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For readers who appreciate topics like Arthurian Legend, museum artifacts, bravery, or World War II history, The Metropolitans by Carol Goodman will not disappoint.  Goodman blends these subjects in a time-bending mystery that features four thirteen-year-olds who themselves have endured persecution for their cultural heritage: Madge McGrory, an Irish Catholic; Walt Rosenberg, a Jewish boy; Kiku Akiyama, a Japanese American; and Sose Tehsakónhes, a Mohawk Indian, also known as Joe.  The four form the Brotherhood of the Lost, since they have all experienced the trauma of loss but have found one another, bonding in friendship and courage.  But with those positive traits come their opponents:Read More →

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Maximum racing is dangerous; one out of ten cars doesn’t make it to the finish line.  But race car driver Cassica Hayle is fast, flighty, and full of fierce life.  Possessing an addictive, restle ss energy and delighted by chaos and speed, Cassica craves life in the fast lane and wants to escape Coppermouth,  a barely surviving, backwater town where the stars at night are actually “restless orbital weapons moving steadily, left over from the Omniwar”(30) when death machines  “destroyed whole cities with lances of fire from space” (31). Now, in Coppermouth ,  people die from dust lung, a respiratory affliction resulting from dust blowingRead More →

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Just when I was beginning to think The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl was simply a fantasy to entertain tweens in a Marvel Comics style, the book turned into a legitimately powerful tale (pun entirely intended!).  With this Squirrel Meets World installment, the husband and wife team of Shannon Hale and Dean Hale cleverly pens a multi-genre adventure-mystery featuring superhero “Doreen Green, age fourteen. Over five feet tall and not an inch mean” (6), who is also “ with powers of squirrel and powers of girl” (259). Despite her super hero abilities, Doreen has realistic and adolescent relatable life-dilemmas—she has body image issues and friendship challenges at UnionRead More →

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Readers who enjoy reading fantasy-adventure stories like the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull or the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer will likely find pleasure in the Secrets of the Pied Piper series by Matthew Cody. In The Magician’s Key, the second book in Cody’s series, thirteen-year-old Max Weber and her younger brother Carter are separated after the Pied Piper used Carter to free himself from imprisonment in the Black Tower.  What had begun as a quick research trip to German so that Max’s father could work on his new book turned into something stranger than fiction.  Now Max’s parents are missing, her brother isRead More →

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Two young people, one twelve and the other only thirteen, aspire to change the world. Hobson Smythe is muir, an ordinary human from a remote settlement called Dusk where everything is “cold and dull, a tiny outpost smothered in snow and pine needles” (106).  Hazel Faeregine is mehrùn, a magical being who has lived her entire life sheltered from hardship in Impyria, where everything is “an explosion of colors and sound, swift riptides of people and money” (106).   Despite their different backgrounds, both Hob and Hazel wish to matter, to make a difference, and to fight the injustices they see. Hazel’s family has ruled theRead More →

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In A Riddle in Ruby: The Changers Key by Kent Davis, the brave Ruby Teach is back, and has found herself a voluntary captive of the man she was running from. While Ruby is training to be a soldier for an upcoming war, her father and friends are searching for her by means of a special coded journal.  As Ruby is fights to prove her worth, and train to be as good a soldier as the other Reeves, she is experimented on by the scientist in hopes of finding out her secret. She makes new friends along the way, and is confronted with her darkRead More →

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In The Littlest Bigfoot, New York Times Best Seller Jennifer Weiner delivers the first of what I hope to be many books for young adults.  This is a story about two girls from two different worlds who have always felt like outsiders but somehow form an unlikely friendship.  There is twelve-year-old Alice, who is ashamed of her unruly hair, and larger-than-average body, and has difficulty fitting in at school. She is being shipped off to her either boarding school at The Experimental Center for Love and Learning, where “everyone has a thing,” and lentil loaf is a dinner staple.  There she meets her bunkmates RiyaRead More →

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Inspired by ancient Chinese folklore and woven with both adventure and villainy, When the Sea Turned to Silver by Grace Lin is a lyrical, well-told tale, complete with full-color illustrations.  It is the tale of Pinmei, a shy girl whose words freeze in her throat at the sight of anyone unfamiliar, and of Yishan, a boy who often forgets he is young and speaks with a confidence and vehemence that belie his youth. Both Pinmei and Yishan live on a remote mountain, a place of solitude.  But the tranquility of their lives is shattered when soldiers come and capture Amah, Pinmei’s grandmother, who is the famous storyteller.  People areRead More →

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The Crown’s Game is a story about a woman named Vika, who has to decide between honor or love. She has a duty to her country to win the Crown’s Game, but she also wants to experience love and life. Vika encounters Pasha and Nikolai, who will have a great impact on the decision that will affect the rest of her life. Vika will soon know the meaning of love through the encounters that she has with Nikolai and Pasha as the games continues. The Crown’s Game reveals that magic can be found in all forms of the characters whether is performed or felt. AsRead More →