Broxo is a fun, action-packed fantasy that reads very quickly. The illustrations are quite dark, but fit the theme of the story, and they're beautifully done. I had a little bit of a hard time fo…
In a style similar to his The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson wraps up a slice of history with an entwining narrative line. This time the history is Germany in the 1930’s during Hitler’s ascensi…
Talking animals, magical transformations, sentient winds—have you ever wondered if there could be a logical explanation for all the fantastical things that happen in fairy tales? In Ice, Sarah Beth Du…
Shabanu: Daughter of the Winds is the coming-of-age tale of a young Muslim girl who lives in the Cholistan desert in Pakistan. Suzanne Fisher Staples tells a poignant story portraying the life and cu…
Combine a charming, haunting, and lyrical writing style with a fabulous cat, a complex villain, and a lonely but strong girl, and you have Plain Kate by Erin Bow. The protagonist, Plain Kate, struggl…
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis may technically be a science fiction novel, but it feels more like The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde. You don’t have to be a die-hard science fi…
This collection of essays about all aspects of homemaking is written in an entertaining, tongue-in-cheek manner that will make you smile—and maybe even giggle once or twice. Sixpence in Her Shoe is mo…
Siddhartha, the son of a high-caste Brahmin priest, from an early age hopes to achieve total enlightenment—to be able to completely transcend his life. Deciding quickly that he cannot find the knowled…
Chima in The Warrior Heir delivers a high-octane fighting and action adventure that is spot-on for a high school audience. The protagonist, 16 year-old Jackson Thomas Swift, is instantly easy to relat…
The Next Door Boys by Jolene B. Perry portrays an independent character, Jane, entering college to find her way to freedom. Situations lie around every bend, which make Jane more dependent on her bro…
Anna Karenina is an intense story about love and its consequences. Written by the great Leo Tolstoy, this epic novel follows two central characters -- glamorous Anna Karenina and brooding Konstantin L…
Set in the near future, The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson introduces us to Jenna Fox, a seventeen year-old emerging from a coma after a serious auto accident. As Jenna proceeds through the…
