Tag Archive | teens

Ballet is all she knows…then what? TINY DANCER memoir, by Siena Cherson Siegel & Mark Siegel (graphic novel review)

Feb24
book cover of Tiny Dancer, by Siena Cherson Siegel; art by Mark Siegel. Published by Atheneum | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Dance, stretch,
push through pain,
dance, dance… down.

Ballet classes during her blissful childhood in the 1970s set Siena on her life path. Dancing becomes an escape from the sixth-grade mean girls, from missing her big brother when he leaves Puerto Rico for Boston, from Mom and Dad fighting.

Audition for the School of American Ballet? Live in New York City? School with real friends? All wonderful (except leaving Dad back in San Juan).

Siena wants to be a ballerina more than anything, so that means total dedication, practice, and more practice. Summer ballet schools in and out of New York State as she grows just a little taller than is acceptable for the parts that she longs to dance, spotlight roles that go to her classmates.

An ankle injury forces her to sit out some practices at the New York City Ballet company, just as auditions for the next level are starting – the other girls will get ahead! A little pain is worth the chance to advance, right?

No time for boyfriends or hobbies… even in her dreams, she dances.

No carbs, no desserts – a ballerina’s physique is sleek and svelte…or else.

As her ankle’s healing slows and stalls, Siena’s self-confidence dwindles, and the teen feels trapped by expectations, like turning into a statue instead of a whirling, feather-light dancer.

This graphic novel memoir starts with light and lively lavender colors showcasing Siena’s early days, becoming darker and heavier as she struggles with what could possibly come after ballet, the tutu-clad ghost of her young dreams hovering over many sequences.

Where have your childhood dreams taken you?
**kmm

Book info: Tiny Dancer / Siena Cherson Siegel; art by Mark Siegel; backgrounds by Abe Erskine. Atheneum, 2021. [author bio] [artist site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

VAMPIRES, HEARTS & OTHER DEAD THINGS in her life, by Margie Fuston (book review)

Feb18
book cover of Vampires, Hearts & Other Dead Things, by Margie Fuston. Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Vampires are real,
cancer is too-real,
she can solve this…

Pancreatic cancer is stealing away her dad – fellow enthusiast of all things undead, he and Victoria were thrilled when vampires revealed themselves on live TV, both ready to go find one after public outcry forced them back into the shadows. Her big sister and mom never understood their enthusiasm.

He didn’t cancel their graduation trip to New Orleans though, and asks her to go look for vampires and bring him pictures of everything. In Dad’s place will be her classmate Henry, former best friend (former almost-more-than-best friend) so the California teen isn’t there alone.

Victoria has a checklist of places to visit – the Ursulines convent, St. Louis cemetery – anywhere she might glimpse a vampire and convince them to help her. Being undead is better than being dead, right?

Late-night wanderer Carter introduces her to the vampire Nicholas, who gives Victoria a list of challenges to accomplish that will prove she’s ready to give up her life for undeath. Henry is not amused, thinks Carter and Nicholas are frauds, but won’t let her run around the Crescent City alone.

The first message tucked in a poetry book at a quaint shop directs her to eat beignets while wearing black and take as proof. Ah, some words are underlined in the book, too.

Returning to the shop, Victoria finds the next challenge – break into a certain house and steal something? More words underlined in the poem…

How much will Henry actually help her?
Why does she suddenly long to sketch and paint again?
Will Nicholas truly honor his agreement?

Before he got sick, Dad even looked like Bela Lugosi in the classic vampire movies – she would do anything to save him, anything!

While you’re getting this debut novel about hope and grief at your local library or independent bookstore, check out these vampire tales I’ve recommended:

  • The Hunt, series by Andrew Fukuda (my review of book 1)
  • Brass Carriages and Glass Hearts, by Nancy Campbell Allen (more here)
  • Elatsoe, by Darcy Little Badger (loved it!).

What’s your favorite vampire story?
**kmm

Book info: Vampires, Hearts & Other Dead Things / Margie Fuston. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2021. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Uh oh… THE MEET-CUTE PROJECT when she hates rom-coms? by Rhiannon Richardson (YA book review)

Feb17
book cover of The Meet-Cute Project / Rhiannon Richardson. Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Big sister back home to wedding-plan,
School stress, swim team stress,
Now this!?

