en-US Mon, 03 Apr 2023 09:14:43 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 36638
With the help of Simon the gooseboy and his flock, they escape. But how will they ever get Willoughby Chase free from the clutches of the evil Miss Slighcarp?]]> 181 Joan Aiken 0385327900 pearl 4
Memorable things: "pulling the communication cord", children fighting over crumbs of cheese, children roaming the countryside for months on end, people named Pattern, Brisket, Spock, and Cardigan.]]> 4.06 1962
author: Joan Aiken
name: pearl
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2023/04/03
shelves: ya, adventure, girlhood, childhood, not-what-i-expected
review:
Completely forgot to write a review! A fun and deceptive little book that feels like a romp at first but has shocking bouts of violence, which takes a wild turn in the spirit of Victorian disaster, goes darker, and becomes so dark that I was afraid at some point that the poor dear old aunt and the geese were going to die lol.

Memorable things: "pulling the communication cord", children fighting over crumbs of cheese, children roaming the countryside for months on end, people named Pattern, Brisket, Spock, and Cardigan.
]]> 37534694


Critical acclaim for Enchantress from the Stars:
A Newbery Honor Book
A Junior Library Guild selection
An ALA Notable pick
Winner of the Phoenix Award
Finalist for the Book Sense Book of the Year Award]]> 368 Sylvia Engdahl 1681196131 pearl 0 to-read, science-fiction, ya 3.91 1970
author: Sylvia Engdahl
name: pearl
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1970
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/03
shelves: to-read, science-fiction, ya
review:

]]> 1293686 218 Eleanor Cameron 0525443940 pearl 0 4.16 1988
author: Eleanor Cameron
name: pearl
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/28
shelves: to-read, childhood, girlhood, on-writing, ya
review:

]]> 19469
As fifteen-year-old Janie Johnson stares at the milk carton, she feels overcome with shock. She knows that little girl is she. But how could it be true?

Janie can't believe that her loving parents kidnapped her, until she begins to piece together clues that don't make sense. Why are there no pictures of Janie before she was four? Her parents have always said they didn't have a camera. Now that explanation sounds feeble. Something is terribly wrong, and Janie is afraid to find out what happened more than twelve years ago.

In this gripping page-turner, the reader will unravel—as Janie does—the twisted events that changed the lives of two families forever.]]> 192 Caroline B. Cooney 038532328X pearl 4 3.71 1990
author: Caroline B. Cooney
name: pearl
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/03/09
shelves: childhood, mystery, thriller, ya
review:

]]> 95910 467 Cynthia Voigt 0590467131 pearl 4 3.96 1993
author: Cynthia Voigt
name: pearl
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/02/28
shelves: bildungsroman, childhood, fantasy, not-what-i-expected, ya
review:
I read this such a long time ago as a kid and had a sudden memory about it today. A very surprising story ultimately. Looking back it has some kind of Gene Wolfe quality to it. Or maybe just because the cover reminds me of the Book of the New Sun haha. I want to revisit this and try out the rest of the series.
]]> 49089632
There are some differences. This America has been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should never see the light of day.

Elatsoe lives in this slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry. The picture-perfect facade of Willowbee masks gruesome secrets, and she will rely on her wits, skills, and friends to tear off the mask and protect her family.]]> 362 Darcie Little Badger 1646140052 pearl 0 to-read, fantasy, queer, ya 3.98 2020
author: Darcie Little Badger
name: pearl
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/11/29
shelves: to-read, fantasy, queer, ya
review:

]]> 47626 The Key to Survival Rests in the Hands of Shade's Children

If you’re lucky, you live to fight another day.

In a futuristic urban wasteland, evil Overlords have decreed that no child shall live a day past his fourteenth birthday. On that Sad Birthday, the child is the object of an obscene harvest resulting in the construction of a machine like creature whose sole purpose is to kill.

