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Read a YA Book Series this Summer

ByMichael Thal

  With kids about to exit schools by the droves, it’s a good idea to keep them reading during the summer months. If children take a vacation from reading over the long hot summer their reading skills could fizzle. Studies have shown that students can lose up to three months of reading progress over the…

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Review Blitz: Witch of the Cards

ByMichael Thal

Blurb Witch of the Cards is historical, supernatural romantic suspense set in 1932 on the Jersey shore. Twenty-two year-old Fiera has recently left the Brooklyn orphanage where she was raised, and works in Manhattan as a nanny. She gets a lucky break when her boss pays for her short vacation in Asbury Park. One evening,…

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YA Historical Fiction

ByMichael Thal

Jake Tharsher is just 13 years old when his mother is killed in 1883 by a mysterious beast with red hair and plate-sized tracks. His father, an Army Scout, refuses to hunt the animal down. So when dad is called away again to fight renegade Apaches, Jake decides to risk it all and hunt the…

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The Time Travel Journals

ByMichael Thal

Three years ago I had the pleasure of reviewing both of Marlene Dotterer’s Time Travel Journal novels, Shipbuilder and Bridgebuilders for Big Al’s Books and Pals. I enjoyed those time travel YA books so much, I want to resurrect the reviews for your reading pleasure. Enjoy. -Pop Shipbuilder Casey Wilson, a coed at Queen’s University in Belfast, Ireland,…

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Pop’s Rating System

ByMichael Thal

Pop evaluates a lot of books on his blog, so readers are starting to demand that he rate the books. On Amazon or Goodreads books are rated with one to five stars depending on the quality of the novel. Keeping that rating system in mind, Pop has decided on this following system for his blog. …

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A Brief History of YA Literature

ByMichael Thal

As a teacher fresh out of grad school and subbing for the Los Angeles Unified School District, I began reading YA fiction to uncover gems to motivate my students. I initially discovered Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly. Published in 1942 and considered the first book explicitly written for teens, Daly’s novel for girls had a…