Reviews of young adult (YA) and middle grade (MG) books.
About Willem of the Tafel In the year 437 after the Great War, the Tafel lived underground to protect themselves from the harsh surface conditions that would probably kill a human. They barely survived in an old military installation built inside a mountain near Cape Town, South Africa. They were the only known survivors of…
When I was a high school student, I looked forward to June when the cold Long Island weather finally warmed up and freedom from school was just a few weeks away. My brothers and I spent our summer vacations at Monaco Surf Club on Lido Beach. We had amazing experiences swimming, diving, playing in the sand…
Miss Wickware is a history teacher at Langdon Middle School in Phoenix, Arizona, but the sweet old lady is not exactly what she appears to be. Students with attitude problems and a lack of historical perspective can suddenly find themselves sent back through time to face a famous historical figure they coincidentally need to report about…
His vampire brother turned Lev Baronovsky a hundred years ago. Since then, he’s waged an internal battle to retain his humanity by refusing to neither kill a human nor turn one into a creature of the night. It’s a tough battle, for his brother, Alexei is his polar opposite. When Lev’s mortal girlfriend, Carly, dies…
K’Lar and D’Ree are red-tailed hawks who have recently migrated back to Alberta, Canada from Southern Mexico for the summer. They need to find and repair their old nest so D’Ree can lay her clutch of eggs. They fly through a city filled with noise and pollution. When they finally arrive at their valley home,…
Beyond the Skyline is Alex Lane’s diary of his life after leaving Hillbrook Juvenile Detention Center in Syracuse, New York. At the main gate an immaculately dressed man driving a black expensive foreign car meets him. The bearded stranger reveals himself to be Alex’s estranged brother Brandon. Thus begins Brody Lane Gregg’s YA novel, Beyond…
Ennara lives in Estlan, a land of magic and mystery. She was born a caul, a baby with a mask foreshadowing great magical ability. So her parents had to have her hand tattooed with a fire-breathing dragon to warn others of her great powers. One night, during her eleventh year, Ennara is attacked by a…
Alice is a cute little girl who runs home after school on Monday to play with her best friend, a bug named Fuzz. Their favorite game is “Fly Guys in Space” where an old mop is the rocket and a cardboard box is Alice’s spacesuit. Bobby Thandi and Emma Leverton bring young readers a colorful…
Aisling (pronounced “Ashley”) Shepherd lives in Norway, Maine, loves the winter and her dogs. As a toddler she had eye problems that were corrected by surgery. While recovering, she occupied her time not by watching cartoons, but animals on the Discovery Channel. One day she happened upon the Iditarod race on TV and got hooked….
Legend of the Timekeepers Time travelers beware! There is a Timekeeper and she has the power to protect the time stream from evil intent. Thus is the premise of Sharon Ledwith’s entertaining novel, Legend of the Timekeepers. Ledwith’s protagonist, Lilith, has recently been evacuated from her native Atlantis due to earthquakes and tsunamis that destroyed…