Title: Kyleah’s Tree
Author: Janet Muirhead Hill
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Raven Publishing, Inc.
Pages: 192
ISBN: 978-0-9772525-9-6
Price: $12
Publishing Date: Aug 2008
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This young adult story addresses the problems of being an abandoned or orphan child living with foster care givers and the child imagining many threats that either don’t exist or are misinterpreted. Kyleah believes that if she could become prettier, her abandoning father and twin brother might come for her. She also believes that if she climbs a tall oak tree in the front yard right at sun rise, she will get her wishes.
She and foster brother Benjamin decide to run away from the foster home in Kansas to Canada, where they almost freeze while trying to escape border patrol and RCMP policemen. This is an exciting story that teaches much about many critical concepts as well as entertaining the reader. We rated it four hearts.
Title: Ivan of Aldenuri: The Forest of the Taurocs
Author: J.P. Foncea
Translator: Stephen Caro
Publisher and/or Distributor: Cambridge Brick House, Inc.
Pages: 261
ISBN: 978-1-59835-058-6
Price: $19.99
Publishing Date: 2008
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This is an excellent YA fantasy written by a lawyer in Spain and translated by a successful actor in England with lots of stage play translation experience.
Twelve-year-old Ivan discovers a medal in a hollow tree. Shortly afterwards, Ivan discovers he can float and fly. His new ability helps protect his community by allowing him to spot sea raiders. Ironically, they manage to kidnap him for a ransom effort later on.
An attack by sea monsters helps break him away from captivity and he flies away from the raiders’ ships to a land far away from his home. There, he becomes involved in saving new friends and communities from horrific monster Taurocs (a cross between bulls and dinosaurs). In the meantime, Ivan’s home community is being asked for a huge ransom by the sea raiders, even though they have lost Ivan.
This is a cleanly written and exciting story for young adults. We especially liked the emphasis on instinctively doing the right thing, no matter how frightened you are. We scored this five hearts.
Title: Journey to the Homeland
Author: Hannah Stahlhut
Illustrator: Hannah England
Publisher and/or Distributor: Baker Trittin Press
Pages: 107
ISBN: 978-0-9814893-0-8
Price: $10.95
Publishing Date: 2008
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This delightful YA novel won the first Tweener Time International Chapter Book Competition. Written by a teen for tweens (8-12), this wonderful chapter book follows a young man, Keegan, who wanders around in search of a home. His quest is complicated by his secret talent—the ability to speak telepathically with animals. His best friend and protector is an imposing jaguar, Adrian. His life becomes complicated and endangered by an arrogant girl, Nora, who suddenly takes the credit for animal speaking. They find themselves traveling together to a neighboring country trying to escape agents of their greedy king, but the chase doesn’t end with their crossing of the border.
The author and illustrator have won large scholarships for their efforts. This competition is an exciting addition to the book industry by providing young people an opportunity to prove their talents. We welcome this first competition’s winners and rate her book four hearts.
Title: Eclipsed by Shadow: The Legend of the Great Horse Series
Author: John Royce
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Micron Press
Pages: 288
ISBN: 978-0-9724121-3-1
Price: $19.95
Publishing Date: Summer 2008
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This fascinating YA first book of a trilogy on the history of man’s relationships with the horse is particularly well done. Meagan, a young teenager, witnesses the arrival of a new colt she names Promise. She enjoys socializing the colt and caring for him until it’s time for him to grow up with other colts. Several years later, the now young adult horse returns to Meagan’s horse farm to begin saddle training. Unfortunately, a crooked horse trainer is out to steal Promise. Meagan stumbles on the plot and manages to leap onto Promises back and jumps a fence in order to escape. Suddenly Promise sprouts wings and carries Meagan back in time to caveman times. Meagan falls off, only to find herself in the middle of a caveman horse hunt for fresh food. After a short time there, she jumps on another horse and finds herself as a slave in Rome, and then she moves forward to ride with the Mongols. After more hard times, she moves forward in time to the times of the Crusades, where the book ends with the reader anxious to know what is next.
This series teaches not only the history of Man’s relationship with the horse, but the history and day to day cultures of different civilizations of the past. We rated this first book five hearts.
Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Scholastic Press
Pages: 420
ISBN: 978-0-439-02348-1
Price: $17.99
Publishing Date: Oct 2008
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This YA is the best book I have read in the past year. In a possible future, America no longer exists. It has been replaced by Panen, a wealthy capitol surrounded by twelve districts. (It was thirteen districts until one was utterly destroyed as an example to the others) which are kept dirt poor and starving. To remind the districts they are totally under the control of the capitol, a unique levy is required every year. Each district must select one boy and one girl aged 10-17 to travel to the capitol to compete in the Hunger Games—a battle to the death of the selected youngsters until only one is left alive. The survivor’s district and the survivor are given vast rewards (money, food, and a life of ease ever after), so there is a strong vested interest in the districts participating willingly.
The tension is constant and the heroine, 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, is an accomplished hunter (poacher) and survivalist who brings her outdoor skills to the games. The boy selected from her district, Peeta, claims to have loved Katniss since they were five, much to her surprise. What if they have to try to kill one another? The conflicts are multiple and deadly. The book ends with the perfect set up for a series. Its treatment reminded me of Stephen King when he wrote The Long Walk as Richard Bachman. It is a theme dating back to the days of the Minotaur. The author handles the violence in a tasteful manner, but it still is pretty intense—a book more suited to the older segment of the YA genre. This promises to be an exciting series and will be ideal for reluctant readers. We rated it five hearts.
Title: Paraworld Zero
Author: Matthew Peterson
Illustrator: Matthew Peterson
Publisher and/or Distributor: Blue Works
Pages: 251
ISBN: 9781590924914
Price: $16.99
Publishing Date: 2008
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
Twelve-year-old orphan Simon Kent is a much abused nerd at school who wears glasses he doesn’t need in hopes that bullies won’t hit him. He has a whole drawerful of broken glasses, so that doesn’t work so well. All that changes when he accidentally meets Tonya, a girl whose hair changes colors like a giant mood ring and comes from a parallel universe. Simon discovers he can perform magic and uses it when he and Tonya find themselves running for their lives between parallel worlds.
This is the first in a wonderful series for mid-grade young adults that promises many more adventures. The author has mastered the formula for injecting a constantly increasing level of tension in his story. No, this does not replace Harry Potter. It’s totally different—it’s more SF than fantasy and definitely more American cultural oriented. This series should become a bestselling set of stories. We rated it an almost perfect five hearts.
Title: Chewy Moon
Author: Paige Shelton
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: iUniverse
Pages: 83
ISBN: 978-0-595-44431-1
Price: $9.95
Publishing Date: 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 3 hearts
This early midgrade novel is about Josie Abernathy and her playing and investigating with her new friend Sanana, a ghostly young slave girl. They share a love of all things athletic with the need to find a descendant of the man who killed Sanana many years ago to provide forgiveness. In addition, Josie takes on a special relationship with cats.
This is a pleasant story that teaches the importance of forgiveness and healing. It also emphasizes strong female characters. We rated this book three hearts.
Title: Shanghai Shadows
Author: Lois Ruby
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Holiday House, Inc.
Pages: 284
ISBN: 0-8234-1960-6
Price: $16.95
Publishing Date: 2006
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This superb young adult book chronicles in a fictionalized form the escape of 20,000 Jews from Austria in 1939 when the Nazis take over that country to the only country that will accept them—China. They are gathered into the foreign compounds of Shanghai. They soon discover that the encroaching Japanese may be just as bad as the Nazis. The story centers on a family of four—father, mother, older brother, younger sister—who steadily find their quality of life declining, along with everyone else’s. The concert violinist father and the caring mother find very little work. The brother and sister find themselves involved in an underground spy group and risk their lives and freedom almost daily.
Beyond its historical significance, this is a revealing story about family relationships under extreme stress. Seen through the eyes of Ilse, the young daughter, we witness what it’s like to only be able to find a handful of hours of minimum wage work in a totally alien country. Just when the reader believes the plot has become totally predictable, the author throws an incredible relationship twist (ah, ah, no peeking) into the story that takes our breath away. Just when you think it cannot get worse, it does so in a huge way.
