Review: Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

Code Name Verity review

Tags: young adult, middle grade, historical fiction, World War II, pilots, concentration camps, poetry

Summary

While flying an Allied fighter plane from Paris to England, American ATA pilot and amateur poet, Rose Justice, is captured by the Nazis and sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious women's concentration camp. Trapped in horrific circumstances, Rose finds hope in the impossible through the loyalty, bravery and friendship of her fellow prisoners. But will that be enough to endure the fate that’s in store for her?

Elizabeth Wein, author of the critically-acclaimed and best-selling Code Name Verity, delivers another stunning WWII thriller. The unforgettable story of Rose Justice is forged from heart-wrenching courage, resolve, and the slim, bright chance of survival.

Review

For me, Code Name Verity's domination of the YA literary scene came about not from its compelling premise and thriller-like aspects, but from the strength of Elizabeth Wein's writing, of her writing voice. Which is why I never had a doubt that ROSE UNDER FIRE wouldn't be excellent. To have what the narrative voice that I associated with Julie/Maddie in CNV seemingly transplanted onto Rose was a little jarring at first for me--but then Rose's own unique brand of strength emerged, roaring, and fed my readerly sympathies and investment. She is smart, resilient, and a much more resonant writer than she gives herself credit for... in other words, exactly the kind of YA heroine that can win hearts anywhere.

ROSE UNDER FIRE deals with a particular dark chapter of World War II history: Nazi doctors performing torturous experiments in the name of "scientific advancement" on young prisoners. The very idea alone is chilling enough, but ROSE UNDER FIRE stays clear of historical moroseness and heavy-handed eulogizing by ensuring that its focus stays clearly on the characters. Rose is joined on the page by more admirable female supporting characters than I can keep track of. What Wein does so well in her two WWII historical novels is that she doesn't merely let the characters' predicaments demand readers' sympathies: rather, the characters--big-hearted, smart-mouthed, brave or frightened--and the empathy they deserve speak for themselves. These are characters we would like anywhere, in any story, in any time period.

Elizabeth Wein has accomplished what few YA writers have yet to do, and that is to make historical fiction popular and resonant. If she continues to write historical fiction, I'll for sure be glad, but I'd also be happy with whatever else she chooses to write in the future. Her surehanded characterization and narrative voice have made me a fan through everything.

Cover discussion: I feel like it changed quite a bit from the hardback cover for Code Name Verity, and I don't know how I feel about it. Still, I appreciate that it's different from most of the other YA covers out there. Its illustrated quality belies the fact that most of the book takes place under the most chilling conditions.

Miramax / Sept. 10, 2013 / Hardcover / 368pp. / $17.99

ARC received from publisher for review. Thank you!

Review: Moon Over Manifest by Claire Vanderpool

Tags: middle grade, Newbery Award, historical fiction, small towns, mystery, immigrants

Summary

12-year-old Abilene Tucker’s dad sends her back to his childhood town of Manifest for the summer while he works the railroads. Abilene is not too thrilled by the dullness of town, but things begin to look up when she discovers a hidden trove of trinkets and letters dated from 1917 and 1918. Through a “business agreement” with Miss Sadie, the local diviner, Abilene begins to unravel the story of two friends, Ned and Jinx, that took place over the years 1917-18, back when Manifest was a mining town that was tense with the mass diversity of immigrants arriving for work. But what do Ned and Jinx’s nearly 20-year-old story have to do with her? And why is her father never mentioned in any of Miss Sadie’s stories?

Review

I wasn’t swept away by MOON OVER MANIFEST the way I want books, especially Newbery Award-winning ones, to do to me. In some ways, this is an odd book: the 1936 plotline mingles with the 1917-1918 plotline that’s told through stories, and for some reason or another I found the 1918 plotline so much more interesting than the 1936 plotline. I actually have to shake my head a little at how it’s possible for the 1936 plotline to be so dull. But there you have it: what could have been a charming plotline about Abilene Tucker arriving at Manifest, getting to know the town’s quirky residents, and digging into its secrets turned into a snoozefest in which Abilene runs around town with all the productivity of one of those annoying little dogs that always have so much energy and yet are so stupid, has placeholder conversations with the townspeople and eats their food, and purportedly has adventures with her two friends (whom I couldn’t pick out of a three-person lineup if I tried, they were so uncharacterized) without actually doing anything that was actually worth writing 350+ pages about.

That was a bit harsh of me. I like clever books that surprise and outsmart me, and the revelation at MOON OVER MANIFEST’s ending did that, and even brought out some tears in me. However, under no circumstances can I wholeheartedly recommend a book just for its good ending if I felt the rest of it was just average. And, yeah, I felt MOON OVER MANIFEST was just average. It’s clever, the way the two storylines finally connected, but that’s not enough to overcome average characters and a slow plot. If I was inclined to put it down several times in the middle, how do you think a middle-grade audience would feel?

Delacorte / Oct. 12, 2010 / Hardcover / 368pp. / $16.99

Personal copy.

Review: Wonder by R. J. Palacio

Tags: middle grade, contemporary, acceptance

Summary

August Pullman is ten years old and starting school. Previously, he was homeschooled, because Auggie was born with a facial deformity. Auggie, as well as the other people in his life, have mixed feelings about him entering school, but perhaps Auggie will prove to everyone, as well as himself, that with a heart of gold, he can accomplish things beyond everyone’s expectations.

Review

If this book doesn’t get its own slew of awards this year, there is no justice in the literary world. WONDER is unmatched in the middle-grade contemporary genre—but, in fact, it is not middle-grade so much as it is a winning tale that transcends reading age groups.

There are many great things I can talk about regarding WONDER, but my favorite thing about it is how R. J. Palacio successfully uses multiple perspectives to weave together a very full portrait of Auggie and his struggles and triumphs. Palacio treats the story humanly and realistically. Just as in real life, characters are not perfect in this book: Auggie’s older sister, Via, struggles with her guilt over her occasional flashes of resentment and embarrassment over her brother, while Auggie’s friend Jack learns how to balance social expectations with his personal feelings about their friendship. As readers, then, we might prefer some characters over others, but we cannot hate any of them, because we fully understand where they come from.

