Article posted October 1, 2012 at 07:30 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 154
When a young girl disappears seemingly into thin air in the quaint German town where Pia and her friend Stefan live, the two bond together to solve the mystery. But the mystery only deepens when another girl is taken, and they begin to connect the local horror stories their elderly friend, Herr Schiller, tells them to the present day happenings. As described by John Connolly, the bestselling author of The Book of Lost Things, this book is "Both a wonderful first novel, and a strange, haunting modern fairytale, The Vanishing of Katharina Linden is that rare beast: a book that reawakens in adults the childhood terror of the bogeyman, and confirms for children that the world is an infinitely stranger place than adults might like to pretend . . ."
Article posted October 1, 2012 at 07:30 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 154
Article posted September 14, 2012 at 04:42 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 361
In a future where fossil fuels have been exhausted and coastal cities are underwater, Nailer scavenges now useless ships for metal and tries to avoid the murderous rages of his alcoholic father. He is smart and scrappy but just barely making it from day to day until he discovers a shipwreck, which could make him rich. Now Nailer is faced with an ethical dilemma: should he kill the only survivor or save her? This winner of the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature is an exciting and well written thriller.
Article posted September 14, 2012 at 04:42 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 361
Article posted September 14, 2012 at 04:09 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 197
In the not so distant future, scientists have developed brain implants that can cure neurological disorders, eradicate learning disabilities, control artificial limbs and more. One would think this is a good thing, right? But a group dedicated to disenfranchising people with these implants (who they call “amps”) rises to power, and the “amps” are stripped of their basic human rights. This “pure pride” group believes people who have these implants have an unfair advantage over the “unamped” population. Owen, a mild manned school teacher, who received his amp to control epilepsy he developed after a terrible accident in his teens, finds out his implant is special. He is one of an elite group of amps with superhuman skills. Forced to flee from the city, Owen is directed to a trailer park in the middle of nowhere, which turns out to be the center of the amp world. He meets Lyle, the leader of this special group of amps and discovers they are being killed. Will Owen let Lyle lead him to use his powers to start a war? This is a real page turner!
Article posted September 14, 2012 at 04:09 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 197
Article posted May 22, 2012 at 03:53 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 1317
Lucky Linderman, the main character in this surreal, thought provoking book, is anything but lucky. He has been bullied his entire school career by an obnoxious and cruel classmate. His parents won’t stand up for him against the bully. His father is incredibly passive and emotionally absent, interested only in his job, and his mother escapes the pressures of her marriage and family by swimming. Lucky’s grandfather is still MIA (missing in action) decades after the Vietnam war ends, and his grandmother asks Lucky to bring him back on her deathbed. That’s a lot of pressure on a freshman in high school, and the grownups in his life are not doing anything to help him! The only place Lucky feels good about himself is in his dreams, where he visits his Grandfather and breaks him out of prison camp in various ways. Ultimately with the help of a Ninja Girl, his grandfather, and the ants, Lucky is able to reclaim power over his own life. In a starred review in Booklist, Everybody Sees the Ants is described thus, “Blending magic and realism, this is a subtly written, profoundly honest novel about a kid falling through the cracks and pulling himself back up” (Hutley: “Everybody Sees the Ants).
Article posted May 22, 2012 at 03:53 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 1317
Article posted April 25, 2012 at 02:50 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 715
Set in the Victorian town of Scree, this imaginative steampunk novel is a winner. Scree is home to Peculiars, people who are have genetic abnormalities resulting in wings or goblinism. Peculiars are shunned by greater society. Lena’s grandmother constantly tells her she inherited her extremely long hands and feet (signs of goblinism) from her father, who left when she was very young. Is Lena’s father a Peculiar? When Lena turns 18, she sets out in search of her father, which turns into a huge adventure. Ultimately about “belonging”, The Peculiars has elements of romance, adventure, science fiction and fantasy all rolled into a rollicking good read!
Article posted April 25, 2012 at 02:50 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 715
Article posted April 23, 2012 at 05:40 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 296
Mysterious, enchanting, romantic and beautifully written, The Night Circus stole my heart.“The man billed as Prospero the Enchanter receives a fair amount of correspondence via the theater office, but this is the first envelope addressed to him that contains a suicide note, and it is also the first to arrive carefully pinned to the coat of a five-year-old girl.” The little girl is Prospero’s daughter, and he soon discovers she has inherited his magical powers. In no time he has made a wager with a rival, the "man in the grey suit”, on a contest between his daughter and a student of his rival’s choosing. The two students spend their childhoods training and honing their skills for the challenge, whose rules are clear to neither of them, and their adulthoods in the mesmerizing dance into which their growing attraction to one another turns the contest. The Night Circus is created as the venue for the contest and continues to morph and become more and more amazing as the two compete and sometimes collaborate to create new magical attractions. The reader travels to many different locations and back and forth in time as the circus moves around the globe in an unpredictable manner and events are viewed from the perspective of more than one character. Every character in this lovely novel is interesting, perhaps none more than the Night Circus itself, which Celia describes as “a wonder and a comfort and a mystery all together.” This portrayal of the circus aptly describes the book, which has been optioned as a movie. I only hope the moviemakers do it justice!
