CREEK CRITIQUES

What if you snuck out to have a secret sleepover with your friends at your grandma's empty house, but then your friends couldn't make it...

Jackie Woodson was born in Ohio but soon moved to live with her grandparents in South Carolina. Her childhood was filled with family,...

Elise has decided that silence is the only way she can make it through the day. She keeps tallies of how many words she says each day...

Juan Francisco Manzano is a slave in Cuba owned by a wealthy woman. He was forced to call another woman mama when he had a mom of his...

Mimi LOVES science, especially space. It's 1969 and the US is about to have astronauts walking on the moon, and Mimi is thrilled. But,...

High school student Xiomara Baptista has always secretly enjoyed writing. She has so many journals to pour her feelings into, but she...

Jasmine Warga's novel in verse was a decent audiobook. I enjoyed hearing the words that I wouldn't have known how to pronounce otherwise....

Runny Babit is a series of poems about Runny Babbit, the rabbit's, life. How he pretends to be a king and gets his ears stretched. How he...

Genesis is used to moving around. She knows her dad struggles - with keeping a job, with alcoholism, with kindness. Her mom works hard...

Coraline Jones is lonely in her new apartment. Things aren't quite what they seem. Coraline sets out to explore and uncovers a secret...

I really loved The Crossover by Kwame Alexander that I read years ago. I finally picked this up today and was surprised it wasn’t a...

This book is an artist’s memoir. The author details his very rough and unconventional childhood in graphic novel form. His mother was a...

Whoa. This is such a powerful memoir in verse. Laurie Halse Anderson reveals the demons in her past that led her to write her books,...

Fifteen-year-old Kenna's story begins with her being "Baker Acted" into a 72-hour involuntary commitment into a mental hospital. She was...

The Surrender Tree, a story written by Margarita Engle, is a very under rated book. I pick up this and could not put it down. It is about...

When Reena and her family pick up from the busy city and move to a quiet area in Maine, they are definitely fish out of water! Reena and...

Wow. Just wow. Such a great concept that was executed beautifully by Jason Reynolds. When Will's older brother, Shawn, was shot and...

I'm so thankful to have a kid in my life with whom I can enjoy children's literature like this. Beautiful story of the one and only Ivan,...

Sweet, sad story of a twelve-year-old girl who loses her carefree mother to an accident and is sent to live with a grandmother she's...

In this novel in verse, author Kwame Alexander introduces us to twin brothers who are the stars of their 8th grade basketball team. Of...