Auggie, the protagonist, is a character that simultaneously possesses the youthful optimism of the truly good and the observational skills of one who has borne more than he should have to. My heart jumped each time he made an insightful observation on subtleties in human behavior, such as the way he remarks on that “one-two look” people give him and his face. You know what he’s talking about, because you’ve either received it, or have done it (the latter doesn’t make you a bad person, as this book shows). Auggie’s narration is so honest and unflinching you feel like you should pity him, but you can’t, because he just wants to be a normal boy…only he is too good of a person to be considered just normal. You know how that movie Say Anything has the tag line “To know Lloyd Dobler is to love him”? Yeah. To know August Pullman is to love him.

WONDER is marketed as a middle-grade novel, at least in the US, but I think it can be even better appreciated by older readers who are aware of both the innocent and not-so-innocent actions of children and also how cruel the world can be. Regardless of your age and genre preferences, WONDER will leave you in a mess of strong emotions and have you better appreciating your blessings. Thank you, R. J. Palacio, for reminding us of what it means to be human.

Similar Authors
Holly Goldberg Sloan

Cover discussion: It isn't that much to look at, but I like that color blue, and after reading the book, I fully appreciate how the cover doesn't overshadow the book's contents or set up misleading expectations.

Knopf / Feb. 14, 2012 / Hardcover / 320pp. / $15.99

Personal copy.

Review: Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead

Tags: middle grade, contemporary, friendship

Summary

Georges (the S is silent; yes, his parents are crazy Seurat fans) is just an ordinary boy, slightly north of nerdy, who’s trying to survive seventh grade. Then, in his new apartment building, he meets Safer, a boy his own age, and gets pulled into Safer’s strange spy games. But as Safer’s games get stranger and stranger, Georges has to decide where to draw the line between fantasy and reality…both within himself and without.

Review

Rebecca Stead, whose previous book, When You Reach Me, I loved (and, apparently, so did a lot of other people, as it won the Newbery), is back with another middle grade novel, LIAR & SPY. Different in feel and content from When You Reach Me, it nevertheless pays homage to the intelligence and subtleties possible for middle grade literature.

Georges and other characters of LIAR & SPY are fairly average in terms of memorability, but wicked smart in terms of intelligence for characters their age. It’s not every day you get to read a middle-grade novel that involve the attempted English spelling reform movement and the umami taste (that’s the one that recognizes delicious or savory foods). Knowledge can come whenever and wherever, in all forms, as Rebecca Stead proves over and over again.

Safer’s suspicious and passive-aggressive behavior did get on my nerves pretty quickly, as they did Georges’, but the characters’ insecurities, actions, and feelings are all very genuine to the physical and emotional turmoil of middle school. And, as always, Stead writes a killer of an ending, one that nearly singlehandedly bumped my rating of this book up a whole star. Alas, the rest of LIAR & SPY didn’t capture my affections the way When You Reach Me did—the pacing was slower and the characters not as easily likable. Nevertheless, despite the lack of emotional connection on my part, it is a touching and impressive work of literature that fans of middle grade and young adult literature alike should consider reading.

Cover discussion: So unique and deceptively simplistic. I like how it retains similar elements from the cover of When You Reach Me!

Wendy Lamb Books / Aug. 7, 2012 / Hardcover / 192pp. / $15.99

e-galley received for review from publisher and NetGalley.

Review: The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman

Tags: YA, middle grace, juvenile fiction, historical fiction, time travel, American South, Antebellum, slavery

Summary

In the sweltering summer of 1960, 13-year-old Sophie’s newly divorced mother sends her to her family’s old plantation to live. Sophie, awkward in her body and struggling to be the graceful lady her family demands her be while she’d rather bury her nose in books, thinks it will be a miserable summer…until she meets a strange creature who ends up sending her back in time to 1860!

Sophie’s Fairchild ancestors mistake her as a slave, and at first the work demands are unfamiliar and difficult. But gradually, Sophie learns to manage herself, and better understands her white ancestors as well as her fellow slaves. Still, there’s the problem of returning to 1960…

Review

THE FREEDOM MAZE is an odd and intriguing book, blending two historical periods with mystical elements. At its core, though, this is a traditional coming-of-age story—which actually makes it hard for me to decide how I feel about this book.

In middle school, I read a book called The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen, which tells the story of a modern girl who gets thrown back in time to WWII Europe. THE FREEDOM MAZE follows the same storypath. It is clear that Sherman has meticulously done her research on both time periods: the dialogue feels authentic, social beliefs ingrained, and details regarding setting extraordinary. It’s hard enough accurately depicting one historical period; Delia Sherman has to make everyone look like underachievers by doing so for two!

All of that is the backdrop, however, for the classic bildungsroman structure of this story. THE FREEDOM MAZE involves slavery and racism and Southern culture, but it’s not interested in that so much as it is in Sophie’s development from a petulant child to a more independent teenager. And that’s where my potential love for this book trips up. Sophie is sympathetic at the beginning of the novel, when she is ordered this way and that by her “Southern belle” mother and grandmother, but when half the book passes and Sophie is still petulant and incompetent, my sympathy for her waned a bit. Of course, it wouldn’t be a bildungsroman if Sophie didn’t eventually learn, but it was a bit of a struggle for me in the middle to continue to be invested in the well-being of a timid and fretful girl. Think Mary from The Secret Garden, thrust into the pre-Civil War American South.

THE FREEDOM MAZE is not a book for those who like their plots and pacing action-packed and always-running. I put the book down several times out of repetitiveness and Sophie’s stagnancy before I began to be invested. And while I’m glad to have finished it, half of a book with a slow plot and fretful main character is still too much for me to like it fully. THE FREEDOM MAZE will be best for patient readers who like their readings challenging, well-researched, and with just a dash of the fantastical.

Similar Authors
Jane Yolen (The Devil's Arithmetic)
Nancy Werlin
Frances Hodgson Burnett

Cover discussion: Oh, I like that it's unusually old-fashioned! Just like the story, the cover is the sort that rewards the discerning and patient: it will grow on you the more time you spend with it.

Big Mouth House / Nov. 22, 2011 / Hardcover / 258pp. / $16.95

Personal e-book purchased.

Review: Ordinary Magic by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway

Tags: middle grade, fantasy, family, magic

Summary

On Abby Hale’s twelfth birthday, she tests as an “Ord”—a person who has no magical abilities at all. In Abby’s world, to be without magic is almost unheard of, and Abby’s newfound status as an Ord makes life quite difficult for her and her family.

