Children's books and book reviews - reading resource for kids, teachers, librarians, parents

Young adult book reviews for ages 12 and up - middle school and high school students




*Kiss My Book* by Jamie Michaels- young adult book review  
Kiss My Book
by Jamie Michaels
Grades 7+ 288 pages Delacorte September 2007 Hardcover    

Ruby Crane has the best life imaginable. Just fifteen years old, she has already published a bestselling novel, received a movie deal based on the book, and is dating the hottest guy in school. Teachers stand before her in awe as they humbly ask for her autograph. Before heading out on a nationwide book tour, Ruby takes the limo to the American Book Club gala, dressed in Vera Wang and Armani. Of course. But when life is this good, there’s nowhere to go but down.

Agents, editors, and reporters await her arrival at the event, each one of them thrilled to be a part of Ruby’s world – except for that one intrepid television journalist who approaches Ruby with microphone and camera and demands to know, “How do you respond to charges that your novel was plagiarized?”

Before Ruby can process the question, much less answer it, she is whisked away by her parents, who are outraged by the reporter’s behavior but not prepared to defend Ruby against the charges. In a heartbeat, Ruby’s friends stop answering her emails, the hot boyfriend takes a hike, and the literary world shuns her.

With no one willing to listen to Ruby’s story, she is stuck in her Manhattan apartment alone and miserable while her name becomes synonymous with fraud. It doesn’t take long for Ruby to realize that her life is over. Taking that as her cue, Ruby seeks refuge in the small town of Whispering Oaks, changing her name and her appearance, even vowing never to write or even to read again. But hers isn’t the only secret life in this small town; within days, Ruby learns that even a sleepy little backwater burg has its dangers.

Brilliantly crafted, Kiss My Book is a young adult novel for book lovers of any age. Ruby and her companions are well-read, thoroughly familiar with the works of Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, and Edgar Allen Poe. The narrative flows smoothly from one event to the next, building a compelling tale layer by layer until the inevitable denouement. Characters, from the simpering English teacher to Ruby’s eccentric Aunt Finny, are fully drawn and clearly delineated. Best of all, the teenagers are real – good people with high intelligence and compassionate hearts who also happen to smoke a few cigs, drink a few beers, toss around random swear words, and think about sex now and again.

Kiss My Book is a gem. Author Jamie Michaels has presented the kind of world all of us wish we’d had in our youth – a world full of readers and books and understanding of the power of words. What’s more, she has created in Ruby Crane the sort of full-bodied heroine who exhibits real qualities, genuine passion, and admirable strength under duress.
 
Young adult book reviews for ages 12 and up - middle school and high school students

click here to browse children's board book reviews
click here to browse children's picture book reviews
click here to browse young readers book reviews
click here to browse young readers book reviews
click here to browse young adult book reviews
click here to browse parenting book reviews
 
web reviews
  Deborah Adams/2008 for curled up with a good kid's book  






For grown-up fiction, nonfiction and speculative fiction book reviews,
visit our sister site Curled Up With a Good Book (www.curledup.com)