Tag Archive | fathers

In a world GONE DARK, the prepper skills she longs to forget may save them, by Amanda Panitch (YA book review)

Nov17
book cover of Gone Dark, by Amanda Panitch. Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books /Simon & Schuster | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Forget how she got away,
just think of the future,
till it all goes dark.

Zara and her mom have a better life in southern California, five years gone since they escaped from her father’s survivalist compound back east.

Computer games instead of skinning squirrels? What teen girl wouldn’t leave behind such a hard life? But her father’s voice still echoes that the world is ending soon… no wonder Zara has panic attacks.

Then the sporadic power outages become a nationwide blackout, and civilized behavior vanishes, just like Dad predicted. When a huge stranger barges into their darkened house and calls for Zara by name, the 17 year old knows it’s time to leave.

Unable to get Mom to safety, Zara and her best friends head away from the coast, trying to outrun the threatening stranger and avoid danger on the road.

A Mormon fortress welcomes them, but can they ever leave?
More people join the group as they travel – can they stay safe together?
If they reach the hidden compound, can they survive its border traps?

This future where the electric grid fails large-scale could be tomorrow, just like the difficulties that Zara and friends endure in a world gone dark.

What’s your emergency plan for disasters?
**kmm

Book info: Gone Dark / Amanda Panitch. Margaret K. McElderry Books /Simon & Schuster, 2022. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Can he shoot a deer or not? It’s HUNTER’S CHOICE, by Trent Reedy (MG book review)

Nov15
book cover of Hunter's Choice, by Trent Reedy. Published by Norton Young Readers | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Family tradition,
careful practice,
fear of failing!

He has been waiting so long – taking hunter safety classes, getting his deer hunting license, practicing and practicing – because even if this is his very first hunting trip, twelve-year-old Hunter knows you get just one good shot at a deer.

Hunter’s granddad built a lodge on their property in the mountains above their Idaho town, so his family knows the streams where deer like to drink and where a bear might hang out.

His cousin Yumi brings their classmate Annette for the weekend so she can write about hunting for the school newspaper and give Yumi a buffer between her dad and his post-Afghanistan war PTSD.

Hunter might have a little crush on Annette, so his nerves about this important milestone get worse. On their first night, Grandpa, Dad, and Uncle Rick tell stories about past hunts and time here together – reminders that hunting is more than getting venison for the freezer.

“For the time that we’re hunting, everything else, all the frustrations and bull crap from the outside world don’t matter,” (pg.101) Grandpa says as they head out for the evening hunt.

Can Hunter let go of his worries and focus on spotting a deer?
Can Yumi understand what her dad is struggling with?
Will Hunter actually choose to kill a deer?

The author’s experiences fill this book with authentic details, from safe gun handling to field-dressing a deer, as he shares the decisions every hunter must make.

First of three interconnected books set on McCall Mountain – great for fans of Hatchet, hunting, fishing, and the woods.

What’s your favorite outdoor activity with family?
**kmm

Book info: Hunter’s Choice / Trent Reedy. Norton Young Readers, 2021 hardcover, 2022 paperback. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Sports, school, and living Pride with this week’s free audiobook selections!

Jun24

Your Sora shelf (setup info here) has room for lots of audiobooks, including this week’s Pride stories.

Download either or both of these professionally produced audiobooks – free! – by Wednesday 6/29/22, and they’re yours to listen to as long as you can access your Sora shelf online!

Remember to check your local public library or independent bookstore for any AudioSYNC titles that you may have missed – you’ll be amazed at their selections!

CD cover of Fence: Striking Distance, by Sarah Rees Brennan, Johanna the Mad, C. S. Pacat | Read by Will Collyer. Published by Hachette Audio | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Fence: Striking Distance (free Sora download 6/23-6/29/2022)
by Sarah Rees Brennan, Johanna the Mad, C. S. Pacat | Read by Will Collyer
Published by Hachette Audio

Illegitimate son of an Olympic fencer barely qualifies for the fencing team at his elite high school – how can Nick fit in with his rich classmates?

