Book Giveaway: Fun Pick: Spy School

Spy School
by Stuart Gibbs
Simon & Schuster
290 pages

just out March 6, 2012

I have 5 copies of this very funny new book up for grabs! Boys will love this one! It is an entertaining jaunt for all readers who love a cool spy story.

Clever, comedic, cute, charming, witty, punny, and sensational, Spy School is seriously entertaining and delivers chortling, mad fun. Readers will laugh out loud by the incompetence of the nation's most skilled special agents and roll around the floor aching with side-splitting laughter as a twelve year old boy is able to take down the entire elite team of agents and hide out from surveillance and capture. Read my full review here


See what author Stuart Gibbs says about my review of his book here

Post a comment to the blog and include your first name, city and state. The publisher, the author and I like to see who the readers are. Also, please include your email contact so that if you do win, I can contact you.

Deadline for posting is March 29 at noon MST. Winners are chosen randomly by Randomizer. Winners will be notified after 12:00 p.m. on March 29 and have 24 hours to respond to my email. Books will ship from New York thanks to Dawn and Simon & Schuster.

Good luck and start posting! Pamela

Foodie Pick: Man With a Pan

Man With a Pan
edited by John Donohue
Algonquin
2011
326 pages

This is a great gift for upcoming Father's Day or any man's/boy's birthday:

Humorous, touching, quirky, and comforting, Man With a Pan is a satisfying collection of twenty-one famous authors' and cooks' stories of their own cooking adventures for their families. Throw in Mario Batali and season well with some spicy Stephen King and you have a great simmering pot of literary and culinary "tales of fathers who cook for their families."

I truly enjoyed reading tales of woe and tales of human kindness. From Sean Wilsey, living in NYC when the World Trade Center was hit on 9/11, he says, "the first thing I did was boil a pot of pasta. I made ravioli at ten thirty in the morning....and began to grasp what was happening." Pasta, it seems, helps in a crisis, even one as huge as that horrific event in American history. Each father/cook shares his favorite recipes and what's on his culinary bookshelf as well. Foodies will be sure to devour their stories and want to try their hand at some of the recipes. An interesting recipe that sounds delicious from Wilsey is "Pistachio Pesto" which I wouldn't even consider a pesto since there's no basil. He substitutes Bottarga di muggine which is gray mullet roe available on the web or in Italian specialty stores.

From Daniel Moultroup, recipes include an easy recipe for pickles and how to can fresh tomato sauce; from Christopher Little--a delicious sounding Low Country Boil featuring sausage, crawfish, shrimp and beer. Stephen King gives directions on the proper care of cooking an omelet with only a few expletives and how to prepare fish in the microwave, yes...the microwave, and a wonderful recipe for chocolate cake he calls "Pretty Good Cake."

More than one father/cook stresses the importance of getting the kids to help prepare the meal, whatever it is. This helps them take ownership and they are more likely to try what's on the menu if they help in the prep. Mario Batali tells readers not to make any new ingredient a big production. Simply prepare it and put it on the table. If the kids ask what it is, you simply say, "pesto" or "cardoons." A cardoon is a little like an artichoke in appearance or a tall stalk of celery and Batali swears they are great sauteed and then hit with a bunch of fontina cheese. I mean, what isn't delicious with fontina?

Teens who love food and have an apetite for culinary adventure are sure to be fans of Man With a Pan. With more and more fathers involved in child-rearing and cooking, more boys may pursue careers in kitchens around the world. The Food Network has made cooking cool, and chefs like Guy Fieri and Bobby Flay--wildly popular chefs with restaurants and cookbooks and huge empires making serious bank--have teen fans--many of them male--who are watching and learning.

Highly, highly recommended grade 8-up. One or two mentions of sex but no details. Some language--especially Stephen King--you gotta love him.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Now in Paperback: Give a Boy a Gun

Give a Boy a Gun
by Todd Strasser
Simon & Schuster
2012 (new paperback edition)
224 pages

Riveting, terrifying, and tragically true, the statistics used in this haunting new ya novel should scare everyone living in America. Every day, thousands of students are bullied in our schools, and every day, some kid might snap. What happens when enough is finally enough? And what can be done to prevent it?

