White Cat by Holly Black

This new world of "curse workers" is a winner...

Holly Black is known to leagues of teenlit fans for her books of fae worlds...with White Cat (Curse Workers, Book 1) she draws us into the world of the "curse workers".

From the product description: curse workers -- people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists.

...and when I say she draws you in I truly mean it - the excitement, action and characters draw you in immediately and if this is just the beginning I can't wait for more...Lila, Cassel and his family offer characters that we can relate to and involve ourselves in...thanks Holly Black for yet another new world!

BTW - I have a white cat with one blue eye and one green eye...what do you think?

Product Description from Amazon

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers -- people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail -- he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.

Holly Black has created a gripping tale of mobsters and dark magic where a single touch can bring love -- or death -- and your dreams might be more real than your memories.

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North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley

North of Beautiful

By: Justina Chen Headley

In today's world where kids are bombarded by unobtainable "ideals" of what is pretty, what makes you attractive to others...it is refreshing to read a book that smashes through the ridiculous standards set by the fashion magazines.

At first glance Terra Cooper has everything - tall, slender, blonde beauty...and a large port wine stain on her gorgeous face!

Her meeting with a boy - an attractive boy - would normally add the stress of insecurity to the equation...but on closer examination Jacob, the Goth Chinese boy she's just met has a cleft lip.

This story weaves the lives of Jacob, Terra and their mothers in an unforgettable fabric of circumstances...this is a wonderful look at a very touchy subject.

Justina Chen Headley has written a book that will stay with you about mending fractured families and the true meaning of beauty!

Product Description

As he continued to stare, I wanted to point to my cheek and remind him, But you were the one who wanted this, remember? You're the one who asked-and I repeat-Why not fix your face?

It's hard not to notice Terra Cooper.

She's tall, blond, and has an enviable body. But with one turn of her cheek, all people notice is her unmistakably "flawed" face. Terra secretly plans to leave her stifling small town in the Northwest and escape to an East Coast college, but gets pushed off-course by her controlling father. When an unexpected collision puts Terra directly in Jacob's path, the handsome but quirky Goth boy immediately challenges her assumptions about herself and her life, and she is forced in yet another direction. With her carefully laid plans disrupted, will Terra be able to find her true path?

Written in lively, artful prose, award-winning author Justina Chen Headley has woven together a powerful novel about a fractured family, falling in love, travel, and the meaning of true beauty.

The Clone Codes - The McKissacks

The Clone Codes

By Patricia, Frederick and John McKissack

Be sure you learn history's lesson...the first time!, January 3, 2010

By	Reading It All (Orange County, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This book is about history repeating itself (again) in the worst way. Early in the history of the United States, a race of black people was brought from Africa to serve as slave labor - without basic rights that admitted that they were human. Their lives were ruled by the very restrictive "Black Rules".

Now, in the year 2170, another injustice is being repeated. Science has advanced to create viable clones but the ruling government, and the corporation that makes them, calls them "Second Cell" non-humans and uses them as slave labor. They are ruled by the "Clone Codes" - almost word for word as the same restrictive "Black Rules".

Human rights supporters work quietly to make life better for clones and cyborgs. Cyborgs are people who have been so badly injured that implants are all that save them. They are call 3/5ths people and excluded from many opportunities and activities.

Now the battle begins to get human rights for clones and others who are discriminated against. There are a lot of lessons learned about differences and acceptance as the world moves toward space travel and the mysteries of the universe.

The McKissak's collaborated with their son for The Clone Codes...this is a great accompaniment for an American History course. Told in a way that kids will enjoy reading it!

Product Description from Amazon

The Cyborg Wars are over and Earth has peacefully prospered for more than one hundred years. Yet sometimes history must repeat itself until humanity learns from its mistakes. In the year 2170, despite technological and political advances, cyborgs and clones are treated no better than slaves, and an underground abolitionist movement is fighting for freedom. Thirteen-year-old Leanna's entire life is thrown into chaos when The World Federation of Nations discovers her mom is part of the radical Liberty Bell Movement.

