By Super Kitty
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When ten-year-old Fidge loses her temper, she expects some things to happen. Little things, like getting a scolding, and maybe being tortured by her maddening cousin Graham. Definitely not getting trapped in an alternate world, where she’s been mentioned in a strange prophecy and has to overthrow a villainous ruler in order to get home. But there’s more to the strange, colorful, cheerful world that Fidge is stuck in than she first thought: things seem oddly…familiar. And that connection might be the single thing which can save the peculiar world, and get her and Graham home…
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I liked Wed Wabbit for several reasons. It’s entertaining, exciting, and highly amusing, plus it has great characters and a very amusing and original setting—read it and you’ll see what I mean! I would recommend it to readers ages eight and up who like funny stories, clever puzzles, or have been forced to read an annoying picture book again (and again and again.)  

By Piranha T.

When Candice Miller moves into her grandmother’s old house in Lambert, South Carolina, she doesn’t expect to find a mystery in the attic. But she finds an old, dusty box there—an old box that’s labeled for her. And in the bottom of it, she discovers a letter, the beginning of a mystery which will bring her all over the city of Lambert. It explains a mystery from the 1950s, the disappearance of an African-American family, and the injustice that was done to them all those years ago.

But solving the mystery isn’t as simple as it sounds. It doesn’t take Candice long to realize that this letter is at the root of her grandmother’s disgrace in Lambert a decade earlier. So instead of telling her mother, she keeps it a secret from everyone but her new friend Brandon. Together, they navigate hidden puzzles, uncovering the past of Lambert, the man who wrote the letter in the first place, and the family who the letter is about. But to Candice, it’s more than just a puzzle. It’s about clearing her grandmother’s name, and living the future she wants to.

The Parker Inheritance was a fun, incredible book which had me thinking at many points how awesome the puzzles were. Candice and Brandon are clever characters who manage to think of things I can’t be sure I would have myself, and both are bookworms, mentioning lots of my favorite stories! Intertwined with the story are ‘flashback’ chapters, relating the life of the family mentioned in the letter and the events leading up to what made them leave.

This book went deeper, though, because it wasn’t just about the mystery and the past. It was also about segregation in the south, social justice, and persecution. Almost all the characters were African-American, often still dealing with similar issues to those related in the flashbacks from sixty years before. These messages weren’t as obvious as they are in other books we’ve reviewed, or in many historical fiction novels. But they were also just as powerful, because it made you think how it’s set in the present day. The Parker Inheritance is completely fictional, but all it tells feels real. It’s not the main course of the story—that’s about Brandon and Candice, and the letter in the attic. But it’s still a major part of the plot, something which leaves you thinking even after you’ve turned the last page.
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I would highly recommend The Parker Inheritance to kids ages ten and up.

By Super Kitty

When Billy Colman, a boy growing up in the wild Ozark mountains, discovers an ad selling coon hounds, he feels as though his prayers have been answered. For years he’s longed for dogs to hunt with, and finally he has a chance to get them: it takes two years of careful saving, but at last he earns enough to buy the two puppies he’s been dreaming of. He names them Big Dan and Little Ann, and the three of them form a bond which other people wonder at. Unlikely friends they may seem, but soon Billy and his dogs become some of the most talented hunters in the mountains, gaining recognition by huntsmen young and old, and even winning a coon-hunting championship. But the untamed mountains are as dangerous as they are breathtaking, and the connection between boy and dogs is destined to be cut short…
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Where the Red Fern Grows is a moving, beautiful book, a classic which I think stands out for several reasons. Unlike many books today, there are relatively few characters mentioned by name, but those who are feel extraordinarily believable and real, clearly portraying Billy’s childhood world of a small but close family in the remote, sometimes perilous Ozarks. I admittedly have little interest in dogs, hunting, and the like, yet I was pulled in by the narration and writing even before the story had really begun. The tension and excitement of hunting with hounds translated vividly into writing, bringing the stunning setting into clear focus. At moments, I felt almost as though I was there with the characters, surrounded the sounds of a forest late at night. This is the story of a boy and his hounds, of hunting and tracking, and ultimately of the friendship between humans and their beloved canine companions, one that I would recommend to readers ten and up.

By Piranha T.

The daughter of the famous warrior Alanna the Lioness, Alianne (known as Aly) has inherited none of her mother’s dreams of knighthood. She has a different passion: she wants to become a spy. It seems, in some ways, a likely dream. Her father is the head of the realm’s spies, and has taught her secrets of the trade from a young age. But he refuses to let her become one, insisting that it’s much too dangerous. Soon, though, Aly gets her chance—though it’s not where she expects it. She is captured by pirates and sold into slavery in the Copper Isles, islands known for political tensions between the native people and those who invaded three hundred years before, tensions that are ready to break.

At first, all Aly can think of is trying to escape, even after she has been sold at auction to a noble family known as the Balitangs. But she gets her chance without having to risk her life. The patron god of the isles, known as Kyprioth, offers her a deal. If she can protect the two oldest girls of the Balitang family over the summer, he’ll get her out on the Autumnal equinox.

But the deal isn’t as simple as it seems. Kyprioth, often called ‘the Trickster’, has his own plans for not just Aly, but everyone in the Isles as well. Rebellion stirs among the natives, who have been oppressed and enslaved for generations. Aly gets her chance to test her skills as a spy—but at the same time, she must test her life.
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Trickster’s Choice (and its sequel, Trickster’s Queen) is an excellent, well-plotted book. The Copper Isles offer a rich setting full of hidden conspiracies and well-concealed secrets. Tamora Pierce has written three quartets also set in this world (including the Song of the Lioness Quartet and the Protector of the Small Quartet), which I would highly recommend, but Trickster’s Choice was different from them, because Aly was different from those heroines. She is a funny, sarcastic, and clever character who won’t let anything stop her, with the personality of a spy. I would recommend Trickster’s Choice to readers ages thirteen and up.