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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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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 Dead Gentleman, by Matthew Cody, is a fun new adventure that suggests other possibilities of what we might not see happening right in front of us in our world, especially in our closets. Tommy Learner is an eleven-year-old orphan who makes his living as a street thief in New York. When he goes for what should be a big money opportunity, he ends up with a seemingly useless metal bird and is thrust into a secret multi-world exploring society of portals, submarines, evil-doers, danger and eventually betrayal. Over one hundred years later, his ghost appears in front of twelve-year-old Jezebel Lemmon warning her ofRead More →

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Seriously, this book tries too hard. It tries to be quirky, it tries to be funny, it tries to connect to 10-14 year old boys who liked Lemony Snicket, play lots of video games, and love karate, it tries to be a vocabulary builder, and it tries to teach the reader about imagination, courage, and thinking outside the box.  In the end it succeeded in making me skim read to the end to find out what happened, and then say incredulously, “seriously?” Perhaps I’m being too harsh.  Chris Raschka is a Caldecott medalist after all.  And there are some funny moments and some curious charactersRead More →

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New York Times bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater has created something wonderful, enchanting, thrilling, and unique in her latest, The Scorpio Races.  It’s hard to say what I like most about this book – its breathtaking scenery and visceral sense of place; the pulse-pounding thrill of the wild horses racing on the beach; the lovingly crafted, superbly detailed characters (human and horse); the fact that it’s a unique blend of romance, action, coming of age, and fantasy that feels so different from most everything else out on the YA market right now; or maybe, simply, the powerful honesty of a book well written, carefully edited, and lovinglyRead More →

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Best-Selling adult suspense author Harlan Coben makes his young adult debut with Shelter (A Mickey Bolitar Novel).  He joins plenty of other high profile adult writers venturing into the waters of children and teen lit, carrying over his signature style, plot twists and turns, and high-stakes scenarios to the next generation.  Like Kathy Reichs, Coben creates a protagonist for his new series who’s related to an already beloved character.  In this series, Mickey is reluctant detective Myron Bolitar’s estranged nephew.   Readers (especially guys) who like a lot of action, fast pacing, economical prose, and surprise plot hooks will get a thrill from Shelter and will eagerly await Mickey’sRead More →

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I have a rule, inspired by Wallace Wallace from Gordon Korman’s No More Dead Dogs, that I don’t read books about dogs.  Even if the dogs don’t die, aren’t abused, or if live the best life you could ever hope for them, I just can’t read books about dogs. They make my heart ache because I always, always fall in love with the dog and no matter what happens to him (or her) I am too emotional to finish. So, what was I thinking when I broke my rule and read Tim Willocks’ children’s debut, Doglands? I have no idea.  A number of times theRead More →

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“I wondered if this was what it was like when the end of the world came. A sudden overturning that made every day like stepping alone into an empty room, everything you longed for, every handhold you used to pull yourself along, vanished.” (Stephen, from The Eleventh Plague)  Much has been made in recent months about the darker bent of YA lit and the growing fascination with end-of-the-world scenarios and dystopias taking over the once sunny, wholesome world of tween/YA lit (was it ever really so?).  So I thought it particularly interesting that the 2 books next in my stack to read were both post-apocalyptic stories: AaronRead More →