orphans

This book by Canadian author Moira Young stands out in the crop of dystopian/post-apocalyptic fiction.  The action-packed storyline throws many obstacles and adventures ahead of our protagonist Saba. Saba remains likeable throughout the bleak tone.  There is a bit of Katniss Everdeen in her in the familiar determination, stubbornness, strength, charisma, and heightened survival instincts while fighting the romantic tone of the story.  The first half of this book is intense and suspenseful, colored by Saba's single desire to save her twin brother, Lugh, after he is kidnapped.  It's a very

In this enjoyable remake of Disney's classic Pete's Dragon, Pete is on a trip with his mom and dad when a deer leaps into the road causing a fatal crash. Five year old Pete is the only survivor. Thanks to Elliot, a precious-looking dragon with hair like a soft grassy meadow, Peter survivors for six years in the wilderness.

When the townspeople find out the dragon is not just town lore or a figment of a lost boy's imagination, chaos ensues and thus beings an exciting and suspenseful adventure. Pete's Dragon has excellent animation and the actors interact quite successfully.  

Told in alternating perspectives of members of the Dane family from both the past and the present, McHugh builds a twisted and disturbing portrait of a family with deep, dark secrets.

Lucy never knew her mother; she walked into a cave when Lucy was one and never came out. Then, at sixteen, Lucy’s developmentally disabled friend, Cheri, goes missing, leaving Lucy wondering what part her lack of enthusiasm for the friendship played in the disappearance. When Lucy starts working at the family store, she discovers a clue that puts her on the trail of not just Cheri’s final moments, but her long

Fourteen year old Charlie Simmons is enjoying the summer before starting at a new school in Thunder Point. His very protective mom, Lin Su, is working in Thunder Point as a home nurse for Winnie who has ALS. This is the best job Lin Su has had in a long time and it gives Charlie the opportunity to change schools and get away from the bullies that had been taunting him at his old school. Winnie and Charlie have become good friends as he has been spending a lot of time there over the summer. And now there is new next door neighbor Blake Smiley. Blake is a professional tri-athlete and

Dancing With Fire literally starts with a bang; an explosion that leaves the Danner girls orphaned and in danger. Kaylin Danner put her dreams on hold when her mother died to help her scientist father raise her two younger sisters. After her father’s biodiesel plant blows up just as he has figured out the formula to efficiently produce this sought-after fuel, events lead her to believe that the explosion and her father’s death may not have been an accident.

Sawyer Scott has been working with Dr. Danner for years as his assistant developing the biodiesel fuel formula. Dr. Danner has been his

Orphan Jane Williams has lived her entire life in the foster care system. This has given her a particularly hard outlook on life, but her determination to better her surroundings makes Jane work hard for what she has earned. Jane manages to win a scholarship to the prestigious Birch Grove Academy, where she is able to fit in for the first time in her life and find people who are like-minded to herself. However, as time progresses, Jane comes to realize that not all is at it seems at Birch Grove Academy. People are dying and others are acting especially malicious towards her for no reason. Jane

Wild Things by Clay Carmichael is the story of an 11-year-old girl named Zoe, whose first-person narrative—tough and knowing but also full of humor and curiosity—grabbed me after the first page. Zoe had already spent a lot of time in the school of hard knocks; Henry, Zoe’s uncle, is gruff, crabby and complicated, and equally compelling.  The two of them together make you want to read on to find out more about their lives from the beginning. 

The relationship children have with adults has such a huge impact over a child's life, and it’s so important for someone like Zoe, who has had such an