Article posted April 23, 2012 at 05:40 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 296
Article posted April 10, 2012 at 05:06 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 304
Amber Appleton’s life is pretty grim, but with her sunny disposition and never give up attitude, she manages to rise above her circumstances. Amber’s dad left when she was a baby; her mother is a raging alcoholic who has trouble keeping a job and a man. Amber and her mother are currently living on a school bus, which Amber’s mother drives during the day. But she doesn’t let all this get her down. Instead, she forges unusual friendships and helps others. Amber not only visits the old folks’ home, she organizes duels with Joan of Old, who is as relentlessly negative as Amber is positive. She uses Aretha Franklin songs to teach English to Korean ladies at the Catholic church and calls them the “KDFC” or “Korean Divas for Christ.” Through her dog, Bobby Big Boy aka B3 aka B Thrice, Amber befriends and trades haikus with a Vietnam vet. Amber has a wonderful role model and support person in Donna, the powerhouse lawyer who is the mother of her best friend who just happens to be autistic. Despite all her positive mojo, Amber feels the pain of her life, and when tragedy strikes her family, she shuts down. Sorta Like a Rock Star is a feel good novel about very bad things; it made me laugh, it made me cry, and it made me wish I could be Amber Appleton’s friend.
Article posted April 10, 2012 at 05:06 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 304
Article posted March 29, 2012 at 06:24 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 347
Leverage was not at all what I expected. I thought it was going to be that typical “high school jocks on steroids versus the weaker kids who are saved by the outsider “ plot, but it turned out to be much more powerful. Be warned: this book contains very graphic scenes of violence. It is not for the faint of heart. A triumvirate of football players terrorizes athletes on “lesser” teams, culminating in an act of unspeakable violence. There are two witnesses, but both are afraid to tell what they saw. Danny, a fabulously talented though undersized gymnast, is afraid the jocks will kill him if they find out he was there. Kurt, a mammoth of a boy recruited to help the football team win the state championship, is haunted by a terrible event in his past and just can’t tell on his teammates. Finally a girl with mad tech skills helps the boys confront the abusers and bring what happened out into the light of day. If you want a suspenseful thought provoking tale ripped from recent headlines, this is your book.
Article posted March 29, 2012 at 06:24 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 347
Article posted March 27, 2012 at 05:19 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 253
This science fiction novel examines issues of family, the good of the one versus the good of the masses and medical ethics. Mason, a whiz at biology and a football star, has never met his father. All he has of him is a DVD of his dad reading The Runaway Bunny , and he can’t even see his father’s face. He longs to know more about his father, but his alcoholic mother is not talking. His biology teacher encourages Mason to apply for a scholarship from the local biotech firm to attend Stanford. Mason’s mother is vehemently opposed to him applying for a scholarship from TroDyn, and Mason can’t figure out why. But then it all starts to come together. Mason goes to the nursing home where his mother works to confront her with information about her past. There Mason meets Laila, a beautiful teen under his mother’s care to whom he is immediately drawn. He plays the DVD of his father reading to the catatonic girl and her companions, and the girl wakes up and asks him to help her escape from the nursing home. Things begin to get even more complicated. What is the matter with Laila? What does Mason’s mother know? Why is Laila getting weaker and weaker? Can Mason save the girl he has grown to love or must she be sacrificed to the greater good?
Article posted March 27, 2012 at 05:19 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 253
Article posted March 15, 2012 at 04:52 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 244
Set during World War II, this book focuses on the lives of Lithuanians deported to Siberia. Lina, fifteen and an extremely talented artist, narrates this well researched account of a very dark period in history, which is based on the experiences of the authors’ family. Septeys, the author, traveled to Lithuania and interviewed family members, historians and government officials to gather information for Between Shades of Gray. Like the author’s relatives, our fictional heroine Lina’s entire family is taken from their house by the Soviet police. Her father is sent to prison, and Lina, her mother and younger brother are transported to a work farm. Conditions are deplorable at the camp, and many of the prisoners die. Some who survive do so by hard work for which they receive 300 grams of bread per day, others, such as the mother of Lina’s eventual love interest Andrius are forced to do unspeakable things to ensure the survival of their loved ones. Lina takes great risks by making drawings that document the harsh conditions and atrocities the prisoners withstand. She passes the drawings on to others who are leaving the camp, hoping they will reach her father in prison. Many students will be less familiar with this story than that of the Holocaust; this book does a good job of making it real for them.
Article posted March 15, 2012 at 04:52 PM GMT0 •
comment • Reads 244
Lucky Linderman, the main character in this surreal, thought provoking book, is anything but lucky. He has been bullied his entire school career by an obnoxious and cruel classmate. His parents won’t stand up for him against the bully. His father is incredibly passive and emotionally absent, interested only in his job, and his mother escapes the pressures of her marriage and family by swimming. Lucky’s grandfather is still MIA (missing in action) decades after the Vietnam war ends, and his grandmother asks Lucky to bring him back on her deathbed. That’s a lot of pressure on a freshman in high school, and the grownups in his life are not doing anything to help him! The only place Lucky feels good about himself is in his dreams, where he visits his Grandfather and breaks him out of prison camp in various ways. Ultimately with the help of a Ninja Girl, his grandfather, and the ants, Lucky is able to reclaim power over his own life. In a starred review in Booklist, Everybody Sees the Ants is described thus, “Blending magic and realism, this is a subtly written, profoundly honest novel about a kid falling through the cracks and pulling himself back up” (Hutley: “Everybody Sees the Ants).
