Author Archives: SSBRC Former Member

Mind Games (Lock & Mori # 2)

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Mind Games is book two of the Lock & Mori series, and it is anticipated that a third book will soon be published. For those unfamiliar with Lock & Mori, this is a modern day adaptation of the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Professor James Moriarty, although in these stories, Mori is a teenaged girl.

In Lock & Mori we see Mori’s father tried and convicted as a serial killer, and Mori and her brothers rescued from a domestic violence situation. Mind Games picks up two weeks after the father’s arrest. But even though her father is in prison, Mori doesn’t feel safe. Letters of a threatening nature are arriving, and police are receiving anonymous tips that lead them to believe that it is Mori, not her father, who has committed the murders.  Lock sticks by Mori and together they search for who is framing her.

This is an action packed mystery that can be read as a stand alone, although the enjoyment is enhanced by having read the first book.

The Flip Side

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The Flip Side is the story of a 15 yr. old sophomore girl who is an excellent gymnast training for the Olympic team. Having been home schooled during her younger years to allow the flexibility for training and competition travel, Charlie longs for a more normal high school social experience. The transition to high school is filled with fun teen events, including the upcoming Prom, but Charlie is afraid to reveal the highly competitive sports side of her life. She makes up excuses for missing study sessions, social events, even dates. This sets up numerous conflicts, and is further complicated when she meets Bobby, a star wrestler on the school team.

The Flip Side shows the dedication and extremely hard work involved in athletics at the pre-Olympic level, and contains good lessons about dedication and hard work, etc. What is hard to reconcile for the reader is why Charlie doesn’t relish in her accomplishments and let her classmates and teachers know of her athletic life outside of school. Her boyfriend, Bobby, gets plenty of praise for his accomplishments on the wrestling team. But she doesn’t even want to tell him, the one person at school most likely to identify with her goals.

This incongruity is what detracts from an otherwise enjoyable teenage sports / love story. I would like to further investigate the school experiences of the author, Shawn Johnson, who won a gold medal in the 2008 summer Olympics. It is possible that there is reason why an elite teenage gymnast wouldn’t want her school community to know of her accomplishments and goals, but it doesn’t make sense to me as a reader of her book.

 

The Swan Riders

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The Swan Riders is the sequel to The Scorpion Rules, in the Prisoners of Peace series (I am assuming there will be a third book, but can’t confirm from looking at the author’s website).  The Swan Riders action carries on immediately from the first book, and this is where the reader may become confused, as the main character, Greta, feels like a different character. The plot is confusing, with her going through the process of changing from a girl into an artificial intelligence (AI).

There is much action in both of these books, with climate change and war dramatically altering Greta’s nation, where she was once a princess.  She has escaped from being held hostage, and is traveling by horseback across the rural plains of Saskatchewan, accompanied by a band of human Swan Riders is to protect her and Talis, the AI who rules the world.

Greta’s transformation into an AI is destroying her mortal body. Will she survive? Will she be able to take over the body of one of the Swan Riders when the time comes? And if her physical body doesn’t fail her, will she be able to survive the rebellion?

This dystopian novel features a strong 16 year old girl as the protagonist, and will appeal to YA readers of this genre, if they have first read The Scorpion Rules.

Marked

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Marked is the sequel to the sci-fi novel Tracked.  The story features Phee, who just barely escapes from the city of Castra. But Cash, the leader of the rebellion and the prince of Bisera, is missing. Phee’s uncle James is dead. And behind all of this sorrow is Charles Benroyal. Phee is wracked with grief and seeking revenge. Phee builds alliances, continues to fight for the resistance, makes new enemies, and starts to fall for Bear, her childhood friend.

A love triangle complicates the story. Should Phee follow her new feelings for Bear, or continue to be loyal to her missing love, Cash?

Marked is a sad tale, filled with painful memories of battles and deaths that the surviving characters cannot forget. Think Katniss and Peeta in The Hunger Games.

Three Truths and a Lie

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A game of Three Truths and a Lie, played by four teenagers on a weekend getaway to a cabin in a remote area of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, reveals a terrible truth. This truth, where the sole female character, Mia, says she killed someone when she was 13, sets the reader on the path of suspense and horror.