Lois Ruby has become the social conscience of a whole generation of uninformed children. Without the usual histrionics of many holocaust books, she builds plausible stories with relationships that can be understood by teens and tweens to illustrate how bad this timeframe was. She has also done the same for the Civil War timeframe (Steal Away Home). It is no wonder why this retired librarian continues to win accolades for all her books. We rated this book five hearts.
Title: Last Dance at the Frosty Queen
Author: Richard Uhlig
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Knopf
Pages: 358
ISBN: 978-0-375-83967-2
Price: $15.99
Publishing Date: 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This “R” rated young adult book (explicit sex scenes) is a superbly written coming of age story centered in a small Kansas town in the 1980s. Arthur M. Flood is a member of a dysfunctional family: the widower-remarried funeral director father who escapes his melancholy by watching TV constantly; the older brother who mourns the loss of his high school sweetheart to the “world” and deals with it with booze, pot, and junk food; and Arthur, who deals with the confines of his small community and high school through frequent sex with a variety of inappropriate partners, including a teacher. Suddenly mysterious, wild, and crazy Vanessa comes into his life from urbane California and great wealth. Sent to stay with an uncle while she undergoes treatment at Mennigers in Topeka, Vanessa takes on Arthur as an interesting project.
The characters and the settings make this an especially strong, realistic commentary on small town Midwestern life and the need for its youth to escape to the opportunities of large, urban environments. We rated this well-crafted story five hearts.
Title: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy
Author: Ally Carter
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Hyperion
Pages: 236
ISBN: 978-142310005-8
Price: $16.99
Publishing Date: 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This is the second novel in a young adult series that focuses on a girls’ private school dedicated to training young women for careers in espionage—Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. Protagonist Cameron “Cammie” Morgan had to deal with a short-lived romance with Josh, a townie boy in the first series novel. In this story, Cammie and her friends return for their sophomore year of school to learn that the east wing of their mansion has been mysteriously closed off. Of course the young spies immediately begin obsessing over the mystery. Their curiosity is satisfied when a group of young men spies are inserted into a field exercise. Enter a contingent from the hitherto unknown Blackthorn Institute who has moved into the east wing.
The author has an almost magical ability to portray teenaged female angst issues with the complication of the natural instinct toward paranoia instilled in the girls by their training. The inner dialogue is hilarious and the story development pulls the reader along with the constant curiosity of what comes next in this shadow world’s dilemma. We rated this fun read five hearts.
Title: Sky
Author: Roderick Townley
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Pages: 266
ISBN: 0-689-85712-8
Price: $16.95
Publishing Date: 2004
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This superb young adult book takes on several age appropriate conflict themes. Alec “Sky” Schuyler is fifteen going on thirty. Attending high school in New York City in the 1950s is a challenge, especially when one is seeking to become a competent jazz musician, keep a low profile at school, win the heart of a cute girl, support an incompetent father while putting up with his unreasonable demands, and figure out which life path to take. Sky and his father escalate their conflict to the level where Sky runs away from home while continuing to complete school assignments. Life is further complicated by a male teacher’s inappropriate advances on Sky’s girl friend. Fortunately, help comes from a reluctant mentor in the form of a genius blind jazz pianist who takes on Sky as a special project.
The author has brought to life the core emotions of all these conflicts and manages to bring them to resolution with the artistry of a symphony conductor. For those of us who lived this timeframe and had an interest in the jazz scene of those years, this story is especially poignant. For the young target audience, it opens a window onto another reality. This is an ideal book for reluctant readers and for gifted readers. We rated it five hearts.
Title: Edgar Font’s Fakersville Power Station
Author: Patrick H.T. Doyle
Illustrator: Patrick H.T. Doyle
Publisher and/or Distributor: Armadillo Books
Pages: 303
ISBN: 978-0-9786132-1-1
Price: $7.99
Publishing Date: 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This is the second midgrade fantasy in the Edgar Font’s Search for A House to Haunt series. As the first novel, this one encourages communications between children and their grandparents. Audrey and Garrett accompany their grandfather to Northern California where drawings left by great grandfather Leo Font lead them to a most unusual deserted community powered by hydroelectric power. All is not as it seems, however; the community isn’t deserted, just hidden.
These first two books have been delightful. We love seeing the teamwork between grandparent and grandchildren. The stretching of the reader’s imagination is always foremost—“This really could happen, right?” The story line is rarely predictable and the characters and settings are memorable. We rated this book five hearts.
