Whitman Library Blog

• Daly, Cathleen  Flirt Club

Best friends Isabelle and Annie don’t understand why some girls talk and flirt with boys so easily and why the guys they like leave them tongue-tied.  At the beginning of 8^th grade they start the Flirt Club where they share what they see the popular girls doing and decide what flirting techniques to try.  In a way, it’s an excellent example of goal setting, devising steps to meet the goal, and holding yourself accountable with the object of attracting boys.  Blundering through the year both girls have flirting successes and failures, and they expand the club as they make new friends through Drama Club.  As I read this book, I had the uncomfortable feeling that what I think middle school is about is all wrong, and that the world so tightly focused on social life and portrayed in Flirt Club is the primary reality for many of our students.

• DiCristofano  A Black Hole is Not a Hole

Coloquial tone and very, very clear explanations made this a book that I could actually understand – a true compliment when it comes to black holes.  By the time I finished I even had somewhat of a grasp on the different ways black holes are formed.  The whole study of black holes is a great match for the concept of inferring.  Helpful illustrations.

• Fantaskey, Beth  Jessica Rules the Dark Side

The third in this vampire princess series.

• Halpern, Julie  Don’t Stop Now

It’s the summer after best friends Lillian and Josh have graduated from high school and though Lillian is headed for college, Josh is drifting along full of hopes that his on-again/off-again band will provide a future direction.  When hapless semi-friend Penny fakes her own kidnapping to get away from a difficult home situation, Josh and Lil spontaneously set off from Chicago to Portland where they think they may find Penny.  The usual things happen on the road trip; Lil decides to risk letting Josh know she wants to be more than just friends and Josh must give more thought to what he really wants.  A bit neatly resolved but there’s plenty to keep the reader turning pages.

• Putney, M.J.  Dark Mirror

Tory’s privileged life is changed forever when she discovers that she can do magic – strictly forbidden to the upper class but acceptable for lesser folks – and she is sent off is disgrace to a school where she can learn to suppress her gift and may hope to return to a normal life.  There she discovers that a group of students and teachers are actually celebrating and learning to manage their magical gifts, which are used as they time travel forward to World War II.  I liked the magical part quite a bit better than the time travel part.

• Ryan, Amy Kathleen  Glow

Two space ships from are hurtling toward future colonization of a remote planet; their staggered departure ensures that one will arrive before the other, so it’s a huge shock to the crew of the Empyrean when the New Horizon, launched first, rendezvous with them.  Fifteen year old Waverly is the oldest of the children born on the Empyrean and when the New Horizon crew kidnaps all the girls on the New Horizon, she leads their attempts to escape and to find out what has happened to their families on the Empyrean.  There’s plenty of plot here – Waverly’s boyfriend Kieran is left to lead the New Horizon when the attack kills most of the adults, and then Kieran is overthrown by another faction of boys.  The weakest part of the story for me was the role of religion in defining the two factions.

• Stoyles, Pennie  Earth and Stars

From the Energy in Action series.  Poorly titled, this is much more a book about energy, forces, and motion as they are applied to objects in space, plus there’s even a page on the physics of storms on earth.  Not very focused as far as the topic goes, but the individual sections are clear and well-illustrated.

• Tomlinson, Heather  Toads and Diamonds A retelling of the fairy tale with a middle eastern setting.

• Volponi, Paul  The Final Four

A new Paul Volponi is always a cause for celebration.  There’s good news and bad news here – The Final Four  takes place during the four overtimes that eventually decide the winner of one of the NCAA semi-final games.  Michigan State is highly favored while Troy University plays the role of Cinderella.  Two players on each team tell the story through real time action and flashbacks.  Malcolm is a self-proclaimed “one and done” at Michigan, and he is brashly upfront in his opinions about college athletics.  Malcolm’s teammate/roommate Michael Jordan is burdened by his name and holding on to his self-concept while managing Malcolm’s outsized ego.  On the Troy side there’s Roko, from Croatia, who is fleeing violence in his homeland that parallels the experiences of some of his teammates formed by their inner-city growing up. 

• Wells, Dan  Partials

At sixteen, Kira is taking on responsibility as part of her medical training – she must grow up and gain these skills quickly because a war the genetically engineered Partials plus a virus unleashed by them has resulted in the death of every baby born for the past thirteen years.  Frantic research has failed to save even on infant life and Kira’s society responds by forcing younger and younger women to be continually pregnant.  Kira has a different idea about how to research and combat the virus but it involves finding a Partial and getting blood and tissue samples.  Finding one will be difficult – they are physically identical with humans and presumably all live outside the safe bounds of the city.  Full of adventure and chances to revise theories about character, should appeal to many dystopian fans.

• Bausum, Ann Marching to the Mountaintop, How Poverty, Labor Fights, and Civil Rights Set the Stage for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Final Hours

The helpful subtitle neatly summarizes the content of this beautifully designed book.  Bausum provides helpful context by beginning with a description of the lives of sanitation workers in Memphis, how the intractability of white politicians in the city led to a strike, how Martin Luther King, Jr. saw an opportunity to combine his passion for civil rights and lifting workers out of poverty in Memphis, and how all these forces led to his assassination.  I knew the pieces of this story but had never put them together.  Really excellent non-fiction.

• Brooks, Martha  Queen of Hearts

Times are tough on the great plains of Canada during World War II, and so Marie-Claire’s family takes in Oncle Gerard who is sick and out of work.  Gerard’s health worsens, he is diagnosed with TB, and not long after he dies, Marie-Claire and her younger sister and brother come down with TB and are sent to the local TB sanitarium.  Always an active girl who excelled in school, Marie-Claire must spend most of her time in bed with only her roommate for company.  Pair with Peg Kehret’s Small Steps, the Year I Got Polio for a similar coming of age story.

• Bruel, Nick  Bad Kitty for President

Wimpy Kid readers will like the format and humor, and will learn some basic election vocabulary while more sophisticated readers will lap up the snark.  A helpful glossary reveals that this is not as basic a treatment as you might think.  7^th grade teachers might take a look at this.

• Flinn, Alex  Bewitching

One of the augmented (or fractured depending on your point of view) fairy tales that this author produces along with her realistic fiction.  Eternally young witch Kendra recounts three hundred years of her life, combining fairy tales such as Hansel and Gretel with famous historical events such as the sinking of the Titanic.  It’s a bit of an odd mix, but Kendra’s desire to make a positive difference, though not always successful, ties all the pieces together.

• Goodman, Shawn  Something Like Hope

There’s hope in this short, intense look at life in juvenile detention, but you have to squint to see it.  Shavonne is close to her 18^th birthday when she’ll either be released or remanded to prison as an adult.  Five years in the system have made her wary and caused her to doubt her own sanity, but faced with the possibility of life on the outside, Shavonne decides to give her counselor a chance to help her untangle the broken pieces of her life.  The abuse Shavonne has suffered is truly heartbreaking; that there is any possibility of healing for her provides a realistic conclusion.

• Gutman, Dan  Getting Air

Jimmy, David, and Henry are on their way to California to do some skateboarding when a terrorist attack causes their plane to crash and then it’s all about survival.  It’s also all about plot, as the characters aren’t memorable but reluctant readers may keep turning the pages.

• Hilmo, Tess  With a Name Like Love

Ollie, her mom, and her five sisters live an itinerant life, never spending more than three days in any town as traveling evangelist dad works his way through the southeast.  Ollie is thirteen and is hankering to find a place to stay and have a more normal life, so when she meets Jimmy on her first day in Binder, Arkansas, and learns that his mom is in jail for murdering his dad, Ollie lobbies her parents to stay and see if they can help.  What makes this book special is the details – how mom manages to make the girls feel special and valued despite their poverty, how Ollie can see how much better off she is than Jimmy’s family, and the strongly drawn secondary characters.  Sweet but tough – deals with some tough issues. 

