My Book Reviews for Young Adults

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Site Purpose:

   Share interesting Young Adult books that I have read

   Provide additional reviews and summaries about the books

   Provide a site where my students can add their own reviews

   Expand my multicultural interests for a more inclusive classroom

   Find new and exciting ways to access student views on books.

   Provide a place and model for student voices

   Share principles and insights learned in our reading classes

   Provides books for transition from young adult to adult

Book Index

Click on the book's author for a brief introduction.  

Click on the book title for a complete review.

Doe Sia, by Kenneth Thomasma

This is a delightful book that I read aloud with my daughter Nikko.  The larger story is about European Mormon immigrants traveling to Utah to join other members there.  The focus is on a family from Norway which consists of a mother, young son, Peter, and younger daughter, Emma.  As they are traveling by handcart across the plains, an early snow storm results in Emma getting lost.  Exhausted and succumbing to the snow and cold winds, she is found by Doe Sia, a Bannock Indian girl.  The snow storm won't let up.  They are cold, they are hungry, they are thirsty, they are tired.  Will they ever survive this incredible experience?  Click the book cover to read more.

Fade, by Robert Cormier

I believe many young boys, and maybe girls too, have contemplated the thought of being invisible.  Imagine where one could go, what one could see, unobserved, what one could do--fascinating thoughts from my youth.  This story starts out as a mystery for Paul, who genetically inherits this gift from his uncle.  As Paul learns more about this gift, it becomes a curse.  Learn what effect this incredible gift/curse has on Paul's nephew and what he must do about it. Click on the book cover to read more.

Fallen Angels, by Walter D. Myers

This is a coming-of-age story about Perry, a Harlem teenager who decides to join the military effort and is sent to Vietnam.  He must quickly learn who to watch and who is watching him as he struggles with the others members of his platoon to survive psychologically and physically in a world nobody should have to live in.

This book gives an insider's perspective to what the war was really like.  Click the book cover to read more.

Habibi, by Naomi Nye

Liyana is 14 and has just experienced her first kiss.  She is 100% American, as is her brother Rafik and mom.  Her dad is Palestinian and he has just decided to move back to Israel with his family.

The entire family makes tremendous adjustments to learn about life in conflict-torn Israel as Palestinians struggle for independence.  Liyana struggles to retain aspects of her identity and yet learn how to act appropriately in a Muslim culture.

Click the book cover to read the entire review.

One Bird, by Kyoko Mori

Megumi is a 15-year-old teenager in Japan.  She has a rich insurance executive as a dad and a loving, caring mother.  She has a bright future with the opportunity to attend the right schools, but she has a problem.  Her family is falling apart.

Because of her dad's mistress, her mom can no longer pretend and decides to move back to her father's home.  Megumi is strictly forbidden from communicating with her mom.  Her heart is broken, but then she meets a Dr. Mizutani who takes care of injured birds.  They become friends and Dr. Mizutani encourages Megumi to express her feelings to her dad, mom and grandmother.  

Click the book cover to read more.

The Fallen Man, by Tony Hillerman

This story takes place in the four-corners area of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah, part of the very beautiful and rugged country of the Navajos.  Joe Leaphorn has just taken his first case after retiring as chief of the Navajo Tribal Police.  He has been hired to investigate the death of a rich Anglo, Hal Breedlove, who fell to his death from Ship Rock 11 years ago.  With the help of his young friend Jim Chee, they uncover years of deception and intrigue as they try to stay alive long enough to solve this case.

Click the book cover to read more.

The First Eagle, by Tony Hillerman

Joe Leaphorn, the legendary lieutenant, and Jim Chee again team up to solve another clear-cut case that is not as simple as it appears.  A policeman, Benny Kinsman, while on surveillance, is murdered.  Jim Chee catches the culprit Robert Jano, a young Hopi Indian, leaning over the dead body, with scratches on his arms.  Was it a struggle with the policeman, or was it the result of illegal poaching of eagles in the area.

Nobody believes the young man could even catch an eagle, yet catch two different ones within a few hours of each other.  Then there is the mysterious death of Anderson Nez of what appears to be the plague.  Then Catherine Pollard, who is investigating extremely toxic strains of the plague, disappears and is thought also to be murdered.  How do all these deaths point to a common culprit and cause?

Interested readers in this book might consider Robin Cook's Vector.

Click the book cover to read more.

The Giver, by Lois Lowry

Welcome to the utopian world of 12-year-old Jonas.  His family has dinner together every evening.  They each talk about their day's activities and their emotions in a very emotionless way.  Everything is suppose to be perfect, but there is a missing element in people's lives.  What is it?  Choice.

Jonas is given the opportunity to perpetuate this unreal situation so that everyone might be controlled and protected from the pain and torment of certain kinds of thoughts and memories.  

In collaboration with the "Giver," Jonas forsakes his community and attempts to save a young child his father is to put to death the next death day.  He must go to a place he has only dreamed of.  Does this place really exist?  Can Jonas save this little child?  There are many more very real questions this book asks us to think about.  Find out what others in your class think about infanticide, euthanasia and other practices.  Read this book!

Click on this book cover for more information.

The Matarese Countdown, by Robert Ludlum

In the opening scenes of The Matarese Countdown, Robert Ludlum, with a deft touch, recreates the ambiance that takes a reader back more than twenty years to the opening scenes of The Matarese Circle. This tells us in no uncertain terms that the Matarese is back.

With tentacles everywhere, the Matarese was the personification of evil at its most vicious and relentless. Its goal was economic domination of the world. Ludlum fans will remember Brandon Scofield from the CIA who joined with one of the KGB's finest to defeat it.

Click on this book cover for more information.

Vector, by Robin Cook

Cook's newest novel, "Vector," deals with one of America's greatest fears - a deadly biological cloud being used against the civilian population of a large city.

In Manhattan, Dr. Jack Stapleton, a forensic pathologist in the New York City Medical Examiner's Office, is handling a case involving the puzzling death of a store owner. Even an autopsy doesn't reveal the cause of death. Through sheer determination, Stapleton keeps ordering toxicology tests on the organs of the deceased until finally the cause is pinpointed: suffocation and complications as a result of inhaling anthrax.

Yet, Stapleton can't find other similar deaths. Unbeknownst to health officials, that lone anthrax death was neither accidental nor isolated. Instead, it was an anthrax potency test on an innocent victim perpetrated by right-wing zealots.

Click on this book cover for more information.

Zia Summer, by Rudolfo Anaya

Sonny Baca is a well-liked young Hispanic detective from an interesting old Spanish family.  After graduation from high school, his older beautiful cousin, Gloria, inaugurates him in a rite of coming-of-age, then leaves town.  She returns later, marries a politician, is murdered and Sonny is asked by his aunt to find her murderer.

Sonny is initially dismissed by the police investigating the murder, but through persistence, hard work, staying alive, he uncovers the true ambitions of a cult leader and his all-female coven.

Click on this book cover for more information.

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