Fortunately, Abby hears about a school for Ords like hers. At school, she continues her general education but also learns how to survive in the world of magic as an Ord. King Stephen’s recent proclamations offer more protection for Ords, but there are always people who prize Ords’ imperviousness to magic, and would do practically anything to get their hands on an Ord…

Review

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. “Charming” doesn’t even begin to cover the magical delight that is ORDINARY MAGIC. From a fascinating magical world to laugh-out-loud character interactions, there is nothing ordinary about this book at all!

ORDINARY MAGIC is as good as a Pixar movie in terms of having both kid and adult appeal. Young readers will be fascinated by the colorful, yet familiar, world that Rubino-Bradway creates, replete with magic carpets, boarding schools, and kickass family members.

What makes ORDINARY MAGIC truly extraordinary, however, is its rare quality of appealing to a wide age range of readers. The story zips back and forth with witty banter, and it is the more experienced reader that will be delighted with how Rubino-Bradway mashes together so many almost stereotypical features of magical worlds to create one that is unique and not at all stereotypical. There are a whole bunch of cute romantic undercurrents throughout the story that will make you squeel with suppressed glee.

Readers will surely get a heck of an experience out of ORDINARY MAGIC. This is truly one of the most memorable middle-grade novels I’ve read in recent years.

Similar Authors
Stephanie Burgis
Lindsay Eland

Cover discussion: A delightful, colorful, and approachable cover to match the book's content!

Bloomsbury / May 8, 2012 / Hardcover / 288pp. / $16.99

e-galley received from NetGalley and publisher.

Review: Eye of the Storm by Kate Messner

Tags: middle grade, dystopian, global warming

Summary

Jaden is the daughter of Stephen Meggs, the renowned scientist who has created a StormSafe community that guarantees protection from the monster storms and tornadoes that are ravaging the entire earth due to climate change. Jaden should feel lucky for the chance to live with her father in the StormSafe community for a summer and attend Eye on Tomorrow, a prestigious science camp for young people. However, unexpected discoveries in the process of working on storm dissipation models with her new friends Alex and Risha make Jaden suspicious of what her father is really working on for his research. The truth is shocking and horrifying, but is there anything that Jaden and her friends can do to stop innocent people from being hurt by the storms?

Review

Kate Messner is a queen when it comes to middle-grade contemporary literature, but her take on MG dystopian does not disappoint. EYE OF THE STORM is a relevant story that contains the meticulous research and believable characters that are trademarks of Messner’s writing.

It’s hard to read EYE OF THE STORM today and not think of the frightening tornadoes that have recently hit the US. It makes the premise all the more believable, the book all the more a great read for kids. Messner blends meteorological science seamlessly into a fast-paced plot, and the book’s message—that if we don’t start doing something about today’s global warming, then the future will be grim indeed—is quite clear. It’s the best way to give kids an important lesson: cool science tossed into an exciting story, the moral easily extrapolated from the all-too-possible setting.

Some things that did frustrate me a little with EYE OF THE STORM were how polarized the adults were, and how dramatic the plot and narration got at times. EYE OF THE STORM felt very much like an “adults did bad things, and now it’s up to us kids to fix the problem” tale, which to me felt like the too conveniently easy way to drive the story’s message home to readers. The last half or third of the book felt like an endless event of friends screaming life-or-death orders/suggestions to one another, storms tearing up things, and glass shattering. Think a scene from the movie Twister, only played out over the course of 100 or so pages. The marathon demands on my heart were rather exhausting and perhaps, I think, not that necessary.

Nevertheless, EYE OF THE STORM is sure to delight its intended audience of middle-grade and juvenile readers. This is one I’d definitely put in schools, libraries, and gift boxes. Relevant, well-written, and exciting, Kate Messner’s latest book deserves to be read.

Cover discussion: I love how unique it is! I love how it keeps the same style as Kate Messner's other MG novels but has a more intense spin to it.

Walker Childrens / Feb. 28, 2012 / Hardcover / 304pp. / $16.99

e-galley received from publisher and NetGalley. Thank you!

Review: The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

The Queen's Thief, Book 1

Tags: juvenile fiction, middle grade, YA, fantasy, thieves

Summary

Gen’s boasts about being able to steal anything land him in the king of Sounis’ prison. But then the Sounisian king’s magus has a special job for Gen: to help steal Hamiathes’ Gift, a mythical stone that is said to give the person whom the thief hands it to the right to rule. Their journey is a long and interesting one, with an undetermined chance of success, but Gen’s namesake being Eugenides, the God of Thieves, means that he just might have some more luck, skill—and secrets—than your average everyday thief.

Review

Every time I think of this series, I kick myself for not having started it when I was younger. Not exactly because I’d enjoy it more as a younger reader, but because I would have had more years to crush on Eugenides and the masterful storytelling that Megan Whalen Turner is capable of.

To be honest, in the beginning I wasn’t very impressed with THE THIEF. The story starts in prison, and Gen is sick and scrawny and cranky. Not quite the most endearing character at this point. Even when Gen, the magus, the magus’ two apprentices, and their guard set off on their journey to steal Hamiathes’ Gift, I was less than pleased by Gen and the apprentices constantly ragging on each other.

But gradually, my vision expanded beyond Gen’s pettiness and immaturity and began to appreciate the, shall we say, “surroundings.” The majority of THE THIEF is a quest, and I can’t pinpoint when I began to fall in love with these quarrelsome characters, but fall in love I did. As their personalities became clearer to me, I was often forced to revise my previous judgments on their character and even like them—or, in some characters’ case, feel more suspicious of them. Turner draws heavily upon the setting and stories of Ancient Greece for her story, and I could imagine the rolling landscapes, the endless olive trees, and the sunshine as I read.

THE THIEF proves extraordinary in the last third or so, as Gen attempts to figure out how to steal Hamiathes’ Gift. I have heard that Megan Whalen Turner is a master of surprising plot twists, and was so delighted at what was revealed to me in the end. (Which I’ll not spoil for you, no way.) There are few things in books as exciting as a well-executed plot twist—but they also run the risk of being unbelievable. Thankfully, in retrospect, you realize that Turner sets up her revelations excellently, subtly yet memorably.