• Jordan, Sophie  Vanish

Jacinda’s crush on Will has caused her to give up her shape-shifting secret even though Will’s family hunts down her kind.  Should she settle for the attentions of Cassian, part of her pride, or hold out the hope of reuniting with Will?

• Knowles, Jo  Pearl

Teen Pearl and her mom live with mom’s dad, Gus, who is loving and supportive to Pearl but usually at odds with his daughter.  Pearl finds a respite from family conflict in her long, comfortable friendship with Henry and his obese and house-bound mom.  When Gus dies, it’s a new beginning in ways that are both freeing and discomforting for both families, plus mom’s long-time girlfriend.  Pearl seems a little slow on the uptake, and the many fans of Jumping Off Swings will be disappointed with the pacing of this story.

• Landalf, Helen  Flyaway

Stevie loves her mom – even mom on drugs is better than nothing.  And Stevie’s not worried by mom’s occasional disappearances, but Aunt Mindy is worried, and insists that Stevie live with her until mom is located.  Stevie’s anger at her aunt and loyalty to her mom absorb her until she finds some respite working with injured birds alongside the enigmatic Alan.  This one really has a local setting – Stevie and mom live in an apartment up by Holman Road McDonald’s.

• Levinson, Cynthia  We’ve Got a Job, the 1963 Brimingham Children’s March

Levinson views the marches and demonstrations in Birmingham through the experiences of four children and weaves their stories through the major events of the time.  There’s lots of text and quite a bit of history to keep track of but it’s worth the work.

• Ross, Veronica  Under the Never Sky

A well-reviewed dystopian future book that will be moderately popular, but I couldn’t make much of an emotional connection with any of the characters.  Not memorable.

• Sampson, Jeff  Vesper

Suburban Seattle resident Emily has a normal high school life until she finds herself inexplicably tarted out and climbing out her bedroom window.  A phone call from her best friend cancels out Emily’s escape; Megan has called to tell Emily that a classmate has been shot and killed not far from Emily’s house.  The next night Emily can’t resist the urge to head out into the night – savvy readers will have guessed long before Emily that she should be on the lookout for a transformation that involves hairy limbs and claws.  Not a truly distinguished werewolf outing but it was diverting to have one cavorting under the viaduct.

• Scattergood, Augusta  Glory Be

Glory’s twelfth birthday is on the fourth of July, 1964, and in her small southern town the fireworks and festivities feel like they are all for her but town debate over whether to integrate the two separate town pools threatens the pool opening and a new girl who has moved into town from the north is upsetting all Glory’s ideas of the way things ought to be.  Short, not too difficult to read but plenty of important themes and topics are dealt with here.

• Slavin, Bill  Elephants Never Forget

A cheerful graphic novel about the travels of an elephant from Africa to New York in search of his friend.

• Tougas, Shelley  Little Rock Girl, 1957

Subtitled “How a Photograph Changed the Fight for Integration” and uses the famous photo of Elizabeth Eckford followed by the hatefully sneering Hazel Bryan to frame an explanation of the integration of Little Rock High School.

• Wooding, Chris  Pandemonium

Capable athlete, the restless Seifer is abducted by operatives from a neighboring kingdom because he closely resembles their missing Prince.  Threatened into impersonating the prince, Seifer eventually comes to value the role and the possibility of bringing peace to a country on the verge of war.  A very enjoyable graphic novel.

• Armstrong, Kelley  The Gathering

Maya was adopted when her First Nations mom and Irish dad were living in

Portland; based on her appearance everyone assumes she is native but her tribal origins are a mystery – perhaps Dine?  When Maya is five her mom and dad move to a tiny, remote company town on Vancouver Island that was built for the families of a secretive medical research company.  Since Maya’s best friend and swim team star Serena drowns the summer after junior year, Maya has been working through her grief along with Daniel who was Serena’s boyfriend.  Both Maya and Daniel were there when Serena drowned and blame themselves.  A series of unusual events accompany the arrival in town of new boy Rafe, setting in motion a series of mysteries.  This book kept me turning pages, creating and revising prediction, and of course it is the first of a series.  I couldn’t see any connection between the generic-looking cover, the extremely general title, and the pretty engaging story, so this will take some book-talking for the first few readers, after which word of mouth will do the job.

• Boyce, Frank Cottrell  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again

A truly delightful sequel to Ian Flemming’s original story.  Dad’s laid off from his job and is driving his family crazy at home with his projects until mom brings home a classic VW van.  Dad and middle child Jem rebuild the van and the whole family, including Little Henry and snarky teen Lucy set off on a fantastic family vacation.  Short, nicely-illustrated and accessible but with enough wry humor and plot twists to keep the interest of more capable readers.  Made me smile.

• Chad, Jon  Leo Geo and his Miraculous Journey Through the Center of the Earth

Science meets fantasy in this graphic novel as Leo Geo travels through the layers of the earth and meets amazing creatures along the way.

• Clement-Moore, Rosemary  Texas Gothic

From the author of the excellent, funny “Highway to Hell.”  Amy and her slightly older sister Phin are ranch-sitting at Goodnight Farms for their eccentric aunt.  Everyone else in the family is adept at magic and a sort lower level spell-doing, but Amy is the one trying to connect the family with the real world, so when a body shows up on a neighboring ranch there’s plenty of suspicion pointing at Goodnight Farms.  Ghosts, romance, and plenty of Texas.

• Davies, Stephen  Outlaw

Jake, fifteen, sneaks out of his English boarding school to play a game he and his friends call geothimble.  When the game traps him in a prison exercise yard he is caught by the police, suspended from school, and sent back to live with ambassador dad, mom, and sister in Burkina Faso.  Jake and his sister are kidnapped by a political faction and the ensuing adventures are fast and furious.  Interesting characters and very useful info about how to use sour milk to charge a cell phone.  Adventure fans will like this.

•  Deem, James  Auschwitz, Voices from the Death Camps

From a series called “The Holocaust Through Primary Sources.”  I had meant to skim it but I ended up reading every word.  The intro chapter is necessary to provide a basic understanding of Nazi Germany and Auschwitz, then each subsequent chapter describes the experience of a person who went to the death camps.  Some of the primary sources are interviews, other are letters or journals that survived. 

• Harrington, Kim  Perception

The second book in the “Clarity” series.  Clare’s mom and brother all have different psychic gifts and Clare wants to use hers to help find a missing classmate.  There’s a mystery, danger, girl drama, and a love triangle.  A cut above the usual paranormal romance.

• Hodgman, Ann  How to Die of Embarrassment Every Day        

A humorous memoir with short sections that might be helpful especially for 6^th grade mentor texts.

• Kibuishi, Kazu  Explorer, the Mystery Boxes

The creator of Amulet pulls together this graphic novel short story collection where each story must feature the opening of a box.  A strong piece of work.

• MacCullough, Carolyn  Once a Witch 

Tamsin is the only member of her extended family of witches who is not talented, and her status has been a source of some estrangement; even though she is loved and accepted by her parents sister Rowena’s talent for persuasion has always left Tamsin feeling overshadowed.  When a man comes into the family gift shop, assumes Tamsin is Rowena, and ask her to help him find a valuable family heirloom Tamsin agrees, hoping to show her family that she has useful, if not supernatural skills.  Her deception threatens the future of her family and the subsequent revelations about Tamsin’s actual talents keep the story moving although secondary characters aren’t too lively.

