Tag Archive | relationships

When home’s safety is an illusion, what next? Read tales of escape & danger … with your ears!

May21

From home, they cross desert lands,
from desert to home,
siblings travel in fear and hope.

The destination and the journey may both prove dangerous for teens in this week’s free audiobooks from the summer AudioSYNC program.

Download by evening of 27 May 2020 via the links below, and you can read with your ears as long as you keep the files on your phone or tablet’s Sora app shelf.

CD oover of Sisters Matsumoto, by Philip Kan Gotanda. Read by Keiko Agena, June Angela, Ron Bottitta, Kurt Kanazawa, Suzy Nakamura, Greg Watanabe, Ryun Yu. Published by L.A. Theatre Works | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Sisters Matsumoto (download 21-27 May 2020)

by Philip Kan Gotanda. Read by Keiko Agena, June Angela, Ron Bottitta, Kurt Kanazawa, Suzy Nakamura, Greg Watanabe, Ryun Yu. Published by L.A. Theatre Works

Leaving prison camp in 1945, three Japanese-American sisters return to their California family farm, but find that everything has changed.

The young women are determined to realize their late parents’ dreams, even if the land is out of their hands.

This full-cast live performance is followed by an excellent discussion with former internee George Takei about US citizens “relocated” during World War II.

CD cover of Disappeared, by Francisco X. Stork | Read by Roxana Ortega, Christian Barillas Published by Scholastic Audio | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Disappeared (download 21-27 May 2020)

by Francisco X. Stork. Read by Roxana Ortega, Christian Barillas. Published by Scholastic Audio

Las Desaparecidas, the disappeared girls, now include Sara’s friend Linda so the young journalist writes and worries, knowing that powerful forces in Juarez are behind the kidnappings.

Sara’s brother Emiliano hopes that building a small business will impress the wealthy classmate he adores.

Soon, the criminals threaten Sara and Emiliano’s lives – is it time for them to brave the desert crossing to safety?

What difficult journeys in life have you traversed with the help of your family?
**kmm

If only he could meet her… SHE WORE RED TRAINERS, by Na’ima B. Robert (book review)

May19
book cover of She Wore Red Trainers, by Na'ima B. Robert, published by Kube Books | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Family life is funny and frustrating,
community expectations can be a heavy burden,
how to stay true to your faith, yet find your own path?

Her stepfather is especially mean to Amirah’s younger brother who is deaf – hopefully getting all three younger siblings out of the house to the Islamic Center’s summer program will help Mom’s depression (another divorce coming?) sigh…

Mum’s death sent Dad’s business into freefall, brought Ali back to their faith – now the house is sold and they’ll be in London for his summer before college…

Playing basketball with the guys in their city Muslim neighborhood, Ali sees a young woman in hijab over there…who is she of the red shoes?

Will the right circumstances allow these new neighbors to meet properly, correctly, soon?
Can Amirah find a way to attend art school before her older brother arranges her marriage?
Can Ali convince his dad that law school was Mum’s dream, not his own?

Meet these Muslim families in south London and know more about their lives and worries and dreams. Find this 2014 book at your local library (worldcat.org/libraries) or independent bookstore (indiebound.org/indie-store-finder or https://bookshop.org/).

What happy ending are you willing to work for and wait for?
**kmm

Book info: She Wore Red Trainers / Na’ima B. Robert. Kube Publishing, 2014. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Might rethink those partnerships! Chilling audiobooks…

May14

A deal with the Devil!?
Are the police ignoring evidence?
Are you sure this partnership is on the up-and-up?

Hope you’ve already downloaded the Sora app on your phone or tablet and selected Audiobooksync as your public library there so you can quickly download and save a scary story or two from this week’s free selections.

Each pair of professionally produced audiobooks is available from Thursday morning to Wednesday night – the full calendar with selections and summaries is here.

CD cover of Faust, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Read by Samuel West, Toby Jones, Anna Maxwell Martin, Stephen Critchlow, Derek Jacobi, Daniel Mair. Published by Naxos AudioBooks | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Faust (download here May 14-20, 2020)

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Read by Samuel West, Toby Jones, Anna Maxwell Martin, Stephen Critchlow, Derek Jacobi, Daniel Mair. Published by Naxos AudioBooks

When the Devil offers a scholar the chance for a life filled with pleasure and power, Faust willingly gives up his soul.

But later he has second thoughts. Can one outwit the Devil?

CD cover of Stalking Jack the Ripper, by Kerri Maniscalco, Read by Nicola Barber. Published by Hachette Audio | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Stalking Jack the Ripper (download here May 14-20, 2020

by Kerri Maniscalco, Read by Nicola Barber. Published by Hachette Audio

Secretly assisting her uncle in his forensic lab, wealthy teen heiress Audrey encounters all the maimed corpses attributed to the Ripper. What secret clues might they find?

What too-good-to-be-true opportunity have you gladly passed up?
**kmm

What gift given this time? FOREVER GLIMMER CREEK, by Stacy Hackney (middle grade book review)

May8
book cover of Forever Glimmer Creek, by Stacy Hackney. Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Miracles are unpredictable,
a gift that’s useful or not,
in her town, Miracles are real.

