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.

[.]

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FINISHED:
Alexander, Kwame. (2014). The Crossover. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[.]

STARTED:
Sheinkin, Steve. (2014). The Port Chicago 50 : Disaster, mutiny, and the fight for civil rights. New York: Roaring Brook.

[Reading for a mock Newbery...]


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FINISHED:
McAlpine, Gordon. (2013). The tell-tale start: The misadventures of Edgar & Allan Poe (Book 1).  New York: Viking.


[.]


STARTED:
Balliett, Blue. (2013). Hold fast. New York: Scholastic.


[LOVE HER.]

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FINISHED:
Nix, Garth, and Williams, Sean. (2011). Troubletwisters. New York: Scholastic.

[.]

STARTED:
Meloy, Colin. (2011). Wildwood. New York: Balzer + Bray.

[.]

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FINISHED:
Gidwitz, Adam. (2010). A tale dark & Grimm. New York: Dutton/Penguin.

[[Reviewed from ARC.] Not your standard Hansel and Gretel retelling, the twin siblings wander their way through a series of “adventures” that are actually riffs on other Grimm’s tales, always hoping to find a good home where they will be taken care of by a good parent. Initially, the pair runaway when they hear that they may be sacrificed by their noble parents in order to save the life of a long-faithful servant, and then find themselves living with a man and woman who seem to have wished their seven sons into birds. The siblings are eventually separated, and Gretel gets caught up with a mysterious (murdering) stranger, while Hansel, after being cut out of the body of a beast, travels to Hell in order to steal three golden hairs from the head of the Devil (which plays out like a scene from Red Riding Hood). The stories are told in the detached and repetitive style of classic fairytales (“’Terrible,’ said the man with the beard. ‘Terrible,’ said the tall man. ‘Terrible,’ said the woman.”) allowing the frequent, contemporary author interjections to stand out and take on a more animated tone. Each chapter acts as a self-contained tale within the larger story, beginning with “Once upon a time…” and concluding with “The End” (although it is more often than not followed by “Almost…”). Indeed, in this, his debut novel, Gidwitz has taken numerous liberties with the Grimm canon, mixing and matching tales while adding his own slant/perspective. Some make take issue with Gidwitz remarking in the introduction, “Once upon a time, fairy tales were awesome. So why are all the versions of the stories you’ve heard so mind-numbingly boring?”, but his point is just that we have Disney-ized classic stories and taken out all of the juicy, gross, brutal parts that older children might revel in.]

STARTED:
Funke, Cornelia. (2010). Reckless. New York: Little, Brown & Company.

[.]

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FINISHED:
Pullman, Philip. (2010). The good man Jesus and the scoundrel Christ. New York: Canongate/Publishers Group West.

[.]

STARTED:
Sachar, Louis. (2010). The cardturner. New York: Delacorte/Random House.

[.]

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FINISHED:

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

[Twin girls, upon reaching their 21st birthday(s), inherit an apartment in London owned by their mother's twin who recently passed away. After moving in they interact with the man downstairs who was their aunt's lover, an OCD hoarder agoraphobic upstairs, and a large old cemetery right outside their door. The girls are unsure of where they want their lives to go and are dreadfully unable to do anything without the other one around Secrets abound and supernatural occurrences in their apartment slowly draw the twins apart until one makes a drastic decision in an effort to permanently cut ties with her sister. Not bad... it kept me pretty well engaged but not super compelled to keep reading. In truth, I much preferred The Time Travelers Wife - it just seemed to have more of a central story to push everything along. Here, there are a couple of characters who just seem there to pad the novel and the whole thing lacks a real central storyline. I enjoyed it for the most part, but thought that it had so much potential that wasn't quite reached.]

STARTED:
Alexander, Lloyd. (1968). The high king. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

[Finishing up the series... finally.]

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