When eleven year old Flavia discovers a man dying in her back yard she finds herself in the middle of a dangerous search to discover the killer. This is not a quick read. The author lays out scene-an estate in a small rural town in Britain in 1950- and plot at a measured pace and in great detail.
-
-
YA Review – The Sun is Also a Star
I read The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicole Yoon on a business trip to St. Kitts fraught with delayed flights. When I finally lifted my eyes from the book I found that friends from home were sitting near me in the airport. When I approached them their faces filled with concern. “What’s the matter?” they asked. I was…
-
YA Review – Time Sphere
Three Stars. I read Time Sphere: A Timepathway Book as a NetGalley reviewer. I was intrigued by the setting which moves between the modern day and ancient Egypt, and by the time travel aspect of the novel. I was not blown away by this book, but I read it through to the end mainly because of the charming main character Rhory.
-
YA Review- Patchwork by Karsten Knight
Renata’s life is a bit more complicated than the average teen’s. This is so not just because she is still dealing with her father’s sudden death or because her boyfriend plans to go abroad for college. It turns out that she is being hunted by a ruthless killer who is determined to destroy her and everyone she loves.
-
Review – Untwine
I am a big fan of Edwidge Danticat and this young adult novel does not disappoint. Set in the US, it tells the tale of sixteen-year-old identical twins Isabelle and Giselle who are involved in a tragic accident on the way to a school orchestra concert.
-
Middle Grade Review – The Dragon’s Cave
Struck by lightning, twelve-year-old Seamus is thrust into medieval times. Confused and physically unable to tell anyone that he is from another time, he struggles to adjust to the speech patterns and the new skills (archery, horse back riding) he is expected to know. He finds that he is part of a troop on a quest to conquer a dragon…
-
Look! A Moko Jumbie
Set in St. Croix, this book is about a boy, Bamidele, who sees two moko jumbies outside of his window. “They folded their hands together and leaned their heads on their clasped hands. They looked like one perfect shell split in two.”
-
Review-Akata Witch
Meet twelve year old Sunny, the albino daughter of Nigerian immigrants who have moved back to Nigeria to raise their three children. She is already finding it difficult to fit in, a situation which becomes more complicated when she finds out that she is a part of a group of humans with special juju (black magic) powers and a dubious…
-
Review-The Door at the Crossroads
Full Disclosure-I know the author of this book. I met Zetta Elliott several years ago through Summer Edwards of Anansesem and I have followed her work closely ever since. Of Caribbean origin (St. Kitts-Nevis specifically), Zetta is a Black feminist writer of poetry, plays, essays, novels, and stories for children. She published a head-spinning fifteen (I believe-it may be more) children’s…
-
Reviews: Children’s Literature
Read some of my Editorial Reviews.