FINISHED:
Haydu, Corey Ann. (2017). The Someday Suitcase. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[Floridian fifth graders Clover and Danny are completely in tune, super-best friends, so when Danny becomes mysteriously ill, causing him to be unable to hang out and to miss a bunch of school, Clover starts to question who she is without her symbiotic other.  For her school science fair Clover decides that her project will be on Danny and an attempt to figure out what is ailing him, and then hatches a plan to get Danny to a new-agey clinic in Vermont that treated a classmate’s mother.  Haydu’s follow up to the exceptional Rules for Stealing Stars (HarperCollins, 2015) similarly doesn’t pull punches when it comes to heavy emotional situations but, rather, fully embraces them with a visceral, kick-in-the-gut reality, and her continual integration of science into the narrative – what it is, and what it means to be a scientist – keeps the reader questioning what they know.  Could Clover’s presence alone be helping Danny to feel better?  Clover’s never-waning devotion to her best friend is fully explored, with Clover even beginning to feel guilty for making a couple of new friends, and a depiction of a home life where she has to deal with a little brother who is on the autism spectrum and a truck driving father whom is frequently away add further character depth.  With a hint of magical realism, this is an examination of the line between where science ends and magic begins, positing that magic may just be science that we don’t yet understand.]

STARTED:
Cole, Henry. (2017). Bayberry Island [Brambleheart #2]. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[Liked the first one, thought that I'd review the second...]

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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...]

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FINISHED:
Barnhill, Kelly. (2016). The Girl Who Drank the Moon. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Young Readers.

[It is the annual practice of the Protectorate to leave the youngest child of the village in the woods as a sacrifice to appease a rumored witch who lives there, but that witch, Xan, actually rescues these children and delivers them to be raised in another town.  One year it is Luna whom she saves, and in doing so accidentally lets the young girl drink so much moonlight that it imbues her with magical powers, powers that Xan suppresses in Luna until her 13^th birthday when she may be more ready to deal with them.  Barnhill’s tight, thoroughly-realized fairy tale features a number of strong and determined characters including Luna, whose mission it is to find out who she is and where she came from; Antain, a young man whose mission is to find and expose the truth about the Protectorate; and a woman, deemed mad, whose mission is to prove her sanity and find the daughter that was taken from her.  Side characters Glerk, a bog creature, and Fyrian, a minute dragon, ground the story and provide much needed comic relief, respectively, and though the second quarter of the book stalls a bit, at midpoint it picks up steam again when a number of the seemingly disparate stories begin to intertwine and then doesn’t let up until the last page.  There’s a cautionary message to be gleaned here about discovering what – or who – the real evil is when one is kept in the dark with regard to the truth, especially when it is used as a means of control.  As Antain’s wife, Ethyne, says, “Knowledge is powerful, but it is a terrible power when it is hoarded and hidden.  Today, knowledge is for everyone.”]

STARTED:
Bayard, Louis. (2016).  Lucky Strikes.  New York: Henry Holt.

[.]

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