Zara Hossain is Here
The DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act) was a congressional bill, that if passed would have granted legal status to undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children. Throughout their young lives, all they have known is their hometown in the U.S.A.

Zara Hossain’s home town is Corpus Christi, Texas. She’s visited Karachi, Pakistan a few times over the years, but home is Corpus Christi. Her pediatrician father, Abbu, immigrated to America when Zara was a toddler. He and his wife wanted the best for their daughter and felt strongly they’d find it in America. 

Abbu and Ammi are very supportive of their daughter. They’ve placed her in a private high school, Holy Cross, one of the best in the city, even though they are Muslim and not Catholic. They have a close set of friends from the local Pakistani community who Zara treats as family including best friends Priya and Nick. 

Both friends are very supportive when Tyler Benson, Holy Cross’ top football star torments Zara with racist remarks. When Zara reports this behavior to the principal, Tyler gets suspended, but not for long. His father is a wealthy donator to the school. For revenge, the adolescent vandalizes Zara’s house with racist graffiti. This leads to a violent crime putting Zara’s family’s hope for a green card at risk. 

Author Sabina Khan has penned a heart-wrenching book about the life of a Dreamer and the effect the American immigration system has on her life. The settings are descriptive, the dialogue realistic, and the cultural food described will make your mouth water. The author does a wonderful job showing the emotions of a family going through immigration hell. 

But that’s not all the social issues Zara Hossain is Here takes on. Zara is also bi-sexual and brings home her girlfriend, Chloe, to meet her parents. The Hossain’s are very accepting of their daughter’s needs, but Chloe’s parents consider homosexuality an abomination. 

Zara Hossain is Here is a gripping novel written for teenagers, but this adult reviewer couldn’t put the book down. After reading it, I am more in touch with the difficulties Muslim immigrants have in this country and feel sensitized to their pain. This is an honest and timely coming of age story readers won’t want to miss. 

Jaclyn and the Beanstalk
We’ve all heard about the boy named Jack selling his mother’s cow for some useless dried-up beans. When Jack’s mom learns of her son’s betrayal, she tosses the beans out the window only to be flabbergasted by the beanstalk penetrating the clouds the next morning. You may recall how Jack climbs the beanstalk, steals valuables from the giant, and returns home to enrich his now grateful mom.

All of that is wrong. It’s a diluted story to protect young children from the truth. A truth only award-winning author, Mary Ting, has the courage to tell in her 277-page novel, Jaclyn and the Beanstalk. Set in a rural 16^th century community, Jaclyn hears shrieks at night frightening her out of a restless sleep. She is a 16-year-old girl raised by her parents on a farm, hours away by horseback from the nearest town. During the day, she helps her father tend the animals and during their break, he teaches her the art of self-defense—skills she’ll soon use to save her own life and the lives of hundreds of villagers. 

When Jaclyn’s father joins villagers to confront a menace killing and stealing their livestock, and he doesn’t return home, Jaclyn investigates. Followed by her childhood crush, Jack, the duo encounters magic beans, nightmarish monsters, and a villain with a history spanning 1500 years. 

Mary Ting brings her readers a descriptive novel with exemplary characters and an exciting plot that shows the importance of family with a Christian-based theme. Jaclyn and the Beanstalk has Jaclyn telling her story, the true story, of the beanstalk and how a girl saves an entire community with the assistance of her friend Jack. 

Don’t Be Silly! At My Age? by Jacqueline Diamond Focuses in on the relationship between Mandy Matchett and Richard Forbes. Richard is a local mystery writer and celebrity while Mandy is the nursing director at Rancho Allegro Medical Center in Southern California. Richard is 60 while Mandy is four years his junior. Is love possible for older people? That is the premise USA Today Bestselling Author, Jacqueline Diamond, explores.

I enjoyed reading about the couple’s connection and the juggling act they had to perform keeping their career, family, and the desire to be together separate. I easily related to their circumstance, for when I was 5o, I met the love of my life. From experience, I know that Diamond’s story is more real than fantasy.

The novel is the second book in the Sisters, Lovers &. Second Chances series and is part of the Better Late Romance line featuring older couples.

