Fifteen-year-old Curzon Smith, freed slave and former traveling companion of the stubborn Miss Isabel Finch, gets himself in quite a fix when he saves the life of a Patriot boy soldier during the fall of 1777. The result of that one selfless act causes him to become a member of the 16th Massachusetts regiment of the Continental Army on the eve of what is to be one of the most grueling experiences of the Revolutionary War: Valley Forge. But what his stalwart companions don’t know is that the terms of Curzon’s freedom aren’t as cut and dried as they seem. And when his former master turns up at Valley Forge, Curzon will need his lost angel Isabel to give him the courage to take back his freedom and once again make it his own. (If I sound a bit cagey, I don’t want to give too much away, as this wonderfully twisty-turny tale is full of juicy surprises of both the good and bad variety.) This stand-alone sequel to Chains can be read either before or after Isabel’s story, but I strongly suggest reading both. Teen peeps, let me be clear: I really like Chains. But I LOVE Forge. I don’t know if it’s Curzon’s perfectly executed teen voice, or Anderson’s easy prose that makes the history go down like buttah, or a magical combination of both, but Curzon has my heart as much as Isabel has his. This hippest of hist. fics. will be snowing and blowing into your local library or bookstore October 2010.
Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson
08.25
Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters by Natalie Standiford
08.15
The Sullivan sisters are in big trouble. It seems that one of them has gravely offended their wealthy, fire-breathing grandmother (helpfully nicknamed “The Almighty”) and until the guilty party confesses, Grandma has threatened to take that person’s share of the family inheritance and donate it to Puppy Ponchos for needy dogs. So responsible eldest sister Norrie, bad girl middle sister Jane and earnest baby sister Sassy sit down and begin to pen their confessions, not knowing which one of them has committed the act that put Almighty over the edge. Was it Norrie, by having a secret romance with a gorgeous but entirely unsuitable boy? Was it Jane with her unrepentant blog titled “My Evil Family”? Or was it Sassy, who thinks it’s possible she might have accidentally killed Almighty’s fifth husband by scaring him to death? Each one of the girls has a secret to share that reveals not only something about herself but also essential truths about their quirky upper crust family that, despite their fancy trappings, have just as many issues as everyone else. It soon becomes apparent that the confessions themselves aren’t nearly as important as what each sister discovers about herself as she writes one. This smart character-driven novel, by the author of my favorite book last year and reminiscent of the equally wonderful Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, humorously explores the burdens of family expectations and how sometimes you hurt the people you love the most on your way to finding out who you are. A lovely ease-back-into-school read that’s coming to a library or bookstore near you September 2010.
Picture the Dead by Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown
08.05
Jennie Lovell is one sad little spinster. Her parents are dead and the Civil War has taken both her brother Toby and her betrothed Will, leaving her at the mercy of her stuffy aunt and uncle’s reluctant charity. Now she has nothing to look forward to except a slow slide into servitude in her cold relatives’ dark house, which feels filled with ghosts. Then Will’s brother Quinn returns from the horrific Andersonville prison camp wounded in more ways than one. He has lost both an eye and the ability to feel anything but anger and contempt. Jennie tries to break through his sullen silence because she can sense he’s hiding a secret about her lost love, but Quinn refuses to speak. When the grieving family poses for a photograph at a spiritualist’s studio to try and commune with Will, Jennie is struck by a feeling so strong it could only be the ghost of her fiancée trying to beak through from the other side. With Will’s spirit as her guide, Jennie unearth clues like a broken locket, a lost letter and a ruined photograph that begin to tell the awful story of Will’s demise. There’s only one piece missing, and that’s Quinn himself. Can Jennie convince Quinn to tell her the truth of what actually happened to his brother? And does she really want to know if it means the memory of her beloved Will is tainted forever? Hugely under the radar author Adele Griffin (whose fab literary fiction I adore) skillfully bakes the brutal history of the Civil War, the creepy Spiritualism movement and America’s fascination with the new science of photography into a tasty gothic treat that is guaranteed to give you welcome chills in the middle of the August heat! Sumptuously illustrated by Lisa Brown, this eerie little ghost story just begs to be read up in your favorite tree or the top of your summer camp bunk.