• Martinez, Jessica  Virtuosity

Carmen and her supportive/pushy mom are determined to win the prestigious Guarneri competition but when Carmen scopes out Brit Jeremy, her primary competition, she’s way more intrigued than she should be.  Music loving readers and those looking for a good romance will be right at home as Carmen and Jeremy pull together, push apart, and finally come to terms with their competitiveness and true desires.

• McMullan, Kate  Myth-O-Mania

An eight book level P series from Stone Arch featuring smart-mouthed Greek Gods and Goddesses in wacky versions of their myths.  For those not quite ready for Percy Jackson, or those who read about Percy and want more myth-related fantasy.

• Perez, Ashley Hope  The Knife and the Butterfly

Fans of Perez’s first book, the excellent What Can’t Wait  aren’t the audience for this second effort, though it is worth reading.  What Can’t Wait  is a straightforward piece of realistic fiction focusing on the pressure in some Hispanic families to put family needs ahead of school,  especially for girls.  The Knife and the Butterfly  is a much more challenging book to read with frequent shifts in time (marked by chapter heading “Now” and “Then”) and a storyline that needs close reading to unravel.  At fifteen, Latino Azael wakes up after a gang fight to find himself in jail but it’s an experience unlike his previous time in juvi – there’s no charge and no one will tell him why he’s locked up.  Instead, he is given the opportunity to observe the group and individual therapy sessions of a white girl named Lexi and for most of the book he has no idea why, though his observations spark some of his own missing memories.  Finally at the end it is revealed that Lexi killed Azael in the gang fight but it was never clear to me what purpose was served by this odd chapter in Azael’s post-death experience.  It was thought-provoking and artful, though the complex structure as well as language, drug, violence, and sexual situations point this one toward older, stronger readers.

• Quick, Matthew  Boy 21

The sophomore outing from the author of the excellent Sorta Like a Rock Star.  Finley is an Irish kid who plays high school basketball in a neighborhood where Irish and African American gangs rule the streets.  Finley is tapped by his black coach to befriend Russ, a new student who is getting a fresh start after his family is murdered and he suffers a mental break-down.  Russ was a blue chip basketball prospect but now he claims he is from outer space and calls himself Boy 21.  Finley takes his assignment very seriously, but as things get better for Russ, they get worse for Finley and his long-time girlfriend.  I read this the same weekend that I read Volpini’s The Final Four, and though Volponi has created a stronger, more main-stream work, Finley’s story lingers in my mind.

• Vachss, Andrew  Heart Transplant

An oversized graphic novel about a neglected boy who is saved by a man who takes him in and gives him a home.  Deals with bullying, felt a bit didactic, but kids will like it.

• Wrigley-Field, Elizabeth  Iraqi Girl

The anonymous writings of a teen blogger describing the American war and occupation.  Eye-opening.

• Ashton, Brodi  Everneath

High schooler Nikki spent a hundred years in the Everneath, entwined with Cole who seems to have been sucking out her emotions the whole time.  Now she has six months to return to earth to say goodbye to friends, family, and former boyfriend Jack.  Everyone things she ran away because of drug problems and she can’t tell them she’ll be leaving again soon.  Cole shows up in her above ground life to torment her and tempt her to return early.  Based on the Persephone myth but I had trouble caring about the characters and thought Cole needed a higher speed transfer cable for the whole emotion sucking thing.

• Cumyn, Alan  Tilt

Stan has been practicing basketball all summer, hoping to make the JV team at his high school, but funding cuts eliminate the team and he turns his attention to classmate Janine, who intrigues him and who seems to return his interest.  Dad left home years ago and started a new family so there’s no adult male to help Stan process these new feelings about Janine, especially when a classmate tells him that Janine is “tilted” toward girls rather than guys.  Maybe Janine does like girls, but she definitely also likes Stan.  Dad shows up with his five year old son and needs to move back in for a while which throws the whole family into chaos.  Cumyn is great at characters; all of them are sharp and depthy.  For those who like the point of view in Carter Finally Gets It and are ready to go deeper into character work.

• Denenberg, Barry  Titanic Sinks!  Experience the Titanic’s doomed Voyage in this Unique Presentation of Fact and Fiction

The title is helpfully descriptive – Denenberg has created a fictional magazine with short articles and period photos to tell the story of the building, voyage, and sinking in a way that will be attractive to readers.  

• Dionne, Erin  Notes from an Accidental Band Geek

Elsie’s goal is to some day take her father’s job as principal French horn in a major city symphony, and a step on that journey is a selective summer music camp, but in order to qualify for the camp she needs to be part of a music group during this first year of high school.  The only option is marching band, her although it’s a horrifyingly different experience at first, she learns some important music and social skills as a result.  Funny and fun.

• Harkrader, Lisa  The Adventures of Beanboy

A good next step for Wimpy Kid readers.  Tucker MacBean’s life has gotten more complicated since dad and mom split.  Mom is working full time and going to school, leaving Tucker to help keep track of his developmentally disabled little brother after school.  Tucker inhales comics and he loves to draw, so he enters a contest to design a superhero sidekick.  As a result there are lots of drawings sprinkled through the book as Tucker refines his ideas.  I liked the contrast between the absolutes of the superhero world and the nuances of Tucker’s life.  The grown-ups in the book have challenges but still manage to be grown-ups; when Tucker wants to stay after school for art club, mom figures out a way to hire a sitter, and although Tucker wishes he could win the contest and give the scholarship to his mom, she has already applied for financial aid on her own.  Lots to like, more complex characters than you might expect.

• Harris, M.G.  Invisible City, Ice Shock

A student asked me to buy these first two books in an action/UFO/adventure series.  Young teen Josh Garcia’s dad is a famous anthropologist who has died piloting a small plane while doing field work in Mexico.  Josh and his Mom are puzzled because the plane crash is far from where they expected Dad to be.  Dad has been pursuing some Mayan secrets connected to the predicted end of the world in 2012 but the police tell Mom and Josh that Dad was really seeing another woman who lived near the site of the downed plane.  This news gives Mom a nervous breakdown but Josh manages to go to Mexico with two friends to investigate what really happened to Dad.  Fans of mysteries with an emphasis on codes and secret messages will be fine with these.

• Hautman, Pete  What Boys Really Want

Long term friend Lita and Adam have their relationship figured out.  Lita is the moody, arty one – mom is a writer and Lita’s secretly working on a romance novel – while Adam is the even-tempered buddy.  As junior year starts, Lita is annoyed to find Adam working on a self-help book originally titled What Boys and Girls Really Want though eventually he drops “girls.”  Adam’s very funny journey (through plagiarism) to self-publishing is an entertaining ride – the downer for me was Lita, who was always prickly and never likeable.  I gave up believing Adam could want to be friends with her but I never stopped believing in Adam.  Could be a next for Carter Finally Gets It fans.

• Judge, Lita  Bird Talk, What Birds are Saying and Why

Lots of insight into bird behavior in this picture book – some pages are just straight fact but others provide insight into adaptive appearance and behaviors.  For struggling science readers.

• LaCour, Nina  The Disenchantments

Three of the four have just graduated from a Bay area arts high school and have scheduled a west coast tour for their (truly awful) band before dropping Meg off in Portland so she can begin at Lewis and Clark.  The other three will head back home so Alexa can start her senior year while Colby and Bev will fly to Europe for the gap year of their dreams.  Colby is the roady for the three girl band and is struggling with his feelings for Bev; their long-term friendship could easily slip into romance but he’s getting mixed messages from her.  Shortly after the tour begins – very small venues in very small towns in northern California and southern Oregon – Bev confesses to Colby that instead of going with him to Europe she will be starting at RISD.  Colby is staggered by the extent of her deception and he and Bev spend the tour trying to figure out where their relationship is headed.  Language and sexual situations make this a better fit for 8^th grade.

