Tag Archive | surprises

Hoop Genius, by John Coy (book review) – basketball invented, injuries prevented

May15

book cover of Hoop Genius by John Coy illustrated by John Morse published by Carolrhoda BooksBig kids, small gym.
Lots of energy, lots of injuries.
Time for a new game!

Picture books aren’t just for the toddler set anymore! This E for Everyone book chronicles the invention of Basket Ball by teacher James Naismith over 120 years ago, trying to keep gangly, over-energetic teen boys from turning their indoor winter PE class into a free-for-all.

The illustrations by Canadian Joe Morse are as jostling and boards-thumping as any modern-day photo of NBA playoff action. You’ve seen his artwork anchoring sports writing and advertisements, as well as recent sports picture books, like  Stephen Krenksy’s 2011 hit Play Ball, Jackie.

Children’s Book Week gives all of us a reason to share our favorites, old and new, as we fan the spark of child-like wonder in each of us.

What other children’s books about sports would you recommend?
**kmm

Book info: Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball / John Coy; illustrated by Joe Morse. Carolrhoda Books, 2013. [author site]  [artist site]   [publisher site]

My book talk:  Indoor gym class, big guys getting bored, their new teacher reluctantly faces them with one last game to try – a new game that takes skill instead of hitting, a game with a ball and a basket.

Yes, basketball was invented in late 1891 by James Naismith in desperation, an indoor variation of the Duck on a Rock game he enjoyed growing up in Canada. His class threw a soccer ball into wooden peach baskets for goals, since no boxes available for the first game.

His young men took the game from Springfield, Massachusetts to their hometowns and beyond. Women began playing basketball in 1892, and Naismith met his future wife while refereeing a local women’s game.

Morse’s illustrations vividly show Naismith’s young men who longed to be moving and competing, all big feet and big hands, as well as their teacher’s many attempts to find them an active indoor sport that wouldn’t injure too many!  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Astronaut Academy: Re-Entry, by Dave Roman (book review) – heart-eating monster disrupts space school

May13
book cover of Astronaut Academy Reentry by Dave Roman published by First Second Books

Students from many different places,
with different traditions and expectations,
bound together by Fireball game fever,
while a monster roams their school space station.

Happy Children’s Book Week! Graphic novels and picture books for all ages are some great ways to celebrate right along with the littlies.

With insider nods to pop culture of his own school days, a blithe mashup of then-now-future (dinosaur riding practice after space evacuation drills), and the enduring hope of friendship, author/cartoonist Dave Roman brings us more fun and mystery at the school we’d all love to attend as the second semester begins at Astronaut Academy.

Of course, you’ll enjoy the rivalry, friendship, and secrets of book 2 even more if you read book 1, Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity  first (my no-spoiler review here).

You can check out an excerpt of the latest adventures at Astronaut Academy here, then head over to your local library  or independent bookstore to reserve your copy now – its book birthday is tomorrow, May 15, 2013!

What would you do with your spare hearts if you had multiples like the Astronaut Academy students?
**kmm

Book info: Astronaut Academy: Re-Entry (Astronaut Academy #2) / written and illustrated by Dave Roman. First Second Books, 2013.   [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: A heart-eating monster in space! Friends and arch-rivals, a wicked gang, and a ban on love will make this the toughest semester ever for the students of Astronaut Academy who must guard their hearts as they prepare for the Fireball Championship Match.

Somehow, a shape-shifting monster has infiltrated Astronaut Academy during the semester break, masquerading as the person each student has a secret crush on, tricking them into giving it their extra hearts, then devouring the hearts!

When you attend school in outer space, having multiple hearts is essential, of course. Yes, students can give a heart to someone they care about, but no one with just one heart is allowed to play Fireball for safety reasons. Tak Offsky loses two hearts to the monster, so must recruit his roommate for the Fireball team, despite Hakata’s unfamiliarity with the sport.

The evil geniuses of Team Feety Pajamas challenge Munchie Ng in Monchichimon cards, Hakata’s arch-nemesis joins their rival school’s Fireball team just to spite him, and the monster continues to eat up hearts!

Can the school’s new ban on love stop this monster?
Will Astronaut Academy have enough eligible players for the Fireball finals?
Will Hakata be able to share his secret past without losing another heart?

If the students can get past the cancellation of the Talent Spelling Bee and avoid falling in love, perhaps they can solve this problem and catch the monster that’s wrecking their semester at Astronaut Academy! A great follow-up to Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity,  the first graphic novel in Dave Roman’s out-of-this-world school series.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Fox Forever, by Mary E. Pearson (book review) – a favor repaid, lives in danger

May10

book cover of Fox Forever by Mary E Pearson published by Henry HoltA prisoner with a secret,
A revolution waiting to explode,
A reluctant hero with a chilling secret of his own.

