Almost accidentally, author Susan Hood stumbled upon a historical event that has gone mostly overlooked and it is the basis of her exciting middle grade novel Lifeboat 12. The book is told in verse format by narrator and actual survivor Ken Sparks, who is thirteen years of age right before London is destroyed in the Blitz. His life in London is troubled by things large in scope (like running to bomb shelters nightly when the alarms go off and living off rations and hand-me-downs) and […]
A strong finish to this series about magical oppression.
Worth slogging through book two just to get to this one. (And I’m still not convinced my reaction to that book wasn’t just me trying to read it at the wrong time.) This is the third and final book in the original Bartimaeus Trilogy (he wrote a prequel in 2010 but I think I’m going to pass on that one). It takes place three years after the events of The Golem’s Eye. Nathaniel/John Mandrake is high up in government now, in charge of what is […]
Window Books and Mirror Books (or Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose)
Last February I read Ghost, the first book in Jason Reynold’s middle grade Track series and enjoyed it immensely though I understood I was definitely not the intended audience. I had seen Jason Reynolds on The Daily Show, started following him on Twitter, and all that made me want to read his work—all of his work. He’s a prolific writer, so catching up and keeping up will take some work. Flash forward to mid-December when I discovered a display of the remaining three books in […]
“A soft heart only makes it easier for a knife to slip in.”
Prosper Redding is of the Massacusetts Reddings: a very rich, very privileged family whose lineage goes back to the pilgrims. Prosper is a bit of a black sheep, caring mostly about art and his twin sister Prue. His grandmother, a severe matriarchal type, seems to particularly despise him, probably because he doesn’t do much to contribute to the Redding Name. Even he couldn’t guess how much he was despised, though — until the day of a local fair, when he is dragged down to the family […]