The Soldiers of Halla by D.J MacHale (reviwed by Bear Schact)

I have enjoyed the other books in the Pendragon series a lot, and The Soldiers of Halla was no different. Besides the story, which I thought was good, the writing style and pacing was very engaging and easy to understand. It had been awhile since I read the ninth book, so I had forgotten how much needed to be tied up and explained, and this book explained everything about the travelers and visited several territories of Halla. It was pretty cool to see them again, even if they were all messed up by Saint Dane. I would recommend the Pendragon series to just about any fiction fan, as it is possibly my second favorite book series after Harry Potter.

--
Thanks to Bear for the review of another series favorite!

Click here to check our catalog to see if The Soldiers of Halla is on the shelves.

Abhorsen by Garth Nix (reviewed by Adam Sayre)

This book ends the thrilling Sabriel trilogy. Lirael is now Abhorsen, commanding life and death with her magical set of bells. With Sam’s help, she must prevent the most terrible of things from happening, and save Sam’s normal friend! Hoards of the dead have been called and the final battle nears. Nick, Sam’s friend, has a dream of a Lightning Farm, but it’s not very benign! Sam must muster his courage and stand with the others against the greatest evil our heroes have faced yet!

--
Thanks Adam for another review of an "old" favorite! ^__~

Click here to check our catalog to see if Abhorsen is on the shelves.

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (reviewed by Lauren TenCate)

Artemis Fowl is perhaps one of my favorite books. In it, 12 year old boy genius and master mind Artemis Fowl plans to restore his family fortune by kidnapping a fairy and holding them for ransom. Oddly enough, Artemis succeeds in his plan but the fairies are smart too. They get a kleptomaniac tunnel dwarf named Mulch to break into Fowl Manor (where Artemis lives) and steal the fairy out. Unfortunately, Holly (the fairy who was kidnapped) can’t leave because she is under orders not to. (and if a fairy breaks orders they lose their magic.) It’s a very interesting book and it’s funny too. I thought it was a great book, if a little outlandish.

--
Thanks Lauren, for that review of an old favorite. Don't forget, you can write reviews of 'older' books you REALLY LOVED too.

Click here to check our catalog to see if Artemis Fowl is on the shelves.

Troy High by Shana Norris (reviewed by Vickie Wang)

Troy High by Shana Norris is a novel that retells the classic tale of Homer's Illiad to be a modern high school drama, complete with cheerleaders, football players, band geeks, the like. When former Spartan High cheerleader, Elena, falls in love with Troy High's football hunk Perry, it sparks a rivalry of practical jokes and pranks that get more and more out of hand... And poor Cassie, Perry's little band major sister, is stuck in the middle of it, having to choose between loyalty to her school and the her best friend, and love of her life, who is a Spartan.

I personally did not like the novel that much. The characters were kind of FORCED into being their Illiad counterparts. For example, Perry was supposed to be like Paris from the Illiad in the aspect that both were very vain and did not want to be forced into battle; however, Perry not wanting to go play football is not like Paris not wanting to go to war. The book just seemed to water down the excitement of the Illiad. However, the author did a really good job making parallel characters; I just wish the Troy High characters also had some more personality of their own as well.

Troy High seemed to downplay the drama of the Illiad to make it fit into a novel that high schoolers could relate to. I really liked the idea of modernizing the Illiad. I just wish that Norris did so in a way with a twist so that it was both relateable but not completely predictable for those who know the Illiad (such as adding a flaw to the hero, or getting into the head of Helen/Elena).

--
Vickie reviewed an ADVANCE READER'S COPY (ARC) of this book, meaning she got a chance to read it before it was published and she had a chance to let the library know if it she thought we should purchase it for our shelves or not.

Do YOU want a chance to read and review books before they're published? Do YOU think you could give your opinion on if the library/other people should buy these books? If so, you can ask at youth services or send us an e-mail for more information on how you can get a chance to be an advance reviewer.

Extra big thanks to Vickie for her great review and her hard work being one of our advance reviewers!

Harry, A History by Melissa Anelli (reviewed by Bear Schacht)

I have been a fan of Harry Potter for about half my life, but when I was first introduced to it I was too young to do anything except enjoy the books. The biggest Harry Potter related event I ever attended was the midnight release of the seventh book, which only had about 200 people and was over at 3 AM. Reading Harry, A History was a different perspective entirely. It told all the stories, from the original idea through the early days of the series, the birth of the online fandom, the origins of wizard rock, the controversy over and the banning of the books, interviews with J.K. Rowling, and the 'shipping wars at conferences to the Harry and the Potters concert in Boston's Harvard Square that was attended by 15,000 people. If you are a fan of Harry Potter and curious about the phenomenon, you should read this book.

--
Big thanks to Bear for our VERY FIRST EVER non-fiction review. Whooo! Yes, you can review non-fiction books too. So find a book about something too amazing/gross/cool too be made up and write a review!

Click here to check our catalog to see if Harry, A History is on the shelves.

