Book Review: Missing Since Monday by Ann M. Martin

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Missing Since Monday by Ann M. Martin follows Maggie and her older brother when their father and stepmother leave on a long-delayed honeymoon, trusting the siblings to care for their four-year-old half sister, Courtenay. When Courtenay fails to come home from daycare one Monday afternoon, Maggie and her brother are thrust into a frightening mystery. With no adults around to help, they must piece together what happened and find a way to alert their parents before it’s too late. This standalone novel for readers ages eight to twelve was one I completely missed as a kid, but as an adult and a longtime fan of Ann M. Martin’s The Baby-Sitters Club  series, I couldn’t resist picking it up. The first chapter or two felt a bit choppy to me at first, but once the story found its footing, everything began to come together nicely . Because this is a short children’s book, the characters aren’t deeply developed, which is to be expected. That said, Martin does an excellent job conveying Maggie’...
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Book Review: Modern Love (Video High, #1) by Marilyn Kaye

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modern love video high marilyn kaye

Modern Love (Video High, #1) by Marilyn Kaye is a young adult book where a high school receives a grant to start a teen television show. The students decide to discuss controversial topics and current events related to them and their peers.

This is a book that I first read as a teenager, and I remembered loving it, so I decided to reread it as an adult to see if it held up the test of time. I enjoyed it just as much as I did as a teen even though it was a little juvenile for me as an adult.

What I loved about Modern Love (Video High, #1) is that it deals with subject matters that should be important to teenagers and shows two sides to the controversy. In this book, the big controversy is providing condoms for free at high school clinics, which segues into whether or not teens are having sex. The thing I find most interesting is this is a topic that is still relevant for teens and parents today, and there is still a huge divide between the two camps of whether or not teenagers should be given protection and whether they should be sexually active.

The only negative thing I have to say about this book is that the characters are stereotyped and a bit pigeonholed in the way they act (i.e. the cheerleader, the nerd, etc.). With that being said, they are written very well as are the situations they get into.

I gave Modern Love (Video High, #1) by Marilyn Kaye five out five stars, and it's appropriate for kids aged thirteen through seventeen. If you liked this book, I recommend The Wind Blows Backward by Mary Downing Hahn.

 

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