Currents - Jane Petrlik Smolik

Title: Currents
Author: Jane Petrlik Smolik
Publisher: Charlesbridge Publishing, 2015 (Paperback) (Review copy is an ARC from the publisher)
Length: 318 pages
Genre: Children's Historical Fiction
Started: December 22, 2015
Finished: December 27, 2015

Summary:
From the back cover:

Old Mistress doesn't make Bones' life easy. When the eleven-year-old finds her real name in the plantation owner's slave registry, she tears it out. She decides to set her name free by placing the slip of paper in a bottle and setting it afloat on the James River.

The bottle drifts across the Atlantic and lands on a beach in England where twelve-year-old Lady Bess finds it. As her conniving stepmother pilfers their estate piece by piece, Bess saves her mother's pearl-encrusted cross. She seals it in the bottle with Bones' name, and the ocean currents carry it back to America.

The bottle makes its way into the hands of twelve-year-old Mary Margaret in Boston. She keeps Lady Bess' heirloom safe in the bottle until she and her family figure out a way for it to change all their lives.

The is uplifting tale proves that every action has an impact - even across oceans.

Review:
I love it when historical fiction for kids is done well, especially from the point of view of girls and women in history. This book definitely falls into that category, and was quite an engrossing read.

We begin in 1854 on a plantation in Virginia. Bones is a young slave girl who knows how to read, courtesy of Miss Liza, the master's daughter. When Bones finds her birth record and her real name in a book in the library, she decides if she cannot be free, at least her real name will be, and she rips out the page and places it in a bottle in the James River. Lady Bess on the Isle of Wight finds it a year later. When her stepmother tries to sell off the family's possessions and tries to frame Bess' friend Harry for it, Bess manages to rescue both her friend and a piece of jewelry gifted to her by her mother. The bottle with Bones' name and Bess' cross finds its way to Mary Margaret in Boston, the daughter of Irish immigrants escaping the potato famine. Mary Margaret is a gifted writer and longs to go to school, but with a sick little sister her family needs her work earnings. The lives of all three girls are intertwined by the end and it's quite nice to see how the author weaves the stories together.

The author really did her homework for this. Not only did she research plantations and the lives of African slaves in the 1850s, she also had to research Irish immigrants and the potato famine and how they were treated when they immigrated, as well as the lives of the English gentry and explorers into British colonies. This was a veritable treasure trove of historical information. The stories for each girl start out a bit slow, but then quickly develop to the point where I was genuinely invested in the outcomes and was really rooting for all three in their individual sections.

Recommendation: 
A really engrossing historical fiction middle grade read about girls in the 1850s from various backgrounds and circumstances.

Thoughts on the cover:
I like how the portraits of the girls are against the background of the ocean with the bottle. I also like how the portraits look realistic as opposed to overly cartoon-like.

Need - Joelle Charbonneau

Title: Need
Author: Joelle Charbonneau
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015 (Hardcover)
Length: 335 pages
Genre: Young Adult; Realistic Fiction, Thriller
Started: December 18, 2015
Finished: December 27, 2015

Summary:
From the inside cover:

What do you really need?

One by one, the teens in Nottawa, Wisconsin, join the newest, hottest networking site and answer one question: what do you need? a new iPhone? Backstage passes to a concert? In exchange for a seemingly minor task, the NEED site will fulfill your request. Everyone is doing it. so why shouldn't you?

Kaylee Dunham knows what she needs - a kidney for her sick brother. She doesn't believe a social networking site can help, but it couldn't hurt to try.

Or could it?

After making her request, Kaylee starts to realize the price that will have to be paid for her need to be met. The demands the site makes on users in exchange for their desires are escalating, and so is the body count. Will Kaylee be able to unravel the mystery of who created the NEED network before it destroys them all?

Review:
I fell in love with the author's previous series, The Testing trilogy (The Testing, Independent Study, and Graduation Day) so when I found out she had a new one-shot book coming out, I knew I'd be picking it up. Unfortunately the book didn't quite deliver in the way I was expecting.

The premise is promising: a town where a new social networking site appears exclusively to the teenage inhabitants, the site promises to grant requests they submit if they fulfill certain conditions, and the heroine of the story has a brother with a failing kidney and needs a transplant with no willing donors. Bang, I was hooked and read on waiting for this story to blow me away. But a couple key things got in the way.

