Parenthetical

Conor has had the same nightmare every night since his mother began her treatments. But one night he wakes up to a different dream: a monster has come calling. The monster wants to tell him three stories, and in exchange Conor must tell the true story of his nightmare. Conor scoffs, but as his mother [...]

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Happy second round of Nerds Heart YA! After much deliberation, Allegra of My Library Card Wore Out and I chose Toads and Diamonds by Heather Tomlinson as our winner. It was a tough call, of course, as I loved many things about Tall Story. But ultimately we decided Toads and Diamonds had more “kid appeal.” [...]

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This was the other book in our Nerds Heart YA round, against Toads and Diamonds. We ultimately selected that one to go on, but here is my review of Tall Story. Andi adores basketball, and is devastated to learn that her new London school has no girls’ basketball team. Meanwhile, in a small village in [...]

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To understand how excited I was to read this book, you have to know that I am a huge fan of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. I’ve said for years that I want Sisterhood Goes to Grad School, Sisterhood of the Traveling Wedding Dress, Last Summer in the Nursing Home, etc. So when [...]

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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 singer of Dumb about how they could make some money if they’d quit living up to their name, [...]

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Orphaned Matt (not Matilda!) has reached the end of a string of distant relatives: a Quaker couple in a small Pennsylvania town who have also adopted a special-needs boy. It doesn’t pay to get attached, Matt has learned, so she keeps every potential family at arm’s length. But Sam and Jessica aren’t put off so [...]

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Just back from WWII, Evie’s stepfather takes her and her mother on a surprise vacation to Florida, where they meet Peter, a young man he knew in the service. As Evie falls for Peter, she is caught in a tangled web of secrets and lies. This won a National Book Award and I’d heard people [...]

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When Frederick starts 8th grade in a new state, he falls in with a group of Latinas who call themselves Las Sexy Seis. His new best friend, Xio, has the hots for him, but he only feels tingly when he hangs out with his new soccer buddy Victor. Could that mean he’s gay? Alex Sanchez [...]

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4 out of 5 When Gen’s mom drags the family to “Frontier Family Camp” for the summer, Gen is sure she’ll hate it. Who wants to spend a summer milking cows and peeing in an outhouse, cut off from her friends and the whole post-1890 world? She can’t stand the thought, so she sneaks her [...]

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4 out of 5 Ingrid and her sprawling extended family get together for every possible occasion, where no matter how old she and her teenage cousins get, they are always stuck at the kid table. Hanging out with each other beats discussing mortgages with their parents, but what will it take for the family to [...]

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