Parenthetical.net

This is from a series called Twisted Journeys, which are Choose Your Own Adventures in comic form. The title pretty much says it all: you and your friend go to an island to help your friend’s aunt, a “world-famous explorer,” do some unspecified research on why a settlement disappeared. Turns out — spoiler [...]

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Magic Trixie is a cute little witch girl with a talking pet cat, a baby sister (Abby Cadabra), an older sister, parents, grandparents, and a Mimi (”a Gramma who thinks that if she is never called the G-word, no one will know she is a Gramma”). She goes to school with assorted other cute [...]

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My love of post-apocalyptic science fiction is no secret, so I was all kinds of excited to check out In the Small: a mysterious blue light covers Earth, reducing human beings to the size of… well, iPods, to judge by one of the panels. Collapse of civilization! Humanity stretched to the limit! [...]

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I read the original Coraline, but — and I say this as a total Neil fangirl — I found it overrated. Meh, the other mother has black buttons for eyes and some rats. WTF-ever! (My boyfriend thinks I don’t watch enough horror movies to be properly scared by anything. He’s probably [...]

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My first Cybils review! Woot! There were things I loved about it, but I have some concerns.
First of all, let me say that I loved the art. I tend to be a realism kind of gal. But these black-and-white drawings have so much energy and motion, I couldn’t help but get [...]

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In 1944, Los Alamos doesn’t officially exist. It’s a top-secret military research base in the middle of the desert, whose sole purpose is to develop the weapon known as “the gadget.” This is the story of two girls — wannabe social climber Suze and cheerfully geeky loner Dewey — who live in Los [...]

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I read a classic! On purpose! Without coercion! Twelve-year-old me wants a medal.
My Antonia is the story of a sort of pioneer Magical Mystery Girl, as told through the eyes of Jim, a boy who travels from Virginia to frontier Nebraska to live with his grandparents after his parents die. A [...]

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Ok, what you all need to know up front is that John Green is coming to my school on Friday! Squee!! …Um, I mean: I will conduct myself with appropriate teacherly maturity, and will not be a ridiculous fangirl at all. (Hey, what can I say? YA authors are like movie [...]

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I sat on this review for a few weeks, because I didn’t want you to forget about it — it is fabulous, and any of you who love Alanna or Jacky Faber (or any fantasy/adventure, really — this book is perfect adult crossover material) should run to your local bookstore or library to make Katsa’s [...]

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The only people in Samara’s life are her neglectful mother, her mother’s abusive live-in boyfriend, and her favorite chimpanzee at the zoo… until elderly Mr. Brook subs for her regular English teacher and changes her life with some poetry.
Sound like a cliche? Well, it… pretty much is. The book is only 173 small-format [...]

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