Whenever Evyn makes a wish it has always been the exact same thing: for a mom. She gets just that when her dad decides to remarry. The problem is, Evyn hates her new mom. All she has left of her old life is her dog, Clam. Everything else has changed, her brother, her dad,… her life. It just keeps getting worse after Evyn’s step-mom announces she is pregnant. After the big news, in a state of rage, Evyn goes outside to hug the last piece of her old life, her dog.  She discovers even that is gone.                                                                                                                                 Clam is dead.

P.S.- Watch out, Natasha Friend is a powerful writer! (I was bawling when Clam died!)

     Nola has spent her life on the run with her mother. Nola and her mom are witches who wander from place to place, searching for work and a meal, then to leave again before peole grow suspicious of them. When they get to another town on their ongoing  journey, they end up working for a silversmith and his son. That night Nola casts a spell in a bucket of water that allows her to see what a surtain person is doing. When they leave again the next moring, Nola doesn’t realize until they’re at the next town over that she had accidentally left the spell in the water going. She sets the same spell to see whats happening at the house and notices that the bucket hasn’t yet been touched. But she witnesses a murder. The silversmith’s son, Kirwyn, had murdered his father. Nola goes back to the town without her mother and ends up in trouble. Now she must try not to be found out a witch and she must try to get around everyone to show them the real murderer. Its a story that leaves you suspensful, yet its heart-warming.

       Frozen Fire is a gripping, mysterious novel that keeps you on your toes. Its about a girl named Dusty who lives in a small town. One day she gets a phone call with a strange, almost creepy boy. He scares her and she ends up going out to look for him. Dusty gets into some trouble. Apparently the boy was charged with rape of a girl and her father and brothers believe it was the mysterious new boy in town. With them looking for the boy and Dusty trying to discover who he is and how he even got her number, Dusty crosses paths with the family on the hunt. The dad and boys believe that Dusty had befriended the boy and they try to kill her. Wild dogs chase her and she runs for her life. Horrible things happen to Dusty because of her involvement with the boy-her house and family become effected. When she finally sees the boy, she notices some strange things about him. His skin is pale white and his hair the same. His eyes are almost transparent. But theres a feminine quality to him that she’s never seen before in a boy. Events occur and Dusty finds out an almost disterbing twist she never expected, though she still thinks she should help him at least escape from the town after him. Dusty says how she met someone like no other and he seems to never die. He doesn’t know what he is or why he’s like the way he is. He doesn’t remember where he came from…….But the most surprising things is when she finds which sex he really is. Its a shocking part in the story that just adds to the suspence of this book. Personally, it is one of my absolute favorite that I have ever read! 

          ”I’m dying,”said the voice. Dusty clutched the phone. She had no idea who this was. A boy about her age, by the sound of him-fifteen, sixteen, maybe a bit older.
          “Is amyone there?” he muttered.
           His voice was slurred and angry. She glanced at the clock. Twenty minutes to midnight. She’d answered the phone at once, thinking it would be Dad ringing to say he’d been held up by the snow but was on his way back. The lst thing she needed was this boy.
          ”Is anyone there?” he said
       “Who are you?”
       The only answer was a cough.
       “And how did you get this number?” she said. “We’re unlisted.”
       Another cough but this time the boy answered.
       “I just made up and number and dialed it.”
       She frowned. This had to be a prank. Friday night, New Year’s Day. Some boy messing around with his mates. If she listened hard enough, she’d probably catch the sound of them sniggering in the background. But all she heard was the labored breathing of the boy at the other end of the line.
       She thought of Dad out in Beckdale on his date. She’d been enjoying having the house to herself for the first time in weeks, especially after all the trouble it had taken her to get him to go, but now she wished he’d hurry back.
       “Didn’t you hear me?” mumbled the boy. “I said I’m dying.”
        She knew that wasn’t truel If the boy was really in danger, he’d hardly make up a number and ring it. He’d dial 911.
        “You need to ring the police,” she said.
        “I don’t want the police.”
         “An ambulance, then.”
        “I don’t want an ambulance.”
        “But you said you’re dying.”
       “I am dying.”
        “Then you need to ring-”
        “I don’t need to ring anyone. I said I’m dying. I didn’t say I wanted to live.”
      

Darren Shan is just an ordinary boy, until his friend gets a flier advertising the cirque du freak. It is supposed to be a freak show and darren and his friends really want to check it out. Darren’s friend is only able to get two tickets, so all the friends compete for which person will get the ticket. Darren wins the contest, gets the ticket, and goes to the freak show. When he is there, his friends confronts one of the performers and tells the performer (known as Mr. Crepsley) that he know that he is a vampire. Darren is shocked by this. Darren’s friend also asks mr.  crepsley to turn him into a vampire. Darren is evern more shocked and wonders why his friend would want to do this. will he become a vampire? or will some more exciting things happen?