• Lee, Dora  Biomimicry, Inventions Inspired by Nature

A fairly text-dense look at the many ways nature inspires inventions – by imitating function, shape, or many other features.  Soft-edged illustrations help make sense of the content.

• Mackall, Dandi  The Silence of Murder

At sixteen, Hope is in many ways the big sister to her eighteen year old brother Jeremy, who seems to be somewhere on the autism spectrum.  Dad’s not in the picture and mom isn’t the most mature, so when Jeremy is accused of murdering the cherished town baseball coach, Hope continues to dig for evidence even when her lawyer and her mom assure her it’s a lost cause – maybe Jeremy really did do it.  A serviceable teen murder mystery that kept me guessing until almost the end.

• McPherson, Stephanie  Iceberg Right Ahead!  The Tragedy of the Titanic

One of a slew of excellent Titanic books out this year.  Begins with the collision, then flashes back to the construction of the ship, and ends with a description of Robert Ballard’s to the underwater site.  Copious back matter and source notes; intriguing reading.

• Meyer, L.A.  The Mark of the Golden Dragon

The 9^th Bloody Jack book.  Jacky’s plucky voice is still going strong.

• Schmatz, Pat  Bluefish

Seriously struggling reader Travis thinks of himself as a Bluefish – the name of the lowest reading group in his primary days – and that makes adjusting to his new school even harder.  Mom and dad have died, alcoholic Grandpa has arbitrarily moved them from a rural area with a beloved dog to a small place in town.  Hopeful connections come from classmate Velveeta, who tells part of the story and has her own set of struggles, as well as a few helpful adult mentors.  Portions of this book could be a good read aloud for any classrooms with struggling readers; Travis’s confusion and difficulty with text and resulting anger is clear and poignant. 

• Scott, Kieran  He’s So Not Worth It

When Amy’s dad’s bad financial advice caused losses for many of their friends on the Crest, dad leaves and Amy and mom have to move to cheaper digs, causing conflict with Amy’s Crestie friends.  Meanwhile, Amy’s almost boyfriend Ryan is implicated in a prank that devastated Amy, so Amy isn’t sorry the two of them are apart for the summer.  There was so little to like about either main character – they were both lazy, self-centered, entitled, wealth-obsessed, shallow, and heedless.  This author usually does good character work so I kept reading but I was disappointed.  Fans of mean girl fiction and those who love label-dropping will be fine.

• Smith, Jennifer   The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

Seventeen year old Hadley is trying to get to the airport on time, but she just misses the flight to London where she is slated to be a bridesmaid at her father’s wedding.  Stuck in the airport until the next flight, she has time to consider her resentment at her dad and the ways their relationship is strained and broken, to marinate in her claustrophobia and fear of flying, and to meet Oliver, a British boy who is taking her flight.  As they sit next to each other across the Atlantic Oliver helps Hadley manage her fears, listens to her, and drops a few clues about his own life, but they are separated at customs and when Hadley breathlessly arrives at the wedding with minutes to spare she has no contact information for Oliver.  After the ceremony Hadley is daunted by the amount of time she will have to spend mingling with her new step-mother and other strangers before the reception so she impulsively decided to try to find Oliver.  Fresh writing keeps this from being a stereotypical romance – a fun guilty pleasure read.

• Strasser, Todd  Kill You Last

It’s beyond creepy, the text Shelby receives promising to kill her last.  Three girls, each with some connection to her father’s photo/modeling agency, have disappeared and as the investigation increasingly target’s dad, Shelby struggles with her own doubts about her father’s behavior and looks for ways to prove him innocent.  Not a terribly satisfying conclusion, but plenty of Strasser’s trademark gory details.

• Strasnick, Lauren  Her and Me and You

I liked the author’s first book, Nothing Like You quite a bit but this sophomore effort is not as nifty.  Alex’s dad had taken up with another woman and Alex has chosen to move our with her mom, who has spiraled down into drunken chaos, so Alex is coping with both mom and a new high school and has no friends to support her.  She meets twins Fred and Adina and is attracted to them both, but whenever Fred shows interest in another girl, troubled Adina freaks out.  That’s about it.  I didn’t like any of the characters and didn’t find their struggles interesting or compelling.

• Castellucci, Cecil  First Day on Earth

In this brief novel, Mal struggles with feelings of not fitting in and finds comfort in a group of people who meet to talk about their own experiences with alien abduction.  Many of Castellucci’s other books have some lightness and humor but that’s missing here, though Mal’s journey to take a friend to meet a space ship that is supposed to return him to his people is full of mystery and suspense.

• Cole, Brock  The Money We’ll Save

Living in a tenement during the Depression means that pennies are pinched until they squeal, so Ma is furious when Pa brings home a turkey to raise, why is sure that raising their own meat will be a savings.  Of course, the turkey is no end of trouble and in the end no one wants to eat him.  Gentle humor, plenty of intriguing details and a truly excellent choice for inferring around character.

• Crewe, Megan  The Way We Fall

Bi-racial Kaelyn, sixteen, is living on a small Maritime island off the coast of Canada with doctor/scientist dad and mom.  They’ve just moved back after a few years in Toronto and Kaelyn is determined to be more outgoing and friendly than she has been in the past.  Her plans are short-circuited by the appearance of a virus that causes coughing, itching, sneezing, loss of social inhibitions, and death.  It spreads quickly, school is closed, dad is absorbed in trying to help the ill while researching the virus.  Cut off from the mainland by quarantine, looters appear at food drops and cause food shortages for the other islanders.  The story is told in a series of letters Kaelyn writes to a boy who used to be her best friend and who is going to school off-island.  For the legions of dystopian futures readers.

• Derting, Kimberly  The Pledge

Charlaina must guard her secret to stay alive – in a world stratified by language so that people are grouped and kept apart, she is able to understand everyone, an ability that would be punished by death if recognized.  Meanwhile, the reigning queen is losing her power and does not have a female heir whose body she can inhabit to increase her lifespan.  The Queen is seeking a candidate, which is why Charlie’s family has taken such pains to hide her.  Charlie is  attracted to Max, a boy she meets in a club but finds that many people are trying to guess her secrets and she’s not sure who to trust, and then there are the emergency drills that keep getting more frequent.  A serviceable thriller.

• Godbersen, Anna  Bright Young Things

Cordelia and Letty are small town girls with big city dreams.  Letty wants to escape her strict father and pursue her dream to become a singer, while Cordelia wants to leave the clueless relatives who raised her to search for her father, who is a New York gangster.  In a dramatic departure, the girls catch the train out of town hours after Cordelia has gone through with a wedding to her high school boyfriend after they were caught in a compromising situation.  In New York, their paths diverge for most of the book until they come together at the end.  Plenty of mean girls 1920s style.

• Godbersen, Anna  Beautiful Days

Cordelia has briefly reconciled with her gangster father when he is killed, leaving Cordelia and her half-brother to take over dad’s empire.  Meanwhile Letty pursues her singing career with some memorable mis-steps.  Infused with the personalities and ethos if the Jazz Age.

• Jenkins, Steve Just a Second, a Different Way to Look at Time

What can happen in a second?  Jenkins’ amazing art makes this an enticing book for browsing.

• Murdock, Catherine Gilbert  Wisdom’s Kiss, a Thrilling and Romantic Adventure Incorporating Magic, Villainy, and a Cat

Guilty confession – I truly love the Dairy Queen books and was fine with Princess Ben.  The stories of Princess Wisdom, the soldier Tips, and serving maid Fortitude intertwine using a variety of entertaining formats but I just didn’t make a strong connection to any of the characters.  Other reviews have been ecstatic and I hope kids will like it.

