Teen Tuesday: The Leaving Room by Amber McBride

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The Leaving Room by Amber McBride. Unabridged downloadable audiobook, ~3 hours. Read by the author. Macmillan Audio, October, 2025. 9781250411440. Review of audiobook borrowed from public library.

Gospel is the Keeper of the Leaving Room. She guides young souls onward, but first she collects memories, for the young are reluctant to move on. She doesn't know how she knows these rules, but she does. One day, Melodee enters the Leaving Room, and it turns out that she is a Keeper as well. Two keepers? How can that be? 

I picked this up last December because I wanted to read all the NBA finalists in Literature for Young People. I read and enjoyed two of Ms. McBride's earlier novels. This was a bit hard to get into, but blossomed into a fascinating take on the afterlife.

Young adult readers who enjoy verse novels or books that explore the afterlife like Gabrielle Zevin's Elsewhere, or Jennifer Yu's Grief in the Fourth Dimension, or Gabby Noone's Layoverland will enjoy this. 

Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh.

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The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~9 hours. Narrated by Anna Fikhman, Christopher Gebauer, Jesse Vilinsky and Katherine Marsh. Macmillan Audio/ Macmillan, January, 2023. Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library. 

Happy Monday! I hope you are enjoying this beautiful Monday! The heat wave broke here in NJ. It is dry, slightly breezy and just delightful. Middle Grade Monday features The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh. It's the early days of the Covid pandemic and eighth grader Matthew isn't happy about the lockdown. His journalist father is stuck in France as a result of travel restrictions. He doesn't exactly love doing schoolwork through Zoom, and his mom is all over his case about it. His feelings of loneliness and isolation are made worse by the fact that he can't hang out with friends, even outside and socially distanced, because his 100-year-old great-grandmother has moved in and catching Covid would be fatal for her.

Matthew is given the task of helping GG sort through her boxes of belongings and when he comes across a photograph of GG as a young girl in the 1930s, she becomes visibly upset and tells Matthew to leave. He's intrigued by both the photo and his great-grandmother's strong reaction and begins researching what went on in Ukraine during the 1930s after the country was annexed by the USSR.

This intense story about the Holodomor, the Soviet government-induced famine, shifts back and forth in time, from multiple points of view and unfolds masterfully. I had the honor of reviewing Ms. Marsh's 2018 book, Nowhere Boy for SLJ. Ms. Marsh connects current events with historical events seamlessly, trusting young readers to draw their own conclusions. 

The Lost Year was a National Book Award Finalist and was named an SLJ as well as Kirkus Best Book of the Year. It also won a Golden Kite Award. Readers who love historical fiction, especially about little known events in history, will love The Lost Year.

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzalez

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Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzalez. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~8 hours. Read by Mark Sanderling. Macmillan Audio/ Macmillan Young Listeners, March, 2020. 9781250265371. (Review of e-audio borrowed from public library.)

Happy Tuesday! It's the first day back for my students! Too bad it's rainy! Teen Tuesday features Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzalez. Ollie is the narrator of this fluffy with a side of sad lgbtq romance. He's out and proud and visiting his aunt in North Carolina for the summer. She has cancer and he has been babysitting so that his mom can spend time with her sister at a lake. He has a summer fling with Will, who has suddenly ghosted him. As he's angsting over that, he learns that his parents decided to relocate to North Carolina for the school year - his senior year - in order to take care of his aunt and her family. Ollie is devastated, of course, but soldiers on, 1. because he's a good guy and 2. because he adores his aunt and her kids. 

Little does he know that Will is a basketball star at the school he will be attending and that Will is firmly in the closet. Oh the drama! Luckily, Ollie is befriended by a trio of besties who have his back, Juliette, Niamh and Lara. He also joins a band.

This was a fluffy, fun read that also had moments of tenderness and depth. I absolutely adored the narrator and his performance. 

