Please enable JavaScript
All Books | Page 44 | LitPick Book Reviews
All Books
Landry Park
Bethany Hagen
Synopsis: “Downton Abbey” meets The Selection in this dystopian tale of love and betrayal

Sixteen-year-old Madeline Landry is practically Gentry royalty. Her ancestor developed the nuclear energy that has replaced electricity, and her parents exemplify the glamour of the upper class. As for Madeline, she would much rather read a book than attend yet another debutante ball. But when she learns about the devastating impact the Gentry lifestyle—her lifestyle—is having on those less fortunate, her whole world is turned upside down.  As Madeline begins to question everything she has been told, she finds herself increasingly drawn to handsome, beguiling David Dana, who seems to be hiding secrets of his own. Soon, rumors of war and rebellion start to spread, and Madeline finds herself at the center of it all. Ultimately, she must make a choice between duty—her family and the estate she loves dearly—and desire.

Fans of Ally Condie, Kiera Cass, Veronica Roth, and even Jane Austen will be enthralled by this breathtaking read.
Publication Date: 02/04/14
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Twisted (Volume 1)
Brittany Hawes
Synopsis: TWISTED won for best book in the 2013 Young Author Contest by Deep Sea Publishing. It is part 1 of the Twisted series by Brittany Hawes. Street-smart and sassy Lola Phillips has never had it easy. An orphan at the age of eight and a high school dropout at the age of 16, Lola’s only concerns in life are making it to the next day while living on Skid Row and seeking out her missing parents. When a mysterious man approaches her with a tempting offer to help her find out what happened to her parents, she agrees. Her agreement: To take on the name of Harlot Rue and become his personal agent and assassin. Easy, right? Lola takes her new job and is propelled into a world she had no idea existed underground. Welcome to H Corporation, a secret organization burrowed miles beneath the earth, hidden away from the rest of the world. Their goal is to maintain peace throughout the world and they need people like Lola Phillips to do so. Unfortunately, being a teenaged girl comes with the same problems no matter where you are—even miles underground. Enter infuriatingly handsome and haughty Retro, a fellow agent whose main mission seems like it may be to make Lola fall madly in love with him. It’s up to Lola to stay grounded enough to do what she came to do. But finding her parents won’t be as easy as she’s expecting, especially when there’s another organization who would do anything, including murder, to stop her.
Publication Date: 02/02/14
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Secrets and Spies: Treason
Synopsis: Fourteen-year-old Beth Johnson is a talented and beautiful young actress. She is also a spy. The year is 1664, and Charles II is on the throne, but all is not well in the bustling city of London, and there are those who would gladly kill the king and destroy the Monarchy. One morning, a mysterious ghost ship drifts up the Thames. Sent to investigate by the King's Master of Secrets, Alan Strange, Beth quickly finds herself embroiled in a dangerous adventure. Will Beth be able to unravel the plot to kill the King before it's too late?
Publication Date: 02/01/14
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fiction
Bird
Crystal Chan
Synopsis: Entrenched secrets, mysterious spirits, and an astonishing friendship weave together in this extraordinary and haunting debut.

Nothing matters. Only Bird matters. And he flew away.

Jewel never knew her brother Bird, but all her life she has lived in his shadow. Her parents blame Grandpa for the tragedy of their family’s past; they say that Grandpa attracted a malevolent spirit—a duppy—into their home. Grandpa hasn’t spoken a word since. Now Jewel is twelve, and she lives in a house full of secrets and impenetrable silence.

Jewel is sure that no one will ever love her like they loved Bird, until the night that she meets a mysterious boy in a tree. Grandpa is convinced that the boy is a duppy, but Jewel knows that he is something more. And that maybe—just maybe—the time has come to break through the stagnant silence of the past.
Publication Date: 01/28/14
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fiction
And We Stay
Jenny Hubbard
Synopsis: A Michael L. Printz Honor Award Winner in the vein of This is Where It Ends

“A gentle, lyrical story of incomprehensible sorrow faced with quiet courage.”—ELIZABETH WEIN, New York Times bestselling author

“Hubbard treats tragedy and new beginnings with a skilled, delicate hand.”—JOHN COREY WHALEY, author of Where Things Come Back, winner of the Michael L. Printz Award

Senior Paul Wagoner walks into his school with a stolen gun, threatens his girlfriend, Emily Beam, and then takes his own life. Soon after, angry and guilt-ridden Emily is sent to a boarding school in Amherst, Massachusetts, where two quirky fellow students and the spirit of Emily Dickinson offer helping hands. But it is up to Emily Beam to heal her own damaged self, to find the good behind the bad, hope inside the despair, and springtime under the snow.

