Please enable JavaScript
All Books | Page 11 | LitPick Book Reviews
All Books
Meanwhile
Jason Shiga
Synopsis: Chocolate or Vanilla? This simple choice is all it takes to get started with Meanwhile, the wildly inventive creation of comics mastermind Jason Shiga, of whom Scott McCloud said “Crazy + Genius = Shiga.” Jimmy, whose every move is under your control, finds himself in a mad scientist’s lab, where he’s given a choice between three amazing objects: a mind-reading device, a time-travel machine, or the Killitron 3000 (which is as ominous as it sounds). Down each of these paths there are puzzles, mysterious clues, and shocking revelations. It’s up to the reader to lead Jimmy to success or disaster.
Meanwhile is a wholly original story of invention, discovery, and saving the world, told through a system of tabs that take you forward, backward, upside down, and right side up again. Each read creates a new adventure!
 Awards and praise for Jason Shiga
 
2004 Eisner Award
2003 Ignatz Award
2007 Stumpton Trophy Award
1999 Xeric Grant Recipient
 
“Crazy + Genius = Shiga” ―Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics
 
“If humankind ever finds itself at the brink of its own destruction and I am given the task to fill a small, space-bound time capsule with a collection of ten graphic novels that would present to alien eyes the best that the cartoonists of Earth had to offer the universe, Jason Shiga's Meanwhile would surely be among my picks.” ―Gene Luen Yang, author of American Born Chinese
 
“A creator of comix that can be at once funny, disturbing, thoughtful, deconstructed, and cleverly put together.” ―Time online
 
“Meanwhile is a wallop of a book/graphic novel! It delivers action, choices, problem solving, and engagement. And it reminds me of my own efforts in writing Choose Your Own Adventure, which I take as a great compliment coming from Jason Shiga. I wish I had written this book! Run, don’t walk, to your favorite bookseller and pick up a copy!” ―R. A. Montgomery, Choose Your Own Adventure author
 
“Ingenious” ―Edward Packard, Choose Your Own Adventure author
Publication Date: 03/01/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Demon Possessed
Stacia Kane
Synopsis: When one of Dr. Megan Chase’s patients is convinced his problems stem from demonic possession by a “minister,” Megan can’t do anything about it without revealing the truth about her psychic abilities. Still, she’s determined to stop the less-than-holy man. Since the minister is holding a “Weekend Exorcism” next door, Megan figures she can kill two birds with one stone—but it may be Megan who is in danger of being killed. Someone’s planning on killing her and using the meeting to deflect blame. Meanwhile, Megan’s lover Greyson has become vulnerable to assassination, and what was supposed to be a relaxing, romantic weekend turns into a life or death, love or loss situation.
Publication Date: 02/23/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
DreamScraps
Katie Thompson
Synopsis: Ma?ic It's not a typo. The question mark gets to the heart of the word. Is magic real? It depends on what you believe. Katie, a shy teenager, is starting to believe that magic is real, not something only in books. Katie has discovered that by drawing sketches of what she wants in her DreamScraps journal, she can alter her reality. Soon Katie learns to travel to other sublens, alternative dimensions, curled up in sub-length units of space. In the sublen Narfar, she meets: Hazel, an age-shifter who changes appearance randomly between various ages; Emily, a girl who, like Katie, discovered the DreamScrap dimensions on her own; Dazi, the brave heartthrob; Elizabeth and Lana, girlfriends and DreamScrap students with Katie under Hazel; And . DarkDreamers, an army of anti-magic pessimists led by power-hungry Elena. Can Katie and friends reopen the portals to the sublens that Elena closed? Will Katie learn enough DreamScrap magic to fulfill her destiny as Mystérieux, liaison to Dardale, keeper of the portals? And, most importantly . Is magic real? What do you believe?
Publication Date: 02/22/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
A Wish After Midnight
Zetta Elliott
Synopsis: “Although there is plenty of history embedded in the novel, A Wish After Midnight is written with a lyrical grace that many authors of what passes for adult literature would envy.” (Paula L. Woods for The Defenders Online)

“Zetta Elliott’s time travel novel A Wish After Midnight is a bit of a revelation…It’s vivid, violent and impressive history." (Colleen Mondor for Bookslut)