The mysterious Shade � once a man, but now more like the machines he fights � recruits the few children fortunate enough to escape. With luck, cunning, and skill, four of Shade's children come closer than any to discovering the source of the Overlords' power � and the key to their downfall. But the closer the children get, the more ruthless Shade seems to become ...

An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here.]]> 345 Garth Nix 0064471969 pearl 3 3.92 1997
author: Garth Nix
name: pearl
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at: 1998/01/01
date added: 2019/11/30
shelves: science-fiction, ya, dystopia, everything-is-shitty
review:

]]> 518848
With Sabriel, the first installment in the Abhorsen series, Garth Nix exploded onto the fantasy scene as a rising star, in a novel that takes readers to a world where the line between the living and the dead isn't always clear—and sometimes disappears altogether.]]> 491 Garth Nix 0064471837 pearl 4 fantasy, ya 4.17 1995
author: Garth Nix
name: pearl
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 1995/01/01
date added: 2019/11/30
shelves: fantasy, ya
review:

]]> 11933 275 Peter S. Beagle 0451457633 pearl 0 to-read, fantasy, ya 4.03 1999
author: Peter S. Beagle
name: pearl
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/11/09
shelves: to-read, fantasy, ya
review:

]]> 3932347 164 Jessie Graham Flower 1434665429 pearl 0 to-read, girlhood, ya
Also the beautiful and imperious (i.e. bitchy) Miriam (flashing her dark eyes at everyone and everything) is so great.]]> 3.62 1910
author: Jessie Graham Flower
name: pearl
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1910
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/06/02
shelves: to-read, girlhood, ya
review:
Edwardian-era slice-of-life "shoujo" series? YES.

Also the beautiful and imperious (i.e. bitchy) Miriam (flashing her dark eyes at everyone and everything) is so great.
]]> 20748097 A heroic fantasy by an award-winning author about a young woman who is trained in the art of the sinister hand of magic, but at what price?

On her sixteenth birthday, Isobel makes the choice to work for the devil in his territory west of the Mississippi. But this is not the devil you know. This is a being who deals fairly with immense—but not unlimited—power, who offers opportunities to people who want to make a deal, and makes sure they always get what they deserve. But his land is a wild west that needs a human touch, and that’s where Izzy comes in. Inadvertently trained by him to see the clues in and manipulations of human desire, Izzy is raised to be his left hand and travel the circuitous road through the territory. As we all know, where there is magic there is power and chaos…and death.]]> 400 Laura Anne Gilman pearl 0 to-read, fantasy, ya 3.83 2015
author: Laura Anne Gilman
name: pearl
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/02/15
shelves: to-read, fantasy, ya
review:

]]> 12392681
From China Miéville comes a novel for readers of all ages, a gripping and brilliantly imagined take on Herman Melville's Moby-Dick that confirms his status as "the most original and talented voice to appear in several years." ( Science Fiction Chronicle )]]> 424 China Miéville 0345524527 pearl 0 3.87 2012
author: China Miéville
name: pearl
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/01/07
shelves: to-read, fantasy, science-fiction, ya
review:

]]> 28217802 Keeping You a Secret, Girl Mans Up is a totally engrossing portrayal of a gay teen’s coming of age. Pen is only comfortable dressing like a boy, but it’s confusing to her friends and unacceptable to her family. And then one day she meets Blake, and little by little, it all begins to make sense.

Pen Oliviera is sort of chunky, an amazing gamer and a girl. Mistaken for a boy in restaurants, bathrooms and everywhere else—all she wants is to be the kind of girl she is.

“So, you’re like, a girl?� Avery asks. “Like a gay girl?�

“Uh…� I say, staring back at her, pulling the straw in and out of my cup, making it squeak against the plastic lid. Colby takes a drag, and exhales liquid smoke in swirls.

“I just didn’t want to assume…� Avery says, frowning.

“Assume I’m a girl? I am, so that’s cool,� I say.

“Do your parents know?�

“That I’m a girl?�

Colby snorts a laugh.

“That you’re gay,� Avery says.

“I don’t really know. I guess it’s obvious,� I say, but I don’t think of myself as being gay, because that word sounds like it belongs to some guy. And lesbian sounds like it’s some forty-year-old woman’s. And queer feels like it can mean anything, but like, am I queer because I like girls, or because I look the way I do? Maybe I don’t know enough words.

Pen is used to catching hell for looking and acting like a boy—especially from her parents—but in the Canadian suburbs where she lives, there’s nowhere to escape to. No Greenwich Village. No Castro. No LGBT club at school. No one to talk to, either. Her pal Colby, from two doors down, gave Pen respect from the first time he met her playing hockey when they were small, but Colby has become conflicted about Pen’s value to him, and he’s really nasty. Lucky for Pen—she’s met Blake—also a gamer, and a girl who Pen says “wins everything.� Can Pen manage to respect Colby’s “loyalty code� even though his jealousy of her has become cruel and toxic? Pen has to man up and figure it out.]]> 384 M.E. Girard 0062404199 pearl 0 3.97 2016
author: M.E. Girard
name: pearl
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/09/11
shelves: to-read, ya, queer, being-a-woman, bildungsroman
review:

]]> 17612832 She'd known from the day she learned to walk what destiny awaited her.

Wonderfully atmospheric, this is the haunting story of Darra - who, as the thirteenth child to be born to her mother, is destined to be sacrificed to Dond, the dark god of the underworld. On the day she turns thirteen she'll be rowed out to sea, where she will leap overboard with a rock tied to her ankle. She can't think of a worse birthday present.

As ever, Siobhan Dowd's compelling prose swells emotion from the first page.]]> 112 Siobhan Dowd 0857560905 pearl 0 to-read, ya, fantasy 3.94 2013
author: Siobhan Dowd
name: pearl
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/01/17
shelves: to-read, ya, fantasy
review:

]]> 8621462
At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting - he's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It's ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth.

From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd - whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself - Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.]]> 226 Patrick Ness 1406311529 pearl 0 to-read, ya, scary, fantasy 4.35 2011
author: Patrick Ness
name: pearl
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/01/17
shelves: to-read, ya, scary, fantasy
review:

]]> 13662
Then a wizard, Ged Sparrowhawk, comes to steal the Tombs� greatest hidden treasure, the Ring of Erreth-Akbe. Tenar’s duty is to protect the Ring, but Ged possesses the light of magic and tales of a world that Tenar has never known. Will Tenar risk everything to escape from the darkness that has become her domain?]]> 180 Ursula K. Le Guin 0689845367 pearl 5
Full review later. For now, all that really needs to be said is that Tenar's story is one of my favorite coming of age journeys in any genre. If the rest of the Earthsea books are this good then I need to lie down for a minute, damn.]]> 4.12 1971
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: pearl
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1971
rating: 5
read at: 2015/11/12
date added: 2015/11/12
shelves: fantasy, ya, not-what-i-expected, favorites, religion, dreamlike
review:
Sometimes I come across a book that hits all the right spots, and then I get to the end and I'm stuck, just wringing my hands at the sky because it's over. This is one of those books.

Full review later. For now, all that really needs to be said is that Tenar's story is one of my favorite coming of age journeys in any genre. If the rest of the Earthsea books are this good then I need to lie down for a minute, damn.
]]> 23282249
Archivist Wasp fears she is not the chosen one, that she won't survive the trip to the underworld, that the brutal life she has escaped might be better than where she is going. There is only one way to find out.]]> 268 Nicole Kornher-Stace 1618730975 pearl 0 to-read, ya, fantasy
Again, this is a YA fantasy book with "archivist" in the title.]]> 3.72 2015
author: Nicole Kornher-Stace
name: pearl
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/07/20
shelves: to-read, ya, fantasy
review:
This is a YA fantasy book with "archivist" in the title. Somehow I don't think the story is about a young woman's struggle to acquire, appraise, arrange, describe, and preserve historical records for the sake of scholars and the greater public, all set, you know, in a dystopian landscape. But still. I want to believe.

Again, this is a YA fantasy book with "archivist" in the title.
]]> 36644 218 Joan Aiken 0395971853 pearl 0 to-read, ya, adventure 4.13 1966
author: Joan Aiken
name: pearl
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1966
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/11/15
shelves: to-read, ya, adventure
review:

]]> 36637 240 Joan Aiken 0395971284 pearl 0 to-read, ya, adventure 4.14 1964
author: Joan Aiken
name: pearl
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1964
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/11/15
shelves: to-read, ya, adventure
review:

]]> 36635 317 Joan Aiken 0099477394 pearl 0 to-read, ya, adventure 3.90 1981
author: Joan Aiken
name: pearl
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/11/15
shelves: to-read, ya, adventure
review:

]]> 2739721 197 Donn Kushner 0805007598 pearl 0 to-read, fantasy, ya 4.16 1987
author: Donn Kushner
name: pearl
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/10/30
shelves: to-read, fantasy, ya
review:

]]> 2662169 436 Margo Lanagan 0375848118 pearl 4
(review to come later)]]> 3.58 2007
author: Margo Lanagan
name: pearl
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/07/16
shelves: dark-fantasy, fantasy, ya, being-a-woman, everything-is-shitty
review:
Much, much darker than I imagined. But good.

(review to come later)
]]> 7624 182 William Golding 0140283331 pearl 4 3.70 1954
author: William Golding
name: pearl
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1954
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/07/16
shelves: ya, philosophy, literary-fiction, bildungsroman, dystopia, fall-from-grace, everything-is-shitty
review:

]]> 3629476 351 L.M. Montgomery pearl 0 4.53 1923
author: L.M. Montgomery
name: pearl
average rating: 4.53
book published: 1923
rating: 0
read at: 2014/01/26
date added: 2014/01/26
shelves: childhood, girlhood, shelved-for-later, ya, dropped
review:

]]> 3580 278 L.M. Montgomery 0770422470 pearl 2
I should probably read the Emily series eventually, before it's too creepy for me to be checking them out at the library.]]> 3.92 1933
author: L.M. Montgomery
name: pearl
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1933
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2014/01/02
shelves: smarmy, literary-fiction, ya, girlhood
review:
I forgot I even owned this! Well, what can I say--it certainly wasn't up to par with the Anne series, but it shined in its own right. Main character Pat, however, was insufferably sensitive and cheesy for the first half of the book. Yes, you love your home of Silver Bush. Yes, it is the best place in the whole wide world. Get ooover it! >:O And the character of "Judy" was practically like the poor man's Irish version of Susan/Rebecca Dew! I can't believe I'm saying that about an LM Montgomery book, but that's what I remember feeling at the time. It did improve in the later half, though, and I ended up enjoying it much more. Overall, not bad.

I should probably read the Emily series eventually, before it's too creepy for me to be checking them out at the library.
]]> 8133
Now, in this first fully annotated edition of Anne of Green Gables , readers will appreciate more clearly than ever before the scope and depth of this extraordinary novel. Editors Margaret Anne Doody, Mary Doody Jones, and Wendy Barry provide a richly illustrated, completely revised text, along with hundreds of notes describing the real-life characters and settings Anne encounters, the autobiographical connections between Anne and Maud Montgomery, and the book's astonishing range of literary, biblical, and mythological references. Additional essays offer fascinating background information on such topics as the geography and settlement of Prince Edward Island (where Anne takes place); the education, orphanages, music, and literature of Anne's time; and the horticulture, homemade artifacts, and food preparation that are so prevalent in the story. Margaret Anne Doody supplies a comprehensive introduction, which situates the novel in its literary and social contexts, explores those
aspects of Montgomery's life most relevant to the story, examines revisions in the manuscripts, and provides an overall sense of both the impulses that drove Montgomery to write Anne of Green Gables and the larger concerns it dramatizes so compellingly. This edition also contains a chronology of Montgomery's life, an extensive bibliography, songs and poems that appear in the text, and a selection of original reviews of the book. This wealth of material enables readers to grasp the marvelous multi-layeredness of the novel and to understand more fully its place in both its own time and in ours.
Elegantly and beautifully designed, with generous illustrations from previous editions, photographs of the places the novel inhabits, and explanatory drawings that reproduce the texture of Anne's world, The Annotated Anne of Green Gables is a major event in the publishing history of one of the world's most charming stories.]]> 504 L.M. Montgomery 0195104285 pearl 0 to-read, girlhood, ya 'Annotated'? ANNOTATED?!? 4.51 1908
author: L.M. Montgomery
name: pearl
average rating: 4.51
book published: 1908
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/12/19
shelves: to-read, girlhood, ya
review:
'Annotated'? ANNOTATED?!?
]]> 17261194 Boxers & Saints Boxed Set Edition