A Boston Globe Best YA Novel of the Year
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year 
A Tayshas High School Reading List Selection
A North Carolina Young Adult book Award Nominee

* "As graceful as a feather drifting down, this lyrical story delivers a deep journey of healing on a tragic theme.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred

* "And We Stay is a little gem of a book. . . . there is certainly something for anyone looking for a good read with a strong, believable female lead who is working her hardest to overcome tragedy.”—School Library Journal, Starred

“Hubbard’s writing is elegant and emotional.”—Publisher’s Weekly

“This novel is accomplished, polished, and mixes prose and poetry to stunning effect.”—Booklist

“Hubbard . . . captures perfectly the turbulence of young love, the bonds of friendship, and the push-and-pull dynamic between teens and adults.”—VOYA
Publication Date: 01/28/14
Age Level: Mature Young Adult
Genre: Fiction
Seven Stories Up
Laurel Snyder
Synopsis: In this companion to Laurel Snyder’s Bigger than a Bread Box, a leap back in time and an unlikely friendship change the future of one family forever.
 
Annie wants to meet her grandmother.
Molly wishes she had a friend.
A little magic brings them together in an almost-impossible friendship.
 
When Annie wakes up on her first morning at the Hotel Calvert, she’s in for a big surprise. There’s a girl named Molly in her bed who insists the year is 1937 and that this is her room! Annie’s not sure what happened, but when she learns that Molly’s never been outside the hotel, she knows it’s time for an adventure. Magic, fortune-telling, some roller skates, a rescued kitten, and the best kind of friendship make up the unforgettable story of two girls destined to change each other’s lives.
 
“Like Judy Blume before her, Laurel Snyder writes characters that feel like your best friend.” —Anne Ursu, author of The Real Boy
Publication Date: 01/28/14
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fiction
Magic in the Park
Ruth Chew
Synopsis: Jen Mace and her new friend Mike Steward learn that magic can happen when you least expect it. And though it is very exciting, it can also be dangerous.

Jen has just moved to Brooklyn. She misses the woods and fields of her old home. But while walking in Prospect Park one day, she meets Mike. Together they are fascinated with the older gentleman who is always surrounded by birds and seems to appear and disappear quite suddenly.

For decades, Ruth Chew's books have enchanted early readers with the thrill of magic in their own lives. Now these magical tales are once again available to cast their spell on a new generation of fans.
Publication Date: 01/28/14
Age Level: 5 - 8
Genre: Fiction
Moby Dick
Herman Melville
Synopsis: Moby-Dick (1851) is the sixth book by American writer Herman Melville. The work is an epic sea-story of Captain Ahab's voyage in pursuit of Moby Dick, a great white whale. It initially received mixed reviews and at Melville's death in 1891 was remembered, if at all, as a children's sea adventure, but now is considered one of the Great American Novels and a leading work of American Romanticism. The opening line, "Call me Ishmael," is one of the most recognizable opening lines in Western literature. Ishmael then narrates the voyage of the whaleship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Ahab has one purpose: revenge on Moby Dick, a ferocious, enigmatic white whale which on a previous voyage destroyed Ahab's ship and severed his leg at the knee. The detailed and realistic descriptions of whale hunting and the process of extracting whale oil, as well as life aboard ship among a culturally diverse crew, are mixed with exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God.
Publication Date: 01/23/14
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Stormbringer
Shannon Delany
Synopsis:

In the intrigue-filled follow up to Weather Witch, Jordan Astraea, once a young Philadelphia lady of good social standing, is now in the final stages of her brutal training to become a Conductor―the Weather Witch who serves as a living battery to keep the massive airliner Artemesia aloft. Meanwhile, Rowen, determined to rescue her after losing his only other true friend and being wanted for murder, has found himself forced aboard a much different air vessel, this one manned by a dangerous crew and carrying a cargo so treasonous, that, if finding its destination, will herald a storm of revolution for the still young United States.