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Gilded by Marissa Meyer

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Gilded by Marissa Meyer. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~16 hours. Read by Rebecca Soler. Macmillan Young Listeners/ Macmillan Audio, November, 2021. 9781250810588. (Review of downloadable e-audiobook borrowed from public library. HC purchased.)

Happy Tuesday! Dress for the weather this morning, it's windy out there! I hope my students had a wonderful three-day weekend. We teachers had a satisfying professional development day yesterday.

Teen Tuesday features Gilded by Marissa Meyer. Ms. Meyer gave Cinderella a sci-fi mash-up with her impressive debut, Cinder in 2012. Careful readers of the Daily Book Talk might remember that I featured Gilded in a Waiting on Wednesday post not long ago. In Gilded, she reimagines Rumplestiltskin. Now, Rumplestiltskin has never been a favorite of mine. So misogynistic! But, this! 

Serilda Moller is the miller's daughter who lives with her father in the village of Marchenfeld where she is known for her wild tales/ lies and her unusual eyes. Her father claims she is god-blessed. She feels it's more like god-cursed because the villagers basically shun her-all except the children. The children adore her stories and always ask for more. She also knows to remain indoors at the full moon when the Erlking and his hunting party of ghouls and hellhounds scour the countryside. On the night of the Cold Moon, Serilda saves two Moss Maidens from the Erlking, but then is discovered herself. When he questions why she is out on such a night, she says that she needs to harvest straw so that she might spin it into gold. He allows her to live, but returns at the next full moon, abducts her and brings her to his castle, where he locks her in a dungeon filled with straw and orders her to spin.

Serilda, to her credit, does try to spin the straw, but it's hopeless and she knows it. Suddenly, she's not alone in the dungeon. A redheaded boy appears. He says his name is Gild, he has no memory, and he's willing to spin the straw into gold-for a price.

If this summary doesn't quite fit your memory of Rumplestiltskin, you would be right. The bare bones are there, but Ms. Meyer has crafted her own spin on the yarn, one that is infinitely richer and more ominous than the traditional tale. The fairytale king and his court are truly hideous and terribly violent. The Moss Maidens she rescued, while grateful in their own way, viewed the act as a transaction.

Well-drawn characters and a vivid setting, especially the undead castle captivate readers from the start. I usually avoid reading too many reviews, and so did not realize that this is a series starter. I disagree that the story got a little slow. I just loved the world building. 

Gilded, weighing in at ~16 hours of listening (512 pages), with its depiction of ruthless fey politics, is best suited for a more mature teen reader, but highly recommended.

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Darling by K. Ancrum

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Darling by K. Ancrum. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~7 hours. Read by Angel Pean. Tantor Audio/ Tantor Media, June, 2021. (Review of e-audio borrowed from the public library.)

Teen Tuesday features Darling by K. Ancrum. Darling is a contemporary retelling of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. It is a dark and twisty thriller that mature teen readers will find hard to put down.

First, you may be wondering why, during Native American/ Indigenous Heritage Month, I am featuring a retelling of the Peter Pan story. Both Barrie and Disney treated the Tiger Lily part of the storyline very stereotypically. In Darling, the Tiger Lily character is called Ominotago, and she is fierce, independent and determined. But I'm getting ahead of the plot.

Wendy Darling has moved from the suburbs to Chicago with her overprotective parents. She's stifling under their rules, but recognizes that they love her. Her window doesn't close properly, but her father postpones fixing it, telling her to put a book in the opening. That doesn't deter the person who later breaks into the Darling home thinking that it's empty. That person is Peter Pan, a beautiful, charismatic boy. Nana, the Darling dog, ripped the sleeve off Peter's favorite jacket and Wendy sews it back on for him. Peter invites Wendy to come to a party with him and Tinkerbell. Tink is furious, but Wendy is intrigued. What could be wrong with going out with the boy who broke into your house for a night in a brand new city where you know no one?

