FINISHED:

Albert, Melissa. (2018). The Hazel Wood. New York: Flatiron/Macmillan.

[.]

STARTED:
Adeyemi, Tomi. (2018). Children of Blood and Bone. New York: Henry Holt & Co./Macmillan.

[Another title (like the one above...) that we're reading for our SFPL Mock Printz next month.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED: 
Froud, Brian. (2011). The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths [Vol. 1]. Los Angeles: Archaia.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Pullman, Philip. (1995). The Golden Compass [His Dark Materials: Book 1]. New York: Ballantine/Random House.

[.]

STARTED:
Tagame, Gengoroh. (2014). Endless Game. Berlin, Germany: Bruno Gmünder.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Ruby, Laura. (2017). The Shadow Cipher [York: Book 1]. New York: Walden Pond/HarperCollins.

[Seventh grade, white twins Tess and Theo live in the eccentric Morningstarr Tower with its zig-zagging elevators in a modern - though “alternate” - New York City, the building having been constructed over 150 years ago by the Morningstarr family who helped to develop the city with steampunk-y technologies.  When a real estate magnate buys their building with the intention of knocking it down to redevelop, the twins, along with their Latino neighbor Jaime, spurred on by a mysterious letter, hatch a plan to solve the 160-year-old Old York Cipher created by the Morningstarr family, hoping that in doing so their building will be deemed too important to destroy.  The alternate-New York setting, with its vaguely steampunk feel, keeps the reader on their toes, going along in a familiar world until mention of someone with a gene-spliced raccoon or big cat for a pet, some mechanical spiders in a woman’s purse, solar-powered cars, and a robot servant who brings breakfast.  Chapters alternate being told from the perspective of each of the three main kids, with a break-neck pace that has them running around New York following obscure clues found in cleverly obscure places such as etched on the underside of a heating stove, behind paint in a gallery painting, and one puzzle that is solved by noting the locations of tokens scattered around the apartments in their building.  Though this puzzle-driven book doesn’t allow the reader to try to solve along with the protagonists, this first book in a new series – with a doozy of a cliffhanger – is briskly paced with thoroughly vivid settings to draw one right into the action.]

STARTED:
Springstubb, Tricia. (2017). Cody and the Rules of Life. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. (2016). Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet [Book One]. New York: Marvel Worldwide.

[.]

STARTED:
Nesbet, Anne. (2016). Cloud and Wallfish. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Clarke, Susanna. (2004). Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. New York: Bloomsbury.

[FINISHED IT!  An enjoyable read, to be sure, though a bit plodding in places.  HOWEVER, never did I feel like, "I really want to give this up and read something else," nor did I finish it just to say that I did.  She built an entire world here, with complex characters, a full "alternate" history, and injected a whole bunch of deadpan humor.  And I just love that the only name we got for the "gentleman with the thistledown hair" was the "gentleman with the thistledown hair".  Currently in the middle of the BBC adaptation, and finding that it is remarkable true to the source material, annotations and all!]

STARTED:
Castleman, Virginia. (2016). Sara Lost and Found. New York: Aladdin/Simon & Schuster.

[Intrigued because it is about foster kids.]

*

FINISHED:
Stroud, Jonathan. (2013). The screaming staircase (Lockwood & Co.: Book 1). New York: Disney/Hyperion.


[.]


STARTED:
Blackwood, Sage. (2013). Jinx. New York: HarperCollins.


[.]

*

FINISHED:
Hautman, Pete. (2012). The obsidian blade: The Klaatu diskos: Book 1. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[[Reviewed from ARC.]


