young adult fiction
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Under My Skin by Charles de Lint
Under My Skin by Charles de Lint My rating: 3 of 5 stars This Young Adult fantasy begins in Santa Feliz, California in present day. The story unfolds through two voices, Josh and Marina, who are best friends. In this school year, each character has become a Wildling, a shapeshifter from human to animal form.…
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Darkest Light by Hiromi Goto
Darkest Light by Hiromi Goto My rating: 5 of 5 stars This Young Adult fantasy is a sequel to Goto’s Half World, which was nominated for numerous awards in young adult fantasy. Half World is a kind of purgatory where people go who haven’t resolved events in their lives. The first book introduced one such…
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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak My rating: 5 of 5 stars The most unique aspects of this book are the narrator (the voice of Death) and the protagonist (Lisel). The interplay between the constant but playful voice of Death as he studies and admires Lisel, makes them an unlikely pair. Of course the historical…
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Divergent by Veronica Roth
Book title: Divergent Author: Veronica Roth Bibliographic entry Roth, V. (2011). Divergent. Harper Collins. Description On Choosing Day, Triss chooses to leave her faction and join another where she is faced with challenges of physical and mental limits to be ranked amongst her peers. Her training is immediately put to use after graduation, as a conspiracy…
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The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje
Book title: The Cat’s Table Author: Michael Ondaatje Bibliographic entry Ondaatje, M. (2011). The cat’s table. Random House Audio. Description An eleven-year old boy, Michael, boards a ship for a long voyage from Colombo to England. As young boys will do, he befriends 2 other boys and together they explore all the nooks and crannies of…
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Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
Book title: Under Heaven Author: Guy Gavriel Kay Bibliographic entry Kay, G. G. (2010). Under heaven. Toronto, Canada: Penguin Group. Description Tai is assigned the duty of burying the fallen soldiers of his kingdom in order to put their ghosts to rest. This strange task takes him two years to complete and leads to a series…