Title: The Peddler’s Road
Author: Matthew Cody
Genre: fantasy/retelling
Similar books: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer
A Tale Dark and Grimms by Adam Gidwitz
Rating:
 |
| thrilling |
Summary (provided by publisher): Drawn from the Pied Piper tale, this exciting new trilogy by the author of Powerless is brimming with adventure, mystery, and rats!
It is said that in the thirteenth century, in a village called Hamelin,
a piper lured all of the children away with his magical flute, and none
of them were ever seen again.
Today tough, pink-haired Max
and her little brother, Carter, are stuck in modern-day Hamelin with
their father . . . until they are also led away by the Piper to a place
called the Summer Isle. There they meet the original stolen children,
who haven't aged a day and who have formed their own village, vigilantly
guarded from the many nightmarish beings that roam the land.
No one knows why the Piper stole them, but Max and Carter's appearance
may be the key to returning the lost children of Hamelin—and to going
home themselves. But to discover the secrets of the Piper, Max and
Carter will have to set out on a mysterious quest down the dangerous
Peddler's Road.
My opinion: Lots of cool stuff going on here. This is an excellent retelling, taking the bare bones of a familiar story and respinning it with new details and motivations. I’ve often wondered where the Piper took all of the children, what he gained by those actions. This book give him motivation in spades. A great cast of characters: Max, Carter, and the other children not to mention the magical creatures and the housekeeper, all of whom are fully-fleshed and each with his own motivation. A great sense of adventure, plenty of action. One could argue that it gets a little overly descriptive at times but those moments pass quickly. An exciting story on it’s own with at least one sequel to come.
Advance Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
Title: Placebo Junkies
Author: J C Carleson
Genre: surrealism
Similar books: Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Winter Girls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Rating:
 |
| interesting but odd |
Summary (provided by publisher): Meet Audie: Professional lab rat. Guinea pig. Serial human test subject.
For Audie and her friends, “volunteering” for pharmaceutical drug
trials means a quick fix and easy cash.
Sure, there's the occasional
nasty side effect, but Audie's got things under control. If Monday's
pill causes a rash, Tuesday's ointment usually clears it right up.
Wednesday's injection soothes the sting from Tuesday's “cure,” and
Thursday's procedure makes her forget all about Wednesday's headache. By
the time Friday rolls around, there's plenty of cash in hand and
perhaps even a slot in a government-funded psilocybin study, because
WEEKEND!
But the best fix of all is her boyfriend, Dylan,
whose terminal illness just makes them even more compatible. He's
turning eighteen soon, so Audie is saving up to make it an unforgettable
birthday. That means more drug trials than ever before, but Dylan is
worth it.
No pain, no gain, Audie tells herself as the pills wear away at her body and mind. No pain, no gain, she repeats as her grip on reality starts to slide. . . .
Raw and irreverent, Placebo Junkies will captivate readers until the very end, when author J. C. Carleson leans in for a final twist of the knife.
My opinion: My first impression of this book was simply how strange it was. Audie’s role is so far from the norm, so “other”, that she’s hard to relate to. It wasn’t until she began hallucinating that I realized that we couldn’t really trust anything she’d said or seen. As always with first person narration, we’re experiencing the story through one person’s lens and when that lens is clouded it is hard to know what to believe. For those who enjoy and atypical reading experience, this can be a lot of fun. Others will find it too difficult to follow.
Advance Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
If I Stay
I never read this book when it was initially popular. It just didn't' seem like my sort of book. I listened to the audio book recently and it just blew me away. The gentle simplicity of the narration is sharply at odds with the grim nature of the story. It is deeply and viscerally emotional. We loose some of that in the film version, largely because we're no longer entirely in Mia's head. While events don't adhere strictly to those of the book, the intent remains the same. Solidly done, but I believe the book is much better.
