Kate Mester

Fascinating and horrifying, but certainly not a neutral accounting.

Peter Brown just keeps getting better. I loved the artwork of the teacher transition.

I'd like to read his original book for adults, but I think this is such a great bio for middle school kids. He works with a great balance of his story and the lessons learned, until the very end when he finally veers towards slightly over-preachy and didactic. But his message is good, and one that is helpful to hear from adults other than teachers.

A much better story than the movie, which, though well acted, was truly and inexcusably horrible. I can see why Maroh was so angry at the adaptation

I found the premise creepy and stalkerish, especially when the resolve was to forcibly give Rhiannon to another boy as if she were romantic property to be passed around. Also his, now-here's-a-day-in-the-life of pretty stock characters felt way too preachy, though I do appreciate his gender-less theme. In total, not my favorite Levithan.

This book would have been an enjoyable 3 stars for me, but Kathleen Wilhoite's narration really elevated it. I was audibly laughing to myself on the metro (like a crazy person)

Richly detailed world-building with believable characters and a good mystery. I haven't read any of the Bartimaeus books, so I loved my first real introduction to Stroud. I've recommended it to kids who can handle scary, because some of the ghost scenes are truly creepy.

It started out very slow for me but I eventually loved the historical fantasy of Dodger's adventures and the humorous and clever story. I particularly enjoyed Stephen Briggs' various accents for each character, as he made them all specific and unique.

Rowell's characters are so beautifully realistic. She perfectly captures unique teen voices and emotions.

I understand why the kids love it and her undoing of the romance triangle at the end made it a little less formulaic. And at least it wasn't as badly written as some of the other more popular book/movies my kids love (Divergent, I'm looking directly at you here), but I'd rather hype John Green and Rainbow Rowell and Benjamin Alire Saenz and the innumerable other great YA authors than this.

I very much enjoyed listening to Sedaris tell me the stories himself, but he lost my interest with the forensics stories at the end. After the first story, the rest felt like filler.

I was really excited to devote some time over break to reading an adult book that was one every top 10 list of the year, but alas, it was not as I had hoped. The first 100 pages of the book were zippy, witty, and interesting, but the middle 300-400 truly plodded on. The last 20 pages zipped along again, but by that point I was too annoyed that I had invested that much time for 1/4 of a good book.

Love Sean Beaudoin for being snarky and funny and truthful and capturing the agony/ecstasy of teendom. This book has hooked a few of my boys into becoming readers and sharing books with one another

A sci-fi cross between Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz. Younger readers (5th-7th) could really get into the world DiTerlizzi has built, but older readers would probably find Eva 9 too young and whiny. All of the add-ons to the book also really fun. My kids thought WondLa vision was particularly impressive.

Also, though I never thought I'd say this, Teri Hatcher gave an amazing performance voicing the characters for the audio book!

I know the kids love this book but it's so poorly written. What six year old speaks in whole paragraphs about their emotional state and the causes and consequences of the duress their under?

Feynman had a fascinating life, but I think the lack of transitions between topics and chapters made the narrative really jerky and sometimes hard to follow. I'd like to say there's a high school audience for this book, but so far I haven't had any luck in finding readers.

I've recommended this book to my 8th grade and high school football boys, but I think the technical football passages are too detailed for a lay reader. I skimmed the football plays, but I was interested in Mick's journey. I still feel that Runner has a wider audience.

Interesting, but the pacing was glacial. The true payoff didn't come until the last 40 pages and it felt like some work to get there, with too much extraneous detail. I'm somewhat intrigued by the ideas of the next 2 books, but not sure that I want to devote the time to them.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_highbrow/2006/12/precocious_realism.html

Meghan O'Rourke explained in Slate (with much better writing and clearer thought) why I have absolutely no interest in finishing this book. I made it to page 220, but the ~20 needless (and occasionally nonsensical) similes per page sure made it feel like I read at least 600 pages.

Enjoyable. The kids really loved the movie and I show the trailer in booktalks, and I have to say, this is one of the few times where I think I may actually prefer the movie over the book. The book's interesting, but the movie excises a few of the more slow-moving and secondary plot lines, making it funnier and snappier.

I was ambivalent about Vera and just kept wanting more from the book. It was ok, but after In Darkness and Code Name Verity, I think I was expecting more from a Printz Honor winner. However, the book trailer is good and has successfully sold the book to a good few of my high schoolers.

Incredibly formulaic and poorly written with some jarringly bad word choices in the dialogue (In a Russianesque historical fantasy world characters are said to be acting “bitchy” or “bratty”? No, definitely no.) Very disappointing, especially considering that it was a JLG selection and that the sequel will be a part of my upcoming level shipment.

A unique fantasy world and concept, but I thought it was a little boring overall. That said, I am interested in what happened to Sapphique, but I don't know that I want to invest in the second book. Also, and maybe this is because I listened to it rather than read it so that it was more glaring, the overuse of the words guttering/juttering really annoyed me.

Another beautifully written Saenz novel, but it still didn't move me as much as Last Night I Sang to the Monster. Also, my hardback version from JLG had at least 5 errors that the copy editor didn't catch, which I found really frustrating. None of his books have yet found an audience among my kids, but I'd like Saenz to catch on with my high schoolers.

2nd Reading (9/2018) Appreciated Lin Manuel-Miranda performing the audio. Stand by my original review, though I will say that happily my HS kids now LOVE this book! It's been a fave on the BOB list.

Elegantly emotional and beautifully written. I teared up at the end. Though written for a younger audience, I think my Battle kids will really enjoy this next year.