When Loose Ends Meet

Finding Balance by Kati Gardner

13 Feb 2020 by Jeanne E. Fredriksen

Gr. 9-12 ***Starred Review*** Like Jase Ellison, Mari Manos is a cancer survivor. Unlike Jase, however, Mari lost one leg to the disease. Both teens are close during summers at Camp Chemo, but when Mari transfers to Jase’s exclusive Atlanta West Prep, he freaks. No one there knows his medical history, so instead of welcoming Mari, he rudely pretends not to know her. Mari’s life at AWP grows more miserable as Jase’s girlfriend spews hurtful comments about Mari’s economic status […]

Categories: Adult Readers, Book Reviews, Young Adult Readers • Tags: cancer, disability, health, Starred Review

Leave a comment

How to Live on the Edge by Sarah Lynn Scheerger

13 Feb 2020 by Jeanne E. Fredriksen

Gr. 8-12 Teenagers Cayenne and Saffron barely remember their mother, who died from breast cancer when they were young. Understanding that this could be their future as well, Cayenne aspires to live fully, if recklessly, while Saffron is dedicated to being her best self. When their Aunt Tee, who raised them, tests positive for BRCA—the inherited gene that all but guarantees her their mother’s fate—she opts for elective mastectomy and gives the girls access to a journal and series of […]

Categories: Adult Readers, Book Reviews, Young Adult Readers • Tags: BRCA gene, health, parental loss, sisters

Leave a comment

Goodbye from Nowhere by Sara Zarr

13 Feb 2020 by Jeanne E. Fredriksen

Gr. 9-12 Kyle’s life is nice: perfect girlfriend, baseball buddies, nice house, nice family. But all that falls away when Kyle’s dad mentions he’s dealing with a secret: Mom is having an affair. Now it’s Kyle’s secret. Consumed by this, Kyle distances himself from his girlfriend, baseball, and friends. Trusting only his favorite cousin and confidante Emily, he texts everything that’s on his mind and tells her the secret can’t get out until after the family’s final summer trip to […]

Categories: Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Young Adult Readers • Tags: cousins, family, parental affair, trust

Leave a comment

The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar

11 Feb 2020 by Jeanne E. Fredriksen

Black and White Are Not Colors • The second-generation Bengali woman known as Mother in Devi S. Laskar’s emotionally raw debut novel, The Atlas of Reds and Blues, is forty-three years, six months, twenty-five days old when an unexpected, swift, and tragic chain of events transpires. Upon returning home from dropping her three young daughters at school, agents storm her house, she refuses to remain silent, then she finds herself lying on her driveway in an Atlanta suburb, bleeding from […]

Categories: Adult Readers, Appeared in India Currents Magazine, Book Reviews • Tags: 2nd generation, family, guns, violence to POC

Leave a comment

Hello Now by Jenny Valentine

10 Feb 2020 by Jeanne E. Fredriksen

Gr. 9-12 Jude, a flat-out realist, hates living on the edge and starting anew. When Jude’s mother no longer has a job, and money gets tight, they move to a seaside community, where Jude feels incredibly alone. Understandably, she thinks love and magic are myths; however, her interest is piqued when Novo appears across the street, clad in head-to-toe black, yet spreading vibrant colors, love, and harmony to all who see him. Jude is transfixed, wondering who he is and […]

Categories: Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Young Adult Readers • Tags: a new start, magic, now

Leave a comment

An English Made in India by Kalpana Mohan

An English Made in India: How a Foreign Language Became Local by Kalpana Mohan

22 Jan 2020 by Jeanne E. Fredriksen

Language is fluid, and anyone who has successfully made it to adulthood has experienced slang growing into accepted usage and accepted usage shifting as new verbal practices infiltrate conversation and the written word. Such is the conundrum India has encountered since the British East India Company carried out the will of its crown. In her engaging, entertaining, and educational book, An English Made in India: How a Foreign Language Became Local, Kalpana Mohan cleverly mixes pieces of India’s history with […]

Categories: Adult Readers, Appeared in India Currents Magazine, Book Reviews, India, language • Tags: India, language, non-fiction

Leave a comment

My Best Books for Youth in 2019

25 Dec 2019 by Jeanne E. Fredriksen

I am a Books for Youth reviewer for Booklist, a publication of the American Library Association, and I have the privilege of reading a wide variety of early, middle grade, young adult books each year. I enjoy reading debut novels, works from authors just a few books old, and books from established authors. I take joy in the fact that there’s such excitement in this world of books, and I love its changes, particularly in terms of diversity. My 2019 […]

Categories: Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

Leave a comment

Beginners Welcome by Cindy Baldwin

1 Dec 2019 by Jeanne E. Fredriksen

Gr. 3-6 On the heels of her father’s sudden death, Annie Lee is struck both by his absence and the loss of his infectious love of music. Her situation is further complicated by having to move and start sixth grade at a new school, away from her two best friends. She finds respite at Brightleaf Mall, where she secretly begins taking piano lessons from an older gentleman named Ray. To Annie Lee, Ray’s music is magical, and she believes the […]

Categories: Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Young Readers • Tags: Durham NC, music, parental loss, piano lessons

Leave a comment

The End of the World as I Know It by Matthew Landis

27 Oct 2019 by Jeanne E. Fredriksen

Gr. 5-8 It’s been nearly a year since Derrick “Dee” Waters lost his mom, a Major in the Air Force deployed in Iraq. Since then, he’s been convinced that the apocalypse is scheduled to happen this September 21, which is 19 days away. He’s consumed by a doomsday blog and outfitting a shed to keep him safe when the fated day rolls around. Dee’s family and friends have learned to deal with his fixation, but when his next-door neighbor, Misty, […]

Categories: Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Middle Grade Readers • Tags: middle grade, military parent, parental loss

Leave a comment

← Older posts