Reviews

Staff Review

Firefly

By Joss Whedon

Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Jun 30, 2014

Much has been made of this show, more than a decade old and canceled before it even finished its first season.

With good reason.

Even suffering from executive meddling, where the episodes were aired out of order and the time slot randomly changed without notice, Firefly built a die-hard group of fans.  They even leveraged their passion into a movie to wrap up the loose ends.  Why are the Browncoats so fanatical?

Staff Review

Call the Midwife

By Worth, Jennifer
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Jed D.
Jun 29, 2014

These poignant and lightly humorous episodes are based on Jennifer Worth’s memoirs about midwifery in East London in the 1950's.  The nurses and nuns that run Nonnatus House are well developed, and I especially adore nurse Chummy Browne’s fish out of water storylines.

Teen Review

Life as We Knew It

By Susan Beth Pfeffer
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Angel T
Jun 28, 2014

If you knew the precise time the moon would collide with a meteor would you pull out your binoculars, pop some popcorn, and pull up a lawn chair for the best show of your life? If you knew the moon would be struck quickly by the meteor but then slowly move closer and closer to the earth would you fear for you life? If you knew the moon's imposing presence in the sky would produce deadly earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes that wipe out millions of people would you still have hope? If you knew the middle of summer would soon turn to a blistering winter would yo

Teen Review

London Eye Mystery

By Siobhan Dowd
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Angel T
Jun 28, 2014

The London Eye Mystery is about a peculiar moment in time where a young boy named Salim steps into one of the 32 pods of the infamous London Eye but never steps off. His cousins Ted & Kat saw him get on. He turned around and waved to each of them. Ted and Kat didn't move. The waited, watched, and even counted as the pod slowly made it's way up, up, up, up up then down, down, down, down, down. After 30 stretched out minutes, Salim's pod was back to where it started. The doors opened and people filed out -- everyone except Salim.

Staff Review

The Bears for Lunch (CD)

By Guided by Voices
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Bryan V.
Jun 28, 2014

Of the six and a half albums released since the resurrection of Guided By Voices in 2011, The Bears for Lunch is arguably the strongest (with 2014’s Cool Planet a close second). There is an energy and playfulness in a lot of these tunes that's lacking in the other albums. "Dome Rust" and "Finger Gang" are prime examples of the kind of oddball hookiness Robert Pollard, GBV’s lead songwriter, has mastered for decades. “Amorphous Surprise” continues in this giddy, surrealist vein.

Teen Review

Red Rising

By Pierce Brown
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Kate M.
Jun 24, 2014

Darrow has the most dangerous job on Mars. He is the helldiver of Lycos, running the drill deep underground that mines Mars for valuable natural resources. Helldivers to not generally live long lives, like his father who died when he was a child. But Darrow has other plans, he is going to make something of himself, and his clan. But he can only rise so far, the caste system of society keeps his people down. They are Reds, deemed to be good at nothing but hard labor. They are ruled over by the Blues, Greys, and at the top...the Golds, the apex of human evolution. 

 

Teen Review

Boxers

By Gene Luen Yang
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Kate M.
Jun 24, 2014

The companion novel to Saints, this book looks at the same situation from a different angle. Little Bao has grown up reenacting his favorite Chinese operas and looking up to his father. When his father is hobbled by European colonists, Bao's older brothers take over the family, relegating Bao to the role of little brother. In secret he trains with a martial arts master, and quickly out paces his brothers.

Teen Review

The Crossover

By Kwame Alexander
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Kate M.
Jun 24, 2014

Josh Bell, known as Filthy McNasty to those on the court, is one of top two players on his middle school basketball team. The other player is his twin brother, Jordan. The two are expected to become big stars as their father was an amazing basketball player before he retired, known to his fans as Da Man!



Filthy and Jordan are ready for an epic year on their team, taking them all the way to playoffs, when things are complicated by a new girl, who captures Jordan's eye and their father's heart problems. 



Teen Review

Don't Look Back

By Jennifer L. Armentrout
Star Rating
★★★

Rated by Kate M.
Jun 24, 2014

Samantha is discovered stumbling along a highway, dirty, dehydrated and bloody, three days after she and her best friend Cassie went missing. Cassie still hasn't been found and Samantha suffers from amnesia and can't remember anything before the police picked her up. 



Teen Review

Two Boys Kissing

By David Levithan
Star Rating
★★★

Rated by Kate M.
Jun 24, 2014

This book has caught everyone’s attention (as Levithan’s books often do). The story centers around an attempt to break the Guinness Book of World Records longest kiss (over 32 hours) by ex-boyfriends Craig and Harry in protest of a hate crime. Add to that the love story of Ryan and transgendered Avery, Peter and Neil (a new couple ready to take the next step) and Cooper, a runaway obsessed with gay hook-up apps and the story is full of interesting and well rounded characters.