Every year a Glimmer Creek resident gets a trace of magic after surviving a danger, and no one knows why a particular person gets their Miracle.

Rosie knows Miracles aren’t a legend, so the seventh grader is going to interview them all for her Festival movie instead of investigating the Lost Train Treasure, like Henry wants.

But not every Miracle holder wants to talk about their experience, Henry and Cam can’t help with every filming session like they used to, and time to finish her documentary is running short.

Mama and Rosie are the perfect pair – why won’t the Sheriff stay away?
Her long-gone dad is filming nearby – why won’t Mama ever let him visit?
Cam is so busy with the soccer team – what if she doesn’t have time for Rosie anymore?

If Rosie could just have her own Miracle – she would bring home her movie actor father, become a noted film director, keep her two best friends forever…

Read chapter one here for free, thanks to the publisher.

What’s your happily-ever-after movie ending?
**kmm

Book info: Forever Glimmer Creek / Stacy Hackney. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2020. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

More than meets the eye – read with your ears & AudioSYNC!

May7

Thursday equals a pair of related new titles in the AudioSYNC program, both free for you to download before Wednesday night, 13 May 2020.

For each audioSYNC book you choose, be sure to hit ‘Borrow’ on the Sora app (downloaded on your phone or tablet). Then it will be checked out to you for 35,996 days or 100 years – enough time to listen to all 26 selections of summer 2020!

CD cover of Secret Soldiers: How the US Twenty-Third Special Troops Fooled the Nazis, by Paul B. Janeczko, Read by Ron Butler. Published by Brilliance Audio | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Secret Soldiers: How the US Twenty-Third Special Troops Fooled the Nazis (info here)

by Paul B. Janeczko | Read by Ron Butler | Published by Brilliance Audio

Sound effects, inflatable war machines, pyrotechnics, and camouflage – the U.S. “Ghost Army” made up of actors, set designers, audio specialists, and painters fooled German forces during World War II.

Their 20 missions made the Nazis see and hear non-existent troop maneuvers from the Normandy invasion to crossing the Rhine, ensuring Allied victory.

CD cover of Picture Us in the Light, by Kelly Loy Gilbert, Read by James Chen. Published by Dreamscape | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Picture Us in the Light (info here)

by Kelly Loy Gilbert | Read by James Chen | Published by Dreamscape

A year after his close-knit group of friends ruptures, Danny worries about his future as an artist after high school. When the California teen discovers a box of secrets in Dad’s closet, everything his immigrant family has told him comes into question, too.

How do we camouflage our true intentions from others?
**kmm

Y for be yourself? PIPPA PARK RAISES HER GAME, by Erin Yun (middle grade book review)

Apr29
book cover of Pippa Park Raises Her Game, by Erin Yun. Published by Fabled Films Press | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Scholarship to private school? Cool!
Expectations from family? Heavy.
Keep both worlds apart? Ummm…maybe?

Pippa loves basketball, but her big sister won’t let her try out for the middle school team until her grades are better. Algebra tutor, from snooty Lakeview Private? Yuck.

Their mother agrees, back in Korea after her work visa in Massachusetts expired. Good grades will be Pippa’s path forward, beyond the family laundromat and its long hours of work.

When Lakeview offers Pippa a basketball scholarship, Omma and sister are delighted. Pippa decides to reinvent herself as a cool girl… but can she do it at the same school as her math tutor Eliot, where his father is the principal?!

How can Pippa keep her fancy new friends from knowing her humble origins?
Can she keep up her grades to keep this scholarship?
Who recommended her for this scholarship anyway?

Worried about her best friend since forever Buddy, about Omma’s health, about playing against her old school in the big game… action on and off the court is getting intense!

How hard is it to live up to family expectations?
**kmm

Book info: Pippa Park Raises Her Game / Erin Yun. Fabled Films Press, 2020. [book site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

X is where we aren’t, in SPEED OF FALLING OBJECTS, by Nancy Richardson Fischer (YA book review)

Apr28
book cover of The Speed of Falling Objects, by Nancy Richardson Fischer. Published by Inkyard Press/Harlequin | recommended on BooksYALove.com

One eye, one focus,
One week, time to finally be with Dad,
One downed plane, any chance to survive?

It was easier to cope with losing one eye at age 7 than with her dad’s leaving a few months later. Now Cougar’s adventure survival show takes him all over the world, rarely to Seattle where he left Mom and Dannielle.

Big surprise that he’s taking her to Peru for her 17th birthday, filming episodes with teen superstar Guy (bigger surprise that Cougar remembered Danny’s birthday at all).

But their small plane crashes far off-course in the remote Amazon rainforest, with minimal supplies. Of course, Cougar knows everything about survival…right?

Guy isn’t an airhead celebrity after all, even as Cassandra keeps filming the small group’s efforts to get edible plants and find their way in the pathless forest.

Injuries, lethal creatures, rain and rain and rain…how are they going to make it to a river that could take them to civilization?

