Singer, the tale of a native Los Angelino who takes on an alien invasion, time travel, and heartbreak. Razorbill changes it up with Metamorphosis Nine by Heidi Lang, in which a teen girl fresh out of rehab wins a place on a dangerous near-Earth asteroid mission; Whispers in the Thunder by Tochi Onyebuchi, sequel to the fantasy-adventure Beasts Made of Night ; Seafire by Natalie C. Warne flits into fall with tie-ins, in various formats, to the following properties: Flower Fairies , Peter Rabbit , and Spot. Penguin Workshop takes a swat at fall with Klawde 1: Penguin Young Readers is all smiles for Croc and Ally: Friends Forever by Derek Anderson, featuring a crocodile and an alligator who are best friends; and the following leveled readers: Life in the Gobi Desert by Ginjer L.
Phaidon fires up the oven for Cook in a Book: Holm, a follow-up to The Fourteenth Goldfish ; Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J.
Book Awards
Ford, following Jack and Annie during a monster storm in Galveston, Tex. James, which finds two houses bringing joy to each other, despite their differences. Running Press breaks a leg for Lulu the Broadway Mouse by Jenna Gavigan, featuring a mouse living in a Broadway theater and assisting child actors; Love by Stacy McAnulty, challenging the greeting-card stereotypes about how to show love; and The Reckless Club by Beth Vrabel, about five kids forced to spend a day volunteering in an assisted living community to make amends for pranks they committed on the last day of eighth grade.
Eerie Elementary 9 by Jack Chabert, illus. Historia de dos gatitos Dog Man: Aprende a compartir Learning to Share. Licensed Publishing rings the doorbell with Hello Neighbor: Missing Pieces by Carly Anne West, illus. Scholastic Paperbacks gets more than a handful of lint with The Pocket Geniuses 1: Fly to the Rescue!
Bryant, debut volume in a series in which toy versions of famous figures from history magically come to life to help a boy with his homework; The Bad Guys 7: Chicken House casts a spell with The Apprentice Witch: Battle of the Beetles by M. Leonard, the final tale in the Beetle trilogy, which finds Darkus and his friends searching for Arch-villainess Lucretia in the Amazon rain forest.
Volume Two by various artists, collecting comics from the British weekly comic The Phoenix now also available in the U.
After the End
Atheneum perks up for Stop That Yawn! Caitlyn Dlouhy Books puts its feet in the starting block for Track: Guardians Chapter Book 5 by William Joyce, the final adventure in the series. Little Simon celebrates the season with Diwali by Hannah Eliot, illus. Salaam Reads takes center court for Bounce Back by Hena Khan, continuing the adventures of Zayd Saleem, a Pakistani fourth grader who aspires to basketball greatness.
Plata, in which two teens lives are turned upside down when one wakes up stunning and the other ugly. Misfits by Jen Calonita, following a group of students at the prestigious school and training ground for fairytale leaders of tomorrow. Sterling chills with Mission Defrostable by Josh Funk, illus. Tundra hangs upside down with Megabat by Anna Humphrey, illus. Super Scarer by Cale Atkinson, which follows professional ghost Sir Simon and young Chester as they help each other with their respective chores.
To subscribe, click here. Simply close and relaunch your preferred browser to log-in. If you have questions or need assistance setting up your account please email pw pubservice. Posted by Debbie Reese at 5: Friday, December 07, Recommended: Told from the point of view of a child,. A Story About Standing Rock. This list include books intended for the adult market, but that we might think can be read by older teens. Posted by Debbie Reese at Sunday, December 02, Recommended: I haven't done a rigorous study of biographies of US presidents.
The ones I have looked at over the years are lacking in one way or another. Most leave out Native peoples and nations that presidents interacted with--or the information that is included, is biased. In Who Was George Washington? It was "a rough life" in the "wilderness," sleeping on the ground, cooking over open fires, and, he had to "steer clear of hostile bands of Indians" page That book came out in Many people in children's literature think that Russell Freeman wrote excellent nonfiction for kids, but his writing was biased, too.
In his biography of Abraham Lincoln, he wrote that Lincoln's father was "shot dead by hostile Indians in , while planting a field of corn in the Kentucky wilderness" p. A Photobiography , it won the Newbery Medal in I hope that a book that has bias like that in it would not be selected, today, for that medal.
