The Liszts by Kyo Maclear, Illustrated by Julia Sarda

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The Liszts 

by Kyo Maclear

Illustrated by Julia Sarda

This charming picture book is about the Liszt family; they write Lists.  Mama made lists of illnesses and soccer players.  Papa made lists of chores and insects.  The youngest made lists of fun things to do, and the oldest made top ten lists.  The middle child made long lists and Grandpa?  He and the cat made lists of their enemies.  The Liszts made lists all day long, "except Sundays, which were listless."  

Then one day they had an unexpected visitor.  Most of the Liszts are confounded by the visitor, but one of them has been expecting him.  Together they have a list of questions.  

The story is simple, yet clever.  But the illustrations steal the show.  Each page tells a story in and of itself.  You will want to linger on each page; finding details such as the whistle around Mama's neck, Winifred's red lipstick, Grandpa's age spots and the scattered Lego at the base of the castle.  

Although this book is intended for elementary school aged children, it will appeal to a broad range of people of any age who appreciate storytellers and list-makers!

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

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Revolution 

by Jennifer Donnelly

Andi's brother is dead and she blames herself.  Andi's mother is coping by spending her days painting portraits of her lost son.  Andi's father has deserted her.  She is failing out of her prestigious prep school.  She is popping antidepressants like aspirin.  The only thing that keeps her from ending it all is music.

When Andi's father finds out what is going on at home, he hospitalizes her mother and takes Andi to Paris on a business trip with him.  Andi has always loved Paris, and the friends that she is staying with; but she doesn't think that even Paris can save her now.

Then Andi discovers a diary written by a girl about her age who also loves art and is trying to save a young boy.  Andi becomes caught up in the story of Alex who lived during the French Revolution.  Andi and Alex's lives intertwine and overlap between present day and the late 18th century.  As Alex risks her life to save that of the dauphin, her story just might save Andi.

Donnelly's story within a story will have you up late at night turning the pages.  Despite having to suspend my disbelief at times toward the end, I found the adventures of the young dauphin and his guardian to be very compelling.  I imagine that this YA novel will appeal to those who enjoy a good mystery, lovers of history and music aficionados as well.

Aside from being an excellent read, I was impressed with the research that Donnelly did for this book.  If students want to learn more about the characters in Revolution or about the French Revolution itself, they have an impressive bibliography to get them started!

The Nest by Kenneth Oppel

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The Nest 

by Kenneth Oppel

"Everything makes nests.  Birds for their eggs.  Squirrels make dreys to sleep in through the winter, bears make dens, rabbits burrows.  Our houses are just big nests, really.  A place where you can sleep and be safe - and grow."  Nests are usually comforting places, places to raise a family, places to feel protected.  But when nests contain special wasps that want to take your baby, a nest can be a very scary place indeed.  The Nest is to wasps what Jaws was (and still is!) to sharks.  A fast-paced thriller that will have you swatting at imaginary wasps until the very last page.  Read it with the lights on!  

Flawed by Cecelia Ahern

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I received an advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

Flawed 

by Cecelia Ahern

I was not prepared to love this book.  Flawed is written in the same vein as the Uglies or the Scarlet Letter.  There is a criminal court, and then there is the Flawed court.  The Flawed Court names crimes in your personality, in your demeanor, in your character.  If you are found guilty in the Flawed Court, you are branded as Flawed and must keep separate from the other non-Flawed in your community.  

Celestine is perfect; perfect looks, perfect grades and a perfect boyfriend.  But...an incident on the bus gets her in trouble, she's seen as supporting a Flawed.  And it will cost her everything she holds dear.

As Celestine goes through the trial, she realizes that the world is not black and white and that what seems to be perfect on the surface, just might not be.  As she is soon to learn "If you make a mistake, you learn from it.  If you never make a mistake, you're never the wiser."  Celestine has a lot to learn about what makes a person 'Flawed' and whether it is a good or bad thing.  I for one am cheering for her!  

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes

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The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly 

by Stephanie Oakes

Minnow has lived most of her seventeen years in the woods.  She is a Kevinian.  She believes in a God named Charlie who has glass green eyes.  There are rules.  One is that the Prophet decides who he is going to marry.  The Prophet decides everything.  Minnow has questions.  The Prophet's answer to Minnow's questioning is that God has told him to take Minnow as one of his wives.  Minnow doesn't want to marry the Prophet.  And that's where we meet Minnow, at the Missoula County Juvenile Detention Center.  

In The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly we hear the story backwards.  The story unfolds little by little as Minnow sits in the Missoula County Juvenile Detention Center.  From her move from the city to the woods.  To her exploration of the woods around her.  To her meeting with Jude.  To the fire.  