Mandy has never been married, but in a brief encounter between her cat and Richard’s old German Shepard, Mandy feels something that she hasn’t experienced in ages. Richard, who is working on his next book in his Drake Decker mystery series, is still lonely after the death of his wife Alice. When he meets Mandy, he wonders if this could be the woman capable of filling his heart again.

Diamond reveals a sub-plot involving a writer’s life showing readers the reality of writing a publishable story. As a writer, myself, I can attest that transforming an idea into a publishable story takes time, determination, and a support group to keep one motivated and productive.

After Mandy gets rejected by her boyfriend, who returns to his wife and children, she decides to write a pirate novel. When she learns that Richard Forbes conducts a writing class in the attic of a local bookstore owned by his father-in-law, Mandy decides to sign up.

Don’t Be Silly! At My Age is a sweet romance that focuses on character development and the lives of two seniors with the maturity to know they have something special within their grasp. The characters do their best to make sure their love for each other evolves in a positive direction.

by Lynne Kelly

It’s surprising so many deaf people have families who never learn American Sign Language (ASL). Since most deafness isn’t hereditary, about 90% of Deaf children are born to hearing parents.

Unsurprisingly, twelve-year-old Iris was born deaf to hearing parents. Her mom and brother sign, but her father can’t seem to grasp his daughter’s language. And, instead of enrolling Iris in a school for the deaf, they have her mainstreamed in the public schools with a hired ASL interpreter.

One day in Science class, Iris learns about Blue-55, a hybrid blue/fin whale unable to communicate with other whales. He swims around by himself and not in a pod like most whales; and his song is at 55 hertz, much higher than other members of his species. Iris feels this whale’s pain.

Iris has a talent with electronics. Her favorite hobby is collecting broken antique radios and repairing them. Unfortunately, the kids in her middle school classroom think she’s stupid because of her deafness. Little do they know she’s a tech genius.

Moved by Blue-55’s story, Iris is determined to compose a song for the whale at his frequency. Thus begins Lynne Kelly’s novel, Song for a Whale. The book is a beautifully written tale about longing for a connection and finding it in a magical and unexpected place.

The plot moves from Iris’ neighborhood junkyard to a cruise ship showing how Iris develops the self-confidence to stand up for herself and take control of her life.

I became deaf in mid-life, so I empathized with Iris’ problem. Though she was surrounded by hundreds of classmates in the cafeteria during lunch, she was alone, just like Blue-55. Author Lynne Kelly, a sign language interpreter and teacher, shows precisely how loneliness affected Iris and how she used her smarts to not only take control of her life but also communicate with a lonely blue/fin whale.

A Song for a Whale, a New York Public Library Best Book of the Year, is a 309-page novel written with middle school children in mind, but is appropriate at any age.

by Jeanne Bannon

Lexi, a high school English teacher, experiences an emotional breakdown in front of her students soon after long-time live-in boyfriend Josh dumps her. She has no choice but to accept a leave of absence to get her life together. Unfortunately for Lexi, Josh also left behind Bardot, an untrained French bulldog pup. Lexi is not a dog-person, but Bardot is all she has left of Josh, so she decides to try puppy obedience school first before giving up the little monster.

One of the students in her obedience training class is Tommy and his puppy Gina, a border collie. Lexi is immediately attracted to Tommy, a carpenter with the most beautiful smile and gorgeous dimples she has ever seen.

However, Lexi is still hurting and is reluctant to give her heart to any man, and brushes off Tommy’s advances.  But Bardot show’s signs of improvement and their walks around the neighborhood prove cathartic to Lexi.

Bannon takes her readers on Lexi’s voyage from damaged soul to finding a kindred spirit in a 132-page story of a young woman’s journey of self-awareness and her place in the world. Bannon does this through Lexi’s discovery of a growing love for her little pooch, new feelings for another man, and opened eyes when Josh re-enters her life.

The author has a knack of showing human emotion through facial expressions, actions and words. Readers are given a direct link into the hearts of Bannon’s characters that will stay with them long after they finish reading Lost and Found.