And--are the authors of those books racist? A Biography of Donald Trump. Friday, November 30, Recommended: A Day with Yayah. Start with the cover, where a little girl in a yellow sweater gazes into the face of a silver-haired woman. Both are seated on the ground and surrounded by dark green grass, scattered flowers, and light blue sky. Move to the endpapers with their seemingly simple, graceful plants and insects. On the facing page, the bird flies past the title.
Turn the page again and it sits above the dedications. The facing page features another Indigenous child wearing red boots and a baseball-type cap, holding a yellow flower. Along come two kids from next door, eager for their lessons from Yayah. The game is on. So, this wasn't what I expected. I don't know what I expected, really. But whatever I would have expected would not have been this. That sounds kind of bad, but I'm actually pleasantly surprised.
The concept of a seemingly post-apocalyptic world with a supernatural twist caught my attention but, like most books I've read lately, I was worried that it would just be "okay". This was not the case. We have a strong female lead, Juneau, who with Miles mad So traitor, you want to play? We have a strong female lead, Juneau, who with Miles made a hilarious combination.
You have to be tough to survive an apocalypse. At the tender age of 17, Juneau bears the responsibility of one day have to care for her clan. I was immensely impressed by how seriously she took this role. Everything she did was to benefit her people. We have a good life, while the world outside our boundaries is nothing but radioactive waste, bands of marauding brigands, and for anyone else who might have survived World War III, an existence filled with misery and despair.
Well, she might have been a little off on that. The rest of the world isn't quite marinating in radioactive waste. At least not more than you would right now. It isn't decimated by war and poisoned by radiation. People— not dangerous brigands, but normal-looking people— are walking down its street. Cars that look brand-new— more rounded than the ones in the EB— are driving down the roads are parked along their sides. This is not a post apocalyptic wasteland. How is she going to save her kidnapped clan from an uncertain fate? Well, with the help of Miles. He is quite likely the stupidest boy I have ever met.
What a hilarious pair they made. They are both so different, raised so differently, that they were butting heads all the time. I was have the time of my life watching them attempt to interact with each other. Because no matter how different or how strange they found the other person, they needed each other.
He has lived what Dennis would call "a fortunate life, unfortunately for the rest of the world. After the End is filled with spirituality, magic, and the supernatural. It was surprisingly philosophical, without getting too heavy. Now onto the not so good. It took me a while to get into this book. I don't know what it was. To the point where I was ready to put it down and try my luck elsewhere.
I get that he's the neglected but spoiled rich kid with behavioral problems. But I thought his reason for seeking Jeneau out was pretty unbelievable.
But other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will be keeping an eye out for book 2. Doubt everything at least once. View all 17 comments. Review originally posted at: Guys, I was really surprised by this one. It is not what you're going to expect at all. I expected it to be sort of like a contemp, a fish out of water story with Juneau integrating into society.
I really liked it. Juneau is a seventeen-year-old who is happily living with her clan in the wilds of Alaska after W Review originally posted at: Juneau is a seventeen-year-old who is happily living with her clan in the wilds of Alaska after World War III turned the rest of Earth into a nuclear wasteland. Juneau is poised to become the next "sage", or leader of the clan, because she has great skill in connecting to the Yara, which is the lifeforce that connects all beings and elements. But soon after she takes off on a hunting trip, she returns to her camp to find everyone gone, their animals slaughtered.
She sets off on a journey to try to find the rest of her clan, and quickly discovers that WWIII never happened, and the world has advanced without her. Worse, she's now being pursued by thugs, and she's not sure why. Meanwhile, Miles Blackwell is trying to get back into his father's good graces - Miles is a rich brat who's gotten into a lot of trouble at school. When he hears that his father is chasing Juneau, he sets off to find her on his own in the hopes of getting his father to help him get into Yale and put things back to normal.
Ok, so first of all, the characters. The book alternates between first-person narration from Juneau and Miles. Right away, you know that Juneau is going to be pretty kick-butt. She can hunt, she can fish, she can totally live off the land. But what I really liked about her was that she was also wonderfully fleshed-out in the ways that she reacted to the world , and how she persevered in spite of feeling manipulated and lied to.
She was never once a woe-is-me character, but she did have a lot of reflection time, and I was fascinated by how much she learned about how she wanted to live versus how people live in Miles is slightly less cool than Juneau - he's kind of your typical spoiled rich kid. But he's also a guy with a good heart who's willing to learn and see past his own idiocy to become a better guy. Also, he's pretty funny. I enjoyed his voice through the novel. The thing is, even though you don't know THAT much about Miles and Juneau, you really connect with them and their self-discovery.
