Jennifer Hubert's Blog, page 15
December 17, 2015
The Smell of Other People’s Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock
Ruth would do anything to get out of Gran’s “old person smelling” house, but the results are disastrous when cute Ray Stevens offers a sleepover with benefits. Dora wishes she had a place she could call home because no matter how kind Dumping’s parents are, she can never forget that she is a guest in their […]
December 15, 2015
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
Rashad is African American, an aspiring artist, the son of a police officer and a member of the ROTC. Quinn is white, a loving big brother, the son of a soldier who died in Afghanistan, and a member of a winning basketball team. Both boys find their understanding of the world challenged when Rashad is brutally beaten […]
December 4, 2015
A Big Dose of Lucky by Marthe Jocelyn
It’s not easy being a sixteen year old orphan in 1964 Ontario. But it’s even harder when you’re a brown-skinned girl who’s just lost the only home you’ve ever known. When the Benevolent Home for Necessitous Girls goes up in smoke one terrifying night, Malou is thrust out into the wide world with just $138, […]
November 15, 2015
The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle
Almost seventeen-year-old-wanna-be-screenwriter Quinn Roberts has become very anti-social–“..which is what happens when your big sister gets killed in a car wreck, right outside the school on the day before Christmas break.” So, yeah. Now it’s summer, and things have just gotten worse. Quinn and his mom are subsisting on a steady diet of sorrow and Healthy […]
October 25, 2015
Slasher Girls & Monster Boys edited by April Genevieve Tucholke
I plucked this delightfully disgusting collection off my shelf to read just in time for Halloween. But before I even launch into the ominous awesomeness of these stories, can we just talk about this amazeballs dedication? I know! Pretty fantastic, right? I have a feeling that dedication is true for far too many of us. […]
October 6, 2015
Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella
Audrey is missing out on her life. Ever since her ex-friends Tasha, Natalie and Izzy launched a bullying campaign that gave her an acute case of Social Anxiety Disorder with a side order of Depressive Episodes, Audrey has been wearing dark glasses and rarely leaving the house. Dr. Sarah has assured Audrey that her “condition […]
September 24, 2015
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
In this raucous medieval-ish fantasy turned upside down and sideways, Nimona is a sassy shape shifter who offers her slick sidekick services to professional villain Ballister Blackheart. In turn, she wants nothing more than to take out a few good guys. But that’s not the kind of villain Blackheart is. In fact, he’s kind of…kind, […]
September 14, 2015
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
“My disease is as rare as it is famous. It’s a form of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency…basically I’m allergic to the world…I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years.” Biracial teen Maddie believed she had gotten used to her sanitary, white-walled world. She had learned to accept the limits of her sterile […]
September 5, 2015
Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt
Jack Hurd is a thoughtful twelve year old who lives and works on a farm with his devoted parents. Joseph Brook is a troubled fourteen year old from an abusive home who’s already done time for trying to kill a teacher. The two meet when Jack’s folks agree to take Joseph on as a foster […]
August 27, 2015
Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman
Sometimes you come across a book on your bookshelf that you read so much ABOUT that you’re convinced you also READ the book. I read so many reviews and accolades for Deborah Heiligman’s award-winning book about the life and marriage of Charles and Emma Darwin (first published in 2009) that somehow I believed I had […]