Dru Anderson has lived from town to town all her life. Just her and her dad, now that her mom has been dead for so long. They finally settle down in a small town. Dru’s dad is a hunter. A MONSTER hunter. Everything is going as normal, until one night, her dad doesn’t come home. The next morning, Dru finds him tapping on the glass at the back door. Something was strange about her dad though. He had turned into a zombie. Now that Dru is really on her own (after having to shoot her dad to stop him from killing her) she’s left fending for herself. She spends some nights with Graves who becomes her best friend. He finds out about her real life and accepts her. Suddenly,  a boy named Christophe shows up one day telling her how he can help her with her problems. Dru ends up using his help. Dru battles through vampires, werewolfs, and zombies all to get to the monster who killed her parents.

A boy finds a lost diary of a killer on the lose. He can’t turn it in to police. He decides to take care of it himself. With the help of friends, Damon can solve the mystery as to who the killer is. He knows that the killer has been taking his time, starting with harming animals to setting fires. Damon calls the man Roach. As Damon continues to read on in the diary, he finds something he didn’t like. Roach had been spying on three girls, all of which he gave his own nicknames:Cherry, Bones, and Clown. Damon comes to find that he’s discovered who Roach really is!!! It becomes a battle to the death. Who survives? Damon or Roach?

In this novel, the author Beverley Naidoo gives the reader a glimpse at prejudice, fear, and the things that happen to both bring people together and tear them apart. Naidoo grew up in South Africa as a white person. For a long time only white people had power in South Africa – everything depended on your skin color. According to the author, “As a child I never questioned why I could live with my parents in a comfortable home, go to school, play in the park and do all sorts of things black children were not free to do. My upbringing led me to believe that white people were superior and it was natural for them to have the best of everything. But when I realised how false this was, I became very angry at all the injustice around me – and how I was part of it.”

This book is an engaging story that takes place in Kenya in the early 1950s. The story tells us about two boys, 11 and 13. The younger boy’s, Matthew Grayson, grandfather came to Africa just before World War I because the British government promised cheap land and labor. The older boy’s, Mugo, grandfather had owned this land, but had gone to Nairobi to help the British with the war effort. When he returned, his land had been settled by Grayson. Now Mugo’s family is part of the cheap labor for the Graysons.

Matthew and Mugo have been friends. Mugo has taught Matthew much and they have become friends. At least as much friends as colonialism allowed – whites were always superior to the native Africans. The author lets the reader see the story from the points of view of each of the boys. The Mau Mau, a secret society and a guerilla fighting force, began a rebellion to take back what was rightfully theirs. This changed life for these boys and the story tells us how.

This is a great way for you to learn about a time in history that I am sure most of you are completely unaware of. The Kenyans freed themselves from British rule on December 12, 1963.

President Obama’s grandfather was a victim of this era of violence in Kenya.

This first novel by Kristin Cashore was chosen by both Publisher’s Weekly and School Library Journal as a Best Book of the Year. Graceling is the first in what will be a series, the next is due out in the Fall of 2009.

Kasta lives in a world where some people are born with an extreme skill called a Grace. The publisher describes the book –

“Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight—she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug.

She never expects to learn the truth behind her Grace—or the terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.“

Fantasy is not my first choice in pleasure reading, but this one is really good. I was drawn in by the cover. If you like fantasy, adventure, and romance, then try this book. I know at least one of the library helpers would not agree with me! LOL

Excerpt

Kate DiCamillo has written another book that appeals to the youngster in all of us. She is the author of some of our favorites –  Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane to name a few. This new book is more like a fable about trusting the unexpected and making the extraordinary become real. Like a number of recently published books, this one has some wonderful black & white illustrations. I think that they are great because they add to the pictures that I create in my mind as I read. Those of you who know me know that I really usually like the “movies” I create in my own imagination better than those created in Hollywood.

The setting of this book is “the century before last.” In this fantasy, an orphan boy, Peter Augustus Duchene, lives with an old soldier Vilna Lutz in the city of Baltese and is in training to be a soldier. Lutz has sent him with a single coin to buy food, but Peter sees a fortuneteller’s tent. He learns that possibly what he has always been told about his baby sister is not true – he has hope that it is not. About the same time, a magician has a trick go oh-so wrong and an elephant drops from the ceiling of the opera house crushing a noblewoman’s legs.

A boy and an elephant long to have a home and a family. . . This is a magical story of love and hope; a fairy tale and a mystery that has so many themes that it could be easily read many times. It would be a great read-aloud story.

There is a wonderful website where you can read an excerpt, meet the illustrator, and register for a live webcast on October 25, 2009.

Wolf  Brother is about a boy named Torak and his pack-brother wolf as they go on a journey to defeat a demon bear. This bear was the one responsible for Torak’s father’s death and he threatened the clans that live in the forests’ lives. Torak needs to find three things in order to defeat the bear and only has a certain amount of time.

This book keeps you wondering if he will make it or not and personally I loved it.