Reviews of young adult (YA) and middle grade (MG) books.
Daddy’s Girl, by Ben Burgess Jr., is a unique novel about the black experience in America as seen through the eyes of a father and his daughter. Nick Johnson is an underachieving alcoholic and womanizer with little ambition other than partying with friends. After he gets a married woman pregnant, she decides to give the…
About Lois Lane: Double Down, Entertainment Weekly says,” …it’s basically Lois Lane in a Veronica Mars-esque plot, which sounds like all kinds of awesome.” And it is. In her second Lois Lane book, author Gwenda Bond has recreated Lois as a teenage cub reporter for the Daily Planet. Her editor, Perry White, pressures teen Scoop…
Think the slave trade stopped with the Civil War? Petra knows better. Petra, a beautiful Hispanic girl, just finished a snack with her friend at the Pizza Parlour. When the companions separated, Petra headed home to finish her homework. When she was about to cross the street, powerful hands grabbed, shot her with a taser,…
Nova Benson, an Arcania high school student, is big sister to Starling, best friend to Henry, and has teen problems like homework, boy crushes, and hiding a gift she does not want the world to know about. Not even Henry knows Nova is invulnerable and has super strength. But its all for naught when Nova,…
Tyler Dunsmore, a thirteen-year old boy from Providence, Rhode Island is best friends with Dirk, a powerful wizard from a distant star. Tyler first met Dirk in Brian Wu and Scott Spotson’s first My Wizard Buddy novel. In Target: Earth, number three in the My Wizard Buddy Series, Tyler is kidnapped by the Genzi, evil…
We all know Lois Lane as a feisty star reporter for the Daily Planet and Superman’s girlfriend. But what was she like as a teenager? Gwenda Bond asked that question and created the Lois Lane series that begins with Fallout. Lois Lane is 16 years old and new to East Metropolis High School. She has promised…
According to Anita Valle in the second book of the Dark Fairy Tale Queen Series, Sneaky Snow White, Snow White was no angel. Though we’d like to think of her as an innocent young woman fleeing for a life threatened by an evil queen, Valle goes beyond the veil of legend and reveals a darker…
Maya Smock, an aspiring author, grew up in an orphanage and foster homes. Used and abused, she entered adulthood early taking a job at a Las Vegas bookstore by day and writing her novel, “The Master Race,” at night. When Maya’s book was finished she met a literary agent at a Las Vegas convention….
Life II Have a few regrets? Wish you could make some changes in your life? Think back to one event in your timeline you remember with clarity. Now, step back into yourself during that specific event and live your life again with all of your present day knowledge. That is the premise of Scott Spotson’s…
Andrea, a high school student, and her middle school brother, Bobby, were pried from comfy Florida living and tearfully moved to Stevensville, Idaho, a small town country community. Mom Shelly Taylor was a successful associate at a Tampa advertising agency, so she didn’t like the move either. Dad Steve Taylor had a job offer in…