Best Teen & Young Adult Law & Crime Stories
Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price--and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. Gr 7 Up—Bardugo has created a wildly imaginative story of six young people who have been commissioned to pull off the greatest heist of all time.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Bought this book the day it came out, and only this past week have I finally read it....well actually I downloaded the audiobook. The way Kaz interacted with others, and how Inej is able to slip silently into the shadows...how much I wanted to hug Matthias tightly and never let go. As for the audiobook version - the people who voiced Leigh's wonderfully crafted characters really brought them to life. Six of Crows was my first venture into the world of Audiobooks, and I feared that I would miss a lot of the story, not being able to comprehend it fully without seeing the words on the page. The way the people read the characters and the overall production of the audiobook made it so easy to follow along and listen to the book come to life."
"I quickly became submersed in the world that is Six of Crows, living vicariously through Kaz Brekker's crew (NIna, Inej, Mathias,Jesper, and Wylan)."
"As you can read on the cover, the book is about “six dangerous outcasts, and one impossible heist.” Those of you who love stories about gangs of less than upstanding citizens, sting operations, and movies like Ocean’s Eleven, should be pulled in by those words alone. My only complaint about the book is that I raced through it in two days, and then was left dying to get my hands on the next in the series, the equally beautifully clad Crooked Kingdom, due out September 27."
"With a diverse cast and a diverting, fast-paced narrative, this reads like a heist movie set in a fantasy land."
Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price--and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. They are to nab the creator of jurda parem, a highly addictive product that enhances the innate paranormal powers of the Grisha peoples, in the hopes of creating weapons of war that will upset the balance of power and destroy the economies of rival governments. While the unresolved ending may frustrate some teens, the promise of a sequel will give them hope that this unsettling, captivating, magical journey will continue.—Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Bought this book the day it came out, and only this past week have I finally read it....well actually I downloaded the audiobook. The way Kaz interacted with others, and how Inej is able to slip silently into the shadows...how much I wanted to hug Matthias tightly and never let go. As for the audiobook version - the people who voiced Leigh's wonderfully crafted characters really brought them to life. Six of Crows was my first venture into the world of Audiobooks, and I feared that I would miss a lot of the story, not being able to comprehend it fully without seeing the words on the page. The way the people read the characters and the overall production of the audiobook made it so easy to follow along and listen to the book come to life."
"I quickly became submersed in the world that is Six of Crows, living vicariously through Kaz Brekker's crew (NIna, Inej, Mathias,Jesper, and Wylan)."
"As you can read on the cover, the book is about “six dangerous outcasts, and one impossible heist.” Those of you who love stories about gangs of less than upstanding citizens, sting operations, and movies like Ocean’s Eleven, should be pulled in by those words alone. My only complaint about the book is that I raced through it in two days, and then was left dying to get my hands on the next in the series, the equally beautifully clad Crooked Kingdom, due out September 27."
"With a diverse cast and a diverting, fast-paced narrative, this reads like a heist movie set in a fantasy land."
Born into an elite family in one of the Republic's wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military circles. From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths - until the day June's brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. "VOYA", starred review "?cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes." "Publisher's Weekly", starred review Marie Lu works as an art director for a Los Angeles video game company - the book is built around the world she created for a popular Facebook game, also called Legend.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"In Day's (the male lead) part of the narrative, he comes off as the typical well rounded storybook hero with extraordinary athletic ability that falls in love with the girl way too quickly."
"I'm going to start off with kind words by saying that this was a easy, simple book to read. On that note, I would like to say that although the story line was intriguing-there was a point in the middle of the book where I just COULD NOT put it down-the characters were too perfect, flawless. I mean come on 15-year-olds who have superhuman observation, tracking, hunting and survival skills of assassins is unrealistic. Perhaps, if Day and June had the potential of being the best of the best, but were just as they should be-just teenagers for the moment, learning their craft."
"June Iparis' brother Metias dies, apparently killed by a young criminal named Day. June is a prodigy who scores a perfect 1500 in a trial that all young people have to take in order to be chosen for education and privilege."
"Skimming through my library and ran across this series."
"Cliff hangers are great, leaving mysterious little sub plots is interesting, not giving total explanations can be intriguing but most authors screw it up. Most authors, especially dystopian authors, leave too many little holes and if you step back for a second and look at all of the unknowns, even good books look like Swiss cheese sometimes."
"It was a quick read and didn't require a lot of thought."
