Reviews Young Adult Books

The Fashion Committee by Susan Juby 2017

August 5, 2017

This book took me by surprise. Extremely talented high school students enter a fashion contest where they compete for a one year scholarship to a selective art school. Its told in alternating chapters by the . . . read more »

A Season of Daring Greatly by Ellen Emerson White 2017

July 5, 2017

This was a stretch for me because I know nothing about baseball and don’t follow it. I learned a lot! This is full of the jargon and gritty details of a professional ball player’s life; . . . read more »

Summer Reading list “Sail-Away-on-a-Good-Read” and Pop Up Bookstore from Island Readers and Writers

June 28, 2017

In addition to their “Sail-Away-on-a-Good-Read”  summer reading list, the local organization Island Readers and Writers, based in Southwest Harbor, will be holding 2 POP UP bookstores this summer—one of them right here at our library . . . read more »

All We Left Behind by Ingrid Sundberg (2015)

January 25, 2017

This was a tough book for me to read; I think it would be for any parent or caregiver of teens. It is compelling, well written, and the characters are believable. I can see how it . . . read more »

Tears of a Tiger by Sharon Draper 2004?

September 28, 2015

This is such a tough book…very well told but devastating. Do kids really have to read this stuff? Yes…because it’s the world we live in? Because maybe it will prepare them…thus prevent a tragedy? I . . . read more »

The Truth Commission by Susan Juby 2015

September 28, 2015

Fun, Canadian, Chatty, colorful, art school , footnotes, creative writing class, privacy, limits of art, family dynamics, I tried to read this once before but the footnotes drove me crazy. My husband liked it so . . . read more »

Revolution / Deborah Wiles.

September 8, 2014

9/8/2014This is a fabulous work blending fiction and non fiction that uses a documentary style including newspaper articles, photos, artwork, music and slogans of the time. It tells a fictional story about the 1964 Freedom . . . read more »

Beauty queens / Libba Bray.

April 3, 2012

This book was a challenge for me – way too bizarre! At first I was repulsed by the characterzation of beauty queens as shallow, competitive Barbie Doll types – not convincingly done and too trite . . . read more »

White cat / Holly Black.

October 1, 2011

Whew! Had to read this in a day – Basically a story of mob families – with fantasy element of “special abilities” added. Called “Workers” they can change emotions or memories or transform other people . . . read more »