Click here to return to the series In September, we look at another YA fiction novel–and yet another novel set in South Africa. Thanks to Stormbird Press and author Gila Green for the interview and essay. Stormbird Press, one of our affiliates, is a new publisher in Australia. As an […]
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Eliot Schrefer’s Endangered, Review by Kimberly Christensen
Endangered by Eliot Schrefer Young adult fiction Fourteen-year-old Congolese American Sophie is set to spend the summer in the Congo with her mother, who runs a sanctuary for bonobos. Sophie arrives with mixed feelings. Although she spent her young childhood in the Congo, she now lives in the United States […]
Read MoreThe Last Wild Trilogy, Piers Torday
In a world where animals no longer exist, twelve-year-old Kester Jaynes sometimes feels like he hardly exists either. Locked away in a home for troubled children, he’s told there’s something wrong with him. So when he meets a flock of talking pigeons and a bossy cockroach, Kester thinks he’s finally […]
Read MoreWhere the River Runs Gold, Sita Brahmachari
Click here to return to the series This month we look at Sita Brahmachari’s novel Where the River Runs Gold (Waterstones, July 2019), which takes place in an everyland, according to the author. But she told me that Meteore mountain–meaning between earth and sky–was inspired by Meteora in Greece and […]
Read MoreA.S. King’s Me and Marvin Gardens, Review by Kimberly Christensen
Me and Marvin Gardens by A.S. King Middle Grade Fiction Published by Scholastic Trades Review by Kimberly Christensen Everything around twelve-year-old Obe Devlin is changing. New subdivisions keep springing up behind his house on the acres of land that once belonged to the Devlin family. Obe’s former best friend, Tommy, […]
Read MoreSide Chick Nation, Aya de León
The author takes the story on an interesting journey, exploring colonization, climate change and the US government’s response to Hurricane Maria. Side Chick Nation is an entertaining, insightful, satisfyingly feminist read. –Black Enterprise Fed up with her married Miami boyfriend, savvy Dulce has no problem stealing his drug-dealer stash and fleeing […]
Read MoreNeela Vaswani’s Same Sun Here, Review by Kimberly Christensen
Same Sun Here By Silas House and Neela Vaswani Middle Grade Fiction Review by Kimberly Christensen When middle schoolers River and Meena become penpals, the two students form a fast friendship. Meena recently immigrated to New York City from India, and lives in a small flat with her mother and […]
Read MoreThe Suicide Season
Author: © Jeremy Gadd Publication Date: April 15, 2019 Publisher and Ordering: Stormbird Press Type: Fiction Social Media: Facebook Back to the Dragonfly Library Book Blurb When demoralised Warren Yeats abandons his failing business, his ex-wife and his city lifestyle to embark on a road trip with more twists and […]
Read MoreAli Benjamin’s The Thing About Jellyfish, Review by Kimberly Christensen
The Thing About Jellyfish By Ali Benjamin Published September 22, 2015 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Middle Grade Fiction Review by Kimberly Christensen The summer before seventh grade, Suzanne’s former best friend, Frannie, drowns while on vacation. Frannie and Suzy’s friendship had derailed in that most painful of […]
Read MoreNo Entry
Author: © Gila Green Publisher/pre-order: Stormbird Press Publication Date: September 17, 2019 Social Media: Author blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn Back to the Dragonfly Library Book blurb: Broken-hearted after losing her only brother in a terrorist attack, 17-year-old Yael Amar seeks solace on an elephant conservation program in South Africa’s Kruger […]
Read MoreProtectors of the Wood – Series, John Kixmiller
The Protectors of the Wood Adventure Novel Series is the fully illustrated story of a group of misfit teenagers who save the world from climate change. -Goodreads Part 1. Phoebe Comes Home Goodreads Review Back to GoodReads Part 2. Phoebe Breaks Through Goodreads Review Back to GoodReads Part 3. The […]
Read MoreWhere Oceans Hide their Dead, John Yunker
The long-awaited sequel to The Tourist Trail…Robert Porter has quit the FBI in search of his long-lost (and presumed dead) love, Noa, only to find himself on the wind-raked shores of Southern Africa working for a seal-rescue organization. When a confrontation with local sealers ends in murder, Robert must abandon […]
Read MoreThe Orchardist’s Daughter, Karen Viggers
The theme of conservation runs strong in all four of Karen Vigger’s works. She trained as a domestic and wildlife veterinarian and loves the great outdoors. This strong attachment to nature appeals to her readers across the world. –rFI Set in the old-growth eucalypt forests and vast rugged mountains of […]
Read MoreThe River, Peter Heller
The real delight is the nature writing. The River is a fiction addition to the New Landscape writing of Robert Macfarlane and Rebecca Solnit, prose so vivid and engaging that a city-dwelling reviewer can feel the clammy cold of a fog over a river or the heat of subterranean tree roots […]
Read MoreThe Hungry Tide, Amitav Ghosh
The Hungry Tide was published in 2004 but is still getting accolades in the media and has celebrated many reprints since. The Hungry Tide is a very contemporary story of adventure and unlikely love, identity and history, set in one of the most fascinating regions on the earth. Off the easternmost […]
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