Genna is a fifteen-year-old girl who wants out of her tough Brooklyn neighborhood. But she gets more than she bargained for when a wish gone awry transports her back in time. Facing the perilous realities of Civil War–era Brooklyn, Genna must use all her wits to survive. In the tradition of Octavia Butler’s Kindred and Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, A Wish After Midnight is the affecting and inspiring tale of a fearless young woman’s fight to hold on to her individuality and her humanity in two different worlds.
Publication Date: 02/16/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Palace of Mirrors
Margaret Peterson Haddix
Synopsis: Cecelia looks like a peasant girl and lives in a village so small that it's not even on the map. But she knows that secretly, she is the true princess, hidden away as a baby to be kept safe from the enemies of the kingdon. A commoner named Desmia was placed on the throne as a decoy. Cecelia has always known that when it was safe, she would be taken out of hiding and returned to her rightful place on the throne.

Then danger finds her in her village, and Cecelia has to act. With the help of her best friend Harper, she decides to take matters into her own hands, relieve Desmia of the the crown, and take up her own rule. But when they venture from their small village to the capital city and into the famed Palace of Mirrors, Harper and Cecelia discover that all is not as it seems, and that they have placed themselves in more danger than ever before.
Publication Date: 02/09/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
After
Kristin Harmel
Synopsis: Lacey's world shatters when her dad is killed in a car accident. And secretly? She feels like it’s her fault. If she hadn’t taken her own sweet time getting ready that morning . . . well, it never would have happened. Her mom wouldn’t be a basket case. Her brother Logan wouldn’t drink. And her little brother would still have two parents.

But life goes on even if you don’t want it to. And when Lacey gets the chance to make a difference in the lives of some people at school, she jumps at it. Making lemonade out of lemons is her specialty. Except she didn’t count on meeting a guy like Sam. Or that sometimes? Lemonade can be a pretty bitter drink to swallow.
Publication Date: 02/09/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
The Dark  Days of Hamburger Halpin
Synopsis: Being a hefty, deaf newcomer almost makes Will Halpin the least popular guy at Coaler High. But when he befriends the only guy less popular than him, the dork-namic duo has the smarts and guts to figure out who knocked off the star quarterback. Will can’t hear what’s going on, but he’s a great observer. So, who did it? And why does that guy talk to his fingers? And will the beautiful girl ever notice him? (Okay, so Will’s interested in more than just murder . . .)

Those who prefer their heroes to be not-so-usual and with a side of wiseguy will gobble up this witty, geeks-rule debut.
Publication Date: 02/09/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
That's Life, Samara Brooks
Daniel Ehrenhaft
Synopsis:

"FUNNY! I'm officially jealous."--Gordon Korman, author of ONE FALSE NOTE

Is playing blackjack in the school cafeteria that bad? Samara Brooks doesn't think so. She isn't out to hurt anybody. She just wants to create some drama. And she does. Drama . . . and trouble.

When the principal threatens to call her parents, Samara proposes a way to save herself. She'll prove she's not a bad person by conducting a scientific experiment to show she has the same DNA as one of the friendliest girls in school: class president Lily Frederick.   But then Nathan Weiss—a kid obsessed with UFOs and mysterious codes, gets involved. And things get really weird. . . .

"If you like your mystery with a side of science and some delightful snark, you're in the right place," says New York Times bestselling author Libba Bray. And Leslie Margolis, author of Girls Acting Catty and Boys Are Dogs says, "Hilarious, wacky and charming."

Publication Date: 02/09/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
To Come And Go Like Magic
Katie Pickard Fawcett
Synopsis: Twelve-year-old Chili Sue Mahoney has never been outside of her small Appalachian town. Momma says Mercy Hill, Kentucky, is her “true home,” but Chili longs to see the world—to have the freedom to leave and to explore.

So when Miss Matlock is brought in as the 7th grade substitute teacher, Chili and her classmate Willie Bright are thrilled. Everyone knows Miss Matlock has traveled around the globe. Why she’s come back to her childhood home after all this time is a mystery, but Chili and Willie are eager to befriend her despite the rumors. As the three spend time together, Chili learns about the jungles and deserts and cities of the world. But she also discovers that there’s more to Mercy Hill than she thought: beauty, in the people and places she’s known all her life, and secrets, sometimes where they’re least expected.