Set in the Victorian town of Scree, this imaginative steampunk novel is a winner. Scree is home to Peculiars, people who are have genetic abnormalities resulting in wings or goblinism. Peculiars are shunned by greater society. Lena’s grandmother constantly tells her she inherited her extremely long hands and feet (signs of goblinism) from her father, who left when she was very young. Is Lena’s father a Peculiar? When Lena turns 18, she sets out in search of her father, which turns into a huge adventure. Ultimately about “belonging”, The Peculiars has elements of romance, adventure, science fiction and fantasy all rolled into a rollicking good read!
Amber Appleton’s life is pretty grim, but with her sunny disposition and never give up attitude, she manages to rise above her circumstances. Amber’s dad left when she was a baby; her mother is a raging alcoholic who has trouble keeping a job and a man. Amber and her mother are currently living on a school bus, which Amber’s mother drives during the day. But she doesn’t let all this get her down. Instead, she forges unusual friendships and helps others. Amber not only visits the old folks’ home, she organizes duels with Joan of Old, who is as relentlessly negative as Amber is positive. She uses Aretha Franklin songs to teach English to Korean ladies at the Catholic church and calls them the “KDFC” or “Korean Divas for Christ.” Through her dog, Bobby Big Boy aka B3 aka B Thrice, Amber befriends and trades haikus with a Vietnam vet. Amber has a wonderful role model and support person in Donna, the powerhouse lawyer who is the mother of her best friend who just happens to be autistic. Despite all her positive mojo, Amber feels the pain of her life, and when tragedy strikes her family, she shuts down. Sorta Like a Rock Star is a feel good novel about very bad things; it made me laugh, it made me cry, and it made me wish I could be Amber Appleton’s friend. 
Leverage was not at all what I expected. I thought it was going to be that typical “high school jocks on steroids versus the weaker kids who are saved by the outsider “ plot, but it turned out to be much more powerful. Be warned: this book contains very graphic scenes of violence. It is not for the faint of heart. A triumvirate of football players terrorizes athletes on “lesser” teams, culminating in an act of unspeakable violence. There are two witnesses, but both are afraid to tell what they saw. Danny, a fabulously talented though undersized gymnast, is afraid the jocks will kill him if they find out he was there. Kurt, a mammoth of a boy recruited to help the football team win the state championship, is haunted by a terrible event in his past and just can’t tell on his teammates. Finally a girl with mad tech skills helps the boys confront the abusers and bring what happened out into the light of day. If you want a suspenseful thought provoking tale ripped from recent headlines, this is your book. 
This science fiction novel examines issues of family, the good of the one versus the good of the masses and medical ethics. Mason, a whiz at biology and a football star, has never met his father. All he has of him is a DVD of his dad reading The Runaway Bunny , and he can’t even see his father’s face. He longs to know more about his father, but his alcoholic mother is not talking. His biology teacher encourages Mason to apply for a scholarship from the local biotech firm to attend Stanford. Mason’s mother is vehemently opposed to him applying for a scholarship from TroDyn, and Mason can’t figure out why. But then it all starts to come together. Mason goes to the nursing home where his mother works to confront her with information about her past. There Mason meets Laila, a beautiful teen under his mother’s care to whom he is immediately drawn. He plays the DVD of his father reading to the catatonic girl and her companions, and the girl wakes up and asks him to help her escape from the nursing home. Things begin to get even more complicated. What is the matter with Laila? What does Mason’s mother know? Why is Laila getting weaker and weaker? Can Mason save the girl he has grown to love or must she be sacrificed to the greater good?
Set during World War II, this book focuses on the lives of Lithuanians deported to Siberia. Lina, fifteen and an extremely talented artist, narrates this well researched account of a very dark period in history, which is based on the experiences of the authors’ family. Septeys, the author, traveled to Lithuania and interviewed family members, historians and government officials to gather information for Between Shades of Gray. Like the author’s relatives, our fictional heroine Lina’s entire family is taken from their house by the Soviet police. Her father is sent to prison, and Lina, her mother and younger brother are transported to a work farm. Conditions are deplorable at the camp, and many of the prisoners die. Some who survive do so by hard work for which they receive 300 grams of bread per day, others, such as the mother of Lina’s eventual love interest Andrius are forced to do unspeakable things to ensure the survival of their loved ones. Lina takes great risks by making drawings that document the harsh conditions and atrocities the prisoners withstand. She passes the drawings on to others who are leaving the camp, hoping they will reach her father in prison. Many students will be less familiar with this story than that of the Holocaust; this book does a good job of making it real for them. 