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My Most Excellent Year: a Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, & Fenway Park, by...
Three three-dimensional best friends, families that genuinely love each other, disability and homosexuality just tossed in like the normal parts of life they are, and it’s even set in Boston! Sold....
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Tender Morsels, by Margo Lanagan
I’m not even going to try to summarize this one, except to say: interweaving of Snow White & Rose Red, Rumpelstiltskin, and probably some other tales into a lyrical novel with the most sexual...
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Review: Miss Spitfire, Sarah Miller (2007)
The moment when Helen Keller, splashing water over her hand, connects Annie Sullivan spelling W-A-T-E-R with the concept of “water” is part of our national mythology. This is Annie’s story up to that...
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Review: Five Flavors of Dumb, Antony John
Piper, a deaf high school senior who leads the chess team, gets good grades, and generally stays invisible, is a pretty unlikely choice to manage a rock band. But when she mouths off to the cocky lead...
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Reviews: Al Capone Does My Shirts (2004); Anything But Typical (2009)
I’ve just read three books about kids with different ways of perceiving the world, and because they’re thematically linked (also to catch up on reviews quicker) I’ll review two together: Al Capone Does...
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Review: A Mango-Shaped Space, Wendy Mass (2003)
In the third book about differences in perception, Mia is not autistic but synesthetic. Her whole life she’s seen letters and numbers in particular colors, and seen colored shapes when she hears loud...
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Review: Tankborn, Karen Sandler (Sept. 2011)
Best friends Kayla and Mishalla are GENs, Genetically Engineered Non-humans. In other words, slaves. Built in tanks from human and animal DNA, designed with special “skets” (skill sets), they are at...
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Review: The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green
The pitch: Despite getting a few unexpected years out of a drug trial, 16-year-old Hazel is dying of cancer. That is a fact. She’s been out of the regular rhythm of teenagehood for years; her life is...
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Review: Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, by Jonathan Auxier
The pitch: Peter Nimble, blind Dickensian orphan, is forced into thieving, eventually learning to be the best thief there is. One day he steals a mysterious box from a very odd stranger, catapulting...
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Review: All the Truth That’s in Me, by Julie Berry
The pitch: After enduring two years of abuse, Judith escapes her kidnapper and returns home. Damaged and shunned by her community, including the man she’s always loved, she must find a way to start to...
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