Genre: Young Adult

Why: I spend quite a bit of time in my car. My evening commute in particular can be quite lengthy and irritating. Admittedly, I was a skeptic of audiobooks. I started seeing Kathleen post some reviews on here and I …

In 1911, fourteen year-old Joan Skraggs finds herself trapped at home on a run-down farm, working tirelessly for her cruel father. He pulls her from school and requires her, “an ox of a girl” and “ugly” in his estimation, to mend, …

In the fall of 2011, an eighth-grade student of mine wrote a beautiful letter to Ruta Sepetys, the author of Between Shades of Gray, detailing what she’d gleaned from Sepetys’ first novel  – the power of perseverance, integrity, and love. Since then, …

Why: This is the second book that I requested from my library after Joli posted her books from the 1990s article. I was just going to read one of these beloved Dear America books, but then two caught my eye, and …

Why: This book choice was a direct byproduct of Joli’s post on books from the 1990s. I couldn’t help but search my library’s catalog for one (ok, I borrowed two…) of these childhood favorites. This particular title captured my attention …

The Book Thief is one of those books that everyone I knew was raving about five years ago, yet I somehow never managed to sit down and read it. I have been drawn to books about the Holocaust since I …