Title: Spy Mice: Goldwhiskers
Author: Heather Vogel Frederick
Illustrator: Sally Wern Comport
Publisher and/or Distributor: Aladin Paperbacks / Simon Schuster
Pages: 250
ISBN: 978-1-4169-1442-6
Price: $5.99
Publishing Date: 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This young midgrade spy novel reminds me of Oliver Twist. A robbery ring, run by an older rat named “Master,” (aka “Goldwhiskers”) is made up of orphan mice who are taught to steal. They have to please the Master with their efforts if they want to eat and be sheltered. A piece of the Crown Jewels of England is stolen and three American mice investigators (Oz, D.B., and Glory Goldenleaf) team up with mice from Scotland-Yard to find the missing piece and to expose to the world this nefarious plot.
It is a very cute, exciting story with short chapters, great settings, and wonderful characters. This is a stand-alone third in a series which is ideally suited for reluctant readers. We rated it five hearts.
Title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Author: Jeff Kinney
Illustrator: Jeff Kinney
Publisher and/or Distributor: Amulet Books / Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
Pages: 217
ISBN: 978-0-8109-9313-6
Price: $12.95
Publishing Date: 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This hilarious midgrade graphic novel about a professional nerd’s childhood in middle school is wonderfully realistic. Written in a journal format with self illustrations, we learn about the stresses and ironies that are ever present in a bright but non-athletic young man. This is not a perfect kid. He is just as likely to take advantage of other people given the chance to get ahead or to escape a painful experience. He’s particularly hard on those who are closest to him—especially his best friend.
The author shows us ourselves with uncanny accuracy. All of us have warts and pimples and painful memories. He portrays life in school and the cruelty of children in a manner that is all too familiar to many of us. We rated this book five hearts.
Title: Two Moon Princess
Author: Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Tanglewood
Pages: 324
ISBN: 978-1-933718-12-5
Price: $15.95
Publishing Date: Oct 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This midgrade medieval fantasy portrays a princess who wants to be competitive with men, while her parents insist on grooming her for a politically arranged marriage in the near future. She stumbles into an inter-dimensional gate that dumps her into modern Earth (Southern California) society. Fortunately, her mother’s brother lives on this side of the gate, and he enrolls her in college as a way of keeping her out of trouble until it’s time to open the gate again a month later. The princess finds herself shunting back and forth between worlds—ours and her own with two moons. In the process of all this, she finds both enemy threats and true love. We rated this book four hearts.
Title: Twilight
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Little, Brown and Company / Hachette Book Group USA
Pages: 400+
ISBN: 978-0-316-01584-4
Price: $8.99
Publishing Date: 2005
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This is the first of a YA romance/vampire trilogy written by the very personable, author-on-the-rise, Stephanie Meyer, who has been compared to J.K. Rowling. Bella goes to live with her dad in Washington State so her mother can travel with her significant other. As she tries to fit in with a new circle of acquaintances, she develops a love/hate relationship with a family that seems to pretty much keep to themselves. Her life is saved in a school parking lot car accident that should have left her crushed and broken. Instead, Edward of the odd family, saves her with his super human speed and strength.
This is a painfully portrayed coming of age and maturity novel under extremely unusual circumstances that include the vampire family that has members who are hundreds of years old. She falls deeply in love with Edward and must figure out how she can develop their relationship despite its unusual circumstances. This author is superbly able to develop characters and their interactions. We rated this book five hearts
Title: Red Prophet (1st of 6 in the Alvin Maker Series)
Author: Orson Scott Card adaped by Roland Bernard Brown
Illustrator: Renato Arlem and Miquel Montenegro
Publisher and/or Distributor: Marvel
Pages:
ISBN: 0-7851-2721-6
Price: $19.99
Publishing Date: May 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This graphic novel based on Card’s very popular Alvin Maker novels is perfect for reluctant reading boys. As should be expected, the picture quality is superb and the text adaptation works well with the graphics. This is a tale about the frontier of the mid-1800s in a universe where magic really works. It is a story dear to my heart because I grew up seven miles from its setting.
As an added bonus, there is a space-based alien story segment in the back of the book. This helps parents kill two birds with one stone in terms of appealing genres for boys. We rated the book five hearts.