THE THIEF is a fantasy adventure that should appeal to readers both young and old. Rich with Mediterranean influences, stories-within-stories, and characters whose hair you really, really want to ruffle, it is no wonder that this book has withstood the test of time. I will be returning to you, Gen, when I need another dose of your cleverness and snark!

Cover discussion: Fantastical and timeless. I love it.

Greenwillow Books / Dec. 27, 2005 / Paperback (reprint) / 304pp. / $6.99

Personal copy.

Review: Over My Head by Marie Lamba

Tags: middle grade, YA, contemporary, family, POC, swimming, summer

Summary

Sang Jumnal’s pre-senior year summer hits the rocks when her parents force her to take swim lessons and she learns that a beloved uncle has a serious—and expensive—disease. But Sang is tired of being treated like a kid, and so she jumps at the chance of romance with the summer lifeguard, heedless of how her behavior affects her friends and family.

Review

I didn’t realize until after I had finished OVER MY HEAD that it is actually somewhat of a sequel to Marie Lamba’s novel What I Meant. Which means that OVER MY HEAD can be enjoyed on its own. It is a quick, sometimes annoying, but still gratifying look into a mixed Indian-Caucasian teen’s ups and downs.

The YA world very clearly needs more books like OVER MY HEAD, where the main character is of mixed race, culture is an important part of the story, but the story itself is not about accepting one’s culture or battling people’s ignorance of your culturally different family. Everyone knows a girl like Sang, a girl who is smart but is struggling with familial tensions, who is dealing with changing friendships and fending off the comments of less sensitive classmates. So, take an extremely relatable teenaged female protagonist, add in a dash of Indian culture, and you’ve got a setup that’s easy to connect to yet just different enough to expand readers’ horizons.

Younger teens may be better able to appreciate OVER MY HEAD, as I found Sang and a lot of her behavior a tad immature for my taste. Okay, yes, I understand that feeling restricted by your parents’ seeming lack of trust in your maturity level may drive you to do irresponsible things such as ditching your siblings or sneaking off in the middle of the night with a boy who may or may not be taking advantage of you, but I suppose this was something that I never did in high school (okay, maybe I treated my siblings poorly every once in a while. It’s what big sisters do sometimes, eh?), and so I felt that sometimes Sang’s actions felt a little contrived, a little overdramatic. Some other characters and their situations felt similarly unnatural, mean girls who acted like convenient nemeses to raise our esteem of our beloved protagonist.

Sang’s peers may for the most part feel forced in my opinion, but OVER MY HEAD depicts the nuances of Sang’s family extremely well. I really enjoyed Raina, Sang’s cousin who comes to stay with her. Raina could’ve been yet another shallow mean teenager, or a self-pitying mess, but she is at times shy yet determined, vulnerable yet resilient. Sang’s parents behave believably strictly as well as lovingly, and so on. I often feel like familial relationships are the trickiest things to depict realistically in YA, and so Marie Lamba gets numerous kudos for portraying the Jumnal family in such an empathic and rich way.

Overall, OVER MY HEAD may feel a bit young for high school readers, but younger readers will most likely find a bit of themselves, their frustrations and their desires, in Sang, and cheer this promising young lady on.

Cover discussion: I am no longer interested in discussing the covers of indie books. This is a pretty, summery picture.

Lamba Associates / June 27, 2011 / Paperback / 298pp. / $12.99
Also available as a Kindle e-book for $0.99!

e-galley received from author for review.

Review: My Life, the Theater, and Other Tragedies by Allen Zadoff

Tags: YA, middle grade, contemporary, theatre, grief, friendship, romance

Summary

High school sophomore Adam Ziegler is content with his behind-the-scenes role as a lighting man for his high school’s theatre company. Ever since his dad died in a car crash two years ago, Adam has stayed out of the spotlight, but this begins to be really difficult as he falls for the new actress, Summer, and gets on the bad side of Derek, the student director. Everyone knows that actors and techies don’t mix…but has Adam finally found the motivation he needs to make his stand?

Review

Allen Zadoff remains a contemporary charmer with his second novel for young adults, MY LIFE, THE THEATER, AND OTHER TRAGEDIES.

As he did in Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can’t Have, Zadoff breathes life into subjectively overdone themes like high school isolation and grief with his winningly empathic characters and humorous dialogue. Adam is endearingly geeky and shy. Sometimes his inability to stick up for himself made me want to give him a good hard (well-intentioned) slap, but then watching him grow throughout the book was extremely rewarding. Supporting characters, from Derek the Evil Student Dictator to Reach, Adam’s best friend, are entertaining. And the girls are no Manic Pixie Dream Girls, which can happen sometimes in books with geeky males as main characters: these girls are legit, and they’re nice, but they’re also pretty. Furthermore, MY LIFE, THE THEATER, AND OTHER TRAGEDIES has a dead father, but the grieving process happily does not dominate the plot.

MY LIFE, THE THEATER, AND OTHER TRAGEDIES will appeal to both the seasoned and amateur reader. For a quick and funny yet heartfelt look into the awkward teenage boy’s life, you can’t go wrong with Allen Zadoff.

Cover discussion: Disappointingly ordinary and uninspiring.

EgmontUSA / May 10, 2011 / Hardcover / 288pp. / $16.99

Sent by publisher for review.

Review: The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann

Tags: middle grade, dystopian, fantasy, magic, creativity

Summary

In the land of Quill, all thirteen-year-olds are sorted into one of three categories: Wanteds, Necessaries, and Unwanteds. Wanteds and Necessaries remain in Quill to keep the land running, and the Unwanteds are disposed to their deaths for their violations of creative expression.

Twins Aaron and Alex get separated when Aaron is chosen as a Wanted and Alex is Unwanted. But “Death” is not at all what Alex and the other Unwanteds expected. Instead, they are transported to the magical world of Artime, run by Mr. Today, who teaches the Unwanteds how to use their creativity in magical battle. For Artime is in danger of being exposed, and the Unwanteds will need all of their creativity and magic to overcome Quill’s armies.

Review

A book being touted as the next Harry Potter certainly has a lot to live up to, and while Lisa McMann’s first middle-grade fantasy THE UNWANTEDS doesn’t quite have the immortal boy with the lightning bolt scar’s charm and uniqueness, it nevertheless will be an enjoyable read for the younger reader.

