Book Review
Other Voices
This brave and heartwarming memoir shows that common secrets can have lasting implications. In "Other Voices", Tony Blenman recounts his childhood in Barbados, which was blighted by poverty and abuse. This inspirational memoir reveals...
Book Review
British Columbia
Gorgeous photographs and meticulous watercolor images make this celebration of British Columbia’s diversity stunning in its artistry. The Canadian province of British Columbia has the motto “Splendor without Diminishment.” That...
Book Review
1493 for Young People
It all started with a visit to a garden run by local college students; seeing the colorful heirloom tomatoes, Charles Mann planted his own and began pondering how tomatoes are emblematic of New World species that spread around the globe....
Book Review
The Jaguar and the Cacao Tree
Czech American author and producer Birgitte Rasine has previously written literary novellas and nonfiction, but "The Jaguar and the Cacao Tree" marks her middle-grade fiction debut. Mayan prehistory intersects with nature preservation...
Book Review
Kaboom!
In fifteen-year-old Cyndie’s Appalachian hometown of Greenfield, West Virginia, coal companies carry a lot of clout. When she and her best friend, Ashley, learn that mountaintop removal is planned for their beloved hangout, Mount Tom,...
Book Review
Beatrice Bunson's Guide to Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare comes to life in Drexel University English professor Paula Marantz Cohen’s first novel for young adults, Beatrice Bunson’s Guide to Romeo and Juliet. The title character, a freshman at Farley High School, is nostalgic for...
Book Review
How to Like Yourself
In "How to Like Yourself", university counselor Cheryl Bradshaw reassures teens that they are likeable and can make meaningful connections with others simply by being themselves. According to the personal yield theory, she writes, we...
Book Review
Votes of Confidence
Even as a kid, Jeff Fleischer recalls, he was a politics nerd. Now a Chicago journalist with history books about iconic revolutionaries and instances of mass hysteria under his belt, he’s issued a timely primer on the American...