Back to top

MADreads for Teens

Book reviews for teens by library staff and guest contributors

The humanity in history

Cover of A Light in the Darkness: J
A review of A Light in the Darkness: Janusz Korczak, His Orphans, and the Holocaust by Janusz Korczak

Albert Marrin has crafted a gripping narrative of the life and death of Janusz Korczak, a Polish Jewish doctor in the Warsaw Ghetto. He was not only a physician, he ran an orphanage in Warsaw for Jewish children. As the horrors of the Nazi regime moved closer, Dr. Korczak was given numerous opportunities to escape, but he would not go without his charges. Ultimately, he led them to Treblinka Camp, dying by gas along with the children in 1942.

Mar 26, 2021

Detecting and derring-do

Cover of Murder in Old Bombay
A review of Murder in Old Bombay by Nev March

Jim Agnihotri can’t shake the image of the two women falling from his mind. A former captain in Her Majesty’s forces, Agnihotri has read of the case while recuperating from terrible injuries to mind and body from a skirmish in 1891 Karachi, but it is the perplexing mystery surrounding the deaths of two wealthy Parsee women who apparently jumped from a Bombay clock tower on their own accord that haunts him. Why would the Framji women jump at such an interval apart? And why would two young women seemingly happy with their lives choose to end them so violently?

Mar 3, 2021

Returning to a favorite world

Cover of Witness for the Dead
A review of Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison

I'm frequently asked to name my favorite book or to list my top ten, and mostly I just get stumped by that question. I love so many books for so many different reasons and they shift in my estimation as this one moves up or that one moves down and all fully dependent on what has wowed me recently. But there is one book I read seven years ago that has consistently been a go-to for me when asked for a favorite.

Feb 25, 2021

The power of Booker T. Washington's voice

Voices of Black America
A review of Voices of Black America: Historical Recordings of Speeches, Poetry, Humor & Drama by Naxos Audiobooks

This audiobook provides a treasured portal to the past. It features original recordings from 1908-1946 of speeches by Booker T. Washington, the poems of Langston Hughes and Paul Laurence Dunbar recited by the poets, comedy routines, and more. All told, there's approximately 1 hour and 47 minutes of content.

To hear these famous voices is very special. The sound quality is on par with other historical recordings I've heard. That takes a moment to get used to, but feels intimate, like you've gone back in time and are witnessing the moment. 

Feb 22, 2021

Complicated high-flyer

Cover of The Rise and Fall of Charl
A review of The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh by Candace Fleming

Famous for his pioneering flight from New York to Paris, Charles Lindbergh was lionized in his lifetime. Fleming’s well-researched biography is a rags-to riches story that doesn’t side-step Lindbergh’s Nazi sympathies and white supremacist activities, but rather portrays the path of eugenics pseudo-science paired with disinformation that he followed to get there.  

Feb 11, 2021

The REAL queen of crime

Cover of The Windsor Knot
A review of The Windsor Knot by S. J. Bennett

For a thousand year old castle, it’s certainly not the first time a violent death has happened within its walls. But it’s still shocking when Windsor Castle staff discover the body of a young Russian pianist in the wardrobe of a guest room deep within what is one of the most secure citadels in the world—and more so when that death is revealed as a murder. Her Majesty the Queen is of course horrified to hear the news—she had danced with the man only the previous night—but when police and MI-6 suspects that Russia is behind the crime with a possible mole, she knows what she has to do.

Jan 28, 2021

Love is in the strut

Cover of Black Bottom Saints
A review of Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall

Alice Randall isn’t an author that typically is at the top of many readers’ lists, having written several solid quietly received novels in the past and a few nonfiction works. But her latest, Black Bottom Saints, proves that Randall deserves more attention and a place on to-read lists.

Jan 14, 2021

Pages

Subscribe to MADreads