With a spirit for adventure, romance, fantastic world building and cunning imagination, Shannon Delany delivers the sensational follow up to Weather Witch in Stormbringer, the second book of the trilogy.

Publication Date: 01/14/14
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Freedom Maze
Delia Sherman
Synopsis: "Multilayered, compassionate, and thought-provoking." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Thirteen-year-old Sophie isn’t happy about spending the summer of 1960 at her grandmother’s old house in the bayou. Bored and lonely, she can’t resist exploring the house’s maze, or making an impulsive wish for a fantasy-book adventure with herself as the heroine. What she gets instead is a real adventure: a trip back in time to 1860 and the race-haunted world of her family’s Louisiana sugar plantation. Here, President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation is still two years in the future and passage of the Thirteenth Amendment is almost four years away. And here, Sophie is mistaken, by her own ancestors, for a slave.
Publication Date: 01/07/14
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean
Synopsis: From master storyteller David Almond comes a gripping, exquisitely written novel about a hidden-away child who emerges into a broken world.

Billy Dean is a secret child. He has a beautiful young mother and a father who arrives at night carrying the scents of candles and incense and cigarettes. Birds fly to his window. Mice run out from his walls. His world is a carpet, a bed, pictures of the holy island, and a single locked door. His father fills his mind and his dreams with mysterious tales and memories and dreadful warnings. But then his father disappears, and Billy’s mother brings him out into the world at last. He learns the horrifying story of what was saved and what was destroyed on the day he was born, the day the bombers came to Blinkbonny. The kind butcher, Mr. McCaufrey, and the medium, Missus Malone, are waiting for him. He becomes The Angel Child, one who can heal the living, contact the dead, bring comfort to a troubled world. But there is one figure who is beyond healing, who comes looking for Billy himself — and is determined on a kind of reckoning.
Publication Date: 01/07/14
Age Level: Mature Young Adult
Genre: Fiction
The Zombie Rule Book: A Zombie Apocalypse Survival Guide
Synopsis: Rules and tips for surviving the zombie apocalypse. The following information may save your life. This book is designed to fit perfectly in your bug-out bag! If you are prepared for the zombie apocalypse you are prepared for anything! Throughout this book you will learn how to survive in the event of a zombie apocalypse and learn how to be a survivor! Use the following information to your advantage. Think like a survivor - when the zombie apocalypse descends upon us you will be a few steps ahead of the rest. Read, re-read, practice and apply, train hard and always think smart, you are a born survivor. This book of zombie survival rules will be a great asset to anyone preparing themselves for the zombie apocalypse.
Publication Date: 01/07/14
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Flame - A Sky Chasers Novel
Amy Kathleen Ryan
Synopsis:

In the thrilling conclusion to Amy Kathleen Ryan's Sky Chasers series, Waverly, Kieran, and Seth struggle to survive on-board the New Horizon―and take down their enemies before it's too late
Waverly and the other members of the Empyrean have been scattered, and their home ship destroyed. Their mission to rescue their parents didn't go as planned, and now they're at an even greater disadvantage: trapped with their enemies on the New Horizon, trying to find a way to survive. Kieran has been pulled under Anne Mather's wing, but is she really trying to make peace, or just using Kieran to build her own power? Meanwhile, Waverly is taken in by a mysterious old man who wants to help her bring Anne Mather down―but the more Waverly cooperates with him, the more dangerous her position is, and the more at odds with Kieran she becomes.

Seth's situation is even worse. After setting out from the Empyrean on his own, with only a vague strategy to guide him, he is a fugitive aboard the New Horizon. He's doing what he can to challenge the power of Anne Mather, but he's badly hurt, and getting sicker. All the while, unknown to him, the terrorist Jacob is making plans of his own.

Will Seth ever see Waverly again? Will his health hold out long enough to help her topple their enemies? And will Waverly find a way to unite with her friends before they all fall? Nothing is sure and every moment is a risk in Flame, the explosive finale of the Sky Chasers series.

