Jennifer Hubert's Blog, page 29
August 15, 2011
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, illustrated by Jim Kay and inspired by Siobhan Dowd
What would you do if you had a fear that was bigger than you were? Run away? Hide? Or would you call for help? Thirteen-year-old Conor is keeping a terrible secret about his mother's illness, one that is so awful he doesn't dare speak it aloud. So when a giant monster shows up outside his [...]
August 5, 2011
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Poor Anna. It's senior year and instead of getting to hang out with her best friend Bridgette and nurse her crush on Toph, the indie band boy with killer sideburns, she is instead being forced to go to school abroad. In Paris. I KNOW. I didn't feel sorry for her either. Until I discovered the sum [...]
July 25, 2011
The Name of the Star: Shades of London, bk. 1 by Maureen Johnson
Aurora (Rory) Deveaux is definitely a Louisiana catfish out of water. Due to her professor parents' European sabbatical, the gawky Southern teen has just started her senior year at a tony English boarding school called Wexford in the heart of London. Small town Rory couldn't be more different than her brisk British classmates, and struggles [...]
July 15, 2011
Summer and the City: A Carrie Diaries Novel by Candace Bushnell
Seventeen-year-old Carrie Bradshaw finally sets foot in the City in the second volume of Candace Bushnell's delightful Carrie Diaries. Carrie is ecstatic to be spending the summer in the Big Apple taking a writing course at The New School before heading off to Brown in the fall. After getting thrown out of her first apartment [...]
July 5, 2011
This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel
Literary Fun Fact: Victor Frankenstein had a twin! Well, at least Kenneth Oppel imagines so in this brilliant, twisted prequel to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Victor, his twin Konrad and their distant cousin Elizabeth live the good life in Chateau Frankenstein outside of Geneva, Switzerland around the mid-1790's. The Frankenstein family is wealthy, their digs are [...]
July 2, 2011
Tighter by Adele Griffin
Jamie has a pill problem. It started innocently enough with a track injury. But then her teacher Mr. Ryan ("I'd called him Sean, a couple of times, in the end.") told her that they had to stop meeting in the back booth of Ruby Tuesdays, so she needed more painkillers for her broken heart. Soon [...]
June 16, 2011
The Notorious Benedict Arnold by Steve Sheinkin
Just the name of history's original bad boy conjures up connotations of double-crossing and betrayal. Say "Benedict Arnold" to any group of school kids in the country and while they may not be able to come up with his birth and death dates, they can tell you that he was a traitor. In September of [...]
June 5, 2011
To Timbuktu: Nine Countries, Two People, One True Story by Casey Scieszka & illustrated by Steven Weinberg
Casey Scieszka and Steven Weinberg perfectly capture what it's like to travel the world while simultaneously navigating your first grown-up relationship in this lavishly illustrated travel memoir. Casey, a writer, and Steven, an artist, are in love and can't wait to start experiencing life post-college. "So here we are, adults. We are no longer required [...]
May 25, 2011
Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
It's very appropriate that this debut novel was inspired in part by a Sufjan Stevens song, as this story has the same melancholy and bittersweet tone of that indie bard's music. Cullen Witter is a suspicious, sarcastic seventeen-year-old who works at a gas station, fills his journal with the titles of books he might write [...]
May 15, 2011
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
By day, Karou is a striking seventeen-year-old art student in Prague, sporting blue hair, tattooed palms, and a killer sketchbook that even Picasso would be jealous of. By night, she is an errand girl for a lonely, gentle monster named Brimstone who lives behind a hidden alley door and collects teeth for reasons known only [...]