Reading THE UNWANTEDS felt as if I were carrying out my childhood dreams. When you were little, did you ever daydream of living away from home in a magical mansion where every one of your whimsies was right at the tip of your thoughts? Yeah, that was probably the number one thing I thought about during my free time. In that sense, then, reading THE UNWANTEDS was almost a literal return to my childhood. The youthful delight of having near-complete control over your own life; of having magic at your command; of attending an eternal summer camp…that’s part of what you get, reading THE UNWANTEDS.

But not all of it. THE UNWANTEDS contains distinctly dark themes of creativity versus logic, imagination versus asceticism, that make it darker than your usual magical children’s tale. This is part dystopia, after all. More sophisticated readers might find the literal impending war between creativity and pragmatism in the book a little too literal in terms of the book’s themes, but younger readers will probably get a kick out of the minimalization of gray areas.

My biggest problem with THE UNWANTEDS, the one that made me unable to finish the book, was that I simply didn’t connect with or care for any of the characters. Alex and his Unwanted friends tended to blend indistinguishably into one another, and were being pretty snippy and immature pre-teens for the most part. That’s not the problem—after all, Harry Potter was pretty unbearable for many of his adventures; it was more the fact that I couldn’t bring myself to feel bad for the characters or to care about how they ended up.

It is unfortunate that the power of such a magical premise was diminished by bland and unsympathetic characters. This won’t deter all people from reading and enjoying THE UNWANTEDS, but as far as I’m concerned, my lack of connection to the characters draws me away from this adventure and towards more character-driven fantasies.

Similar Authors
J. K. Rowling
Margaret Peterson Haddix

Cover discussion: Quite cool. It's hand-drawn, but with a hint of computer animation. Will probably appeal to video game lovers.

Aladdin / Aug. 30, 2011 / Hardcover / 400pp. / $16.99

Review copy sent by publisher.

Review: The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z by Kate Messner

Review: middle grade, contemporary, science, family

Summary

Gianna Zales is a seventh-grade cross-country star, but her running career and glory is jeopardized by the upcoming science project deadline. Gianna must collect and identify 25 leaves, but that’s a hard thing to do when your grandmother’s memory is failing, the mean girls at school are out to get you, your father drives you to school in a hearse, and you’ve never been one for deadlines. Still, perhaps with the help of some fantastic people in her life, Gianna will be able to learn from all her hardships, while still completing her leaf project.

Review

Kate Messner is a shining voice in middle-grade fiction. Her characters will rank right up there with Sharon Creech’s for best-friend potential.

Messner effortlessly introduces us to the totally normal yet exceptionally charming Zales family within just a few pages. Characterization leaps off the page: Gianna’s mother, father, little brother, and grandmother all sound like they could be your next-door neighbors, the smoothness with which their characters are developed an unfortunately rare accomplishment in fiction. There are hardly any stereotypes, and those that are a bit flat (like Gianna’s mean classmates) are completely excusable and perfect in their two-dimensionality.

The story is a beautiful weave of school troubles, family troubles, dealing with memory loss, and exploring new romantic feelings for your close friend. That’s a lot to pack into a book, but it never feels overwhelming in THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. Messner proves that it’s not about the number of issues you are or aren’t allowed to include in a book, but rather the way the author integrates the problems. And she does it beautifully.

Kate Messner is undoubtedly one of my favorite middle-grade authors. Her prose is effortless and her characters rich, and readers of all ages will be able to fall in love with the characters and find a bit of themselves in the book. THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z transcends its genre boundaries and becomes a classic tale of growing up that will reach anyone’s heart.

Similar Authors
Sharon Creech


Cover discussion: Oh how I love how original, colorful, and whimsical these covers are. They seem to have lightened the image between the hardcover and paperback; not a big deal!

Walker Books / Sept. 14, 2010 / Paperback (reprint) / 224pp. / $6.99

Copy...uh, I don't remember how I got the copy I reviewed in 2009, but I own a copy now!

Review: Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis

Tags: middle grade, historical fantasy, Regency England, magic

Summary

12-year-old Kat Stephenson wishes she could do something to help out her family. Her brother is in debt, her father is weak, her stepmother is borderline evil, her sister Angeline has been casting love spells that go awry, and her oldest sister Elissa might have to marry the sinister Sir Neville to save their family from ruin.

It’s a good thing, then, that Kat has inherited her mother’s magic skills. However, it’s hard to know who to trust, especially when it appears that there are people who might be interested in her family just for their magic…

Review

If KAT, INCORRIGIBLE had been around when I was in middle school, it would’ve been my favorite book of ALL TIME. It has an amazing narrator and charm to the likes of which I haven’t seen since I read Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted for the first time in fifth grade (and which still remains one of my favorite books to this day).

Kat is undeniably the best part about this book. Unlike other historical fiction heroines I’ve encountered in the past, Kat’s modern-day stubbornness and rebelliousness feels perfectly natural. She is at that wonderful age when she can resist societal conventions without appearing petulant or immature, and she defies all our expectations, much to our endless delight. She has moments, for example, when she consciously refuses to act like the silly, spineless heroines in her sister’s favorite gothic novels, the similarity to some 21st-century YA lit too good to go ignored. It takes great skill to write a historical character with modern appeal, but Stephanie Burgis does it like she was born to write this.

The villains in this book may be rather straightforwardly sinister, but it works for its middle-grade audience, and besides, it’s the “gray” characters—the complex supporting ones—that showcase Burgis’ extraordinary talent for creating and developing characters. Kat’s older sisters, Elissa and Angeline, have distinct personalities and are enjoyable in their own way. Throughout KAT, INCORRIGIBLE, Kat struggles to figure out whom she can entrust her secrets to, and we can empathize with her confusion and suspicion as the adults circling her approach with a variety of motives.

KAT, INCORRIGIBLE charmed me into a place of childlike giddiness that I haven’t encountered in too many years. This deceptively easy read is actually rich with character development and possibilities for future books in the series. Without a doubt I would not hesitate to hand this out to every girl I know between the ages of 10 and 14, and I highly recommend you check this delightful book out, and fall under Kat’s benevolent charms. I can’t wait for more of Kat’s adventures!

Similar Authors
Gail Carson Levine (Ella Enchanted)

Writing: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Plot: 5/5

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5


Cover discussion: It's cute! Although admittedly not what I was expecting as a cover. Still, the more I've looked at it, the more I like it.

