Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

Lynn: Kristin Cashore is a gifted storyteller - one of those remarkable writers who spin a web of words that wraps around readers, capturing them completely with a tale. I’d wager my classic sf collection that every reader coming to the end of the first book, Graceling (Penguin/Dial, 2008), immediately asked when the second volume [...]

Cindy: I think of this series of delightful books every August as my summer vacation winds to an end. In The Exiles (Margaret K. McElderry, 1991), the four Conroy sisters, Ruth, Naomi, Rachel, and Phoebe are excited when their parents come into an inheritance and they gleefully begin plotting how to spend their share. Their [...]

Cindy: We can’t let any more summer slip away without blogging this perfect beach read. Lynn and I are both fans of Han’s first book, Shug, about a 7th grade girl grappling with middle school and the transition from child to adolescent. The Summer I Turned Pretty (Simon & Schuster, 2009) features an older girl, [...]

Lynn: There are authors for whom I take off my reviewer’s hat and just sit back, read and enjoy. The voice or the story or the humor just works for me. Deb Caletti is one of those authors (there are several - full disclosure here). I love her humor, [...]