Ask the kids who were at Columbine. Ask the kids who attend Chardon High School in Ohio where on February 27, 2012, a student wounded five other students, three of whom later died. These are not isolated examples. Strasser includes facts and statistics from various sources as footnotes to the story of Ryan, Brendon, and Gary, three friends who are not popular or athletes at their high school. They are not the "in" crowd, and they dread coming to school every day.

This fact comes from Rolling Stone, 6/10/99: "In 1996, handguns alone killed 15 people in Japan, 30 in Great Britain, 106 in Canada, and 9,390 in the United States." It illustates the growing gun problem in America. Our teens know how easy it is to obtain a weapon. According to one statistic, 12% of American students have seen another student with a gun at school.


The three boys are constantly bullied and harrassed on a daily basis. Teachers do nothing to stop it other than say to the popular kids, "Hey, guys, cut it out." There is no back-up and no consequences. Gary chooses to fight back. Gary grows increasingly darker and practices with video shooting games, even buying a gun from another student. It is his descent into vile hatred and blind rage that carries the story.

Readers know that nothing but tragedy can come from Gary's actions, yet he is like a wounded animal himself. The daily barrage of tiny abuses multiply and grow exponentially in his mind.

This is not a feel-good story. It's a story that one hopes will make people pay attention to the facts that weaker people get bullied and they can only take so much.

Recommmeded for teens who like realistic fiction with an edge. Grades 9-up. Language, violence, guns.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

LGBT Pick: The Letter Q: Queer Writers' Notes To Their Younger Selves

The Letter Q: Queer Writers' Notes To Their Younger Selves
Sarah Moon & James Lecesne, Editors
Arthur A. Levine Books
272 pages

Available May 1, 2012

Touching, poetic, provocative, and poignant, The Letter Q will resonate with hordes of teens; teens who feel left out, teens who are bullied, teens who bully to cover up deeper problems, teens with issues, and all those who feel they are outsiders looking in will find words of comfort in these pages.

This paramount book is bound to cause a cacophonous commotion in publishing and LGBT circles and among troubled/not so troubled teens. It is frank, in-your-face honesty written by the most prolific and talented authors of our time. Each author writes a letter to their younger self--what would you say to yourself if you could? Teens who feel left out and struggling with issues other than homosexuality will also love reading about famous people who were once young, emotional, and searching for answers just like themselves.

Letters from ya authors include David Levithan, Sarah Moon, Jacqueline Woodson, Amy Bloom and many other fine writers. Each author has a unique voice yet all seem to agree on one important fact: it gets better! Whatever angst, distrust, agony, fatigue, anger, hatred, self-loathing or just plain apathy you are feeling in school, the real world will embrace you and love you for who you are and who you will become. Words of wisdom from Michael Cunningham (author of The Hours), "Worry less. Love being exactly who and what you are...Have faith in the fact that your sexual identity, which sometimes seems to you like an impediment, is one of your greatest gifts."

From Jacqueline Woodson's (Locomotion, Beneath a Meth Moon) letter to her younger self, "I want to tell you, it gets better. There is a whole world of women like you out here. They are amazing! They are mothers and doctors and lawyers and actors and electricians and builders and thinkers and doers." I love how "mothers" is listed first!

From Terrance McNally (Tony Award winning writer), "You will grow up. Adolescence will be a distant, but always a vivid, memory."

From Larry Duplechan (Blackbird), "...take heart. Real life is nothing like high school...you'll get through it, I promise. You're stronger than you know; stronger than you'd ever dream. And don't worry: You won't be alone through this."

Their letters offer advice, sincere empathy, intense and raw emotion, and love. Love for their young, naive, fragile selves and for other young, naive and fragile readers.

Every parent who has a teen who is struggling should read this book and pass it on to their teen. It's not about sexuality and gender; it's about accepting one's self and loving one's own unique character.