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly is a complicated coming of age story.  Minnow's life is tragic, yet it is also sacred.  She has to determine which questions need to be answered, and which ones she has to leave to faith.  The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly is a great read for people of all ages, but most importantly for girls in their later teens through their mid-twenties.  Minnow's self-realizations on her own terms make her a hero to women worldwide.  To be a part of her struggle and to see her come out on the other side gives all of us hope the we can do likewise!

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

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Delirium 

by Lauren Oliver

Love is a disease.  That is the premise of Delirium.  On your eighteenth birthday, you get the cure.  No more heartbreak, no more embarrassing encounters, now you can be safe.  Arranged marriages and content lives, that's the future for Lena, and she can't wait.

Until.......she meets a boy.  I know, you've heard this story before, but wait!  I thought that I had it all figured out, but I promise you, there are enough twists in the plot to keep you on your toes.  The story line might seem trite, but Lena's path is different.  Yes she falls in love, yes she rejects the cure; but how she gets there will surprise you!

I highly recommend Delirium!  It's one of those books that you are actually glad that it will be a series.  It will remind you of your first love and you can reminisce about how love sick you were.  Would you have gotten the cure?  Of course not!  Love might be a disease, but it's our shared infections that shape who we are.  Oliver has written a treatise on love, romantic, parental and friendly, and I loved every minute of it!  

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes

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The Girl You Left Behind 

by Jojo Moyes

The Girl You Left Behind refers to two girls.  One, Sophie, was left behind in France during WWI; the other, Liv, in the present day Pacific Northwest.  Their stories intertwine through a painting that hangs in Liv's sterile home.  The painting is of Sophie and was painted by her husband before she was left behind.

Sophie's journey consists of the struggle to keep her family and community together while the men are off fighting the war.  Her town has been invaded by the Germans, and the small inn that her family owns that was once a safe place for the town to gather, now serves the needs of the Germans.  Devastated by the separation from her husband, Sophie is put to the test: what would she do, how far would she go, to ensure that she was reunited with the love of her life?

Liv is struggling with loss of a different kind.  Her husband has left her a widow at 28 years old.  He was a prominent architect, and their home serves as a monument to him, his vision and their marriage.  Unable to afford the upkeep, yet also unable to let it go, Liv holds on for dear life to all she has left of him, this home that he designed.  Hanging in that home is the painting of Sophie that they purchased on their honeymoon.

It is the painting, the one they call They Girl You Left Behind, that serves as the focal point in the story.  In Sophie's narrative, the painting is of her, painted by her beloved husband.  She keeps the painting visible at the inn to remind her of who she was before the war, before she was left behind.  The German Kommandant also notices the painting.  It reminds him of all that he has left behind as well; Sophie reminds him of all he has left behind.

In Liv's narrative, the painting is a reminder of her husband, the promise of a bright future.  It is a reminder of everything that she has lost.  Moyes does an excellent job of telling these women's stories.  She expertly weaves art through the lives of our characters.  Painting and architecture lure us into the hearts of both Sophie and Liv.  And we have to make some decisions for ourselves.  Should a painting stay with a family even if they don't appreciate the beauty of it?  If someone has legally purchased a stolen piece of art, should they have to give it back?  And of course, the real questions Moyes is asking are how do we move on after we've been left behind?  Can we pick up our lives after heartbreak?  And what are we willing to risk to be with the ones that we love?

The Girl You Left Behind will stay with you long after you've turned the last page.  I highly recommend you get to know Sophie and Liv, you will love the story that they have to tell!

Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell

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Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker 

by Patricia Hruby Powell

Josephine Baker has always been a fascinating figure.  She was bold, she was exotic and she was brave.  When I saw this biography by Powell, I immediately ordered it for the library.  

The book does not disappoint.  Illustrated by Christian Robinson, the book's bold colors and bright pictures help to depict Powell's bold and bright words.  The rhythm of her words are musical and you can feel the beat as you read them.  I found my hips swaying and my foot tapping throughout the story.

Arranged by time period, Josephine covers her birth to her death.  As scandalous as her life was, this books thoroughly covers all her escapades and still keeps it rated PG. From her banana dance to smuggling notes in her underwear, all ages will experience her ebullience (to use a vocabulary word from the book!) without blushing.  

If you are looking for an alternative biography for Black History Month, or you just enjoy reading about interesting people, Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker just might be the ticket for you!

The Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse

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The Girl in the Blue Coat 

by Monica Hesse

The Girl in the Blue Coat is the story of war.  As I started reading, I thought to myself, not another drama about the survival of the spirit during the Holocaust, however, I was quickly drawn into the lives of Hesse's characters.  Yes, the war is the backdrop (and central plot) of this novel, but in it's heart, The Girl in the Blue Coat is a story about love, friendship and the choices that we're faced to make.