​by Anne Loader McGee

Engaging Civil War Novel for Teens

Though there are a plethora of books on the market about the Civil War, Anni’s Attic, by Anne Loader McGee is one of the best.Written in the first person perspective about life on a Georgia plantation from 1861-1865, it shows the day-to-day experiences of Jennine Parkington and her cousin Annise Bouvoir. Jenn is an 11-year-old southern belle who recently lost her mother. In October 1861 her dad, Phillip Parkington, a Northern sympathizer, moves Jenn from their New Orleans home to live with his sister near Savannah, Georgia. Phillip then leaves to fight for President Lincoln.

Meanwhile, Jenn must live with her “ill-mannered” 12-year-old cousin, Annise Bouvoir, “who could not even speak French like a proper lady.” When Jenn’s carriage pulled up in front of White Magnolias on that late October 1861 day angry eyes watched her from a secret attic tucked away inside the plantation home. Anni wasn’t very happy about having to play hostess to her know-it-all snobby first cousin. Anne McGee’s historical novel, Anni’s Attic, provides a heart-wrenching look at the atrocities of the Civil War and its affects on the lives of the people living in the Savannah countryside. The YA book is a marvelous character study of Anni and Jenn. During the course of the war the cousins encounter spies, racial hatred, the Underground Railroad, and Sherman’s March to the Sea. Through it all they take time alone together in the confines of a secret attic in White Magnolias. There the cousins develop trust as they mature and learn to love and respect each other. Anni’s Attic is a novel all secondary school students must read to advance their understanding of the Civil War era.

by Jessica Tornese

Time Travel for Teens

Kate Christenson is a spoiled 21st Century city girl forced by her father to spend summer vacation on her grandparents’ farm in rural Minnesota. To add insult to injury Kate has an uncanny resemblance to her Aunt Sarah. Family and friends who knew Sarah gasp or cry when they see Kate. Sarah died when she was Kate’s age, 15, from an apparent suicide.

After an accident in the barn, Kate wakes to a calendar reading 1960. For some amazing reason she has been transported back in time fifty years to the summer when Sarah died. Life isn’t easy for Kate/Sarah. She must wake up before the roosters to milk cows, tend the hay in the barn, and countless other chores leaving her hands blistered and her body muscled. And the farm doesn’t even have running water! No wonder Sarah killed herself. Or did she?

The boys in town seem to be drawn to Sarah. There’s Dave Slater who is tall, handsome, strong, and a bit domineering. Travis Kochevar is a very cute townie with a gentle touch and dimples hard to resist. Jessica Tornese takes her readers through time in Linked Through Time, an absorbing YA novel with riveting characters and a fascinating arc that will keep her audience turning pages as Kate’s summer on the farm comes closer to the August date of her aunt’s demise.

by Peggy Tibbetts

21st Century Cinderella

It’s been six years since 12 year-old Sarah Smith moved away from her Ft. Meyers, Florida home after the sudden death of her mother in an automobile accident. She and brother Abraham moved around with their dad from Georgia to Missouri and finally settled on a mountaintop in Bonner’s Ferry, Idaho. Life isn’t easy for Sarah. Dalton, her dad, is a Separatist. He believes in a strict interpretation of the Bible. Since Sarah’s isolated home doesn’t have a TV, telephone, indoor plumbing, or a nearby school, she passes her free time writing letters to her friend, Juniper, who she hasn’t seen since she was in kindergarten.

Peggy Tibbetts writes a heart-rendering story from Sarah’s perspective about life with a dad still living in the 19^th Century; and his close alliance to the members of the Order, a group aligned with the neo-Nazi group, the Aryan Nation. Dalton Smith is a gunsmith preparing for the upcoming revolution against the U.S. government. His wife, Shelly, is a wicked step-mom treating Sarah more like Cinderella than a beloved daughter. Through the literary use of a journal of letters, Sarah reveals a life most pre-teens would cringe at—chores from sunup to sundown, friends living miles away, and little contact with a friendly face. From first page to last readers will be engrossed in Sarah’s plight until the mind-numbing climax.

(Warning: Read Letters to Juniper with a box of Kleenex by your side.)