Told in vignettes and set in 1970s Appalachia, To Come and Go Like Magic is a heartwarming and hopeful debut novel about family, friendship, and the meaning of home.
Publication Date: 02/09/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Calendar Mysteries: April Adventure
John Steven Gurney, Ron Roy
Synopsis:

From the author of A to Z Mysteries comes a springtime egg hunt mystery featuring the younger siblings of the A to Z Mysteries kids!

It's a mystery every month from popular A to Z Mysteries author Ron Roy! With the younger siblings of the A to Z Mysteries kids!

April is for Adventure...

In the fourth book of the Calendar Mysteries—an early chapter book mystery series—it's springtime in Green Lawn, and Bradley, Brian, Lucy, and Nate are on an Easter egg hunt. They search high and law and find lots of eggs. But soon it's clear that some of the eggs aren't just well hidden. They're gone! Who would steal Easter eggs? It's up to the four kids to crack this eggs-cellent case.

Parents, teachers, and librarians agree that these highly collectible chapter books are perfect for emerging readers and any kid who loves mysteries!

Publication Date: 02/09/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Synopsis: Product Description
The Newberry Medal-winning story of a 12-year old girl who lives alone on a Pacific island after she leaps from a rescue ship. Isolated on the island for eighteen years, Karana forages for food, builds weapons to fight predators, clothes herself in a cormorant feathered skirt, and finds strength and peace in her seclusion. A classic tale of discovery and solitude returns to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for its 50th anniversary, with a new introduction by Lois Lowry.


Amazon Exclusive: A Letter from Lois Lowry on Writing the Introduction to Island of the Blue Dolphins, 50th Anniversary Edition

Dear Amazon readers,

Last summer, when I was asked to write an introduction to a new edition of Island of the Blue Dolphins, my mind went back in time to the 1960s, when my children were young and it was one of their best-loved books.

But a later memory surfaced, as well, of a party I was invited to in the summer of 1979. By now the kids were grown. I was in New York to attend a convention of the American Library Association, and Scott O'Dell's publisher, Houghton Mifflin, was honoring him at a reception being held at the St. Regis Hotel. I had never met Mr. O'Dell. But because of my own children I knew his books, and I was pleased to be invited to such an illustrious event.

I was staying at a nearby hotel and planned to walk over to the party. But when I began to get dressed, I encountered a problem. I was wearing, I remember, a rose-colored crêpe de Chine dress. It buttoned up the back. I was alone in my hotel room. I buttoned the bottom buttons, and I buttoned the top buttons, but there was one button in the middle of my back that I simply couldn’t reach. It makes me laugh today, thinking about it, picturing the contortions I went through in that hotel room: twisting my arms, twisting my back, all to no avail.

The clock was ticking. The party would start soon. I had no other clothes except the casual things I'd been wearing all day and which were now wrinkled from the summer heat.

Finally I decided, The heck with it. I left the room with the button unbuttoned and headed off. When I got in my hotel elevator, a benign-looking older couple, probably tourists from the Midwest, were already standing inside, and I explained my predicament politely and asked if they could give me a hand. The gray-haired man kindly buttoned my dress for me.

We parted company in the lobby of my hotel and off I went to the St. Regis, where I milled around and chatted with countless people, sipped wine, and waited for the guest of honor, Scott O'Dell, to be introduced. When he was, of course he turned out to be the eighty-one-year-old man who had buttoned my dress.

But wait! There's more. Ten years passed.

I had never seen Mr. O'Dell during the intervening years, but now, suddenly, we were the two speakers at a luncheon being held on a college campus somewhere. I think it may have been Vassar.

We sat next to each other at the head table, nibbling our chicken, chatting about the weather. I knew he wouldn't remember me, but I certainly remembered him, and I was secretly thinking that when it was my turn to speak, I might tell the audience the amusing little anecdote about the button on my dress. But he went first. And, eyes twinkling, he started his speech with "The last time I was with Lois Lowry, we were in a New York hotel. I was helping her get dressed." He was ninety-one at the time. All of this floated back into my mind when I found myself rereading, last summer, The Island of the Blue Dolphins. None of it was appropriate to the book's introduction, of course, and I went on to write, instead, about the power of the story and the magnificence of the writing. Not that anyone needed reminding! There has never been a question about Scott O'Dell's brilliance as a writer and storyteller. But it's nice to have a chance, here, to tell an audience that he was also a sweet and funny man.