Best Teen & Young Adult Hispanic & Latino American Fiction eBooks
The winner of the Pen Center West Award for Fiction for his unforgettable novel Alburquerque , Rudolfo Anaya's rich and compassionate writing about the Mexican American experience has helped cement him as the father of Chicano literature in English. Besides winning the Premio Quinto Sol national Chicano literary award, this novel of a young boy in New Mexico in the 1940s has sold more than 300,000 copies in paperback since its 1973 debut.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The narrative voice is a young boy who experienced both evil and loss, but through the pain, he discovered the great mysteries of life."
"His struggle between the strict religious structure of his mother and her desire for him to become a priest and the magic of the curandera Ultima, a herbal healer, rang true."
"love this book, bought this copy for a friend."
"I personally find myself increasingly interested in the genre and other authors who write it given this read."
"Will he commit to his mother's way of life--living harmoniously with the farm land, or with his father's way of life--living the life of an always moving vaquero? As they read Anaya's novel, readers have to step into the shoes of a young Hispanic boy as they witness every one of Antonio's life and religious uncertainties."
"A coming of age story about a boy growing up in rural New Mexico and the woman who comes to care for him."
"Great product and price."
Best Teen & Young Adult Mysteries & Detective Stories
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This book was one of the first books SHE mentioned wanting to read on her own. We jumped in the car and raced off to the book store to see if we could capitalize on her "read all of the books mood" once she flipped through the book she was hooked in... inside the store!"
"While the storyline took a while to get into the actual peculiar side it still kept my interest. They're supposedly vintage photos with minimal altering which leads even more mystery to the story and a little magic to life as the photos themselves are peculiar."
"Good characters."
"It is tied in my opinion with Harry Potter and I've only read one of the Miss Peregrine books so far and I've only read the first 5 HP books. I am very critical when it comes to books and I have to say or type it is the best thing I've read in a loooong time."
"Not only did I read this book in two sittings (bringing it with me whenever I got up to grab something or do anything else), I had a VERY hard time falling asleep on the night of the 7th and focusing at work on the 8th because all I could think about was the story and how badly I wanted to be reading rather than sleeping/working! I honestly can't remember the last time I felt that way about a book... though I have read plenty that I had a hard time putting down, I didn't lose sleep over them because they just didn't hook me as much as this one did. I loved everything about this book."
"I thought the author did a very good job of capturing a disenfranchised sixteen year old who finds himself on an adventure. I loved his narrating voice and his voice of young Jake, but he made all the young girls sound like old biddies--all breathy and high pitched."
Best Teen & Young Adult Thrillers & Suspense
***** Includes a preview of. THE BOOK OF DUST, the long-awaited new novel from Philip Pullman set in the world of His Dark Materials, and. hailed by the New York Times as "A stunning achievement"***** The Golden Compass. , The Subtle Knife , and The Amber Spyglass are available together in a collectible His Dark Materials boxed set perfect for any fan or newcomer to this modern fantasy classic series that has graced the New York Times , Wall Street Journal , San Francisco Chronicle , Book Sense , and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. Phillip Pullman’s spellbinding His Dark Materials trilogy has captivated readers for over twenty years and won acclaim at every turn. He is best known for the His Dark Materials trilogy ( The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass ), which has been named one of the top 100 novels of all time by Newsweek and one of the all-time greatest novels by Entertainment Weekly . He has also won many distinguished prizes, including the Carnegie Medal for The Golden Compass (and the reader-voted "Carnegie of Carnegies" for the best children's book of the past seventy years); the Whitbread (now Costa) Award for The Amber Spyglass ; a Booker Prize long-list nomination ( The Amber Spyglass ); Parents' Choice Gold Awards ( The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass ); and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, in honor of his body of work.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It's hard not to be drawn into the lives of Tamora Pierce's heroines like Beka Cooper, for example, but Lyra rarely felt to me like anything but an archetype once her adventures began, and the threatening clouds that hung over her almost constantly in _The Golden Compass_ and parts of its two sequels lacked the human scale and logical coherence of the evil faced by, say, Harry Potter or Pierce's heroines."
"I loved the many different characters in this book each other their on purpose and ideas on how to solve the problems of the universe,."
"The third time I completed the story and I am still processing the many truths that are revealed in this compelling trilogy."
"Indeed as I was reading through the entire series (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass) I had thoughts and feelings which I have only experienced when reading books of supreme quality and worth such as Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey series, or Stephen Baxter's Xeelee Sequence."
"Favorite childhood series. A fantastical adventure series that challenges concepts of innocence, experience, and antiquated belief systems."
"Awesome series, I really enjoyed it!"
"There are two kinds of great stories -- those that fit seamlessly into the body of thought and make you wonder why no one thought of it before, and those that are remarkably imaginative and compelling and make you wonder how the author thought it up at all. Pullman's trilogy fits into the latter category."