Team-building exercises bring Nick, Seiji, Aiden, and Harvard closer together… how much closer? This audiobook is based on a graphic novel!

https://www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/read/185517/fence-striking-distance-by-sarah-rees-brennan-johanna-the-mad-c-s-pacat-read-by-will-collyer/

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CD cover of Honestly Ben - Openly Straight, by Bill Konigsberg | Read by Dan Bittner. Published by Scholastic Audiobooks | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Honestly Ben – Openly Straight, book 2 (free Sora download 6/23-6/29/2022)
by Bill Konigsberg | Read by Dan Bittner
Published by Scholastic Audiobooks

Sensitive 17 year old Ben pushed away his best friend Rafe when like became maybe-love. Now he’s dealing with his grumpy dad, a new school, and super-macho baseball teammates.

Add to this his search to figure out whether he’s straight, gay, or gay-for-Rafe…

https://www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/read/128289/honestly-ben-by-bill-konigsberg-read-by-dan-bittner/

What other Pride stories would you like to read with your ears?
**kmm

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His dream needs THE CEDARVILLE SHOP AND THE WHEELBARROW SWAP! by Bridget Krone (MG book review)

Jun21
book cover of The Cedarville Shop and the Wheelbarrow Swap, by Bridget Krone; art by Karen Vermeulen. Published by Catalyst Press | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Too-small house,
big-big dream –
action time is now!

Reading an old magazine aloud to his grandmother, 12-year-old Boipele finds the most interesting story – a man in Canada began with a red paperclip and kept trading until he had a house!

He longs to get his father and grandmother out of this tiny two-room house in their dusty South African village where they have many friends, but no jobs.

Boi and his best friend Potso decide he can start trading with the clay cow they make, so Mrs. Viljoen gives them permission to place their poster outside her Cedarville Shop.

Once folks understand that Boi is trading for something “of greater value” everyone is talking about his swapping dream. For each new trade, Potso draws another clever poster.

As the swapping continues, their classmates prepare for the Talent Show, and little breezes of hope stir through the village, along with a newspaper reporter who wants Boi’s story!

Why are his village’s problems as big as Cedarvale Mountain?
Will lovely, kind Sesi in his grade ever notice Boi?
Can Boi truly swap his way to a house big enough for three?

Come over to Cedarville and meet all of Boi’s neighbors as this young man works to make his dream come true.

What would you trade Boi for his clay cow?
**kmm

Book info: The Cedarville Shop and the Wheelbarrow Swap / Bridget Krone; art by Karen Vermeulen. Catalyst Press, 2022. [author site] [artist site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Magic & music together are forbidden – should SOFI AND THE BONE SONG change that? by Adrienne Tooley (YA book review)

Jun15
book cover of Sofi and the Bone Song, by Adrienne Tooley. Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books / Simon & Schuster | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Winter won’t go away,
talent isn’t always rewarded,
what else will Sofi endure? (don’t ask…)

After years of obsessive practicing, long-motherless 16 year old Sofi’s perfect performance is upstaged by an untutored young woman who didn’t even bring a lute to the Guild audition, yet wins apprenticeship to the ruling lute Musik, Sofi’s own father.

Lara didn’t use a Paper to perform, or all would have seen the spell inked into her skin – music is the only craft forbidden to use the Paper spells sold by the king.

When Sofi’s father suddenly dies, Lara must immediately qualify to be the lute Musik by traveling through the country and performing specific complex songs in certain towns – songs that Sofi knows and Lara doesn’t.

Away the two young women go with the Musik’s lute made of bones, through their ever-winter land, knowing that some Musiks of the Guild want Lara to succeed, but if she fails, perhaps Sofi has a chance at her life’s dream.

Why did the seasons stop changing when they were babies?
Is Lara using illegal magic to learn this complicated music so fast?
Will the malfunctioning Papers sold to neighboring kingdoms lead to war?

Rivalry becomes companionship and so much more, as Lara and Sofi begin to truly understand the magic of their musical gifts and their growing bond with one another.

What instrument would you play if magically given the skill?
**kmm

Book info: Sofi and the Bone Song / Adrienne Tooley. Margaret K. McElderry Books / Simon & Schuster, 2022. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

They must find more LITTLE MONARCHS, butterflies vital for humanity’s survival! by Jonathan Case (Middle Grade graphic novel review)

Jun14
book cover of Little Monarchs, by Jonathan Case. Published by Margaret Ferguson Books / Holiday House | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Sun-sickness wiped out mammals,
some humans survive underground,
can any ever see daylight again?

By 2101, only two people on Earth can survive sunshine – young Elvie and scientist Flora who’s caring for the 10 year old while Elvie’s parents travel onward as the team perfects a cure for sun-sickness.