Danny is a city kid with a true blind side… she’ll just follow Dad’s lead and everything will turn out fine, just like his TV shows…

When someone you idolize turns out to be very human, then what?
**kmm

Book info: The Speed of Falling Objects / Nancy Richardson Fischer. Inkyard Press/Harlequin, 2019. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

W for HOW WE BECAME WICKED, by Alexander Yates (YA book review)

Apr27
book cover of How We Became Wicked, by Alexander Yates. Published by Caitlyn Dloughy/Atheneum | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Safe in their domed towns,
from the zing-sting of plague-bringer Singers,
but not from the secrets, deadly secrets!

Turned into a Wicked cannibal by an insect’s sting! No wonder rich investors fled to this remote resort on the rocky Atlantic coast, fortified it with domes and tunnels and walls and supplies aplenty.

Those turned Wicked by sting or breath or blood look human and are so polite, asking first if they may rip off your arm to eat it – only their inability to answer a certain question unmasks them as no longer True.

Natalie’s grandfather is Wicked, and there are only so many places to lock up a clever cannibal on small Puffin Island – how long can she and her parents keep him at bay?

Years pass and children become few in Goldsport, as the radio voice reminds True families that on a certain night a youngster may be stung by Singers and become immune to the Vex, but no guarantees…

The island lighthouse starts working after years of darkness, a Wicked woman at the Goldsport gate knows Astrid’s father, and the town archives reveal things that teens Astrid and Hank aren’t supposed to see.

Can anyone really become Vexed, infected yet remaining True?
What happened in the little town near Goldsport as the Wickedness advanced?
What happens when the blue spray doesn’t chase the Singers away anymore?

Trying to wall out what you don’t want…has that ever worked?
**kmm

Book info: How We Became Wicked / Alexander Yates. Caitlyn Dloughy Books/ Atheneum, 2019. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

V for VALIANT HIGH, superhero teens & secrets, by Daniel Kibblesmith & Derek Charm (graphic novel book review)

Apr25
book cover of Valiant High, graphic novel by Daniel Kibblesmith & Derek Charm. Published by Valiant Entertainment | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Usual high school cliques,
usual high school worries,
very unusual high school students…

Welcome to Valiant High,”where extraordinary students become extraordinary people” – that’s right, an entire campus filled with superpowered teens who aren’t allowed to use their powers during school (yeah…sure).

When Principal Harada founded this school, he made sure that power-blocking badges were mandatory and that faculty members like scary Coach Bloodshot had superpowers too.

Unlucky for Amanda that her ability to talk to machines won’t work in driver ed – is this the only test she can’t pass?

Lucky for Aric that he found his place on the football field – who could challenge his destiny as Homecoming King?

As for Peter, he’s not so sure that he wants the new guy to transform him from forgotten to unforgettable as a social experiment to challenge Aric.

The creepy janitor they call Shadowman, eternal sophomore Gilad (maybe immortal?), bloodball in PE (dodgeball with no rules and all their superpowers activated), flying Faith (fat and phenomenal) – what other secrets does Valiant High hold?

Time to meet Livewire, X-O Manowar, Zephyr, Quantum and Woody, and others before their super-careers (for good or evil) in the Valiant Universe!

What superpower would you want to have in high school?
**kmm

Book info: Valiant High (Valiant High, issues 1-4) / Daniel Kibblesmith (writer), Derek Charm (artist), David Baron (colorist), Simon Bowland (letterer). Valiant Entertainment, 2019. [author site] [artist Twitter] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

T is train tickets & FIELD NOTES ON LOVE, by Jennifer E. Smith (book review)

Apr23
book cover of Field Notes on Love, by Jennifer E. Smith. Published by Delacorte Press | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Transcontinental train trip…romantic!
She dumps him before departure…tragic.
Non-refundable tickets…anyone have her same name?

Hugo’s big chance to travel, and it all goes sideways when Margaret breaks up with him. Oh, she’ll just fly to university in California, but he’ll stay home in the UK, quietest of the ‘Surrey Sextuplets’ forever, unless…

He just has to find another Margaret Campbell to travel with him, since everything was booked in her name! Such interesting responses to his social media request…

Maybe the train trip with this British guy will inspire Mae’s new movie to make the film school admissions committee reconsider…

Nana convinces her two dads that Mae is traveling with her new roommate to college in California, finally escaping her small New York hometown.

Rolling westward, cell service is erratic, so there’s lots of time for Hugo and Mae to talk, instead of calling to reassure her family that all is well or texting to remind his siblings that he needs time apart…time to keep talking and dreaming.

Can one week together make such a difference?
How can it not?

Her best friend says Mae’s usual impulsiveness deserts her at the most important times… is that now?

Hugo’s biggest question is whether the university will honor their full scholarship if all six siblings aren’t there…or is it?

Now out in paperback, Field Notes on Love is another travel tale of understanding and romance from the author of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight (my recommendation here), The Geography of You and Me (my notes here), and You Are Here (see here).

How do you decide what’s best for you instead of rolling along with everyone else?
**kmm

Book info: Field Notes on Love / Jennifer E. Smith. Delacorte Press, hardcover 2019, paperback 2020. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.