• Nelson, Vaunda Micheaux  No Crystan Stair, a Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller

Before reading this book I had never heard of Lewis Michaux, a great uncle of the author.  After a difficult childhood, and after attempting several different job paths, Michaux finds his niche, founding a Harlem bookstore featuring books by and about people of African heritage.  Because some of the details of Michaux were impossibly to locate or verify, Nelson chose to tell the story as fiction in an intriguing way with multiple narrators, a timeline, excellent illustrations and primary source documents, and extensive notes.   For stronger readers; Nelson also wrote the excellent Bad News for Outlaws.

• Powers, L.J.  This Thing Called the Future

Teen Khosi lives with her mom, grandmother, and little sister in a shantytown neighborhood in South Africa.  Khosi does well in school and the family is doing well until mom gets sick and must give up her job.  Mom is all about leaving behind Zulu traditions and believing in science, but Khosi is torn between what she is learning in school and the old ways that involve the ancestors and magic.  The local witch tells Khosi that her eye is on her and the men in the neighborhood are starting to come on to her – how will she get the strength to push them away and figure out what her future should look like?  Thought-provoking view of post-Apartheid life.

• Rex, Adam  Cold Cereal

Scott, the new kid at school, meets twins Erno and Emily, who are extremely smart and occasional bully targets.  The jacket flap is styled as a food label and it’s an apt metaphor for the story elements here – there are mysterious goings-on at the local breakfast cereal factory, some characters turn out to be giants or changelings or leprechauns.  Fun and funny.  Not as memorable as The True Meaning of Smekday  but a solid outing from Mr. Rex. 

• Skovron, Jon  Misfit

A Seattle setting for the story of teen Jael, who has moved frequently with her somewhat distant (and mortal) dad, who is hiding important pieces of Jael’s history – mom did not really die giving birth to her.  In fact, mom was a powerful demon who perished saving Jael’s life, since “half-breeds” are marked for destruction.  Not much characterization but plenty of action and supernatural adventure.  First of a series. 

• Silverline  Fractured Fables

It’s just what the title says and happily reminds me of the Fractured Fairy Tales on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.  Different artists provide a wide variety of comic book versions of familiar and not so familiar tales.  Fun and funny.

• Villareal, Ray  Don’t Call Me Hero

Dad’s dead, older brother is in prison for vehicular homicide after drunk driving on grad night, and mom is barely managing to keep their Mexican restaurant afloat.  Rawly is having a tough time with school work, his only friend is pretty flaky, the girl he likes isn’t in to him, and he has to spend every spare minute helping at the restaurant.  When, two/thirds of the way through the book, Rawly is at the right place at the right time and rescues a fashion model whose car leaves the road and goes into a river, his life completely changes; in some ways it’s better but it’s much more confusing.  Hispanic family story – no gangs.

• Walker, Sally  Freedom Song, the Story of Henry “Box” Brown

Delightful picture book biography of Brown, a slave who escaped by mailing himself north.

• Woodson, Jacqueline  Beneath a Meth Moon

Laurel’s beloved mom and grandmother drowned in a Pass Christian hurricane, leaving Laurel, her dad, and her little brother to piece together a life without them.  Moving was supposed to provide a fresh start, but Laurel’s still trying to fill the empty spots with cheerleading, her basketball-playing, drug-dealing boyfriend, and meth.  Although brief and on a high-interest topic, this is a challenging book because of the frequent shifts in time and the on-meth spaciness of Laurel’s narration.

• Ash, Russell  Great Wonders of the World

An oldie but a goodie DK book.

• Blackstone, Matt  A Scary Scene in a Scary Movie

Rene’s obsessive-compulsive disorder makes it tricky to navigate high school life but he thinks everything will change when he manages to make friends with outgoing Gio. 

• Chambers, Aiden  The Kissing Game

A volume of literary short stories including very short “flash fiction” pieces.

• Curtis, Christopher Paul  The Mighty Miss Malone

Who was the girl who kissed Bud in the hobo camp?  Turns out it was Deza Malone and this is her story – Dad’s out of work in Gary, Mom’s barely keeping food on the table as a maid, older brother Jimmie has mysteriously stopped growing and is no student but is well-known for his singing.  Deza loves school and loves doing well so she’s devastated when, after a traumatic accident on a fishing trip, Dad leaves to find work in Flint and the rest of the family goes to look for him when he never gets back in touch.  There’s lots to like here – strong secondary characters, memorable settings from the rented house in Gary to the hobo camp to the apartment in Flint.  Besides the obvious connection with Bud, Not Buddy, what happened to Dad on the fishing trip reminded me of the bombing in The Watson’s Go to Birmingham – 1963 and Deza’s inner thinking brought to mind Elijah in Elijah of Buxton.  I missed the humor of Watsons  and the strong epiphany at the end of Elijah but that’s just because Mr. Curtis has consistently kept my expectations sky high.

• Cheney, Lynne  A is for Abigail, an Almanac of Amazing American Women

Picture book treatment of a selection of women in U.S. history.

• Fergus, Maureen  Ortega

Ortega is a lowland gorilla who became part of a scientific experiment as an infant, and who can talk thanks to a series of surgeries to reshape his mouth and tongue.  We meet him on his first day of school, and it’s ever so entertaining to see school from his point of view.  Adventure, intrigue, and plenty of questions about what it means to be human.

• Fradin, Judith  Tornado!

Plenty of dramatic photos, well-designed mix of text and visuals, neatly divided into the science, the history, and predications.  Will be excellent for 7^th grade catastrophic events.

• Griffin, Adele  The Julian Game

Adele, the new girl at a private school, is a nobody until she connects with Queen Bee Ella and they create a fictional online character to attract A list guy Julian.  Mean girls, bullying, cyberbullying.

• Kuipers, Alice  Lost for Words

Sophie is wrestling with memories she doesn’t acknowledge but can’t forget, and they impact everything – her school work, her friendships, her family life.  This would have made a good short story but the tension of not knowing can only hold the reader for so long.

• Latta, Sara  Bones, Dead People Do Tell Tales

Begins with a high interest, Hurricane Katrina related case study, describes the history of forensic anthropology and includes many examples of the way that anthropologists work at the scenes of disasters and mass executions. Comparatively text-heavy but high interest.

• Lester, Julius  Black, White, Other

Researching her ancestors who were enslaved helps teen Nina make sense of what has happened to her family when her white mom and African American dad separate.

• McCully, Emily  The Ballot Box Battle

A picture book showing the difficulties women have faced gaining suffrage and property rights.

• Oliver, Lauren  Pandemonium

Sequel to Delirium, set in a dystopian future where teen undergo surgery to render them incapable of feeling emotions such as love.

• O’Neal, Ellis  The False Princess

For sixteen years Nalia has been raised as the princess and heir to the throne of Thorvaldor, but shortly after her birthday she is told that she is a false princess – merely a placeholder because of a prophesy that the princess would be killed before her 16^th birthday.  Apparently the prophesy was wrong and now the “real” princess, who has been equally oblivious and living quietly in a convent, is brought to court and the original Nalia, now called Sinda, is sent to live with an unloving relative in a rural backwater.  While there, Sinda discovers she has magical abilities and decides not to meekly submit to her exile but to educate herself in the city.  Several unexpected plot twists keep the pages turning in this above average fantasy.

• Peet, Mal  Life:  An Exploded Diagram

In class-conscious England, Frankie, who is the daughter of a land-owner, should never be interested in Clem, so they keep their relationship a secret until it is discovered in a way that is both actually and metaphorically explosive.  Bracketing their story are sagas of ancestors and the historical events that shaped their families from World War I to 911.  Lots to keep track of, excellent character development, plenty of room for connections but those who know nothing about twentieth century history (which is most of our students) will be at a disadvantage.  For those who are transitioning to the complexity of adult titles but is appropriate for YA. 

