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Jess O’Fines was a “Save-the-Marriage Baby,” and she failed at that once her parents divorced when she was seven years old.  Now she’s twelve, and she has failed again.  While she was supposed to be babysitting her niece, Baby Ruby, someone stole the baby from the Brambles Hotel room in Los Angeles where the family—in all of its dysfunction—had gathered to celebrate the wedding of the eldest O’Fines daughter.    To be anything other than admired and loved, helpful and cooperative, or responsible and unselfish is out of character for Jess, according to her sister, Teddy.  But perhaps Jess is just tired of playing the partRead More →

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Carr “The Raptor” Luka lives in deep orbit on the far side of the moon on an inner ring of Valtego Station.  Although he’s from Earth, he has come to Valtego Station to train in the sport of zeroboxing.  Using a combination of boxing, martial arts, and wrestling moves, a zeroboxer fights inside a Cube in zero gravity conditions.  Similar to the mixed martial arts of cage fighting, zeroboxing receives some of the same criticism and is surrounded by similar controversy as that we see in contemporary times.  But that controversy is not central to Fonda Lee’s debut science fiction, sports novel, Zeroboxer.  Instead, theRead More →

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A stint as a Paradise Cruise Lines employee on a luxury ship bound for Hawaii was supposed to put cash in his pocket so that seventeen-year-old Shy Espinoza could court a girl and help his mom pay bills, not set him adrift at sea for 36 days in a small sailboat, battling hunger and dehydration, baking in the relentless summer sun, and slipping into schizo territory.  When he and his companions—Carmen, Marcus, and Shoeshine—finally arrive on Venice Beach, they are ready for a hot meal, some protection from nature’s elements, and a reunion with their families. Instead, they encounter the ruined coastline of California causedRead More →

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Life is a physics lesson, and each of us plays a part in both weaving and repairing the fabric of the universe.  Both particles and waves of energy link us, bind us, protect us, and remind us that we a part of that tapestry.  These are the lessons that Wendy Mass discloses in her latest installment of the Willow Falls series, Graceful. In this book targeted for ages 8-12, readers will reconnect with familiar characters: Angelina D’Angelo, Grace, Bailey, Amanda, Leo, Rory, Tara, Connor, and David.  The latter seven comprise Team Grace, the guardians and advisors for the next Willow Falls Protector.  In a multi-genre format—with inventor’sRead More →

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Although aspects of social media possess the ability to provoke intense debate, for seventeen-year-old Sonny (Sonya) Elizabeth Ardmore, an online world serves as a refuge – a place for hope and healing.  Behind the protection of the computer screen, Sonny–who sees herself as the designated poor and less attractive friend–discovers a place to restore her dented dignity and a buffer that allows her to be honest and close rather than using lies as a shield. While IMing her antagonist Ryder Cross, she abandons the lies and lets her guard down to discuss the subjects that trouble her the most: estranged relationships with her negligent mother and convictRead More →

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Heart-rending love stories abound in both history and literature, and Meredith Moore has drawn from that store of knowledge to write her debut novel, I Am Her Revenge.  Taking threads from the tales of Elaine and Lancelot, Romeo and Juliet,  Merlin and Vivien, and Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, Moore weaves a tapestry of mystery, romance, intrigue, and revenge.  This is a tale told by a masterful storyteller, complete with imagery richness—details like chiseled cheekbones, a whisper-soft kiss, the smell of a barely tamed wilderness, and the sky, a riotous canvas of pink and orange and red, abound. Dismantled by love and having experienced intimately theRead More →

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A story’s first line is often a good indicator of its merit, and Kieran Scott joins the ranks of other great story tellers with her opening line in What Waits in the Woods: “Callie Valasquez wasn’t ready to die” (3). When smart, creative, loyal Callie latches onto a life raft the second week at her new school, she has no idea that the decision may lead to her death, but her choice to befriend coarse, snarky, athletic Lissa and dainty, meek, sweet Penelope leads to a camping trip in the woods and the horror-filled adventure that follows. More secure navigating the concrete and pavement ofRead More →

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On a perfect day for getting lost on purpose, the story of Ms. Rapscott’s Girls by Elise Primavera begins in pictures.  Although they are perhaps not as sophisticated, the drawings remind the reader of those in The Invention of Hugo Cabret written and illustrated by Brian Selznick, who also uses pictures to carry the story line artfully forward. Because it shares mystery, magic, adventure, and satirical issues about parental involvement, Primavera’s story can be compared to Lemony Snickett’s Series of Unfortunate Events.  Young readers will likely find the eight-year-old characters interesting in their familiarity.  Although the girls have been called loud, lazy, foolish, or unable to doRead More →

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For years, science fiction authors have been asking big questions like, Are humans meant to play god with genes?  By 2151, the world is a strange and different place, not unlike that revealed by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World or that created by Orson Scott Card in Ender’s Game.  Lydia Kang’s science fiction series Control ends with the novel Catalyst, where readers learn who, what, and why traited children were created and the idea of genetic manipulation promoted. As the novel opens, eighteen-year-old Zelia Benten lives in Neia (geographically near present day Nebraska and Iowa) at Carus House, where silence is frightening and aloneRead More →