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One of the best parts of the novel was how well everything fit together with Miles and Juneau's journeys and the overarching plot. It all weaves together quite beautifully. A big part of that weaving has to do with the supernatural elements in the story. I'm not usually a fan of that stuff you guys know how I like my contemps!
It was also incredibly fundamental to who Juneau was as a person, and it played so nicely into the end of the novel. I don't want to say more than that. If I have complaints, they are that 1 the ending was a little rushed, and 2 the romance resolved a little more quickly than I would have liked. Both the ending and the romance were a little too on-point , a little too much of the author telling you what the characters have realized.
Despite that I know I'm going to be shot for this , I really kind of liked the ending it's a cliffhanger! We know there's more and it felt like the natural place for a cliffhanger if you are going to do one. After the End is a super-fast read - I got through it in about four hours, and I found the pace to be quick. There were only a few moments when I was like, "Ok, I get the idea of this part, moving on" - and just as I thought that, the switch was flipped and something changed.
So yeah, Amy Plum, you totally anticipated my thoughts! Pinterest Smooth, Divergent-like Writing: I really liked the writing in After the End - it totally reminded me of Veronica Roth with its simple, strong sentences. But those sentences are also punctuated with gorgeous descriptions that really fit the voices of the characters. The metaphors and similes they used totally suited them. There was no war. There are no brigands. I remind myself that an apocalyptic world war never happened. But that image is such an integral part of me that this new world seems like the tall tale--a fairy-tale world, wrapped loosely like colorful paper around the burned-out husk of a postwar planet.
View all 8 comments. Everything about the world Juneau believes in is basically a lie. Still, her powers are very much real as is her desire to find and rescue her kidnapped clan.
Strong, smart, determined heroine. Juneau didn't have a whiny bone in her body, nor did this story suffer from lack of communication, which is a common complaint of mine with YA reads. She was upfront and honest with Miles. Miles was self-absorbed and spoiled when the story began, but I was happy to witness positive character A great story!
Miles was self-absorbed and spoiled when the story began, but I was happy to witness positive character growth on his part. I did enjoy the romance between these two, even though it was a small part of the story. A little slow in the beginning, but I highly recommend the audio book. Bonus with a male and female narrator! The story left off in sort of on a cliffhanger, but the second book in this duology is already released so that's not unbearable.
I'm on hold for the next audio copy. View all 13 comments. Mind you, this book came from the exact same author who wrote Die for Me , one of the most boring, cliched and uninspired books I've read. So you can imagine how hard to believe that is, given the fact that I had a ton of fun reading this one.
It was all there: Granted, I was pretty bugged by Miles for the first half of the book, since Mind you, this book came from the exact same author who wrote Die for Me , one of the most boring, cliched and uninspired books I've read. Granted, I was pretty bugged by Miles for the first half of the book, since his chapters seemed like they were just And he had this overwhelmingly teenage-boy attitude that annoyed me to no end.
But I think the author intended for him to be that way, and it just made his interactions with Juneau all the more hilarious. There was no insta-love by any means here. Sure, there were moments with that whole electric touch trope, but I've said it a million times before that, in YA, you can never escape that. It's just something you have to learn to deal with, which I have. Overall I found Juneau and Miles' relationship to be cute, and the fact that their chemistry was so likable never made the book drag for me, despite the fact that the story was moving quite slow at times.
I never got bored, because there was so much to like. Only gripe I have is that ending, which doesn't deserve to be called an ending. The book just ends, mid-scene. I get that the author wanted to have a cliffhanger, but I feel like it should have been at least one chapter longer. Regardless, I guess Amy Plum did it so that the readers would be wanting more, and I suppose she got the job done.
Still, even without the cliffhanger, I definitely would have still wanted more anyway. A pleasant, pleasant surprise, this book is. I suppose some authors can improve overtime. It put a very original spin on the idea of a dystopic world. Dystopias are so much more than mass destruction and scheming governments. There is so much more to them than just that and After the End realizes that. This was one of the reasons why I was also able to overlook some of the things that bothered me and just sit back and enjoy the novel.
Juneau is going to be the next sage of her tribe and ever since she came into her powers, she has been practicing to defend and protect her tribal members. But then her tribe disappears. After a hunt, she comes back to find all their animals killed and all the members of her tribe gone. So she sets out into the ruins to save them but imagine her surprise when she learns that everything she has been told has been a lie all along. There was no World War III that demolished the entire world and lives have carried on for the past 30 years without them.