Atheneum / April 5, 2011 / Hardcover / 304pp. / $16.99

Received for review from Simon & Schuster. Thank you!

Review: The False Princess by Eilis O'Neal

Tags: middle grade, YA, fantasy, magic, political conspiracy

Summary

Princess Nalia gets the worst sixteenth-birthday surprise ever when it is revealed that she is not the real princess, but a commoner decoy for the real princess, placed in the castle because of a prophecy that foretold of the danger befalling the princess before her sixteenth birthday. Stripped of everything she has ever known, including her name and her best friend Kiernan, the girl now called Sinda tries to adjust to her new commoner life with her aunt, who is not at all happy about her new relative.

When the emergence of a long repressed magic within her forces Sinda to return to the royal city, she stumbles upon a dark conspiracy behind the throne that only she can stop. With Kiernan’s help, Sinda undergoes dangerous journeys and evades the hands of powerful enemies in order to save her country’s future.

Review

Reading the jacket synopsis, I thought this book was going to be yet another “princess finds out she’s not the real princess and attempts to make a new life for herself” tale. Happily, however, THE FALSE PRINCESS is all that, and more. It is an engaging light fantasy that will charm you no matter how well read you think you are in this genre.

Past the first chapter, the plot of THE FALSE PRINCESS moves at an entertainingly brisk pace, as it follows Sinda into the country, back into the city, and in and out of nervewracking situations. The time that Sinda spends with her aunt feels a little forced, her attempt to fit into her new life glossed over, but this makes sense when you consider that the most exciting part of the book occurs when Sinda returns to the city and discovers the conspiracy.

THE FALSE PRINCESS is at its core a fairly standard “quest” tale, but contains so much spunk and personality from its characters that it transcends the trope and makes it appealing to even readers who don’t usually read fantasy, readers who prefer character-driven novels. Sinda changes from a timid royal into an initiative-taking heroine, a brave girl who takes on tasks even knowing that the odds are stacked against her. Kiernan is a wonderful supporting character, utterly dedicated to Sinda, with a playfulness that offsets the darker tones of Sinda’s quest.

THE FALSE PRINCESS is a friendly fantasy read that would be a perfect gift for younger readers who’ve enjoyed the works of Gail Carson Levine, Diana Wynne Jones, and Margaret Peterson Haddix’s fantasy novels. It’s definitely a cut above other light fantasies I’ve read recently, and I would definitely recommend it to a readers looking for exactly that!

Similar Authors
Gail Carson Levine
Margaret Peterson Haddix (Palace of Mirrors)
Mercedes Lackey

Writing: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5


Cover discussion: 2.5 out of 5 - It totally doesn't capture Sinda's spark of life, but I do like it slightly better than the original image. This cover will possibly appeal more to older teens.

EgmontUSA / Jan. 25, 2011 / Hardcover / 336pp. / $16.99

Sent by publisher after accepting review pitch. Thank you, Jenny and Regina!

Review: Jenna and Jonah's Fauxmance by Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin

Tags: middle grade, YA, contemporary, he-said/she-said, Hollywood, drama

Summary

Move aside, Hannah Montana. Everybody wants more of Jenna and Jonah’s How to Be a Rock Star, a TV show about two neighbors’ undercover lives as rock stars. But it seems to be “Jenna” and “Jonah’s” off-screen romance that sells…except that in reality, the romance is a publicity ploy, and the two young stars, Charlie and Fielding, can’t stand each other. Fielding thinks Charlie is a Type-A diva who is obsessed with her own career, while Charlie thinks that Fielding takes the whole industry for granted.

But then their fauxmance is blown, and as Charlie and Fielding keep each other company in isolation, they begin to actually learn who the other person is.

Review

I gave this book a try, despite its predictable synopsis, because, hey, who doesn’t enjoy a he-said/she-said formula romance every once in a while, if it’s done well? Unfortunately, JENNA AND JONAH’S FAUXMANCE was a solid miss for me. Clunky writing, undeveloped characters with minimal chemistry, and an ambitious but failed conclusion all contributed.

Let’s talk about the characters first. YA has seen its fair share of Hollywood teen divas. Charlie and Fielding failed at being distinct or memorable. Charlie is supposedly this uptight overachiever who, when relaxed, can be a lot of fun. But when she was relaxed in the book, she was flat and uninteresting, and the only time I felt like she had fun all happened in brief flashbacks. Fielding is an ordinary boy who hails from the Midwest, and who is only in this industry to make enough money so that he doesn’t have to work hard like his dad for the rest of his life and can enjoy his books in anonymity. Now, I like my boys smart, but again, Fielding’s bookishness didn’t ring true for me. The authors seemed to portray Fielding’s literary knowledge only in extremely awkward quotes that fell flat and didn’t lend to his bookish credibility at all.

In fact, that was probably the problem I had with the whole book. Tiny details were fine—Hollywood, Fielding’s bookishness, the Shakespearean performance—but they all lacked cohesiveness. Imagine two people having a conversation in which both just talked about their own interests instead of engaging in a flowing back-and-forth. That was kind of how I felt, reading Charlie and Fielding’s supposed get-to-know-ya interactions. Uh, whut? Fielding, are you really seeing who Charlie is, or are you still attempting to talk at your idea of who she is? That just…doesn’t work for me. The writing was jarring and off-putting.

I can think of better examples of Hollywood drama, he-said/she-said romances, or plots involving acting. JENNA AND JONAH’S FAUXMANCE didn’t have a bad premise, being what it intended to be, but little within the book had the seemingly effortless chemistry that I want in a good book.

Similar Authors
Jennifer Echols
Elizabeth Eulberg

Writing: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Plot: 2/5

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5


Cover discussion: 1.5 out of 5 - Oh please, do blind me some more with that drab shade of pink.

Walker Books / Feb. 1, 2011 / Paperback / 240pp. / $9.99

Sent by publisher for review after accepting review pitch.

Review: Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

Tags: middle grade, YA, post-apocalyptic, zombies

Summary

When 15-year-old Benny Imura begins to apprentice with his brother Tom in the art of zombie hunting, he has no idea what he’s in for. Before his apprenticeship, Benny only knew that zombies were the disgusting, brainless creatures that infected his parents all those years ago, when zombies eventually took over much of the land, and so they deserve to die. Instead, Tom teaches him a more compassionate way of viewing zoms, and Benny begins to learn that the real monsters might not be zoms, but rather other humans.

