By Piranha T.
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Eleven-year-old Trinket’s father was a teller and a bard. He would tell stories for a living, traveling the countryside, but he would always return to Trinket and her mother, and their house by the sea. But for five years, he hasn’t returned. And Trinket is determined to find him.

With the help of Thomas the Pig Boy and a map which her father left when he disappeared, Trinket travels across the countryside, finding the seven stories she needs to become a true bard herself. She tangles with Gypsies and a seer girl, helps rescue a child stolen by selkies, aids a skilled young dancer bargain with faeries, and has many other adventures besides. But as her search turns up no trace of her father, she begins to wonder if she’ll ever find a trace of him—until she hears a story which changes everything she believed.

​The Seven Tales of Trinket was a fairytale-like tale of a girl searching for her father intertwined with Gaelic folklore. Shelley Moore Thomas creates a vivid world of magic in the stories Trinket finds, from faeries to banshees to selkies and more, very much in the flavor of the Celtic myths much of the story was drawn from. I loved the stories and adventures Trinket had, which were vivid and multilayered, all standing easily alone but intertwined into her adventure in different ways. I would recommend The Seven Tales of Trinket to readers nine and up, especially those who love folklore or The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander, and anyone who is a fan of  lyrical, enchanting stories of family, quests and adventure.

By Piranha T.

Molly Ayer, an orphan who lives with a foster family in Spruce Harbor, Maine, doesn’t feel like she’s wanted. She feels out of place among the kids at school, and with her foster parents at home. When she steals a book from the library, she’s told to do twenty hours of community service for repentance, and is assigned to Vivian Daly, a rich ninety-year-old woman who wants help sorting out her attic.
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Molly expects it to be a tedious task, but when Vivian begins reminiscing about her childhood, Molly learns about interesting pieces of history. Vivian was an orphan too. She was sent away from New York on one of the trains which distributed city orphans to families in the countryside who wanted a child, or simply an extra pair of hands. It’s a piece of history Molly has never heard about before—one that has shaped Vivian’s life.
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Orphan Train Girl was an interesting book, teaching a piece of history I didn’t know much about. The story alternated from past to present—between Molly and a younger Vivian—and in doing so, Christina Baker Cline narrated the stories of two different orphans in two different situations who were both searching for acceptance. I would recommend Orphan Train Girl to readers ages nine and up.

By Piranha T. 

Ever since her father died and she was left in the care of her stepmother’s tyranny, Liesl has been locked in the attic of a house which was once her home, no longer allowed to leave. Lonely and heartbroken from her father’s death, Liesl draws pictures to pass the time. And one day, a ghost called Po sees them and appears in the shadows of her bedroom. He tells her tales of another, even darker world, the only world he can still clearly remember. They become fast friends, and before long, Liesl begins to plan how to escape her attic and return her father’s ashes to the place where they belong.

Meanwhile, Will, the apprentice of a powerful, unpredictable alchemist, is sent to bring the most powerful magic in the world to the Lady Premiere. But his task doesn’t go quite according to plan. The Lady Premiere obtains something decidedly less remarkable, and the magic falls into the unknowing hands of Liesl and Po.

Liesl and Po is a book which is simultaneously deep and young, the poignant story of a girl searching for friendship and a relief from her father’s death, a story in some ways simple and in others not simple at all. I would recommend this book for readers ages nine and up, but although I read this for the first time several years ago, it’s one of my enduring favorites because of the simple yet rich beauty of the story, the characters, and the prose.
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Lauren Oliver has an enticing writing style which pulled me in and characters who I truly love. There is a nice balance of magic and adventure, and mystery as well. (And the cover is one of my favorites—it depicts the book beautifully!) I would highly recommend Liesl and Po to readers ages nine and up.

By Super Kitty
 
Just before Ari and her older brother Gage’s mother died, she made them promise to stick together, no matter what. So four years later, when Gage announces that he’s gotten an apartment and will no longer live with Janna, their prickly guardian, eleven-year-old Ari follows.

It’s only when they’ve packed their things and left Janna’s house that Ari learns the truth: Gage hasn’t found an apartment yet. He doesn’t have a job, either. Until he can find steady work and a place to live, they’ll have to sleep at friend’s houses, and occasionally the homeless shelter. Gage promises that it’s temporary, but as the weeks go by, Ari begins to feel as if her entire world is crumbling. It’s all but impossible to manage schoolwork, friendships, and activities when you don’t even know where you’re staying on any given night.

