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Matthew Kirby’s The Lost Kingdom will intrigue readers of historical fiction, American folklore, and adventure.  Kirby calls his novel “an American fantasy” since he blends these three genres to create the story of Billy Bartram, the famous botanist who in 1753 is a tween boy living in Philadelphia shaping history in colonial America. As he comes of age, Billy joins a society of philosophers and patriots who use their knowledge and discoveries to secure the safety of the New England colonies.  With this great society of men, which includes iconic figures like Ben Franklin, Billy comes to understand what is known so that he canRead More →

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Just in time for the General debate of the sixty-seventh and sixty-eighth sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations this September, Malinda Lo’s novel Inheritance, a sequel to Adaptation will release for publication.  Lo’s book explores the adaptation abilities of two seventeen-year-old debate partners, David Li and Reese Holloway, who are abducted from Noe Valley, California, by Imrians, aliens from the planet Kurra.  Although a car accident after a debate match renders them brain dead, Imrian scientist Dr. Evelyn Brand not only saves their lives but alters them to become what some consider “hybrid monsters.”  After their adaptation, David and Reese are ableRead More →

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For a fast-paced, suspenseful, and engaging read, Nick Lake’s Hostage Three won’t disappoint.  That Lake was the Winner of the 2013 Printz Award is apparent in his writing style—which captivates with its pacing and imagery-richness. The book’s protagonist is seventeen-year-old Amy Fields fromLondon.  Struggling to deal with her mothers’ death and craving her father’s attention, Amy has taken acting out to a self-destructive level: swearing at teachers, taking drugs, insulting her parents, going to all-night parties, and intentionally failing her high school exit exams.  Hoping to block out the world or simply wishing to disappear, she is snarky, sullen, defiant, and without charming personality quirks.Read More →

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Maria Padian’s new novel Out of Nowhere captures the truth of the adage that the only thing constant in life is change.  Padian’s protagonist, high school senior and soccer team captain Tom Bouchard, experiences the futility of one’s efforts at controlling outcomes.  He discovers how even a simple action or choice can have far-reaching repercussions and realizes that luck can “curl up next to you one minute, then bite you the next” (275). Enniston,Maine, provides the backdrop for this novel that explores these issues, as well as the contemporary topic of cultural collisions.  Tom’s quiet hometown becomes the home to an influx of Somalian refugeesRead More →

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For readers who appreciate the diverse and non-linear approach offered by multi-genre books like Nothing But the Truth by Avi and Tears of a Tiger by Sharon Draper, Trash Can Days: A Middle School Saga by Teddy Steinkellner shouldn’t disappoint.  Told through Facebook entries, letters, school announcements, memos, AIMs, lists, blog posts, and typical prose, the story puts readers in the hallways and the social circles of middle school drama.  In the midst of the commotion caused by gossip, the cruelty used to get respect, and the floundering that occurs on the journey to maturity, readers live or relive the days when crustacial hair andRead More →

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In Anna Jarzab’s book Tandem, Book One in the Many-Worlds Trilogy, readers will find some of the spirit of Libba Bray’s Going Bovine–which features multiple scientific and literary allusions–and some of the wonderings of Alisa Valdes’ The Temptation–which invites questions about parallel universes and presents a paranormal romance.  Given those qualities, a convoluted plot, and characters like Sasha Lawson, Princess Juliana, and secret agent Thomas Mayhew who invite connection and whose stories involve intrigue, this science-fiction romance provides tremendous reader appeal. Tired of her arranged and orchestrated life in the United Commonwealth of Columbia—of being a pawn in someone else’s game—Juliana decides she wants a normalRead More →

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Twelve-year-old Hope Toriella is good at impossible things but not good at inventing, and inventing is something the community of White Rock values to move the community forward, provide comforts, and raise their quality of life.  Hope wishes she could measure up and make her parents and community proud—maybe even earn a place on the Difference of One stone. White Rock is a small community, both guarded and threatened by the Bomb’s Breath, an invisible oxygen-rich air mass capable of suffocating the unsuspecting.  It is this side effect of World War III that intrigues Hope and her fellow Sky Jumpers, Aaren and Brock.  “When theRead More →

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A sequel to Tuesdays in the Castle, Wednesdays in the Tower by Jessica Day George again features the escapades of Princess Cecelia, who lives at Castle Glower in the country of Sleyne.  In this installment, the Castle leads Celie to a Tower that houses a flame-orange egg, which the princess suspects might be that of a dragon or a Roc.  Under Celie’s care, the egg hatches to produce a snapping, snuffling, and snarling anomaly, a creature she is told doesn’t exist, so she must keep secret the hatchling’s existence.  Wild and fragile, frightening and loveable, the creature attaches itself to Celie who names the beast Rufus,Read More →

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Sixteen-year-old Agnes Mochrie, aka Canny, stars as the protagonist in Elizabeth Knox’s new fantasy novel Mortal Fire.  This novel is set in 1959 in Southland, the same locale as the famous Dreamhunter Duet.  Canny, a Pacific Islander who attends Castlereagh Tech, is a math genius and the star of the school’s math team—a gender marvel for the time period.  But then, much about Canny is a marvel—from her massive, impassive, and queenly mother who presides over Canny’s life like an unexploded bomb to Canny’s admirable loyalty to her polio afflicted friend Marli. Readers are certain about the depth of Knox’s book early in, when Canny’sRead More →