Paranormal Pick: Sweetly

Sweetly
by Jackson Pearce
Little Brown
2011
310 pages

Read an excerpt here

Part fairy tale, part fantasy, part romance and part paranormal, girls will like this tale of a brother and two sisters who get lost in a forest. Gretchen remembers a witch chasing them and her witchy yellow eyes burning through the forest. Somehow, they lose their sister, Gretchen's twin.

Ansel and Gretchen's mother mourns the loss of her child and is never the same. Her father remarries an evil stepmother who kicks the kids out when their father dies. On the road and nearly out of money, their Jeep breaks down outside a small town named Live Oak near the beach in South Carolina. The town is creepy and nearly deserted; the brother and sister are not welcomed by Southern hospitality. In fact, people in Live Oak stick to their own business and try not to speak to outsiders at all.

Lucky for the kids, a man they meet in the diner offers to drive them back to their Jeep to pick up their suitcases and offers to drop them off at a chocolate shop outside of town where the owner Sophia needs a handyman to complete a few jobs around her house and shop. On their way out of the diner, a teen boy stops Gretchen and warns her about Sophia--to stay far away from her and not to trust her.

The candy shop is beautiful and magical; the scent of vanilla is cloying and draws customers as if by magic into the shop. The confections Sophia creates affect her customer's moods.

Soon, Gretchen is helping Sophia in the shop and Ansel is mending the roof and the fences. Life is idyllic until Gretchen goes for a walk in the woods at night (having seen a witch take her sister, you would think she would never enter a wooded place--but she ate lemon candies which caused her to be brave). Gretchen runs for her life, and Samuel--the boy from the diner--shoots the "witch." He calls them Fenris, or werewolves.

Soon, it will be time for the annual chocolate festival that Sophia puts together for all the girls of Live Oak. There's only one problem: girls go missing each year right after the festival. Townfolk believe they're being snatched and murdered and blame Sophia and her festival. This year, Sophia is having trouble getting her r.s.v.p invitations back. Girls are afraid to attend.

The festival is just around the corner and Gretchen and Samuel practice shooting rifles. Something is out in the woods and something is stealing the town's young girls. Sophia is keeping a few dangerous secrets and Ansel is falling in love with her.

Readers who liked Shiver, Twilight, and other vamp/wolf books will be drawn to this one. The cover is wickedly appealing--at first glance, it appears to be a house in the woods, but on closer inspection, it's an evil witch's face. Great cover appeal and the quote from Becca Fitzpatrick (Hush, Hush trilogy), "If you love your romance hot, your bad guys downright dirty, and your heroines real enough to bleed, this is your book!" will attract legions of teen book store browsers to want a copy of their own.

Recommended grades 7-up. A couple of curse words that network television allows. No sex. A couple of kisses.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I purchased this book for my library at the Austin Teen Book Festival in October 2011 after meeting Jackson Pearce, who is, by the way, just as charming as she is entertaining. I received no monetary compensation for this review.

Ghostly Pick: The Near Witch

The Near Witch
by Victoria Schwab
Hyperion
2011
288 pages
Cover not final

Available August 2, 2011

Beautifully written, masterful storytelling, and poetic prose almost too beautiful not to be a song--this novel soars! Part fairy tale, part ghost story, part fantasy, part romance, part a tale of witches, The Near Witch is a pleasurable jaunt. Debut author Victoria Schwab weaves this tale magically and shows her writing chops. This novel will resonate with readers who love a good fairy tale.

The Near Witch is just a child's rhyme, isn't it? The wind over the moor calls to children at night; don't listen too closely because the moor needs children. When a stranger comes to the town of Near, Lexi's Uncle Otto is determined to run him out of town because in the town of Near, there are no strangers. Lexi is curious about the strange boy who seems to vanish into thin air, and curious-er still that the boy is taken in by the strange elderly sisters who live on the edge of the moor. It is said that they practice magic.

Then the first child vanishes from his bed, and suspicion falls on the newcomer. When the stranger offers to help Lexi track the missing child, she accepts and learns more secrets about him. A second child is missing, then a third. The town of Near heats up, and a mob of men are after Lexi's new friend.

Lexi and Cole go to the ancient sisters for help, and together they track the missing children and attempt to save the town of Near.

Highly, highly recommended grades 6-up; ages 12-up. Don't miss this magical novel! Kissing, no sex, no language.

