I won this book about a year ago from another blog’s giveaway, and for some reason have let it sit at the bottom of my To Be Read pile. Having now just finished it, though, I feel like shouting:  I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS BOOK!  Times like this make a booklover crazy there isn’t someone sitting just across the room with [...]

Reading level: Young Adult Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1 edition (August 1, 2009)   Synopsis: For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf–her wolf–is a chilling presence she can’t seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the [...]

I am so surprised at how much I loved these books!  Why?  First of all, they didn’t strike me as books with Big Thinking involved, and I thought they’d be a little TOO fluffy.  Trust me, I’ll take a dose of fluff any day, but it’s hard enough to read a book with my 1yo [...]

I am such a sucker for book design.  I’ve always wanted to read this book, simply because of how it’s packaged – the title font, the cover illustration, the French-inspired title, and the choppy, uneven cut of the paper edges.  The little Newberry Medal seal doesn’t hurt it’s curb appeal, either.  Am I the only [...]

One nice thing about having a small, underused library system where we now live:  popular books are either right on the shelves, or have a very short wait time.  I have seen this book reviewed on many blogs lately, so the cover was fresh on my mind when I spotted it at our weekly trip [...]

Parts of this book reminded me of Little Women – the movie version, with Winona Ryder (I am embarrassed to admit I’ve never read Alcott’s book itself).  At any rate, here with the Penderwicks we have four diverse sisters – one motherly (Meg/Rosalind), one a writer with an adventurous spirit (Jo/Jane), one practical (Beth/Skye…I admit, [...]

I love, love, love this book.  The writing is fantastic, the pace is pitch-perfect, the characters are complex, the storyline is engaging, and there is a plot turn in the latter pages of the book that I did NOT expect!  Warming all these elements like a cozy blanket over cool skin is how adeptly Laura [...]

I read this book in one sitting, as I often do with any book by Hale.  That’s not meant to imply her writing is simple or her plots are shallow.  I just always find with Hale’s books that I want to stay immersed in any world she has created and lap up her way with the [...]

Once again, I could only get through part of this book before I had to adhere to another library patron’s request for it.  I might have asked myself, “What’s the deal with this book being requested so often?,” but it only took a handful of pages to understand the deal:  this is a GREAT read! A.J. [...]

It’s a three-fer deal in today’s review!  I read Uglies, Pretties, and Specials over this past Christmas break and found the trilogy very well-written, a fast read, with lots of action and plenty of food for thought. In the world of this trilogy, everyone is an “ugly” until their 16th birthday, when they undergo a complex [...]