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With their graphic novel Pearl, Sherri L. Smith and Christine Norrie bring readers a historical fiction account of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent response from the United States. In this version, Amy Hakata lives in Hawaii in 1941. However, when a family member in Japan grows ill and her parents are unable to travel, Amy flies to a country she has never visited. Once in Hiroshima, she sits with her sick Sōsobo. Here, only the food tastes familiar, but as Amy gets to know her grandmother, she learns of Grandma’s legacy as a pearl diver. However, everything changes in an instant, andRead More →

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Fans of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Hobbit will likely enjoy Blackberry Fox by Kathrin Tordasi. This fantasy adventure will take readers on a journey into the Otherworld, a place where Welsh myths and legends come to life for twelve-year-old Portia Beale and Ben Rees. Driven by curiosity, Portia steals Aunt Bramble’s key, follows a trickster fox, and opens the door to the Borderlands. The fox turns out to be a shape-shifter named Robin Goodfellow, and Portia has no idea what she had done until her previous reality begins to unravel. Despite knowing that humans always end up losing when they make deals withRead More →

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In her historical mystery The Voice Upstairs, Laura E. Weymouth tells a riveting ghost story with plot twists that keep the reader intrigued and engaged until the surprising ending. Under the influence of Weymouth’s pen, Wilhelmina Price (aka Wil) and Edison Summerfield (aka Ed) serve as protagonists and the voices that carry the story, which is set in 1920s England, forward. Triggered by her mother’s passing, Wil develops a death sense, which enables her to see a soul leave a body prior to death. She can also slip into the shadowland—the world between life and death—where she can lend her body and voice to aRead More →

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Io Ora lives in the Silts, a city that’s constantly battered by flood waters and the ill will of those who distrust other-born like Io. Io is a cutter, descendent of the Fates, sister to a spinner and a drawer. She has the power to see life threads– and sever them. She uses that power to make a living as a private investigator, supporting herself and her sister Ava. What starts as a routine infidelity investigation ends in a murder case when her target is murdered by a Wraith, a woman whose life-thread has been severed and should be dead. This case brings her toRead More →

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E. Lockhart pens a haunting story in Family of Liars. She not only shares how unearned privilege can lead to “terrible things on top of terrible things” but how those with resources often get a pass: “They assume that girls like us—educated girls from a ‘good family’—they assume we are telling the truth. We get the benefit of the doubt, the assumption of innocence, conferred by our family name” (277). Tucked in the telling, though, Lockhart also shares how messy and miserable that “pretending, lying, trying to have a good time” (219) can become. Because Carrie Sinclair is depressed and suffering, dealing with issues ofRead More →

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Fond of precision and happiest when she’s in charge, nine-year-old Jessie Treski always says exactly what she means. Her brother in the fifth grade, Evan refers to his sister as “Obsessy Jessie” because of her intensity. Yet, Jessie looks to her big brother as someone “who always [has] the answers and who always [helps] her when she [can’t] figure things out on her own” (134). Furthermore, Evan will often play translator for his sister since Jessie considers feelings a mystery and finds reading people’s facial expressions confusing. These two siblings play the role of protagonists in Jacqueline Davies’ latest book The Bridge Battle. Because Jessie’sRead More →

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As the title implies, a reader should be prepared to be confused when reading Katzenjammer by Francesca Zappia. The novel takes the reader down a nightmarish path of distress experienced by the main character, Cat. While it is clear that Cat suffers from depression and bewilderment in a world that makes no sense to her, the reason for that distress is not made clear until the novel’s conclusion. Through Cat, readers encounter a version of school that is unfortunately all too real for some students who experience bullying because of their differences. The dichotomy of us versus them is set out early in the novel.Read More →

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The history of the Jewish Empire of Khazaria would die out completely if not for stories like Black Bird, Blue Road. In this historical fiction account, Sofiya Pasternack shares the story of Ziva and Pesha, twelve year old twins. Stubborn, persistent, passionate, and observant, Ziva aspires to be a judge. Her brother, Pesha may not have the same fire, but he is brilliant in his own way. Ziva is convinced that with his inventive mind, Pesha will find a cure not only for the leprosy that afflicts him but for other diseases, as well. Selfless and kind, Pesha also has a gift for learning languages.Read More →

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Alechia Dow writes an intriguing speculative story with her novel The Kindred. Her two protagonists—as is everyone else in the Monchuri system—have been linked with since birth. The Kindred program was created after The Second Chaos, a revolution in which the poor rose up demanding that their voices be heard by the rich. Maru’s top scientists created the mind pairing idea as a solution. Because those who are paired come to know each other’s thoughts so intimately, they often marry. However, in the case of Joy Abara and Felix Hamdi, a pairing is unlikely since he’s of royal blood and in line for the throneRead More →