Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: The Desolations of Devil's Acre by Ransom Riggs

Image: Penguin Random House

The Desolations of Devil's Acre by Ransom Riggs. Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series #6. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~15 hours. Narrated by Kirby Heyborne. Listening Library, February, 2021. 9780593415306. (Review of downloadable e-audiobook borrowed from the public library.)

Teen Tuesday features The Desolations of Devil's Acre by Ransom Riggs. This sixth book of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children is the series finale. It is absolutely imperative that the books get read in order. Book five, The Conference of Birds, ended in a cliffhanger and book six picks right up. There will be no spoilers here, except to say that the pace is fast, furious and fairly violent. Fans of the series will absolutely need to read this finale because all of Peculiardom is in jeopardy and chances are, they've come to care about Jacob Portman and his friends.

The audiobooks have been narrated by Kirby Heyborne, who performs an impressive array of voices and imbues energy and emotion into the tale. 

#tbt: A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

Image: Penguin Random House

A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz. Illustrated by Hugh D'Andrade. 288 p. Dutton/ Penguin Young Readers, October, 2010. 

#tbt features A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz. Fairy tales have been watered down over the years, especially by Disney. The folklore was passed from village to village, generation to generation in the oral tradition - a way of entertaining and perhaps warning. They were scary and often gruesome stories! Adam Gidwitz returned to that tradition in his hair-raising debut. Hansel and Gretel are wandering the woods in search of nicer parents after their father, the king tried to behead them. Wait, what? That's not the story I heard. Mr. Gidwitz delightfully fractures multiple fairy tales in the siblings' adventure through the dark woods.

A Tale Dark and Grimm was published in October of 2010 and received multiple honors, such as being named an E.B. White Honor as well as a New York Times Editor's Choice. That book was followed by two sequels, In a Glass Grimmly and The Grimm Conclusion. The inspiration for the book arose from the stories Mr. Gidwitz told his students while working as a teacher in a NYC school.

Teen Tuesday and Arc Review: My Eyes are Up Here by Laura Zimmerman

Image: Penguin Random House*

My Eyes are Up Here by Laura Zimmerman. 344 p. Dutton Books/ Penguin Random House, June 23, 2020. 9781984815248. (Review of arc courtesy of publisher.)

Teen Tuesday features and wishes a happy book birthday to, My Eyes are Up Here by Laura Zimmerman. Fifteen-year-old Greer Walsh narrates this charming debut, which is at turns poignant and hilarious. Greer feels betrayed by her body, more specifically, her breasts, which have grown so large that she has named them - Mavis and Maude. She has also taken to wearing the baggiest clothes possible to cover them up and has zero interest in dating because boys tend to focus on Mavis and Maud exclusively. So she focuses on her grades and trying to find the perfect bra. She's pushed to try out for the volley ball team when she shows natural ability during a gym unit. She'd love to, but those uniforms are so skimpy! Then there's transfer student Jackson Oakes. She was tasked with showing him around by her mom, who is a corporate relocation expert. The two fall into easy banter and Greer finds herself thinking about him - a lot. 

There's some depth here, making My Eyes are Up Here more than a breezy romance. There are strong female friendships and strong female athletes who help Greer accept her body. This was a fun book with a reassuring body positive message featuring an appealing, whip-smart narrator. My Eyes are Up Here belongs in every middle, high school and public library collection. 

*There is an audiobook sample on the book's web page.