becomes apparent that something is afoot when termites start popping up and setting off his spidey-sense. Can Spider-Man solve this mystery? Or is this incident representative of something greater than defeating another bad guy? … More Miles Morales Suspended: A Spider-Man Novel by Jason Reynolds, illus. Zeke Peña

Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn

May 7, 2024

So much happens in this book, I could not stop reading. In this sequel to Legendborn, Briana Mathews is no longer just fighting shadowborn demons and trying to uncover the truth of her mother’s death. Now, Bree finds herself in the supposedly most powerful position within the unwelcoming Order. She is suddenly fighting demons who want to take over the world, political leaders who see her as a threat to their system, and ancestors from two different bloodlines who think she should do things differently.  … More Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn