At sixteen, Deka is ready to be initiated into the adult world of her village in a blood ceremony–a ritual in which girls are tested to make sure their blood runs red. If it runs gold, they are deemed impure and cast out. Deka, whose mother came from a faraway… Read More »Cybils YASF Finalist Review: The Gilded Ones
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I was not at all surprised to see that Aden Polydoros’ The City Beautiful was a Sydney Taylor Book Award winner. The writing is excellent, the depiction of Jewish life and the historical time frame is vivid and colorful, the character development is deep and satisfying (though there could have… Read More »Cybils YASF Finalist Review: The City Beautiful
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Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao was one of the 2021 Cybils finalists for YA Speculative Fiction, and it was intriguingly different from the other contenders–but I also had a few mixed feelings about it, even though it was clearly popular with teen readers (judging from the many library holds… Read More »Cybils YASF Finalist Review: Iron Widow