Readers soon meet the Lost Boys, but new characters are also introduced, including Ominotago's football teammates. The two crews need to duck into a nightclub called "The Mermaid's Lagoon" to hide from the police, headed by a detective known as Hook. The cast of characters is huge but each is fully fleshed out and quite diverse. The Chicago setting, complete with a ride on the L, is vivid.

If you are a fan of thrillers, Darling is the book for you. I probably should've read this one with my eyes, in part because I can read faster, especially when the suspense is high, but mostly because I didn't love the narration. The narrator mispronounced quite a few words and that became a distraction. Also, her pacing was erratic and didn't match the mood. 

Teen Tuesday: Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas

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Lost In the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~12 hours and 13 minutes. Read by Avi Roque. Macmillan Audio, March, 2021. 9781250779557. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Happy Tuesday and L'Shana Tovah to all who are celebrating the Jewish New Year. May you have a sweet start to, 5782, the new year.

Teen Tuesday features Lost In the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas. Eighteen-year-old Wendy Darling is driving home from her volunteer job at the local hospital one night, when a shadowy figure lands on the hood of her truck. She pulls over to the side of the road to investigate and discovers a boy lying on there. He appears to be unconscious, but he opens the bluest eyes Wendy has ever seen and he calls her by her name! She has no idea who this boy is, but she has been obsessively drawing him and a picture of a gnarled tree for the past five years-ever since she and her brothers disappeared into the woods. 

Wendy was the only to return after a six month absence, clutching an acorn and with no memory of who took her or what happened to her brothers. Wendy's memory loss has been frustrating for her, her parents, the police and the town, all of whom want closure, especially since two children went missing recently. The boy is named Peter and his shadow has something to do with the disappearance of the children. Peter begs for Wendy's help finding his shadow before any more children disappear. Wendy agrees and as they investigate, more children disappear, most having some connection to Wendy Darling.

This modern-day Peter Pan story just thrums with suspense and atmosphere. While there are subtle references to the J.M. Barrie classic, this twisty, menacing tale is wholly original, scary, occasionally humorous and delightful.

Lost in the Never Woods is perfect for fans of fairy tale updates/ retellings or any reader who enjoys a twisty mystery. I wasn't a huge fan of the audiobook, though. The narrator chose to pause at odd times fairly consistently through the book, frequently taking me out of the story. They also lacked nuance between different voices, often leading to confusion about who was speaking.

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: The Awakening of Malcolm X by Ilyasah Shabazz with Tiffany D. Jackson

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The Awakening of Malcolm X by Ilyasah Shabazz and Tiffany D. Jackson. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~7 hours, 54 minutes. Read by Landon Woodson. Macmillan Young Listeners, January, 2021. 9781250619105. (Review of e-audiobook downloaded from public library.)

Teen Tuesday features The Awakening of Malcolm X by Ilyasah Shabazz and Tiffany D. Jackson. This fictionalized biography of the author's father, Malcolm X, covers his young adult life from about the age of 18 through his 20s. Ms. Shabazz, Malcolm X's youngest daughter, wrote a novel about his early life in X: a Novel along with Kekla Magoon in 2015. She went on to write a fictionalized biography of her mother, Betty Before X in 2018. Teen readers who are interested in the life of the Civil Rights activist, but not ready to tackle his autobiography would do well to start here.

In The Awakening of Malcolm X, Malcolm Little and his friend are framed in a robbery investigation by the white woman Malcolm was dating. While she planned all the robberies, when the three were caught, she claimed that Malcolm forced her to, earning Malcolm and his friend hard time in prison.

This first-person narrative pulls no punches. Life in Charlestown Prison was brutal. Malcolm was angry and not always cooperative with the racist system. He ended up in solitary confinement more than once, but he was smart and his family were supportive. His brothers and sisters tried to visit regularly. It was through his brothers that he discovered Islam and was eventually transferred to another prison where prisoners were treated better and education was encouraged. By the time he left prison, he had devoted his life to Islam and became Malcolm X.

New-to-me narrator Landon Woodson delivered an emotionally gripping performance. I am really hoping for more books from Ms. Shabazz about her complex and brilliant father. 

