Category: Young Adult

  • Come along for an exciting ride in Mexico

    Tom Dillon, retired newspaperman, may not exactly be a “young adult,” but that doesn’t keep him from appreciating this novel aimed at that category. ACROSS THE FACE OF THE STORM. By Jerome R. Adams. Guernica Editions. 186 pages, $17.95 paperback. Reviewed by Tom Dillon You may know something about the American Revolution, but chances are…

  • Young love in this world and beyond

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson MY LIFE ON EARTH AND ELSEWHERE. By Peggy Payne. Hydra Publications. 332 pages. $18.99, paperback. Peggy Payne’s new novel is both a bold departure from her past books and another way of exploring the themes that have run through her fiction from the start. Payne, who lives near Chapel Hill,…

  • A fresh perspective: The cursed Harry Potter

    Again this year, students in Paul T. O’Connor’s opinion-writing class in the School of Media and Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have contributed book reviews to Briar Patch Books. We welcome these reviews, which offer some different fare as well as fresh perspectives. Thanks to these bright students! Reviewed by…

  • Flavia, unbanished

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THRICE THE BRINDED CAT HATH MEW’D. By Alan Bradley. Read by Jayne Entwistle. Random House Audio. 9 hours; 7 CDs. Hardback print edition form Delacorte Press. 331 pages. $26. It’s happy days for the many fans of Flavia DeLuce, the 12-year-old sleuth and chemist. After a brief “banishment” to a…

  • A (very different) tale of Vietnam

    Long before he was a public school teacher and principal, my husband, Lloyd Brinson, was a Marine officer who served in Vietnam. Who would have thought he’d find so much of value in a children’s novel set in contemporary times in that country? Reviewed by Lloyd Brinson LISTEN, SLOWLY. By Thanhha Lai. HarperCollins. 272 pages. $16.99,…

  • Flavia crosses the pond

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson AS CHIMNEY SWEEPERS COME TO DUST. By Alan Bradley. Read by Jayne Entwistle. Random House Audio. 11 hours; 9 CDs. $41. Also available in print from Delacorte Press. 392 pages. $25. What a relief! Or, as Flavia would shout, “Yaroo!” When I reached the end last year of The Dead…

  • The dreariness of conformity

    Charles Davenport Jr. of Greensboro, a new contributor, takes a look at a 1993 book that’s much in the news because of a movie adaptation. Reviewed by Charles Davenport Jr. THE GIVER. By Lois Lowry. Houghton Mifflin. 225 pages. $9.99. In the movie theater about a month ago, I saw an interesting preview for a…