FINISHED: 
Smith, Ronald L. (2017). The Mesmerist. New York: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[In Victorian England, 13-year-old, white Jessamine helps her mother in swindling those who wish to contact the dead, and comes to discover that her parents were members of the League of Ravens, a group of folk with special abilities who protected England from an evil necromancer named Mephisto.  When Jess figures out that she, too, has an ability (to read people’s memories) she goes to live with Balthazar, the old head of the League of Ravens, and two other young people with special powers, and the three of them take it upon themselves to banish Mephisto forever when it appears that he has returned and is spreading disease throughout London.  Smith’s follow up to his eerie Hoodoo (Clarion, 2015) is equally creepy, dripping with mood and a heavy sense of foreboding, with tense, claustrophobic battle sequences against ghouls in the newly constructed London Underground, and the repeated use of the rhyme/song “Ring Around the Rosie” that will elicit chills.  When London becomes overrun by a mysterious disease (caused by Mephisto) and townspeople look for a scapegoat, ultimately settling on immigrants (“Foreigners out of our England!”), one can’t help but call to mind Brexit, the “Muslim Ban”, and other similar events in the current tide of nationalism.  This is one that more mature scary story fans should thoroughly enjoy.]

STARTED:
Wolk, Lauren. (2017). Beyond the Bright Sea. New York: Dutton/Penguin Random House.

[Newbery buzz...]

*

FINISHED:
Wood, Maryrose. (2015). The Unmapped Sea (Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place #5). New York: Batzer + Bray/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Goldberg, Susan. (2017). Gender Revolution [Special Issue]. Journal of the National Geographic Society, 231(1).

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Auxier, Jonathan. (2014).  The night gardener. New York: Amulet/Abrams.

[.]


STARTED:
Brown, Skila. (2014). Caminar. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[2014 Newbery buzz.]


*

FINISHED:
Wood, Maryrose. (2013). The interrupted tale (The incorrigible children of Ashton Place #4). New York: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins.


[.]


STARTED:
Setterington, Ken. (2013). Branded by the pink triangle. Toronto, ON: Second Story.


[.]

*

FINISHED:
Jinks, Catherine. (2013). How to catch a bogle. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.


[.]


STARTED:
Lynch, Chris. (2013). Casualties of war (Vietnam #4). New York: Scholastic.


[.]


*

FINISHED:
Jones, Rob Lloyd. (2013). Wild Boy. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[Now a sideshow freak in London in 1841, Wild Boy, so named because he is covered in hair from head to toe, finds himself on the run when he is wrongly accused of the murder of a professor who was working on a mysterious machine.  With only a sideshow acrobat as an ally, the two discover a plot involving a man with a golden globe for an eyeball, a shadow society called the “Gentlemen”, and a device which, Wild Boy is told, “is a very powerful machine, one that changes you.  Imagine a machine that could make you normal, like everyone else.”  Wild Boy is a complex character who, even after an early life of abandonment and brutal abuse, is strong and determined, and it is a Sherlock Holmes-ian gift for reading people that ultimately leads him to triumph. Though seemingly aimed at a younger audience, this is a novel that doesn’t shy away from brutality – Wild Boy is ruthlessly (and sometimes disturbingly) taunted and beaten, both verbally and physically, again and again throughout.  This is a strong, Victorian-set mystery which brings into the mix the early understandings of electricity and its properties and uses, giving the proceedings a hint of Frankenstein-ish gothic darkness.]


STARTED:
Weston, Robert Paul. (2013). The creature department. New York: Razorbill/Penguin.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Wood, Maryrose. (2011). Incorrigible children of Ashton Place: The Hidden Gallery. New York: Balzer + Bray.

[.]

STARTED:
Valente, Catherynne M. (2011). The girl who circumnavigated Fairyland in a ship of her own making. New York: Feiwel and Friends.

[Has gotten some stunning reviews...]

*

FINISHED:
Wood, Maryrose. (2010). The incorrigible children of Ashton Place: The mysterious howling. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Mass, Wendy. (2010). The candymakers. New York: Little, Brown.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Hahn, Mary Downing. (2010). The ghost of Crutchfield Hall. New York: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin.

[My official ACL review:

Orphan Florence is pulled from the orphanage where she’s been living for the past seven years and whisked away to Crutchfield Hall, a rural gothic mansion where a well-to-do aunt and uncle reside. Florence quickly realizes that all is not well, however, when she discovers that her recently deceased cousin, Sophia, seems to be lingering and has it out for Florence’s ailing cousin James. What’s worse, Sophia’s “death day” is approaching (it’s been a full year since she died) and her influence on Florence is strengthening while Florence finds it harder and harder to resist Sophia’s pull. This is a vivid, if typical, Victorian ghost story steeped in rich language and descriptive passages which give a strong sense of place and mood and, at a brisk 150 pages, would be perfect for those ready to graduate from collections of shorter scary stories. [Reviewed from ARC.]]

STARTED:
Berlin, Eric. (2007). The puzzling world of Winston Breen. New York: Puffin/Penguin.

[Heard it's fun.]

*

FINISHED:
Griffin, Adele. (2010). Picture the dead. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks Fire.