Publication Date: 01/07/14
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Vic: Mongol
Jerry Gill
Synopsis: Vic: Mongol, is the 2nd book in the series The Incredible Adventures of Vic ChallengerOn the second trip of her quest to find her soul mate, the reincarnated cave girl visits Outer Mongolia. En-route, she and friend Lin Li save the life of a young lady detective and become embroiled in a murder case which leaves port with them. In Mongolia, they learn to play shagai games with their guide’s 5-year-olds and consistently lose They do some hunting and decide maral steak is the bee's knees. Unfortunately, the trip is not all fun and games. They must deal with hordes of olgoi-khorkhoi, Chinese Red Beards, White Russians, hungry wolves, a lost species of human, sub-zero weather and a wind storm. One lesson learned: not everyone who first looks like a bad guy is a bad guy. Fast-paced and unpredictable, action adventure in the tradition of the adventure pulps of the early 20th Century. If you like Doc Savage, The Avenger (Dick Benson), Nancy Drew, or Tarzan or any other novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs you will love Vic Challlenger.What reviewers think of the series:"Vic Challenger personifies every sword or ax wielding heroine ever drawn by any heroic fantasy artist.""the female answer to Indiana Jones""Great Campy Multi-Genre Book""I have recommended the Vic Challenger books to my wife and to all of my children""Any of these novels would make a really good movie.""if you like Clive Cussler or James Rollins, these are definitely the books for you."“The Incredible Adventures of Vic Challenger” series is inspired by writers like Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. Rider Haggard, Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle and H. G. Wells; and by characters like Nancy Drew, Lara Croft, Alan Quatermain, Doc Savage and his cousin Patricia Savage, and Dick Benson and his assistant Nellie Gray. The writing style has been compared to Burroughs and is also reminiscent of early action driven horror novels by Graham Masterton,The series is set in the 1920’s and considerable research adds to the “realism” You will find yourself effortlessly learning bits of history, some of which may amaze you. Vic’s travels are woven into the history of the time, you may be asking yourself “Is this real?”What do you get when you cross an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel with a Nancy Drew novel? Pink-cloche-coffee-bacon-hot pepper loving Vic Challenger. The New Queen of Action Adventure Pulp!
Publication Date: 01/07/14
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Winter Sky
Patricia Reilly Giff
Synopsis:

Sirens! A scary sound, especially to Siria, whose brave pop is a firefighter. Siria loves everyone at Pop's city firehouse. She also loves to study the stars. Her mother named her after the brightest start in the winter sky.   
   When Siria hears sirens, she sneaks out to chase the trucks, to bring Pop and the other firefighters luck. She'd be in big trouble if she ever got caught. Good thing her best friend, Douglas, is always by her side.
   As Christmas approaches, Siria suspects that someone in the neighborhood is setting fires. She has to find out who's doing it. When clues point to a surprising suspect, she realizes that solving this mystery will take all kinds of courage.
   Patricia Reilly Giff, the author of many beloved and award-winning books, is at her best in this action-packed story. In Winter Sky, friends, family, and a very special dog help Siria see how brave she really is.


Nominated to the Arkansas Charlie May Simon Children’s Book Award

Publication Date: 01/07/14
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fiction
Dog Diaries: Togo
Tim Jessell, Kate Klimo
Synopsis: Small, feisty Siberian husky Togo—the overlooked sled-dog hero of the 1925 serum run to Nome—sets the record straight in Dog Diaries #4!

When a diptheria epidemic breaks out in isolated Nome, Alaska, in January 1925, the only way to get life-saving serum to the town is by using dog-sled relay teams. Twenty teams participate, and the dog who inevitably gets credit for saving the town is Balto, lead dog on the final team which delivered the serum. But few people have ever heard of 12-year-old Togo and his musher Leonard Seppala, who carried the serum for almost double the length of any other team, and twice violated warnings to avoid perilous Norton Sound and instead ran straight over the frozen ice! With realistic black-and-white illustrations by Tim Jessell—plus an appendix with information about Siberian huskies, sled dogs, mushers, and more—Togo's tale is perfect for middle-grade readers who love a spunky underdog!
Publication Date: 01/07/14
Age Level: 5 - 8
Genre: Fiction

Pages



RECENT BOOK REVIEWS