The Unsinkable Walker Bean by Aaron Renier
07.25
Ahoy, maties! If you’re looking for a top notch adventure with despicable pirates, clever girls, courageous dudes, brave dogs, horrifying sea monsters and cursed skulls, well, you’ve come to the right place. Aaron Renier of Spiral-Bound
Fat Vampire by Adam Rex
07.15
What if your adolescent baby fat turned out to be a permanent situation? That’s our dude Doug’s issue. He’s fifteen and pudgy, and now that he’s been turned into a vampire, he’s destined to be fifteen and pudgy forever. He’s also dealing with his clueless best friend Jay’s complete lack of social skillz and an impossible crush on a gorgeous Indian exchange student named Sejal. And then there’s that nagging itch in his gums that says his fangs are out and it’s time to feed. The problem is, because of his lack of Edward-Cullen sparkle, Doug’s having a hard time getting close enough to a girl to kiss her, let alone take a sip from her jugular. So he’s reduced to sinking his fangs into the local dairy cows, but that’s like hitting Mickey D’s when you really want filet mignon. Doug’s gonna have to figure out how get some high octane Type O pronto, or his vampire a** is grass. Adam Rex’s first teen novel reminds me a lot of funnyman Christopher Moore’s paranormal comedies. I laughed my way through Doug & Jay’s serious awe at attending their first Comic Con (“…this goblin market at the nexus of all realities where a circa 1980s Iron Man and an original 1963 Iron Man and Naruto and Sherlock Holmes could all be waiting for the same bathroom. Would it convey the scale of the thing to know that there was a person who elected to dress as the Kool-Aid Man? Would it convey it better to know there were two?”) and their run-in with some hecklers at a Rocky Horror Picture Show midnight showing. At first I thought I was reading a nerderiffic anti-Twilight. But Rex shifts gears about half way through as Doug starts to come into his own as a vamp. The jokes get a little darker around the edges as Doug tries to hold on to his goofy humanity as his heart relentlessly grows colder and colder. This two-for-the-price-of-one comedy angst-fest comes with an out-of-the-box ending that’ll either leave you shaking your head or cheering on Rex’s refusal to be nailed down when it comes to deciding Doug’s fate. Either way, I’d love to know what you think–please come back and post! (And can we give it up for what just might be the best cover art of the year?!)
Zombies VS. Unicorns edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier
07.06
Unicorns and zombies battle for supremacy in this ultra cool collection of short stories edited by YA rock stars Black and Larbalestier. The rival authors engage in a fervent back-and-forth argument before every story, each claiming that her supernatural creature is the more badass of the two. But the spectacular stories the two editors have assembled make it very hard to choose between Team Zombie and Team Unicorn. Among my favorites were Garth Nix’s inspired opener “The Highest Justice,” a medieval tale that includes both a zombie AND a unicorn, Alaya Dawn Johnson’s surprisingly touching zombie romance “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” and Margo Lanagan’s tragic story of an unholy union between unicorn and maiden in “A Thousand Flowers.” Maureen Johnson brings the funny with “The Children of the Revolution,” a story of celebrity zombies that almost made me pee my pants laughing, and Meg Cabot also keeps it light with “Princess Prettypants,” about a rainbow-colored, flower-scented farting unicorn who can also kick butt when necessary. More serious are Carrie Ryan’s, Scott Westerfeld’s and Libba Bray’s darker visions of a future America where frightened and cynical teens must abandon the adult rules of the world before the zombie apocalypse and create their own new societies from scratch. There’s even more, but I leave the rest for you to discover when this unique collection comes galloping/shambling into libraries and bookstores September 2010. And what team am I on? Well, it was hard to decide since many of my fav author peeps swing the other way, but since I am ultimately an optimist and romantic at heart, I could always only be firmly in this camp:
(Sorry, Justine!)
