Author: Kiersten White
Illustrator: Jim Di Bartolo
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Release Date: April 29, 2014
Number of Pages: 384
Source of Book: ARC from Wolfson Literary agent – Thank you, Michelle!

        From the remarkable imagination of acclaimed artist Jim Di Bartolo and the exquisite pen of bestselling author Kiersten White comes a spellbinding story of love, mystery, and dark conspiracy, told in an alternating narrative of words and pictures. 
        Cora and Minnie are sisters living in a small, stifling town where strange and mysterious things occur. Their mother runs the local boarding house. Their father is gone. The woman up the hill may or may not be a witch. 
        Thomas and Charles are brothers who’ve been exiled to the boarding house so Thomas can tame his ways and Charles can fight an illness that is killing him with increasing speed. Their family history is one of sorrow and guilt. They think they can escape from it . . . but they can’t.

This book is so imaginative and unique…it’s unlike anything I’ve read before in the way it’s created and plays with timeline and intertwines story with image, and for that reason alone, it’s a must-read in my opinion. 


Stunning, enthralling, engaging, a little frustratingly confusing, but so smart in how it all comes together in the end. One of the most unique books I’ve read with alternating text and illustration sections. It’s like a logic puzzle you keep trying to figure out how the two stories interconnect and have a bunch of theories only to find out you were quasi right but really not all along. This one is twisty, but after I finished, I wanted to reread it all over again.


And, really, you can’t talk about this book without talking about the absolutely stunningly beautiful illustrations – really, I consider them to be true art on their own. The way they tie into the story, and the detail and beauty they show, far surpasses what I have read in the past. It’s one you need to see to fully grasp the impact of, but for now, I’ll share my first impression collage.

Title: GHOST HAWK

Author: Susan Cooper
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books (a Simon & Schuster Children’s imprint)
Release Date: August 27, 2013
Number of Pages: 336
Age Recommendation: Ages 10-14, grades 5-9
Source of Book: ARC sent from publisher

From Newbery
Medalist Susan Cooper, a story of adventure and friendship between a
young Native American and a colonial New England settler.

On
the winter day Little Hawk is sent into the woods alone, he can take
only a bow and arrows, his handcrafted tomahawk, and the amazing metal
knife his father traded for with the new white settlers. If Little Hawk
survives three moons by himself, he will be a man.

John Wakely is
only ten when his father dies, but he has already experienced the
warmth and friendship of the nearby tribes. Yet his fellow colonists
aren’t as accepting of the native people. When he is apprenticed to a
barrel-maker, John sees how quickly the relationships between settlers
and natives are deteriorating. His friendship with Little Hawk will put
both boys in grave danger.

The intertwining stories of Little
Hawk and John Wakely are a fascinating tale of friendship and an
eye-opening look at the history of our nation. Newbery Medalist Susan
Cooper also includes a timeline and an author’s note that discusses the
historical context of this important and moving novel.

First Thought: A magnificent treasure of a book. Quietly powerful story sews its threads into your consciousness and doesn’t unravel.

GHOST HAWK is a beautifully written book that is quiet in its impact, but leaves an deep impression. The gripping tagline on the cover is Memory ~ Mystery ~ Murder, is fitting (and the cover is stunning). The descriptions are rich, the text is accessible, the story is epic. The plot follows a circle of life flow starting with before Little Hawk is born, in the 17th century set in Colonial New England, with everything coming full circle many many years later. The elements of the Native culture are embedded in an unobtrusive way because that’s just how life is, yet explained for those unfamiliar with them. 

Narrated by Little Hawk whose voice hooked me into the story from the beginning, GHOST HAWK provides a Native perspective of an unimaginable, controversial, and tumultuous time in United States history, a historical perspective many don’t know, and one that’s important to tell. His voice stays strong, even after a shocking moment that changes the trajectory of the story, and his gentle ways provide the calming presence necessary to process the events that occur.  Seeing events from his perspective, feeling his love and fear, living his friendships all help the reader connect to the story in a meaningful way.

I have not previously read anything by Susan Cooper, but based on this, I can see why she was a Newbery medalist, and I would not be surprised if GHOST HAWK is on the shortlist this year. It just feels like it’s that kind of book. Powerful, meaningful, surprising, endearing, hopeful, beautiful. I felt utterly connected to this story and the characters in it. Although not a quick read, it was a book I needed to keep reading.

Final Thoughts: This is the book I’m going to be proclaiming everyone should read this year. And I really hope you do.

Title: FIREBOAT: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey
Author: Maira Kalman
Publisher: Puffin
Release Date: August 4, 2005
Number of Pages: 48

The John J. Harvey
fireboat was the largest, fastest, shiniest fireboatof its time, but by
1995, the city didn’t need old fireboats anymore. So the Harvey retired,
until a group of friends decided to save it from the scrap heap. Then,
one sunny September day in 2001, something so horrible happened that the
whole world shook. And a call came from the fire department, asking if
the Harvey could battle the roaring flames. In this inspiring true
story, Maira Kalman brings a New York City icon to life and proves that
old heroes never die.