• Resau, Laura  The Jade Notebook

The next in the popular series – this time set in Mexico.

• Weatherly, L.A.  Angel Burn

Teen Willow knows she’s a bit unusual – there’s her passion for fixing cars, plus her psychic abilities that definitely set her apart from her classmates.  But life really veers out of control when crush-worthy Alex breaks into her house with the intention of killing her.  Alex is a trained Angel Fighter and his CIA controller has sent a text ordering the kill, but when Alex observes Willow, she doesn’t display the aura of a corrupted group of angels that is trying to take over the earth.  Becoming convinced that Willow is in fact the only one who can overcome the invading angels and that his CIA handlers have been infiltrated by the invading angels, Alex and Willow go on the run.  Action, betrayal, tension, and the supernatural – a perfectly serviceable paranormal romance.

• Weatherly, L.A.  Angel Fire

Those who liked Angel Burn will probably dive right into this sequel though it does not stand alone.  Half-angel Willow is caught in the war between the angels and the angel killers – angel-killer/boyfriend Alex is on the run with her and she’s firmly on the side of the angel killers.  Or is she?  Mexico City setting.

• Wilkins, Ebony Joy  Sellout

Middle class NaTasha is an only child and has grown up as the only African American child in her friendship group and her school.  For some reason, mom and dad decide that when Tasha turns 16 she should go to live with grandma in Harlem for several weeks during the summer, helping grandma with her volunteer work at a center for girls who are struggling with a variety of issues.  Tasha is immediately labeled a sellout by the gritty girls in the hood and must struggle to gain their respect and to rework her own identity.  The story felt forced, the characters stereotypical, and I wanted to like this so much, but no luck.

• Williams, Carol Lynch  Miles from Ordinary

Lacey is 14 and in sole charge of her mentally ill mom, who has just pulled herself together enough to get a job as a grocery store checker.  The story concentrates on the events of one day when mom manages to get to her first day of work and Lacey happily does her first volunteer shift at the local library but comes home to find her mom quite her job and has gone missing.  Short, for those kids who come in telling you they want really sad books and for Pelzer fans.

• Yang, Gene Luen  Level Up

Dennis’s dad expects him to go to medical school but Dennis really has a passion and a talent for playing online games – this graphic novel details his struggles to manage his obligation to his parents with his own wishes.  More for high school since most middle school kids won’t find the parent expectation piece that compelling.

• Conkling, Winifred  Sylvia & Aki

1941 and Sylvia’s dad is finally able to rent a firm after working for others for many years.  Sylvia and her brother try to enroll in the neighborhood school but instead are told that no Mexicans are allowed and they must go to the all-Mexican school.  In a parallel story, Aki’s family leaves the farm that Sylvia’s family rents because they are sent to an internment camp.  Simple and short, but the parallel stories are well told and the emotions of both girls strongly presented.  Based on real characters – Sylvia’s dad’s lawsuit eventually overcame school segregation in California.

• Fitzpatrick, Becca  Silence

Book three in the “Hush, Hush” series.

• Fitzpatrick, Becca  Hush Hush, Crescendo

Paranormal romance, student request.  Is Patch a fallen angel?

• George, Jessica  Princess of Glass

A sort of sequel to The Princess of the Midnight Ball.  Princess Poppy, scarred from her years of enforced, enchanted dancing with her eleven sisters, has decided never to dance again.  But when she’s sent off to visit another kingdom, it’s difficult to socialize without dancing.  A pleasant mash-up with Cinderella.

• Halls, Kelly  In Search of Sasquatch

A non-fiction picture book that takes a broad look at evidence for the existence of Sasquatch with plenty of maps, drawings, and photos.  My favorite part was the connection to Native American stories and art.

• Lupica, Mike  The Underdogs

Young teen Will is already doing well as a running back but the economy has hit his small industrial town hard and there’s no money to pay for the community team.  Will is determined to work out the finances but once he does, finding enough players is his challenge and he ends up recruiting a girl for the team.  A perfectly serviceable sports story.

• Nye, Naomi Shihab  There Is No Long Distance Now

Very short stories, each under a thousand words.  I didn’t make much of an emotional connection to any of them, except for “Are We Friends?” which was excellent.

• Raschka, Chris  Seriously, Norman

Highly silly adventure, good fit for 6^th grade.

• Schroeder, Lisa  The Day Before

Stressed out Amber is treating herself to a day at the Oregon coast where she meets dishy Cade, whose agitation makes Amber worried that he might be considering suicide.  By the end of the day they have begun a tentative romance and have shared their secrets with each other.  Told in verse, good for problem novel fans who want less edge verse novels than the work of Ellen Hopkins.

• Springer, Kristina  My Fake Boyfriend is Better than Yours

Tori and Sienna have been BFFs since forever, but Sienna’s family got much wealthier at the end of sixth grade and Sienna spent the summer away on a fancy vacation.  For the last six weeks before 7^th grade began, Sienna hasn’t answered Tori’s emails and when Sienna comes back with colored hair, a whole new wardrobe, and non-stop talk about her boyfriend Tori becomes insecure and invents a boyfriend for herself.  It’s a pretty basic, easy to read story with one message – be honest with your friends, and it should be popular.

• Whaley, John  Where Things Come Back

Lots of critical acclaim.  I didn’t get the plot and could not make an emotional connection.

• Wright, Barbara  Crow

It’s reconstruction time in Wilmington,  North Carolina, and Moses’ family is putting together a pretty good stab at middle class life.  Most of the grown-ups in the burgeoning African American community were born in slavery, but Moses’ dad is one of the city Aldermen.  Mom is a housekeeper for a white family so wise, superstitious grandma, who is family member most formed by her slavery years, takes care of Moses.  The first part of the novel can be a little slow as Moses ventures beyond his own neighborhood and has encounters with racist and not so racist whites.  Once race relations in town start to fray, all the carefully built lives of the main characters crack apart with a truly horrible conclusion based on real events in Wilmington.  Really a heart-breaking story.

• Yang, Dori Jones  Daughter of Xanadu

Teen Princess Emmajin is assigned the job of spy to find out what Marco Polo really wants when he visits China.  Plenty of wonderful cultural pieces in the background and it will appeal to more capable 6^th graders who are studying this ancient culture.

• Aguilar,  David  Thirteen Planets

This excellent, well-illustrated non-fiction title does a nifty job of handling the Pluto problem by using density to organize the variety of heavenly bodies orbiting our sun.  I had a better grasp of things after reading it.

• Bell, Hilari  The Goblin War

The final book in the trilogy that is a hit with fantasy lovers.

• Blundel, Judy  Strings Attached

Eager to escape to New York City, Kit leaves high school to make her way as a dancer and it seems harmless to accept a little help along the way from the father of her boyfriend Billy, who is away in the army.  An intriguing, well-written cautionary tale – Billy’s dad is a mobster and his increasing pressure on Kit nicely illustrates the title.  Every compromise has a consequence.  For more skillful readers who can understand the 1950s setting, time shifts, and in-depth characters.

• Castan, Mike  The Price of Loyalty

7^th grader Manny hangs out with his old friends from elementary school but pretty soon everyone is calling them a gang.  A couple of the guys in the group play it up and pretty soon they have a name, a symbol, and some of the guys have tattoos.  Manny is pressured not to turn his homework in and to buy drugs for the gang, but eventually he is able to figure out how to pull himself away as the rest of the group spirals toward destruction.  Didactic but short and I know I have Hispanic boys who will read it.