The Monstrumologist: The Curse of the Wendigo by Rick Yancey
06.25
Can you say, “Squee?” Can you say, “OMG?” Can you say, “D’oh?” Friends, I said all that and more when the sequel to Rick Yancey’s super creepy and incredibly gory series The Monstrumologist was deposited on my desk like an early Christmas present. In this decadently disturbing second act, young Will Henry accompanies his guardian Dr. Pellinore Warthrop to the wilds of Canada to perform an emergency rescue. The casualty is Dr. Warthop’s close friend and colleague John Chanler, a fellow monstrumologist who was always a bit more adventurous and lighthearted than Warthrop. But that reputation has come back to haunt him, as he set out determined to trap a soul sucking creature called the Wendigo that most monstrumologists, including Warthrop, believe is a complete and total myth, and instead became its victim. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence (namely John Chanler’s emaciated frame and drooling stare) Warthrop refuses to believe that John has become possessed by the Wendigo, a creature that defies definition: “There is no name for it; it has no human symbol. It is old and its memory is long. It knew the world before we named it. It knows everything. It knows me and it knows you.” After a nightmare journey where the doctor manages to get himself, John and Will Henry out of the wilderness and back to John’s hometown of New York, Warthrop tries to persuade his esteemed colleagues at their annual Monstrumologist convention that the Wendigo is not real. But his arguments fall on deaf ears when John disappears–and the killing begins. Squee! (I know I already said that, but it bears repeating.) Once again I was gripped with terror as Yancey wove his gruesome magic and drew me deeper into the dark world of Will Henry and his tormented mentor Warthrop. This series not only satisfies my cheap morbid love of gore, but is also full of psychological and ethical turmoil that causes me to pause and reflect even as the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up and start to boogie. The rich characterizations and fabulously realized historical setting (at one point, famous muckraker Jacob Riis shows up to lend a hand to the monstrumologists) make this oh so much more than a quick scary read. I know some of you will come for the gore, but I encourage you to stay for the story, which this time around contains even more food for thought about the nature of love, obsession and jealousy. And if you’re mad at me for posting early (Wendigo premieres September 2010) just keep in mind that I have the torture of having to wait for the third one twice as long as you! Mark your calenders, this one is not to be missed.
White Cat (Curse Workers, bk 1) by Holly Black
06.15
Cassel is an outsider in his own family. Of all the members of his immediate tribe, he is the only one without the power to change people’s emotions, luck, even memory with the touch of a hand, an act known in his world as “cursing.” The law prohibits those with cursing powers to wield them, so the individuals born with these abilities live on the fringes of society in loyal family groups not unlike the organized crime families of our world. Because he has no aptitude for curse work, Cassel has developed other skills, especially in the art of the con. He can set up a mark as easy as 1-2-3, and runs a pretty profitable numbers game at his boarding school. But when he wakes up standing on the roof of his dorm one night wearing only his boxers, Cassel’s legendary cool begins to crack. Is it just a case of innocent sleepwalking? Or is it possible that a diabolical curse has been laid on him? As Cassel begins to investigate, he discovers a secret about himself that ties him to the most powerful of all crime families and causes him to realize that he has been utterly betrayed by the people he trusted most—his own flesh and blood. Now Cassel has sworn revenge on the folks who made him who is. But how do you grift a grifter? How do you trick a family of supernatural con artists who know not only how to shake a mark down but also how to shake off his memories of ever even being conned? Easy. Cassel has an ace up his sleeve, and while it may look like just a scruffy white stray cat, it’s actually the key to bringing his entire family to their knees. Cassel’s not afraid to get his hands dirty. See, he’s killed before. And if he has to, he will again. This noir-ish genre-blender from urban fantasy maestro Holly Black is a heady mix of The Sopranos,