Title: The Light-Bearer’s Daughter
Author: O.R. Melling
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Amulet Books (an imprint of Abrams Books)
Pages: 348
ISBN: 978-0-8109-0781-2
Price: $16.95
Publishing Date: 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This YA fantasy focuses on Irish protagonist, Dana Faolan, a young teen who constantly hunts for and hopes in finding her mother who walked out of her life when she was a toddler. Her father has decided that a change in environment to Canada and his relatives is necessary for his daughter’s mental health. Dana resents the impending move. In desperation, she agrees with a mysterious lady to a quest into the land of fairy. She is assisted by a large wolf (spirit guide), which is a good because she is being stalked by a twisted maniac. Her quest becomes a race against time because of the impending Canadian move. We rated this interesting book four hearts.
Title: Saving The Griffin
Author: Kristen Wolden Nitz
Illustrator: Yoshiko Jaeggi
Publisher and/or Distributor: Peachtree Publishers
Publisher Website: www.peachtree-online.com
Pages: 185
ISBN: 978-1-56145-380-1
Price: $14.95
Publishing Date: 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This is a darling Midgrade YA fantasy about Kate and Michael who discover a cute little baby griffin in an ornate garden in Italy. In their efforts to keep the griffin’s existence a secret, they become embroiled with greedy scientists, a strange being from another dimension, and the paparazzi. Where did the little tyke come from? How will they get him safely back home? Is his life in danger? Are their’s? In a pleasant mixture of modern and ancient times—reality and mythology—and a bit of magical realism mixed with parallel world concepts, the author stretches young readers’ minds like rubber bands. We rated this book five hearts.
Title: Quake: Disaster in San Francisco, 1906
Author: Gail Langer Karwoski
Illustrator: Robert Papp
Publisher and/or Distributor: Peachtree Publishers
Pages: 154
ISBN: 1-56145-369-2
Price: $7.95
Publishing Date: 2004
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This mid-grade historical novel takes on the great San Francisco quake and how it impacted on peoples’ lives for years afterward. It follows Jacob Kauffman’s fortunate survival of the many buildings collapsing in the quake, including his own family’s, and how he rescues a young Chinese boy from the rubble of another building. The author does a superb job of bringing the quake’s drama to life and also the subject of racial prejudice of that day. As the two boys seek food and safety, as well as their families, they have all kinds of adventures, both good and bad. We rated this excellent YA five hearts.
Title: The Vanishing Chip
Author: Mark Delaney
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Peachtree Publishers
Pages: 188
ISBN: 9781561451760
Price: $5.95
Publishing Date: 1998
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
Four nerdy, very bright kids form a relationship around their ability to investigate mysteries. A prototype computer chip on display in a modern museum suddenly disappears. A security guard at the museum is the prime suspect. Unfortunately, he is also the grandfather of one of the four kids. As they dig deeply into the mysterious disappearance, the foursome find themselves in dire danger—staring down the barrel of the real thief’s gun. This is a fun read and also teaches a lot about the computer industry. We rated it four hearts.
Title: Rare and Endangered
Author: John Dowd
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Peachtree Publishing
Pages: 170
ISBN: 9781561452170
Price: $5.95
Publishing Date: 2000
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This is a YA Caribbean Island eco-adventure. Jim and Julia become embroiled with a gang of poachers who are capturing endangered animals for sale on the black market.. What starts out as an educational internship at a research station with the purpose of tagging sea turtles, turns into creating endangered species out of Jim and Julia. The story moves quickly while providing excellent knowledge to student readers.
Title: Johnny and the Dead
Author: Terry Pratchett
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Harper Collins
Pages: 213
ISBN: 978-0-06-054190-3
Price: $5.99
Publishing Date: 1993
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This highly entertaining mid-grade examines what it would be like to be the only one able to see departed spirits. Because of that ability, protagonist Johnny must act as a spokesperson for a group of ghosts who about to lose their final resting place graveyard to the progress of development. That is Johnny’s dilemma. Along the way, he makes some wonderful friends among the dearly departed and learns how consistent people really are over the centuries. We rated this delightful book five hearts.