After her mother's arrest for treason, Leanna must escape as she is chased by a ruthless bounty hunter. Soon Leanna finds herself living among the Firsts, and nothing will ever be the same again. But what does The World Federation want with the daughter of a traitor? So much is uncertain. Danger hides everywhere. Fear takes over. With help from unlikely sources, Leanna learns the origin of The Liberty Bell Movement and how its members may have answers about her past-and her new reality.

As family secrets are revealed, Leanna must face startling truths about self-identity and freedom. Through time travel, advanced technologies, and artificial intelligence, this exhilarating adventure asks what it means to be human and explores the sacrifices an entire society will make to find out.

Acclaimed authors Patricia C. McKissack and Frederick L. McKissack have collaborated with their son, John to deliver a novel that is as suspenseful as it is searing.

Fallen by Lauren Kate

Fallen

bu Lauren Kate

Exciting new direction in YA Fantasy!, December 26, 2009

By	Reading It All (Orange County, CA USA) - See all my reviews

For those of your, like me that are done with the whole "vampire as hero" thing - this newest genre will be refreshing.

In Fallen, Lauren Kate takes us into the world of Fallen Angels...and, as with the vampire books, each author's take on this newest breed to populate our space is slightly different.

In Fallen we meet Luce Price - a young woman who, with each passing year has felt less and less in control of her life. She is fighting off demons of the mind in the form of dark shadows that appear and take over parts of her life...as well as demons of the past.

As the book opens she finds herself entering a school for troubled teens - and in Fallen we watch as she goes through the motions of fitting in and trying to keep the shadows at bay. Enter Daniel Grigori...

While the romance between Luce and Daniel is certainly the central point of this book, it handles a lot of issues, responsibility, mental illness, loss, parental love, friendship and more. I am not going to spoil this story for those of you looking forward to this book - but - I do want to take on the most common the negative comment about this book.

Character development - I really feel that way Lauren Kate handled the slowly unfolding story of each character gives us an honest view through Luce's eyes - the story is being told from her viewpoint and until fairly close to the end she is in the dark. This technique - I think - works in this book.

If you have just started this book and are finding the read a little slow at the start, first you are probably not a teenaged reader, and second stay with it...it closes with a BANG!

I am really looking forward to the next book in from this author - can't wait to learn more about Luce and her life after Sword & Cross.

Just as a side note - this book will appeal to readers of Hush, Hush by Becca Kirkpatrick.

Product Description from Amazon

There's something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.

Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price's attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He's the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move.

Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce--and goes out of his way to make that very clear--she can't let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret . . . even if it kills her.

Dangerously exciting and darkly romantic, Fallen is a page turning thriller and the ultimate love story.

The Amanda Project: invisible i

invisible i

The Amanda Project:

Book One

by Stella Lennon and Melissa Kantor

I gave this book four stars because that is my honest opinion of the book The Amanda Project: Book 1: invisible I.

It reads easily and rings true for it's depiction of high school and teen cliques. I remember being the creative, quirky, artistic "new girl" and so much of this book prompts flash backs of my high school days.

What I found interesting in The Amanda Project: Book 1: invisible I, the first of a series of eight books, is the way it looks at Amanda from the viewpoints of three different classmates. Of course, when Amanda disappears, they soon realize that none of them new much about their new friend.

If you want to make this a 5 star experience, you have to take it to the next level...the interactive website! The Amanda Project website http://theamandaproject.com/ - from the home page:

What Happened To Amanda?
AMANDA VALENTINO came to our high school on Halloween. She disappeared on the Ides of March. She left us some clues, but we're not sure what they mean. The only thing we know for sure is that she utterly, completely changed our lives.

Join in with hundreds of readers nationwide to try to solve the mystery, find the clues and the coolest...write your own story!

Leviathan by Scott Westerfield...