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

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Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas. Unabridged e-audiobook. ~13 hours, 48 minutes. Read by Avi Roque. Macmillan Audio, September, 2020. 9781250619129. (Review of downloadable e-audiobook borrowed from the public library.)

Teen Tuesday features Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas. Sixteen-year-old Yadriel is a transgender boy who lives in a cemetery with his extended family of brujas and brujos. He is determined to become a brujo, even though his father does not acknowledge him as his son. He held a secret initiation ceremony with his best friend, Maritza. After his cousin is brutally murdered, the brujos set out to find his ghost in order to set him free. Yadriel hopes to find his cousin in order to prove himself to his father. Instead, he accidentally summons Julian, a bad-boy classmate who was also murdered around the same time. Julian has unfinished business and no idea who killed him. He teams up with Yadriel and Maritza to find out. 

This deeply nuanced and sparkling debut was such a surprise to me - suspenseful and laugh-out-loud funny as well as tear-inducing! I loved this book and highly recommend it to mature teen readers. The East LA Latinx community is vividly drawn. The magic is oh-so-believable. The characters are unique and memorable. I really did not want this story to end. I was happy to learn that the author might be working on a sequel of sorts. 

I must admit that I had to get used to the narrator's staccato delivery. I thought that I inadvertently upped the speed of audiobook. I soon got used to it. There's an absolutely adorable interview/ love fest between the narrator and the author at the end of the audiobook. 

The Cemetery Boys is a first-purchase for any collection serving teen readers. 

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

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Tweet Cute by Emma Lord.  Unabridged digital audiobook. ~ 10 hours. Read by Dan Bittner and Emily Shaffer. Macmillan Young Listeners, 2020. 9781250262752. (Review of downloadable e-audiobook borrowed from public library)

Teen Tuesday feature Tweet Cute by Emma Lord. Fans of romance will just eat up this updated twist on You've Got Mail. 
Seventeen-year-old Pepper was unwillingly transplanted to New York City from Nashville four years earlier when her mom's burger joint, Big League Burger hit the big time. Even though the franchise has someone to manage their social media, it's Pepper that they and her mom turn to. She's a genius at managing - the great grades, the swim team, almost anything but navigating the streets of New York and friendship.

Jack lives in the shadow of his identical twin brother, Ethan. Jack can't understand Ethan's gravitational pull. He's also resentful of having to constantly cover for his twin working the family business - a small East Village deli called Girl Cheesing. When Big League Burger announces a new menu item on Twitter that looks like it has been stolen from Girl Cheesing, Jack fires off a tweet. And then, it's war.

The two classmates don't realize at first that they are behind the tweets that launched the war. They also don't realize that they've gotten close corresponding on an app that Jack developed called Weazel, where classmates get to connect anonymously before the app reveals their identities.

While there's a lot a angsty fun, this is not a totally breezey romance. Debut author, Ms. Lord does a deep-dive into the myriad of issues the use and mis-use of social media have spawned. The novel is also peopled with interesting characters and an energetic New York vibe. It's a story that keeps the reader guessing to its inevitable romantic end. Warning though: don't read while hungry. I've been on a grilled cheese kick since reading this.

Tweet Cute was such so refreshing and delightful. I'm eager to read more from Ms. Lord. 

The audiobook performances were well-paced. Both narrators sounded appropriately young and engaging. 

Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: Pie in the Sky by Remy Lau

Pie in the Sky by Remy Lau. Unabridged e-audiobook. ~6 hours, 20 minutes. Read by Remy His. Listening Library, 2019. 9780593208434. (Review of e-audiobook downloaded from the public library. Own the hc.)