First off, I teach teenagers, they are not as stupid as some people think. There is no way an entire school of them (especially the older ones) would fall for the premise of the NEED network in the first place, let alone get so swept up in it that people would start dying. Not realistic at all. Most kids know nothing in life is free and are suspicious of anything claiming otherwise. I could buy a handful, maybe 20-30 max out of a whole school buying into the concept and spreading mayhem in real life, but not close to 700 like the book explains. Nuh-uh, would not happen. So my suspension of disbelief was already not co-operating by this one fact alone.

Second of all, the creation of the NEED network itself and why it was created isn't realistic either, at least not in a modern setting. I can't divulge much for fear of spoilers, but it goes into the tin-foil hat conspiracy territory. I could've bought it under different conditions (sic-fi or dystopian setting where there are few limits placed on governments for example), but not in the modern setting the author chose.

Thirdly, there were way too many points of view. There are 10 different points of view in the entire book, starting out with Kaylee and alternating between various other characters. I could barely keep track of them all let alone identify with them. I understand the way the story is structured one would need to look at a point of view or two beyond the main protagonist (Kaylee) to see the motivations of the others involved in the NEED network, but having 10 is overkill, 2-4 would have been more manageable if done well.

Recommendation:
A great premise but not executed well for the reasons above. I know the author is capable of great stories, so I will just assume this one was a fluke and wait for her next book.

Thoughts on the cover:
Well done in my opinion. Kaylee's face is on one side with the title down the other. It's hard to tell in a picture but there's computer-type font goings across the cover with all the "needs" the users wrote on the website, which is quite a nice touch.

Punky Brewster - Joelle Sellner and Lesley Vamos

Title: Punky Brewster
Author: Joelle Sellner and Lesley Vamos
Publisher: IDW Publishing, 2015 (Paperback)
Length: 112 pages
Genre: Children's Graphic Novel
Started: November 24, 2015
Finished: November 24, 2015

Summary:
From the back cover:

Punky Brewster has never had it easy. Scraping by on the streets of Chicago with the help of her puppy sidekick, Brandon, life could be pretty tough. But Punky's never without her sunny disposition - even after the police find her and put her into foster care. The hunt is on for a new family when she meets Henry Warnimont, a long-lost relative, and decides he's the adoptive dad for her. All she has to do is convince the foster home, the family court system, and possibly Henry himself. Luckily, she's got an unbeatable resource - her limitless reserve of...Punky Power!

Review:
I'll admit, I picked this up purely for nostalgia purposes. As an 80s child, I was very well versed in the Punky universe growing up and still watch episodes of the show on YouTube when I need a pick-me-up.

This graphic novel collects the first 8 single issues of the comic and is a stand-alone story about meeting Punky, her stint in foster care, her relationship with Henry, and navigating the family court system. I loved that the story has been updated for modern readers: Punky helps a woman steal digital cameras and tablets in exchange for food, Margaux takes selfies with her smartphone, and Punky uses a Macbook in Henry's studio. The story still retains all the elements and general feel of the original show, Punky is still that cheeky, smart kid who's resilience is astounding; and Henry is still that kind but slightly grouchy older man that ends up being the perfect family for Punky. I also like how the comic goes into more information about the foster care and adoption systems than I remember the show doing.

Recommendation:

Very charming and so sweet it'll give you cavities. A great kid-friendly graphic novel that's sure to please. 

Thoughts on the cover:

Doesn't showcase the art very well but does capture the Punky spirit pretty well. 

Rules for Stealing Stars - Corey Ann Haydu

Title: Rules for Stealing Stars
Author: Corey Ann Haydu
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins), 2015 (Hardcover)
Length: 319 pages
Genre: Children's Realistic Fiction/Fantasy
Started: October 25, 2015
Finished: November 6, 2015

Summary:
From the inside cover:

Silly is used to feeling left out. Her three older sisters think she's too little for most things - especially when it comes to dealing with their mother's unpredictable moods and outbursts. But for Silly, that's normal. She hardly remembers a time when Mom wasn't drinking.

This summer, Silly is more alone than ever, and it feels like everyone around her is keeping secrets. Mom is sick all the time; Dad acts like everything's fine when  clearly it isn't; and Silly's sisters keep whispering and sneaking away to their rooms together, returning with signs that something mysterious is afoot and giggling about jokes that Silly doesn't understand.

When Silly is brought into her sisters' world, the truth is more exciting than she ever imagined. The sisters have discovered a magical place that gives them what they truly need: an escape from the complications of their home life. But there are dark truths there, too. Silly hopes the magic will be the secret to saving their family, but she's soon forced to wonder if it might tear them apart.