Highly, highly recommended grades 9-up. Mature theme and situations. Some sexual references. LGBT.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Funny Pick: Spy School

Spy School
by Stuart Gibbs
Simon & Schuster
2012
304 pages

Just released March 6, 2012


I have 5 copies to of this exciting new book to give away here

Clever, comedic, cute, charming, witty, punny, and sensational, Spy School is seriously entertaining and delivers chortling, mad fun. Readers will laugh out loud by the incompetence of the nation's most skilled special agents and roll around the floor aching with side-splitting laughter as a twelve year old boy is able to take down the entire elite team of agents and hide out from surveillance and capture.

Ben Ripley is a "normal" 12-year old middle school boy--he's trying to survive his geeky phase and stay alive another day. On a normal, mundane day, he arrives home to find a CIA spy in his living room. James Bond sauve and debonair look-alike Alexander Hale explains that the CIA wants to hire Ben--they have been watching him for some time. Ben can't believe his luck! How did they find him? --Agent Hale explains that due to his 728 searches of the CIA website, Ben has caught their attention. Hale offers to send Ben to Spy School--all very hush-hush and top secret, of course. Ben's parents think he's off to attend Science Camp.

The moment Ben steps foot onto the grounds of the Academy, bullets start whizzing through the air. Someone's trying to kill him! Then, he's attacked in his dorm room by an armed assassin, but Ben fights him off in the pitch darkness using only his wits and a well-aimed tennis racquet.

The school is covering something up and it's up to Ben to find out what it is before he's hunted down and killed. With the help of Erica Hale (Alexander Hale's daughter), Ben searches for clues and puts himself in danger as a target for someone who trying to kill him and steal the secrets of Pinwheel--a top secret program that Ben is supposed to have invented--someone planted that lie in his files hoping to catch the mole at the Academy.

This gem of a spy story featuring loveable, nerdy kid Ben will amuse tween and teen readers. The mole and the mole's story set up for a sequel quite nicely. Readers will cheer as Ben is able to catch the mole and outsmart the adults, the administration and all the CIA agents.

Some of the funniest lines are when Ben asks Agent Hale if the Department of Education knows that there are test questions on their standardized tests inserted by the CIA. Hale responds, "I doubt it. They don't know much of anything over at Education."

When Ben meets Erica, he is speechless by her beauty and describes it by saying,"She even smelled incredible, an intoxicating combination of lilacs and gun-powder."

Professor Crandall in defending the CIA quips, "The people who run the CIA might be incompetent, paranoid, and borderline insane, but they're not psychotic."

Chapter titles are dripping with CIA chic, too. Titles include, "Intimidation," "Ninjas," "War," "Surveillance," "Ambush," and "Detonation" to name a few.

Highly, highly recommended grades 5-up. This is the funniest book of the year and I predict it will be on many state's recommended lists and Best Books of 2012.

No language, no sex, just good old funny spying and espionage.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Book Giveaway: BZRK--a clever thriller!

BZRK
by Michael Grant (author of Gone)
Egmont
400 pages
book available February 28, 2012

Read my review of BZRK here

I have 5 copies of this great new thriller gone mad. Check out this website "to discover a ground-breaking interactive digital transmedia experience that extends and expands the world of BZRK far beyond the pages of this book." (from the book's cover)

Teen readers will devour this timely ya novel about the world we think we live in--who are the bad guys really? Go BZRK!

Post a comment to the blog and include your first name, city and state. Please include your email address so that I can contact you if you win.

Deadline for posting is March 19 at noon MST. I will notify winners March 19 by email; please be sure and check your email. Winners will have 24 hours to respond to my message. Winners are chosen by Randomizer. Books will ship from New York thanks to Egmont and Katie!

Now get busy posting comments here and good luck! Pamela

Paranormal Pick: Life Eternal (A Dead Beautiful Novel)

Life Eternal (book 2, Dead Beautiful series)
by Yvonne Woon
Hyperion
2012
416 pages

Hauntingly beautiful, beguilingly romantic, and creepily compelling, Life Eternal is the second book in the Dead Beautiful series and continues the story of Renee and Dante, two young people who are destined to love eternally.

Renee Winters' parents were murdered over a year ago by the Undead, and Renee now lives with her grandfather and studies to be a Monitor, a select group who keeps tabs on the Undead and releases them (buries them) so that they can not kill or harm humans. The Monitor society is secretive and must keep its secrets hidden from the Undead and humans.

