Wednesday, January 10, 2007

quick.

Busy reading and reviewing so here is a list of some YA novels of note I have consumed recently.

The Dashwood Sisters' Secrets of Love by Rosemary Rushton: Sense and Sensibility for teens!

Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman. Pride and Prejudice for teens. Winsome and witty. Smarter than the Rushton.

A Pickpocket's Tale by Karen Schwabach. Little Londoner is sent on a slave ship from Newgate to New York. Lives with a Jewish family while there. Schwabach paints a dazzling canvas of yesteryear while silmultaneously brushing readers up on Jewish traditions. What did a nineteenth century synagogue look like? Equal amounts of yiddish and flash cant pepper the language.


Snowfall KM Peyton. Stifled Charlotte leaves the promise of a dismal marriage and her aged cleric grandfather to hike in the alps with her brother and his Oxford friends. Love in many forms and adventures nearly unfathomable to most Victorian ladies abounds.


Ida B. by Katherine Hannigan. Ida is an irrepressible homeschooled child who spends her days communicating with the trees in her orchard and maximizing the potential of fun ( one of her many plans ). An engaging narrator, Ida B. relays the tale of her mother's sudden illness and her reinstatement into the public school system, not to mention her further relations with the most inspiring grade four teacher in recent literature ( a reason she is labelled Ms. Washington; she is a cornerstone of morality and nobility and inspiration ). Cancer is not sugarcoated here, nor Ida B's many conflicting emotions. Hannigan has given you a shovel to dig into the furthest recesses and cavernous curves of a young mind, and you will be more than happy to explore.


The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie Jaclyn Moriarty: the upper grade librarian's heaven sent for reluctant readers. Funny funny stuff.... and smart.

The Year of Secret Assignments. Also Moriarty. Read this now.


500 Great Books for Teens by Anita Silvey. Brilliant reference that expands on the gap that bridges Young Adults from Adult books. A must for anybody who is interested in this demogrraphic. Silvey was once chief editor at the Horn Book.


4 comments:

Kirsten said...

Thanks for posting these reviews - I love YA books also. There seems to be so much more to choose from then I remember there being when I was a teen!

Thanks for the tip in your earlier post regarding Will Thomas. Haven't read anything by him yet, but he's on my list of authors to look for next time I am at the library.

Anonymous said...

It amazes me how much you read. I wish I could read this much. Eventually, though, I'll get some YA read, and then I can repay the many, many recommendations you make. I've so much catching up to do!

Kathleen said...

I haven't read many of the books you've listed, but i read Pride and prejudice last year when i was 12 But right now i'm mostly reading stories about vampires. My bf has read a year of secret assignments, which kinda interested me but last year i was more intrested in my stories, which i still am i'm just having massive writers block. Within the last two weeks i've read at least five books.
blood and chocolate
companions of the night
green angle
silver kiss
a well timed enchantment
and in the forests of the night. and if you've read any good vampire stories let me know.

I'm not that big into ya books right now, but i do say to anyone who's read pride and prejudice to read pemberly, its not by jane austin but emma tennant. Usually sequels by different authors suck, and in depth and truth to the characters this did suck but if you're just looking at the story it's really good.

Anonymous said...

wow that was really long