The Raven Boys, by Maggie Steifvater (a reaction, not a review)

I really, really liked The Raven Boys , by Maggie Steifvater (Scholasitc, YA, Sept. 2012).  I'm cheerfully assuming that anyone reading ...

Home Front Girl: A Diary of Love, Literature, and Growing Up in Wartime America

Home Front Girl: A Diary of Love, Literature, and Growing Up in Wartime America (Chicago Review Press, November, 2012, Young Adult) is the ...

Diverse Energies--an anthology of stories from Tu Books

Diverse Energies , edited by Tobias S. Buckell and Joe Monti (Tu Books, Oct. 2012), is an anthology of short strories (most new, some redisc...

Magisterium, by Jeff Hirsch

Magisterium , by Jeff Hirsch (Scholastic, October 1, younger YA, 2012)--a good one for the younger reader who enjoys sci-fi and magic mixed ...

The Savage Fortress, by Sarwat Chadda

The Savage Fortress , by Sarwat Chadda (Scholastic, 2012, middle grade/YA)*--in which an Anglo-Indian boy of no particular talents (except a...

Transcendence, by C.J. Omololu, for Timeslip Tuesday

Before I get started on this review, look at this cover.  Here is a black teenage boy front and center as the romantic lead in a paranormal ...

Summer of the Mariposas, by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Summer of the Mariposas , by Guadalupe Garcia McCall (Tu Books, October 2012, 12 and up), is an utterly enthralling story about five Mexican...

The Many-Colored Land, by Julian May

For Timeslip Tuesday today, I have an old favorite-- The Many-Colored Land , by Julian May (1981).   The cover at left is the cover I have. ...

The Diviners, by Libba Bray (with a bit of Kidlitcon to start with)

I am writing from New York, where I am busily attending Kidlitcon.  Yesterday I attended two lovely publisher previews, at Random House and ...

Justice and Her Brothers, by Virginia Hamilton

This review is my contribution to the More Diverse Universe blog fest, a week of bloggers highlighting speculative fiction books by and abo...

The Broken Lands, by Kate Milford

Wowzers (and bang goes my resolve to write coldly crisp, analytical reviews of great intellectual rigor).   But when a book knocks your sock...

Magic Under Stone, by Jaclyn Dolamore

I quite enjoyed Magic Under Glass , by Jaclyn Dolamore ( my thoughts ), which told the story of how Nimira, a dancing girl with dreams of a ...

Variant, by Robison Wells

Variant , by Robison Wells (HarperTeen, YA, October, 2011) is a lovely example of dystopia writ small, all the more intense for the claustro...

Seraphina, by Rachel Hartman

Seraphina , by Rachel Hartman (Random House, July 2012, YA) has been getting nothing but the best reviews among the bloggers I read regularl...

13 Secrets, by Michelle Harrison

13 Secrets , by Michelle Harrison (Little, Brown, June 2012, middle grade/YA) , is the third book of a series, and therefore a tad hard to r...

Cinder, by Marissa Meyer

Cinder , by Marissa Meyer (Feiwel & Friends, January 2012) counts both for my multicultural sci fi/fantasy list , and my fairy tale rete...

Dead Reckoning, by Mercedes Lackey & Rosemary Edghill

Dead Reckoning , by Mercedes Lackey & Rosemary Edghill (Bloomsbury, June 2012, YA) is a science fictional story of zombies in Victorian ...

Enchanted, by Alethea Kontis

I'm a bit late to the party viz Enchanted , by Aletha Kontis. It's been out for a while, and has been reviewed lots. However, the ...

House of Shadows, by Rachel Neumeier

Here are some possible first sentences for this review of House of Shadows , by Rachel Neumeier (Orbit, ostensibly July 10, but available on...