Leviathan

By: Scott Westerfeld

Illustrated: Keith Thompson

Scott Westerfield gives us a well-written alternate history of World War I. Some of the alterations include a totally mechanized German-Austro-Hungarian enemy (called Clankers) and an Allied force made up of Britain, France and Russia called Darwinists. Clanker machines walk on articulated legs. Darwinists have developed a science that creates animal combinations that are intelligent partners in the fight. The main characters are Alek, the son of the Austrian Grand Duke and Duchess, whose assassination not only leave in him an orphan, but also starts the war; and Deryn Sharp, who gets into the British by pretending to be a boy - Dylan. Alek must run for his life with a battle damaged Clanker Stormwalker and some loyal friends. Deryn/Dylan discovers the "being a boy is hard. How do they do it all their life?" Their life paths cross, taking them on board Leviathan, a fantastic whale airship and perhaps the greatest creation of the Darwinists. These two "enemies" are forced into situations that require compromise, courage, trust and finally friendship. Their adventures will take them into dangerous and interesting places.

Product Description from Amazon

It is the cusp of World War I, and all the European powers are arming up. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans have their Clankers, steam-driven iron machines loaded with guns and ammunition. The British Darwinists employ fabricated animals as their weaponry. Their Leviathan is a whale airship, and the most masterful beast in the British fleet.

Aleksandar Ferdinand, prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is on the run. His own people have turned on him. His title is worthless. All he has is a battle-torn Stormwalker and a loyal crew of men.

Deryn Sharp is a commoner, a girl disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She's a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered.

With the Great War brewing, Alek's and Deryn's paths cross in the most unexpected way...taking them both aboard the Leviathan on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure. One that will change both their lives forever.

Century Quartet: Ring of Fire (Book 1)

Ring of Fire

Book One

Century Quartet

by Pierdomenico Baccalario (Author)

Leah D. Janeczko (Translator)

Good Opener - left me with lots of questions......but isn't that what the first book in a "series" should do?

What is up with all the "haters"? Why so many negative reviews on Amazon? How many of you are teens or young adults? or readers of YA literature? I think this was a fun set-up for what I am hoping will be a great series.

It left me with unanswered questions - what is Aunt Irene's story - really? I get that the parents weren't involved as much as they should have been in real life - but I also think there is a reason for that. An author who can create a hitman who kills with a violin, may have an explanation for that! The tops intrigue me...see what I mean? lots of questions!!!

Through a series of coincidences - four children (Harvey from New York, Mistral from Paris, and Sheng from Shanghai) find themselves sharing a room with Elettra the daughter of their hotel owner.

...and while chatting they start to discover the other things that connect them...

From the Publisher's description: "Every hundred years, four kids from four cities must save the world."

After reading just back cover, the reader realizes that there are no coincidences in Century #1: Ring of Fire...but instead a carefully planned event that has happened before.

I always love books that open historical worlds that intersperses bits from ancient Rome, Nero, buried churches and basilcas between the adventures of these four children in the libraries, cafes and catacombs of modern day Rome.

Though translated from the Italian, this book keeps its edge and poses question after question...and with the following promise from the Publisher:

"In the first book of the Century quartet, Italian author P. D. Baccalario begins a mystery that will take four cities and four extraordinary kids to solve."

...OK, Senore Baccalario - where do we go next?

Product Description from Amazon
Every hundred years, four kids from four cities must save the world.

Rome, December 29. A mix-up with their reservations forces Harvey from New York, Mistral from Paris, and Sheng from Shanghai to share a room with the hotel owner’s daughter, Elettra. The four kids discover an amazing coincidence—they all have birthdays on February 29, Leap Day. That night, a strange man gives them a briefcase and asks them to take care of it until he returns. Soon afterward, the man is murdered.

The kids open the briefcase. In it they find a series of clues that take them all over Rome, through dusty libraries and dark catacombs, in search of the elusive Ring of Fire, an ancient object so powerful that legend says even a Roman emperor couldn’t control it.

