Holly Lisle has long been one of my favorite authors for adults, so I was thrilled to find out she has started a fantasy series for kids. The Ruby Key (Moon and Sun) is the first in the Moon & Sun series. Mankind and nightlings have a treaty: mankind “rules by the light” and nightlings “rule in the night.” They each have their own special magic. When Genna and her brother Dan venture into the woods at night to try to save their mother from a mysterious illness, they learn of an evil plot against their family and their whole village. With the help of a cat who is not a cat and a nightling who has secrets of her own, Genna must travel the moonroads to find the one person who can save them.

I really liked this book and recommend it to people who like to immerse themselves in a world where magic is real.

By Scott Westerfield

Tally wants nothing more in life than to turn 16 and have the operation that will turn her from an Ugly to a Pretty.  Then she can move to New Pretty Town and have the time of her life.  Then she meets Shay, who doesn’t want to have the operation.  They find out the operation changes more than just a person’s looks.

If I talk about Pretties and Specials, it will give away the ending, so all I’m going to say is that you should read all three books, preferably in a row!

The target audience for these books is slightly older than tweens, but my 10-year-old literary advisor read them and loved them, especially the science fiction details.

by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Nothing happens in the town of Manod.  In fact, it’s so boring, the town newspaper only comes out once a month.  Dylan Hughes keeps the log book for his family’s petrol (gas) business, the Snowdonia Oasis Auto Marvel, but things are about to change for him and his family.  Mysterious white vans have begun passing the Oasis on their way to the abandoned slate quarry on the mountain, and Dylan wants to know what’s going on.

This book could be a bit challenging to American readers because of British terminology and some Welsh words, but it’s totally worth it.

A hint: if you liked Chasing Vermeer, you might like this one.

This was to be my next book for review here, but my 10-year-old literary advisor has taken off with it, so I won’t get it back for a couple of days. From what I was able to get from the cover, it’s about a boy growing up in a town where everyone has super powers. Everyone, that is, except for the boy.

by Gennifer Choldenko

Moose Flanagan’s life is uprooted when his electrician father takes a job as a prison guard on Alcatraz. His parents are trying to find a place that can help Moose’s older sister, Natalie, who has what we would know as autism today. Although his parents are always telling him that everything is not as black and white as it seems, they seem to have a hard time remembering that fact themselves.

The book includes fascinating facts about life on Alcatraz, and shows what life is like for the sibling of an autistic person. Gennifer Choldenko knows what she’s writing about. Her own sister had a severe form of autism.

Mark Twain Award Nominee 2006-2007

Originally posted April 10, 2005

by Betty Ren Wright

Everything is changing for Charli this summer. First, her mom just married her gym teacher, and that’s not turning out as well as Charli had thought it would. Then, her aunt and uncle take in Sophia, a snooty orphan who can tell when something bad is about to happen. Even Charli can tell something bad is going to happen when Uncle Will announces he is going to turn the town’s haunted mansion into a bed and breakfast. Can Charli and Sophia get over their dislike for each other long enough to stop terrible things from happening?

Mark Twain Award Nominee 2005-2006

Sophie is the oldest of three girls and she knows she has very little hope of an interesting future. When her family runs into money problems, Sophie’s sisters go off to be apprentices and Sophie stays home to work in the family’s hat business. Meanwhile, a mysterious castle appears on the horizon, said to be home to a young wizard who likes to suck the souls of young girls. After Sophie is cursed by the Witch of the Waste, she ends up making a bargain with the demon who powers the moving castle. She will help the demon break his contract with the Wizard Howl, and the demon will break the curse on her.

I stayed up all night to finish this book and absolutely loved it. Diana Wynne Jones consistently writes wonderful, fascinating, mysterious, and magical tales.

A Time for Dancing, by Davida Wills Hurwin, is the story of best friends Jules and Sam, who are dealing with Jules’ diagnosis of cancer. This book alternates chapters in each girl’s voice to look at how Jules’ cancer affects everyone around her.

This book has a five-star average rating on Amazon, with 168 reviews. I would have loved this book when I was about 15. I loved it now, but we all know how sometimes adults pick books teenagers would find extremely boring. This one is especially good if you like to read about best friends, death, or cancer.

This book wasn’t nearly as wonderful and hilarious as I was led to believe. Since I’m probably the last person to read this book, I won’t spend a lot of time talking about the plot. It was an interesting look at four girls’ friendships and what they go through during their first summer apart.

Carmen was my favorite character. I thought what her dad did to her was inexcusable and she had the right to be furious. He totally betrayed her. I can’t even remember the other characters’ names.

Nancy Farmer’s The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm is a thriller set in Zimbabwe in 2194. A high-powered government official’s over-protected children go on an adventure and end up deeper than they thought. When they disappear, their parents hire a misfit detective agency that always seems to be about half a step behind the kids. This is an interesting look at a potential future where plastic is a highly-prized commodity, but old spirits still do battle. It’s a very exciting book, but at some points, I started to get tired of all the scrapes the kids got into. However, the end was worth every minute.

The readers of this book might skew a bit young, but this book definitely tackles issues that are interesting to older readers. I especially love the juxtaposition of futuristic worries with spirit myths of the past.

A review by a New York 6th Grader
A review by another novelist
A review by a Washington girl
St. Charles (IL) public library says if you like this book, you’ll love the books on their list.