• Edwardson, Debby Dahl  My Name is Not Easy

An excellent, challenging book by the author of Blessing’s Bead.  In order to get a high school education, many Alaskan natives attended BIA boarding schools, but younger students had other options, such the Catholic Sacred Heart boarding school near Fairbanks.  Brothers Luke, Bunna, and Isaac are sent off to Sacred Heart because their mom believes it will be better for them.  The necessary paperwork was confusing to mom and it turns out that she has signed away her rights to Isaac since he is too young for the boarding school and he is adopted out quickly to a family in Texas.  The boarding school includes groups of kids who consider themselves distinct – white kids,  Indian kids, Eskimo kids.  Told from the point of multiple narrators who all find the boarding school experience foreign and to some extent oppressive, and filtered through real events – a tsunami on the coast, the Good Friday earthquake of 1964, the Barrow Duck-In and the Atomic Energy Commission’s experiments injecting Native children with radioactive materials.  Thoughtful, complex, a good fit for 8^th grade PNW work.

• Emerson, Kevin  The Triad of Finity

The latest Oliver Nocture book.

• Glanagan, John  The Outcasts

The first book in a new series called Brotherband Chronicles – a companion to The Last Apprentice.

• Grady, Cynthia  I Lay My Stitches Down

A picture book of poems about American slavery with quilt illustrations.

• Green, John  The Fault in Our Stars

Lots of buzz around this title and it is well deserved.  Teen Hazel’s cancer has metastasized to her lungs and an experimental medicine has pulled her from death’s door but her tenuous remission leaves her dependent on oxygen.  At her depressing teen cancer support group Hazel meets Augustus, a high school basketball star who has lost a leg to cancer but who has a great prognosis.  Their friendship and romance are the heart of the story, and Green unspools the details of their lives in a way that is deeply realistic and emotional without pathos.  Anyone who has loved someone who died of cancer will recognize the experiences of the cancer patients in this book, from Hazel and Augustus to Augustus’s former girlfriend with her terrifying, personality-altering brain tumor.  The meaning of life, death, friendship, sexuality, Green tackles all the big topics and does a masterful job.

• Holm, Jennifer  Brave New Pond

The second in the “Squish” series by the author of “Babymouse.”  A delightful graphic novel fantasy with a dollop of science information as the characters are all micro-organisms.  Snarky enough to attract middle school readers.

• Hunter-Gault, Charlayne  To the Mountaintop, My Journey Through the Civil Rights Movement

Hunter-Gault and Hamilton Holmes were the first students to integrate the University of Georgia, and this book is her account of the civil rights movement of that time, punctuated by her own experiences. 

• King, A.S.  Everybody Sees the Ants

High schooler Lucky has been a bully target on and off his whole school career and it all comes to a head when he’s assaulted and injured at the community swimming pool by his nemesis Nader.  Lucky’s parents have been fighting, partly about dad’s passivity and unwillingness to speak to Nader’s parents or get any help for Lucky.  So mom takes Lucky off to visit relatives in Arizona where Lucky develops a more nuanced view of his family and meets a girl with whom he begins a relationship.  Interspersed are Lucky’s dreams about his grandfather, a POW during the Vietnam war, and it’s during these mysterious times with his grandfather that Lucky is able to work out how to respond to Nader and to relate to his dad.  Short but thoughtful with memorable characters – will stretch our readers.

• Kizer, Amber  Seven Kinds of Ordinary Catastrophes

Gert, the every-high-school-girl from One Butt Cheek at a Time, has plenty to deal with.  She hates kissing her boyfriend.  Does that mean she likes girls, not guys?  Or is his just a spectacularly bad kisser.  Kizer is a sort of Judy Blume for the new millennium – with the help of best guy friend Adam, who is gay, and best girl friends Maggie and Clarice she sorts through issues of school work, getting a part time job, illness of a parent, and wondering how far to go with a guy.  Probably a little frank even for 8^th grade, but just because the subject matter made me uncomfortable on occasion  there are still plenty of our kids who are asking questions that Gert will answer.

• Osborne, Linda  Miles to Go for Freedom, Segregation & Civil Rights in the Jim Crow Years

Fairly text-heavy but beautifully designed with helpful photos – this will push our stronger readers.

• Pearson, Mary  The Fox Inheritance

Sequel to The Adoration of Jenna Fox, won’t stand alone but those who liked the first title will enjoy it.

• Reed, Amy  Clean

Five teens meet in rehab and struggle with their various addictions.  It’s hard to connect much with the individual character since there are so many, but those looking for problem novels or a drug abuse focus will like this.  Strong language matches the topic but may be off-putting.  8^th grade and up.

• Sloan, Christopher  Baby Mammoth Mummy, Frozen in Time!

The discovery and excavation of a baby mammoth ties together this story which includes plenty of science and geologic history.  Excellent photos and drawings.

• Smith, Cynthia Leitich Smith  Diabolical

Book four in the “Tantalize” series.

• Valente, Catherynne  The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

Some nice feminist touches in a beautifully written fantasy that renews the conventions of the genre by managing them so well. ”Exeunt on a Leopard” is the name of the first chapter and thoughtful readers will revel in the playful language.

• Van Allsburg, Chris  The Chronicles of Harris Burdick, 14 Amazing Authors Tell the Tale

Fourteen well-know writer take on the task of writing stories inspired by the pictures Van Allsburg drew for the classic picture book of the same name.

The Occasional Library Newsletter

• Arni, Samhita  Sita’s Ramayana

The great legend of India in stunning graphic novel form.

• Atinuke  The No 1 Car Spotter

The most recent in this delightful early chapter book series set in Africa. 

• Barnhill, Kelly  The Mostly True Story of Jack

Jack’s mom and dad are separating; older brother Baxter gets to stay with friends while the household is divided but Jack is shipped off to Midwestern relatives he has never met before.  Used to being ignored and anonymous, Jack is astonished to find that his relatives are sympathetic, he makes a couple of friends, and he is the target of bullying and animosity organized by the most powerful family in town.  An intriguing fantasy.

• Bowman, Patrick  Torn from Troy

Although it’s not the lower reading level set in an ancient culture book I was hoping for, stronger readers will enjoy Alexi’s adventures as he is captured by the Greeks after the fall of Troy and is enslaved by Odysseus and voyages with him.  The first in the “Odyssey of a Slave” series.

• Coben, Harlan  Shelter

A mystery writer for adults, Coben turns his hand to YA in this page turner involving an orphaned high school basketball player and his girlfriend who is trafficked into prostitution. 

• Conroy, Pat  My Losing Season

By student request thanks to Chris King’s wonderful student book trailers.

• Ellis, Deborah  No Ordinary Day

Orphan Valli lives in a house brimful of her cousins and picks up coal to pay for her food.  When she discovers that she is not really related to the person she has always considered her aunt, she runs away and lives hand-to-mouth until her leprosy is diagnosed and she is treated.  Ellis is a master at putting a snapshot of the lives of teens in other countries into just a few pages.

• Grant, Michael  The Trap

Second book in this fast-moving and excellent high octane adventure aimed at readers who are younger and with less stamina than fans of the Gone series.  In this volume Mack adds the second and third members of the magnificent 12 to his group and survives yet another encounter with the evil Risky.  I loved the IMs from Mack’s Golum who is holding down the fort at home.

• Handler, Daniel and Maira Kalman  Why We Broke Up

This is a really heavy book!  That’s because Handler (Lemony Snicket) teamed with illustrator Kalman to provide color paintings of the many items strongly voiced narrator Min is returning to former boyfriend Ed as she explains why they broke up.  As she explains each artifact, Min shows the progression of her romance with Ed which the canny reader will conclude was doomed from the start, but it’s an entertaining journey.  I wish Ed was able to tell his side of the story on occasion – writing a letter in his voice to Min would be an excellent writing about reading activity.  Sexual situations, 8^th grade.

