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Editorial Content for Young-hee and the Pullocho

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Young-Hee and the Pullocho

Contributors

Aimee Rogers

Reviewer (text)

Aimee Rogers Teen Board Member

YOUNG-HEE AND THE PULLOCHO is a fantasy set in Strange Land, a fantastical world that is located under a Korean parking garage. The main character, Young-Hee, inadvertently discovers Strange Land one day while playing in her apartment’s parking garage in Korea. Strange Land is full of a wide variety of interesting characters, including those from Korean folklore and mythology. Young-Hee enjoys her visit to Strange Land so much that she returns, bring her brother with her. However, that is when things go terribly wrong --- Young-Hee loses her brother to a goblin for a year. Read More

Teaser

 

So annoying...In Young-hee's life everything feels wrong. It seemed like only yesterday that her world was just as it should be. But now her dad is gone, her mom is overextended, and Young-hee is forced to move back to Seoul --- and not a nice part of Seoul, either. Then Young-hee stumbles into a magical world, where the fairy stories of her childhood are real and all the frustrations of her everyday life fade away --- until Bum is kidnapped, and the only way Young-hee can save him is by finding the magical pullocho plant.

Promo

So annoying...In Young-hee's life everything feels wrong. It seemed like only yesterday that her world was just as it should be. But now her dad is gone, her mom is overextended, and Young-hee is forced to move back to Seoul --- and not a nice part of Seoul, either. Then Young-hee stumbles into a magical world, where the fairy stories of her childhood are real and all the frustrations of her everyday life fade away --- until Bum is kidnapped, and the only way Young-hee can save him is by finding the magical pullocho plant.

About the Book

So annoying...In Young-hee's life everything feels wrong. It seemed like only yesterday that her world was just as it should be. But now her dad is gone, her mom is overextended, and Young-hee is forced to move back to Seoul --- and not a nice part of Seoul, either. To make matters worse, the girls at her new school are nasty, and her little brother Bum is an insufferable, attention-hogging pain.
 
Then Young-hee stumbles into a magical world, where the fairy stories of her childhood are real and all the frustrations of her everyday life fade away --- until Bum is kidnapped, and the only way Young-hee can save him is by finding the magical pullocho plant. Soon, she is plunged into an epic quest, encountering dragons and fairies and facing decisions that affect not only Bum, but the fate of an entire world.
 
In YOUNG-HEE AND THE PULLOCHO, debut novelist Mark James Russell puts a Korean spin on an evergreen fantasy trope, interweaving Korean folktales with the story of a young girl who, without realizing it, is in search of herself. Readers of all ages will want to join Young-hee as she journeys from the dingiest part of Seoul to enchanted lands that prove more beautiful --- and more dangerous --- than she ever could have imagined.

Editorial Content for The Friendship Riddle

Book

The Friendship Riddle

Contributors

Christine M. Irvin

Reviewer (text)

Christine M. Irvin

Sometimes friendship can seem like a riddle. Your used-to-be best friend hardly speaks to you now. What happened? What changed?

  I admire Blakemore’s cleverness in creating the riddles sprinkled throughout the book.

Teaser

 

Ruth Mudd-O'Flaherty has been a lone wolf at her new middle school ever since her best friend, Charlotte, ditched her for "cooler" friends. Who needs friends when you have fantasy novels? One day she finds a note in an old book...and in that note is a riddle, one that Ruth can't solve alone. With a tantalizing set of clues before her, Ruth must admit she needs help, the kind that usually comes from friends. Ruth must decide: Is embarking on this quest worth opening herself up again?

Promo

Ruth Mudd-O'Flaherty has been a lone wolf at her new middle school ever since her best friend, Charlotte, ditched her for "cooler" friends. Who needs friends when you have fantasy novels? One day she finds a note in an old book...and in that note is a riddle, one that Ruth can't solve alone. With a tantalizing set of clues before her, Ruth must admit she needs help, the kind that usually comes from friends. Ruth must decide: Is embarking on this quest worth opening herself up again?

About the Book

With nods to classic fantasy expertly woven into this surprising and emotionally-charged journey through the ups and downs of middle school, Megan Frazer Blakemore proves that even the bravest heroes need true friends by their side.
 