When beloved Professor Annette LaBarge is murdered on Lake Erie, the Gottfried Academy closes its doors and Renee must now attend Lycee St. Clement in Montreal for Monitor training. Renee begins having strange dreams and visions and senses that Dante is nearby. Since they kept each other alive (in book one, Dead Beautiful), Dante and Renee share parts of the same soul. Although Dante is Undead, Renee died and apparently came back to life; her classmates whisper that she may have immortality and now is neither human nor Undead.

Renee searches for a way to keep Dante alive and comes across the legend of the Nine Sisters, a group of Monitors who might have discovered the secret of eternal life. The closer Renee gets to the answers, the more dangerous it becomes. An old Russian medium warns her that if she searches for these answers, it will end in life and death.

Two classmates--Anya and Noah--help her try to figure out the sisters' riddle. Renee's parents and Miss LaBarge were all looking for the secret before they were killed.

What does the riddle mean? Is it the secret to eternal life? Will it save Dante? Can their love be everlasting and eternal?

Paranormal fans and readers who loved Twilight and Shiver will devour the Dead Beautiful series.

Highly recommended grades 7-up. No language. Kissing and hugging. No sex.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Guy Pick: Aristotole and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
by Benjamin Alire Saenz
Simon & Schuster
2012
368 pages

Blogger's Note: (Although I live in El Paso and the author is a local writer and professor, that is not the reason I read and reviewed the book. It sat on my shelf for about a month before I picked it up. The first chapter drew me in with its palpable teen angst and well-depicted teen characters Dante and Ari).

Poignant, deeply touching, and sensitive, this tender coming of age story centers around two fifteen year old boys: Dante and Ari. It's not easy being fifteen and it's not easy being different. Ari says, "I was fifteen. I was bored. I was miserable." Sounds familiar, right?

Dante and Ari share their dreams and fears, beautiful poetry, good books, and deep conversations. They know they're not like other boys. They are intellectual, thoughtful, and quiet; they are the "good" boys. They cry over a wounded bird. They don't run in a gang, or do drugs, or cause trouble.

Ari wrestles with his family's demons, too. His father is a Vietnam vet who never quite came home--at least not mentally. He's hard to get to know and doesn't talk about Vietnam--ever. Ari's older brother Bernardo is in prison, but it's another topic the family never discusses. Ari feels that his family has too many secrets and wishes someone--his mother or his father--would tell him about Bernardo or about why his dad is so broken.

Dante's father accepts a position in Chicago and the two friends are separated for a year but stay in touch through letters (it's 1987--pre-email era). Ari is happy to see Dante when he returns but a little wary, too.

When Dante gets jumped by a group of neighborhood thugs, Ari makes things right. Dante's parents confront (nicely confront) Ari about the boys' "relationship."

The secrets of the universe aptly describes the struggle both boys face with their questions: Who am I? Why am I the way I am? Am I normal? What is normal?

Their questions are answered and the family secrets are spilled. Love is not necessarily gender specific; love wears many faces and blossoms sometimes in unexpected ways.

Highly, highly recommended for grades 9-up. Mature situations, discussion of sexual topics, language, LGBT

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

The Alchemy of Forever
by Avery Williams
Simon & Schuster
2012
246 pages

see the official book trailer here


The striking cover image of a beautiful girl with other-worldly blue eyes--whose image is repeated but fades each time will draw teen readers to this stunning new novel, the first in the Incarnation series. Seraphina Ames has been alive for 600 years ever since she was a girl in London in 1349 and attended a masquerade ball where she danced with a stunning stranger. He takes her outside to a London street and she sees that it is Cyrus, the apothecary's handsome son. They are accosted by street thugs who knife Seraphina, but Cyrus brings her back to life with a serum his father created that gives eternal life. Since then, every few years Seraphina must find another young body to inhabit. That means someone has to die--each time she takes another host, the young woman dies.

She's disgusted by what she has become--a murderer of young and beautiful girls and she doesn't love Cyrus anymore; he is controlling and cruel. She makes up her mind to die for real this time, but she needs to get away from Cyrus in order to do so. He would never allow her to die and leave him alone in the world. Imagine living in an abusive relationship; now imagine doing it for 600 years!

