Teen and Staff Reviews

Staff Review

The Whisper

By Aaron Starmer
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Chris K.
Mar 14, 2016

This series. Wow. So different and unexpected than most everything else out there. And this second book that is so unexpectedly different than the first, that reframes and deepens and changes The Riverman as it expands that book's universe exponentially.

Teen Review

Inkheart

By Cornelia Caroline Funke

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Mar 11, 2016

Years ago, when Meggie was just a baby, her father discovered he had a terrible and dangerous gift. He can ‘read’ fictional characters to life out of his books, but something always has to go into the book to replace them. When he reads aloud the book Inkheart, he releases angry characters into the world, but at the same time his wife disappears into the story. Later, when Meggie is 12, one of them comes back and abducts them, trying to force her father into his service.

Staff Review

Feed

By M.T. Anderson
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Diane H.
Mar 10, 2016

Feed reminded me of the people in WALL-E who spent their lives sitting on mobile chairs, having all their needs taken care of. Of course, the people in Feed do walk around, and they’re on earth (mostly) not on a spaceship. Still, the inability, or at least the disinclination, to think for oneself, is the same.

Staff Review

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things

By Carolyn Mackler
Star Rating
★★★

Rated by Becky C.
Mar 9, 2016

Good, but not great. Published thirteen years ago, it doesn't quite hold up today. Ginny is unbelievably pathetic throughout most of the story, and only toward the Hollywood-like ending does she-surprise-develop some confidence. Normally I love pathetic people because I can relate to their insecurity, but Ginny's character is a tad too two-dimensional, not a fully fleshed out character worthy of my concern.

Teen Review

Girl, Stolen

By April Henry

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

When Griffin steals a minivan with the keys left in, he thought he got lucky. He did not bargain on 16 year old Cheyenne Wilder sleeping in the back. Now, in addition to his accidental kidnapping, he finds out she is blind and has pneumonia, and he has no idea what to do. But when his father finds out she is the daughter of the president of a powerful president of a company, there is a reason to keep her. But can she survive this real life nightmare and escape alive?

Teen Review
The Heir and the Spare by Emily Albright

The Heir and the Spare

By Emily Albright

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Feb 29, 2016

Evie needs to find out who her mother really was. She embarks on a quest into her mother’s past when she is given letters written to her before her mother died. One of the first things she has to do is to attend Oxford university, her mother’s alma mater, where meets Edmund. She can’t help but be attracted to the charming and handsome boy, who also happens to be the second prince of England. They spend more and more time together as they try to figure out the clues her mother left her.

Staff Review

The Game of Love and Death

By Martha Brockenbrough
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Kate M.
Feb 26, 2016

A beautiful love story set in the jazz age of Seattle. For centuries, humans have been the pawns in the game between Love and Death. You may be familiar with a few of the challenges, Antony and Cleopatra, Helen of Troy and Paris, Romeo and Juliet. And Death always wins…always.

A new game is afoot and Love and Death have chosen the players.

Flora is an African-American girl who is truly at home in the sky. A plane mechanic by day and a jazz singer by night, Flora lives with her grandmother and is trying to save up enough money to finance a flight around the world!

Teen Review

A Northern Light

By Jennifer Donnelly

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Feb 23, 2016

Mattie Gokey has big dreams of one day going to college, but little chance of realizing them. She has to stay behind and protect her sisters and entire family from financial ruin. Desperate for money, she takes at the Glenmore, a hotel for high class people vacationing nearby. There, hotel guest Grace Brown entrusts her with a packet of letters to burn for her. But when Grace’s drowned body is discovered in the lake, Mattie realizes the letters could reveal the dark truth behind a murder.

Staff Review

If I Was Your Girl

By Meredith Russo

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Feb 19, 2016

This is the story of Amanda and how she overcomes her past and embraces her new life, learning to live with her father, and making new friends. Amanda has a complicated past that she struggles with and does not want people to know about. There are flashbacks, sprinkled throughout the book, which feature Andrew and his battle with everyday life. Andrew and Amanda are connected in ways that most would not understand, as they are the same person only in different versions.

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