Between
Jessica Warman
It’s Liz’s eighteenth birthday, and it seems that life couldn’t get much better. She had a party with her closest friends, her stepsister, and her super cute boyfriend out on her family’s boat, complete with cocktails and birthday cake. But then, before anyone else is awake, she finds her body in the water just off the boat, and she meets up with Alex Berg, a classmate who died in a hit-and-run accident a year earlier. Liz is hovering somewhere between life and death, and she has no idea why, or how to change the situation. And to make it all the more frustrating, she has almost no solid memories of her life. With Alex’s help, she finds that she is able to slip into flashbacks of her life — more than just memories. As more of the gaps of her life fill in, we begin to uncover some of Liz’s dirty little secrets of Liz’s . . . We learn that life is often more than what it seems to be on the surface, and that some of us will do anything to protect ourselves and the ones we love – we might be willing to die, and we might even be willing to kill.
A mix of mystery and paranormal, this is a striking story placed among a bunch of rich, over-entitled kids. Perhaps, a bit over-the-top and over-emotional, some humor finds its way through the cracks at times, especially through the subtle character of Alex. This title will stand out for those who liked books like Before I Fall, Elsewhere, and If I Stay. Recommended to high school readers; there’s some tough stuff here.
Threads and Flames
Esther Friesner
We meet Raisa in Poland, living alongside the only family she has left since her sister left for New York City a few years before, and we are beside Raisa when she decides she must travel to try to rejoin her sister. We follow Raisa by ship though her journey to America, where she meets and cares for young Brina after her mother dies aboard the vessel. And we struggle along with her as she tries to find her place alone in a vast strange city, filled with people, words, and streets that she cannot understand . . . until she finds Gavrel, a young Jewish man with dreams of being a Rabbi, who brings Raisa and Brina home to his family and to their small Polish shtetl. Raisa soon finds work making shirtwaists in the city’s warehouses, ultimately joining her friends at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. When a terrible fire engulfs the building, her American dreams all but shatter.
By far one of the most enthralling historical fiction titles I’ve read lately. It’s in a completely different ballgame from one of my recent favorites, Revolutions by Jennifer Donnelly, but it’s equally amazing in its character development – especially if you consider the physical setting a character, which I very often do, if the setting is done well enough! Recommended to all ages, and particularly those who like to get sucked into the world of historical fiction.
Reckless
Cornelia Funke
Jacob Reckless was just a child when he first found the entrance in his father’s study. Once John Reckless went missing, Jacob felt close to him by being around his things, and one day he simply came to realize the meaning of the inscription on the mirror in the study: The Mirror Will Open Only for He Who Cannot See Himself.
Now it’s been twelve years of adventures in a world where Jacob goes treasure hunting for things like gold, invisibility potions, or a strand of Rapunzel’s hair, and along the way making friends with shape-shifters, doing business with Dwarfs, and fighting (with or against) powerful Fairies. Jacob first was just curious about this new world, but soon he found escape from reality and began to crossover more and more until he was hardly ever “home.” One day, when he was in a rush to enter through the mirror, his younger brother Will slipped in after him. Now Will has been hurt and is transforming slowly (but not slowly enough to save him) into a powerful, unfeeling Goyl — a being built of stone and driven by violence and loyalty to the king. What is worse is that it becomes clear that Will is the legendary Jade Goyl, and is being hunted by the Dark Fairy.
Jacob has long detached himself emotionally, striving only to learn more about the man he lost to this world many years ago, but now he must fight and risk his life to save the only family he has left. This compelling story is recommended to readers of all ages with an interest in fantasy, adventures, fairy tales, or survival. This is a planned series!
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Katherine Vasilik, A/YA Librarian
J. F. Kennedy Library
Piscataway, NJ
telephone: 732-463-1633 x6
email: kvasilik@piscatawaylibrary.org or kate_thelibrarian@yahoo.com
blog: http://katethelibrarian.blogspot.com
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