Best Teen & Young Adult Historical Mysteries & Thrillers
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This book was one of the first books SHE mentioned wanting to read on her own. We jumped in the car and raced off to the book store to see if we could capitalize on her "read all of the books mood" once she flipped through the book she was hooked in... inside the store!"
"While the storyline took a while to get into the actual peculiar side it still kept my interest. They're supposedly vintage photos with minimal altering which leads even more mystery to the story and a little magic to life as the photos themselves are peculiar."
"Good characters."
"It is tied in my opinion with Harry Potter and I've only read one of the Miss Peregrine books so far and I've only read the first 5 HP books. I am very critical when it comes to books and I have to say or type it is the best thing I've read in a loooong time."
"Not only did I read this book in two sittings (bringing it with me whenever I got up to grab something or do anything else), I had a VERY hard time falling asleep on the night of the 7th and focusing at work on the 8th because all I could think about was the story and how badly I wanted to be reading rather than sleeping/working! I honestly can't remember the last time I felt that way about a book... though I have read plenty that I had a hard time putting down, I didn't lose sleep over them because they just didn't hook me as much as this one did. I loved everything about this book."
"I thought the author did a very good job of capturing a disenfranchised sixteen year old who finds himself on an adventure. I loved his narrating voice and his voice of young Jake, but he made all the young girls sound like old biddies--all breathy and high pitched."
Best Teen & Young Adult Romantic Mysteries & Thrillers
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This book was one of the first books SHE mentioned wanting to read on her own. We jumped in the car and raced off to the book store to see if we could capitalize on her "read all of the books mood" once she flipped through the book she was hooked in... inside the store!"
"While the storyline took a while to get into the actual peculiar side it still kept my interest. They're supposedly vintage photos with minimal altering which leads even more mystery to the story and a little magic to life as the photos themselves are peculiar."
"Good characters."
"It is tied in my opinion with Harry Potter and I've only read one of the Miss Peregrine books so far and I've only read the first 5 HP books. I am very critical when it comes to books and I have to say or type it is the best thing I've read in a loooong time."
"Not only did I read this book in two sittings (bringing it with me whenever I got up to grab something or do anything else), I had a VERY hard time falling asleep on the night of the 7th and focusing at work on the 8th because all I could think about was the story and how badly I wanted to be reading rather than sleeping/working! I honestly can't remember the last time I felt that way about a book... though I have read plenty that I had a hard time putting down, I didn't lose sleep over them because they just didn't hook me as much as this one did. I loved everything about this book."
"I thought the author did a very good job of capturing a disenfranchised sixteen year old who finds himself on an adventure. I loved his narrating voice and his voice of young Jake, but he made all the young girls sound like old biddies--all breathy and high pitched."
Best Teen & Young Adult Fantasy & Supernatural Mysteries & Thrillers
***** Includes a preview of. THE BOOK OF DUST, the long-awaited new novel from Philip Pullman set in the world of His Dark Materials, and. hailed by the New York Times as "A stunning achievement"***** The Golden Compass. , The Subtle Knife , and The Amber Spyglass are available together in a collectible His Dark Materials boxed set perfect for any fan or newcomer to this modern fantasy classic series that has graced the New York Times , Wall Street Journal , San Francisco Chronicle , Book Sense , and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. Phillip Pullman’s spellbinding His Dark Materials trilogy has captivated readers for over twenty years and won acclaim at every turn. He is best known for the His Dark Materials trilogy ( The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass ), which has been named one of the top 100 novels of all time by Newsweek and one of the all-time greatest novels by Entertainment Weekly . He has also won many distinguished prizes, including the Carnegie Medal for The Golden Compass (and the reader-voted "Carnegie of Carnegies" for the best children's book of the past seventy years); the Whitbread (now Costa) Award for The Amber Spyglass ; a Booker Prize long-list nomination ( The Amber Spyglass ); Parents' Choice Gold Awards ( The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass ); and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, in honor of his body of work.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Indeed as I was reading through the entire series (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass) I had thoughts and feelings which I have only experienced when reading books of supreme quality and worth such as Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey series, or Stephen Baxter's Xeelee Sequence."
"Favorite childhood series. A fantastical adventure series that challenges concepts of innocence, experience, and antiquated belief systems."
"Awesome series, I really enjoyed it!"
"A great read, somewhat disheartened to learn that some people see it as 'young adult reading' ... while I understand that the main characters are young .. the themes running through the books are valid to all and still relevant today."
"There are two kinds of great stories -- those that fit seamlessly into the body of thought and make you wonder why no one thought of it before, and those that are remarkably imaginative and compelling and make you wonder how the author thought it up at all. Pullman's trilogy fits into the latter category."
"I love hardback books, which makes this perfect."