Title: Alex and the Amazing Dr. Frankenslime
Author: Margot Desannoy
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Yellow Daffodil Press
Pages: 94
ISBN: 978-0-9824943-7-0
Price: $12.95
Publishing Date: March 31, 2010
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This bittersweet, sardonically funny peek into a young girl and her dysfunctional family’s lives is both highly entertaining and illuminating. Written for mid-grade (9-14-year-olds) teens and preteens, this book uses quirky internal and external dialog to portray what it’s like to grow up in a family beset by terrible anger management and socialization skills coupled with an alcoholic father who constantly runs away from conflict and stress into bars and bottles. Alex, a 12-year-old Tom Boy, seeks to cope and regain her father’s love and attention through baseball. While her parents separate, her mother insists Alex go through therapy sessions until they become too expensive for a single mother to afford.
Alex is beset from all sides: an alcoholic father, a highly favored brat of a younger brother, and a mother with the personality of a Gorgon. Alex’s inner dialog shows how she uses humor to cope while indirectly pleading for love, attention, and understanding. She has to balance enormous guilt feelings that somehow her family’s situation is all her fault with horrific anger issues against the people all around her and the totally dysfunctional family and social situations she encounters every day.
The author, a highly experienced professional family counselor, has done an amazing job of portraying typical problems encountered in her career field, what lies behind these problems, the sublimated cries for help from troubled young people and their parents, and what success should start to look like over time for the counselor , her patients, and their families. Troubled or not, teens and parents will gain a useful perspective on modern family life from reading this book aloud as a family or silently as individuals. We rated this entertaining and enlightening book a high five hearts.
Title: The Fire Stone
Author: Riley Carney
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Book Light Press
Publisher Website: www.booklightpress.com
Pages: 305
ISBN: 9780984130702
Price: $20.95
Publishing Date: 2010
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This YA Fantasy is exceptionally remarkable in that it is the first in a series (Reign of the Elements) of five books, with a new series soon to begin, all written by a sixteen-year-old young lady from Colorado. It features a Cinderella-like human boy, Matt, a magical giant bird-like Alorath named Sam, two elves, a dwarf, a wizard, and a warrior. Matt has been abused by his parents all his fifteen years. In between his many chores, he has been taught by the dwarf, and now the wizard steps forward to watch over Matt and guide him on a totally new path on his own. He can’t help but pick up more friends along the way to saving small kingdoms and searching for the first elemental talisman—the Fire Stone. All the time he and his friends and mentors fight against forces of the Dark Lord in a race to obtain the stone. Matt discovers he is capable of magic and also learns how to fight to defend himself and the forces of good.
Ms Carney reminds me so much of Christopher Paolini and his youthful start. She includes the best elements of a good fantasy without going overboard. Her characters are likeable and realistic. The plot has plenty of twists, with friends and family really being totally what they did not seem. There is humor, coming of age, values, and logic buried throughout the story. It’s a pleasant read for young and old. We rated this book five hearts.
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
Rating: 4 hearts
This nicely done midgrade fantasy from an imprint of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.is well structured for reluctant readers, leading them through the story quickly. Brothers Driskoll and Kellach and their spunky thief young lady friend, Moyra, are manipulated by an evil wizard into thinking the brothers are trying to kill each other with a magical dagger. The interplay of emotions and misunderstood communications make for constant conflict. This is an exciting story from the Dungeons and Dragons publishers. We rated it four hearts.
Title: Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports
Author: James Patterson
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Little, Brown and Company
Pages: 404
ISBN: 978-0-316-11280-1
Price: 16.99
Publishing Date: May 07
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This tween young adult thriller is about Max and her friends, who have been genetically altered to become “Bird People.” They have escaped their laboratory of origin and are fighting to save the world from wolf-man mutations from the same lab and its evil scientists. A threat to her relationship with her best friend “Fang” causes her group to split forces in a fight against the greedy lab-owning multinational corporation that is attempting to wipe out much of the world’s population while taking over the remains of the planet. At the same, Max learns who her real parents are.
