Review by Sherry Ellis Iris and Lark are twins. Iris is the practical one. Lark is the dreamer. The two have always been together. Iris taking care of Lark. Lark relying on Iris. But in fifth grade, things change. They are placed in separate classes. The Lost Girl is the story of how the two cope with this situation. Interwoven throughout the main story is a subplot of the arrival of a mysterious antique shop, [...]
This is the second story in the Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond series. Kiran seems like a normal middle school kid living in New Jersey, but she’s actually Princess Kiranmala, the daughter of the evil Serpent King in the Kingdom Beyond. Her adoptive parents have raised her in New Jersey to keep her safe from her evil father. A message comes through the interdimensional television asking Kiran to come back to the Kingdom Beyond to [...]
Harry Potter meet Indiana Jones in this delightfully creepy story about a boy, his grandfather and some truly monstrous robots. Alex’s life gets turned upside down when his grandfather sends him an old toy robot and the note, “This one is special.” He has no idea the robot hides a deadly secret. Soon he and his grandfather are running for their lives across snowy Europe. The people after the robot are unusually cunning and will [...]
Stories that feature a child main character that is suddenly transported to a world that forces him to overcome overwhelming odds to save the world/family/friends are very common (heck, I even wrote one). What sets certain books apart from the masses are dynamic characters and/or amazing world building. Ryan Calejo's contribution to this genre, Charlie Hernandez & the League of Shadows, delivers on both. Calejo's pacing of his debut novel is perfectly balanced to provide the reader [...]
Addison Gerhardt would do anything for his best friend Devin Velma. After all, it was Devin that rescued him when he accidently locked himself inside the snack cabinet in kindergarten. Devin has been saving Addison from embarrassing social situations ever since and since every social situation is paralzyingly embarrassing to Addison, it’s almost a daily occurrence. Devin wants to make a viral video. What better way than the Double-Barreled Monkey Bar Backflip of Doom? That [...]
Stu Truly's life had been going on like it always had - hanging with his best friend Ben, eating left over pork chops for lunch at school, and always (pretty much) telling the truth.. That all changed when new girl, Becca, came to their school. Suddenly, he had sweaty palms, stumbled over his words, and proclaimed to be a vegetarian. Dan Richards's STU TRULY tells a story of an awkward time in life where boys [...]
Nicki Demere is a 12-year-old, sarcastic, street-wise, expert pickpocket and a long-term participant in the foster-care system. That makes her a top candidate to assist the FBI in hiding a family from the most dangerous crime syndicate in the country. What better way to hide a family of three than to make it a family of four? When Nicki learns that her father had been out of prison for two years and hadn't come to [...]
There’s shy and then there’s Virgil Salinas. He’s so quiet, he usually only talks to his family and then mostly only to his grandmother Lola. So, how will he ever get up the nerve to talk Valencia Somerset, a girl in his resource class at middle school? His only hope is Kaori Tanaka, a girl in his neighborhood with a gift for the spiritual world. At least that’s what Kaori claims. On his way [...]
Red, as she calls herself, has seen a lot over the last couple of centuries. Trees do see a lot and know a lot, more than people. Red happens to be her town's Wishtree. Every May, people from all over town write their wishes on a scrap of paper or cloth and tie it to Red. Obviously she can't grant these wishes, even though sometimes she wishes she could. When a Muslim family moves into [...]
Clayton Byrd idolizes his grandfather, Cool Papa, a legendary blues guitarist. Clayton's instrument is the blues harp, or harmonica, and he yearns to finally get a solo with the Bluesmen, Cool Papa's band. But Cool Papa tells him, "a bluesman aint's a bluesman without that deep-down cry." The unthinkable happens and Cool Papa dies suddenly. Clayton is devastated. His mother is grieving too but in a different way. She's always hated Cool Papa's music because [...]