Whenever it all feels like too much, Ari plays with her Paper Things—pictures of people, furniture, and houses cut out of magazines and catalogs that form a land of paper dolls. When she’s surrounded by Paper Things, all the problems of the real world fall away and she’s part of a happy family, with parents and a house and even some dogs. In those precious moments, Ari pretends that she’s just a normal girl. And hopes with all her heart that someday, she will be.
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I listened to this book with my family, and we all enjoyed it. The characters are believable, trying to do the right thing, but also flawed and vulnerable. It’s one of those books which reminds you not to make assumptions, because everyone is facing problems that you don’t even know about. Although older readers might consider the ending a little too perfect, it’s a great book for kids and parents to read and discuss together—although it deals directly with homelessness, giving a glimpse into the lives of many children and teens today, it stays solidly middle-grade and never gets dark or inappropriate. It’s also an excellent choice for book groups. Poignant and thought-provoking, I would recommend Paper Things for readers ages nine and up. ​

By Piranha T.

Once, the river was lively. It flowed beside the houses raised on stilts in a cascade of flashing water. A young water sprite known as Perdita splashed in the waves, waiting for the elders to finish building a portal to another world, where humans had not yet disrupted the delicate peace of the river.

But things are different now. Many years ago, the river was dammed with fallen trees and mud, and no one since has been able to get it to flow. Now, the houses have been raised much higher, to avoid the rising water. A marsh has formed where the river used to be. And anyone who swallows the marsh water gets a wasting sickness no one has a cure for.

Luna has grown up in the houses raised above the marsh, paddling through the still water with her little sister, Willow, on the prow of her ship. She doesn’t believe that the wasting sickness comes from a curse, or that magic exists at all.

But then Willow gets the wasting sickness. No one believes anything can be done to save her. But Luna is ready to do anything to make her better—even believe in magic.

A Nearer Moon was a beautifully written fantasy which read almost like a fairytale. The world of the river—in the times of both Luna and Perdita—felt real and unique. Melanie Crowder wove together the two stories of Luna and Perdita in an exciting, beautiful narrative. I would highly recommend A Nearer Moon to readers ages eight and up.

By Super Kitty

Ten years ago, three young children were taken from their home, escaping an ancient being of darkness who wished to destroy them. Separated from their parents, the siblings are sent from one orphanage to the next: fourteen-year-old Kate, who promised her mother to take care of her younger brother and sister just before they were taken away; Michael, a twelve-year-old bookworm with a deep fondness for dwarves; and Emma, the fiery, fearless, and often irritable youngest, willing to fight just about anyone and who thinks dwarves are completely ridiculous. Remembering their mother’s promise that one day their family will be reunited again, they have refused to be adopted, getting transferred to increasingly horrible orphanages as year after year goes by.

Just when they think things can’t get any worse, they are moved once more—this time to an ancient, crumbling house in a half-forgotten town that no one seems to know anything about. While searching for the truth about the strange village, the siblings stumble across a hidden book, and are pulled into a conflict that has raged for eons. The book holds a power that some fear and some desire, and to unlock its secrets and set right the wrongs that have been done in its name, Kate, Michael, and Emma begin a journey that will take them through time itself. Along the way, they will meet monsters and sorcerers, allies and enemies—and, perhaps, find out the truth of who they really are.

Kate, Michael, and Emma are great main characters—they might have extraordinary destinies and be the key to ridding the world of evil, but they’re also believable children who argue and make mistakes, much like the protagonists of Trenton Lee Stewart’s The Mysterious Benedict Society. In fact, the entire cast is well done, especially the (very intriguing) villains, who we can’t wait to see more of in the rest of the trilogy. There are lots of books which include time travel, but the way John Stephens uses it doesn’t feel cliché—the various twists and side effects of altering the past are both creative a​nd amusing. Clever, fast-paced, and fun, I would highly recommend The Emerald Atlas to readers ages nine and up.

By Piranha T.

There is nowhere in the world seventh grader Coco Hidden loves more than El Corazón, the bean-to-bar chocolate shop she and her mom run in her small Colorado hometown of Heartbeat Springs. Even when her best friend, Leo, stops talking to her, she can find reassurance in her favorite food: chocolate. Nothing in her world seems concrete, but she’s sure she’ll never lose El Corazón.

But then her mom tells her they’ll have to close the chocolate shop. Coco is certain that if she she’ll be able to save it if she can find a ceiba tree which has been haunting her dreams. But she’s never even left Colorado—how is she supposed to get to the Amazon rainforest?

Before long, Coco finds herself on an astonishing trip to the Ecuadorian Amazon with Leo and Gali Gallo, her elderly inventor-neighbor who has secrets of his own. But this small, unexpected bit of hope is deeply threatened. The jungle is being destroyed by loggers and oil-drillers who don’t consider the trees they’re cutting down or the ecosystems they’re destroying. Will Coco be able to find the ceiba tree and rescue El Corazón before it’s destroyed forever?

