Orleans by Sherri L. Smith Young Adult Fiction Reviewed by Kimberly Christensen Reading novels about the environment requires a certain amount of getting comfortable with potential dystopian futures. For example, it would be extremely difficult to avert a climate crisis without thinking through the logical outcomes of the current course […]
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Depart, Depart by Sim Kern Young Adult Fiction Reviewed by Kimberly Christensen The boy first appears to Noah in the moments before Noah’s Houston neighborhood is engulfed by catastrophic flooding. He leads Noah to the relative safety of a parking garage, then disappears. In the wake of the flooding, Noah […]
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Strange Birds: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers, Celia C. Perez Middle Grade Fiction Reviewed by Kimberly Christensen In Sabal Palms, Florida, many girls join the Floras, a service organization begun in the early 1900s by some of the founders of the city. Even though her grandmother was a proud […]
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Loveoid by JL Morin Release date: December 6, 2020 Genre: eco-fiction, literary fiction, speculative fiction Price: $11.95; 276 pages ISBN: 978-1-941861-54-7 Available at Gardeners, Bertrams, Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and bookstores everywhere Review by Mary Woodbury Loveoid, the new novel from JL Morin, aims to change the evolutionary trajectory of […]
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Middle Grade Fiction Reviewed by Kimberly Christensen Edver and his mother left Cuba when he was just a baby. His father stayed behind and Edver hasn’t seen him since. But when relations between the United States and Cuba finally permit unrestricted travel between the two countries, Edver’s mom sends him […]
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Young Adult Fiction Reviewed by Kimberly Christensen During junior year of high school, Liberty expects her focus to be on doing well in school and getting ready for college. Then her mom gets convicted of ecoterrorism and sent to jail, and Liberty finds herself moving to a rural mining town […]
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Reviewed by Mary Woodbury Nina Munteanu’s newest novel, A Diary in the Age of Water, deftly follows four generations of women fighting for—and exploring scientifically, spiritually, poetically, and philosophically—water. Lynna’s mother Una and daughter Hilde understand water scientifically, but Hilde, influenced by her love-of-life Hanna, often dips into pseudoscience, which […]
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Young Adult Fiction Reviewed by Kimberly Christensen The summer after senior year of high school should be full of magic, but for Julia Ducharme, it’s full of worry. Julia’s younger brother Caleb is still convalescing from a serious illness, her former summer fling has a new girlfriend and to top […]
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Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis Young Adult Fiction Reviewed by Kimberly Christensen From the very first line, Mindy McGinnis sucks the reader into an apocalyptic world in which water–and its scarcity–determines every move made by sixteen-year-old Lynn and her mother Lauren, two women surviving in what’s left […]
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Reviewed by Kimberly Christensen Middle grade fiction When Willa’s dad takes her on a whale-watching trip to see the migrating humpbacks, an unexpected thing happens: A whale talks to her. The whale, called Meg, seems as surprised as Willa that the two can understand each other, but they form a […]
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Reviewed by Kimberly Christensen Young Adult Fiction Content Warning: This book includes descriptions of death, depression, attempted suicide, animal poaching, animal cruelty, forced migration, human trafficking, war, genocide, child soldiers, and rape. Following the death of her boyfriend, high school senior Valentine falls into a severe depression and nearly overdoses […]
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Reviewed by Kimberly Christensen Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelly Middle Grade Fiction Sometimes a book just stops you in your tracks and demands that you sit with it, pushing aside as many demands of “real life” as you can in order to lose yourself in the book’s world. […]
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The Eagle Tree by Ned Hayes (Little A, 2016) Young adult contemporary fiction Review by Kimberly Christensen To say that fourteen-year-old March Wong loves trees is an understatement. He climbs multiple trees per day and can cite endless amount of information about trees, from information about their species to how […]
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The Light in the Lake by Sarah R. Baughman (Little Brown, 2019) Middle Grade Fiction Review by Kimberly Christensen In rural Vermont, twins Addie and Amos lived at the edge of Maple Lake, a place that had been home to generations of their relatives. Everyone loved the lake, with its […]
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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 […]
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