Title: Truckers
Author: Terry Pratchett
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Harper Collins
Pages: 261
ISBN: 978-0-06-009496-6
Price: $6.99
Publishing Date: 1998
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
Terry Pratchett is an amazing British author who can take an idea, such as the little people, and make it come to life with perfectly logical plots. This mid-grade novel is about a colony of little people living between the floors of a giant department store. Imaging their consternation when they discover an upcoming going-out-of-business sale means just that. Masklin, and outsider must step into the role of leader like a tiny Moses to lead this colony out of the store before it’s demolished and brave the new world of outside. Their escape vehicle is a large truck. Imagine the challenge of driving it whewn you’re a couple of inches tall. We rated this book five hearts.
Title: The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Author: Brian Selznick
Illustrator: Brian Selznick
Publisher and/or Distributor: Scholastic
Pages: 531
ISBN: 978-0-439-81378-5
Price: $22.99
Publishing Date: March 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This YA graphic novel is unusual. Unlike most books in this genre, which use a comic book format, in this book, each illustration is one to two pages in size. In some cases the pictures supplement the words and in others, the pictures tell the story. Hugo lives in the walls of a train station in Paris. After his parents had died, he came to the station to be with his uncle who was the clock maintenance man. When the uncle disappeared, Hugo took over his duties, keeping all the station’s clocks maintained. He had no money of his own, so he was forced into trash diving and stealing for his sustenance. A toy-making vendor and his granddaughter slowly come into the fugitive boy’s life, helping him to rise above the survival level. We rated this fascination book five hearts.
Title: Rosetta Stones
Author: Catherine Dix
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Central Ave Press
Pages: 209
ISBN: 0-9715344-2-X
Price: $14.95
Publishing Date: Jan 2008
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: hearts
This YA mystery/Coming of Age book is about a set of friends who are stalked by a serial killer beginning on their Senior Skip Day from high school. The author uses multiple points of view to move along rapidly by using each chapter from the point of view from different characters. Not always an easy technique, this author does it quite well. The story is well-sprinkled with emotion ups and downs. Fear and a sense of impending doom makes book read almost like a thriller. We rated it four hearts.
Title: The Spur on the Plate
Author: Maureen Rylance
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Trafford
Pages: 100
ISBN: 1-41205459-1
Price: $12.15
Publishing Date: 2005
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This Great Britain Pick of the Month Award-winning mid-grade historical novel is set on the wild border area between England and Scotland in the early 1500s. Teenager Meg Armstrong doesn’t believe her father is taking care of her family’s needs. Ever since he accidentally killed her three-year-old brother while leaving on another border raid, he has been in a non-functioning, black depression. Meg refuses to understand at all and finally hands him the gravest insult she can, a spur placed on an empty plate, in an attempt to get him functioning again. Instead, she finds herself going on a raid and getting her Clan Armstrong cross-wise with the King of Scotland. Suddenly the clan’s very existence is in dire danger.
The author brings an important period of Scottish history to life, placing it in the light of a very personal context. The customs and values brought out in the story reflect her excellent research of the times and place. We rated this book a score of four hearts.
Title: Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods
Author: Suzanne Collins
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Scholastic Press
Pages: 360
ISBN: 0-439-65623-0
Price: $16.95
Publishing Date: 2005
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This is a favorite series for many of our town’s mid-graders. Gregor a young man living in NYC, and his family are drawn down into an underworld beneath the city which is peopled by humans, mice, rats, giant cockroaches, and bats. In this adventure, a prophecy draws Gregor, his mother, and his baby sister down into the underground labyrinth where he must race against to solve the cause of a rampant plague, which is destroying many of his friends. This is excellent urban fantasy. We rated it four hearts.
Title: H.I.V.E.: The Higher Institute of Villainous Education
Author: Mark Walden
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
Pages: 309
ISBN: 978-1-4169-3571-1
Price: $15.99
Publishing Date: May 07
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This 10-14 year YA introduces Otto Malpense, a genius 13-year-old who runs the orphanage where he lives and totally embarrasses his country’s most powerful man on national TV. This has made him an ideal candidate for a super secret school for super villains. The only problem is Otto is truly a nice guy. Although the six-year training program attendance is mandatory and located on a secret island, Otto quickly forms an alliance with an athletic martial arts expert, a world-famous, beautiful diamond thief, and a computer expert (all fellow students) and plans what can’t be done—a breakout from the isolated school. Although handpicked by headmaster Dr. Nero for attendance and having mysterious ties to the school’s shadowy founder, Otto rebels against a structure over which he has little control. This is escape reading at its best and we rated it an appropriate five hearts.
