Tag: coming of age
Young Japanese Girl Struggles for Identity in WWII
Fifty Words for Rain, Asha Lemmie, Dutton – Eight-year-old Nori is dropped off by her mother at the estate of the grandparents she never knew she had. For three years, she lives in their attic, suffering acid baths to lighten her skin and beatings with a wooden spoon.
Read More
Korean Author’s Misfit Boys Teach Us About Emotion
Almond, Won-pyung Sohn, Harper Collins – Yunjae was born with small amygdalae which kept him from feeling anger or fear or knowing how to respond with other emotions. He lives with his mother and grandmother who love him but obsess over teaching him emotions so he won’t be an oddity at school.
Read More
The Ash Family by Molly Dektar
The Ash Family, Molly Dektar, Simon & Schuster – When a young woman leaves her family to join a secret off-the-grid community headed by an enigmatic leader, she discovers that belonging comes with a deadly cost
Read More
Australian Boy’s Coming of Age Story, a Wild Ride
Boy Swallows Universe, Trent Dalton, Harper Collins – To say that 12-year-old Eli Bell lives an unusual life would be a gross understatement. His brother, Gus, communicates by writing words in the air, some of which seem prophetic …
Read More
The End of Loneliness by Benedict Wells
The End of Loneliness, Benedict Wells, Penguin Books – A mournful, tragic family saga written by German novelist Benedict Wells and translated by Charlotte Collins, “The End of Loneliness” follows lives of three children during a 30-year period beginning in 1980 after their parents die in an automobile accident.
Read More
Summer Hours by Amy Mason Doan
Summer Hours, Amy Mason Doan, Graydon House – Becc Reardon, ace student and fan of Nellie Bly and Ed Murrow, always intended to become a star print journalist.
Read More
The Daughter’s Tale by Armando Lucas Correa
The Daughter’s Tale, Armando Lucas Correa, Atria Books – Armando Lucas Correa’s powerful and sorrowful novel, “The Daughter’s Tale,” returns us to the rise of Nazism in Germany, told through the eyes of young Jewish girl. It’s based on a true account of a woman who was 14 years old when her parents were dispatched to a death camp.
Read More
Girl Lives by the Gun Searching for Outlaw Brother
Whiskey When We’re Dry, John Larison, Viking – Jessalyn Harney’s mother dies giving birth on the family’s struggling ranch on the frontier, leaving her father and brother, Noah, to raise her.
Read More
The Forgotten Hours by Katrin Schumann
The Forgotten Hours, Katrin Schumann, Lake Union – Katie Gregory has a successful consultancy career in New York City. Her lover, Zev, is an older man and a rising artist.
Read More
Guilt by Amanda Robson
Guilt, Amanda Robson, Avon – Miranda and Zara Cunningham are twins, different in both looks and personality. Zara is a flighty, outgoing and artistic soul with a history of self-harm. Miranda, more stable and grounded, worries for her sister.
Read More
Interracial Struggles Amplify Adolescents’ Fears and Longings in Green
Green, Sam Graham-Felsen, Random House – Dave is a “half-Jewish” kid in a mostly black middle school in 1990s Boston.
Read More
Summer List by Amy Mason Doan
Book Review: Summer List, Amy Mason Doan, Graydon House – Laura Christie receives a letter out of the blue from an old friend she’d parted from under unpleasant circumstances seventeen years ago.
Read More
