Not If I Save You First by Ally Carter

Teen Adventure. Maddie Manchester's father is the head of the secret service for the President of the United States. The President's son, Logan, witnesses the kidnap attempt of his mother and both he and Maddie see the kidnappers shoot and wound Maddie's father. This leads Maddie and her father to hide in deep Alaska from the bad guys. This was a high adventure story that I thoroughly enjoyed. It moved quickly with lots of suspense. There was blood shed involved, but in the end the good guys win.

Recommend: Yes.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

Junior Fiction. This is a delightful story about a china rabbit whose character is shaped by the people who own him. He starts out life as a small girl's cherished toy and ends up at the bottom of an ocean, buried under piles of garbage as well as suffering cracks to his china body. Through it all he learns to love those who love him. This took me a couple of hours to read and left me with a smile on my face.

Recommend: Yes

The Saints, Volume 2: No Unhallowed Hand

Non-Fiction. I read parts of this and listened to parts of it as well. I found this uplifting, heart breaking, revelatory, and fascinating, sometimes all at the same time. I learned new things about church history that I did not know and I came to love characters I never knew existed. I took away a profound gratitude for those early members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and their dedication amidst staggering trials.

Recommend? YES

The Girl With the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke

Teen Science Fiction/Historical Fiction. Ellie, our heroine, time travels back to East Berlin a year before the Wall comes down. She travels there via a red magic balloon and finds out her grandfather was saved by a similar balloon from the concentration camps during World War II. I enjoyed the connections that happened as the story progressed and overall it had a good plot. The biggest problem I had was not a major part of the story line. The three teenagers, although somewhat abandoned in their worlds, seem to have no problem drinking and sleeping around. This is only vaguely touched on, but it still bothered me that passing around a vodka bottle was treated as normal and expected considering the situations they were experiencing. None of the adults in the story seemed to see this as a problem. The historical fiction accounts of the Jews in the Polish ghettos and the mystery surrounding how some escaped were thought provoking, but the under-aged drinking and promiscuity tainted the story for me.

Recommend: No

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz

Murder Mystery. This is the second book in the Detective Daniel Hawthorne series. I thoroughly enjoyed his first book in the series, The Word is Murder and this second one is just as good. This mystery series has a unique twist; the author, Anthony, is a character in the story. He acts as Hawthorne's second man just as Watson did to Sherlock Holmes. Hawthorne is brash and blunt and doesn't much care about people's feelings, but, like Holmes, he's brilliant. Anthony is continually trying to smooth things over with the people they interview.

I love a good mystery and I always think I may know who did the crime, unfortunately I'm usually wrong. I listened to the audio version which was well done.

Recommend: Yes

Grayling's Song by Karen Cushman

Junior Fantasy. Karen Cushman is one of my top authors. Her Newbery Medal award winning book, The Midwife's Apprentice is one of my favorites. I love the medieval time period descriptions and the depth of her characters. And so I was excited to dive into the middle ages with this book, Grayling's Song.

This one had fantasy elements in it, which was a change from her previous books. Grayling's mother is a wise woman and possesses some talent for healing magic. Even though Grayling loves her mother, she feels inferior because she doesn't think she has the talents of magic that her mother displays. One day she hears her mother's cries and finds that her mother is turning into a tree and her book of magic is gone. Grayling sets out on a quest to find the book and rescue her mother and others like her who are meeting the same fate. 

Grayling was a blah character. The best adjective I could find to describe her is milk-toast. The others she meets on her journeys are negative and surly. It isn't a long book and so I finished it, but it was a disappointment. I didn't find the medieval charm that fills Cushman's other books.

Recommend? No.

Insignificant and Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus

Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling.  Junior Realistic Fiction.

I listened to the Audio version at the request of my children on the way home from Utah which made the 6 and a half hours much more enjoyable. I have to admit I wanted to hear more descriptions of the Arizona heat as I was entering winterful Wyoming.

Aven is an 8th grade girl living in Kansas when her father gets a new job in Arizona, just outside of Scottsdale. The move is rough on this middle schooler, but more so than normal because she was born without arms. Her friends in Kansas that she grew up with accepted her without prejudice, but this new group of kids in a larger school have some adjusting to do as they watch her accomplish everyday tasks with her feet just as well as they do with their hands. She makes some good friends and comes to terms with some some questions she has had about her life.

Aven is relatable and funny and full of courage and determination. I found myself thinking of how I view others and how instant judgments can be made on looks alone. I feel like this is a must read for everyone, but especially those in the midst of middle school where it's so easy to judge other kids by how they look and act. 

Recommend? Yes Yes Yes

Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling. Junior Realistic Fiction.

We started to listen to the sequel before we reached our home after loving the first book. I finished listening to it the very next day. This one starts as Aven is entering high school as a 9th grader. She deals with extreme bullying and many more issues than just how people view her. It isn't as lighthearted as the first one, but I feel like it can hatch important conversations with teens and adults. Her problems aren't solved easily and some aren't solved at all, which I feel is an important aspect of this book. I especially liked to see Aven realize that when she was less self absorbed her problems seemed easier. 

Recommend? Yes Yes Yes