Monarch butterflies carry the needed ingredient on their wings, so Flora and Elvie follow their migration south along what used to be the western USA, scavenging from former cities, foraging wild foods, and avoiding known underground settlements.

Elvie documents nature and schoolwork in her journal, while Flora tests and retests ways to make larger quantities of the monarch wing-scale medicine that prevents sun-sickness.

After an earthquake, they find a small boy near an abandoned settlement, so Flora gives him a dose of medicine and they keep going. Elvie left behind a note and some medicine, in case anyone returns to look for little Sito.

Wow, his family does follow them and wants to travel along – safety in numbers, right? Right?!?

This outstanding graphic novel documents their perilous journey to meet up with Elvie’s parents, as well as the natural wonders and survival skills that she records in her journal.

In our time, monarch numbers are dropping dramatically, so planting native milkweed along their migration route can make up for some habitat loss.

Do monarchs migrate through your region?
**kmm

Book info: Little Monarchs / Jonathan Case. Margaret Ferguson Books / Holiday House, 2022. [author site] [book site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Ignoring WOUNDED LITTLE GODS doesn’t mean they’re gone, by Eliza Victoria (book review)

Jun7
book cover of Wounded Little Gods, by Eliza Victoria. Published in USA by Tuttle Publishing | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Gods of wind, of death,
spirits of dew and seedlings and soil –
unheeded, unneeded by modern life…

Regina was so glad to escape her hometown in the Philippine countryside, even if her first job out of college isn’t world-changing.

Hanging out in new co-worker Diane’s apartment, waiting for rush hour to subside, Regina notices many books on eugenics and terrible experiments on human beings – what a strange conversation they lead to!

Diane never returns to work, and Regina finds a hand-drawn map in her bag – a map of her hometown in detail, with notes in Diane’s writing, showing buildings that aren’t there and a big X and two persons’ names.

Regina makes a quick trip back to Heridos to ask her parents about it – they say a doctor at the hospital has a similar name, and aren’t there just trees on that part of Ka Edgar’s old farm? A phone call to her much older brother Luciano isn’t any help either. Hmmmm….

Trekking through the summer humidity to the abandoned farm, Regina finds hidden buildings (Center for Heredity and Genetics!?) – and a woman who says that Diane is late in returning. No, Florina can’t leave her little house to help Regina look for her…

Well, the young doctor says he doesn’t know anything about that Center, but a lady in the waiting room sees that map and exclaims that she was detained there as a child! Clara retells nightmarish stories of small bodies under white sheets, but now there are only woods where Regina found the Center recently….

As Luciano hurriedly drives to Heridos, two gods appear in his car, asking about his sister and offering their help – oh, he remembers how that went the last time…

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past,” said American writer William Faulkner – how very, very true for everyone connected to that Center for Heredity and Genetics!

With its storyline based on too-real human experimentation centers, this Finalist for the National Book Awards in the Philippines is available for the first time in the US now.

Where do you see the older ways amid the busyness of today?
**kmm

Book info: Wounded Little Gods / Eliza Victoria. Tuttle Publishing, 2022 (US), 2015 (Philippines). [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Just a little fun for Kenyan boys or PLAYING A DANGEROUS GAME? by Patrick Ochieng (MG book review)

Jun1
book cover of laying a Dangerous Game, by Patrick Ochieng. Published by Accord Books /Norton Young Readers | recommended on BooksYALove.com

His baba has been promoted by the Railway, so now 10-year-old Lumush and little sister Awino can attend the Hill School, a big step up from their neighborhood school in 1970s Kenya.

More homework, less time to hang out by that old rusted car with his buddies, playing pata potea or dreaming up stunts to do – Mama is so happy this opportunity has finally come.

But everyone at Hill School except Lillian treats him with suspicion, his friends think he’ll become stuck up, and cute Nijah frets that he’ll get distracted by the Hill girls.

Ripe zambarau fruits tempt the boys to climb the tree at the ghost house; a dare sends them back at night to spy on the ghosts of the white woman and her daughter who died there!

The friends hear all the gossip as they ramble the neighborhood – medicine stolen from the dispensary, bags of coffee beans disappearing from railway cars, a delivery lorry stolen.

What will the thieves target next?
Do ghosts always smell like cigarette smoke?
What’s hiding in the junkyard?

Wander the Railway Estates with Lumush and his friends as they try to solve the ghost house mystery without becoming ghosts themselves!

Lumush tries to be a good Hill School student and also a good friend to his buddies as their manhood ceremonies approach, holding onto good times in the neighborhood even as his parents and teachers insist that his school success now will determine his entire future.