Review

ROT & RUIN, acclaimed horror novelist Jonathan Maberry’s first venture into literature for younger readers, is so much more than simply a zombie book. It blends great storytelling, adventure, and tender human moments for an altogether satisfying read that is both exciting and emotional.

Benny starts off as a pretty irritating boy, smugly confident in his narrow-minded convictions, but it is the mark of a great author that Benny eventually grew into a mature and more complex young man, a protagonist that I could really get behind. His interactions with Tom are tense with residual anger over the loss of his parents on First Night—a little childish, perhaps, but alright, believable if we cut him some slack. Other than his relationship with Tom, Benny is a pitch-perfect teenage boy regarding his interactions with others: friends, other grown-ups, zombies, etc., a relatable mix of cluelessness, anxiety, and bravado.

The world of Mountainside and the Rot and Ruin is a well-realized one, with plenty of opportunities for secrets, hideaways, and dramatic showdowns. All that Benny knew used to be only what was within the fence that surrounds Mountainside, but as his apprenticeship takes him far out into the Rot and Ruin with his brother, his worldview grows, and with that opportunities for more exciting things to happen. Maberry has brilliantly constructed a world that will never feel too claustrophobic for ideas: there will always be more things for Benny and his friends to discover out there.

And can I just mention how awesome it is that Benny is half-Japanese, half-Irish…and it’s not a big freaking deal? Get out your lassos so you can get me down from where I’m floating over the moon!

ROT & RUIN is not flawless: Tom comes off as a bit too perfect, and there are some epic monologues in there that couldn’t hide the fact that they were pushing an agenda. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the heck out of my time spent reading this book, and may even dare say that this book will probably appeal to younger fans of The Hunger Games, those who are craving another thrilling yet firmly humanistic series.

Similar Authors
Michael Grant
Suzanne Collins

Writing: 3/5
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 4/5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5


Cover discussion: 3 out of 5 - That is one scary close-up of an eye. I do like the translucency of the title font, though. It is pretty memorable.

Simon & Schuster / Sept. 14, 2010 / Hardcover / 458pp. / $17.99

ARC received at BEA; read for Cybils.

Review: Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith

Tags: middle grade, YA, fantasy, war, politics, romance

Summary

Meliara and her brother Branaric’s lives change forever the day they promise their count father on his deathbed to overthrow the king’s corrupt regime. Mel and Bran lead a ragtag bunch of loyal servants and friends against the king’s army, which throws Mel again and again across the path of the Marquis of Shevraeth, a stoic man hiding quite a few number of his secrets. When, however, the dust of war has settled, Mel discovers that she just might prefer running and hiding across the countryside to save her life better than putting on the façade of gracious noblewoman in the new king-to-be’s court.

Review

Oh how I adore feisty heroines embroiled in duplicitous, action-packed fantasy political intrigues and romance! I wish I had known about this book earlier, for I have a feeling it will be one that I return to again and again for that magical dose of adventure, feminism, and romance.

Mel is my favorite kind of fantasy heroine: tough, resourceful, opinionated, and scared of being seen as vulnerable despite her deeply warm heart. I don’t even care that this type of female protagonist is a fantasy trope, because I just love ‘em. I loved reading about Mel’s struggles to avoid capture at the hands of Shevraeth and the king’s other men. And then I loved reading about Mel’s struggles to make herself a gentlewoman, worthy of the respect of the court. Mel is a protagonist worthy of Tamora Pierce’s creations.

I love that this book’s pacing never drags, which is great because I just get so darn bored of the MC’s moody contemplations of anything and everything that has or hasn’t happened to her. I admit wholeheartedly that I adored the book’s romantic subplot and, yes, will probably reread this book many times for mostly that element. It reminds me of a sort of Elizabeth Bennet-Mr. Darcy relationship arc, and I will leave it at that appetite-whetting point.

CROWN DUEL is a must-read if you love your Tamora Pierce and Gail Carson Levine. Maybe it doesn’t break new ground in lighthearted fantasy literature, but it fuels the fire that keeps my heart warm, fuzzy, and swooningly romantic. Sighhh. Now, back to rereading favorite bits…

Similar Authors
Tamora Pierce
Gail Carson Levine
Megan Whalen Turner

Writing: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Plot: 5/5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5


Cover discussion: 2 out of 5 - Ack. Someone might've taken creative license a bit too far... That's definitely not how I pictured Meliara at all, and is just overall very awkward, though it definitely shouts "young fantasy!" to me.

Penguin Firebird Fantasy / June 2002 (reprint) / Paperback / 480pp. / $8.99

Personal copy. Yay!

Review: Where I Belong by Gwendolyn Heasley

Tags: middle grade, YA, contemporary, Texas

Summary

Corinne Corcoran was an NYC It girl who had it all—money, friends, connections—until she didn’t. Hit hard by the recession, Corinne’s family has to make drastic life alterations, and Corinne finds herself stuck in middle-of-nowhere Broken Spoke, Texas, her mother’s hometown, before she can even make an argument.

Corinne is certain that Cowboy Country will be hell…but then she actually starts meeting some nice people. And bonding with her family, including her long-absent grandparents. And enjoying the comfortable clothing and football games that Texas has to offer. But Corrine absolutely still wants to return to New York. That’s where she belongs…right?

Review

WHERE I BELONG is a predictable but still charming story of a girl who has everything, who then gets more, though not the way she expected. Even those who are disenchanted with derivative feel-good contemporary YA—okay, me—will still find much to enjoy about this sweet little debut novel.

Corinne starts out as your average spoiled rich girl with a selfish view of the world, so the growth that she undergoes throughout the course of this novel is really remarkable and, better yet, totally believable. Long used to getting everything she wants and having unlimited money to spend, Corinne naturally doesn’t take her family’s change of circumstances well, and her narrow-mindedness and obsession with keeping her life the same glamorous way it was will probably irritate people. However, once in Texas, she really does grow in that wonderfully subtle way that the best kind of character development gives us, still remaining herself, but just a more mature version.

Events and the overall story arc are fairly predictable, so my enjoyment of the book definitely centered around Corinne’s growth. Not that she’s even an entirely likable person: just that she develops well over the course of the story. Corinne’s romantic dilemmas are forgettably typical; the potentials of the family tensions between the various generations of Houston women are not as fleshed out as they could have been; and friendship drama is resolved much more quickly than such a situation generally warrants.