Lois Lowry

(Photo © Neil Giordano)



Publication Date: 02/08/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Explorer X-Alpha
LM. Preston
Synopsis: For most kids, a trip to space camp is the trip of a lifetime—for Aadi it was life altering. After receiving a camp immunization needed for travel to Mars, Aadi finds that the immunization is the catalyst of an insidious experiment. He realizes what is happening too late for a change of fate. The full experiment is set in motion when he and his co-pilot, Eirena, crash in a distant galaxy called Shrenas, where they change and realize the full extent of their power. This turn of events forces him to grow up quickly, accept his change, and to decide to save a world, or to do what he was trained to do—dominate it. His power is coveted by the warring leaders of Shrenas, and he is forced to choose sides—a decision that may prove just how much humanity he has left.
Publication Date: 02/07/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Jack: Secret Circles
F. Paul Wilson
Synopsis:

When his five-year-old neighbor goes missing, Jack can’t help feeling responsible. He should have taken Cody home when he found him riding his bicycle near the Pine Barrens. And then a lost man wanders out of the woods after being chased all night by...something. Jack knows, better than anyone, that the Barrens are dangerous—a true wilderness filled with people, creatures, and objects lost from sight and memory. Like the ancient, fifteen-foot-tall stone pyramid he, Weezy, and Eddie discover. Jack thinks it might have been a cage of some sort, but for what kind of animal, he can’t say. Eddie jokes that it could have been used for the Jersey Devil. Jack doesn't believe in that old folk tale, but something is roaming the Pines. Could it have Cody? And what about the strange circus that set up outside town? Could they be involved? So many possibilities, so little time...

Publication Date: 02/02/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Cowgirl At Heart
Christine Lynxwiler
Synopsis:

Welcome to the Ozarks, the setting of award-winning author Christine Lynxwiler’s latest breath-taking romance, where the lives of a timid dog whisperer and an out-for-revenge reporter collide. Elyse McCord, the biological daughter of a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, turns into a mighty warrior when a dog’s well-being is at stake. Finding herself in the sights of a pistol-wielding maniac whose been mistreating his dog, she’s suddenly swept to safety by Andrew Stone, a widower bent on hunting down his wife’s killers. Is there any future for an outlaw’s daughter and a Texas ranger’s son?

Publication Date: 02/01/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
I Kissed A Zombie,and I Liked It
Synopsis: Algonquin “Ali” Rhodes, the high school newspaper’s music critic, meets an intriguing singer, Doug, while reviewing a gig. He’s a weird-looking guy—goth, but he seems sincere about it, like maybe he was into it back before it was cool. She introduces herself after the set, asking if he lives in Cornersville, and he replies, in his slow, quiet murmur, “Well, I don’t really live there, exactly. . . .”

When Ali and Doug start dating, Ali is falling so hard she doesn’t notice a few odd signs: he never changes clothes, his head is a funny shape, and he says practically nothing out loud. Finally Marie, the school paper’s fashion editor, points out the obvious: Doug isn’t just a really sincere goth. He’s a zombie. Horrified that her feelings could have allowed her to overlook such a flaw, Ali breaks up with Doug, but learns that zombies are awfully hard to get rid of—at the same time she learns that vampires, a group as tightly-knit as the mafia, don’t think much of music critics who make fun of vampires in reviews. . . .
Publication Date: 01/26/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Boys Without Names
Kashmira Sheth
Synopsis:

For eleven-year-old Gopal and his family, life in their rural Indian village is over: We stay, we starve, his baba has warned. With the darkness of night as cover, they flee to the big city of Mumbai in hopes of finding work and a brighter future. Gopal is eager to help support his struggling family until school starts, so when a stranger approaches him with the promise of a factory job, he jumps at the offer.

But Gopal has been deceived. There is no factory, just a small, stuffy sweatshop where he and five other boys are forced to make beaded frames for no money and little food. The boys are forbidden to talk or even to call one another by their real names. In this atmosphere of distrust and isolation, locked in a rundown building in an unknown part of the city, Gopal despairs of ever seeing his family again.

But late one night, when Gopal decides to share kahanis, or stories, he realizes that storytelling might be the boys' key to holding on to their sense of self and their hope for any kind of future. If he can make them feel more like brothers than enemies, their lives will be more bearable in the shop—and they might even find a way to escape.

Publication Date: 01/19/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction

Pages



RECENT BOOK REVIEWS