Jennifer Hubert's Blog, page 38

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

In 1899 Texas, girls are expected to know how to knit, sew, cook and clean in order to make some lucky man a good wife. But Calpurnia Virginia Tate, the only daughter in a family of six rowdy brothers, couldn't be less interested in the domestic arts. "I had never classified myself with other girls. [...:]

Stitches by David Small

If you think your parents are awful, they are probably peaches compared to the folks that raised Caldecott award winner artist David Small. This gut wrenching graphic memoir of selected events from Small's Detroit-based childhood and adolescence chronicle his survival of his parents' loveless marriage, a botched surgery on his throat that left him scarred [...:]

After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson

In the summer of 1995, D, Neeka and our unnamed narrator (we'll just call her "Me") are trying to figure out what it means to be "grown" in their Queens, NY neighborhood while the music of their idol, Tupac Shakur, provides the soundtrack to their unusual friendship. Neeka and Me have lived on the same [...:]

How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford

Robot Girl meets Ghost Boy. Robot Girl falls for Ghost boy (sort of). Ghost Boy holds Robot Girl at arm's length due to emotional trauma suffered since childhood. Robot Girl understands until she doesn't. How long before Ghost Boy disappears or Robot Girl has had enough? In this unconventional love story, Cindy Sherman wanna-be Beatrice [...:]

Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan

NYC teens Claire, Jasper and Peter find their lives intersecting in unexpected, meaningful ways after the tragedy of September 11 brings them together. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, Claire is starting her day at school, Peter is skipping homeroom in favor of snagging the new Bob Dylan album, and Jasper is sound asleep. [...:]

The Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede

Set in an alternate-history America right after the Civil War, Patricia Wrede's frontier fantasy details an Old West where magicians expediate westward expansion by maintaining a great spell wall that keeps the giant woolly mammoths and steam dragons at bay. Everyone learns basic spell casting in school, with the exception of the Rationalists, [...:]

Gone Fishin'

Dear teen peeps,
That should probably say, "Gone Readin'" instead! Reading Rants is taking a summer vacation until July 25th. I'm off to the Annual American Library Association Conference in Chicago, IL for some food, books and fun, then taking a short road trip with my buddy Cindy Dobrez of Booklist's Bookends to Michigan, where I'll [...:]

Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine

Everything in fifteen-year-old Rowan's life has felt broken since the death of her older brother Jack two years ago. After Jack's fatal accident, her father left, her mother sank into a sleeping pill stupor and her little sister Stroma came to depend on Rowan utterly. Now Rowan's days are an endless round of school, caring [...:]

The Storm in the Barn by Matt Phelan

Eleven-year-old Jack feels useless. It's 1937, and it hasn't substantially rained on his family's Kansas farm in over four years. Most folks are starting to wonder if they'll ever see storm clouds again. The only clouds that come by these days are the deadly black dust clouds that choke the breath out of every living [...:]

Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood by Tony Lee, illustrated by Sam Hart and Artur Fujita

Sometimes it's best not to mess with a classic. Instead of adding a bunch of modern bells and whistles, sometimes it's better to just polish up an old masterpiece and introduce it to a new generation, who will still love it because it's just that good. That's the case in this gorgeous GN that [...:]