Series Pick: Dark Days (Dead City, book 3)

Dark Days
(Dead City, Book 3)
by James Ponti
Aladdin
2015
297 pages
ISBN: 9781481436366


Enter the author's webpage
Watch the trailer, crack the code, join Omega, and more fun!

In this third installment of Dead City, Ponti exhibits an uncanny ability to channel teen voice and pun-y dialog.

Molly Bigelow is the kind of cool girl that other girls wish they were, the kind of pal guys want to hang out with and everyone (me, included) wants to have on their side when zombies strike. Funny, self-deprecating, a little shy, but also awesome and a fierce fighter, Molly is a protagonist teen readers will fall in love with!

Omega has been hobbled. Molly's mother is deep in hiding and the leader of the zombies, Marek Blackwell, is building an army of zombies. Not only that, the undead are growing stronger and Marek is building an underground zombie city. Molly is ordered to lay low and the Omegas are not to act.

Poor Molly. Poor, poor socially incompetent Molly. She is going crazy not doing anything, so you really can't blame her when she runs into a zombie by accident. Soon, the Omegas find clues and have to meet. The situation is serious and all hands are needed. Back in the action, Molly gets on Natalie's bad side, but once an Omega, always an Omega.

Ponti has great fun with dialog and jokes. Grayson points out that the state of New Jersey see the backside of the Statue of Liberty, and Alex quips, "Maybe they should put that on the license plate....New--Jersey--the Butt of Liberty."

Zombies have never been this much fun. Ponti's clever characters (Grayson, Alex) and the group's dynamic will keep teens intrigued. New York has never been more beautiful--even the zombies can't take away from the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Trinity Church, Wall Street, and other famous New York landmarks.

Highly, highly recommended. If you haven't read the series, what are you waiting for?

Grade 6-up. No profanity, just good, clean zombie fun.

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

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)

New Series Pick: Mouseheart

Mouseheart
(book one)
by Lisa Fiedler
Illustrations by Vivienne To
Margaret K. McElderry Books
2014
336 pages
ISBN: 9781442487819

Available May 20, 2014

check out the online game beginning May 1

Captivating and cunning, Mouseheart is the next great adventure.

Pet shop mouse Hopper lives in a cage in a Brooklyn shop with sister Pinkie and brother Pup. Hopper vaguely remembers his mother. He knows that before she was yanked away from them, she told him, "Find the Mews." Hopper waits every day hoping that his mother will return, but she never does. When a boy visits the shop with his snake, Hopper realizes that they must escape the shop to freedom.

The next chance they get, they escape the cage, but Pup falls on the floor and Hopper loses Pinkie. He is rescued in the subway by a rat named Zucker. Zucker takes Hopper to Atlantia far below the city. When they enter the palace, Hopper is flabbergasted to learn that his companion is the prince of Atlantia. Zucker's father, Emperor Titus allows Hopper to stay in the palace with Zucker; Titus sees some hidden talent he can exploit.

Hopper wonders who the Mus are, and when he asks his friend, Zucker replies that the Mus are the enemy who hope to defeat Atlantia. Hopper can't believe it! He saw a poster in the subway tunnel of Dodger, the leader of the Mus; he looks like a mirror image of Hopper right down to the white circle of fur around his eye. Hopper misses his family and longs to see Pinkie and Pup again. Zucker promises that his army will search for them.

There is a war going on between the rats and the mice. The cats have a strange alliance with the rats of Romanus, and Hopper soon finds out the macabre details. He realizes that the refugee camps are a holding tank for the cats' next feeding.

Readers will love Hopper's quiet bravery and inner commando. He has more heart than he realizes, and it is up to him to save his own kind and reunite his family. With a little help from his friends, Hopper takes on the enemy army.

Mouseheart is the first in the series which promises to deliver grand adventure and great storytelling. Hopper is one little mouse who roars! Readers who loved Jacques'  Redwall series and Hunter's Warrior series will love this new series.

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

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)