Review:
This received a lot of hype, and I haven't read a good middle grade book in a while, so I decided to pick this up. Thankfully the hype is well deserved.

Priscilla is the youngest of four sisters: fourteen-year-old twins Eleanor and Astrid, twelve-year-old Marla, and eleven-year-old Silly. Their dad is a professor who studies fairy tales and folklore, and their mom is an alcoholic. After being "Away" several times for treatment but without much improvement, Silly and her sisters are forced to walk on eggshells around their mom while they spend the summer in a new home. When their mom turns her temper on the girls, the older sisters take to their rooms, leaving Silly to fend for herself. When they finally tell her what they've been up to, Silly discovers why they could spend hours in their bedrooms. The closets in their rooms are magical, some good, some bad. Marla's closet shows you what you want or need to see, Eleanor's closet makes dioramas come to life, and Astrid's closet is the one that Silly is warned not to go into, the one that will make you want to stay inside forever and fade from people's memories. When their mom deteriorates further and goes Away once again, the girls each have their own ways of coping. When one sister ventures into Astrid's closet, the rest need to find a way to make her want to come back and face reality with a renewed sense of hope.

This book was both beautiful and sad at the same time. Silly's attempts to describe and deal with her mother's behaviour are childishly simple but strangely truthful. Anyone who has experience with alcoholic or otherwise toxic family environments might actually find this triggering. The realistic portion of the story I feel was well-done, I enjoyed how all the sisters were very distinct in terms of personalities and how they reacted, even the twins were very much individuals rather than a unit. The four of them aren't great sisters in the beginning, but eventually learn from their mistakes to communicate better so that they can be there for each other in the absence of their parents. The magical aspect regarding the closets was an interesting way to give hope to the girls' situation, I think the author handled it well.

Recommendation:
Beautiful yet sad, and altogether amazing.

Thoughts on the cover:
Pretty and very fitting for the story.

Walk on Earth a Stranger - Rae Carson

Title: Walk on Earth a Stranger
Author: Rae Carson
Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 2015 (Hardcover)
Length: 431 pages
Genre: Young Adult; Historical Fiction, Fantasy
Started: October 15, 2015
Finished: October 24, 2015

Summary:
From the inside cover:

Lee Westfall has a strong, loving family. She has a home she loves and a loyal steed. She has a best friend - who might want to be something more.

She also has a secret.

Lee can sense gold in the world around her. Veins deep in the earth. Small nuggets in a stream. Even gold dust caught underneath a fingernail. She has kept her family safe and able to buy provisions, even through the harshest winters. But what would someone do to control a girl with that kind of power? A person might murder for it.

When everything Lee holds dear is ripped away, she flees to California - where gold has just been discovered. Perhaps this will be the one place a magical girl can be herself. If she survives the journey.

The acclaimed Rae Carson begins a sweeping new trilogy set in Gold Rush-era America, about a young woman with a powerful and dangerous gift.

Review:
I read the author's famous Girl of Fire and Thorns series (The Girl of Fire and Thorns, The Crown of Embers, The Bitter Kingdom) and loved it to pieces, so of course when I heard the author was writing a new trilogy called The Gold Seer, I of course had to pick it up.

This first book, Walk on Earth a Stranger, introduces us to Leah Westfall, called Lee, who can sense gold around her. She lives in Georgia in 1849, where her parents migrated from New England to stake a claim and find gold. They manage to survive despite the infrequent gold discoveries thanks to Lee's gift. But when Lee's uncle Hiram hires men to kill her parents in order to use Lee's power for himself, she escapes in the night dressed as a boy to follow her friend Jefferson to California. Not only does she have to worry about being found by Hiram and his men along the way, Lee has to survive the arduous journey from Georgia to California.

I'll have to admit, I felt the story was slow in the beginning while waiting for Lee to leave. Once she meets up with the Joyners and Jefferson and the other families she travels with, things picked up greatly. I liked how Lee and the other women in the book are strong in their own right and touch on how women are viewed as possessions (it is 1849 after all) and fight against that. I also like how the author touched on slavery and Native American relations, and even managed to incorporate LGBT characters moving to California in order to begin anew. I didn't love this book like I loved Girl of Fire and Thorns because I'm not a big fan of novels where all the characters do is travel from place to place with nothing of substance happening. I might like the subsequent novels better since the group is in California and can finally get in on the action.

Recommendation:
Definitely worth the read but so far not as satisfying as the author's previous series.