Hanneke is a young Dutch woman who has lost her first and only love to the war.  What started as patriotism for her beloved country, has turned to a bitter taste towards all things combat related.  Closing herself off from everyone and everything, she goes to work for the local undertaker, mainly delivering items bought on the black market.  Even though Hanneke's family is not Jewish, her town is still overrun by German soldiers who would just as soon shoot you for carrying contraband than look you in the eye.  Hanneke's job is dangerous.

Hanneke is willing to live with a closed heart, making her deliveries and avoiding all personal relationships, until....she is asked to find something that even her black market contacts would find difficult; a young, Jewish girl.

The search to find the girl in the blue coat, Mirjam, becomes that eternal quest, the hero's crusade, that epic adventure that brings child to adulthood.  But like all great adventure stories, it is not the destination that Hanneke seeks, but the journey.  I felt for the characters in The Girl in the Blue Coat.  I cried, I worried, I ached, and at times loved Hanneke, her parents and her friends.  

This is a story that will appeal to young and old, boys and girls, and anyone who has ever fought for a friendship, lost a loved one or has felt the sting of betrayal.  If you can take another WWII tale, I would recommend this one.  Hesse makes it worth your while!

Into the Dim by Janet B. Taylor

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Into the Dim 

by Janet B. Taylor

Meet Hope Walton:  not your typical teenager - adopted, home-schooled, afraid of everything, suffers from migraines, has a photographic memory, just buried her mother, and oh, yea, from a family of time-travelers!

Hope is not happy when after her mother's memorial service, her father ships her off to Scotland for a visit with her estranged aunt, Lucinda.  But Lucinda is not there to meet her when she arrives, and living in the family estate is a cast of characters who although seem lovely on the surface, she can tell they are hiding something.

While investigating her new surroundings, Hope discovers an ancient apparatus buried deep below the house, a time traveling machine, which travelers call, The Dim.  Soon she learns what really happened to her mother:  while traveling in The Dim, she got left behind......in the year 1154!

Hope not only has to come to grips with who her mother is, but the realization that she just might be the only one that can save her.  But time is running out, can Hope and her new family travel back in time to save her mother.  Does she want to be saved?  And what if they run into their archenemy, Celia Alvarez and her cadre?

Now Hope must fight her fears and use that photographic memory to recover her mother and bring her back to the present.  But 1154 is full of dangers that Hope can't even imagine.  She'll have to learn to trust strangers, queens, alchemists and even her own family if she's going to survive.

Taylor has done her research in describing England in 1154.  You can almost smell the dirty streets and feel the burn of infection from every little wound.  Yet the story hinges on Hope's photographic memory to hold it together.  And although I enjoyed the premise, this story swung a little too far toward the romance for me to really enjoy the action.  I think that most High School girls, and maybe some Middle School girls, will relate to the love story.  However, I think it's too syrupy to appeal to most boys.

FIRSTLIFE by Gena Showalter

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FIRSTLIFE 

by Gena Showalter

"Will I always be a commodity to win rather than a person to love?"

There is the first life, and then there is the second life.  There are two realms, Myriad and Troika.  All humans are expected to pledge allegiance to one of the two realms by their 18th birthday.  Failure to do so will mean spending your second life in Many Ends (trust me, you don't want to go there).  

Tenley Lockwood has been raised by Myriad royalty.  Her father is an important official, and her mother is a well-renowned artist.  Her choice should be clear.  But Tenley, or Ten as her friends call her, wants the decision to be her own, no pressure.  Unfortunately, the realms have other plans for her.

Tenley is special, although she doesn't know it.  Both realms consider her to be 'fused'; attached spiritually to one who has passed to the ever life.  Although spoiled her entire firstlife, her father decides it's best to send her to Prynne, a 'camp' for the unsigned, to help make her decision 'easier'.

While at Prynne, Tenley is tortured, abused and mistreated.  The methods that were meant to convince her to pledge loyalty to Myriad have instead made her more determined to stay unsigned.  Then one day she gets a new roommate, and soon after a new, handsome young inmate arrives; suddenly her world is turned upside down.  She has always only trusted herself, could she possibly now have allies?

Although I loved this story, it was very hard to follow.  It begins with communications to and from the guardians that were sent to persuade Tenley to sign with their realm, but not having any knowledge yet of these realms, or the characters, it was just confusing.  

Another issue I had with the story was that it was too fast.  I wish Showalter had slowed down and given us some time to get to know more than just the main characters.  I needed more details to wrap my head around this complex, new world that she's created.  There is an explosion, fight, escape, car crash, plane crash, betrayal, rescue in every chapter.  

I am willing to attribute some of these issues to the fact that I was reading an ARC copy on my device, and hope that when the book comes out in print, it will be a whole lot clearer!