Teen and Staff Reviews

Staff Review

Swarm

By Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, Deborah Biancotti
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Josh N.
Oct 29, 2016

In Zeroes we were introduced to a group of teens with unusual, mostly subtle superpowers who find themselves in an increasing amount of trouble with both drug dealers and the police, using the very powers that got them into trouble in the first place to get them out again. I liked the novel a lot, so when I found out about the sequel, I was very excited.

Staff Review

The Storyteller

By Aaron Starmer
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Chris K.
Oct 10, 2016

Now, as I read it all over again, I wonder . . .

They call that literary analysis, Stella, and I'm not particularly good at it. My job is to write. Your job is to figure out the deep stuff.

And there is deep stuff going on here, isn't there? For the love of Luna, I hope so.

Staff Review

Burning Nation

By Trent Reedy

Rated by Chris K.
Aug 23, 2016

Don't be fooled by the opening battle scene and continuous conflict that drives the story into thinking this is a simple action book. It's tense and fast-paced, yes, but it is also full of moral, psychological, interpersonal, and political conflict. It is a book whose external action deeply considers complicated internal issues.

Staff Review

The Museum of Heartbreak

By Meg Leder

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Aug 22, 2016

Penelope, Ephraim and Audrey have been friends forever, an inseparable threesome. But now that they are juniors in high school, things are changing. Penelope is devastated when for the first time ever, Eph and Audrey both ditch out on the fall festival. She is the only one of the three who has never been kissed, never had a romantic involvement. Audrey is expanding her social circle and encouraging Penelope to do the same, but Penelope doesn't want to. Change is hard. But it is also inevitable.

Staff Review

Orbiting Jupiter

By Gary Schmidt

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Aug 18, 2016

Jack Hurd lives with his parents on a small farm in Maine. One day in the winter of his 6th grade year, Joseph Brooks comes to live with them as a foster child. Joseph has been in trouble and spent time in a boy's group home, a juvenile detention center, and most recently a high security juvenile prison after allegedly trying to kill a teacher. He is only 14, but is the father of a newborn baby girl. He has never seen his daughter, but loves her and her mother dearly.

Staff Review

Every Exquisite Thing

By Matthew Quick
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Chris K.
Aug 11, 2016

This starts off deep, but maybe faux deep. Then it gets heavier and heavier. In the best possible way. It gets authentic. As Nanette digs deeper and deeper to find her authentic self.

Teen Review

The Darkest Part of the Forest

By Holly Black

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Aug 5, 2016

Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.

At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.

Until one day, he does…

Teen Review

Burning Midnight

By Will McIntosh

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Aug 3, 2016

One day, brilliant colored spheres showed up, hidden all over the world. No one knows where they came from, but they make you have special abilities. Burn a pair and they make you a little bit better, whether making you an inch taller or better looking. The rarer a sphere, the more expensive it is, and the better improvement. When Sully teams up with Hunter, a girl skilled at finding spheres, they never expected they would find a gold, a color no one has ever seen.

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