One of the greatest comics storytellers alive brings all his formidable talents to bear in this astonishing new work.

In two volumes, Boxers &ĚýSaints tells two parallel stories. The first is of Little Bao, a Chinese peasant boy whose village is abused and plundered by Westerners claiming the role of missionaries. Little Bao, inspired by visions of the Chinese gods, joins a violent uprising against the Western interlopers. Against all odds, their grass-roots rebellion is successful.
Ěý
But in the second volume, Yang lays out the opposite side of the conflict.ĚýA girl whose village has no place for her is taken in by Christian missionaries and finds, for the first time, a home with them. As the Boxer Rebellion gains momentum, Vibiana must decide whether to abandon her Christian friends or to commit herself fully to Christianity.

BoxersĚý& Saints is one of the most ambitious graphic novels First Second has ever published. It offers a penetrating insight into not only one of the most controversial episodes of modern Chinese history, but into the very core of our human nature. Gene Luen Yang is rightly called a master of the comics form, and this book will cement that reputation.
Ěý
This boxed set includes the trade paperback Boxers as well as the trade paperback Saints, packaged together in one slipcase.]]> 512 Gene Luen Yang 1596439246 pearl 0 4.21 2013
author: Gene Luen Yang
name: pearl
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/11/11
shelves: to-read, graphic-novels, china, ya, historical-fiction
review:

]]> 295169 The first in a trilogy, The Wind Singer is a mesmerizing and remarkably realized fantasy novel full of adventure, suspense, humor and warmth.

In the city of Aramanth, the mantra is, "Better today than yesterday. Better tomorrow than today." Harder work means the citizens of Aramanth can keep moving forward to improved life stations--from Gray tenements and Orange apartments, upwards to glorious mansions of White. Only some families, like the Haths, believe more in ideas and dreams than in endless toil and ratings. When Kestrel Hath decides she is through with the Aramanth work ethic, she is joined in her small rebellion by her twin brother Bowman and their friend Mumpo. Together, they set the orderly city on its ear by escaping Aramanth's walls for an adventure that takes them from city sewers to desert sandstorms. Guided by an archaic map, they know that if they can find the voice of the Wind Singer, an ancient and mysterious instrument that stands in the center of Aramanth, they can save their people from their dreamless existence. But the voice is guarded by the dreaded Morah and its legion of perfect killing machines, the Zars. Are three ragtag kids any match for an army of darkness?]]> 486 William Nicholson 0786814179 pearl 2 ya, dystopia, fantasy 3.88 2000
author: William Nicholson
name: pearl
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2000
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2012/07/13
shelves: ya, dystopia, fantasy
review:

]]> 6472451 Cinderella retold

In the wake of her father's death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash's capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.]]> 264 Malinda Lo 0316040096 pearl 3 fantasy, ya
Firstly, I expected so much more of the faerie elements. These were the best-written portions of the book, by far, and yet they occurred only so often and were never fully explored. I wanted Ash (or rather, Lo) to take the reader much further into the faerie realm and for aspects of it to spill over into the "real" world but that never quite happened (well, it does, but only with regards to the Cinderella magical-dress-and-horse things).

