“Dead Girl Running” by Christina Dodd is an action-packed mystery novel in more ways than one. Not only is there the mystery of who, at the fancy Washington State resort, is the head of a smuggling ring, there are also mysteries aplenty about the main character. Her name is Kellen Adams, or that is what those around her believe. In reality, the truth is much different.
“Wundersmith: The Calling of Morigan Crow” is the sequel to the first book in the “Nevermoor” series, “Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow,” about a young girl who was whisked to Nevermoor just before she had been doomed to die on her 11th birthday. As an illegal immigrant in Nevermoor, the only way she can stay in Nevermoor is to pass rigorous trials to earn a place in the illustrious Wundrous Society — which she does in the first book.
In “The Widows,” author Jess Montgomery visits a time and place that is not often memorialized in fiction. In a corner of rural Ohio, where coal mines control the lives of the residents and the immigrants who come to America to work in the mines, the lives of the miners and those who live in town intersect through the relationship of two women, both widows, who fight for justice.
“An Easy Death” is by acclaimed author Charlaine Harris, who wrote the fabulous Sookie Stackhouse series. It’s the first in a new series featuring Lizbeth Rose, a 19-year-old, determined, talented gun for hire.
The setting is an alternate United States which was forever altered when Franklin Roosevelt was assassinated before he could be sworn in. Texas has been reclaimed by Mexico, Russia (the Holy Russian Empire) has grabbed California, and Canada has taken over many of the northern states. Native Americans have claimed their ancestral land which had been stolen from them. The only part of the actual United States that’s left is really poor, and those who live there have a hard life. Farmers hoping to get to a safer and better place to live must hire gunslingers to ensure their safety as they journey to a different place.
With “The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise,” Dan Gemeinhart once again shows his writing super-power ability to simultaneously amuse, touch, fascinate, and grab readers by the heartstrings as they race through this story of a girl and her father who live a peripatetic life, traveling from place to place in their rehabbed school bus.
Coyote and her father, Rodeo, have lived on Yager, their converted school bus, and traveled wherever their whims have taken them. Want to walk on the beach? They’d head for the coast. Pulled pork sandwich? The best one is at Pork Chop John’s Sandwich Shop, in Butte, Montana.
Start the new year right — get some of 2018’s (and one 2019 new release) middle grade books for the young reader in your life. There is a wide range of titles that will appeal to many different readers.
Graphic novels are high in interest and many children who aren’t interested in reading text-only chapter books love the illustrations and fast-moving pace of these books. There are several 2018 releases that include graphic novels and books with many illustrations along with text, mimicking the feel of a graphic novel. Continue reading
From the fertile, facile, and unfailingly funny imagination of author David Rosenfelt comes “Outfoxed,” the fourteenth installment of the Andy Carpenter mystery series. But don’t let the fact that it’s the fourteenth installment deter you from picking it up — Rosenfelt cleverly manages to make each book a stand-alone that can be enjoyed by either new readers or Andy Carpenter “veterans.”
“Pets on the Couch: Neurotic Dogs, Compulsive Cats, Anxious Birds, and the New Science of Animal Psychiatry” is written by veterinarian Nicholas Dodman, who also wrote bestsellers, “The Dog Who Loved Too Much” and “The Cat Who Cried for Help.”
Dodman breaks new ground with this book; he details how animals and humans share many of the same emotions and emotional disorders. He writes that animals can be depressed and feel grief and loss. It’s now known that pets can have post-traumatic stress disorder, and Dodman has asserted that this affects dogs who have served in the military in combat zones. Dogs can also have other “human” emotional disorders like anxiety and compulsive disorders.
“Fire & Heist” by Sarah Beth Durst is a wonderful young adult fantasy. Long-time fans of this author will not be surprised that it’s engaging and boasts a fabulous plot. While she has included a lot in the story — there is some “Ocean’s Eleven” mixed up with a bit of “Wrinkle in Time” and every book with a wonderfully evil villain (think Michael Grant’s newest book, appropriately titled “Villain”) — it just boils down to a book that ends up being a quick read because the action simply doesn’t stop.
“50 Primeras palabras- First Words” is a well thought-out set of flash cards that is bilingual for children who speak both English and Spanish, or those that speak only one language but might like learning a second language for enrichment. The cards themselves are large and laminated with pictures and words on each side in both languages.
Middle grade readers will adore “The Curious Cat Spy Club” series by Linda Joy Singleton. It’s a series about three middle school kids, two girls and a boy, who get together in the first book to rescue three kittens they accidentally find abandoned in a plastic bag in a dumpster. These three kids happen to be especially talented, each in a different way, and each of their talents is needed in order to solve the mystery of who abandoned the kittens, and where they came from.
“A Sorrow Fierce and Falling” is the last in the “Kingdom of Fire” trilogy by Jessica Cluess. The series began with “A Shadow Bright and Burning” and continued with “A Poison Dark and Drowning.” In this brilliant finale, Cluess manages to keep the reader enthralled from the first page to the very last.