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Cindy: As I said last week, while Lynn is spending the month in France I am soothing my travel lust with literature. To Timbuktu: Nine Countries, Two People, One True Story (Roaring Brook 2011) is just the ticket! I admire adventurous people and these two young adults spin a good tale about their travels. Casey [...]

Cindy:  It’s no mystery that fans of the National Book Award Winner, What I Saw and How I Lied, will line up for Judy Blundell’s latest historical mood-saturated drama, Strings Attached (Scholastic 2011). Kit Corrigan learns the hard way that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Seventeen and struggling to make ends [...]

Cindy: While Lynn is booking a real trip to Europe this summer, I have to pacify myself with a virtual trip through The Last Little Blue Envelope (HarperTeen 2011).  Those of you who followed Ginny’s European scavenger hunt in the first book, Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes, will remember that her backpack was stolen in Greece [...]

Lynn: One of the frequently heard laments from our book club teens is, “Why doesn’t anyone ever write about NORMAL teens?”  Pete Hautman must have been listening because his new book, The Big Crunch (Scholastic 2011) is exactly that.  No one is a vampire or werewolf, no one is dead, struggling with a deadly disease [...]

Lynn: 15-year-old Lina is a gifted artist from a loving family looking forward to an exciting future in Between Shades of Gray (Penguin 2011).  But it is 1941 in Lithuania and in the middle of the night, Soviet soldiers storm into her home, seize her and her family and force them onto trains packed with [...]

Lynn: Already racking up 6 starred reviews, Chime (Penguin/Dial 2011) is winning admirers everywhere. I am one of the throng and if Bookends gave stars we’d add to the count.  It’s been a while since a book hooked me so thoroughly or kept me so spellbound.  I could probably save a lot of writing time [...]

Lynn: I’m sure readers have noticed that we don’t write about a book unless one or both of us likes it.  We try hard to post about a variety of genres and ages ranges but our favorites DO have a way of sneaking in.  Anyone notice the numbers of fantasy and sf we post about?  [...]

Lynn: I think in my next life I’d like to be Sally Walker.  First she’s a terrific writer, second she’s investigating the most fascinating subjects and meeting amazing people and third  she’s turned her curiosity into her work.  How cool is that?  Frozen Secrets:  Antarctica Revealed (Carolrhoda 2010) is the award-winning Walker’s latest book and [...]

Lynn: I am slow in blogging about The Ghost and the Goth (Hyperion 2010) but there is still time to grab it, kick back and enjoy it over the holiday break.  The teens in our book club have been talking about this one since last summer.  They were handing it off to each other – [...]

Cindy: I’m embarrassed to tell you how many months Lynn has been waiting for me (euphemism for “nagging me”) to read Finnikin of the Rock (Candlewick 2010). I knew it was a complex political fantasy that would take some concentration and I had planned to sink into it last summer, but life had other plans. [...]