Thousand Steps into Night – book review

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A Thousand Steps into Night by Traci Chee Adventure Fantasy Supernatural * * * Stars (Pretty good) Miuko is unexpectedly cursed by a demon one night and has to flee from her home and try to find a way to break the curse before it completely consumes her. Her quest leads her far from home and gives her freedoms and experiences that she would never otherwise have had. When she finds herself in a position … Read more

Queen of the Tiles – book review

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Queen of the Tiles by Hanna Alkaf Mystery * * * * Stars (Great!) It’s been a year since Najwa’s best friend Trina died during a Scrabble tournament, and it’s been that long since Najwa has competed. She’s returning to the competition circuit now as a tribute to her friend’s memory. Being around her former friends and rivals is both comforting and upsetting, and things get even worse when someone starts posting clues from Trina’s … Read more

Front Country – book review

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Front Country by Sara St. Antoine Adventure Realistic Fiction * * * * Stars (Great!) Ginny Shepard’s world comes squealing to a halt when her science teacher starts a unit on climate change. Unlike her classmates, Ginny can’t seem to stop thinking about all the animals going extinct and the planet dying. Her friends and family don’t understand why it’s hard for her to care about anything else. When Ginny starts ignoring her grades in … Read more

Believarexic – book review

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Believarexic by JJ Johnson Realistic Fiction Novel in Verse (partly) * * * Stars (Pretty good) Jennifer (15) is an alcoholic and has an eating disorder that she’s been hiding for some time. She realizes that she’s sick, and that she will need help to heal, but her family is skeptical – is this just another case of Jennifer seeking attention and being dramatic? Still, her mother makes an appointment for her to be evaluated … Read more

Refraction – book review

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Refraction by Naomi Hughes Science Fiction * * * Stars (Pretty good) Marty Callahan is a dealer in illegal mirrors who finds himself in hot water when enforcement agents get the drop on him. What’s so bad about mirrors, you might ask? Well, ever since an alien spaceship exploded over the Earth, enveloping most of it in an impenetrable fog filled with terrifying monsters, reflective surfaces have only served as portals for the monsters. So … Read more

Odder – Read It and Rate It

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Odder by Katherine Applegate Realistic Fiction Review #1 * * * * * Stars (Amazing!) What is life like for a wild otter? Living off the coast of California, near the Monterey Bay Aquarium (though it is called Highwater in her world), Odder delights in play. “Water means play, and play is their purpose.” When she was a child, barely a few months old (though otters grow much faster than human children) a storm swept … Read more

Complicated Love Story Set in Space – book review

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A Complicated Love Story Set in Space by Shaun David Hutchinson LGBTQ+ Mystery Romance Science Fiction Suspense Thriller * * * Stars (Pretty good) Noa wakes up in space – literally in a spacesuit floating outside a spaceship. He has no idea how he got there. At least he isn’t alone. DJ reaches out to him from the ship with some rather unfortunate news – the ship may explode if they don’t do something to … Read more

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? – book review

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Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death by Caitlin Doughty Nonfiction * * * * * Stars (Amazing!) Caitlin Doughty is a mortician and funeral director and in this book she responds to some of the questions she has received from young folks about death, corpses, funerals and more (including “Will my cat eat my eyeballs?”). Kids are curious about ALL aspects of death, so there’s a nice selection … Read more