Weekend Reviews (I-II)

Well.

That time change was brutal, wasn't it? I'm sorry, but springing forward should be forbidden when there's still snow on the ground. When there's no balmy evening to make up for the lost hour of sleep, it's just not fair. (Stomping feet.)

At least we have the weekend reviews...

Liz Rosenberg reviews the Newbery books (winner and three honor) for the Boston Globe.

Sonja Bolle reviews YA novels on affairs between boys and their teachers at the Los Angeles Times. (Barry Lyga's Boy Toy, Bolle writes, is "the book that grapples most honestly with and comes to the most persuasive conclusions about the issue.")

Profile Alert: Susan Semenak talks to Melanie Watt for the Montreal Gazette.

The Bone Magician, by F.E. Higgins, is the Times' Children's Book of the Week, reviewed by Nicolette Jones.

Amanda Craig reviews The Bone Magician as well for the Times along with Hootcat Hill, by Lucy Coats.

Mary Harris Russell reviews five new books for children and teens for the Chicago Tribune, including Meg Cabot's Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls.

Meg Rosoff reviews the late Siobhan Dow's Bog Child for the Guardian. (I am listening to Rosoff's What I Was and hope to have a review up this week.)

Susan Perren reviews five new books for the Globe and Mail, including the intriguing Toilet Tales, by Andrea Wayne von Königslöw.

Blog bonus: Top 10 Superhero Comics Books Your Kids Should Be Reading from GeekDad.

In this week's Hand-Wringing Department: Jeanette Winterson on the "sorry state of English Literature within modern education" for the Times.