YA Pick: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue
by Mackenzi Lee
Katherine Tegen Books
2017
528 pages
ISBN: 978006238280

It is rare that a YA book delivers a wallop and a romp that entertains, enlightens, and enraptures.  The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue is one of the best of this year! Get ready for awards, Mackenzi Lee, your book child is genius! Henry Montague is everything a reader could ever want in a character.

Lovable and irrepressible cad Henry (aka Monty) Montague is quite the ladies man and quite the man's man as well (he is bisexual). Monty is in love and lust with his boyhood friend Percy. The two have grown up together and Monty finds himself head over heels falling for his friend/companion. Henry is always in trouble. He's a rich ruffian who sleeps all day, languishing in  bed after a night's debauchery, rising only to eat and get ready for another drunken night of gambling, drinking and frolic. Percy is his steadfast sidekick.

Lord Montague has had enough. His son Henry and Percy are of age for the Grand Tour, a yearlong event in which young gentlemen of fortune travel the continent seeing and learning the finer things. Sister Felicity is along and will be dropped off in France for school. The Tour is supposed to teach young men the art of meeting people, socializing and bonding with others of their class. After a Tour, gentlemen settle in and marry raising a family and building their family's business or estate. Henry is expected to take over his father's estate and become a proper British lord.

Monty's father hires Mr. Lockwood to watch over the boys. Under Lockwood's eagle eye, the boys are will be exposed to great art, opera, architecture and food. Monty has other plans. A yearlong trip abroad with his love Percy is more than Monty can even dream of. The only problem he has is Mr. Lockwood.

Readers will fall in love with Monty (Henry) who is at times a spoiled child, yet the child no one can punish. Monty has many flaws but his fierce love and friendship are solid. The threesome--Monty, Percy, Felicity--are winsome and exciting and their adventures are epic.

This YA novel explores sexism, racism, bigotry, snobbery, and society in the eighteenth century.

The cover is spot-on and the title sells this book off the shelf. The marketing team (the author?) who came up with the design and title are genius. This is how you sell a book!

Highly, highly recommended grade 9 and up. NOT for middle school. The title alone should tell would be readers everything they need to know about content.

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

Picture Book Pick: Bad Guy

Bad Guy
by Hannah Barnaby
Illustrated by Mike Yamada
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
2017
32 pages
ISBN: 9781481460101


Devious, dastardly and devilish, Bad Guy is a delight! A young boy has great adventures being a bad guy. He is a pirate and treasure hunter, he captures superheroes, he goes to space and swallows astronauts and on Friday, he even eats his sister's brain! Bad Guys always get in trouble, and when Mom lays down the law, even a Bad Guy can turn Good.

Mom takes the children to the library where the Bad Guy gets books with all kinds of ideas and he begins to plot his Bad Guy strategy. But sometimes even Bad Guys are outsmarted! Readers will love the unexpected and fun plot twist. This is a book that both young boys and girls will cheer for!

Smart illustrations with inside jokes are sure to please adult readers. The book Alice is reading is titled Eat, Prey, Love (wink)! This author and illustrator team is a winning one!

Highly, highly recommended ages 1-up. Great fun and sure to be Audrey-approved! (Audrey is my 2 year old niece who KNOWS what she likes!)

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

World Building Pick: The Reader

The Reader
(Book One of Sea of Ink and Gold)
by Traci Chee
Putnam
2016
437 pages
ISBN: 9780399176777

If you read one book this entire year, make it this one! The Reader is that special. Master storyteller Traci Chee takes readers on a journey through time where anything can happen and what seems impossible is suddenly possible. To call this book an adventure book or a fantasy  or a pirate book or a dystopian book does it discredit. The Reader is...well, everything!

Sefia is on the run with her Aunt Nin. They hunt and trap, selling pelts at the market and sometimes stealing to stay alive. Sefia witnessed her father's brutal murder and vows to find the people responsible. When Nin is kidnapped and tortured, Sefia is on fire. No longer will she keep quiet. She will find those responsible and make them pay no matter what the cost is to Sefia herself.

Reading and books are unheard of in Sefia's world. It is a wonder then that she carries a square object in her pack, an object her father prized and hid from the world. When Sefia realizes that it is in fact a book, she knows to keep it hidden. Sefia studies the book's strange symbols and tries to unlock its secrets on her own. When she crosses paths with a strange boy in trouble, she helps him to safety and he seems bound to her forever.

The two meet legendary pirates when they accidentally stowaway on the pirate ship. Other forces are at work--dark forces that want the book. And there are librarians who will risk everything to save the book (my favorite!)