The biggest problem for me, however, was Ash, who was simply an uncompelling character. I felt sorry for her suffering, but I couldn't empathize any further because she didn't seem to be driving the events of the story in any particular direction. I like dynamic characters but I also like observers too. Ash was neither of these truly. I had no idea what kind of a person she was, other than a faerie-loving girl who had been mistreated by her stepfamily. Her romantic relationship with Kaisa was also underdeveloped and seemed to leave too much to happenstance (a sort of "well we keep crossing each other's paths so--yeah I guess I love you!" relationship).

That said, Kaisa was cool. She deserved more attention, more action, and more about her personality and background. I liked her better than a majority of the cast. But anyway... maybe that's for another book...!]]> 3.65 2009
author: Malinda Lo
name: pearl
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2010/02/09
date added: 2011/11/10
shelves: fantasy, ya
review:
It wasn't a bad book, but I felt somewhat let-down--mostly due to my own high expectations.

Firstly, I expected so much more of the faerie elements. These were the best-written portions of the book, by far, and yet they occurred only so often and were never fully explored. I wanted Ash (or rather, Lo) to take the reader much further into the faerie realm and for aspects of it to spill over into the "real" world but that never quite happened (well, it does, but only with regards to the Cinderella magical-dress-and-horse things).

The biggest problem for me, however, was Ash, who was simply an uncompelling character. I felt sorry for her suffering, but I couldn't empathize any further because she didn't seem to be driving the events of the story in any particular direction. I like dynamic characters but I also like observers too. Ash was neither of these truly. I had no idea what kind of a person she was, other than a faerie-loving girl who had been mistreated by her stepfamily. Her romantic relationship with Kaisa was also underdeveloped and seemed to leave too much to happenstance (a sort of "well we keep crossing each other's paths so--yeah I guess I love you!" relationship).

That said, Kaisa was cool. She deserved more attention, more action, and more about her personality and background. I liked her better than a majority of the cast. But anyway... maybe that's for another book...!
]]> 873783
When ten-year-old Pidge finds the crumbling pages of an old manuscript in a second-hand bookshop in Galway, he unwittingly releases the serpent Olc-Glas--and the forces of good and evil gather to do battle. The Morrigan, Goddess of Death and Destruction, has set her evil heart on gaining Olc-Glas and adding its poison to her own, thereby casting her shadow over the world.

A Lost Stone...

To thwart The Morrigan, Pidge and his little sister Brigit are sent by The Dagda, Lord of Great Knowledge, on a quest to find a stone that has been lost for countless years--th only means of destroying the serpent.

A Perilous Adventure...

Pidge and Brigit's journey begins in Ireland...their destination is unknown. All true creatures help where they can, but ultimately, it is up to steadfast Pidge and courageous Brigit to find their own way. And always at their heels are the terrible hellhounds--the hounds of The Morrigan....A classic tale that has been unavailable in paperback for almost ten years, The Hounds of the Morrigan is a book to treasure and to keep alongside the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Philip Pullman.A splendid fantasy . . . rich and satisfying.]]> 674 Pat O'Shea 0064472051 pearl 3
And the Morrigan were pretty badass despite being evil.

To re-read!]]> 4.08 1985
author: Pat O'Shea
name: pearl
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1985
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2011/09/24
shelves: fantasy, ya, bildungsroman, childhood
review:
I read this! I did, in middle school, and I remember enjoying it quite a bit. But the only scenes I can recall are of the little sister feeding "cute" spider babies peeled spuds, and the protagonists eating and holding a secretive dialogue using "conversation candies".

And the Morrigan were pretty badass despite being evil.

To re-read!
]]> 77366
It was the story of her mother, the witchwoman who enspelled the king into marrying her, to get an heir that would rule Damar; and it was told that she turned her face to the wall and died of despair when she found she had borne a daughter instead of a son.
Aerin was that daughter.

