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The first book in a trilogy, Magic or Madness, by Australian author Justine Larbalestier, is the mesmerizing story of 15-year-old Reason Cansino, who has lived with her mother in the Australian bush on the run from her grandmother her whole life. When her mother goes insane, Reason is sent to live with her grandmother, whom her mother has taught her to believe is an evil witch. Once in Sydney, Reason must decipher the mixed messages she received from her mother growing up about the magic her grandmother practiced, and the neat, seemingly normal picture her grandmother presents to her. When she discovers a secret key and a long-dead catRead More →

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Summer vacation is a perfect time to read The Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark, by Ridley Pearson. It’s a fun, fast-paced adventure ride behind the scenes of DisneyWorld Park in Orlando Florida. 13-year old Finn is literally sucked into an after-hours mystery at DisneyWorld that he and 4 other kids must solve in order to save both the Park and the outside world from the rising tide of “dark magic” that has been dormant in the magical park since its inception.  Cleverly written, technologically savvy, and full of thrills, The Kingdom Keepers is a lot of fun and it definately keeps you on the edge ofRead More →

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Lombardo’s Law, by Ellen Wittlinger, is a poignant, funny novel about the confusion of adolescence. 15 year old Justine is quiet, bright and an observer in her own life.  When a family moves in across the street, her mother hopes she’ll make life long friends with the 15 year old girl, Heather. Instead of feeling comfortable with the out-going, popular girl, Justine is drawn to Heather’s younger brother, 13 year old Mike, whose sense of humor and personality are a much closer match to Justine’s. Justine and Mike find a kinship in independent and foreign films, which leads them to write and film their own movie, a teen-parody onRead More →

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In Peadar O’Guilin’s first full length novel, The Inferior, “survival of the fittest” is taken to an entirely new meaning and readers should be prepared  for a gripping story about characters who must do whatever it takes to survive.  The story focuses on a young man, Stopmouth, and his tribe of humans who know of no other life than the daily battle to survive. To live, they must hunt rival species, or negotiate live flesh-trade with non-human species to maintain a precarious peace. And for Stopmouth, considered slowwitted because of his stutter, the future looks especially bleak. Their cruel world is not all as it seems however, and on theRead More →

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Set in the Mississippi bayou in the summer and fall of 1963, A Thousand Never Evers tells the story of 12 year-old Addie Ann Pickett.  After graduating from Acorn Elementary School, Addie Ann looks forward to a summer of swinging in her yard, jumping double Dutch, working in the kitchen at Old Man Adam’s house,  teaching her cat, Flapjack, new tricks, and to starting 7th grade at West Thunder Creek Junior High School.  Two unexpected events change the course of her summer, and ultimately, the life she has always known: the murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers and the death of her employer, Old Man Adams. AsRead More →

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“Popularity is a state of mind. Feel nerdy. Think uncool thoughts. It also helps to use the word vaginal a lot.” Sugar Magnolia Dempsey, the daughter of free spirit “hippie” parents is moving once again, this time from her home in Portland to Austin, Texas. Broken hearted, she leaves behind friends and a boyfriend, “Maggie” vows that this time she will go out of her way to become the most unpopular student at Lakewood High School.  Arriving in Austin, she launches Operation Avoid Friends (OAF) deciding  that she is not going to fit in and will do anything to prevent people from liking her. FromRead More →

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Darkhenge by Catherine Fisher, opens on the hills above Avebury, England, famous for its prehistoric stone henges.  Rob, a talented teenage artist, sees his family disintegrating as his younger sister lies in a coma. Looking for an outlet to escape the grief and guilt he feels, he takes a job with a local archaeological dig where a new and mysterious henge has been discovered. Having spent his life surrounded by the mythology of stone circles, Rob initially pays little attention to the bizarre events that surround the dig until he realizes that this new revelation and the mystifying people attracted to it are somehow related to his sister. The novel plays outRead More →

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Madapple, the debut novel by Christina Meldrum, is a spellbinding exploration of the correlations among nature, religion, mythology and the human condition.  Meldrum weaves a complex story, full of mystery, about a sixteen-year-old girl, Aslaug. Raised in an isolated and restrictive environment by her eccentric Danish mother, Aslaug learns languages, botany, mythology and science, but very little about the outside world. When her mother dies suddenly under mysterious circumstances, Aslaug leaves home in search of her absent father, but instead finds her estranged aunt and cousins, who run a Pentecostal church in a nearby town. As dark family secrets are revealed, including the mystery of Aslaug’s birth, the tension inRead More →

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If I Die In Juarez, Arizona author Stella Pope Duarte’s most recent novel is a compelling fictionalization of the grotesque and inhumane murders of young women in Juarez, Mexico.  The interwoven stories of three young women caught up in the gritty, desperately poor, and corrupt world of Juarez evoke feelings of helplessness, anger, and ultimately resignation in the reader.  I was captivated by the story because it felt so real. Forced out of the house by her alcoholic mother, 13-year-old Evita takes to the streets and struggles to survive, falling into prostitution and drug trafficking. Petra, Evita’s beautiful 19-year-old cousin, moves with her family from a mountainous region of MexicoRead More →