Review: Merci Suárez Changes Gears, by Meg Medina
What do you do when everything is changing, but nobody will explain why? A Cuban-American middle school girl navigates big shifts in this Newberry Award winning novel from Meg Medina.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, by Jenny Han
A sweet coming-of-age romance that includes, but does not center around, the heroine’s Korean heritage. To read this story is to fall in love with Lara Jean Covey, the boy who captures her heart, and her relationship with her two sisters.
Review: The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste
Reviewed by Jennifer Langreck Do you remember believing in fairy tales or scary creatures when you were young? In Tracey Baptiste’s fantasy novel The Jumbies, Caribbean lore becomes reality. The twelve-year-old protagonist Corinne doesn’t have to believe in the creatures she hears about in the local stories, but she does have to confront them. The…
Review: Boy Meets Boy by David Levitan
Reviewed by Kate Plager There’s a limited number of classic tropes featured in most works of adolescent realistic fiction. Drama about who will be named homecoming queen, parents’ pressure about college decisions, nervous and awkward first dates with a boy you have a crush on, trying to find your place in a high school run…
Review: Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
Reviewed by Katie Green Imagine never communicating with the people around you. Imagine never being able to tell them you understand them. This is the frustratingly isolated world of eleven-year-old Melody. She is a genius with a photographic memory, but almost no one knows. Melody has cerebral palsy, so she is unable to talk or…
Children's Literature at UMN 