A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer (reviewed by Anna Wermer)

This book was great. The story is simple but broke down into more complicated parts. It's a story of a 12 year old that is working her way into womanhood, so every preteen can relate. It's a foreign book about tribes and old beliefs that put you into someone else's shoes. A Girl Named Disaster is full of adventure and laughs. There were intense parts that kept me reading. I didn't want to put the book down. I liked the book because it was an interesting topic that I could somewhat relate to, but there were boring parts that went on and on. Also, since it was about being in a tribe and there were different beliefs, it was confusing and sometimes hard to relate to how the characters are feeling or thinking. I would still recommend the book to preteen girls.

--
Thanks, Anna for another great review!

Click here to check our catalog to see if A Girl Named Disaster is on the shelves.

Thud! by Terry Pratchett (reviewed by Adam Sayre)

In Thud! by Terry Pratchett, city watch commander Sam Vimes is confronted with some dire problems. The Trolls and the Dwarves are fighting. Again. It's the anniversary of the Toom Valley Battle, where the Trolls attacked the Dwarves or the Dwarves attacked the Trolls. The conflict is splitting the city and Sam's watch. Now it's up to him to find out, once and for all, who started it.

Oh yes, at six o'clock every day, Sam must go home and read Where's My Cow? with all the right barnyard noises. There are some things you have to do!

--

Good review of a classic, Adam!

Click here to check our catalog to see if Thud! is on the shelves.

Swoon by Nina Malkin (reviewed by Lindy Jacobs)

"Swoon" by Nina Malkin, has one of those titles that usually scares me off right from the get-go. I mean, with a name like that it's practically guaranteed to be a typical teen romance, right? Well, this book is a romance, but it's not completely typical. The main character, instead of falling in love with the top jock, is in love with a ghost. And instead of becoming a happy twosome with a long future ahead, they go their separate ways in the end (though with the conclusion that she “doesn't need Sin here to be with him”). The basic plot is reasonable and goes at a good pace—it doesn't randomly skip years for no good reason or drag over scenes that should be short—and it introduces characters well. My main complaint is that this book seems really into discussing sexual relationships, including one rather creepy spanking session, using sentences of a length usually expected only in elementary school. The diction is fine for the most part. However, the number of times the book takes a break from the plot to start talking about the sexual positions everyone happens to be in at that particular moment in time, as well as the detours it seems to make simply to encompass more sexual comments, is a little scary. I'd actually say that this book is perfect for middle schoolers: it talks frequently about sex and relationships using short sentences combined with somewhat high diction, which seems to be a mixture most people that age enjoy.

--
Thanks for the totally honest opinion, Lindy, that's the kind we like the best! ^__^

Click here to check our catalog to see if Swoon is on the shelf so you can try it out for yourself and see if you agree with Lindy!!

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, vol. 1: The Pox Party by MT Anderson (reviewed by Adam Sayre *AND* Lauren TenCate)

OUR FIRST EVER DOUBLE REVIEW! Whoo! (do you want to review books with a friend? This can be a great chance to get both your voices heard...even if you disagree!)

ADAM:
From the author of Feed comes the peculiar tale of Octavian. Set in and around Boston as the Revolution begins to take its first breaths, Octavian is housed at the Novangelian College of Lucidity and is part of an ongoing science experience attempting to find out whether or not "Negroes" are as intelligent as "Whites." Then the college suddenly changes hands, and the experiment takes a turn for the worse. Having journeyed from the faraway country of Africa, all Octavian's mother, Cassiopeia, wants, is a safe home for her son. And that's exactly what he doesn't get.

LAUREN:
The Pox Party by MT Anderson was a really good book. It was really interesting. It's about a young "Negro" boy named Octavian living far from his homeland in a house of scientists, as they experiment. Eventually with the help of his friend, the servant Pro Bono, he escapes. Out in the real world he stumbles on a bunch of people who like him for who he is. Unfortunately, the scientists capture him, but luck is on his side. The scientists turn on one another and the one who actually cares about Octavian for who he is, not because he's the experiment, takes him. The only bad things about this book was that at times it got a little difficult to figure out what was going on because of the language the author used and it got little dull at times. The things that I really enjoyed was the fact there was plenty of turns in the plot and that the middle of the book was written in letters. That was cool. It was a very serious book, though, all things considered. I thought it was a pretty good book.

--
Thanks Lauren and Adam for ALL your reviews and for taking the time to read and review a challenging book that is one of my *all time* favorites! Yay!

Click here to check our catalog to see if Octavian Nothing, vol. 1 is on the shelf.

Nightmare Hour by R.L. Stine (reviewed by Samantha Padilla)

Nightmare Inn (one story in Nightmare Hour) is about a girl named Jillian that has to go with her mother to buy an Inn. But when her mother leaves toi go to real estate office to but the Inn, Jillian meets a man named James that turns into a werewolf! And then Jillian has to be on the run with a life and death situation.
--

Yikes! Thanks for the hair-raising review, Samantha.

