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Bibliography: Werlin, Nancy. (September 2010).  Extraordinary.  New York: Dial. ISBN: 9780803733725

Plot Summary:  Ordinary Phoebe meets extraordinary Mallory in seventh grade, and they become better than best friends, inseparable.  Years later when Phoebe meets Mallory’s brother, Ryland, she falls for him hard only slowly coming to realize that neither Mallory or Ryland are exactly what they seem.  When she discovers what they really want, she must decide to be extraordinary to survive.

Critical Analysis:  I read this book weeks ago, but I have been thinking about it ever since.  In this book, even more so than the previous (Impossible) Werlin builds an amazingly intense suspenseful story focused on a small select set of of characters.  Add to this the elements of fairy, friendship, family, history, loyalty, love, and self worth and you have something that is much more than another thriller and beyond another teen paranormal romance.  I am in awe of Werlin’s writing and character and world building skills.

That being said, something about the construction and plot of this book leaves me feeling separate or apart from the characters and the action.  But again, as I type this, I can even see the genius there.  Phoebe herself and in the end Mallory as well are separate and apart from their world.  Phoebe would not be Phoebe nor Mallory Mallory if they were able to turn to a supportive network of family and friends.  Again Werlin has written an, for lack of a better term, adult book that deserves wide readership beyond the teen area.

Review Excerpts: “In the hands of a less talented author, this would be a hot mess. Happily, Werlin crafts her characters so deftly and unrolls the story so cleverly that … readers will be under the spell till the end”–Booklist

“Werlin smoothly blends contemporary realism and fantasy, here basing the story on the real historical figure Mayer Rothschild and spinning his family’s extraordinary success into a supernatural bargain. … Phoebe’s final reckoning with the faeries tests her own inner strength; ultimately her survival depends on it — just as in the real world.”–Hornbook

“”Beguiling . . . This proudly Jewish fantasy offers a compelling tale of friendship and a refreshing antidote to faerie stories about that one special girl deserving of supernatural love.”–Kirkus Reviews

“Werlin raises interesting questions about honesty, love, and what it truly means to be ‘extraordinary.’ ”–Publisher’s Weekly

Reviewed from publisher provided advanced copy.  Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

Bibliography: Lee, Y.S. (2010). The Agency Book 2: The Body at the Tower. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. ISBN:

Plot Summary:  On her second case for the Agency, Mary Quinn finds herself in the seamy side of Victorian London, pretending to be a boy while she spies on the construction site of the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament where a mysterious death occurred.  Was it murder or an unfortunate accident?  When the handsome James Easton arrives to do some investigating of his won, she worries both that he’ll recognize her and he won’t.

Critical Analysis:  A solid second book in The Agency trilogy.  Interesting enough, I find it more squarely in the conventional mystery column than the previous, and perhaps a little less interesting to me personally.  Except for the climatic scene  near the end, there wasn’t was much danger and suspense as in the first book.

What was very well done was showing the contrast between the classes, the haves and the have nots, made very plain by Mary’s moving between the two, as Mark on the construction site and as a rich lady doling at alms to the dead man’s family.  The return of James Easton is a welcome one, although again not as much fun as book one.  A little more of Mary’s past is revealed, but I hoped for more from her and for her in this story, as in many places it felt like she was less participant than observer.  I would have liked more details about the agency and the women behind it as well, but you can only put so much in one book.

I cheer any and all true mysteries for teens, so this is a welcome addition.  The promise of the third book awaits.  Dare I hope that Lee and Candlewick have considered giving readers more Mary Quinn and the Agency?

Readalikes:  Mary Quinn reminds me a little bit of another Mary who has her series of mysteries:  Mary Russell.  They are both independent and intelligent with secret or mysterious pasts.  Of course, this series by Laurie King also features the greatest detective of all, Sherlock Holmes.

Reviewed from publisher provided advanced copy.  Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

Bibliography: Griffin, Adele. (August 2010). The Julian Game.  New York: Putnam Juvenile ISBN: 978-0399254604

Plot Summary:  Scholarship student at an elite girls school, Raye jumps at the chance to help queen bee Ella get back at her ex-boyfriend Julian by pretending to be someone she’s not in hopes of sabotaging and embarrassing him.  She didn’t expect to fall for him, and the fall out from Ella and the rest of the group shows her who her real friends are.

Critical Analysis:  Griffin does not break new ground here, and yet this is a compellingly readable novel for several reasons.  First of all, again, another author who recognizes the craft that goes into writing a shorter tighter story.  Griffin could have added more scenes. more details but part of what drives this book forward is the tight intense focus of the characters and their actions.  The reader really feels what Raye feels, because of the construction of the plot.

Second, Griffin has added depth and dimension to what could have been stock characters.  The queen bee with her OCD tendencies in other situations could have been low man on the totem pole.  In the glimpses of Ella’s home life, we are shown just that, she struggles to be accepted by and for approval from her family.  The good guy that Raye falls for is indeed too good to be true, he can’t stand up to those who are bullying and harassing her.  Other writers would have painted him as the hero.  Instead we get a very realistic teen who can’t afford to risk his own image for someone else.