Preparing for the championship swim meet is grueling, but it’s much, much easier for Mia than finding a date for her sister Sam’s wedding will be!

For the Black teen, fact is better than fiction, and the rom-coms that her friends love are just ridiculous.

But just maybe they have the right idea – analyzing the best meet-cutes in rom-com movies can help the high school junior find the right guy. If she fails, Mia will be stuck with the groom’s spoiled 12-year-old brother for the rehearsal dinner and wedding and reception… ick.

So the math team whiz gets to work, listing eligible guys at school, arranging meet-cute opportunities, and even getting outside her comfort zone by volunteering at the community garden with Mom (gotta have all the accomplishments if she wants to be elected NHS president next year like Mom and Sam were…sigh).

How can the days be passing so fast?
Can she find a nice guy that Sam will approve of?
Does she really want the future that her family has scripted?

Sam becomes more like Bridezilla as her wedding approaches, while Mia keeps trying to meet the right guy amid all her school responsibilities.

What’s your favorite meet-cute scenario?
**kmm

Book info: The Meet-Cute Project / Rhiannon Richardson. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2021. [about the author] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

RIMA’S REBELLION – she rides against tyranny in Cuba! by Margarita Engle (YA book review)

Feb15
book cover of Rima's Rebellion: Courage in a Time of Tyranny / Margarita Engle. Published by Atheneum | recommended on BooksYALove.com

No voice in elections,
no protection from angry men,
no standing under the law – enough!!

Rima’s grandmother fought on horseback during the long struggle for independence from Spain, yet two decades laterin the 1920s Cuban women still cannot vote, not even las Mambisas.

Men hold all the power here, may kill a wife or daughter suspected of adultery without penalty, yet leave their own illegitimate children in poverty with no rights.

Forced to leave school at 14, ‘natural child’ Rima learns lacemaking with her mother in the shack on the far edge of her father’s land, knowing he could destroy it and Abuela’s horseshoeing forge at any time. Riding on her buckskin mare is Rima’s joy and escape:

“The enemy I run away from
is my own thought-trapped self,
all these doubts born within me.
If only I could mount a horse of hope
day and night, airborne, free!” (pg. 44)

It’s awkward to make lace mantillas for her half-sister Violeta, but worse to be mocked at the forge by every man in the village – except the glassblower’s son, who gives her glimpses of beauty in his work and his words.

Year after year, Abuela and Las Mambisas ride in parades to show their skills as horsewomen, inspiring young women like Rima and even Violeta to ride, to ask again and again for voting rights and protection of women’s rights.

Can Rima find a future without the protection of her father?
Can Violeta live up to the perfection he expects?
When will Cuban women finally earn respect and rights?

Happy book birthday to Rima’s Rebellion, another powerful novel-in-verse celebrating Cuba’s history like The Lightning Dreamer (see more here), and Lion Island (recommended here); the Spanish edition will be published in April 2022.

I also recommend the author’s Jazz Owls (here) and With a Star in My Hand (here) – so much poetry, such compelling histories!

What injustice would you parade against?
**kmm

Book info: Rima’s Rebellion: Courage in a Time of Tyranny / Margarita Engle. Atheneum, 2022. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

SMALL TOWN HEARTS, don’t fall for a summer boy! by Lillie Vale (book review)

Feb14
book cover of Small Town Hearts, by Lillie Vale. Published by Swoon Reads | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Future plans – check
Summer to enjoy – check
Romantic complications – ohhhh.

Babe is content to enjoy the summer after graduation, living in the lighthouse and managing Busy’s coffeehouse as tourist season in their little Maine coastal town begins.

Even knowing that her two best friends will leave for college is okay (soon she’ll tell them she’s staying at Busy’s… soon) – until Penny dumps Chad who decides to kiss Babe, then Penny finds out and takes Chad back, freezing her out of their lifetime friendship!

Add to that Babe’s ex-girlfriend Elodie (still not out) back from college and the almost-college guy Levi (already a famous artist!) who’s renting Mom’s house while she’s working away, both here for the summer art residency (small, small world in this small, small town).