I understood her naivety, seeing that the world which she was thrust into was so completely different from her own. I admired her determination and I loved her struggle. I loved that she was confused and conflicted. These people had lied to her for her whole life but at the same time they were her tribe, her responsibility.
She was determined to save them but at the same time she lost faith in everything they had taught her and had to rebuild her belief system. Miles on the other hand, yeah. He was a confusing one. He seemed more like a pre-teen than an 18 year old. One of my favorite secondary characters or I should say the only notable one was Tallie. And what you decide to ditch, you will replace with what your instincts tell you is true.
Neither liked the other very much but they had to rely on one another which consequently built an odd bond of sorts. But then the romance jumped out of nowhere. They kissed and I was just sitting there wondering what the hell had happened and where the kiss had come from. The plot, although not particularly strong, was incredibly enjoyable. Kids on the run helps. I also enjoyed the concept of Yara. I am quite looking forward to see what the future installments hold in store for us.
Like I mentioned before, my biggest problem with this book was the random conveniences. Here was this girl who was carrying more money than anyone should be and no one really did anything about it. They might fleetingly mention it but for the most part it almost seemed like it was a normal occurrence. On top of that, if the money had come from an illegal source, the people who took money from her could get into big trouble which was why I was surprised when no one really said anything.
His father apparently didn't have a password on his computer. He was a CEO and didn't have a password on his home computer. Does anyone else see what is wrong with that? Why would anyone do that? End on such an extreme note. I could and I ended up enjoying it. I would definitely recommend it to someone like me who is getting tired of generic dystopias and wants something new and relatively unique to look forward to. Note that all quotes have been taken from an uncorrected proof and may be subject to change View all 11 comments.
Nov 26, Lucia rated it liked it.
- See a Problem??
- Still the Happiest People?
- American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL).
My Juneau and Miles: A spoiled boy who is used to always geetting his way and now he wants to prove himself to his dad. Can these two fundamentally different people help each other to reach their goals? I liked that main protagonists were from completely different backgrounds. Once they were together not in romantic kind of My Juneau and Miles: Once they were together not in romantic kind of way , story caught spark and got interesting. It was fun watching nature-oriented girl who has no idea about modern world interact with spoiled "blissfully ignorant" rich boy.
Paired together, Juneau and Miles were great and entertaining! But as individual characters, they were not strong or interesting enough. And that was exactly my biggest problem with this book. I lacked real connection with narrators dual POV and their character growth felt unnatural and too abrupt most of the time. Moreover, I was slightly overwhelmed with all those new information and Juneau's skills coming out of nowhere through out the whole book.
There were no hints and new revelations were popping out of nowhere when it was needed and it felt too convenient It seemed like author made things up along the way without thinking it through before and it just didn't work for me. As you can see, I am a little bit torn when it comes to this book. It wasn't bad, I definitely don't regret reading it because I liked some of the original ideas presented in this book. But I never loved it and missed a good angst since most of the problems were resolved pretty quickly and easily. This series definitely has some potential and I will probably check next book when it comes out to see where is author taking this story.
And just a little warning at the end. Just so you know: Writers are sometimes more than just defined by their first story, they get stuck writing endless variations of it, unable to find their voice elsewhere. For whatever reason, I feared that Plum might be one of those authors. Boy, was I ever wrong. Therefore, finding something to read that would make me drop everything else and focus on it entirely proved to be incredibly hard. And yet, I started After the End at 9 pm, and finished it that very same night.
Juneau was raised believing that World War III ended the world as we know it in , leaving just a few survivors scattered around the planet. Her small clan supposedly found salvation in Alaskan wilderness, far away from civilization and technology. Through their close connection with nature, they developed certain powers that others would love to exploit.
And Juneau, being the most powerful among them, is the most important father. As the son of a pharmaceutical mogul, Miles is your typical attention-seeking spoiled rich kid. These two are so interesting together. Miles was raised with access to all the commodities of the 21st century, and Juneau with a clear understanding of the world beneath.
The animosity they felt towards each other and the level of mistrust were expected. No starry eyes for those two! I felt that the progression of their relationship was handled beautifully, with deliberate slowness and tact. That said, hurry up, Ms. I realize living in Paris can be distracting, but would you please write faster?! May 06, Mel Daily Prophecy rated it it was ok Shelves: I am left frustrated and confused by this book. I thought it would give some interesting situations, with Juneau trying to blend into the modern world and her mission to save her clan.