Tree of Dreams was an amazing book, simultaneously funny and deep. It confronts the damage being done to rainforests in a deeply relatable and unusual way—instead of feeling as though this was the reason Laura Resau wrote this book, it simply read like something which was drawn from it, in a very powerful way.
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However, you don’t have to be looking for that to love this book! Coco is a funny, relatable heroine with complicated relationships and a deep love of chocolate. The settings—particularly the rainforest—felt completely real to me. All in all, I would highly recommend Tree of Dreams to a wide range of readers ages nine and up: to people who love rainforest conservation, readers who love stories about kids and their adventures, and, of course, anyone who loves chocolate!

By Piranha T.

The story begins with an airplane crashing in the middle of the Sahara, and with the strange person the author finds there: a tiny stranger, who asks him to draw a sheep. The two slowly befriend one another and he learns the tale of the Little Prince: who came from a tiny planet with three volcanoes and a single beautiful flower but journeyed from it through the stars and finally to Earth, where he meets a fox and a snake and discovers the things which truly make life what it is.
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The Little Prince is one of those books which ensures you will never look at the world the same way again. It has a kind of magic, not in the words on the page but the deeper ones that lie beneath them. Despite this, it isn’t dull, or even with a set lesson like many kinds of fables; it is a story, beautifully written and sometimes slightly amusing, and though you cannot read it without finding the lesson beneath it, the author does not seem to expect that a lesson is all you will get out of it, nor is it; there is more to it than just the story and just the truth woven into it, something beyond description which almost all other stories like this lack, the thing which really changes the way a reader thinks about the story and makes it a book which you could read and read again. I would highly recommend this book to readers ages nine and up.

A note from Piranha T - This review was supposed to be posted on Monday, but due to a technical glitch it wasn't posted until today. Sorry!

By Piranha T.
 
Lucy Callahan doesn’t remember the day she was struck by lightning, but it’s changed her life forever. It gave her extraordinary math skills, and because of them, her grandmother has homeschooled her ever since. But even though she’s ready for collage at age twelve, her grandmother sets her a task which Lucy soon learns can’t be solved with numbers and equations: she must complete a year of middle school. There, Lucy finds friends, enemies, and adventure. She may be a math genius, but can she solve a problem not made of numbers, one she never imagined she’d have to face?
 
The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl is a funny, quick read. Lucy is a fun, sympathetic character who feels like a real person. For any kid ages nine and up looking for an amusing, entertaining book, I’d recommend The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl.
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​By Piranha T.
 
Nalah is the daughter of a glassblower in a land where magic is forbidden, yet she possesses it. Her own magic gift is growing stronger, and she must struggle to control it. Because there’s not just people who don’t want her to have her power. There are those who want to use it for themselves.
 
Halan is the crown princess of a desert kingdom where your magic dictates who you are. She has none, a fact that she has always struggled to understand. The royal family has always had magic, and Halan will grow to wish for it more than ever. For although there’s a rebellion against her father slowly spreading around the castle, the rebels aren’t the only ones who want to take her life.
 
They are two girls, from two worlds. Yet Nalah and Halan’s lives are about to collide, and together they will uncover secrets which someone wants to hide forever.
 
Sisters of Glass is a fun, exciting fantasy with a plot full of unexpected twists and turns. Nalah and Halan are two excellent characters with understandable and sympathetic desires. I recommend Sisters of Glass to readers ages nine and up.

​By Piranha T.
 
Not many people remember how to see magic anymore. Many years ago, a hundred dragons appeared in Vienna, but now only forty remain. They’ve disappeared, but to where, no one knows.
 
Grisha is a dragon who no longer has a friend. Maggie, the daughter of a famous poet, has never truly had one. Their stories meet one night, and they form a fast friendship. But neither can ignore the mystery of the vanished dragons. Both want to somehow put it to right, but neither knows how.
 
Help comes in the most unlikely places. The Department of Extinct Exotics, which makes sure the dragons stay to the rules. A talking cat who both think is their enemy. But it’s Maggie and Grisha’s quest—and it is they who must brave the final price.
 
The Language of Spells is a beautiful, deep fantasy novel set in a real world which is easy to believe with sympathetic characters. The beginning was a bit slower and harder to get into, but once you do it’s an engrossing read. I think it would appeal to readers of Lisa Schroeder’s The Girl in the Tower. I’d highly recommend The Language of Spells to readers ages 8 and up.

By Piranha T.

Nine-year-old Lucy Castor loves her life just the way it is. Her father reading her The Hobbit at night, her mother making spaghetti every Monday, but most of all, playing with her best friend, Ella, making magic in the tiny moments of everyday life. She certainly doesn’t expect anything different as fourth grade draws near.

