Standish Treadwell stands on the brink of bringing down an elaborate hoax perpetrated by the insidious rulers of the Motherland, an alternate-universe mashup of Stalinist Russia and the Nazi-era Germany. Messing with the Greenflies, as they’re known, means certain death. After all, they imprisoned and tortured his best friend Hector, killed his teacher, and threatened his family. They would certainly do worse to Standish, whose bravery does not go unnoticed by the evil rulers. However, success means striking the Greenflies where they’re most vulnerable.
The third book in Catherynne M. Valente's Fairyland series, The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two, may be the best of the lot. (I reviewed the first two books here and here.) September, the young Nebraska girl who is our protagonist, is growing older and growing up. She desperately wants to return to Fairyland, but she's also anxious about her future there and at home.
The War of 1812 is one of the “forgotten wars” of the United States. It is, however, the conflict that helped to create the nation we have and provided the inspiration to our national anthem. In Through the Perilous Fight, Steve Vogel skillfully weaves together a narrative highlighting an eight week period of Washington D.C.’s history.
Friday crisscrosses Australia with her mother, hearing tales of how her female ancestors have all died of drowning on auspicious Saturdays. Her mother has a knack with weaving tales, and Friday Brown is caught in her web...until her mother is diagnosed with cancer. Friday watches her mother waste away to nothing, until she dies quietly in the night, her lungs filled with fluid.
The Icarus is the largest and most technologically advanced ship in the universe. Traveling across space in hyper-drive, the ship is transporting valuable cargo, Lilac LaRoux, daughter of the richest man in the universe...in fact her father built the ship. Tarver Merendsen is a young war hero, recently elevated to the rank of Major. An unlikely pair, the two are thrown together when the Icarus is violently pulled out of hyper-drive ripping the ship to pieces.
When Haley calls home and no one answers the phone by the 2nd ring, she is figures her dad is sleeping. When no one picks up by the 10th ring, she hopes he is mowing the lawn. When no one picks up by the 20th, she knows something is wrong. Something is horribly wrong. She begs a ride from Finn, the editor of the school newspaper who has been nagging her to write for him. But the car is too small, Finn drives to slow, and something is wrong at home. Haley can't breathe, she can't think, she needs out!
The setting is Russia. The time is 1914. The place is a count’s estate. From the time she was young, Lara has spent most of her time in the kennels with the famed borzoi dogs. For centuries these dogs were bred by aristocrats for hunting. To Lara, they are her life and her future. She has a special bond with the dogs that goes beyond the normal relationship between animals and their humans.
What seems so obvious to Lara, that she belongs in the kennel with the Borzoi, is not as clear-cut to her father. And in 1914, the decision is her father’s to make.
This is a favorite title in our family. My daughters love getting a glimpse of life in Japan. This story offers side by side comparison between America and Japan of a familiar and fun topic: baseball. The main character is a little boy who visits a baseball game in America with his Pop Pop, and again in Japan with his Ji Ji.
The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911. Morton has taken the facts and created a very entertaining story to fit the circumstances. We do know that a man named Peruggia who had worked at the Louvre, stole the painting and Morton adds a rich cast of characters and an interesting plot to the theft. Paris at the turn of the century is a character itself! In Morton’s story, Valfierno is the chief architect of the theft and its elaborate con.