In the first book of the Century quartet, Italian author P. D. Baccalario begins a mystery that will take four cities and four extraordinary kids to solve.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Graceling

Have you ever played the game where everyone had to name the "super-power" they would ask for if given the opportunity? What was yours? probably not the ability to literally kill anyone or anything and be fairly invulnerable to pain...

In Graceling author Kristine Cashore creates a world where a chosen few are born with "Graces" - these can be something as simple as the ability to catch fish with your bare hands, the ability to run swiftly, the ability to shoot an arrow quickly and true --- and then there is the Lady Katsa's Grace - the ability to kill.

This is full of really juicy adventure, hand to hand combat, archers, sword play, good kings and bad kings...but what sets this book apart from other offerings in this genre is it's look at the consequences of the use of these graces on those who wield them.

Katsa is a strong headed young woman who has always held a position of power - not many people argue with her so she is sure that what she knows are truths...until she meets another Graceling who shows her otherwise.

The really nice thing about the way Cashore has written the relationship between Po and Katsa is that there is enough romance for the girls and it doesn't get mushy so the boys think it's in the way.

I picked this book up to "look" at it at my Mom's and sat down and read it all the way through by the next morning - this story is destined to become a blockbuster movie!

Product Description from Amazon

Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight—she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug.

When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change. She never expects to become Po’s friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace—or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book

By Neil Gaiman

Illustrated by Dave McKean

In the Gaiman tradition...take a situation that should be gruesome and make it a delight!

This is the story of Bod - for Nobody Owens. His parents were brutally murdered - he is being raised in a graveyard by ghosts, Silas (his Guardian) who lives among the living and the dead, and the "Hounds of God"...but don't think that this book is a cruel, dark tale.

This is a love story - the love of Bod for the parents he lost, the love of his new parents for the son they always wanted in life and his for them - the caring love of Silas for Bod and his for Silas - and the love of the "living girl" Scarlett for her "imaginary friend" and him for her.

It is also a coming of age book - Bod and Scarlet both find out how real and strong he is! A story of self-discovery and liberation.

Thank You to Neil Gaiman and to Dave McKean, applause for the hauntingly beautiful illustrations!

Product Description from Amazon:

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy.

He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead.

There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy-an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer.

But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family. . . .

Beloved master storyteller Neil Gaiman returns with a luminous new novel for the audience that embraced his New York Times bestselling modern classic Coraline. Magical, terrifying, and filled with breathtaking adventures, the graveyard book is sure to enthrall readers of all ages.

Teen Angst in Africa - "We're Not In Kansas Anymore"

Escape Under the Forever Sky

By Eve Yohalem

We have all read stories of teen angst - father doesn't understand - mother is overbearing...I know it's been done.

However, when you take these same elements and place them in Ethiopia - a country so foreign...

"Everywhere I go in Ethiopia...kids pop out of nowhere to bombard me with the same three questions: "You are from America? You want a...[fill in blank: necklace, fake antique coin, toothbrush stick, religious icon, etc.]?" and - my personal favorite - "Gimme pen?"

This debut novel by Eve Yohalem draws you into the world of 13 year old Lucy Hoffman. Yohalem definitely "gets" teens. Lucy, wealthy and white in a country that is dirt poor and primarily black - is at the start, headstrong and confident, but when she finds herself in dire straits she is finally able to see life from her parents viewpoint.

Loosely based on a real life event, the author has done her homework. The history and culture of Ethiopia is fascinating, and memories of the late ruler Selassie quite fantastic!

I look forward to more from this author!

From Amazon:

Lucy's mother is the U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia. So Lucy's life must be one big adventure, right? Not really. Her parents are more focused on their careers than their family, so they live on different continents. And Lucy's worrywart mother keeps her locked up inside the ambassador's residence for her own good. Lucy's had enough. So one day, she and a friend sneak off. When Lucy's kidnapped, things get decidedly more interesting. Using her knowledge of African animals, inventiveness, will, and courage, Lucy embarks on an adventure beyond her wildest dreams.