I think this topical timely novel will practically sell itself because of the intriguing cover.  I hope it leads teens to thinking not only about their online lives, but their offline relationships as well.

Review Excerpts:  “Canny use of details makes Griffin’s characters fully realized and believable….There are darker, more powerful stories of cyber-bullying out there, but strong pacing and a sympathetic protagonist ought to keep readers hooked.”–Publisher’s Weekly

Reviewed from publisher provided advanced copy.  Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

Bibliography: Gill, David Macinnis. (August 2010). Black Hole Sun. New York: Greenwillow Books. ISBN: 978-0061673047

Plot Summary:  Durango is the chief of a small band of mercenaries who live by their own code of behavior on dystopian Mars.  Joining Durango to defend a community of miners from the cannabalistic Draeu are second in command Vienne, mercenaries for hire Fuse and Jenkins, old timer Ockham, and regulator wanna be Jean-Paul.

Critical Analysis:  At ALA this year, I attended the YA Author Coffee Klatch.  When David Macinnis Gill sat down and started describing this book about a future Mars where the planet stinks because of the intentional pollution to make it livable, I was interested.  When he talked about how the idea for symbiarmor came from an exercise at a writing conference with Orson Scott Card and was taken from a journal with here and now technology, I was intrigued.  When he started talking about an assassin ballerina, I knew I had to get my hands on this book.  (Plus the title alone makes me want to play that Soundgarden song over and over and over again).  I went to the HarperCollins exhibit, they had none left.  But many thanks to the very kind publishing assistant who tracked a copy down and sent it my way.

It was worth the effort.  This book reminds me why I love science fiction.  (And yes, in the technical sense, this is a dystopia, but even more I am reminded of good old futuristic based in science science fiction.)  And witty dialogue and adventure and romance and lots of shooting and blowing things up and monsters both created and real and yes, even artificial intelligence.   There is even some character growth and development in between the plot twists and explosions.  This book has all of that and more, and makes me hope for a sequel as well as the beginning of a trend:  Please sir, can I have some more?

Readalikes:  I was greatly reminded of Timothy Zahn’s Dragon and Thief, which features a symbiotic relationship between a boy and a dragon who requires a host to live.  It also features lots of action, adventure, and futuristic setting and space ships.

Review Excerpts: “If intelligent sophomoric humor exists, Gill is the master at creating it….Readers will have a hard time turning the pages fast enough as the body count rises to the climactic, satisfying ending, which will leave new fans hopeful for more adventures.”–Booklist

Reviewed from publisher provided advanced copy.  Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

My First Crush: The School Librarian

Joining us on the blog today is Adam Jay Epstein, co-author with Andrew Jacobson of the upcoming middle grade novel, The Familiars. In The Familiars, Aldwyn the orphan cat decides to play along when a young wizard in training named Jack picks him for a magic familiar when he hides in an unusual pet shop.  Now if he could just convince the other animal familiars that he too has magical powers.  When Jack and two other wizards to be are kidnapped by an evil queen, the Familiars realize it is up to them to save the day.

Epstein, Adam Jay, and Jacobson, Andrew. (September 7, 2010).  The Familiars.  New York: HarperCollins.  ISBN: 978-0061961083

When I was 9 years old, I remember the thrill of leaving my classroom and heading down the short hallway to the library. My third grade teacher was uninspiring. She was more concerned with organizing her pencils and sucking on lasengers than engaging with her students. But I knew that three times a week, I would be transported away by the energetic words of Mrs. Schwabe, E.M. Baker’s school librarian.

Now, I wasn’t in love with her — that was reserved for the pig-tailed girl who lived three houses down from me, but the stories she told have stayed with me since those days collected in a circle, on the rug, looking up at her sitting in her big wooden chair. William Steig’s “Sylvester and the Magic Pebble” still holds a special place in my heart. “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle, with its different shaped pages, is as vivid now reading it to my own three year old daughter as it was then. I’m not sure if those morning trips to the book-filled walls of Mrs. Schwabe’s domain turned me into the author I am today, but she certainly inspired my love of reading.

Now, I’m excited to think how school librarian’s across the country, the gatekeepers of imagination, will be sharing The Familiars — yeah, my book! — with third, fourth, fifth, and sixth graders — as librarians read the first words: “It all started with Aldwyn’s whiskers beginning to tingle…” I wonder if children will be transported the way I was.

Adam Jay Epstein

ADAM JAY EPSTEIN spent his childhood in Great Neck, New York, while ANDREW JACOBSON grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but the two met in a parking garage out in Los Angeles. They have been writing for film and television together ever since. This is their first book.

One day, Adam asked Andrew, “Are you familiar with what a familiar is?” And from that simple question, Vastia was born, a fantastical world filled with the authors’ shared love of animals and magic. They wrote every word, sentence, and page together, sitting opposite each other.

Adam Jay Epstein lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Jane, their daughters, Penny and Olive, and a black-and-white alley cat who hangs out in their backyard. Andrew Jacobson lives with his wife, Ashley, and their dog, Elvis, four traffic lights away.

Check out The Familiars for more about the book.