Still, WHERE I BELONG turned out to be a quick, light read that makes for a decent book break. It’s not exactly the best of its type out there, but at $8.99, how wrong can you really go with this one?

Writing: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Plot: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5


Cover discussion: 4 out of 5 - It's fresh and colorful, the kind of cover I like. Though on second thought, I didn't think it did the story justice. The story is less a romance and more about a girl's journey of self-discovery, but this one implies that romance is a strong element in the book.

HarperTeen / Feb. 8, 2011 / Paperback / 304pp. / $8.99


ARC received from Around the World Tours.

Review: Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg

Tags: middle grade, YA, contemporary, retelling, boarding school, romance, music, socioeconomic class

Summary

The prestigious all-girls Longbourn Academy takes two things very seriously: money, and prom. For scholarship student Lizzie Bennett, who has no interest in taking one of the stuck-up boys of Pemberley Academy to the prom, this means social suicide. Luckily she has her best friend Jane, a rich girl whose family has fallen on hard times.

Jane’s budding romance with the nice Pemberley boy Charles Bingley makes Lizzie happy, she his friend Will Darcy’s superior moneyed attitude has her seething. To make matters worse, Wick, a townie whom Lizzie meets at her local barista job, relates the story of how Darcy brought about Wick’s expulsion from Pemberley. Lizzie is ready to hate Will Darcy forever…until he overthrows all her impressions of him.

Review

PROM AND PREJUDICE is a quick chick-litty read that will most likely raise eyebrows among loyal fans of the classic but be enjoyed by younger readers, or readers who have not experienced the wonderful nuances of Austen’s masterpiece.

Elizabeth Eulberg’s retelling reads easily and quickly, making it a good choice for a light read in between deeper books. Lizzie, with her musical talent and determination to not get caught up in her classmates’ pretentious games, is a likable protagonist. Even 200 years after Mr. Darcy was first imagined, there is still nothing like his type in terms of romantic heroes. Will Darcy obviously doesn’t hold a candle to Fitzwilliam, of course, but loyalty to Lizzie and how he tries to show that he really cares about her is adorable nevertheless.

PROM closely follows the events of the original story, translating every event into its 21st-century counterpart. Unfortunately, the thing that makes Pride and Prejudice so endearing to millions of readers—Austen’s searing social satire—doesn’t make the two-century leap. Things seem to be “flattened”: the book becomes simply a contemporary YA romance, with the difference in socioeconomic class between Lizzie and Will noted but never really used beyond it being a shallow way to make them willfully misunderstand each other.

The ridiculous characters that we enjoy so much in the original fail to fully make an appearance here: I was dying for more from Jane’s crazy family and the equivalent of Mr. Collins. And sadly, I struggled to find Will Darcy’s appeal. I suppose I was supposed to find his stiff “overtures” to Lizzie attractive, but I couldn’t help but think that the characters’ speech felt unnaturally proper, completely unlike how modern teenagers talk.

Overall, PROM AND PREJUDICE makes for a light chick lit read, but I wonder if the book’s painstaking adherence to the original, from events down to the names, doesn’t end up hurting its good intentions for some readers. I know that I was disappointed that the book seemed to lack the social satire that I enjoy most about Pride and Prejudice.

Similar Authors
Eileen Cook

Writing: 3/5
Characters: 2/5
Plot: 3/5

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5


Cover discussion: 2.5 out of 5 - W...T...F? The pink, the pink, it blinds me! You would think that a retelling of one of the greatest love stories of all time would call for some attractive people on the cover, instead of this overemphasis on the ridiculous prom. *sigh*

Scholastic Point / Jan. 1, 2011 / Hardcover / 231pp. / $17.99

Read in bookstore.

Review: Sugar and Ice by Kate Messner

Tags: middle grade, ice-skating, competition

Summary

Claire Boucher loves two things: her family’s maple syrup farm and competitive ice-skating. So when she gets the chance to train at the Lake Placid Olympic Training Facility with a world-class coach, she is simultaneously terrified and excited. Making the commitment to the sport involves sacrifices—time with her family and best friend, long commutes several days a week—but it’s also a dream come true for her.

Or is it? The more Claire immerses herself in the competitive ice-skating world, the more she realizes how cutthroat it is. Some of the girls who train with her would do almost anything to make it big, and Claire must decide just how much she’s willing to sacrifice for her ice-skating dreams.

Review

If all middle grade were written as well as this, I think I just might read middle grade forever. Kate Messner’s second novel is just as fun, heartfelt, and engrossing as her first. It sent me in ecstacies of delight over how much I loved it!

I don’t know much about either collecting sap or ice-skating, but SUGAR AND ICE made me wish I were Claire. She is a delightful protagonist, full of love for her friends, family, and passion, but also young enough to experience the vulnerabilities of dealing with new situations. Her love for ice-skating is so inspiring—Kate Messner describes the skating scenes beautifully—that when she is knocked down by the cutthroat attitude of the ice-skating world, it breaks your heart. I constantly wanted to reach into the book and help Claire out a little: no, don’t listen to that girl, she’s just jealous of you! Skate for yourself and forget about how others might be judging you!

Supporting characters are colorful and varied. In particular, Tasanee, Claire’s good training friend, is Asian, and likes to read popular paranormal YA. A character--and author--after my own heart. I dare you to go into this book and try to figure out which books she reads. So the friends are well-developed, but the mean girls, to my delight, are, too. There’s a reason why people turn out mean, and in SUGAR AND ICE we see the different ways that meanness can exert itself, and what drives the girls to desperate measures.

Overall, SUGAR AND ICE is just so wonderfully heartwarming and real, I have lost my ability to put into words how much I loved this book. It will remind you of the best and worst of middle-grade girls without the pettiness that sometimes crops up in this age group. Readers of all ages will fall in love with Claire and Kate Messner’s writing!

Writing: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Plot: 5/5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5


Cover discussion: 5 out of 5 - Kate gets the most incredible, artistic covers. This perfectly captures Claire's passion for ice-skating and her family's maple tree farm. The cover just radiates all this warmth and good-feeling.

Walker Books / Dec. 7, 2010 / Hardcover / 288pp. / $16.99

ARC picked up at BEA. Thank you, Walker Books, for this treasure!!