Parenthetical.net

Naomi and her little brother Owen are content living with their great-grandmother in a trailer park — Naomi carves soap into animal shapes, hangs out with the (clearly flaming, even though the text doesn’t say so explicitly) librarian at school, and watches Wheel of Fortune every night with Gram and her best friend Fabiola. But [...]

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In two weeks I’ll be heading to the Simmons College Children’s Literature Summer Institute. Three days of talks by and schmoozing with fabulous authors, editors, and other people working in the children’s lit field (not to mention some dear friends). So excited!
I realized that I’m unfamiliar with the work of a [...]

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This was a request from Zix, who wanted to know what I thought of this after reading Luna. (I do take requests, btw — if there’s a YA novel you want me to review, just let me know! I’d rather post stuff I know people want to read.)
Parrotfish opens in the middle of [...]

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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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