What landmark in your town has ghosts?
**kmm

Book info: Playing a Dangerous Game / Patrick Ochieng. Accord Books /Norton Young Readers, 2021. [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Look again – THAT WAY MADNESS LIES: 15 OF SHAKESPEARE’S MOST NOTABLE WORKS REIMAGINED, ed. by Dahlia Adler (YA book review)

May31
book cover of That Way Madness Lies: 15 of Shakespeare's Most Notable Works Reimagined / Dahlia Adler, ed. Published by Flatiron Books | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Ah, the Bard!
His classic plays.
retold and retold – now with a twist!

A brooding bad boy becomes obsessed with a young ballerina from a rival high school – Romeo and Juliet, told completely in text messages.

Finally! Among the everlasting whiteness of the Fairy Court, the brown girl stolen from the mundane world as a baby sees another indigenous person in a gender-queer Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Not madness but anger drives Anne to unmask the vampire who killed her father, allowing her uncle to marry Mother for control of Elsinore in 1892 – the journals and letters of an educated young woman rewind the Hamlet narrative.

This anthology includes reimaginings by YA writers (famous and rising)

Dahlia Adler (The Merchant of Venice),
Kayla Ancrum (The Taming of the Shrew),
Lily Anderson (As You Like It),
Patrice Caldwell (Hamlet),
Melissa Bashardoust (A Winter’s Tale),
A.R. Capetta and Cory McCarthy (Much Ado About Nothing),
Brittany Cavallaro (Sonnet 147),
Joy McCullough (King Lear),
Anna-Marie McLemore (A Midsummer Night’s Dream),
Samantha Mabry (Macbeth),
Tochi Onyebuchi (Coriolanus),
Mark Oshiro (Twelfth Night),
Lindsay Smith (Julius Caesar),
Kiersten White (Romeo and Juliet),
Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka (The Tempest)

Each story is introduced by a quote from Shakespeare’s work, and often followed by author’s notes.

Shakespeare wrote in the everyday words of his time; these reimagined works bring his works into our time with clever twists and setting changes (outer space, a school dance, a rooftop greenhouse).

What’s your favorite quotation from the Bard?
**kmm

Book info: That Way Madness Lies: 15 of Shakespeare’s Most Notable Works Reimagined / Dahlia Adler, ed.
Flatiron Books, hardcover 2021, paperback 2022. [editor site] [publisher site] Personal copy; cover image courtesy of the author.

Real life stories to read with your ears – free audiobooks!

May26

Have you registered for your free Sora shelf here yet? That’s where the free AudioSYNC audiobooks will reside when you download them during their Thursday-Wednesday access weeks so you can listen anytime.

Did you know that these professionally produced audiobooks are checked out to your Sora shelf online for 99 years?!

I’ll highlight each new audiobook pair on Thursdays so you’ll have time to download them. If you miss any, check your local public library or independent bookstore.

Let’s hear real life stories this week:

CD cover of The Real Herge: The Inspiration Behind Tintin, by Sian Lye | Read by Simon Vance. Published by Oasis Audio | recommended on BooksYALove.com

The Real Herge: The Inspiration Behind Tintin (free Sora download 5/26-6/1/22)
by Sian Lye | Read by Simon Vance
Published by Oasis Audio

Tintin and his faithful canine companion traveled the world in search of news and adventure in a long-running graphic novel series that has myriad fans today.

Intrepid boy reporter Tintin reflected some of his Belgian creator’s personal dreams and characteristics, as this well-narrated biography of Herge reveals.

https://www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/read/191573/the-real-herge-by-sian-lye-read-by-simon-vance/

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CD cover of Someone Like Me: How One Undocumented Girl Fought for Her American Dream, by Julissa Arce | Read by Julissa Arce. Published by Hachette Audio | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Someone Like Me: How One Undocumented Girl Fought for Her American Dream (free Sora download 5/26-6/1/22)
by Julissa Arce | Read by Julissa Arce
Published by Hachette Audio

After spending her childhood in Mexico, Julissa joins her working parents in the US as a young teen. When her tourist visa expires, she remains to complete her education, ever fearful of deportation.

Stellar grades, great SAT scores – still so many barriers between her and university!

https://www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/read/186636/someone-like-me-by-julissa-arce-read-by-julissa-arce/

Whose life story do you want to listen to next?
**kmm

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