(Note: This review contains major spoilers.)

You and I are damaged goods. We were born into a world where the sins and weaknesses of others have bruised and buffeted us, and where our own sin natures have led to painful cuts and permanent scars. Some of the deepest wounds have come from those who were supposed to love and protect us, such as family members who, rather than following the path of the One who created us all, have chosen instead to take on life’s temptations and snares in their own strength, and have failed miserably.

Although told from a non-Christian perspective, this novel by popular YA writer Francesca Lia Block poignantly illustrates the damage that can result from choosing darkness over light.

Read More >

“Almost everyone is obsessed with leaving a mark upon the world. Bequeathing a legacy. Outlasting death. We all want to be remembered. . . .”
The Fault in Our Stars, p. 310

At 17, Hazel Grace Lancaster is a voracious reader with intimidating smarts and a wicked sense of sarcasm. (Wicked in the sharp sense, not the cruel one.) She is also a cancer survivor. Perhaps “cancer sustainer” might be a better way to put it. While a miracle drug keeps her tumors at bay, she will never go into full remission, and every day she struggles to breathe as toxic fluid fills her lungs.

Read More >

Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life is the first book in a projected series featuring Rafe Khatchadorian, self-described “tragic hero.” The second book is due out this month.

You might have seen some of James Patterson’s thrillers for adults, but he also writes for young adults and juveniles. Patterson’s style in Middle School, co-authored with Chris Tebbetts, shows that he is capable of adapting his writing to appeal to all ages. Interspersed within the text of the story are drawings by artist Laura Park, which look like they came straight from the imagination of a sixth grader.

Read More >

What if instead of going through life with flaws, mistakes, and pain, you lived in a place where the government could guarantee the best life for each person?

Matched is a young adult novel about a dystopian society that uses statistics and probability to shape and make decisions for the citizens. For optimum results, the government, known as the Society, matches everyone with their best match for their future marriage, their vocation, and even the boroughs in which they live.

Read More >

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater is the story of two lonely orphans growing up on a lonely island surrounded by the lonely Scorpio Sea. Every autumn, for one month, that cold, dark sea sets the lonely capaill uisce upon the shores of the Island of Thisby. Pronounced CAPple ISHka, the almost otherworldly water horses are as vicious as they are stunning, living with their hooves on the land and their hearts in the sea.

Read More >

Events in life that shake us can either help make us or break us. Joni Eareckson Tada’s diving accident left her as a quadriplegic. But rather than being permanently sidelined by such a tragedy, with God’s help and guidance she was able to rise above her loss of physical movement to become one of the movers and shakers in modern Christian ministry.

The two principal characters in Rat Life, the first foray into young adult fiction by children’s author Tedd Arnold, face their own pivotal moments. Their individual reactions to these events reveal much about each boy’s personality and whether he will rise above his circumstances or be forever warped by them. Read More >

We had 60 voters in our last poll, which asked, "What is likeliest to get your children interested in a book?" And the results:

They find it on their own and decide to try it: 25 (41.7%)
Their friends are reading it: 24 (40%)
You recommend it: 4 (6.7%)
The school assigns or recommends it: 4 (6.7%)
Other: 3 (5%)

We have a new poll up on the left now, so please go vote! The first four responses listed are meant to be from your kids' point of view -- we couldn't put quote marks around them.

With PBS airing a new adaptation of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, this classic rags-to-riches story is once again in the public eye. This may raise a question for many parents and educators: How soon is too soon to introduce a book like this to kids? Read More >

Sara Zarr’s 2010 young adult novel, Once Was Lost, features Samara, a PK (preacher’s kid) who thinks she has faith all figured out until her dysfunctional family falls apart and her quiet hometown experiences a tragedy. Then, Samara must learn to love and accept imperfect parents and an imperfect and questioning self. I loved the way the novel dealt with faith questions without over-simplifying or stereotyping the Christian characters.

I wondered if Zarr might continue with the explicitly Christian characters in her latest YA novel, How To Save a Life, but she doesn’t. Two girls, Mandy and Jill, tell the story in alternating chapters, and that first-person/two-narrators technique works well for a story that’s essentially about two people from very different backgrounds coming to trust, love, and understand each other.

Read More >

Leepike Ridge has it all: a mysterious house chained to a rock, a river with dangerous rapids, legends of stolen treasures in secret caves, a crooked cop and similarly slimy bad guys, a crotchety old recluse, a trusty dog, and a lovely widow with rival suitors and an 11-year-old son.

Thomas Hammond is mature for his age. Since his father died three years ago, he has been the sole male in that mysterious house chained to the rock, a house whose penchant for getting hit by lightning results in oftener-than-average deliveries of new refrigerators. Refrigerators come in huge boxes—boxes with large pieces of foam packing that can support a boy’s weight on a river.

Read More >

Jessie Hatcher launches into her story with, “I guess my life was crazy even before the day it really lost its mind.” You can say that again.

Jessie, the 15-year-old heroine of Nancy Rue’s Motorcycles, Sushi & One Strange Book, has more on her plate than any teenager should. Her single mother’s mental illness is raging out of control, and Jessie herself is struggling with a case of ADHD that’s like having a “hamster wheel” constantly spinning in her head. For all intents and purposes, she’s raising herself—until the day her presumed-dead father shows up.

Read More >

Act

On your impulse,
swallow the bottle,
cut a little deeper,
put the gun to your chest.

The cover of Impulse is bright red and purple, reminding the reader of blood—the source of life and the source of death. Blood, life, death, depression, love, hate, lust, sex, are all recurring themes in this gritty, difficult to digest, heart-wrenching novel.

Read More >