When Sera tries to save a teen girl from jumping to her death, she just happens upon a car crash victim. The girl is dying and before Sera knows it, she inhabits the girl's body--she just can't help herself. When she awakens, she is 16-year old Kailey Morgan, a young girl whose future looks bright.

Sera is horrified that she's still alive and doesn't know how to act--it's been a long time since she was ever 16. High school is like another civilization in itself. Kailey (Sera) finds fitting in with her friends and acting like a "normal" teen is a full-time job. Having caring parents and a brother who loves her is weird, too. That, and the neighbor boy who is ridiculously hot and obviously in love with Kailey is another "problem" that Sera soon finds appealing.

Sera hates to disappear on this family, but she knows she can't stay Kailey forever and Cyrus is surely looking for her by now. When a new substitute teacher appears at her school, Sera is in serious trouble. Just how long can she keep up the masquerade?
How long before Cyrus finds her?

This is an interesting first book in what is destined to be a compelling series. I wish the character of Sera had been a little more defined. It is hard to feel compassion for a body snatcher, but I think teens who feel compassion for vampires, werewolves, and zombies will like the Incarnates. I thought the book opening with a masquerade ball was genius since Sera, Cyrus, and the other Incarnates are masquerading the rest of their lives.

Highly recommended grades 7-up. No language, no sex although Cyrus and Sera are partners for life. Also, in order to inhabit a new body, the Incarnate must "kiss" the life out of the other person. This means Sera has to "kiss" girls, but it is not a romantic kiss.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Graphic Pick: Explorer: The Mystery Boxes

Explorer: the Mystery Boxes
Edited by Kazu Kibuishi (creator of the Amulet series)
Amulet
2012
127 pages
Color illustrations (graphic novel)

Available March 1, 2012

Beautiful art and design and fantastic and imaginative tales will make any reader a graphic novel fan. Seven stories by very different artists all have one thing tying them together: a box. What could be in that box? It is human nature to wonder and worry about what is unknown, and it's human nature to open the box--remember the myth of Pandora's box?

"Spring Cleaning" is a light hearted story of a boy who happens upon a box and gets much more than he bargained for. "The Keeper's Treasure" is one of the most beautifully rendered artistic graphic stories I've ever seen. Kazu Kibuishi's story "The Escape Option" is beautifully designed and well-thought out; it is a thought-provoking lesson in humanity and ecology.

"The Soldier's Daughter" is an effective story about the trials and brutality of war and the ones who are left behind when a soldier dies in battle.

Other stories are "Under the Floorboards," "The Butter Thief," and "Whatzit." The collection is so diverse and the art so wonderfully different, that a teacher could spend entire lessons on effective art and design and how each story varies and why the artwork is different for a light-hearted story than it is for a darker tale like "The Soldier's Daughter."


Highly, highly recommended for all graphic novel collections and grades 6-up. Younger students may not understand the lesson of The Keeper's Treasure" or "The Escape Option" although they still may enjoy the art. No language, no sex.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Twisted Thriller: BZRK

BZRK
by Michael Grant
Egmont
2012
386 pages

visit BZRK's webpage

Disturbing, distressing, gritty, grimy, and grim, BZRK is like no other book. This creepy page-turner will shock even the most jaded reader. The author says, "This is my promise: You have never read anything like BZRK" (letter included with the book mailing). He's right--this book is an amazing and compelling thrill-ride that will grab you up and not let go!

The good guys--BZRK--a secret organization fighting for humanity's freedom and right to choose--and the bad guys--evil conjoined twins Benjamin and Charles Armstrong, American billionaires who run Armstong Fancy Gifts Corporation and secretly are planning world domination through nanobot technology are in a race for world power. The twins are grotesque fanatics who believe the entire world's population should be "one." They believe people are unhappy and need someone to guide them and keep them safe from themselves.

Sadie and Noah are two teens thrown together and trained by Vincent, the best fighter BZRK has. Noah goes along to settle the score--his older brother worked for BZRK but something terrifying happened and now he's a raving madman. Sadie's brother and father were killed in an airplane crash at the hands of the Armstrong twins. The two are now a team that BZRK has big plans for.

