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100% written and illustrated by kids ages 6-13

Book Reviews


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Wake Up Missing

Wake Up Missing, by Kate Messner; Walker Children’s Books: New York, 2014; $7.99 “The most terrifying thing about hitting your head so hard is when you wake up missing pieces of yourself.” This is what the main character, Cat, tells the reader near the beginning of Kate Messner’s novel, Wake Up Missing. Cat is a twelve-year-old […]


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Out of My Mind

Out of My Mind, by Sharon M. Draper; Atheneum Books for Young Readers: New York, 2010; $17.99 Eleven-year-old Melody Brooks is a genius. She remembers everything that has ever happened to her, from the lullabies her parents sang to her as a baby to the words from every documentary and TV show she’s ever watched. […]


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Matched

Matched, by Ally Condie; Speak (an imprint of Penguin Books): New York, 2011; $9.99 Part of leading your own, individual life is choosing whom you love and where you work. Imagine how drab and strict life would be if someone controlled that and decided when you died. If there is even one rebellious bone in […]


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18 Things

18 Things, by Jamie Ayres; Curiosity Quills Press: Reston, Virginia, 2012; $14.99 Jamie Ayres has written an inspiring story about overcoming grief. In 18 Things, teenager Olga Gay Worontzoff suffers through depression after her best friend since kindergarten is fatally struck by lightning on their sailing trip. Olga feels responsible for his death, and that […]


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Counting by 7s

Counting by 7s, by Holly Goldberg Sloan; Dial Books for Young Readers: New York, 2013; $16.99 Twelve-year-old Willow Chance, who is fascinated by and knowledgeable about plants and medical conditions, has enough to deal with starting a new middle school with no friends and being accused of cheating on an important test before her parents […]


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The Children of the King

The Children of the King, by Sonya Hartnett; Candlewick Press: Somerville, Massachusetts, 2014; $16.99 It is too dangerous to stay in London. The threat of bombs falling overhead is constant, and now that France has fallen, Cecily’s parents are getting worried. So they decide to send Cecily and her brother Jeremy (along with their mother) […]


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The Silver Donkey

The Silver Donkey, by Sonya Hartnett; Candlewick Press: Somerville, Massachusetts, 2014; $8.99 “As they approached the hollow where the man lay, they were aggrieved to spy him sitting up. Clearly he was not dead. And although they had crept as quietly as they could, and kept themselves hidden behind tree trunks and weeds, the sharp-eared […]


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Kira-Kira

Kira-Kira, by Cynthia Kadohata; Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing: New York, 2006; $6.99 Once in a blue moon, you come upon a book which you believe is the pure embodiment of perfection. You read the novel in what seems like a single breath, and by the time you have read the last perfectly tailored word, you would be just […]


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Willow

Willow, by Tonya Cherie Hegamin; Candlewick Press: Somerville, Massachusetts, 2014; $16.99 The first thing I noticed about this book was the fact that Willow is both the main character’s name and the title. I liked this because I sometimes refer to a book by the protagonist’s name and not the title. Willow is about a […]


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There Will Be Bears

There Will Be Bears, by Ryan Gebhart; Candlewick Press: Somerville, Massachusetts, 2014; $16.99 When I first saw the cover of this book, I wasn’t very interested, so I put it away. A few days later, I had nothing else to do, so I started reading. I was hooked. I could not put it down before […]