Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney by Suzanne Harper, 2007
Sparrow is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter living in Lily Dale, NY, a town founded by spiritualists where most residents still practice the art in one form or another. Sparrow wants to be normal, and travels an hour each way to attend a high school out of town, but she sees a ghost her first day there and can’t maintain her deception that she has no seer gifts in the face of his constant badgering. So she starts talking to him, and eventually agrees to help his family know what happened to him, even if this means her new friends, including the ghost’s brother, will see her as a freak. I found this premise entirely entertaining, and enjoyed this read immensely.
Trials of Kate Hope by Wick Downing, 2008
In 1973, Kate becomes the youngest practicing lawyer, having received training by her granddad and passing the bar at age 14. With her granddad’s help, she works on a case about a dog slated to be killed for supposedly attaching a baby. I could not get into this story. I found the writing choppy, and I didn’t care about the characters. It was also too big of a stretch for me to accept that this 14-year-old was practicing law.
Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller, 2006
Ananka Fishbein discovers the Shadow City through a sink hole near her Manhattan apartment. This discovery leads her to Kiki Strike, a mysterious, petite, white-haired girl who seems to be able to antagonize ruffians in the park and the snottiest elite girls at school with impunity. After trailing her for days, Ananka (as urban archaeologist and access point to the most useful library in the city – her parents’ collection) is invited by Kiki to the first meeting of the Irregulars. With the other newly recruited members DeeDee Morlock (chemist), Oona Wong (master forger and computer hacker), Luz Lopez (mechanical engineer), and Betty Bent (disguise expert), the Irregulars explore the Shadow City. Their movements move from serendipity to purposeful as Kiki’s secret agenda is slowly revealed. Though it took me awhile to get into it, eventually I enjoyed reading this mystery / adventure story.
Airman by Eoin Colfer, 2008
“Conor Broekhart was born to fly” is the start to this story about a young man who is born in a hot-air balloon and never stops working toward flight. He is best friends with Princess Isabella of the small sovereign country of the Saltee Islands off the coast of Ireland. His dad is part of the king’s guard and he studies with a prominent scientist, Victor Vigny, who is also obsessed with discovering the secret of flying. However, the marshall of the Holy Cross Guard and high commander of the Saltee army, Hugo Bonvilian, kills the king and Vigny, framing Vigny for the betrayal. When he catches Conor looking on, he condemns him to prison while telling the rest of his family he was killed too. Believing his family and friends think he helped betray the king, Conor spends years in prison plotting his escape and growing bitter about how easily his supposed betrayal was accepted by those he loved. I kept thinking that this book would be science fiction or fantasy, but it reads more like an historical novel. The plot is complex, the writing tight. Conor’s growth from a young, carefree youth, to an embattled inmate, to a wiser adult is realistic and fascinating. I felt his pain, and the cautious hopefulness of the end hits the right chord.
Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood (956.95) by Ibtisam Barakat, 2007
Framed at either end by short chapters written as a teenager, this memoir mostly relates the experiences of the author as a young child during the 1967 Six-Day War when she and her family had to flee their home, live as refugees in Jordan for a while, and then work to rebuild a home and secure family life while their land is under the rule of strangers. Some of the language is beautiful: “[The breeze] filled the curtains with a daily dance and softly kissed my face. Flapping my arms to let the breeze tickle me, for a moment I felt free, like a bird, tasting the sky.” I also loved how she considered Alef (the Arabic letter A) a friend that she could carry around in her pocket in the form of chalk. This is a memoir of impressions and childhood experiences where the reader is left to make his or her own meaning. The author includes a list of other related books at the back that all sound great.
Schooled by Gordon Korman, 2007
Capricorn and his grandma have lived on a commune farm by themselves for several years, so when grandma falls and needs to spend time in rehab, Cap is shipped off to a middle school were everyday attitudes and practices are completely foreign to him. The book is told in a variety of voices: Capricorn; Mrs. Donnelly, a former commune member and Cap’s social worker and host; Zach Powers, the “big man on campus” whose plans are thwarted by Cap; Hugh Winkleman, the residing nerd and destined for the humiliating class president nomination until Cap appeared; Naomi Erlanger, a Zach groupie until she’s won over by Cap; Sophie Donnelly, Mrs. Donnelly’s daughter who finds Cap’s presence in her home almost unbearable, at least at first; Darryl Pennyfield, another Zach groupie who accidentally tackles and then punches Cap; and Mr. Zasigi, the principal who doesn’t understand how clueless Cap is until he innocently misspends several hundred dollars of school funds. The plot’s a bit predictable, but the book’s quite enjoyable regardless. There are funny scenes about how things we don’t even think about may seem foreign to someone from the outside.
