Izzy comes to the island with her birder mother after the death of her father; Matt reluctantly accompanies his aloof father, engaged in military intelligence. Izzy and Matt are secretly left behind while the Japanese soldiers evacuate and occupy the island, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Will Matt and Izzy survive? Or will the soldiers discover them? This book is part history, part survivalist fiction, part dog story, and all gripping. Quick, fascinating and heartfelt, written by one of our master storytellers.
Archives: Book Reviews
Agony House by Cherie Priest
Denise and her parents have returned to their home town in Louisiana after being relocated to the Houston area after hurricane Katrina. Her parents decided it would be a great idea to purchase an old house and fix it up to be a bed and breakfast. The house is known as the Argonne House, but the second Denise steps inside she knows that Agony House is a much better name. The house just feels off. There are odd smells, strange noises and foot prints that appear on the dirty floors out of nowhere. Denise starts to dig into the past surrounding her new pad and is freaked to find out that someone may have been murdered there! Things get even more bizarre when Denise and her new neighbor discover an unfinished comic in the attic and the creepy events in the comic start to connect with crazy occurrences in the house. Agony House is half novel and half graphic novel. It’s a ghoulishly good read.
What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Slivera
This one is a delight — Becky Albertalli (Simon vs the Home Sapien Agenda) and Adam Silvera (They Both Die at the End) each write a character in a fun summer romance set in NYC. The meet cute first meeting, the hunt to find each other later, the bad first dates (x 3!) and of course, all too soon, the end of summer all deliver rich characters, light humor and just a bit of sexual tension. I would have liked the 2 character’s voices to be more distinct; I sometimes had to look at the chapter title to figure out who was speaking. However, this is a solid, adorable, fun relationship-focused romance from 2 writers who’ve captured our imaginations in a sparkling way before.
Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka
A heartfelt new memoir from Jarrett Krosoczka, of Lunch Lady fame, this book is about growing up without parents because of their drug abuse and being raised instead by grandparents. Jarrett Krosoczka traces his life from his birth to his high school graduation, not sparing the reader the hard realities of living first with a drug addict and then with grandparents. However, his grandfather sends him one summer to art school and of course it makes all the difference. Hey, Kiddo, is certainly the best graphic novel I read this year — Printz award material! Don’t miss this one.
Contagion
Thea, a Hevetz intern, and a small crew are hurtling through space responding to a distress call. After two months of space travel and they land at a research site, they thought was long abandoned until now. Once they arrive, the crew isn’t sure what they’ve stumbled upon, with blood smears and the dead bodies of the research crew around each corner. Now the small team, with no easy way back to safety, realizes they’ve uncovered a terrible a deadly secret they must escape before it devours them too.
Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo
Have you read Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo? This is the devastatingly beautiful sequel. You can read it without having read the previous book, but not matter what, read it. It is vintage Kate DiCamillo — loopy, sweet, painful, sorrowful and lovely. One of the best books I read this year. I will recommend it to adults as well as kids: meet Granny and Louisiana and Burke and Clarence the Crow and Reverend Obertask and Miss Lulu the organist who tortures Bach and the merciless Bernice in curlers! Recommend it to the nearest reader. Read it out load to your favorite person. It may heal something inside of you to read this book. Betsy Bird calls it “a slim, handsome novel about grace.”
(If you’ve objected in the past to Kate DiCamillo books, this one is clean and disciplined and stays pointed to true north the whole time.)
Rosetown by Cynthia Rylant
Sweet “just beyond beginning chapters” book about a year in the life of Flora Smallwood. Her dog has died and her parents are taking a breather from their marriage and she’s about to start 4th grade. This book is tailor made for those sensitive kids who don’t want bad things to happen, just like our narrator. Cynthia Rylant certainly hasn’t lost her touch for creating memorable characters — and the bookstore is called A Wing and a Chair! This is one to savor.
Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini
This is a painfully moving picture books for adults and older teens, a poem written by Hosseini and illustrated by the very talented Dan Williams. The poem is a prayer spoken at night by the father of a young boy with whom he plans to cross the Mediterranean in an overcrowded raft to get to Europe and safety. Hosseini was inspired to write the poem by Alan Kurdi, the 3 year old Syrian refugee who drowned in the Mediterranean in 2015. All author proceeds from the sale of the book go the UN Refugee Agency. Ideal for a poetry class or to inspire a meditation on our response to the worldwide refugee crisis.
After the Shot Drops
Bunny and Nasir were always best buds on the court and off the court until Bunny accepted a scholarship to a rival school. Now Bunny and Nasir barely speak or see each other and are enemies on the court. Nasir feels betrayed and left behind and knows that on the court is one place he can take Bunny down. Bunny is looking to prove himself on the court to his new teammates and school, but misses his old school and friends. Can Bunny and Nasir build a new friendship or will it just crumble under all the pressure?
Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang
1908 Shanghai As the last Chinese dynasty collapses, a young mixed race girl awaits the return of her mother, hiding in the Western Residence of the house on Dragon Springs Road. Using Chinese magical realism and gritty historical detail, author Janie Chang tells the coming of age story of young Jialing, from that time awaiting her mother through the tumult of a new regime to her final adult departure from the house which has been the only home she knows. This is a gem of a story that brings a time 100 years ago and half a world away to life. Young Lovers, Gangsters, Private Investigators, Mistresses, Missionaries! I read this book because I was in Vancouver and wanted to read a local author — and I am so grateful I did. A Bestseller in Canada.