The plot takes place at the macro level--the human level, or our reality, and in the nano level where nanobots (Armstrong Corporation) and biots (invented by Sadie's father for medical use) battle each other "down in the meat."

When the twins decide to take out powerful heads of state of the world's strongest countries, Sadie and Noah are put into action without training. Their biots are designed using gene splicing and before they can even practice using them, they are in an intense and bloody battle with Armstong's twitchers.

This book is not a light read; it's intense, bloody, grotesque, dark, and chilling. In a world gone wrong, it's hard to tell who the good guys really are. Can the good be called "good" if they are murderers? And what if the bad guys are right? Maybe humanity does need saving.

Readers who liked Brain Jack and Little Brother will enjoy this compelling read. It is not for the light hearted or squeamish. It is bloody and gross, and when the fighting happens "down in the meat," readers may feel a little queasy.

Highly, highly recommended for reluctant readers grades 9-up. Language, violence, terrorism, mature situations.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Book Giveaway: Cracked (Guy Pick)

Watch the book trailer here

I have 5 copies of this great new ya novel that speaks to bullies and victims everywhere. Bullies are merely victims of their upbringing in many cases. See the review of Cracked here.

Even though I called this "Guy Pick," girl readers will like the story, too. High school recommended; not for middle school readers.

Post a comment with your first name, city and state. Please include your email so I can notify you in case you win. Deadline for posting is March 1 at noon MST. I will notify winners after noon on that date. Please check your email. You have 24 hours to respond to my email with your mailing address. Books will ship from New York thanks to Simon & Schuster and Dawn! Good luck and start posting! Pamela

Girl Pick: The Queen of Kentucky

The Queen of Kentucky
by Alecia Whitaker
Poppy
2012
375 pages

Captivating, cute, and quirky, Ricky Jo (who now wants everyone to call her Erika--it's much more grown up and she is going to high school now, after all...) Winstead is a farm girl. She can't wait to start high school and become instantly popular. She is tired of farming--it's hard work and the sun and humidity are brutal, the tobacco plants are huge and hard to harvest, and she's certainly not cut out to be a farmer anyway. She's short, doesn't even weigh 100 pounds, and is still waiting on puberty to hit her. She toils with her father and brothers and Luke and his dad from sun-up to sundown. High school will be a reprieve from hard labor.

The first day of school is a nightmare. Whoever knew that being the new girl could be so hard? All the rest of the kids grew up together in public schools. Only Erika (Ricki Jo) went to a private school and now she's way behind in the friendship department, the popularity contest, and the fitting in department. Luke is the only person she knows and he's more like a brother--certainly not dating material.

Then she spots Wolf--a cool athlete the girls go ga-ga over. Can a freshman girl with no friends and no clue possibly hope to catch his eye? Ricki Jo has just the plan. Convince her parents to let her try out for cheerleading--cheerleader status equals instant popularity and cool friends, right?

Teens will like spunky Ricki Jo and will probably guess that Luke will be the "right one"--not the overly conceited and arrogant Wolf, but it's fun reading about the trials and tribulations of young love.

Girls who liked Ten Miles From Normal and The Sweetheart of Prosper County are sure to fall for this story. Luke is the likeable boy next door who Ricki Jo overlooks but not for long.

Recommended grades 9-up. Mentions normal body changes during puberty--onset of menses and breasts.


FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Thrilling Mystery Pick: Ripper

Ripper
by Stefan Pretrucha
Philomel
2012
432 pages

Available March 1, 2012

Thrilling, scandalous, scintillating, and highly engrossing, Ripper is a real page-turner for teens. Part mystery, part history, part crime novel, part detective story, and awesomely steampunk-y cool, this book will have tons of teen fans.

Set in New York in the late 1890's, Ripper tells the story of Carver Young, an orphan abandoned as an infant who grows up in Ellis Orphanage under the tutalege of Miss Petty. When he is fourteen, he picks the lock to the attic door and finds out what the files hold about his past. There are no papers other than a mysterious letter written by someone he thinks is his father. His mother died in childbirth, yet his father could still be alive...somewhere.