Title: The Adventures of Miss Petitfour
Author: Anne Michaels
Genre: humor/easy reader
Similar books: the Claude series by Alex T. Smith
Three ring rascals series by Kate Klise
Rating:
 |
| nice |
Summary (provided by publisher): Miss Petitfour is an expert at baking and eating little cakes. She
also has the most marvelous, everyday adventures. Her favorite mode of
travel is by tablecloth, and on windy days she always takes her sixteen
cats out for an airing.
Join Miss Petitfour and her feline
companions as they embark on five magical outings, including a quest for
“birthday cheddar” and a visit to the village’s annual Festooning
Festival.
And if you prefer books in which nothing ever happens,
books in which people (and cats) sit by the fire with buttery shortbread
biscuits and steaming mugs of cocoa, books full of interesting facts
that will never come in useful, and books with digressions and
meanwhiles and long words and lists, then you will find plenty of that
here too.
So fetch a tablecloth and turn to the first page of this book. “Sometimes, all you must do is reach out your hand for something wonderful to happen . . . ”
My opinion: While older readers prefer high adventure and complicated plots, this is not always the case with those just beginning to read independently. That’s when books like this one come into play. Low in drama but with plenty of silly fun, this book will appeal to youngster and their parents alike. To aid young readers, long and unusual words are printed in a different color and explained in the story’s text.
Advance Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
Title: The League of Unexceptional Children
Author: Gitty Daneshvari
Genre: humor
Similar books: NERDS by Michael Buckley
The Double-Cross by Jackson Pearce
Rating:
 |
| Silly fun |
Summary (provided by publisher): Are you average? Normal? Forgettable? If so, the League of Unexceptional Children is
for you! This first book in a hilarious new adventure series is for
anyone who's struggled to be noticed in a sea of above-average
overachievers.
What is the League of Unexceptional Children?
I'm glad you asked. You didn't ask? Well, you would have eventually and I
hate to waste time. The League of Unexceptional Children is a covert
network that uses the nation's most average, normal, and utterly
unexceptional children as spies. Why the average kids? Why not the
brainiacs? Or the beauty queens? Or the jocks? It's simple: People remember them. But not the unexceptionals. They are the forgotten ones. Until now!
My opinion: This book is going to connect with kids at two points: feeling invisible and the desire to be something fantastic. While the concept and execution of this book is rather ridiculous, it is somewhat rooted in reality. The ability to blend in is valuable for a spy. And that level of ridiculous is more fun and entertaining than annoying. It’s a cute read that is likely to entertain upper elementary readers.
Advance Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
El Deafo by Cece Bell
El Deafo is Bell's story of growing up deaf in a traditional public school. More than that, its a story of feeling fundamentally different at an age when one longs for nothing more than to belong. That makes it a universally relatable story. Plus, the illustrations are delightful, cartoony, and expressive. This is a great choice for fans of Raina Telgemeier's Smile.
Be a Survivor by Chris Oxlade
Many kids go through a phase where they become fascinated with survival, usually around the fifth or sixth grades (often after reading a book like Hatchet or My Side of the Mountain) so it’s helpful to have good survival books available that are aimed at young readers. This book has a number of rather practical tips: making shelter, collecting water, making fire, and getting found. I do have some complaints:
1. After describing how to make a simple shelter with a tree it describes how to build an A-frame, should no appropriate tree be available. Just the A-frame, not how to use the frame to create a shelter. While one could perhaps figure it out given the previous instructions, I find explicit instructions far easier for kids to understand.
2. The section on igloos explains how to make snow bricks with a plastic box. While that is useful, I’d have liked to have seen a side note on making bricks when you don’t have such a box.
3. While a list of edible plants is helpful, this book provides no way to identify said plants. If I don’t know what a blueberry bush looks like, knowing that it is edible does me no good.
Most importantly:
4. The knife safety rules aren’t included until after the tips that use a knife. A kid isn’t likely to flip ahead in a book to read safety tips before jumping into a project. Personally, I’d have preferred to see those safety rules right at the front of the book along with some fire safety rules.
This book does have good information. The section on collecting water, in particular, is surprisingly thorough. I wouldn’t give it to a kid without proper supervision, though.
Advance Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.