Title: 14 COWS FOR AMERICA
Author: Carmen Agra Deedy
Illustrator: Thomas Gonzalez
Publisher: Peachtree Publishers
Release Date: August 1, 2009
Number of Pages: 36

In June of 2002, a very
unusual ceremony begins in a far-flung village in western Kenya. An
American diplomat is surrounded by hundreds of Maasai people. A gift is
about to be bestowed on the American men, women, and children, and he is
there to accept it. The gift is as unsought and unexpected as it is
extraordinary. A mere nine months have passed since the September 11
attacks, and hearts are raw. Tears flow freely from American and Maasai
as these legendary warriors offer their gift to a grieving people half a
world away. Word of the gift will travel news wires around the globe.
Many will be profoundly touched, but for Americans, this selfless
gesture will have deeper meaning still. For a heartsick nation, the gift
of fourteen cows emerges from the choking dust and darkness as a soft
light of hope and friendship. Master storyteller Carmen Agra Deedy
hits all the right notes in this elegant story of generosity that
crosses boundaries, nations, and cultures. An afterword by Wilson Kimeli
Naiyomah the Maasai warrior at the center of the story provides
additional information about his tribe and their generous actions.
Thomas Gonzalez’s stunning paintings are saturated with rich hues of
oranges and browns and blues and greens, which capture the nobility of
the Maasai people and the distinctive landscape of the African plain.

Title: RIFT (NIGHTSHADE prequel series)
Author: Andrea Cremer
Publisher: Philomel (a Penguin imprint)
Release Date: August 7, 2012
Number of Pages: 448
Source of Book: ARC from publisher at IRA

Chronicling the rise of
the Keepers, this is the stunning prequel to Andrea Cremer’s
internationally bestselling Nightshade trilogy!

Sixteen-year-old
Ember Morrow is promised to a group called Conatus after one of their
healers saves her mother’s life. Once she arrives, Ember finds joy in
wielding swords, learning magic, and fighting the encroaching darkness
loose in the world. She also finds herself falling in love with her
mentor, the dashing, brooding, and powerful Barrow Hess. When the
knights realize Eira, one of their leaders, is dabbling in dark magic,
Ember and Barrow must choose whether to follow Eira into the nether
realm or to pledge their lives to destroying her and her kind.

With action, adventure, magic, and tantalizing sensuality, this book is as fast-paced and breathtaking as the Nightshade novels.

It’s no big secret that I love Andrea Cremer’s books – her debut, NIGHTSHADE, was my book obsession of 2010, and I enjoyed the whole series so I was very much looking forward to reading RIFT when I heard about it and knew it was a prequel series. The nice thing about RIFT, as a prequel, is that you can read it without having read the NIGHTSHADE series books, but if you have read them, you’ll see some of the connections being made hundreds of years in the past. I have to say that I think this was my favorite of Andrea Cremer’s books and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

I’m a sucker for strong female main characters, and Ember is a kick-butt heroine who is strong and determined (another trademark of Cremer’s books). She’s not willing to just go along with the status quo, she wants a better (and more interesting) life for herself. She does have vulnerability, too, in fact, the relationship she builds with her horse is really special. I’m not normally a horse person, but the way in which their horses were their own characters in this story, and so important to the people, added a dimension of relationships to this story that was unexpected. As per usual in Andrea Cremer’s books, there is a cast of intriguing, entertaining, maddening, and interesting supporting characters as well.

There is also action in this book with the training scenes and the fighting, but I was almost wishing there were more training scenes. I wanted more fighting with the awesome weapons that come up in this story and the way in which Ember was trained by Barrow was a great way to build tension and develop their relationship. Speaking of their relationship, one thing I was wondering was how old Barrow actually is. Ember is 16, and this takes place a long time ago, but I was picturing Barrow as quite a bit older, so I was having a bit of trouble believing the relationship. Early on in the my reading the book, I asked on twitter because it was throwing me off, and Andrea responded that Barrow is 23. That helped me in reading RIFT because he seemed a lot older to me at first (to which Andrea Cremer reminded me on twitter that he was “raised in a militant order so he has more gravitas than a typical lad”). I have to say, he may be one of the most considerate romantic leads I’ve read recently. He’s a good guy in a time when we need more good guys in YA books!

One of the things I really like about Andrea Cremer’s writing is that I am instantly sucked into these worlds she creates, and I don’t want to leave them. I experienced it with NIGHTSHADE, WOLFSBANE, and BLOODROSE, and I experienced it again with RIFT. She definitely knows how to write some great scenes with romances developing, while still staying appropriate for younger teens, too. Cremer also builds a world well-steeped in history, and it comes across as well-researched and accurate (which I know was kind of her day job that she has a PhD in, so that makes sense), but still interesting and drawing me further into the story. I did notice (which I remembered from the last series) that there are quite a few scenes of conversations that serve as exposition and I have to remember to pay careful attention to them so I know what’s going on with the backstory/history of the world, but as long as I remember that, I can stay in tune with the story. One concern I did have was that I thought one of the major plot points
was a little predictable, or maybe obviously foreshadowed, but then when
I read the synopsis, I realized it mentions it, so it’s not meant to be
that much of a surprise.

RIFT is just as good as NIGHTSHADE (if not better), but a totally different kind of story. The historical world of this fiction is well-drawn. I really, really liked some of these characters and the relationship journey that Ember takes in this book. I also liked the completeness of this as a book on its own, but also how it clearly sets up for what comes next, but it didn’t feel like a cliffhanger ending that would make me crazy – it has its own ending that feels complete. But, I still can’t wait to read the next book in this series, RISE, releasing in January!