As a Nigerian-American girl and voracious reader growing up in Homewood Flossmoor and Hinsdale, Illinois, Tomi Adeyemi rarely encountered powerful characters who looked like her. Nevertheless, this 24 year-old recent Harvard graduate has burst onto the scene this year with a NY Times best-selling book set in the mythical West African kingdom of Orisha which…
I know. I get it. This time of year EVERYONE who has ever breathed near a book has a list, or an award, or a best-of, or an opinion. It gets really hard to keep track of which award is for what and which ones are prestigious and which are made up. Throwing another list…
Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis opens with this chilling line: “This is how I kill someone.” Alex is a senior in high school on track to be valedictorian. She does her homework, but stays in the background of her small town. Alex is known as the girl whose sister was brutally murdered a…
Jo is an out and proud lesbian. Her father is the radio famous Reverend Gordon. Before Jo’s senior year of high school, her dad marries Elizabeth (whom Jo calls Three) and moves them from Atlanta and all of Jo’s friends to Elizabeth’s small hometown of Rome, Georgia. Jo’s dad asks her to go back into…
Now that school has officially started and fall is upon us, I’ve promptly started counting down to Thanksgiving break (83 days, in case you were wondering). Beyond pumpkin spice lattes there are a lot of other great things to look forward to this fall. There are several top-notch teen fantasy and science fiction sequels coming…
Shelf Life 