Yet everything seems to be changing all at once—and not for the better, either.

Ella has stopped believing in magic and found some new, more stylish friends. Lucy’s weird neighbor, Chloe, might not be so weird after all. Biggest of all, her perfect world with her father, her mother, and Lucy herself is about to end, because Mrs. Castor is going to have a baby.

Lucy Castor Finds Her Sparkle is a beautiful story. I could easily identify with Lucy, and everything about the book made me fall I love with it. It reminded me almost of The Girl in the Tower. I would highly recommend Lucy Castor Finds her Sparkle to kids and adults ages seven and up.

By Piranha T. and Super Kitty

“In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be the eldest of three.” So starts Howl’s Moving Castle, an amusing, clever, and fast-paced favorite among Piranha T. and Super Kitty.

Sophie Hatter is one such burdened individual, staying hidden away in her stepmother’s hat shop. She knows that nothing exciting will ever happen to her, but her life takes a turn for the worse—and the more exciting—when the nefarious Witch of the Waste notices her and transforms her into an old lady. Knowing that she can’t stay where she is, Sophie goes from her home and out into the world.

Her life gets very complicated all at once when she makes a bargain with a fire demon, tangles with the greatly feared Wizard Howl and his apprentice, and at the same time tries to free herself from the Witch of the Waste’s curse. For she’s about to discover that not only Howl, but herself as well, are much more interesting than first meets the eye.

We have read several things by Diana Wynne Jones, and have enjoyed all of them, but none have come close to Howl’s Moving Castle. It is one of those books that we have been recommending to everyone we know, kids and adults alike. Weaving in elements of classic fairytales (and sometimes making fun of them), Diana Wynne Jones creates an all-time favorite with Howl’s Moving Castle. We’d recommend it to ages 9 and up, to kids, teenagers and adults as well! And if you're into audiobooks, we'd recommend the narration by Jenny Sterlin. It's great!

Note: Howl’s Moving Castle was made into an animated film by Hayao Miyazaki. The book is very, very different—so whether you loved the movie or despised it, READ THE BOOK! This is one of those cases where the movie is not just different from the book, they are almost separate stories. 

By Super Kitty

Abigail Hunter is an ordinary kid. Well, all right, not ordinary; she and her mom, Jennifer, have traveled around the globe together. Still, she feels abandoned when her mom suddenly ships her off to boarding school, saying she can’t spend the next year getting Abigail out of trouble (Abigail isn’t always quite as well behaved as she perhaps could be). But when she gets caught attempting and escape from her new school, Abigail finds there might be more to it than meets the eye. Before she knows it, she’s on a mission to save her mom—because it turns out that Jennifer Hunter isn’t all that ordinary either. And she might be in trouble. Determined to prove that she is a spy worthy of her mother, Abigail swiftly gets pulled into a conflict that gets more dangerous by the day, especially when the Ghost, a supervillain and her mom’s arch nemesis (yeah, it turns out her mother has an arch nemesis), takes notice of what Abigail is doing—and decides to stop it. In this brand-new, action-packed novel, Abigail must face her fears as she battles the criminals that are stronger—and closer—than anyone expected.

One thing I like about Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls is the characters. Abigail is realistic, and responds to various (less realistic, but still quite thrilling) situations accordingly. She, and the other characters too, have distinct personalities and emotions, and bond and clash accordingly. The plot is engaging, and several twists will keep you on the edge of your seat. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a fast-paced, funny, and generally fabulous read!
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Note: I would recommend Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls to fans of the Devlin Quick and TOAST mysteries, for although they were about kid detectives in a more realistic setting, and this is about, well, a secret spy center saving the world, they are reminiscent of each other in great characters, reading levels and interests, and generally entertaining writing styles.

By Piranha T.

Ten-year-old Robert Linnet is the first to remark, “Why don’t we run away?” An after all, why not? The four Linnet children are stuck with their grandmother, who thinks children should be seen and not heard, while their father is away in Egypt. So, Nan, Robert, Timothy and Betsy escape. Soon they find their Uncle Ambrose, who they grow to love, and his gardener, Ezra. And there they stay.

However, the real fun begins when they meet Lady Alicia—a kind old lady whose son and husband disappeared long ago. The Linnets decide to find the missing Valerians, but will they find them? Of will the possible witch Emma Cobley and her unusual black cat thwart their plots before they can even really begin their search?

I liked Linnets and Valerians because even though it was also a fun story about children running away, there was also excitement and magic, even though you may not get that idea from the cover. However, it was also an adventure with plenty of excitement and fun. I would highly recommend ­Linnets and Valerians to readers ages nine and up.
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Note to older readers: just because I say ages nine and up does not mean older readers should snub it—I enjoyed it quite a lot and think older readers will as well.