James Patterson continues to demonstrate his incredible range of genre mastery with this reluctant reader series, which is absolutely impressive. All the needed elements for this age of readers are there—humor, coming of age, fantastic fantasy, a fast paced plot, and characters that readily endear themselves to our hearts. We rated this book a solid five hearts.
Title: Runt the Hunted
Author: Daniel Schwabauer
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Clear Water Press
Pages: 304
ISBN: 978-09742972-3-1
Price: 17.99
Publishing Date: July 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This children’s fantasy sequel to Runt the Brave is a stand-alone story of Runt JaRed, the small mouse, and his tribulations with the unjust, mad King SoSheth of the mouse colony Tira-nor. Runt must somehow stay alive while foiling an overwhelming attack by evil rats. For readers of the Old Testament, you will recognize many arch-type parallels with the David and Saul story.
The author has the uncanny ability to turn animal characters into human-like roles. He compares very favorably with Jacques’ Redwall series. This is a perfect book for reluctant readers and can be read at multiple levels. We rated it a high five hearts.
Title: The Serpent’s Spell
Author: Rae Bridgman
Illustrator: Rae Bridgman
Publisher and/or Distributor: Great Plains Publications
Pages: 191
ISBN: 1-894283-67-8
Price: $16.95
Publishing Date: 2006
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This is an interesting Harry Potter substitute, worth reading by young adults while awaiting the next HP. It takes place on Canada’s plains. Two young cousins, Wil and Sophie, attend a magical school, live in a secret magical town, and set out to discover why someone is killing off all the garter snakes and such as they gather for the winter. Betrayed and frustrated at every turn, the cousins seek to save the snakes and discover their connections to an ancient secret society. We rated this fun book four hearts.
Title: Edgar Font’s Hunt for a House to Haunt: Adventure One The Castle Tower Lighthouse
Author: Patrick H. T. Doyle
Illustrator: Patrick H. T. Doyle
Publisher and/or Distributor: Armadillo Books
Pages: 220
ISBN: 0-9786132-0-1
Price: $6.99
Publishing Date: 2006
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
At last, a young adult midgrade series to take the place of Lemony Snicket, and it’s about 1,000% better. A brother and sister, Garrett and Audrey, are motherless and find themselves staying with their professional woman aunt while their father gads about the world as an architect. When their aunt is invited to join their father at a building site in China for the summer, the kids find themselves foisted off on their eccentric grandfather, Edgar Font, who has taken on the task of searching for the proper hours to haunt when he passes on.
This book was so positive. Granddad pushes them beyond their fear and self-confidence limits, teaching them how to take on the world and even the spirit realms. I loved the author’s illustrations and how the kids learn to stand on their own two feet with the help of a family mentor. It’s so refreshing to find adults who are not trying to take advantage of children, which is what I abhorred in Lemony Snicket. We rated this excellent new start to a series five hearts.
Title: Cracks
Author: Mike Klaassen
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Blue Works
Publisher Website: www.windstormcreative.com
Pages: 255
ISBN: 1-59092-171-2
Price: $14.99
Publishing Date: 2006
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
Combine Holes with Lord of the Flies and Deliverance and you have an appreciation for Cracks. This is a mature young adult novel about a group of Kansas juvenile offenders who have been taken on a rock climbing/spelunking adventure challenge in the mountains of Arkansas. Severe repercussions from a release of the New Madrid fault kill all the adult authority figures in the group, leaving the juvenile offenders to survive on their own in the wilds of the Ozarks. The 16-year-old protagonist, Bodie McCann, must somehow survive while getting away from the other young men who are far worse than he is. This is a thrilling, chilling book. It brings forth many issues of civilization and the realities of severe Midwestern earthquakes. We rated this excellent adventure four hearts.
