Category: review

All You Knead is Love by Tanya Guerrero [MG Review]

16 March 2021 / review / 5 Comments
All You Knead is Love by Tanya Guerrero [MG Review]

All You Knead is Loveby Tanya GuerreroSource: ebook/NetgalleyPublished: 30 Mar.Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux (Macmillan)Length: 384 pages Genre: ContemporaryTarget Age: 9+#OwnVoices: Filipino Spanish representationI received a free copy from the publisher via NetGalley. Summary 💬 Twelve-year-old Alba doesn’t want to live with her estranged grandmother in Barcelona. But her mother needs her to be far, far away from their home in New York City. Because this is the year that her mother is going […]

The Liar’s Dictionary: An Unusual Work of Literary Fiction [Review]

7 February 2021 / review / 13 Comments
The Liar’s Dictionary: An Unusual Work of Literary Fiction [Review]

I received a free copy for review from the publisher via NetGalley. The Liar’s Dictionaryby Eley WilliamsSource: ebook/NetGalleyPublished: 5 Jan. 2021Publisher: Knopf Canada (PRH Canada)Length: 288 pages Genre: Historical/ contemporary fictionTarget Age: Adult (suitable for 16+)#OwnVoices: wlw Summary 💬 Peter Winceworth is a lexicographer in Victorian-era London, toiling away at the letter S for a multi-volume Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Secretly, he begins to insert unauthorized fictitious entries into the dictionary in an attempt to assert […]

The Appeal of Morrigan Crow and Nevermoor [MG Review]

5 January 2021 / review / 14 Comments
The Appeal of Morrigan Crow and Nevermoor [MG Review]

Preamble This post sat in my drafts for just over a year. Cybils judging introduced me to Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow in January 2019. I had heard some buzz around the book prior to that. I thought it couldn’t possibly be as good as everyone made it out to be. Hah! Well. I had good intentions to review the book after it was announced the Cybils winner, but […]

My Favourite Middle Grade Read of 2020: The Girl and the Ghost [MG Review]

23 December 2020 / review / 11 Comments
My Favourite Middle Grade Read of 2020: The Girl and the Ghost [MG Review]

The Girl and the Ghostby Hanna AlkafSource: Purchase/ HardcoverPublished: Aug. 2020Publisher: HarperCollins CanadaLength: 288 pages Genre: Ghost/folk taleTarget Age: 9+#OwnVoices: Author and protagonist are Muslim Malay Summary 💬 Suraya is delighted when her witch grandmother gifts her a pelesit. She names her ghostly companion Pink, and the two quickly become inseparable. But Suraya doesn’t know that pelesits have a dark side—and when Pink’s shadows threaten to consume them both, they must find enough light […]

Bloom: A Thrilling Start to this Speculative Fiction Trilogy [MG Review]

18 December 2020 / review / 4 Comments
Bloom: A Thrilling Start to this Speculative Fiction Trilogy [MG Review]

Bloom/Hatchby Kenneth OppelSource: ebook/libraryPublished: 10 Mar./15 Sept.Publisher: HarperCollins CanadaLength: 320/384 pages Series: The OverthrowGenre: Scifi thrillerTarget Age: Upper middle grade (suitable for 11+) Summary 💬 The invasion begins–but not as you’d expect. It begins with rain. Rain that carries seeds. Seeds that sprout–overnight, everywhere. These new plants take over crop fields, twine up houses, and burrow below streets. They bloom–and release toxic pollens. They bloom–and form Venus flytrap-like pods that swallow animals and people. They […]