Thoughts on the cover:
Simply gorgeous.

Strong Female Protagonist - Brennan Lee Mulligan and Molly Ostertag

Title: Strong Female Protagonist
Author: Brennan Lee Mulligan and Molly Ostertag
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions, 2014 (Paperback)
Length: 220 pages
Genre: Young Adult/Adult; Graphic Novel
Started: October 16, 2015
Finished: October 19, 2015

Summary:
From the inside cover:

With super strength and invulnerability, Alison Green used to be one of the most powerful superheroes around. Fighting crime with other teenagers under the alter-ego Mega Girl was fun until an encounter with Menace, her mind-reading arch enemy. He showed her evidence of a sinister conspiracy, and suddenly battling giant robots didn't seem so important.

Now Alison is going to college and trying to find ways to actually help the world while still getting to class on time. It's impossible to escape the past, however, and everyone has their own idea of what it means to be a hero...

Review:
I picked this up purely based on the title and that it featured a female superhero; this is one of the rare cases where I hadn't actually read the web comic before reading the collected version.

Alison Green lives in a world where individuals are biodynamic or chromosomally stable, you either have super powers or you don't. Alison came into her powers as a fourteen-year-old and went on to fight the forces of evil as one of the most formidable forces around, until she gave it up at nineteen when she realized it takes more than super powers to be a hero.

I like how this is a much darker and more philosophical type of super hero story (so not for the kiddies or super sensitive readers). Alison is disenchanted with her circumstances and realizes that being one of the most powerful people in the world hasn't changed things to the degree she'd have liked, and that others have actually made more of a difference than she (at least in her mind).

I like how Alison has a darker side, she actually muses on how she fantasizes about killing people because she knows she can but manages to quash it in favour of maintaining her optimism that she can bring about authentic change. I also like how a chapter on Alison's early life was included, and how awesome her parents are portrayed (yay for a hero actually having both parents for a change).

Recommendation: 
This is an incredibly refreshing take on the typical super hero story, definitely pick this up. Also, you can continue reading the story online at www.strongfemaleprotagonist.com. The graphic novel version covers chapters 1-4, but you can read the content online for free including what's covered in the graphic novel and beyond.

Thoughts on the cover:
I like Alison in the free fall pose, not sure why. Another nice touch is on the back side of the cover you see Alison in the same pose, just dressed as Mega Girl rather than her civilian self.

The Astrologer's Daughter - Rebecca Lim

Title: The Astrologer's Daughter
Author: Rebecca Lim
Publisher: Text Publishing Company, 2014 (Paperback)
Length: 318 pages
Genre: Young Adult; Mystery
Started: October 2, 2015
Finished: October 14, 2015

Summary:
From the back cover:

Avicenna Crowe's mother, Joanne, is an astrologer with uncanny predictive powers and a history of being stalked.

Now she is missing.

The police are called, but they're not asking the right questions. Like why Joanne lied about her past, and what she saw in her stars that made her so afraid.

But Avicenna has inherited her mother's gift. Finding an unlikely ally in the brooding Simon Thorn, she begins to piece together the mystery.

And when she universe a link between Joanne's disappearance and a cold-case murder, Avicenna is led deep into the city's dark and seedy underbelly, unaware of how far she is placing her own life in danger.

Pulse-racing and terrifyingly real, The Astrologer's Daughter will test your belief in destiny and the endurance of love.

Review:
I wanted to pick this up purely because it was a bit out there and very different from what I usually read. I think I chose well.

Eighteen-year-old Avicenna (love that name by the way) lives with her mom in Melbourne, recently moved to yet another new place due to the unwanted attention her mother receives from her work as an eerily accurate astrologist. When her mother suddenly disappears, Avicenna is faced with the task of helping the police figure out where she might have gone and what could have happened. When the police discover that Avicenna has inherited her mother's abilities (though she mostly refuses to use them), they ask her to finish up her mother's work on some unfinished jobs. With that, Avicenna puts herself in danger when she actually helps solve a cold case murder without getting any closer to figuring out what happened to her mom.

I loved the surreal feel in this book. The writing, the setting, Avicenna's personality, the astrological influences, everything comes together really well to make for an engrossing read. The only beef I have with it is the lack of closure at the end.

Recommendation:
If you're looking for something different with a mysterious and otherworldly (but not too out there) feel, give this a shot.

Thoughts on the cover:
Not amazingly impressive but I do like that the model is holding a magnifying glass.