Fire – Kristin Cashore

There is trouble in the Dells. The last king had been controlled by the human monster, Cansrel, and between the two of them they made a mess of the kingdom. Now there are factions who want to take the kingdom away from young King Nash and war is on the horizon.

Monsters are terribly beautiful.  They are shaped like any other animal of their species, but they come in vibrant colors.  Monsters stun their prey with their beauty, and then take over their minds, making the prey that much easier to catch.

Fire, Cansrel’s daughter,  is the last human monster.  She is beautiful beyond words with hair the color of fire.  Her appearance instills great passion in all who see her.  Non human monsters want nothing more than to consume her and humans either love her or hate her.

King Nash sends for Fire so that she might interrogate strangers, assassins and supposed supporters to find out who the enemy is, what they are planning, and how to keep the country from falling apart.  But, Fire is not like her father.  She hated what Cansrel did with his power and she is afraid that if she uses her power, she will become like him.

But, first she has to get to King City.  Imagine how hard that is when there are monster raptors dropping upon her from above, because they really, really want to eat her.  Then there are the humans in the army surrounding her who really, really love her, or really, really hate her.  (Imagine the love to be like that seen at a rock concert.  Uncontrolled hysteria.  Not everyone is effected that way, but enough are to become a problem.)  It is a good thing that she has a guard of 20 people who know how to control their own minds.

Fire by Kristin Cashore is a companion novel to Graceling (a 2009 Teens’ Top Ten winner). You can read either one first.  But, I expect that if you read one, you will really, really want to read the other.

The Chosen One – Carol Lynch Williams

Kyra’s family was excited before the Prophet and his Apostles arrived at their home.  Everyone thought that the Prophet was coming to announce that Father had been Chosen to become an Apostle.  No one was prepared for what the Prophet said.

Kyra and her family are part of the Chosen Ones.  They live on the compound with the the other families of the Chosen.   Father has three wives and 21 children with two on the way.

Thirteen year old Kyra was not excited to hear that the Prophet was coming.  In fact, on page one she plotting what she could do with his body if she killed him.  So before he speaks, she is almost sure that her wishing for his death will condemn her family.  But, so too will her sneaking on board the Ironton County Mobile Library on Wheels and checking out books.  Possibly worse than the books are her feelings for Joshua, a boy who is just couple of years older than her.

What is it that the Prophet says?  The Prophet says that he had been “thinking, praying… and talking with God” (p. 24) and that Kyra is to be the seventh wife of her Father’s sixty year old brother.

The chosen one by Carol Lynch Williams is the story of Kyra struggling against the possibility of marrying her Uncle.  But what can Kyra do in a community run by a horrible Prophet?  Can she outrun the God Squad?  Can she and Joshua be together, or will she have to marry her cruel Uncle to save her family?

Funny how things change – Melissa Wyatt

Dwyer, West Virginia is a dying town in the Appalachian Mountains that offers little opportunity now that most of the easy coal has been mined out of the mountains.  The most cost effective way of getting the coal out now is mountaintop removal mining where they blast the mountain to get to the coal.  Remy Walker’s family has lived there for generations and one of the mountains, the one he and his dad live on,  is named Walker Mountain after the first people to live there.

Remy recently graduated from high school and has agreed to follow his girlfriend when she moves from Dwyer to go to college in Pennsylvania.  Remy is an auto-mechanic and should be able to find work near the college so that they can afford to have an apartment off campus.  He won’t be moving to go to college, he just doesn’t want to be away from Lisa because he loves her.

Remy only needs to tell his dad that he is going to move away and then he and Lisa can start their life together like they have been talking about for a long time.  But when Remy meets an artist and she reminds him how fascinating the mountains are, Remy needs to decide if his love for Lisa is greater than his love for his home and his heritage.  Does he have to “get up, get out” (p.5), like they say in school, or can he have a happy life on Walker Mountain?

Funny how things change by Melissa Wyatt reminded me of what it felt like to be Remy’s age and to have such an important decision in front of me.

Gym Candy – Carl Deuker

Football has been the most important thing in Mick Johnson’s life since forever.  Mick’s dad, a past professional football player, made sure that Mick started kindergarten a year later then he should have so that he would have a size advantage over his team mates.

That, along with Mick’s drive and talent earn him a spot on the high school varsity team as a freshman halfback.  But, when he gets his chance on the field he gets stopped twelve inches short of the goal.

He just wasn’t strong enough.  And he is determined that next year he will be.  He lifts weights.  He takes supplements and protein shakes.  His dad brings him to a gym that has better equipment than at the school.  He also sets him up with a personal trainer.  And the trainer?  He sets Mick up with something else altogether.

Gym Candy by Carl Deuker follows Mick as he makes the decision to start using steroids and shows us what happens next.

Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire, book two in The Hunger Games trilogy, is as exciting as the first.

