This was to be my next book for review here, but my 10-year-old literary advisor has taken off with it, so I won’t get it back for a couple of days. From what I was able to get from the cover, it’s about a boy growing up in a town where everyone has super powers. Everyone, that is, except for the boy.

by Gennifer Choldenko

Moose Flanagan’s life is uprooted when his electrician father takes a job as a prison guard on Alcatraz. His parents are trying to find a place that can help Moose’s older sister, Natalie, who has what we would know as autism today. Although his parents are always telling him that everything is not as black and white as it seems, they seem to have a hard time remembering that fact themselves.

The book includes fascinating facts about life on Alcatraz, and shows what life is like for the sibling of an autistic person. Gennifer Choldenko knows what she’s writing about. Her own sister had a severe form of autism.

Mark Twain Award Nominee 2006-2007

Originally posted April 10, 2005

by Betty Ren Wright

Everything is changing for Charli this summer. First, her mom just married her gym teacher, and that’s not turning out as well as Charli had thought it would. Then, her aunt and uncle take in Sophia, a snooty orphan who can tell when something bad is about to happen. Even Charli can tell something bad is going to happen when Uncle Will announces he is going to turn the town’s haunted mansion into a bed and breakfast. Can Charli and Sophia get over their dislike for each other long enough to stop terrible things from happening?

Mark Twain Award Nominee 2005-2006

Sophie is the oldest of three girls and she knows she has very little hope of an interesting future. When her family runs into money problems, Sophie’s sisters go off to be apprentices and Sophie stays home to work in the family’s hat business. Meanwhile, a mysterious castle appears on the horizon, said to be home to a young wizard who likes to suck the souls of young girls. After Sophie is cursed by the Witch of the Waste, she ends up making a bargain with the demon who powers the moving castle. She will help the demon break his contract with the Wizard Howl, and the demon will break the curse on her.

I stayed up all night to finish this book and absolutely loved it. Diana Wynne Jones consistently writes wonderful, fascinating, mysterious, and magical tales.

Hi! I’m currently reading The Book Thief and The Burn Journals. Both of these are more teen lit than tween lit. However, as soon as I can, I’m going to start working through this year’s Mark Twain nominees.

Now that I have a blog management system that allows me to have multiple writers, I would love to solicit reviewers. Anyone who reads books aimed at tweens and teens is eligible. If you already review tween and teen lit on your own site and want to mirror the reviews here (with a link back to your own site,) you certainly can do that. Kids are welcome to review here. Register and comment on this post if you’re interested in reviewing books for this site. If we’ve already reviewed a book you want to talk about, you can post your review in the comment section or add a trackback!

I did get to read City of Ember, which was very fun to read. I can see why it won the Mark Twain Award. I can’t wait to read the sequel, People of Sparks.

Last week, I finished how i live now by Meg Rosoff, so I owe you guys a review. I know I’m a little late reading it, but better late than never.

I’m going to a big library conference tomorrow and I’m bringing along some books from work for the authors to autograph. I will be bringing Looking for Alaska by John Greene and Black Juice. I will also bring my own copy of Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys. So, I will read these books and I promise to post reviews if I get the books read during the conference!

My spring break reading list includes The Ravenmaster’s Secret by Elvira Woodruff, The Gorillas of Gill Park by Amy Gordon, and Crandall’s Castle by Betty Ren Wright. My boss was not very interested in that last book. I also hope to get to City of Ember by Jeanne du Prau.

I haven’t forgotten about this site! My teachers are keeping me so busy with required reading that I haven’t had a chance to read for fun! I’ll be reading Life is Funny for one of my classes, so I’ll post my review here after I read it.

I tried to read Crescent Dragonwagon’s To Take a Dare over the summer, but it was a non-starter. The storyline was interesting– I’ve always liked books about road trips– but it was like she was describing the book she planned to write, rather than showing what the character was doing. I ended up abandoning it a few chapters in.