The story is told in the first person perspective by Rob to an unknown person. Rob reflects on all that had happened. We know he survived, as he tells the story. Who else survived? Who was the killer? The reader may have many theories, but it isn’t until the final chapter, where there is a big and unexpected plot twist, that the real truth is revealed.

There is gore, sex, and a gay couple, so this book is best suited for high school aged readers.

Hurricane Kiss

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Hurricane Kiss is flying off the shelf and has a list of “holds” awaiting its return. The steamy black and white cover may be the initial draw, but the story itself keeps the teens reading through to the end.

The story involves a teenaged girl, Jillian, and her neighbors, who are confined in the car for a long road trip as they try to get away from an incoming hurricane. One of the neighbors is River, the former starting quarterback of Jillian’s high school. There is a backstory for River: while once headed to fame for his football prowess, he disappeared, serving time in a juvenile detention center. Now that he’s out, he’s quiet with a chip on his shoulder.

As the effort to flee to storm gridlocks in traffic, River takes action to find shelter, and he and Jillian find themselves inside their empty high school. Their time alone, where they wait for the storm to pass, allows them to look back at the past, and reconcile how to move forward.

The storyline is exciting and nerve wracking, with themes of teen angst, romance, and survival.

How to Track a Dragon

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This book is a spin-off from the DreamWorks Dragons movies. Readers who have seen the movies will easily identify with the characters: Hiccup, Stoick, Gobber, and Astrid.

A Rumblehorn dragon is attacking the Dragon Riders’ fort nightly. Gobber decides to build a wall to stop the dragon. While back at the village, Stoick is giving everyone a hard time. Hiccup soon realizes Stoick is missing his old dragon. Hiccup and Stoick will help the fort by tracking down the dragon. Stoick is able to lasso the dragon. The dragon flips Stoick up onto its back then flies out to show Stoick the real problem. A giant ocean wave is headed towards them. They head back to the Riders’ Fort and build Gobber’s wall even “longer and stronger to block the wave.” The village is saved and Rumblehorn stays to be Stoick’s new dragon.

Let’s Explore Cuba

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This informational book on Cuba will be sufficient for those students in primary grades and for those who are struggling with reading. Cuba’s location is presented on a map in relation to Florida, along with its warm climate and rainy summers. The large full page photos show Cuba’s lush vegetation on hills and plains for farming coffee and fruit. The hills and plains are in contrast to the resort beaches and colorfully painted houses in their cities.  Cuba’s favorite sport of baseball is shown with children playing it on a city street. Let’s not forget Cuba’s food with a delicious life-sized plate of fried plantains, rice and beans, meat tops with onion rings and wedges of fresh lime.

All of this information is presented in nine pages of text with an average of three sentences per page opposite the photo pages. Plus, there is a free download with more information at www.lerneresoucre.com.

Attack of the Zombie Rabbids

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Silliness at its best abounds in this Nickelodeon-TV show book based on a screenplay by Melanie Duval.

When I showed two of my  classes the dust cover to this book, I found numerous hands coming in my direction reaching for it, thinking it was the actual book. Instead of “Attack of the Zombie Rabbids”, I had attack of the second and third graders.

In this story, the rabbids at the mall find a box of doughnuts green with powdery mold. Not knowing any better, one of the rabbids eats a doughnut, or as they call it a “green delicious-looking round thing”. (20) The rabbid turns into a zombie.

On and on the rabbid(s) with the box of doughnuts try to keep it away from the other rabbids. One by one a rabbid eats a doughnut turning into a zombie until at last, the last doughnut in the box is eaten by the last rabbid.

Greedy little rabbids who will not share run screaming away from rabbids who have eaten a “green delicious-looking round thing” are laughable humor.

Surviving Middle School: Navigating the Halls, Riding the Social Roller Coaster, and Unmasking the Real You

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Luke Reynolds approaches readers with advice for surviving middle school. As a middle school teacher and a former middle school student himself, Reynolds knows his way around a middle school and the behaviors and attitudes that are prevalent in most of these institutions. He draws on his personal adolescent experiences as well as those from his time as a teacher, to outline middle school survival strategies.  He intersperses quotations from famous people and regularly references space gnomes who try to steal your garlic bread to capture and hold the reader’s attention. This book is an additional purchase which will help round out this section of a library’s offerings.