FINISHED: 
DiTerlizzi, Tony. (2014). The battle for WondLa. New York: Simon & Schuster.


[.]


STARTED:
Hartinger, Brent. (2013). The elephant of surprise. Seattle: Buddha Kitty.

[4th in the Russel Middlebrook series (which includes The Geography Club).]

*

FINISHED:
Meloy, Colin. (2012). Under Wildwood. New York: Balzer + Bray.


[Prue and Curtis are reunited in this sequel to Meloy’s own Wildwood (Balzer + Bray, 2011), with Prue being drawn back to Wildwood by the voices of the vegetation there (a newly-discovered ability that she has), and Curtis having become a full-fledged Wildwood bandit-in-training.  The two of them embark on a quest to unite a fractured land by finding a just and rightful leader for Wildwood, along the way finding themselves underground and assisting mole people in a war to regain their throne from an usurper.  Meanwhile, Curtis’s parents leave his two sisters at an orphanage to watch the girls while they are away in Istanbul, having received a tip that Curtis may have been spotted there.  In typical fashion, the orphanage turns out to be a factory sweatshop run by a faded Russian movie starlet and her inventor boyfriend who is obsessed with finding a way into the Impassable Wilderness, sure that it’s potential as an industrial site is untapped.  There’s A LOT going on here, and it’s not until 400 pages into the novel that things begin to overlap and you understand how all of the storylines are related, but the language is rich and it does flesh out the woods more, exploring new terrain and expanding upon the world-building in the first book.  In addition, as with the previous tome, this one comes with fanciful and striking spot art illustrations (as well as a couple of full page, color plates) by Meloy’s wife, Carson Ellis. One of the major storylines deals with the topical issue of the growing economic disparity in the world and rise of rampant corporate growth:  after the Russian starlet Desdemona sees The 1% Journal on a desk, Meloy writes, “She didn’t understand the industrialist sensibility…  She’d fallen in with the crowd because she’d been attracted to the money… though she understood now that there was more to success and satisfaction than just blindly following the money.”  Whereas the first book could work as a contained story on its own, this one feels like a “middle book” – a bridge between stories – which, at the end, leaves all of the characters with things left to do and concludes with, “Their daily struggle, the tenuousness of their lives in the vacuum of power that has remained in the wake of a revolution, can wait until tomorrow.  Winter is passing.  A Spring will soon arrive.”  And the next installment can’t come soon enough.]

STARTED & FINISHED:
Kibuishi, Kazu. (2012). Prince of the elves [Amulet: Book 5]. New York: Graphix/Scholastic.


[.]


STARTED:
Martel, Yann. (2001). Life of Pi. New York: Harcourt.

[Re-reading before the film is released.  One of my favorites, so I'm glad to read it again...]

*

FINISHED:
Steensland, Mark. (2012). Behind the bookcase. New York: Random House.

[ACL review forthcoming....]


STARTED:
Amis, Martin. (2012). Lionel Asbo. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

[My second "grown up" book in a month!]

*

FINISHED:
Durbin, Frederic S. (2012). The star shard. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

[.]

STARTED:

Beil, Michael D. (2012). Summer at Forsaken Lake. New York: Knopf.

[By the author of the Red Blazer Girls!]

*

FINISHED:
DiTerlizzi, Tony. (2012). A hero for WondLa. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[.]


STARTED:
Durbin, Frederic S. (2012). The star shard. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

[Reading for ACL Distinguished...]

*

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:
Bulla, Clyde Robert. (1962). The ring and the fire. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell.

[.]

STARTED:
Hardinge, Frances. (2006). Fly by night. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Kibuishi, Kazu. (2010). The cloud searchers [Amulet: Book 3]. New York: Graphix/Scholastic.

[.]

STARTED:
Nielsen-Fernlund, Susin. (2010). Dear George Clooney: Please marry my mom. Toronto: Tundra.

[Seeing if I deem it worthy of being on the ACL Distinguished list.]

*

FINISHED:
Collins, Suzanne. (2010). Mockingjay. New York: Scholastic.

[Not bad... but I just wasn't compelled to tear through it like I was with the previous installments. Yeah, it needed to wrap things up, but it could've used some more of the action and adventure of the first two books. Here, it seemed to me like the action sequences were just stuck in in order to provide sequences that would pick up the pace. Disappointed, but, as with LOST, the journey itself was satisfying enough to justify an unsatisfying ending.]

