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Green dust and meteors streak across the sky in Scrap Town Sixteen, bringing with them remnants of other worlds. On the eve of an imposing chair, Micah arrives at the door of Piper, music box in hand, ready to let the master do her work. Piper has always had a way with machines. She is recognized as the town machinist – even though a young, orphaned teenager. Micah’s music box is in almost perfect condition, amazing for something streaking through the universe.  The scrappers scour the earth after each storm, but Micah is too young to beat off the experienced scavengers, so how did heRead More →

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15 year old Laila’s father is dead.  Numb with grief, shocked by the unexpected loss, and drowning in pain, her life is unrecognizable.  But that’s only the start: she finds herself exiled, with her mother and younger brother, in a non-descript apartment outside Washington, D.C., having fled her country after her father’s assassination.  Not only has she lost her beloved father, Laila has also lost the only life she ever knew: that of the daughter of a king. Her country has fallen into a civil war, as a long-standing resistance now openly challenges her uncle, who has taken over her father’s place as leader.  TheRead More →

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I tend to love Civil War Era novels. This may be because the absolute horror of the time tends to lend itself really well to dramatic tension.  The conflicts present in Jane Nickerson‘s The Mirk and Midnight Hour most certainly could have made for a lot of high tension drama, but, unfortunately, they fell short. Ms. Nickerson introduces a wide range of themes throughout the novel; communicating with wildlife, the Civil War, slave society, voodoo, xenophobia, blended families, love, and treachery.  A strong development of any of these would have made for a really interesting story, but none were ever completely explored. Violet is living duringRead More →

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When Theodora “Theo” Tenpenney’s grandfather, Frank, dies unexpectedly, she is left to take care of her mother – a recluse obsessed with mathematical equations. The family house in Greenwich Village is in disrepair. The food is almost gone, except for the chicken eggs. Each morning Theo gathers the new eggs and places the purest, most perfect, egg in the place of honor on the mantel. Serving as an enlarged reflection is Frank’s painting – a large white egg. Theo knows there is something special about that egg. Frank had managed to whisper something about “treasure” and “under the egg”. But what was it? When someRead More →

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The first time I picked up Moonday by Adam Rex I only looked at the pictures. BEAUTIFUL illustrations help to tell the story of the day the moon comes out of the sky and hangs in a girl’s backyard. It’s so imaginative and something I think most children wish would happen to them! I love how the story also follows the town and answers the question, what would happen in our town if the sun did not come up one day? This is the perfect book to aid in a teacher’s writing lessons. It would be great for teaching detail because the girl describes whatRead More →

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The fourteen true stories of survival in Hidden Like Anne Frank are emotionally charged and moving.  Editors Marcel Prins and Peter Henk Steenhuis have collected incredible accounts of what it means to live in hiding, when a ticking clock can remind a survivor of the darkest days of his life. Storytellers not only reveal what it means to be Jewish, but what it means to be a survivor.  They tell of the “years of tears” and the difficulty of loss—the loss of possessions, loved ones, family bonds of affection, and one’s very identity.  At a time when people were persecuted for even looking Jewish, manyRead More →