Title: The Call to Shakabaz
Author: Amy Wachspress
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Woza Books
Pages: 272
ISBN: 0-9788350-2-6
Price: $15.50
Publishing Date: January 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This midgrade fantasy is perfect for a young reluctant reader. The book is unusual in that all the characters are people of color—not only African American hues, but other colors as well. Four modern orphans find themselves escorted through a gate into another dimension where they come to take over the roles of their mother and her three siblings as protectors and problem solvers for different people in conflict with an evil wizard. Unique among other fantasy adventure books, they discover only non-violent solutions to the impinging threats.
The author shows the four children, along with their very intelligent parrot, growing and developing into their legacy—becoming what they are intended to become—The Four. We ranked this excellent book five hearts.
Title: Mr. Touchdown
Author: Lyda Phillips
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: iUniverse
Pages: 182
ISBN: 0-595-35900-0
Price: $13.95
Publishing Date: 2005
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
It’s not often we hand out a perfect score five hearts rating, but this Writers Notes Magazine award-winning YA novel is absolutely worthy of it. We grade the plot, pacing, setting, characterization, dialog, tell vs. show, point of view, symbolism, emotional content, comparison to the genre, and mechanics. This wonderful story about what it was like to be a young black person in the Deep South during the segregation-breaking 1960s is superbly written. It maxed out in all eleven categories, which is a rare happening here.
Eddie and his sister Lakeesha are two of several bright black teenagers selected by their minister father and two outside civil rights agencies to enter the all white Forrest High School. The children all go through many frightening and humiliating experiences. Fortunately for Eddie, his natural athletic abilities force the football coach to use him in a game, which he helps win. He finally gets acceptance, but not his sister, who is badly injured by red neck youths. The author shows their reality through their eyes and hearts.
Title: Afoot: A Tale of the Great Dakota Turkey Drive
Author: George Brandsberg
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: The Cedartip Company
Pages: 173
ISBN: 0-9771844-1-2
Price: $11.85
Publishing Date: 2006
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
A scoundrel uncle robs 13-year-old Joshua Green and his older sister of their bakery after the death of their parents. She is farmed out as a domestic and Joshua becomes a slave on his uncle’s farm. Both escape separately and head for the gold fields. Part way there, Joshua is robbed and must join an animal drive for a job. The animals turn out to be a huge flock of turkeys, which must reach the gold fields 200 miles away before Thanksgiving to earn top dollar. Joshua has to walk the entire distance since he cannot afford a horse. Rufus, the drover, is a nasty man who treats everyone like dirt, but has his own crosses to bear. Along the way, Joshua learns the importance of never giving up and the fact that friends sometimes come from unusual backgrounds. He overcomes obstacle after obstacle and earns the respect of the drover and most of his fellow herders.
This mid-grade adventure story will pull young readers through it strongly. There is action, comedy, and interesting historical culture laced throughout it. We rated it five hearts.
Title: White As Snow: A Christmas Story
Author: Donna Westover Gallup
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Cladach Publishing
Pages: 144
ISBN: 0975961942
Price: $9.99
Publishing Date: 2006
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
In this mid-grade/young adult novel, 10-year-old Charlie, a boy of the 1860s, bravely tries to keep up the family ranch while his grandfather lies in a comatose state with an unknown illness. The ranch work proves way too arduous for a boy of his age by himself until help comes from an itinerate mountain man, Jess, a Christ archetype. Jess helps with the work, takes care of gramps, and teaches Charlie how to become a real man.
This is a touching story and demonstrates the many ways that love of fellow man can be given and the humanity of the Son of God. This an exciting adventure story while carrying a message of value. We rated it four hearts.
Title: Harvey Girl
Author: Sheila Wood Foard
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Texas Tech University Press
Pages: 153
ISBN: 0-89672-570-7
Price: $16.95
Publishing Date: 2006
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
Fred Harvey, the father of the American fast food concept, established a chain of excellent restaurants along train lines to service the needs of hungry passengers. These were staffed by young ladies thoroughly trained to provide fast, friendly service to hungry patrons in a hurry. The author has done a superb job of researching and interviewing those “Harvey Girls” who are still surviving.