• Kamkwamba, William  The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

A picture book retelling of Kamkwamba’s project to make a windmill out of spare parts that could power his village and bring up water from a well.

• Kostyal, K.M.  Fredericksburg, a New Look at a Bitter Civil War Battle

All the illustrations are photos of re-enactors which gives a nice consistency to the visual appeal of this book.  The photos do much of the work of telling the story along with first person accounts and short bits of narration.

• McGuiness, Dan  Pilot and Huxley, the First Adventure  and The Next Adventure

Funny comics.

• Meyer, Marissa  Cinder

The plotting was a bit predictable in this first novel but the story and characters were so intriguing that I really didn’t mind.  Imagine the story of Cinderella set in a dystopian future with our heroine as a cyborg who earns her keep as a mechanic.  She doesn’t just lose her shoe – her foot can be taken off!  Family secrets, evil step-mother, she’s employed by Prince Kai to repair his bot and a terrifying epidemic that may be transmitted by spies from the lunar colony threaten all of life on earth.  There will be sequels!  They will be checked out.  Set in Beijing.

• Sherman, Delia  The Freedom Maze

It’s 1960 and Sopie is spending a hot and mope-y summer with her Louisiana grandmother.  She’s been slightly touched by the Civil Rights movement, but when a trip through the maze next to the catapults her back in time to the plantation owned by her forbears where her skin and hair land her in the slave quarters and she experiences many aspects of life in slavery.  Intriguing and well done.

• Smith, Cynthia Leitich  Blessed

The third in her intriguing paranormal series.

• Anderson, B.J.  Ultraviolet

Teen Alison wakes up in a mental hospital with no idea of how she got there.  She has confessed to the murder of Tori, a classmate who has disappeared but no body has been found.  During therapy and treatment, Alison remembers fighting with Tori but the rest is a blank.  A new counselor comes to Alison’s unit who believes in her innocence and affirms that some of what Alison worries is insanity is actually synesthesia but that does not explain all of her symptoms.  Plenty of exciting plot twists.  A paranormal mystery.

• Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker  Jefferson’s Sons, a Founding Father’s Secret Children

A family tree at the beginning of the book makes it clear how few children in any eighteenth century family might live to adulthood.  Two of Thomas Jefferson’s six children with his first wife did, as well as four of the seven born to Jefferson and Sally Hemings, the half sister of Jefferson’s first wife and also his slave.  Sons Beverly and Madison tell the first two thirds of their story, which is concluded in the voice of a young family friend.  Daily life on a plantation, the divide between house and field hands, and most notably the way that Jefferson treated his sons is deftly shown in this intriguing title. 

• Duble, Kathleen  Phantoms in the Snow

It’s 1944 and disease has carried off fifteen year old Noah’s parents, leaving him alone on their Texas farm.  With no other option except becoming a ward of the state, he heads off to the care of an uncle he has never met who is serving on a military base that trains Phantoms, soldiers who will serve by skiing and climbing in mountainous battlefields.  In order to stay, Noah must undergo rigorous training and eventually he formally joins the unit and goes to fight with his uncle in Italy.  Students who want to read about war and adventure will appreciate this.

• Hodkin, Michelle  The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Mara wakes up in the hospital with no memory of how she got there and no idea what caused the death of her best friend and two other high school classmates.  The experience has so traumatized her that her family pulls up stakes in New England and moves to Florida where Mara attempts to start over, but her terrifying dreams as she begins to remember what happened to her threaten her sanity.  Meanwhile she is falling in love with mysterious classmate Noah who has some intense secrets of his own.  Horror, mystery, and a truly cliff-hanging ending will attract many readers.

• Johnson, Maureen  The Name of the Star

Teen Rory Deveaux is spending a year abroad in an English boarding school and her arrival coincides with a series of murders that mimic those of Jack the Ripper.  A near-death choking experience in the school refectory leave Rory with the ability to see dead people and when the police discover that see can see the copycat murderer, she is recruited by a special group of teen sleuths to try to stop Jack before he kills again.  Lots of fun plot details will keep the reader turning pages.

• Markle, Sandra  The Case of the Vanishing Golden Frogs, a Scientific Mystery

• Mullin, Mike  Ashfall

Teen Alex’s parents and sister have gone away for the weekend, leaving Alex alone and excited about his freedom until a super-volcano erupts at Yellowstone.  The ashfall collapses part of his house and he seeks refuge with a neighbor couple who welcome him but who turn violent when the house is attacked by others wanting food and water.  Alex runs, looking to be reunited with his family, and it’s just one bad thing after another.  Almost everyone he meets can’t be trusted and Alex inadvertently brings disaster to the one helpful family he meets.  Rape, murder, violence, and dystopian adventure.

• Myers, Walter Dean  Kick

Thirteen year old Kevin is picked up by the police for crashing a car that he is driving.  Kevin and his passenger, friend and classmate Christy, aren’t talking about why they were in the car belonging to Christy’s dad, and Christy’s dad is talking about pressing charges against Kevin.  After a night locked up Kevin is still unwilling to explain his actions so Sergeant Brown is assigned to mentor him and try to get at the truth.  Told in alternating chapters; Brown’s by Walter Dean Myers and Kevin’s by Ross Workman, who as 13 when he wrote a fan letter to Myers that inspired the collaboration.  It’s pretty good.

• Price, Charlie  Desert Angel

Angel’s life with mom has provided plenty of instability but it’s still a huge shock when Angel wakes up in the trailer of mom’s recent boyfriend Scotty and finds her mother’s dead body.  Angel is determined to track Scotty down and exact her revenge; at the same time Scotty is tracking Angel in hopes of eliminating the only witness to his crime.  It’s a short book but there’s plenty of suspense, action, and excitement that should hook readers who won’t be tempted to abandon this book.

• Pringle, Lawrence  Billions of Years, Amazing Changes

Beginning chapters describe earth history and fossil formation, then evolution and evolutionary topics such as variation and natural selection.  The chapters are short and cogent, the photographs appealing but the real stars of the show are the drawings by picture book stand-out Steve Jenkins.  An excellent addition.

• Coine-Ransome, Lesa  Words Set Me Free, the Story of Young Frederick Douglass

• Reger, Rob  Piece of Mind, an Emily the Strange Novel

The third volume in this quirky story of Emily’s life – in journal format with plenty of lists, illustrations, and drawings.  Emily wants a summer filled with minimal parental supervision and lots of mischief so she can enjoy her cats, her golum, and can investigate Strange family history.

• Sandler, Karen  Tankborn

In a future society, Genetically Engineered Non-Humans are at the bottom of the socio-economic scale.  They are formed in a tank using especially selected characteristics that limit their future work choices.  Tankborns Kayla and Mishalla are GEN and best friends who know they will be parted when they are assigned as young teens to their permanent work.  Kayla provides personal care for an aging man in a prominent Trueborn  family while Mishalla does child care in a sketchy neighborhood for a constantly rotating group of young children.  When Mishalla finally discovers why the children she cares for are being taken, she and Kayla must learn to trust Trueborns to unlock the mystery and right wrongs.  The author has created a fully formed SF world of the future with an intriguing plot and mixed race main characters.  Reading partners would find plenty to talk about.

• Yoo, David  The Detention Club

Peter and Drew were popular kids in elementary school but in middle school there’s no recess and no one else thinks it’s great to collect things.  So Peter tries to hang out with his 8^th grade sister, hoping older kid coolness will rub off, until a trip to detention introduces him to a new set of friends.  Humor, point to 6^th graders.