Ruth Mudd-O'Flaherty has been a lone wolf at her new middle school ever since her best friend, Charlotte, ditched her for "cooler" friends. Who needs friends when you have fantasy novels? Roaming the stacks of her town's library is enough for Ruth. Until she finds a note in an old book...and in that note is a riddle, one that Ruth can't solve alone. With a tantalizing set of clues before her, Ruth must admit she needs help, the kind that usually comes from friends. Lena and Coco, two kids in her class could be an option, but allowing them in will require courage, and Ruth must decide: Is embarking on this quest worth opening herself up again?
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Kim Wright, author of The Canterbury Sisters

Not only has Che Milan’s longtime lover abruptly dumped her, but her eccentric, demanding mother has recently died. When an urn of ashes arrives, along with a note reminding Che of a half-forgotten promise to take her mother to Canterbury, Che finds herself reluctantly undertaking a pilgrimage. Within days she joins a group of women who are walking the 60 miles from London to the shrine of Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, reputed to be the site of miracles. The women swap stories as they walk, each vying to see who can best describe true love.

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Editorial Content for The Secret Cookie Club

Book

The Secret Cookie Club

Contributors

Kathleen M. Purcell

Reviewer (text)

Kathleen M. Purcell

When four very different girls are stuck together at sleepaway camp in THE SECRET COOKIE CLUB by Martha Freeman, their counselor, Hannah, has an idea to help them click: bring them into the kitchen one stormy night and have them bake together. Soon they are mixing, baking and nibbling their way toward friendship. Read More

Teaser

 

When her four campers don’t get along, counselor Hannah has an idea. They gather in the kitchen at the Moonlight Ranch Summer Camp. There, they measure, mix, stir and bake. As they bite into their warm sugar cookies, they finally seem to be friends. But summer doesn’t last forever. And if the bond is going to survive the long school year, these kids will need a plan, a plan that just might require cookies.

Promo

When her four campers don’t get along, counselor Hannah has an idea. They gather in the kitchen at the Moonlight Ranch Summer Camp. There, they measure, mix, stir and bake. As they bite into their warm sugar cookies, they finally seem to be friends. But summer doesn’t last forever. And if the bond is going to survive the long school year, these kids will need a plan, a plan that just might require cookies.

About the Book

Friends make everything better—and so do cookies!—in this warm-hearted novel in the tradition of SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS, with a middle grade dash of sugar and spice.
 
Recipe for friendship: mix four very different girls, one boy and a camp counselor. Add cookies.
 
When her four campers don’t get along, counselor Hannah has an idea. They gather in the kitchen at the Moonlight Ranch Summer Camp. There, they measure, mix, stir and bake. As they bite into their warm sugar cookies, they finally seem to be friends.
 
But summer doesn’t last forever. And if the bond is going to survive the long school year, these kids will need a plan, a plan that just might require cookies.
 
Complete with recipes, this book will satisfy every reader’s craving for something sweet—just like a homemade sugar cookie. 

—Colleen Oakley, author of BEFORE I GO

Amelia Kidd

Amelia Kidd is a Master’s candidate at the Silver School of Social Work. She graduated from Swarthmore College in 2011, with a high honors degree in Psychology and Dance. She enjoys taking ballet classes, playing her cello, and watching sci-fi television.

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May 19, 2015

This Bookreporter.com Special Newsletter spotlights a book that we think is a great summer reading selection. Read more about it, and enter our Summer Reading Contest by Wednesday, May 20th at 11:59am ET for a chance to win one of five copies of BEACH TOWN by Mary Kay Andrews, which is now in stores. Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!

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Ellen Cooney, author of The Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances

Ellen Cooney’s latest novel is the story of two women and a whole pack of dogs who, having lost their way in the world, find a place at a training school --- and radical rescue center --- called the Sanctuary. It is a story of strays and rescues, kidnappings and homecomings, moving on, holding on and letting go. And it is, ultimately, a moving and hilarious chronicle of the ways in which humans and canines help each other find new lives, new selves and new hope.

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Fred , author of The Wild Piano: A Philemon Adventure

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—Gail Godwin, New York Times bestselling author of EVENSONG and UNFINISHED DESIRES