Middle Grade Monday features a book that a colleague and several students recommended to me. Pie in the Sky by Remy Lau is a hybrid novel, meaning that it's part graphic novel and part prose. Eleven-year-old Jingwen's father's dream was to move to Australia and open a bakery called Pie in the Sky. Jingwen is moving to Australia, but without his dad, because he died. He feels like he might as well be on Mars because everything is alien to him, especially English. He feels stupid and lonely and has to watch his irritating little brother, Yanghao, every day after school. Yanghao seems happy with the move and is picking up English quickly. Jingwen decides to bake every cake that his father planned on selling in Pie in the Sky. The problem? His mama has forbidden the boys from using the stove! Although this is a sad story about a boy who is grieving his father, there are moments of hilarity as the boys set about baking each cake.

The audiobook was very well-done, substituting garbled audio for the "Martian" speech bubbles that appear in the text.

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe

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The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe. Translated from Spanish by Lilit Thwaites. Unabridge e-audiobook, ~ 14 hours. Narrated by Marisa Calin. Macmillan Young Listeners, 2017. 9781427287090. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Teen Tuesday features The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe. Translated from Spanish by Lilit Thwaites. This novel is based on the experience of Dita Kraus, who was the titular librarian. Auschwitz-Birkenau was perhaps the most notorious of concentration camps and headquarters of the feared and reviled Dr. Mengele. But commandants also allowed some families to stay together and the children attended a makeshift school run by a prisoner named Fredy Hirsch. Fourteen-year-old Dita was in charge of the eight books that were smuggled into the prison. Punishment would be swift and severe were these books to be discovered. 

The present tense narration of this story heightens suspense and immerses the reader in the violent and inhumane nightmare that was the Holocaust. The Librarian of Auschwitz is a heartbreaking and difficult read and might be too intense for certain readers. There is hope among the despair though and that will keep you going. But there will be tears, many tears.

Another new-to-me narrator, Ms. Calin adopted a matter-of-fact, almost journalistic tone, allowing the reader to react to the horrors personally. I appreciated her pronunciation of names and places as well. The book starts with a letter from Dita Kraus and in the audiobook, she reads her own letter. 

Mr. Iturbe is a Spanish journalist who interviewed Dita Kraus extensively while researching the book. Readers learn about what happened to many of the characters post-war and back matter informs the reader of what was fictionalized and the author's research process, including how he was able to track down Dita Kraus.

The Librarian of Auschwitz belongs in all teen collections. It was languishing on my "tbr" pile until a rising eighth grader recommended it to me near the end of the school year. I always try to read student recommendations and I'm glad I took this one. 

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Birthday: a novel by Meredith Russo

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Birthday: a novel by Meredith Russo. Unabridged e-audiobook read by Dana Aliya Levinson. Macmillan Young Listeners/ Macmillan Audio, May, 2019. 9781250129840. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Teen Tuesday features Birthday: a novel by Meredith Russo. This unique dual narrative is told episodically, yearly in fact, on the birthday that both Eric and Morgan share. They were born in the same hospital on the same day and when a snowstorm kept the two families in hospital longer than expected, the parents bonded and became friends. Eric and Morgan became best friends. But dynamics are shifting by their thirteenth birthday. Morgan's mother died the previous year. She really was the glue that held the parents together and Morgan's dad's grief is fraying the edges of what is left. Morgan has a secret that he wants to tell Eric but can't. Morgan's not even sure what there is to tell. At thirteen, Morgan just doesn't have the words, and so, flounders in grief and confusion and doesn't always make the safest of choices. This powerful read is for the maturest of teen readers - readers with open hearts, open minds and much compassion for those who do not fit society's neat little boxes.

I read this book with my ears and with my heart in my throat for much of it. I absolutely ached for Morgan and was terrified for her. The narration by new-to-me narrator, Dana Aliya Levinson was engaging, though there were times when I couldn't tell whether it was Morgan or Eric speaking. 

As the story wound to it's conclusion, I was confused to see that there was still over forty minutes left on the recording and wondered where the story could possibly go. Turns out, there was an interesting and informative interview - conversation, really between the narrator and the author. Certainly not to be missed.

Birthday: a novel belongs in every teen collection.