Click here to check our catalog to see if Nightmare Hour is on the shelf.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (reviewed by Anna Wermer)

I love this book. Stephenie Meyer writes in a way that is easy to understand, so you don't need a broad vocabulary. It's really easy for girls to relate to because its in a girls point of view, but it's an amazing book for the whole family. Twilight starts with what seems to be normal, but turns into a complete twist, which makes it interesting. Even though it's a fictional story, Twilight has conflicts in it that every teenager can relate to. The love and the passion in the story glued me to the book and once it was over I was sad and couldn't wait to read the next book.

--

Thanks for being the first person to review Twilight, Anna ... I am sure some other people have some thoughts about this book/author too! Let's hear them!! ^__^

Click here to check our catalog to see if Twilight is on the shelf.

The Secret Language of Girls by Frances O'Roark Dowell (reviewed by Anna Wermer)

This book is one of my favorites! Every preteen girl can relate and would love this book. It's a story about a close friendship and growing up. The Secret Language of Girls had the same conflicts and feelings in it that I was going through. This book is full of laughs and emotions that keep the story flowing with experiences that every girl goes through. Best friends have most likely experienced the same problems that have happened in this nook and can learn a little bit about how to solve their friend-related problems by reading this. Any preteen girl growing up and learning to deal with friends and family should read this book.

--

Wow Anna, thanks for the rave!

Click here to check our catalog to see if The Secret Language of Girls is on the shelf.

Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix (reviewed by Katelyn Skeen)

Double Identity is a sci/fi novel about cloning. Parents are abandoning their daughter at a relatives house and won't tell her why! A mysterious man seems to be a spy. What could happen? You will have to read to find out! Any of Haddix's books are great!

--
Thanks Katelyn for your first (of hopefully many!) reviews!

Click here to check our catalog to see if Double Identity is on the shelf.

Project 17 by Laurie Faria Stolarz (reviewed by Adam Sayre)

Would you venture into an abandoned mental hospital? At night? This is the premise of author Laurie Stolarz's book Project 17. Main character Derik LaPointe joins up with Liza, Mimi, Greta, Chet, and Tony to make an amateur movie for a contest. The group ventures to Danvers State Medical Hospital, in the middle of the night. With an appearance of the number 17 in a surprising number of places the kids find out a little more than they bargined for, about Danvers and themselves.
--

Project 17 was the last book selection of our Teen Book Group. Our group discussion involved a live, online chat with the fantastic (and cool and kind!) author, Laurie Faria Stolarz, who answered all our questions about the book and how she wrote it! Want to make sure you get to participate in the next book group and author chat? Ask for more info at the youth services desk about how you can join the next conversation.

Super-special-extra thanks to Adam for not just the review but also for being part of the book group!

Click here to check our catalog to see if Project 17 is on the shelf.

The Highwayman's Footsteps by Nicola Morgan (reviewed by Lauren Tencate)

Inspired by a poem (The Highwayman), The Highway Man's Footsteps is full of adventure, friendship, and emotional conflicts. It begins with Will, a young rich boy running away from home because his family doesn't appreciate him. Unfortunately, he has to steal some money, which causes the militia to come after him. Seeking refuge, he rushes into a shack only to find himself a gunpoint by a young highway man, Bess. She is sick so Will cures her. They decide that chances of survival are better if they stick together. Together, they have many adventures, bonding them closer.

Nicola Morgan does an excellent job of portraying characters feelings such as Will's feelings when an old lady betrays him. Morgan also makes the book interesting, bringing in new characters at every turn and combining sorrow and happiness.
--

Woo, Lauren for submitting that review!

Click here to check our catalog to see if The Highwayman's Footsteps is on the shelf.

Amber and Ashes by Margaret Weis (reviewed by Adam Sayre)

Well, Dragonlance fans; she's back! Margaret Weis returns to the world of Krynn for another trilogy. After Thaksis death, Mina has no where to turn. That is until she is discovered by Chemosh, the god of death. The two, strangely, fall in love, and Mina becomes Chemosh's High Priestess. Together they try to thwart the gods.

As well as expanding the life of Mina, the book introduces a new character, Rhys, an ex-monk of Majere. He works wth Zeboim, the goddess of the sea, to stop Chemosh and Mina.

With a Death Knight and plenty of action, Margaret Weis again produces a smashing hit.
--

Yay for Adam's amazing review!

Click here to check our catalog to see if Amber and Ashes is on the shelf.

Larklight by Philip Reeve (reviewed by Vikki Lee)

Larklight is an amazing book with a twist in practically every chapter. You won't expect anything. Some of the characters and creatures I could never have thought of in a million years. It's one of the best books I've ever read. In the last chapters the story totally changes when an important character is brought into everything at just the right time! It's an action packed adventure in outer space during the 1800s!
--

Thanks, Vikki for this awesome review, our very first, w00t! :)

Click here to check our catalog to see if Larklight is on the shelf.