It is almost half a year since Katniss and Peeta survived the Hunger Games.   They live in separate homes in Victor’s Village, near Haymitch, and Katniss’ mom and sister live with her.  Once each month for the winning year each family in District 12 receives food on Parcel Day as part of the award for having sent the winning child (or children in this case) to the Hunger Games.

At the start of the novel, Katniss and Peeta are preparing to go on the Victory Tour with stops in each district and the Capitol.    This tradition keeps the horror of the Games alive.  The winners have to make a public appearance and the family members of the dead tributes are placed on a special platform so that they have to look into the face of the winner(s), the person who may have killed their child.   This is also the time for the winner(s) to thank the dead tributes for any alliances that assisted them, and the people of the district if they sent any gifts during the game.

After hunting and visiting Haymitch and Peeta, Katniss walks into her home and finds President Snow waiting for her.   He informs her that her method of keeping both of them alive at the end of the Games has been interpreted as an act of defiance in the Districts.   If during the Victory Tour, she and Peeta can’t convince everyone that their love is true and stop the idea of rebellion, their families and their own lives are at risk.

On top of all this is the forthcoming Quarter Quell – the 75th anniversary of the Hunger Games.  Every 25 years a more spectacular Games is devised.  And this year’s is a doozy.

Slant – Laura E. Williams

When her crush, Sean, calls her “Slant” one day, she decides this is it.   Lauren is ready.   She has been saving all of her money for a long time.  She just has to find an adult to take her to the doctor.

Lauren’s mom is dead, and she doesn’t think she can convince her father to let her have the operation.  But when her grandmother comes to visit, her mom’s mom, Lauren has an ally.  Lauren is a Korean-American adoptee and  she wants her eyes to look more like the rest of the people at school.

Lauren’s little sister is a Chinese-American adoptee and is as cute as a bug.  Her father has finally begun dating.  It has been three years since Lauren’s mother died and the woman that her dad is dating is nice.  Lauren’s  best friend is beautiful and talented and while she is preoccupied with her weight, she would stick up for Lauren against anything.

In Slant by Laura E. Williams, Lauren doesn’t make the best decisions, such as getting her five-year-old  sister’s ears pierced because she said she want’s “to be pretty too.”  (p. 36)  But the decision to get her eyes done is one she has though about for a long time.  If she looks like everyone else, people will treat her differently.  Right?

The Mealworm Diaries – Anna Kerz

Jeremy and his mom recently moved to Toronto from rural Nova Scotia.  This means that he is in a new school with people he doesn’t know.  His new teacher is okay and really likes science.  When the class divides up into partners to study mealworms, no one chooses Jeremy  so he is left with the boy everyone calls Aaron Cantwait.  Aaron can’t sit still and he can’t stop talking.

But Aaron is only one of Jeremy’s problems.  Another is the nightmares he often has where he wakes up soaking wet.  The school is also getting new gym uniforms and Jeremy will have to wear shorts that will show the ugly scar on his leg.

The Mealworm Diaries by Anna Kerz covers life, death and some of the changes in between.  Sometimes bad things happen.

Black is for beginnings – Laurie Faria Stolarz

Black is for beginnings is a graphic novel set in the Blue is for nightmares universe. This is an original story describing the early adventures of Stacy and Jacob.  If you liked the rest of the series this graphic novel is a must.

Super Stock Rookie – Will Weaver

Trace Bonham is back in book two of Will Weaver’s Motor Novels.  Super Stock Rookie starts with Trace, his dad, and a few buddies caravanning to  North Dakota so Trace can tryout for a new racing team scouting for a hot young driver.  He is looking pretty good after his win in his Street Stock at the Headwaters Speedway earlier in the month.

The Super Stock is a different type of car, but it still rides on a dirt track.  And Trace is good at driving on dirt tracks.  But, so are all of the others at the tryout.  Team Blu is looking for a good driver, with a good face, a good attitude and good grammar.  Trace just wonders what Team Blu is selling.

This book drives us to new tracks and back to the Headwaters.  Characters return from the first book, Saturday Night Dirt, but quite a few new characters are introduced.  Team Blu adds an edge to the regular Minnesota dirt track racing.  And not everybody is happy.

But, what a car.

You’ve got blackmail – Rachel Wright

Lauren/Lozzie/Loz Cracknell has a hard time remembering to post the mail from her mother’s salon.  The mail she forgot to post a few days ago was invitations for tonight’s party.  Oops.

Loz calls her friend Dex in a panic and he figures out that they can deliver the invitations themselves on bikes.  So, Loz survives.

But, it turns out that one of the letters wasn’t an invitation to the party.   You’ve got blackmail by Rachel Wright has bullies (but I am not sure who the original bully was…), blackmail, tortoises, a wannabe assassin and possibly a budding romance or two.  And, there is the mystery of who is being blackmailed, why they are being blackmailed, and who is the blackmailer.

This book has a similar flavor to the Georgia Nicolson stories by Louise Rennison.