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In The House of Found Objects: A Bea Bellerose Mystery, Jo Beckett-King introduces middle grade readers to her twelve-year-old brainiac detective. When Bea’s parents travel to New Orleans for a conference, rather than allowing their daughter to remain in New Jersey, they send her to Paris to visit Aunt Juliette. Yet, Aunt Juliette, a journalist for a weekly news magazine in France, is too busy to play tour guide. And Grandma Sylvie, aka Mamie, is too burdened by her antiques business to share the sites. When Bea’s mom and dad first told her they were sending her to France, they’d made the trip sound likeRead More →

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Eyes on the Sky by J. Kasper Kramer is a delightful book with multiple layers. As the reader pulls these back, we learn a good deal about the desert and about Roswell, New Mexico, during 1945-1947 when the USA was conducting experiments. We also learn a great amount about twelve-year-old Dorothy Duncan and her brother Dwight. A lover of science and comic books, Dorothy is a Junior Member of the American Rocket Society. She cares a great deal about jet propulsion systems and radio echoes from the moon, so she gets odd looks from others who invite her into conversation. As far as she isRead More →

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Jumata Emill writes a killer murder mystery with his new young adult novel, Wander in the Dark. It will lead readers down circuitous paths as they attempt to follow the clues and resolve the murder of Chloe Danvers. Set in New Orleans at the time of mardi gras in February, the novel features the family drama of Marcel and Amir Trudeau. The two teen brothers are estranged, however, because their father, Martin Trudeau is himself guilty of adultery. Now the famous chef is married with a second family who seems to have it all in Amir’s eyes: connections, cash, and closeness. When Marcel invites AmirRead More →

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Bittersweet in the Hollow by Kate Pearsall is set in Caball Hollow in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, where legend and lore thrive. Pearsall tells the story of the James family and the lives of its women whose legacy is superstition. A family of suspected witches, the James women use minerals and locally grown plants to create infusions, tinctures, and balms. With these homemade remedies and whispered words, they treat people’s ailments. However, this story extends beyond a family and natural remedies to become about our deepest desires, a belief in possibility, and the sacrifices we are willing to make in the name ofRead More →

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Written in a fashion similar to that of a fractured fairy tale, Pride and Premeditation is a tongue-in-cheek retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Although Tirzah Price employs many of the same characters and even opens with a play on Austen’s original line, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a brilliant idea, conceived and executed by a clever young woman, must be claimed by a man” (1), she takes other liberties. While Price makes an effort to stay true to the etiquette and customs of the early nineteenth century, Lizzie Bennet’s ambitions to become a barrister—or even a solicitor—would have been out ofRead More →

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Since I had recently watched an episode of Dr. Phil in which an individual was being treated for the condition which forms the underlying conflict in Remedy by Eireann Corrigan, I guessed the mysterious illness early on. Because Corrigan’s protagonist, Cara Jean Wakely couldn’t exactly articulate her current ailment and stated that she and her mother Shaylene moved around a lot, those details tipped me off. However, the reader doesn’t learn the secret until much later when Cara’s friend Xavier Barnes (aka Science Kid) plants the idea in her brain. Xavier, who lectures and sometimes drones and laughs at his own jokes, loves gathering dataRead More →

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The plot of Pamela N. Harris’s debut novel When You Look Like Us revolves around the life of sixteen-year-old Jay Murphy, his sister Nicole (Nic), and his grandmother Marie Murphy (MiMi). MiMi’s hands are “badges of honor, proof of hard work” (56), and Jay looks forward to the day when she can rest them. He vows that “MiMi is going to retire in Florida, or wherever else she wants to” (17) once he builds her nest egg as repayment for her sacrifices. The family lives in Newport News, Virginia, in a housing project called the Ducts. Despite what other people might think, Jay is livingRead More →

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Ember Williams leads an active life at Heller High. She covets a 4.0 GPA, runs track, and captains the debate team. On the surface, she looks like a high-achieving teenager with a bright future. But there are secrets at Heller High. Secrets that Ember wants to uncover and force into the light. The Red Court is a rumor, smoke vanishing into nothing under the fluorescent lighting of Heller High’s hallways. It’s rumored to be a secret society made up of female students, led by a mysterious ‘Queen of Hearts.’ They say the Red Court grants wishes. Desperate students can stuff a note in an unclaimedRead More →

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A magnet for mystery and adventure and interested in creepy things, Devlin Quick loves sleuthing.  All her detective practice is training for the day she can devote herself to finding her dad’s killer.  Sleuthing runs in the family since Devlin’s dad covered international politics as an investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal and her mom, Blaine, is New York’s Police Commissioner with a reputation for being “fierce and fair and fearless” (94).  Although twelve-year-old Devlin is willing to leave the fierce quality to others, she acts when she encounters a wrong. Set in both Manhattan, New York, and in Big Timber, Montana, The DevlinRead More →