Tucker Feye lives with his mother and preacher father, Adrian, in small-town Hopewell County, Minnesota. One day while fixing a shingle on the roof, Adrian gets sucked into a swirling disk and disappears, only to return a short time later denouncing his faith and with an odd girl in tow. After his parents then leave to find a cure for a mysterious illness that has overtaken his mother, Tucker moves in with his Uncle Kosh and decides to see what these swirling disks are about, jumping into one and getting transported to the top of one of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11. Though the novel’s first third has a sense of eerie mystery, once Tucker begins being transported through space and time via the portal disks, things get kind of convoluted and a tad confusing. There are a couple of different kinds of “beings” that Tucker encounters who aren’t clearly drawn or distinguishable, and one is never quite sure how all of the portals and their various worlds are interconnected. However, a compelling discourse on faith and religion in the digital age is here (“The greatest plague of all is upon us: The Digital Plague.”), as well as questions on the nature of time and space (“Is a future, once observed, still changeable? Or does the fact that we have observed it make it an immutable part of our personal past?”), adding to the novel’s mind-bending appeal. The first title in a trilogy, this one smacks of a lot of set-up, leaving a whole lot unanswered which one can only hope will be resolved in the next installments. That said, Hautman’s sci-fi tale is smart and thought-provoking with an intriguing cliffhanger ending that hints at jaw-dropping things to come.]


STARTED:
Wright, Bil. (2011). Putting makeup on the fat boy. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[Been in the mood for a young adult title with some strong gay characters.  This Stonewall Book Award winner should fit the bill...]

*

FINISHED:
Mull, Brandon. (2012). Seeds of rebellion (Beyonders #2). New York: Aladdin.

[Well, this one suffered a bit from the "middle book" syndrome. It really seemed like not a whole lot happened in this one, even though it was almost 500 pages and took me way too long to read. There was a bunch of stuff presented that it seemed was set up for the final installment in the trilogy, and there were WAY too many characters and places (some of which weren't even included on the map at the beginning) to keep track of. Jason took a bit of a backseat and didn't really have a whole lot to do in this one, though the Rachel character was definitely given a greater role and it would appear that the powers she is developing will play a large part in Maldor's downfall. I'm still a Brandon Mull fan and eagerly await not only the conclusion to this series, but all other works from him in the future.]

STARTED:
Hall, Teri. (2011). Away. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Westerfeld, Scott. (2011). Goliath. New York: Simon Pulse.

[.]

STARTED:
Dashner, James. (2011). The death cure. New York: Delacorte.

[Another FANTASTIC trilogy comes to an end...]

*

FINISHED:
Van Allsburg, Chris. (2011). The chronicles of Harris Burdick. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

[One of my FAVORITE children's picture books (for older readers...) is back! My thoughts on it are two-fold: one, I'm horrified by the idea that the very nature of the book - that each illustration only has a cryptic caption, thus hoping the reader will fill in the story - is being compromised; and, two, I'm thrilled that some of the biggest names in young adult/children's lit have put their stamps on this fascinating book. Even after reading it, I'm still at odds...]

STARTED:
Selznick, Brian. (2011). Wonderstruck. New York: Scholastic.

[SO DARNED EXCITED!]

*

FINISHED:
Hardinge, Frances. (2011). Fly trap. New York: HarperCollins.

[[Reviewed from ARC.] Mosca Mye, a twelve-year old street urchin who is one of only a few in the land who can read, finds herself kidnapped while trying to make some money and brought to the town of Toll. Toll, she quickly discovers, is under the control of the Locksmiths and becomes a different, much more violent and harrowing town by night, when the day citizens are locked down to make way for the night dwellers. Mosca, her goose Saracen, and traveling companion/con man Eponymous Clent, trying to find a way to raise enough money to buy their way out of Toll, end up embroiled in the kidnapping of the Mayor’s daughter and the quest to find the town “Luck”, an object that the townspeople believe keeps disaster at bay. Along the way, plucky heroine Mosca, never one to dwell on adversity and always with her streetwise wits about her, finds herself in more than one dingy cell, impersonates a desert-dwelling girl and a mythic horse made of bone, and amongst a burning city hoping to stave off a war. This is a brilliant story brimming with intrigue, deception and social commentary, surrounding the notions of tyrannical leaders using fear as a method of control and labeling those who refuse to co-operate as “radicals”. Hardinge’s sequel to her widely acclaimed Fly By Night (HarperCollins, 2006), which doesn’t need to be read in order to get into this tome, is dense with detail, giving the story a vivid sense of place and helping to make the physical setting an active participant. The intimidating length and density make this one for serious bibliophiles only, thus limiting its appeal to dedicated young readers and adults. Though the journey is long, the payoff is definitely worth it.]

