Plenty of new reviews in this issue, including: Cindy House's Mother Noise, her "unexpectedly uplifting memoir" of addiction, recovery and parenting; City of Orange, David Yoon's post-apocalyptic novel set in California, "an often funny and always compelling journey"; and Lindsay Eagar's "spectacular middle-grade novel" The Patron Thief of Bread, in which an eight-year-old struggles with her loyalties.
In the Writer's Life, Canadian author Deborah Ellis discusses Step, 10 stories about the journeys a child takes on their 11th birthday; the gift her grandmother unwittingly left; and a line by Chaim Potok that gets her through tough times.
--Jennifer M. Brown, senior editor, Shelf Awareness