But there was more of the story yet to be told; Aerin's destiny was greater than even she had dreamed--for she was to be the true hero who would wield the power of the Blue Sword...]]> 240 Robin McKinley 0441328091 pearl 4 4.21 1984
author: Robin McKinley
name: pearl
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1984
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/02/05
shelves: fantasy, favorites, ya, girlhood
review:

]]> 3304
But there are many secrets hidden in the unexplored wilderness, as Alex and his new friend Nadia soon discover. Drawing on the strength of their spirit guides, both young people are led on a thrilling and unforgettable journey to the ultimate discovery. . . .]]> 408 Isabel Allende 0060535032 pearl 0 ya, dropped 3.79 2002
author: Isabel Allende
name: pearl
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/11/10
shelves: ya, dropped
review:
No fifteen-year-old boy talks to his parents like that. No modern-day parent in the U.S. calls their son... "son". Aside from the awkward dialogue, there was more I didn't like. This had to be a case of bad translation.
]]> 33569
Since childhood, Bryon and Mark have been as close as brothers. Now things are changing. Bryon's growing up, spending a lot of time with girls, and thinking seriously about who he wants to be. Mark still just lives for the thrill of the moment. The two are growing apart - until Bryon makes a shocking discovery about Mark. Then Bryon faces a terrible decision - one that will change both of their lives forever.]]> 159 S.E. Hinton 0140389660 pearl 3 ya, bildungsroman 3.94 1971
author: S.E. Hinton
name: pearl
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1971
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/09/04
shelves: ya, bildungsroman
review:

]]> 231804 The Outsiders is about two weeks in the life of a 14-year-old boy. The novel tells the story of Ponyboy Curtis and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is an outsider. According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: greasers and socs. A soc (short for "social") has money, can get away with just about anything, and has an attitude longer than a limousine. A greaser, on the other hand, always lives on the outside and needs to watch his back. Ponyboy is a greaser, and he's always been proud of it, even willing to rumble against a gang of socs for the sake of his fellow greasers--until one terrible night when his friend Johnny kills a soc. The murder gets under Ponyboy's skin, causing his bifurcated world to crumble and teaching him that pain feels the same whether a soc or a greaser.

Librarian note: This record is for one of the three editions published with different covers and with ISBN 0-140-38572-X / 978-0-14-038572-4. The records are for the 1988 cover (this record), the 1995 cover, and the 2008 cover which is also the current in-print cover.]]> 208 S.E. Hinton 0670532576 pearl 2 ya, bildungsroman 4.13 1967
author: S.E. Hinton
name: pearl
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1967
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2010/09/04
shelves: ya, bildungsroman
review:

]]> 1031108 304 Edward Bloor 059043277X pearl 3 childhood, ya 3.81 1997
author: Edward Bloor
name: pearl
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/09/04
shelves: childhood, ya
review:

]]> 18122
But how can he go looking for Lord Asriel when Lyra is gone? Only with her help can he fathom the myriad plots and intrigues that beset him.

The two great powers of the many worlds are lining up for war, and Will must find Lyra, for together they are on their way to battle, an inevitable journey that will even take them to the world of the dead...]]> 465 Philip Pullman 0440238153 pearl 2 4.11 2000
author: Philip Pullman
name: pearl
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2000
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2010/09/04
shelves: ya, steampunk, fantasy, childhood
review:

]]> 119324
Each is searching—Lyra for the meaning of Dark Matter, Will for his missing father—but what they find instead is a deadly secret, a knife of untold power. And neither Lyra nor Will suspects how tightly their lives, their loves, and their destinies are bound together... until they are split apart.]]> 326 Philip Pullman 0679879250 pearl 3 4.12 1997
author: Philip Pullman
name: pearl
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/09/04
shelves: ya, steampunk, science-fiction, fantasy, childhood
review:

]]> 119322
Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want--but what Lyra doesn't know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other.]]> 399 Philip Pullman 0679879242 pearl 4 4.02 1995
author: Philip Pullman
name: pearl
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/09/04
shelves: ya, steampunk, fantasy, science-fiction, childhood
review:

]]> 3636 208 Lois Lowry 0385732554 pearl 3 4.12 1993
author: Lois Lowry
name: pearl
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/08/31
shelves: philosophy, science-fiction, ya, my-generation, bildungsroman
review:

]]> 407813
And this is the story of Harry Crewe, the Homelander orphan girl who became Harimad-sol, King's Rider, and heir to the Blue Sword, Gonturan, that no woman had wielded since the Lady Aerin herself bore it into battle.

