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All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin
The Arctic Marauder by Jacques Tardi
Babymouse: Monster Mash by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm
Born to Rule by Kathryn Lasky
Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos
City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems
The Conductor by Laëtitia Devernay
Fullmetal Alchemist 21 by Hiromu Arakawa
Fullmetal Alchemist 22 by Hiromu Arakawa
Fullmetal Alchemist 23 by Hiromu Arakawa
Funny How Things Change by Melissa Wyatt
Geektastic edited by Holly Black
Helen of Pasadena by Lian Dolan
The High Skies Adventures of Blue Jay the Pirate by Scott Nash
The Hole in the Wall by Lisa Rowe Fraustino
Images of Nature: The Photographs of Thomas D. Mangelsen by Charles Craighead
Just Like Bossy Bear by David Horvath
The Library by Sarah Stewart
The Lost Art of Reading by David L. Ulin
NERDS: National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society by Michael Buckley
Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs
Once in a Lifetime by Cathy Kelly
Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge
The Pencil by Allan Ahlberg
Punished! by David Lubar
Seeds of Change by Jen Cullerton Johnson
Sticky Burr: Adventures in Burrwood Forest by John Lechner
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle 06 by CLAMP
When Jessie Came Across the Sea by Amy Hest
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
xxxHolic Volume 12 by CLAMP

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Comments for Broken For You

Broken For You: 01/12/14

cover art

Broken For You by Stephanie Kallos is about Margaret Hughes trying to piece together a family for herself on learning that she has a terminal illness. The first of her new family is a young woman, Wanda Schultz, who has come west in search of her wayward boyfriend.

Along with these broken families and broken people coming together, there is the theme of broken things. Or rather, taking the risk of breaking things as part of living life to the fullest. Here, the things are the many mementos (most of them fragile) that Margaret has filled her house with.

While I normally love books about oddballs coming together, this one was set up with too much earnestness. It reads like an after school special for the mature set. There's no drama, no conflict — just an overwhelming conceit that the reader should care about the coming together of these characters either because it's literature or because it's heartwarming.

For a better version of an unusual cast of characters coming together under one roof to form an unconvention family, I recommend Penny Dreadful by Laurel Snyder.

Two stars

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