Wonder

Some middle grade novels are easy to digest; stories about vacation adventures, silly school hijinks, or get-rich-quick schemes gone wrong. Their characters make us laugh and remember the best parts of childhood. And then there are those that deal with tougher issues. Issues that we really wish didn’t exist, but which are often part of a young […]

Part of growing up is learning things aren’t always as they seem. Narrators are unreliable; two people’s impressions of a story will always diverge. By utilizing multiple perspectives (and sometimes switching between types of media), these YA novels layer complexity over their stories: tragic deaths, he said/she said scandals, reputations being torn down or built […]

Everyone rejoiced when the 10th Diary of a Wimpy Kid novel, Old School, hit shelves last fall. But after speedily devouring that series’ newest title, Wimpy Kid fans were left wanting more—that is, more scathing observations, more loopy humor, and more family hijinks. To tide them over until author Jeff Kinney gives us book 11 (we’re ready any […]

“I’m the ugliest person you’ve never met,” writes Robert Hoge in Ugly, a new memoir about his childhood. Imagine sculpting a baby face out of clay in art class. After working really hard to make the creation beautiful, someone smashes a big lump right in the middle of the face. It destroys the nose and pushes the eyes apart. That, Hoge […]