STARTED:
Clements, Andrew. (2011). Fear itself [Benjamin Pratt & the Keepers of the School #2]. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Choldenko, Gennifer. (2011). No passengers beyond this point. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[Couldn't really get into this one - as evidenced by the fact that it took me so long to read it. I really enjoyed her Al Capone books, but this one just didn't make a whole lot of sense or have much of a point... that I could find. ]

STARTED:
Holm, Jennifer L. (2010). Turtle in paradise. New York: Random House.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Wells, Rosemary. (2010). On the Blue Comet. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.

[.]

STARTED:
Archer, E. (2011). Geek fantasy novel. New York: Scholastic.

[Reviewing for ACL.]

*

FINISHED:
Westerfeld, Scott. (2010). Behemoth. New York: Simon Pulse.

[.]

STARTED:Renier, Aaron. (2010). The unsinkable Walker Bean. New York: First Second.

[Reading for ACL.]

*

FINISHED:
Dashner, James. (2008). The 13th Reality: The journal of curious letters. New York: Shadow Mountain.

[.]

STARTED:
Mull, Brandon. (2010). Fablehaven: Keys to the demon prison. New York: Shadow Mountain.

[The LAST one! What a brilliant series - hope this one doesn't disappoint.]

*

FINISHED:

Stead, Rebecca. (2007). First light. New York: Wendy Lamb.

[.]

STARTED:
Baccalario, Pierdomenico. [trans. Leah D. Janeczko]. (2009). Ring of fire (Century quartet: Book 1). New York: Random House.

[I think that I may be the only one who got into the Ulysses Moore books - and I just found out today that there are MORE than the ones that got published by Scholastic in the U.S.! Unfortunately, the remaining titles in the series are only available in Spanish. I really like this guy's plotting, sense of environment, and use of faux scrapbook items (i.e. photos, receipts, maps, ticket stubs, etc.) to tell his stories. I just hope that they don't stop translating this series into English mid-way through...]

*

FINISHED:

Kilworth, Garry. (2006). Attica. London: Atom/Little, Brown Book Group.

[.]

STARTED:
Stead, Rebecca. (2007). First light. New York: Wendy Lamb.

[Had heard great things about this one when it came out. Now that she's won a Newbery - for a book I thoroughly enjoyed - I thought I'd try this one.]

*

FINISHED:

Park, Linda Sue,... [et al.]. (2007). Click. New York: Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic.

[Maggie and her brother Jason receive presents bequeathed to them by their recently deceased grandfather, Gee, a renowned photojournalist. Maggie's is a box of shells which she is instructed to return to where they were found (thus helping her to "see the world"), and Jason's is one of Gee's old cameras (also, providing him with a way to "see the world"). I thought this one started out quite strong... but then just got a little incomprehensible. A great way to tell a story, with different authors covering different events which then all come together like a puzzle, but does this really have to do with multiple realities? Or is it really about being able to peel another version of someone off themselves which then has a life of their own?? Maybe this one should go back in my queue for rereading one day...]

STARTED:
Law, Ingrid. (2008). Savvy. New York: Walden Media/Dial/Penguin.

[Newbery Honor winner that's been sitting on my shelf for quite awhile.]

*

FINISHED:

Buckley-Archer, Linda. (2006). Gideon the cutpurse: Being the first part of the Gideon trilogy. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[.]

STARTED:
Konigsburg, E.L. (1969). About the B'nai Bagels. New York: Aladdin/Simon & Schuster.

[Time to satisfy my Konigsburg addiction.]

*