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

Fantasy Pick: Reckless

Reckless
by Cornelia Funke
Little Brown, 2010
394 pages

Funke has the unique talent of taking fairy tale creatures not really known by the American reading public and making them a part of our literary past. From men who become precious stones and warriors known as goyl to a fox who turns into a human girl, Reckless contains a myriad of fantasy creatures. Jacob Reckless sees a strange mirror in his father's study. He longs for his father who vanished mysteriously some years ago. Jacob walks through the mirror into another world. Only when his younger brother follows him and is cursed by a dark fairy, is Jacob ready to give up his adventures in the fairy tale world.

Jacob, Clara, and Will travel across dangerous territory inhabited by witches, dwarfs, evil goyl, and fairies. Every forrest is a danger, every tree a weapon. Readers will lose themselves in this fantasy world. Layer upon layer is well-developed and vividly told.

Recommended for fantasy collections grade 7-up.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I purchased this book for the middle school library. I did not receive any monetary compensation for this review.

Fairy Tale Fun Pick

Half Upon a Time
by James Riley
Aladdin (Simon & Schuster), 2010
385 pages

A cute take-off on well-known fairy tales, this novel is sure to please young readers. Jack is pushed into rescuing a princess--any princess-- and when he meets May who happens to fall into his world--she is wearing a t-shirt that says "Punk Princess." Jack, of course, thinks she's the real thing and goes about kissing her to wake her up from her "sleep."

May wants nothing to do with this princess thing, but soon realizes she is totally out of her element. In Jack's world, there are dragons, and evil queens, and giants. Trolls, magic, and talking animals, legends and lore and much, much more. And then there's this beanstalk and Jack's missing father.

May and Jack set out to rescue her grandmother who has been kidnapped. Jack realizes that May is the granddaughter of no other than the famous queen Snow White. They enlist the help of a real prince along the way.

The three run into all kinds of storybook trouble and May needs Jack's help to find her truth.

Masterful storytelling will keep the pages turning long into the night. Readers will delight with the stories they know and the ones that are a little twisted. Even children who have only seen the Disney movies are sure to enjoy Half Upon a Time.

Highly recommended grades 4-7

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive any monetary compensation for this review. (my apologies for an earlier typo that read Adaddin instead of Aladdin for publisher).

Paranormal Pick

13 Treasures
by Michelle Harrison
Little, Brown and Company, 2010.
355 pages

A remarkable debut novel from a new voice across the pond (England). 13 Treasures is truly a treasure of a book. Tanya's mother forces her to go to her grandmother's spooky family estate far from the city. Tanya thinks the old mansion is creepy and overgrown and especially can't stand being around Fabian, the estate manager's son. At least her mother allowed her to take her trusted dog Oberon with her.

Soon, the house's dark side is revealed and Tanya is given a charm bracelet with 13 weird charms. A gypsy woman, considered a witch by townsfolk, gives Tanya a strange compass that seems to be broken.

Fairies, good and bad, want Tanya to come to Hangman's Wood. With Fabian's help, Tanya hopes to solve her family's mystery and fix its tainted past and free herself forever from the fairies.

Harrison has a gift for setting and tone. For example when describing Tickey End (love that name for a town) Harrison writes, "It was also the kind of town where everybody knew everybody, and if you were a stranger curtains would twitch as you walked past."

Masterful storytelling! 13 Treasures is a quick read--a real page-turner. Readers who love mystery, gothic elements, fairy tales, and things that go bump in the night will love this tale.

Highly, highly recommended: grades 6-10.

FTC Required Disclosure: I bought this book for my middle school library. I received no monetary compensation for this review.

Fantasy Pick

The Garden of Eve
by K.L. Going
Sandpiper Books/Houghton Mifflin, 2007.
234 pages.

After her mother's untimely death, Evie doesn't believe in fairy tales or magic anymore. If magic were real, wouldn't it have saved her mother? Evie's father moves them to New York state where he has bought a dried up apple orchard and a rickety house next to a cemetary. Evie can't stand the house or the apple orchard. When she sees a boy in the cemetary she befriends him even though she suspects he is a ghost!

An elderly lady gives Evie a box for her 11th birthday telling Evie that the box was left in her care and she was only to give the box to "Eve." Evie opens the box and sees a single seed. Is the seed magical? Where did it come from? What does it do?

Part fairy tale, part ghost story, part Biblical allusion, and symbolic throughout, this novel is magical, compelling, and poetic.

A must-read for grades 4-8. Older readers who enjoy fairy tales will enjoy this one. Simply fantastic!!!Highly recommended. Don't miss this book.



Teacher resources and more at www.klgoing.com