Reviews written by Megan Kelly

This is a seriously sad children’s book. It’s beautiful, thought-provoking, and heartfelt, but melancholy is the prevailing mood for BREADCRUMBS. Hazel and Jack are fifth graders who have been best friends forever, throughout their difficult young lives. One day, Jack changes and stops speaking with Hazel....

I think I’m similar to my students in that if I’m going to learn about something new, I enjoy doing it via graphic novel. I was really excited to receive SITA: DAUGHTER OF THE EARTH, which tells about characters from Hindu mythology. This graphic novel is Saraswati Nagpal’s retelling of...

I was desperate to read DARTH PAPER STRIKES BACK after finishing THE STRANGE CASE OF ORIGAMI YODA, but their was a major waiting list at my school's library. After hearing my complain about it, one of my sixth graders lent me his personal copy. I loved it just as much...

Put down whatever you're reading and pick up THE STRANGE CASE OF ORIGAMI YODA, the most delightful middle grade novel I've read in ages. This case study, written from the perspective of a class of sixth graders, attempts to discover if Origami Yoda is real. The...

Is it grand theft auto if it’s your daddy’s truck? Is it kidnapping if she’s your sister? Is it even wrong if you’re chasing your runaway mother? In THE MAP OF ME, Margie never even pauses to ask these questions. As soon as she sees her mother’s note that says,...

After finishing "Imaginary Girls", I wasn't sure if I was ready for another "young girl admires wild girl" novel, which was what LIKE MANDARIN promised to be. I'm very happy I decided that I didn't care, because Kirsten Hubbard's novel was completely different and, in my opinion, far more enjoyable....

Gordon Korman’s SWINDLE team is back and they’ve gone to the dogs. When Luthor, the massive Doberman, destroys a dog show and injures a champion dog, Savannah’s family faces a massive lawsuit and are forced to take him to the pound. Griffin Bing, also known as The Man With The...

THE SECRET SISTERHOOD OF HEARTBREAKERS is the kind of novel that you pick up to read the first few pages, and then it’s suddenly 2:00 a.m. and you missed dinner. Proof: I received this in the mail yesterday afternoon and am already dying to share it with you. ...

The 2010 earthquake that struck Haiti has trapped fifteen-year-old gangster Shorty under the rubble in the hospital where he has been recovering from a gunshot. As his hope for survival slowly fades, he maintains his sanity by telling his life story to the darkness that surrounds him. ...

For the past twenty years, Weetzie Bat has been an icon for outcasts who choose to see the world through rose-colored glasses (preferably cat-eyed and pink). Francesca Lia Block has returned with PINK SMOG: BECOMING WEETZIE, an origin story that takes us back to 1970s Los Angeles, before Weetzie was...

"What would you do if you only had one day left to live?" This is the question that haunts Delaney Maxwell after she spends eleven minutes under a winter lake. Her heart and brain stopped working; FRACTURE's protagonist dies in the first seven pages of the novel, but somehow she...

In Quill, thirteen-year-olds are categorized as Wanted, Necessary, and Unwanted. The Wanteds attend university, the Necessaries do manual labor, and the creative Unwanteds are sent to their death. When Alex Stowe is sorted into the Unwanteds, he must leave behind his Wanted twin brother Aaron. What Alex and the other...

Liesl spends her life locked away in an attic, mourning the death of her father. One day, a ghost named Po appears, asking Liesl to draw it a picture and passing along some words from her late father: “I should never have eaten the soup.” The pair escapes and set...

The best historical fiction makes the reader continually ask, “How much of this is real?” Vicky Alvear Shechter’s CLEOPATRA’S MOON does just that, making me wonder about the life of Cleopatra’s only daughter, Cleopatra Selene, and hoping that it was as fascinating as depicted in the novel. ...

In the hipster romance “Garden State”, Natalie Portman talks about original moments in human history, and I’m pretty sure I lived one yesterday. I feel it is safe to say that no one else has ever spent four hours reading Mike Lupica’s THE UNDERDOGS while getting their hair straightened in...