Instead, I was bored and it seemed to take me a lot of time to finish it. I am familiar with her other series so I know http: I am familiar with her other series so I know she likes her cliff-hangers, but this ending felt too abrupt. Juneau grew up with the knowledge she was going to be the next clan leader. Whit is her guide, but everything he ever told her appears to be a lie. When Juneau returns from hunting, her clan is kidnapped and people are looking for her. She runs into Miles, which is just such a stupid coincidence.
He is looking for her, because his father is after her and Miles hopes to get some credits. This leads to a lot of the same: I disliked how Miles is able to find Juneau that easily. She changed her looks, so there is no way he could recognize her after that transformation. It was something that happened to make the story unravel, but it was by no means realistic. Also, Juneau grew up in isolation, but she is able to drive a car without any problem? I feel okay about both characters. The slow pace kills everything and that is a shame.
Most annoying about this book? The fact that the ending makes me want to read the sequel. Oct 03, Neil or bleed rated it it was amazing Shelves: I really don't know what is happening on the first few chapters of this book since what I have read was really confusing to the point that everything doesn't make sense. But goodness gracious I was so happy that I didn't drop reading this book because oh gods after those confusing first few chapters, After the End, in my opinion, was great, compelling and a fun read.
I may not remember everything about this book but I can't forget how I really loved this one-- from the interesting plot, well-pa I really don't know what is happening on the first few chapters of this book since what I have read was really confusing to the point that everything doesn't make sense. I may not remember everything about this book but I can't forget how I really loved this one-- from the interesting plot, well-paced story line to the likable and awesome main characters Juneau and Miles.
Even the romance worked well for me. It isn't annoying and overdone or even insta-love. Or maybe it is just me. I am so excited for the sequel. View all 9 comments. Kristin KC - Traveling Sister. A golden statue alight, flames licking around me, melting the snow into puddles at my feet, heating Juneau's face and reddening her nose and cheeks. She leans in closer until her lips are touching mine. And as she kisses me I disperse into a million tiny flames, sparks flying up into the cold winter air and diffusing once they hit the starry night sky.
Life, as I've been telling all my lovely GR friends lately, apparently is not a wish granting factory. I've been seeing that a lot lately and I have been in one of those totally depressed, funky moods where yeah, I'm liking books just fine but, I'm not in the best place about it. So when I looked at my Ipad and was trying to decide which dystopian to tackle that was-and is-what I was in the mood for I had three or four loaded and ready to go-I narrowed it down to two, and then ultimately chose this one because I've been excited about it the most for the longest time-and I chose correctly.
I had a smile on my face the minute that Miles and Juneau met-and it very rarely left my face throughout the entirety of the novel. Life is easier in black and white. It's the ambiguity of a world defined in grays that has stripped me of my confidence and left me powerless.
These two are complete polar opposites-you couldn't find a more comical pairing. One lives off the land and is in tune with nature while the other is privileged and pampered and lives in a world where everything has always been handed to him on a silver platter. I loved the dynamics of their relationship and everything in-between. There was no insta-love GAG and they were both knowingly using each other to get what they needed-it just turns out that they want the exact opposite thing But from what Poe here told me-" "Poe?
I think the biggest reason why I loved this book so much is because it wasn't full on dystopian and it didn't try to be. I love this genre, but sometimes authors try way too hard and it doesn't portray quite what they want to. So, when this didn't turn out to be a cut and dry survival story, I was kind of excited.
Basically, Juneau left her clan to go hunt for food-they live secluded and 'protected' from the dystopian like world outside their living site from the after effects of World War III She knows she must try to find them immediately with her knowledge of the land and way of Kara not even going to explain-it's not that complicated but I would still mess it up.
After the End (After the End, #1) by Amy Plum
But when she leaves the confines of her camp and starts to get farther and farther away from what she's always known, she finds out about the biggest betrayal she never would have imagined- there was no WWIII and she has been living a lie. And what's worse, people are after her-maybe even one of the people she's trusted her entire life. They would be sitting in their excrement, and if you haven't noticed-which of course you haven't, you"-I can't think of an insult that fits the bill-"city boy, birds are clean.
Yet you just said that Poe"-he pauses-"I can't believe I just called it that When he hears his father is looking for a girl who is the key to a drug he wants, Miles knows he is more than capable of finding a girl who knows nothing of the city and is virtually a stranger to the world.