[My review for ACL:

When both her twin brother, Toby, and her fiance, William, are killed in the Civil War, orphan Jennie Lovell, now living with her snobby, brutish aunt and uncle feels utterly alone. After having her picture taken by a “spirit photographer”, Jennie sees in the developed photos unexplainable objects which, in turn, end up being clues that William seems to be sending from the grave. Griffin has crafted a gothic ghost story of love and loss in which the first person narration sounds true and of the day as well as coming across as perfectly suited to the genre. Brown’s “period” ink-rendered photos and scrapbook curios appear between each chapter lending a visual to the narrative, although photos taken to mimic the period would’ve gone further in making the tale more “realistic” and eerie. Included are short explanations of the society of the day in which the novel takes place, the Civil War, Confederate prisoner-of-war camps, Spiritualism and spiritual photography. Mannered and moody in perfect amounts, this one should appeal to fans of other Spiritualist novels such as Ian Lawrence’s Séance (Yearling, 2009) and Laura Amy Schlitz’s A Drowned Maiden’s Hair (Candlewick, 2006). (Reviewed from ARC.)]

STARTED:
Horvath, Polly. (2010). Northward to the moon. New York: Schwartz & Wade.

[Really enjoyed the first book...]

*

FINISHED:

Westerfeld, Scott. (2009). Leviathan. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[My ACL review posted here soon. I LOVED it, though.

After Prince Alek’s parents, Archduke Ferdinand and Princess Sophie, are murdered in Serbia he is whisked away by fellows of the court for safety purposes aboard a metal walking machine. Meanwhile, a girl named Deryn poses as a boy, Dylan, so that she may join the Air Service and fly aboard the Leviathan, an organic, hydrogen powered, genetically created whale-beast. Alek and Deryn’s parallel stories finally converge (halfway through the novel) when the Leviathan crashes on a mountain glacier near the outpost castle where Alek is being hidden away from possible assassins, and both have a secret about their true identities to keep from each other. This is an alternate take on the events surrounding WWI wherein this time, in addition to war breaking out between countries, there is a divide between the Clankers, who rely on man-made oil and metal war machines, and the Darwinists, who have aircraft and vehicles born of genetically combined and modified beasts. In the end, Westerfeld has Alek and the other Clankers, and Deryn and the other Darwinists, being forced to combine their efforts and their machines while leaving plenty of unanswered details (such as some mysterious eggs that the Darwinists are keeping safe) for further installments of a planned series. Westerfeld, author of the Uglies series (Thorndike, 2005-2008) has constructed a richly detailed steampunk world with vivid action sequences to match, and it’s all augmented by Keith Thompson’s intricate illustrations. This one has great crossover appeal for boys, girls, and fans of science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction – and all will be hungry for Westerfeld’s next tome in this exciting new series.]

STARTED:
North, Joan. (1965). The cloud forest. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

[Recommended as a classic favorite by a colleague.]

*

FINISHED:

Tinti, Hannah. (2008). The good thief: a novel. New York: Dial.

[Didn't LOVE this one like I thought I would. It took awhile to get going, and I'm not even sure that I felt it really DID ever get going. It took me awhile to read it, too - although I was at a 3-day music festival last weekend and didn't really have any time to read for 4 whole days...]

STARTED:
Collins, Suzanne. (2008). The hunger games. New York: Scholastic.

[Oh, the buzz on this one is palpable, isn't it? Just had a colleague say that she was jealous that I'm reading for the first time because she wishes she could read it for the first time again. Even colleagues that I wouldn't think would be into this kind of thing LOVE IT...]

*

FINISHED:

Aiken, Joan. (1962). The wolves of Willoughby Chase. New York: Yearling/Random House.

[.]

STARTED:
Murphy, Rita. (2008). Bird. New York: Delacorte/Random House.

[Reviewing for ACL.]

*

FINISHED:

Springer, Nancy. (2006). The case of the missing marquess: an Enola Holmes mystery. New York: Sleuth Philomel/Penguin.

[Was surprised by how much I REALLY liked this one. For one thing, this woman can WRITE. There are some descriptive passages here that are just MESMERIZING. Enola is the little sister of Sherlock, the sister that no one dares talk about because she came along SO late. Here, her and Sherlock's mother disappears - although she leaves cipher clues for Enola - with it looking like she has actually decided to ditch proper society and run off to join the gypsies. In the meantime, Enola herself decides to take off and head to London and, along the way, stumbles across a mystery surrounding a young boy who is believed to have been kidnapped. When our library gets in the second book in the series, I'll be sure to give it a read.]



Fleischman, Sid. (1986). The whipping boy. New York: Greenwillow/HarperTrophy/HarperCollins.

[Newbery Award winner for 1986 - kind of a "prince and the pauper" story about a prince and the boy that has been "hired" to take punishment for when the prince is naughty. They run away from the castle and end up getting into trouble with a couple of kidnappers who want to ransom the prince back to the king. The whipping boy tells the kidnappers that HE is the prince in the hopes that they'll let the prince go and the whipping boy will be free from the prince forever. Enjoyable and quick, but I find it a bit hard to believe that this was THE BEST book for kids of 1986...]

STARTED:
Curtis, Christopher Paul. (2007). Elijah of Buxton. New York: Scholastic.

[Was a Newbery Honor winner this year and I've only heard fantastic things about it.]

*

FINISHED:

Lalicki, Tom. (2006). Danger in the dark: a Houdini & Nate mystery. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

[.]


STARTED:
Ellis, Ann Dee. (2007). This is what I did:. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

[Reading for the ACL Distinguished Roundup this Sunday to see if I think it's outstanding.]

*