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Inspired by ancient Chinese folklore and woven with both adventure and villainy, When the Sea Turned to Silver by Grace Lin is a lyrical, well-told tale, complete with full-color illustrations.  It is the tale of Pinmei, a shy girl whose words freeze in her throat at the sight of anyone unfamiliar, and of Yishan, a boy who often forgets he is young and speaks with a confidence and vehemence that belie his youth. Both Pinmei and Yishan live on a remote mountain, a place of solitude.  But the tranquility of their lives is shattered when soldiers come and capture Amah, Pinmei’s grandmother, who is the famous storyteller.  People areRead More →

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The amazing orphans are back again in the second story of the Curiosity House. Pippa, Sam, Max, and Thomas are relaxed now that the villain, Nicholas Rattigan, is in jail and far away from their home. The orphans have continued working on their show at Dumfrey’s Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and Wonders. However, business is not picking up as expected, and the orphans are worried that the museum will be closing soon. Before the children have time to worry, Mr. Dumfrey, the Museum’s owner, and the person the kids call “dad”, comes across a newspaper headline that is sure to bring in business. “RICHSTONE TO FRYRead More →

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Charlie’s father has always told Charlie that he’s a very special and fragile boy.  Protective of his son, Rajesh Pondicherry is a creative inventor and designer of various mechanisms in 1887 London.  Because Charlie has special needs and no mother, his bap doesn’t allow him to wander and doesn’t like him to spend too much time outdoors.  These limitations make Charlie an avid reader of adventure stories and the Almanack of the Elder Folk and Arcana of Britain and Northern Ireland by Reginald St. John Smythson.  Charlie’s vocabulary and imagination grow under the influence of this reading, which further teaches him about kobolds, trolls, dwarfs,Read More →

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The adventures of the Legend Hunters continue in Book 2, Darkmouth: Worlds Explode by Irish author Shane Hegarty.  Not unlike the world of Artemis Fowl, predicaments and otherworldly creatures populate Darkmouth, where Finn the Defiant resides.  As a swarm of Legends was descending, Finn’s father pushed his twelve year old son to safety, and the gateway to the Infested Side closed, trapping the last Legend Hunter, Hugo the Great.  Now, Finn has fewer than 48 hours to find his dad who has been declared dead by the Council of 12. Although Finn is determined to rescue his father, the prophesy predicts his peril.  As theRead More →

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Both a quick read and a somewhat hilarious book, The Tapper Twins Tear Up New York by Geoff Rodkey features sixth graders Claudia and Reese, who are as different as salt and pepper.  Their relationship reminds me of that shared by siblings Robert and Jessie in John Grandits’ companion books of concrete poems, Blue Lipstick and Technically, It’s Not My Fault. Claudia is a humanitarian and a reader who admires Gandhi and detests the social inequities she sees, while her brother Reese is a competitive, athletic, leet-speaking gamer.  Both sibs decide that Culvert Prep, an elite middle school in New York City, should hold aRead More →

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The quiet calm of the wait and the comfort of savory smells make cooking a favorite activity for Maddy, the protagonist in Jewell Parker Rhodes’ recent release, Bayou Magic.  Although she was born Madison Isabelle Lavalier Johnson, Maddy is often called Bird Bones because she is small and thin.  At ten years old, Maddy is not yet comfortable in her own skin, and she wonders why she sees the world differently than her four sisters do. Maddy prefers listening, watching, and dreaming.  Now it’s her turn to have a bayou summer, and her sisters, who each took their turn, warn her of all the drawbacksRead More →

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The Brothers of the Ikkuma Pit have fended for themselves since birth. They have no Mothers; only themselves and each other. When they arrive outside the Pit as babies, they must spend a whole night alone before they are welcomed inside to be cared for and guided by the Brothers that came before them. Every time a new Little Brother enters the Pit, a Big Brother must leave to make room for him. No Big Brother has ever returned after leaving to tell of what the outside world holds. Urgle is a Big Brother and he’s not very good at it. His Little Brother CubbyRead More →

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When they were fifth graders, May Harper—a budding writer—and Libby Deaton—a budding artist, created Princess X.  “A blue-haired girl in a puff-sleeved princess dress, wearing a big gold crown and red sneakers” (3), Princess X was born on a sidewalk as chalk art, but the two girls took her home and built an imaginary empire—filling notebooks and sketchbooks with her adventures.  “The princess became their alter ego, their avatar, their third best friend” (8). Several years later, as the girls were entering high school, Libby and her mother were in a mysterious car accident.  Separated from her best friend, May couldn’t shake the dream that toldRead More →

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Lover of speed, flying, and his mother’s blackberry cobbler, ten-year-old Henry Stevens also idolizes his dad, Max.  In 1926, when Henry’s dad gets a job as an aviation mechanic with Howard Hughes “making the future,” Henry’s world changes dramatically, along with life as he knew it. Before Tomorrowland by Jeff Jensen, Brad Bird, Jonathan Case, and Damon Lindelof is a science fiction mystery-thriller that is as much Henry’s story as it is the story of Lee Brackett and his mother Clara, who is terminally ill with brain cancer.  As the two stories intersect, the reader learns about both possibility and the power of the imagination,Read More →