Title: I’d tell You I Love You, but Then I’d Have to Kill You
Author: Ally Carter
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Hyperion
Pages: 284
ISBN: 1-4231-0003-4
Price: $15.99
Publishing Date: 2006
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
Cammie Morgan is a second generation Gallager Academy girl, attending a so-called snooty rich girls’ boarding school. Cammie, however, isn’t a boarder; the school is her home and her mother is the head mistress. On a lark in town, Cammie meets Josh, a nice boy, but a townie—he must never learn Cammie’s and Gallager Academy’s secret. The Academy is not a finishing school but a school for international spies. How can Cammie ever find love while she is learning secret writing and codes, karate, and how to be a bald-faced liar? Will it make a difference to Josh?
This 12 and up YA is a cute hoot. The author has a wonderful way of getting inside the head of an intelligent young lady caught in a quandary of conflicting loyalties and desires. Her story is especially interesting because it causes the reader to wonder if there really is such a place. This is an excellent read for girls and boys. We rated it five hearts.
Title: The Orange Slipknot
Author: Jan Young
Illustrator: Pat Lehmkuhl
Publisher and/or Distributor: Raven Publishing, Inc.
Pages: 168
ISBN: 978-0-9772525-5-8
Price: $10
Publishing Date: Nov 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This mid-grade book provides a first-hand view of what it’s like to grow up on a ranch in modern times. It also points out the reality of unintended consequences. Twelve-year-old Ben wants desperately to be seen as an adult and a real ranch hand. His problem is he wants that too badly—which leads him to constantly say and do the things that will get him seen in an opposite light—and in the process, almost causes his dad to almost lose his “Top Hand” job. Finally Ben gets his chance to prove himself, but will the ranch owner allow him that opportunity. Fortunately for the old rancher, Ben goes way beyond everyone’s expectations.
The author’s uncanny ability for character development probably stems from her background in the behavioral sciences. Her wide variety of writing experiences shows through in this, her first novel. We rated it four hearts.
Title: Extreme Monsters #4: Battling Bigfoot
Author: Louise Simonson
Illustrator: James W. Elston
Publisher and/or Distributor: Brighter Minds Media, Inc.
Pages: 95
ISBN: 157791255-1
Price: $3.99
Publishing Date: Sept 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
The extreme sports monsters have teamed up again. This time they find themselves in an up and downhill relay race against a team of factory-sponsored competitors. While they race, they discover they are being interfered with by Bigfoot. All is not as it seems when they find Bigfoot is trying to protect his family and his environment. This is a fun mid-grade chapter book filled with just the right amount of improbable and gross things that kids love. It also has fun puzzles and games to keep kids interested. We rated it four hearts.
Title: Starlight’s Courage
Author: Janet Muirhead Hill
Illustrator: Pat Lehmkuhl
Publisher and/or Distributor: Raven Publishing, Inc.
Pages: 160
ISBN: 0-9772525-4-X
Price: 9.00
Publishing Date: August 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
Ten-year-old Miranda is a troubled girl. She lives with her maternal grandparents in Montana because her father died shortly before she was born and her mother is working in Los Angeles. She focuses her need for love and loving on a damaged black stallion called Starlight. Out of concern for this horse, Miranda makes many wrong choices but ends up in the end winning over school enemies into friends and saving her precious Starlight. She is challenged by a vengeful insane man who sets out to kill Starlight and authority figures who see her activities as irresponsible and threatening.
This is an excellent book for reluctant readers. There are so many value lessons which are woven throughout the story. Miranda is a very independent spirit who finally discovers she is not along in the world. We rated this mid-grade book five hearts.
Title: Dagger of Doom: #6 Knights of the Silver Dragon Series
Author: Kerry Daniel Roberts
Illustrator: Emily Fiegenshun
Publisher and/or Distributor: Mirror Stone Books
Pages: 179
ISBN: 0-7869-3631-2
Price: 5.99
Publishing Date: 2005
Reader: Bob Spear