The orphanage has to find homes for the older children, including Carver. They hold a big party for notable citizens to get to know the orphans, hoping someone will adopt them. The police commissioner himself--Teddy Roosevelt--attends and Carver hopes to meet him. Carter wrote to Roosevelt asking him to find his father. Sadly, Roosevelt leaves before Carter can gather the courage to speak to him. Luckily, a chance encounter with another man secures Carver a "home."

Albert Hawking agrees to take in Carver and train him to be a great detective. Hawking used to work for the Pinkerton Agency and now has his own secret agency with grand inventions worthy of visionary Jules Verne. His company develops a subway, a horseless carriage, and an office periscope.

Carter is thrilled to be in the company of such a great mind and is even more excited to be tracking down his long lost father.

There is a killer on the loose in New York who is brutally murdering young women, leaving their mutilated bodies in his wake. Roosevelt is determined to find the macabre madman. Hawking and Carter are hot on the gruesome killer's heels. As the clues unfold, Carter gets closer to finding his father. Can they stop the killer from grabbing his next victim? Can they protect Roosevelt and his daughter?

Highly, highly recommended for reluctant male readers (and females who love mystery and detective novels) grades 7-up---even though page count is 432 pages, each chapter is short--2-6 pages--and each ends with the reader hopelessly immersed in the story and wanting to read on. I dare a teen not to read this voraciously! This novel is for fans of Sherlock Holmes and steampunk lit. No language, no sex, some gruesome details, mystery.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Dystopian Pick: Fever (Book 2, The Chemical Garden Trilogy)

Fever
by Lauren DeStefano
Simon & Schuster
2012
352 pages


Available February 21, 2012

Watch the book trailer for Wither (book 1) here

Dark, dystopian, and disturbing, book 2 of The Chemical Garden is much darker than the first novel--Wither. In Wither we met Rhine, a young girl kidnapped, taken far from home, and forced into marriage with other sister- wives and we met Gabriel, a servant who works on the grounds of the fine mansion. Rhine hates it it the mansion; she doesn't want to be the wife of a man she doesn't love. She wants to go home and see her twin brother Rowen. Gabriel agrees to help Rhine escape and together they run.

Fever picks up where Wither left off. Gabriel and Rhine are on the run but with no plan, no money, no clothes, and no idea how to get to Manhattan and find Rowen. They see tents in the distance and hear laughter and party noise, so they think they can spend the night there, but they are taken prisoner by a strange madwoman who calls herself Madame. She runs a circus-like and macabre group of prostitutes with her hired muscle--brutal bodyguards who enforce her rules. Madame drugs Gabriel and Rhine with mindless opiates and plans to get top dollar for selling Rhine to the highest bidder.

Again, the two escape but are on the run again. They take Maddie, a malformed child of Lilac, a woman who helped them escape. The three flee and finally make it to Manhattan but are terrified when they find that Rhine's home is burned to ruins and Rowen cannot be found.

Rhine falls victim to an unexplanable fever and has strange memories of her parents and some long-held secret of her and Rowen's birth. Vaughn (Rhine's evil father-in-law) finds Rhine and takes her back to the mansion where he tells her he has been tracking her all along. Rhine is once again a helpless victim of his cruel experiments.

Book 3 promises to answer all the story's questions: What experiments were Rhine's parents working on when they were killed? Who is behind their deaths? Why does everyone keep saying that Rhine is "special?" Where is Rowen? Will Gabriel and Rhine ever be re-united? Does Linden believe that his father (Vaughn) is experimenting on Rhine and the other women of the house?

Teens who love a well-written and scintillating story--action packed and chilling--will love Fever. It's cutting, caustic, and creepy--thrilling right to the satisfying last pages.

The shocking cliffhanger at the ending has me hooked--I will be first in line--fighting off teenagers--to get my hands on this book!

Highly, highly recommended grades 9-up. Very dark, dystopian fiction--not for the faint of heart-- and not a flowery romance. For mature readers only. Mentions genetics, the government wants to artificially inseminated girls as young as 10 to insure their race will survive, girls are forced into prostitution and marriages, girls are basically being used as breeders, one scene where Rhine narrowly escapes rape, shocking "medical" experiments, and children get killed if they are not genetically "correct."

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.