Nice to show Levi around, watch him sketch and learn to appreciate life at the shore and her baking skills (always experimenting for the coffeehouse)… and her.

But when the beach picnics and blueberry picking and the residency are over, he’ll leave for art college (so say his parents and agent), and Babe is going to stay here, baking and managing Busy’s.

Summer ends with the artists’ exhibition and the town’s sandcastle building contest – what else will end?

“Never fall for a summer boy” – local wisdom is rarely wrong, but maybe this time?

This debut novel softly celebrates becoming yourself and being yourself in the face of others’ expectations.

What’s your favorite summer out-of-town memory?
**kmm

Book info: Small Town Hearts / Lillie Vale. Swoon Reads, 2019. [author site] [publisher site] Personal collection; cover image courtesy of the publisher.

OF PRINCES & PROMISES, change & challenge, by Sandhya Menon (YA book review)

Feb3
book cover of Of Princes and Promises, by Sandhya Menon. Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers | recommended on BooksYALove.com

How dare he dump her?!
Revenge is essential.
But exactly how… aha!

At the world’s fanciest high school in the Rockies near Aspen, Caterina is shocked to find that she cannot have everything she wants, as her boyfriend Alaric leaves the undisputed queen of Rosetta Academy for someone else.

For all their years at Rosetta, shy Rahul has adored Caterina from afar. He was as shocked as everyone else when she kissed him at the Winter Formal – surely that means she wants to be with him!

Mega-rich Caterina decides that transforming chess geek Rahul into the perfect man to escort her to high-profile events is the perfect way to get revenge on Alaric.

So begins a whirl of etiquette lessons, tailor’s appointments, and the amazing hair gel that turns tongue-tied Rahul into suave RC who must surely be a prince of a small kingdom as the society gossips presume.

Will Caterina’s very visible romance with RC bring Alaric back to her?
Does Rahul want to become surface-handsome RC forever?
Can money really buy happiness?

Return to Rosetta Academy (setting for Of Curses and Kisses, recommended here), whose ultra-wealthy and powerful students have worries and goals that sort of sound like ours, in this luxe retelling of The Frog and the Princess fairy tale told in the alternating voices of Rahul and Caterina.

From the author of When Dimple Met Rishi (recommended here), From Twinkle With Love (here), and There’s Something About Sweetie (here).

What less-repeated fairy tale is your favorite?
**kmm

Book info: Of Princes and Promises (a Rosetta Academy Novel) / Sandhya Menon. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2021. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Who is she truly, THE GIRL FROM THE SEA? by Molly Knox Ostertag (Graphic novel review)

Feb1
book cover of The Girl From the Sea, by Molly Knox Ostertag. Published by Graphix/Scholastic | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Slipping off the rainy cliff,
Hitting her head,
Drowning, sinking…saved by a kiss!

Morgan can’t wait to escape from her Atlantic island town and be herself. The 15 year old Korean-Canadian tries so hard to fit in at school, agree with her boy-crazy best friends, channel her clothing designs into acceptable styles … exhausting.

Summer with her grumpy little brother and recently divorced mom becomes a little better because Keltie is there, the selkie who saved her from drowning! They’d met in the sea when Morgan was young, and Keltie’s been watching the shore for her ever since.

Now true love’s kiss has granted Keltie her landlegs, and she wants to be with Morgan, whose friends aren’t so sure about this new girl who loves sparkly clothes instead of the latest fashion.

Stolen moments together in secluded coves, Keltie explaining that she’s the only selkie of her generation, wondering what their future together might be like….

But a huge tourist boat plans to hug the island’s shoreline for summer excursions, endangering Keltie’s seal family – and the parents of Morgan’s friend Serena own it!

Can Keltie stop the boat from getting too close to the rookery?
Can Morgan keep her friends and Keltie, too?

This graphic novel by the creator of the Witch Boy trilogy explores friendship and family, plans and destiny. Find it at your local library or independent bookstore today!

Do you agree with Morgan’s mom: “You have to risk letting your life get messy to get to the good parts” (p. 151)?
**kmm

Book info: The Girl From the Sea / words and art by Molly Knox Ostertag . Graphix/Scholastic, 2021. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Lost daughter or just a HOMEWRECKER? by Deanna Cameron (book review)

Jan31
book cover of Homewrecker, by Deanna Cameron. Published by Wattpad Books | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Stormy life,
grown up too fast,
Tornado! Where’s Mom?

