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Charlie’s father has always told Charlie that he’s a very special and fragile boy.  Protective of his son, Rajesh Pondicherry is a creative inventor and designer of various mechanisms in 1887 London.  Because Charlie has special needs and no mother, his bap doesn’t allow him to wander and doesn’t like him to spend too much time outdoors.  These limitations make Charlie an avid reader of adventure stories and the Almanack of the Elder Folk and Arcana of Britain and Northern Ireland by Reginald St. John Smythson.  Charlie’s vocabulary and imagination grow under the influence of this reading, which further teaches him about kobolds, trolls, dwarfs,Read More →

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The adventures of the Legend Hunters continue in Book 2, Darkmouth: Worlds Explode by Irish author Shane Hegarty.  Not unlike the world of Artemis Fowl, predicaments and otherworldly creatures populate Darkmouth, where Finn the Defiant resides.  As a swarm of Legends was descending, Finn’s father pushed his twelve year old son to safety, and the gateway to the Infested Side closed, trapping the last Legend Hunter, Hugo the Great.  Now, Finn has fewer than 48 hours to find his dad who has been declared dead by the Council of 12. Although Finn is determined to rescue his father, the prophesy predicts his peril.  As theRead More →

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In The Secrets of Solace, Jaliegh Johnson brings the fantasy World of Solace to life with maps, vivid descriptions, relatable conflicts, and characters to whom the reader can form a connection.  Although the target audience for Johnson’s book is tween readers, anyone who finds fascination in archives and museums will likely consider this tale intriguing. Because the Winterbocks died from a pestilence when their daughter Lina was nine years old, she has been entrusted to the care of Zara, a senior archivist in the mountain stronghold of Ortana—an underground community of rocks and caves.  Besides humans, Lina’s world is populated by shape-shifting chamelins, a sarnun speciesRead More →

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Friends, family, babysitting, and playing the French horn comprise the interests of twelve-year-old Gabby Duran.  To Gabby, every child is a puzzle-locked box that can be solved: “If you [are] interested in them enough to figure out the puzzle, you [can] open that box and completely connect with the person inside” (44).  That philosophy, and her aversion to the words strange or disgusting as descriptors for children and their behavior, make her a superior associate for the Association Linking Intergalactic and Earthlings as Neighbors (A.L.I.E.N). Working for A.L.I.E.N. as a Sitter to the Unsittables, Gabby encounters a troll family and their son Trymmy, who—just likeRead More →

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The Brothers of the Ikkuma Pit have fended for themselves since birth. They have no Mothers; only themselves and each other. When they arrive outside the Pit as babies, they must spend a whole night alone before they are welcomed inside to be cared for and guided by the Brothers that came before them. Every time a new Little Brother enters the Pit, a Big Brother must leave to make room for him. No Big Brother has ever returned after leaving to tell of what the outside world holds. Urgle is a Big Brother and he’s not very good at it. His Little Brother CubbyRead More →

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Lover of speed, flying, and his mother’s blackberry cobbler, ten-year-old Henry Stevens also idolizes his dad, Max.  In 1926, when Henry’s dad gets a job as an aviation mechanic with Howard Hughes “making the future,” Henry’s world changes dramatically, along with life as he knew it. Before Tomorrowland by Jeff Jensen, Brad Bird, Jonathan Case, and Damon Lindelof is a science fiction mystery-thriller that is as much Henry’s story as it is the story of Lee Brackett and his mother Clara, who is terminally ill with brain cancer.  As the two stories intersect, the reader learns about both possibility and the power of the imagination,Read More →

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Life is a physics lesson, and each of us plays a part in both weaving and repairing the fabric of the universe.  Both particles and waves of energy link us, bind us, protect us, and remind us that we a part of that tapestry.  These are the lessons that Wendy Mass discloses in her latest installment of the Willow Falls series, Graceful. In this book targeted for ages 8-12, readers will reconnect with familiar characters: Angelina D’Angelo, Grace, Bailey, Amanda, Leo, Rory, Tara, Connor, and David.  The latter seven comprise Team Grace, the guardians and advisors for the next Willow Falls Protector.  In a multi-genre format—with inventor’sRead More →

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On a perfect day for getting lost on purpose, the story of Ms. Rapscott’s Girls by Elise Primavera begins in pictures.  Although they are perhaps not as sophisticated, the drawings remind the reader of those in The Invention of Hugo Cabret written and illustrated by Brian Selznick, who also uses pictures to carry the story line artfully forward. Because it shares mystery, magic, adventure, and satirical issues about parental involvement, Primavera’s story can be compared to Lemony Snickett’s Series of Unfortunate Events.  Young readers will likely find the eight-year-old characters interesting in their familiarity.  Although the girls have been called loud, lazy, foolish, or unable to doRead More →

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Because she’s “a shadow, a footstep in the woods that disappears, a twig no one notices” (19) and because she spends so much time climbing apple trees, Teresa Jane Fowler is better known in Sidwell, Massachusetts, as Twig.  Twelve-year-old Twig, the protagonist in Alice Hoffman‘s newest book, Nightbird, is good at running and at keeping the Fowler family secrets—among them the recipes for specialty pink apple desserts, the effects of the Agnes Early curse, and the reasons for the family’s reclusive manners and unusual nature.  These secrets lead to hurt and loneliness for Twig, but she wears her loneliness like armor. Although life without aRead More →