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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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Heart-rending love stories abound in both history and literature, and Meredith Moore has drawn from that store of knowledge to write her debut novel, I Am Her Revenge.  Taking threads from the tales of Elaine and Lancelot, Romeo and Juliet,  Merlin and Vivien, and Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, Moore weaves a tapestry of mystery, romance, intrigue, and revenge.  This is a tale told by a masterful storyteller, complete with imagery richness—details like chiseled cheekbones, a whisper-soft kiss, the smell of a barely tamed wilderness, and the sky, a riotous canvas of pink and orange and red, abound. Dismantled by love and having experienced intimately theRead More →

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A story’s first line is often a good indicator of its merit, and Kieran Scott joins the ranks of other great story tellers with her opening line in What Waits in the Woods: “Callie Valasquez wasn’t ready to die” (3). When smart, creative, loyal Callie latches onto a life raft the second week at her new school, she has no idea that the decision may lead to her death, but her choice to befriend coarse, snarky, athletic Lissa and dainty, meek, sweet Penelope leads to a camping trip in the woods and the horror-filled adventure that follows. More secure navigating the concrete and pavement ofRead More →

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Around the world, youth celebrate a rite of passage into adulthood, a time when they leave behind the behaviors and beliefs from childhood, unlock their potential, and enter the world as fledgling adults.  When and how this transition occurs depends on where adolescents live and in what cultures they grow up. Paige McKenzie, with Alyssa Sheinmel, writes the story of one such transition in The Haunting of Sunshine Girl.   This first book in a paranormal series based on the YouTube sensation asks the question: What if, when you turned sixteen, everything you thought you knew about the world shifted?  A week past her 16th birthday, SunshineRead More →

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A hidden past and an uncertain future.  There are mysteries around every shady corner in Atlantia, a crumbling underwater world, once hailed as the last outpost of humanity on earth.  But now, the formerly glorious city is barely breathing, hanging on by the annual exchange of minerals (and people) for food and resources from their long-estranged sister city Above.  The people are restless, afraid, engaged in black market trading in their Deepmarket, and looking to the corrupt priesthood for answers and hope. At the center of this dying world is Rio, daughter of the recently deceased woman who was the beloved leader of their people, and whose mysteriousRead More →

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Legendary comic book writer Stan Lee‘s first prose novel, Convergence, is going to fly off your shelves.   A mismatched group of regular teens has suddenly been imbued with mystical ancient powers, linked to the animals of the Chinese zodiac.   At the center is 14 year old Chinese American Steven Lee, who has never really felt like he fits in anywhere and more than anything, wishes he could be a hero.  On a school trip to Hong Kong, Steven stumbles into an underground cavern where he’s unwittingly caught up in an energy convergence that gives him the deadly powers of the Tiger.  Steven’s power comesRead More →

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Summertime, St. Kilda, Australia.  The long, languid days of  Christmas holiday break stretch before 15 year old Sky Martin.  She and her family, she says, are “like inverse superheroes, marked by our defects.  Dad was addicted to beer and bootlegs. Gully [her younger brother] had ‘social difficulties’ … I was surface clean, but underneath a weird hormonal stew was simmering. My defects weren’t the kind you see just from looking.” (2)  Into lives of the Martin family that summer come 19 year old enigmatic Nancy, who challenges, thrills, taunts, and awakes something in Sky she didn’t know was there and tragic, broken, and oh-so-hot Luke, who isRead More →

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“The universe is in fact a multiverse. Countless dimensions exist, all layered within one another.  Each dimension represents one set of possibilities. Essentially, everything that can happen does happen.” (6)  I love this idea.  Not only as the premise for Claudia Gray‘s new series, which debuts this Fall with A Thousand Pieces of You, but as a thought experiment and a beacon of wonder.  One tiny choice can change your destiny, right? Imagine who you’d be if you’d chosen another career, a different partner, or even driven to work on a different route.  Of course, all these minor changes probably don’t amount to much inRead More →

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Focused, driven, athletic, and gifted with anything mathematical, Carina Monroe plans to major in mathematics with a focus in cryptography when she graduates from Martindale High.  But her plans get sidetracked when her mother commits suicide, leaving her with a deep chasm of grief, loss, and loneliness that nothing can fill—until she meets Tanner Sloan. Tanner, who loves computers and lives in a loud, boisterous family, makes her realize that life can be more than work and study. Carina’s therapist has tried to help her heal, but Carina’s lies create an obstacle in that arena.  Still, Carina finds some of the therapist’s advice helpful, likeRead More →