When her druggie mom is swept away from their trailer park by a tornado, Brownyn is taken in by the family of her long-estranged father, now a rich and powerful senator.

The 17 year old always knew that her birth after David’s short separation from his wife was an accident, hushed up as he rose from young lawyer to the Senate – only once as a kid did she meet his family.

She’s stunned now by their casual wealth, the summer home on the lake, and being accepted by her stepmom and four half-siblings. They’ve always known about her?

Mom’s body is finally found, but she was strangled before the tornado hit! David’s influence keeps the investigation going, even as the media blares out Bronwyn as his secret love-child.

So she’ll get out and meet people, she now works with half-sister Andi (one grade older, YouTube makeup guru deluxe) at the drive-in movie theater. Teenager Ethan next door takes care of their garden, and Bronwyn shares her plant knowledge with him.

But she misses her friends at home, doesn’t think the detectives are really trying to solve Mom’s murder, and decides it’s time to go do some sleuthing herself – Ethan’s more than willing to roadtrip with her.

Was Mom killed over drug money or something else?
How will Bronwyn fit in at a new rich-kid school?
Why is David’s family so nice to her…really?

Secrets old and new collide as the teen struggles to become part of a real family instead of the only responsible person at home.

What long-lost kid story is your favorite?
**kmm

Book Info: Homewrecker / Deanna Cameron. Wattpad Books, 2021. [author info] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

BLOOD LIKE MAGIC, by Liselle Sambury – her witch test will destroy love or family! (YA book review)

Jan17
book cover of Blood Like Magic, by Liselle Sambury. Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Safety is staying in her family home,
facing the forces outside is her fate…
how can she balance the magic required?

Oh yes, her extended family is exasperating on a day-to-day basis, but 16-year-old Voya knows they love her and that she’d do anything to keep them safe in mid-21st century Toronto.

Now the Trinidadian-Canadian teen pleads for a second chance to claim her Calling as a witch, through a task to be set by her ancestor.

But this task is brutal, far beyond what anyone in her extended family experienced in their Calling – ‘destroy her first love.’

Time is of the essence as Voya must fall in love with someone and then eliminate them…or her little sister will die, and her entire family will lose its long-held magic!

Love match via genetic blood test?
Cozying up to a rival magic family?
Surely there must be another way…

Find this great YA debut at your local library or independent bookstore now. The series continues with Blood Like Fate in August 2022.

What would you sacrifice to keep your family safe?
**kmm

Book Info: Blood Like Magic (Blood Like Magic, book 1) / Liselle Sambury. Margaret K. McElderry Books (S&S), 2021. (author site) (publisher site) Review copy & cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Romance & relationships – listen in with free audiobooks!

Jul8

Time to download this week’s love-filled free audiobooks from SYNC so you can read with your ears!

Save these complete audiobooks to your Sora shelf (FAQs here) free! from Thursday through Wednesday, then listen to them at your leisure – the loan period is 99 years!

The Henna Wars (free Sora download 8-13 July 2021)
By Adiba Jaigirdar
Read by Priya Ayyar
Published by Listening Library

When Flavia comes back into Nishat’s life, the Irish-Bangladeshi teen is smitten with her.
But for their high school business competition, both young women decide to showcase their henna skills.
Can they get past the competition to see if their relationship will bloom? Will Nishat hide her feelings for Flavia to keep her family happy?

Saints and Misfits (free Sora download 8-13 July 2021)
By S.K. Ali
Read by Ariana Delawari
Published by Listening Library

Janna can cope with being considered a nerd because she studies or different because she wears the hijab at public school, which her remarried dad says is “too religious”.
But when the guy who assaulted her keeps her in sight at every mosque activity and is welcomed at friends’ homes, her fear grows – and she doesn’t want to be afraid anymore!

(Recommended on BooksYALove: https://booksyalove.com/?p=8819 as well as the sequel, Misfit in Love, just published in May! https://booksyalove.com/?p=12109)

More love stories, please?
**kmm