This mid-grade novel follows a young girl from a hard scrabble farm in the Ozarks and a domineering father to several Harvey Houses in the Southwest in search of a better life for herself. Tall for her age of fourteen, she fibs about her age to get hired and finds herself launched on an adventure across Western America. Her growth in service skills and sophistication demonstrate her willingness to rise socially. Her resolve to do the right thing while maintaining a degree of loyalty to friends, even when they take advantage of her, shows a maturity beyond her years. We rated this excellent historical read four hearts.
Title: Before I Go
Author: Riley Weston
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Campfire Press
Pages: 403
ISBN: 0-9779543-2-3
Price: $21.95
Publishing Date: 2006
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This rather mature young adult novel traces an ice skating young girl’s journey toward the Olympics, assisted by her mother/coach. The girl spends every spare minute on the ice, forgoing all social activities, except for her one and only friend, a poor little rich boy who goes through life mostly ignored by his successful father. Suddenly, after a final triumphing performance just prior to the Olympic games, the girl is diagnosed with cancer. Her life and the lives of those around her begin to unravel.
The characters are very strong and their emotions are always at the forefront. Although the girl’s family is focused around high performance, their relationships are highly dysfunctional, making for plenty of conflict. We rated this book four hearts.
Title: Larklight
Author: Philip Reeve
Illustrator: David Wyatt
Publisher and/or Distributor: Bloomsbury Children’s Books
Pages: 384
ISBN: 1-59990-020-3
Price: $16.95
Publishing Date: October 2006
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This mid grade young adult fantasy from England is told through the eyes of two children, a brother (Art Mumby) and his sister (Myrtle Mumby), who live in an apparent Victorian mansion in outer space. Their mother has gone missing for years and their father is an absent minded professor type who specializes in space-inhabiting animals. The family is beset by giant spiders and evil villains. The children escape to the moon, but their adventures are only beginning.
The story is an unusual mixture of what people would have called science fiction back in Victorian times. For that reason, it is mind-expanding for youthful readers of today who must try to understand British thinking of the 1800s and fantasy environments and denizens that make no sense given modern knowledge and scientific understanding. This book truly creates a whole different universe. We rated it four hearts.
Title: Keeper of the Flames: Daughter of Destiny
Author: Jenna Solitaire
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Tor Teens
Pages: 263
ISBN: 0-765-35358-X
Price: $
Publishing Date: 2006
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This is the third book in a fantasy series for mature young adults. The author takes on the persona of a young woman who has been given the duty to find and reclaim control over various wooden plaques with have the power to control the elements. Already mastering wind and water, Jenna must now find and control the most dangerous board yet—Fire. Her search takes her below Pompei, where she risks getting burnt by both the board and an evil twin of the man she loves. We rated this book four hearts.
Title: Hearts of Stone
Author: Kathleen Ernst
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Dutton Children’s Books
Pages: 256
ISBN: 0-525-47686-5
Price: $16.99
Publishing Date: Oct 2006
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
Fifteen-year-old Hannah lives as a homesteader in Eastern Tennessee during the Civil War. Her father died two years ago fighting for the Union. Bushwhackers have just burnt done the family’s outbuildings and her mother’s heart gives out on her during the attack. Ben, her best friend and neighbor, is in a similar situation but on the side of the Confederacy. Hannah is now faced with resisting do-gooder neighbors, keeping her family of 5-year-old twin sisters and a 10-year-old brother together and traveling 250 miles to Nashville to their Aunt Ellen.
The realism of this author’s historical writing is marvelous. She has captured the heart rending hardships of constant imminent starvation of children and adults. Hannah’s inventiveness for finding survival-level work in war-torn, refugee-overrun Nashville is amazing. Her courage against all odds is remarkable. We rated this award winning author’s young adult book five hearts.