And this is the song of the kelar of the Hillfolk, the magic of the blood, the weaver of destinies...]]> 248 Robin McKinley 0441068804 pearl 5 4.21 1982
author: Robin McKinley
name: pearl
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1982
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/07/07
shelves: fantasy, favorites, ya, girlhood
review:

]]> 6514178 479 Patrick Ness 0763645761 pearl 0 to-read, ya, science-fiction 4.03 2008
author: Patrick Ness
name: pearl
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/02/20
shelves: to-read, ya, science-fiction
review:

]]> 1438096 341 William Nicholson 0007179391 pearl 0 to-read, fantasy, ya 4.03 2002
author: William Nicholson
name: pearl
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/12/11
shelves: to-read, fantasy, ya
review:

]]> 295198 Five years have passed. The city of Aramanth has become kinder--weaker.

When the ruthless soldiers of the Mastery strike, the city is burned, and the Manth people are taken into slavery. Kestrel Hath is left behind, separated from her beloved brother Bowman, and vowing revenge.

Now Kestrel must find Bowman again, and Bowman must learn the secrets of the Singer people. Only then will they break the power of the Mastery.



Cover illustration by David Scutt]]> 340 William Nicholson 0749749016 pearl 0 to-read, fantasy, ya 4.05 2001
author: William Nicholson
name: pearl
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/12/11
shelves: to-read, fantasy, ya
review:

]]> 473067 own plundering of the land's rich natural resources. Their only mistake is foolishly underestimating the Sterkarms themselves.For Andrea Mitchell, an anthropologist working among the Sterkarms, none of this matters. In love with Per -- a young Sterkarm warrior -- and feted as a beautiful Elf-May, she's never known such happiness in her own time.But when Per receives a deadly injury, Andrea's decision to take him into the 21st century to save him has explosive results. Per, seeing how powerful and destructive the Elves truly are, swears to keep them from his land forever. And in the bloody battle that ensues, Andrea must finally choose whose side she is on.The Sterkarm Handshake is a stirring tale of a clash of two cultures, beautifully told by master storyteller Susan Price. Books for the Teen Age 2001 (NYPL)]]> 455 Susan Price 0439978963 pearl 4 fantasy, science-fiction, ya 3.77 1998
author: Susan Price
name: pearl
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/08/14
shelves: fantasy, science-fiction, ya
review:
I fucking loved this book I can't believe I forgot about it... YA again :D
]]> 41865
First, Edward was a vampire.

Second, there was a part of him - and I didn't know how dominant that part might be - that thirsted for my blood.

And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

Deeply seductive and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight is a love story with bite.]]> 498 Stephenie Meyer 0316015849 pearl 1 urban-fantasy, ya, smarmy I can't believe I wasted what, perhaps two or three hours of my life trying to plod through this stilted, cumbersome story. Up to chapter 14 anyway.
What awful and unfulfilling writing, and what passionless characters. Not to mention Meyer has killed whatever love I had for the words "chagrin" and "dazzle", as well as "seraphic". God, what awful shit.]]> 3.66 2005
author: Stephenie Meyer
name: pearl
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2005
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2009/04/10
shelves: urban-fantasy, ya, smarmy
review:
I can't believe I actually tried reading this.
I can't believe I wasted what, perhaps two or three hours of my life trying to plod through this stilted, cumbersome story. Up to chapter 14 anyway.
What awful and unfulfilling writing, and what passionless characters. Not to mention Meyer has killed whatever love I had for the words "chagrin" and "dazzle", as well as "seraphic". God, what awful shit.
]]>