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A.C.E. Bauer’s Gil Marsh is a modern re-imagining of the Epic of Gilgamesh.  Bauer takes the age-old legend of the young prince’s heartbreaking loss and epic quest for immortality and places it in a modern American high school, centered on the charismatic, handsome cross country star, Gil.  When Canadian Enko arrives, Gil’s place as star is threatened for the first time in his life. But it doesn’t take long for steadfast, kind-hearted Enko to win over Gil and the two young men become best friends. Their friendship is cut short by Enko’s tragic death and Gil’s world is turned upside down with his anger and grief. Read More →

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Is Seventh Grade the right age to enter politics? For 12 year old baseball loving, clarinet playing Aiden Schroeckenbauer, the decision seems to be out of his hands – after a chance encounter with the new Fresh Ideas Party Presidential Candidate, Minnesota Governor Bettina Brandon, in which he not only shares his perspective on the manufacturing industry’s decline in his small hometown in Ohio, but also saves her from a falling metal sign – Aiden is recruited by the Governor and her campaign staff on their bus tour of the Midwest.  It seems Aiden’s youthful face, honest perspective, heroism, and small town values have struck a chordRead More →

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In a land far away where Kings and Queens still rule over their people, civil war is looming. Jennifer A. Nielsen’s The False Prince is about an orphan named Sage. Sage is recruited along with three other boys by a nobleman named Conner. Conner is trying to unite the fractured kingdom by finding an impersonator of the King’s lost son and putting him on the throne. The four orphans, chosen because of their close resemblance to the lost prince, are forced to compete for the role of prince. Conner constantly reminds the orphans that the losers will not live once the competition is over, andRead More →

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Set in the 1870’s on the sparsely settled western Kansas prairie and taking inspiration from The Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Caroline Starr Rose‘s May B. A Novel is a captivating tale of a young girl’s courage and struggle to survive. To help her homesteading family, May’s parents send her to work on the nearby homestead of a newly wed couple. May doesn’t want to go the 15 miles across the prairie, staying to help the bride, newly arrived from a city in the East, until Christmas, even if it will give her parents some money. She’d rather stay home, help on herRead More →

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What would have happened if Jonathan Swift’s Cpt. Lemuel Gulliver had gone back to Lilliput once more and brought back with him to England a colony of Lilliputians? Imagining the fate of such a colony and the care and secrecy with which their survival would depend is the seed of Carter Crocker’s The Last of the Gullivers. Michael Pine is a 12 year old orphan, bored with life and school, and headed towards juvenile detention.  When he’s caught stealing his fate seems sealed; until a local magistrate gives him a chance at rehabilitation. Michael takes an after school job at the village market and thereRead More →

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I’ve been looking forward to Cinder: The Lunar Chronicles Book One by Marissa Meyer since the ARC came a few months ago. As the book got closer to the top of my pending stack, I kept glancing at the cover and wondering, excitedly, what the retelling of Cinderella as an android would be like.  So finally, on Tuesday, Cinder was at the top of the pile. I don’t remember much about Wednesday since I spent most of the day reading.  And despite a little awkward editing, I was rewarded for my patience with an engaging, fast-paced, creative story. In this era of re-imagining and retellingsRead More →

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There’s one word that I come back to again and again when I read a book written by Christopher Paul Curtis: craftsmanship.   Curtis’ skill as a writer, his gift with storytelling and character development, and his awesome ability to reach through the printed page into the hearts and minds of his readers all combine into the mark of a true literary craftsman.  I’ve never been disappointed, been left wanting, or felt as though one of his books was swiftly pulled together to meet a deadline.  Instead, each page, each character, and each place is built slowly, carefully, lovingly, until the final product is somethingRead More →

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Time Snatchers by Richard Ungar is about an orphan named Caleb who was adopted by a mysterious man known only as Uncle.  This ‘Uncle’ has created a way to go back in time. Caleb and the other adoptees are used by Uncle to go back in time to steal important, but not high profile, historical objects. To make a profit, Uncle sells these items to wealthy people who want pieces of history.  The adopted children, called time snatchers, are compelled to cooperate because if they fail to complete a mission, they are severely punished. The two most successful time snatchers, Caleb and Frank, are pitted againstRead More →

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*The True Story of My Fairy Godparent, Who Almost Killed Me, and Certainly Never Made Me a Princess Jennifer Van Der Berg isn’t really the kind of girl who wanted a fairy godmother to grant her wish to be a princess.  She certainly isn’t the kind of teen to be swept up, head over heels in love, with the boy of her dreams. She’s pretty average, actually. A little quick to anger sometimes. Really, more of a cynic than anything else. So when the book Born To Be Extraordinary rockets her to fame by completely misrepresenting her “adventure with her fairy godmother”, Jennifer has noRead More →