STARTED:Jinks, Catherine. (2010). The genius wars. New York: Harcourt.

[Reviewing for ACL.]

*

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:

Lin, Grace. (2009). Where the mountain meets the moon. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

[LOVED this wonderful little tale. I especially enjoyed the fact that there a bunch of little stories/fables/folktales told throughout the novel which, in the end, add up to a larger tale - in addition to the fact that the whole novel is, in itself, a fable/folktale. Simple, straightforward, clever - all the qualities of a "classic" - and Lin's full-color artwork throughout is excellent. COMPLETELY worthy of the Newbery Honor which it received.]

STARTED:
Fisher, Catherine. (2010). Incarceron. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[Reading to see if I deem it worthy of appearing on the ACL 2010 Distinguished List - and the year has just begun...]

*

FINISHED:

Anderson, M.T. (2005). Whales on stilts. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc.

[.]

STARTED:
Niffenegger, Audrey. (2009). Her fearful symmetry. New York: Scribner.

[.]

*

FINISHED:

L'Engle, Madeleine. (1962). A wrinkle in time. New York: Dell/Yearling.

[.]

STARTED:
Stead, Rebecca. (2009). When you reach me. New York: Wendy Lamb/Random House.

[Yippee! Looking forward to it!]

*

FINISHED:

Beil, Michael D. (2009). The red blazer girls. New York: HarperCollins

[.]

STARTED:
Crutcher, Chris. (2009). Angry management: Three novellas. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[Reading to review for ACL.]

*

FINISHED:

MacDonald, George. (1969). The light princess. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

[Well, it doesn't seem like it would fly all that well with youth today. As I started to read it I thought, "This might make a good, short read-aloud..." and then quickly reconsidered. The language was SO antiquated and odd. Many times I not only tripped up on the words, but had a difficult time trying to figure out who he was talking about and/or what was happening. Yes, it's the story of a princess who is born without gravity and discovers that in water she feels "normal". Soon, the evil princess who cursed the disability onto the princess does a spell to drain the lake and kingdom of all it's water. It is then that a roaming prince who has become smitten with the princess volunteers to sacrifice himself to save the princess and kingdom.]

STARTED:
Huxley, Aldous. (1932). Brave new world/Brave new world revisited. New York: HarperCollins.

[An old classic that I remember reading in high school English class and have been wanting to revisit now that I'm older and wiser.]

*

FINISHED:

Augarde, Steve. (2009). Winter wood. New York: David Fickling Books.

[LOVE this series. As I tell everyone, these have that sense of being modern CLASSICS. Just wish that the US edition of this one was consistent with the first two titles which featured Augarde's woodcuts...]

STARTED:
Rodgers, Mary. (1982). Summer switch. New York: Harper & Row.

[Was AMAZED to see this one on the shelves at BPL. Though I knew that the original film of "Freaky Friday" ended with it looking like the father and son would switch bodies, I had no idea that there was an actual book written about it!]

*

FINISHED:

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

[.]

STARTED:
Lowry, Lois. (1979). Anastasia Krupnik. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

[Does one ever need a reason to read Lois Lowry? I've only read her more recent works and have always been curious about this series.]

*

FINISHED:

Pullman, Philip. (1997). The golden compass. New York: Del Rey/Ballantine.

[Really liked this again the second time around. Just wanted to make sure that I remembered it all before seeing the movie - which, just looks stupendous - like it has a really unique visual style. Can't imagine that it's going to be a huge success as I'm sure word of mouth will be, "It's pretty but it didn't make a lick of sense."]

STARTED:
Sanderson, Brandon. (2007). Alcatraz versus the evil librarians. New York: Scholastic.

[Reviewing for ACL.]

*

FINISHED:

Klages, Ellen. (2006). The green glass sea. New York: Viking/Penguin.

[Liked it a lot. Didn't LOVE it like I thought I would, but it was a good read and will certainly pick up the sequel when it comes out. The setting (Los Alamos, during the development of the atomic bomb) was a fascinating one.]

STARTED:
Pullman, Philip. (1997). The golden compass. New York: Del Rey/Ballantine.

[Reading it again before seeing the movie - which I'm VERY excited for!]

*