Geekerella’s title is pretty clear that it retells Cinderella but makes her a geek, but it goes further by making her prince the star of the Starfield reboot, which is a space-adventure cult classic that Elle Wittimer was raised on. Elle is not thrilled….
An overachieving Korean American girl meets a new, hot guy in her class and develops a crush. She decides that to get him to be her boyfriend that she’s going to follow the K-Drama formula to make her own romance. When I read that, I thought, “Dani (from Perspective of a Writer) would love this!” Then….
After watching way too many Mr. Atheist videos, I was pretty excited to find a YA book where the protagonist is atheist and has to attend a Catholic school. It then spoke to my high school self, who was very into comparing world religions and denominations of Christianity, by then showing that this atheist teen joins a group of friends who have a variety of beliefs, including….
A Very Large Expanse of Sea, by Tahereh Mafi, takes us back to 2002, a year after 9/11. The turbulent times make life harder for Shirin, the new sixteen-year-old Muslim girl at school where she is regularly stereotyped. She’s built an armor around herself in the turbulence and from having to deal with her parents’ constantly moving to new places. She’s aloof to the world and keeps to herself. Then she meets a boy, named Ocean, who wants to get to know her. The….
I read Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak this month in reaction to the Kavanaugh Hearings. Speak follows a teen girl’s first year of high school, after the summer she was raped by an older student. She deals with being an outcast, watching her high school have shifting identities, completing the crazy assignments of her teachers, and… Continue reading 9 Reasons Why You Need to Read ‘Speak’ Right Now
Through a combination of reading the synopsis and several reviews, I decided that I wanted to borrow American Panda, by Gloria Chao, from the library and read it. Having graduated high school a year early, Mei is starting her first semester at MIT on the pre-med path her Taiwanese parents chose for her. She struggles….
In February I saw several glowing reviews for the audiobook version of The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas, and I decided to put myself on the waitlist. It was worth the wait to read this powerful book. One night Starr Carter finds herself the only witness to the fatal shooting of her childhood friend, Khalil, at the hands of a police officer. As the story….
Janna Yusuf is a high school sophomore and hijabi who is dealing with a crush and a monster. Beyond this, the three main types of people in her life are saints, misfits and monsters. I was more sold by the first scene of the book than the synopsis. In this scene, she wears a burkini to the beach despite her father’s criticisms, and shortly after we learn about the monster. S.K. Ali’s Saints and Misfits visits the crushes, friendships and struggles of a Muslim girl.
Several months ago I was looking for an audiobook, and OverDrive suggested M-E Girard’s Girl Mans Up. After listening to the sample, I gave it a shot and loved it.
Girl Mans Up is about a high school girl trying to be who she is. Pen plays video games, supports her friends, wears her brother’s shirts, and wants to be one of the guys. Her Portuguese parents want her to dress like a “girl” and….
I received this electronic Advanced Reader Copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. In this Alice in Wonderland retelling, Alice Liddell has “vasovagal syncope – a fainting disorder which causes her to lose consciousness whenever she feels emotions too strongly.” Her mother, a cardiothoracic surgeon, cannot cure her, but some new witchy friends think they can.
Cat on the Bookshelf 