By:
On:
In: Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction (YA), Middle Grade Reviews, Mystery & Suspense, Mystery & Suspense (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 1 Comment

Jennifer Donnelly’s newest book for young adults, Revolution, is a revelation (October 2010 from Delacourte Press).  It’s an enticing, enchanting blend of transformation story, historical fiction, mystery, and good, solid storytelling. Two smart, artistic, reckless young women are linked  across the centuries by their love for the young boys in their care: Andi, in 21st century Brooklyn is on a self-destructive bent after the tragic death of her younger brother Truman 2 years ago; and Alex, in Paris in 1795 during the French Revolution, is determined to save her young charge, the Dauphin of France, young Louis-Charles.   When Revolution opens, Andi’s self-loathing, grief, and hatred forRead More →

By:
On:
In: Elementary Book Reviews, Middle Grade Reviews, Mystery & Suspense, Supernatural & Horror
With: 0 Comments

In the latest Haunted Mystery, The Smoky Corridor, Chris Grabenstein delivers another spooky mystery that deftly combines creepy ghost story with humor and a perfectly captured portrait of middle school life. Picking up not long after the ending of Zack Jenning’s chilling adventure in The Crossroads, Zack is about to start sixth grade at the Horace P. Pettimore Middle School in North Chester, Connecticut.  He’s got no friends, is already the target of the school bully, is on the bad side of the Assistant Principal, and he has a creepy feeling about the old school.  All too soon, Zack again starts seeing ghosts who warn him about danger everywhere: aRead More →

By:
On:
In: Action & Adventure, Action & Adventure (YA), Middle Grade Reviews, Mystery & Suspense (YA), Sci Fi & Fantasy, Supernatural & Horror, Supernatural & Horror (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

On a dark night when he was 12 years old, Jacob Reckless laid his hand on the gilded mirror in his missing father’s study as was instantly, magically transported into a strange world where fairy tales have come to life.  And from that first visit, Jacob becomes addicted to the escape, the freedom, and the forgetting that the Mirrorworld provides him.  Until the day, 12 years later, when his younger brother Will follows him through the mirror and is attacked by the stone-warriors and infected with their poison.  Now it becomes a race against time as Jacob and Will must search throughout Mirrorworld to findRead More →

By:
On:
In: Action & Adventure, Middle Grade Reviews, Sci Fi & Fantasy
With: 0 Comments

I love fairy tales! Who hasn’t thought about what they’d wish for if they had 3 magic wishes or dreamed of finding Prince Charming? Alex Flinn, once again, weaves real life and fairy tale magic together to take us on a fun and sometimes funny romp. Johnny and his mom own a shoe repair store in an expensive hotel. Business is not so good and teenage Johnny has to spend 12-18 hours a day there. When a guest at the hotel, an exotic princess, notices him and his work ethic she asks him to help find her brother. The twist? The prince has been cursed by a witch and turned intoRead More →

By:
On:
In: Middle Grade Reviews, Romance (YA), Sci Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy (YA), Supernatural & Horror, Supernatural & Horror (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 1 Comment

  Lingerby Maggie Stiefvater Lingeris the sequel to Stiefvater’s romance, Shiver.  In Linger, Sam and Grace can now be together, but their life is too complicated: Sam’s the guardian of the pack and there’s trouble when wolf Beck changes a guy name Cole.  As it turns out, Cole is famous rock star so it becomes much harder to keep the pack a secret. Later in the story, Grace start to get sick, which leads to a big surprise at the end. I liked this book because it’s a lot like Romeo and Juliet. I think Linger is a good book for people to read because shows that people will do crazy thingsRead More →

By:
On:
In: Action & Adventure, Action & Adventure (YA), Middle Grade Reviews, Supernatural & Horror, Supernatural & Horror (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

In a kingdom of merciless tyrants and swift, brutal justice, Jebel Rum’s family is honored as royalty because his father is The Executioner. But Rashed Rum is near retirement. And when he goes, there will be a contest to determine his successor. It is a contest that thin, puny Jebel has no chance of winning.  Humiliated and ashamed, Jebel sets out on a quest to the faraway home of a legendary fire god to petition for super-human powers so that he can become the most lethal of men and take over his father’s post.  He must take someone with him to be sacrificed to the god, and soRead More →

By:
On:
In: Action & Adventure, Middle Grade Reviews, Mystery & Suspense
With: 0 Comments

In a city a lot like early-20th century New York, 3 teens lives are about to intersect and be changed forever:  sold into slavery by his uncle in Italy, street musician Guiseppe finds a green violin that both leads him to imagine his freedom and towards a life-or-death struggle with his cruel padrone; orphaned clock-maker’s apprentice Frederick yearns to create a magnificent mechanical man that will allow him to make journeyman and hopefully forget the mother who abandoned him; and smart, strong-willed hotel maid Hannah is struggling to bring in enough money to support her family and find a cure for her father’s crippling illness.  Soon each of them discoverRead More →

By:
On:
In: Elementary Book Reviews, Historical Fiction, Middle Grade Reviews
With: 0 Comments

In 1943, 10 year old Dewey sets out to join her father in New Mexico, where he’s engaged in “war work.”  She’s a mechanically minded girl who is teased by girls her own age, but happily finds that she gets along fine with the scientists on “The Hill.”  On the Hill, she finds adults who encourage her curious, engineering-focused mind and she finally has the chance to have a close relationship with her father.  Artistic Suze also lives with her parents on the secret  base, and she’s bored and tired of living in the dusty desert.   She misses her old life in Berkeley, where she livedRead More →

By:
On:
In: Elementary Book Reviews, Historical Fiction, Middle Grade Reviews, Mystery & Suspense, Supernatural & Horror
With: 0 Comments

Debut author Pat Walsh’s The Crowfield Curse is a captivating, enchanting, and engrossing mystery that lures the reader into the dark Medieval forest around the Crowfield Abbey, where we know we’re being watched by some hidden, unseen force. In 1347, 14 year old orphan William Paynel lives in the English countryside with the monks at Crowfield Abbey.  On his regular day foray into the forest around the abbey, Will discovers a small, cat-like creature cruelly caught in a iron trap.   But it isn’t a cat Will has discovered: it’s a hob– a magical, talking creature, part man, part animal – one of the fay, or ancientRead More →