Posted in So Many Good Books, YA Novels

One Week of You

One Week of You (Goldenjay Books, 2019) is author Lisa Williams Kline’s ninth book and is so ninth grade. I really enjoyed it.

15-year-old Lizzy Winston has sworn off boys because she wants to be a doctor. But then she gets AMSD–Andy Masters Smiling Disease. He’s the first boy to ever ask for her number and he makes her laugh. But with her forgetfulness, flour babies, real babies, and pranks at school, Lizzy’s newfound relationship is headed for trouble.

Read about the author here and check out her other books here.

Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

The Seventh Wish

theseventhw.jpgI’ve been a fan of Kate Messner‘s since I read The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z, Her newest novel The Seventh Wish (Bloomsbury USA Childrens, 2016) doesn’t disappoint as it explores the old phrase of “be careful what you wish for.”
Charlie Brennan is originally on the ice fishing to earn money for a fancy Irish dancing dress, but when she pulls up a magical talking fish, she starts wishing for a lot of different things. The wishes don’t work out as Charlie had hoped. Then her life gets seriously messed up when her college age sister has a crisis that cancels her trip to the feis (dance competition.)
Readers will sympathize with twelve-year-old Charlie and enjoy meeting her friends and discovering their problems. Flour babies, anyone? I now know a lot more about ice fishing and Irish dance than I ever have before–love those bonuses when reading a story.
Sadly, this book experienced some censorship earlier this year. It blows my mind that it did. Here’s an interview with Kate on the topic.
A fun place to visit on Kate Messner’s website is her photo gallery. There you can see places where she did research, items she tasted or touched for research, and more.