From the first page prologue, "Hello, If you're reading this, then maybe you know you ought to read everything. And maybe you know you ought to read deeply. Because there's witchery in these words and spellwork in the spine..." the reader will be swept away by the magic that is author Traci Chee.

Give this book to every reader! There is something in here for everyone. The premise of looking deeply...REALLY looking...reading deeply...searching for clues is genius! The Reader is that book that others will be compared to. It is that book that will win countless awards and rightly so.

One can only hope that book two will live up to book one's success.

So highly recommended I'm shouting it: READ THIS BOOK! READ IT NOW!
Grades 6-up. Violence, some bloody battles, no profanity, no sexual content.

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

Picture Book Pick: Are Pirates Polite?

Are Pirates Polite?
by Corinne Demas and Artemis Roehrig
Illustrations by David Catrow
Orchard Books
2016
40 pages
ISBN: 9780545628747

Available November 29, 2016

Vibrant illustrations and fun loving, raucous pirates paired with rhyming text makes this book a real keeper. Even though pirates plunder, fight, and are loud, they do share. Pirates use their manners according to this book.

Pirate manners include: knocking before entering a door, showing respect and being a good sport. There are twelve manners in all and they are listed for young readers on the last page.

So much fun! Any child who loves pirates and ships will love this gem of a story.

Highly recommended for all young sea-going lads and lasses. This is a great read to help instill manners and have that discussion about always eating with your mouth closed, saying "excuse me," sharing, and other polite behaviors.

YA Pick: Blackhearts

Blackhearts
by Nicole Castroman
Simon Pulse
2016
369 pages
ISBN: 9781481432696


Gothic romance, swashbuckling pirates, an heiress  who cannot collect her inheritance, an arranged marriage, the high seas, adventure and love! What could be better than all that?

House maid Anne Barrett is forced into servitude upon the death of her father and  her uncle kicks her and her mother out into the streets. Once her  mother dies, Anne  is alone and penniless. She is given a job in Master Drummond's house where she takes abuse from the housekeeper. She gets more than her fair share of strange looks; people in Bristol are not used to seeing a housekeeper of color (Anne's merchant father fell in love with a servant on one of his voyages).  Anne longs for escape and is stashing as much money as she can hoping to gain passage on one of the ships leaving Bristol.

Master Drummond's son returns from a year at sea and soon sparks are flying between the handsome young sailor and beautiful, exotic Anne. She keeps her distance, not trusting a master to be kind. Teach is engaged Patience, daughter of a baron and she is a girl he doesn't love. He longs to return to the sea, but his father forbids it.

When Teach is accused of piracy, he fears they will lock him up. His father still expects him to marry Patience and give up his dreams of the sea. Using the story of Blackbeard as the spark for this story, Nicole Castroman weaves a tale as compelling as any love story.

Anne and Teach are clearly star-crossed and meant only for each other, but society and people keep getting involved and trying to keep them apart. As the novel ends, both are still looking for each other. I can see book two on the horizon.

The cover art depicts a ship in a bottle. Clever minds will realize that both Anne and Teach are trapped like the ship. The title Blackhearts is a spin on the Blackbeard legend and the pink color of hearts on the cover makes the cover pop for romance fans.

Highly recommended grade 7-up. No profanity. Some kissing. Patience finds herself pregnant with another man's child but that is how it is put forth. No details.

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

Tween Read: Misty Gordon

Misty Gordon and the Mystery of the Ghost Pirates
by Kim Kennedy
Amulet (Abrams), 2010.
240 pages

Misty Gordon is a typical eleven year old girl with typical problems-- except her parents collect antiques from dead people's estates. It doesn't help that her parents' store is called Dearly Departed Antiques and that her dad drives an old ice cream truck with D.E.A.D. on the side (Deceased's Estate and Antiques Dealer). Her dad is able to find some great old artifacts and Misty comes upon a pair of cat-eye glasses that allow her to see ghosts who help her.

The glasses and a crystal ball from a deceased medium help Misty see the future of her small New England town--and she sees pirates brought back to life and the town being destroyed! The ship is sailing towards her town and the only way to save the future depends on Misty finding the Golden Three and solving the mystery.

Funny and entertaining, this novel will appeal to anyone who likes a mystery. Misty is quirky and appealing. Readers who liked Lemony Snicket books will like this one.

Recommended grades 4-7.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received the ARC from the publisher. I did not receive any monetary compensation for my review.