I’m joining in with the praise for Becky Albertalli’s follow-up to the great Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. And I’m adding Becky Albertalli to the YA Mount Rushmore, along with Rainbow, Andrew, and AS. She writes teens that seem like actual human beings, who talk like regular kids, and who make realistic mistakes. These kids are full of self-doubt and have families that embarrass them, but are also hopeful and fiercely loyal to those aforementioned embarrassing families. These kids could be living next door to me. […]
Search Results for: Becky Albertalli
I want to know what it feels like to have crushes that could conceivably maybe one day turn into boyfriends
4.5 stars Sixteen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso has had a crush on twenty-six different guys (number twenty-six is Lin-Manuel Miranda, and I share your infatuation, girl!), but these crushes have never really developed into anything and she’s never kissed anyone. Molly’s twin sister Cassie is very encouraging and tries to get her to just “go for it”, but Cassie has had flings with a number of girls, and is a lot more outgoing and confident than Molly. While they are twins, the sisters have vastly different body […]
This book was SO MUCH FUN. I want to read it again.
I started this book at lunch yesterday, got sixty pages in, and then read the rest of it in a frenzy as soon as I got home from work. I even forgot to eat dinner. Guys, I NEVER forget to eat dinner. I’m thinking about what I’m going to eat for dinner immediately after lunch is over. Sometimes lunch the day before. I mean, I did eventually remember to eat, but only after I finished the book around 8:30. Only the really good books make […]
I went to the library and checked out a book because I was getting scared.
I just reviewed Becky Albertalli’s “Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda” and I’m not going to lie, I was reading “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” at the same time, and sometimes I had trouble telling the difference between them. And I mean that with every compliment, because, as I wrote in my “Simon” review, there’s a strong and important tradition of novels that normalize the alienation of adolescence, and the millions of forms that it can take. “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” is […]
Beginning of a Historical YA series
It isn’t a book’s fault when you’ve read a version of it better suited to your own personal tastes. I feel poorly for nor liking A Spy in the House more, since as a straight on 1850s historical fiction mystery should be right up my alley. I am a fan of Alex Grecian’s Murder Squad series which starts with The Yard, which is the same basic set up, but 40 years later. But I was left underwhelmed. I think it may be because Gail Carriger’s […]
And the moral of the story is, never doubt Andrew Smith.
Longtime Cannonballers know of my obsession with all things Andrew Smith. From the moment that I first read Grasshopper Jungle I was obsessed with reading as much of this work as I could, as quickly as possible. When I finished his books, I started reading the books that he tweets about and books by friends of his. I discovered AS King and We Are the Ants. So when I saw that the highly lauded Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda actually had a blurb from Smith on the cover, really, I […]