Uploaded into a memory cube as he lay dying, just as his two best friends were, after the car crash. Who knew so many generations would pass before Locke, Kara, and Jenna had new bodies for their minds to inhabit? Who knew that only Jenna’s parents had okayed the procedure? Who could imagine that Locke would be visiting his own grave in Boston?

Start with The Adoration of Jenna Fox  (#1) and The Fox Inheritance  (#2)  (my no-spoiler review here) at your local library or independent bookstore, then you’ll be ready for the outcome-not-guaranteed conclusion of this story spanning over 260 years.

Would you want to stay alive if it meant outliving everyone you loved?
**kmm

Book info: Fox Forever (Jenna Fox Chronicles, #3) / Mary E. Pearson. Henry Holt, 2013. [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]

My recommendation: Locke owes a favor, and he’ll do whatever it takes to honor that – return to Boston where he’ll be hunted, befriend a stuck-up girl to get information, put other people in danger. And he’ll find answers to questions he didn’t ask, questions about Jenna Fox and redemption and fate.

It’s a Favor, with a capital F, someone calling in all the chips spent by others trying to get the teen safely to the West Coast after his escape from Gartsbro’s human lab, where the good doctor placed his mind into an improved body, generations after it was illegally downloaded just before Locke’s untimely death.

There’s big money at stake and the lives of thousands of people denied Citizen rights because their grandparents chose the wrong side in a political dispute, too. A leader of the Resistance in secret prison being tortured to get the account number before those billions of duros revert to whatever country the secret account is in, and the deadline is just days away.

So Locke has an impossibly short time to finagle his way into Security Secretary’s household through his teenage daughter, find secret maps to the secret prison, rescue the prisoner and get the account number to the Resistance… while not letting anyone know he was born over 270 years ago and is classified as non-human under current law because of the percentage of Bio-Gel coursing through his body.

Is the prisoner still alive and sane after 11 years in solitary?
Can Locke really infiltrate Raine’s posh inner circle without giving himself away?
How will the Resistance deal with the other information that he uncovers?

This third volume of The Jenna Fox Chronicles weaves the many threads and characters of the series into a heart-pounding conclusion as Locke discovers surprises and truths about himself, Jenna, Kara, and humankind. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Fire Horse Girl, by Kay Honeyman (book review) – from China to America, from despised daughter to freedom?

May8

book cover of Fire Horse Girl, by Kay Honeyman. Published by Scholastic | recommended on BooksYALove.comNot really believing in curses,
Curious as a good daughter never would be,
Escape to Gold Mountain would be paradise!

Jade Moon knows that her inauspicious birth sign won’t matter when she gets to America, right? But the tongs‘ control of San Francisco’s Chinatown could make it impossible for her to escape their evil clutches.

Look for this spring 2013 release at your local library  or independent bookstore to discover whether Jade Moon can truly find happiness in a new land.

What other immigrant stories would you suggest for young adults on BooksYALove World Wednesday?
**kmm

Book info:  The Fire Horse Girl / Kay Honeyman. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2013; Scholastic, paperback. [author site]  [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My recommendation: Small village, small minds, convinced that Jade Moon’s Fire Horse birth sign will curse anyone foolish enough to marry her. She will have to travel far from this small Chinese village to escape this bad luck, perhaps all the way to America, like her uncle.

But Uncle died coming back from the “Gold Mountain” says Sterling Promise, his adoptive son, Now Jade Moon’s father must pretend to be his brother, using Uncle’s identity papers so they can both enter the USA to pursue the family’s business interests, and they decide to take Jade Moon along to remove her curse from the family lands.

Up the river to the noisy bustle of Hong Kong, across the wide ocean by crowded steamship, Jade Moon and Father are coached by Sterling Promise in their ‘improved’ family history so that their answers will match when interrogated by the immigration officials. Only relatives with real business are allowed into the USA from China, though many others try to enter.

The shores of America look beautiful, but the Angel Island center is ugly. After weeks of waiting, Father fails the questioning intentionally, so Jade Moon is sure they all will be returned to China. However, clever Sterling Promise has bribed someone and will leave Angel Island on the next boat. Jade Moon’s desperation to escape the weight of village condemnation outweighs her fears as she cuts off her hair, locates Sterling Promise’s identity papers, dons his American suit and boards the boat to San Francisco.

Lost in the city, she’s almost caught up in a street fight, but is rescued by Harry Hon, whose father controls one of Chinatown’s ‘protection associations’ and is recruiting muscle and fists for the tong. She winds up staying at Mr. Hon’s home, being called Fire Horse, learning how to fight, helping Harry as numbers runner. Trying to ignore the dark sides of the Hon business becomes impossible when she discovers that a friend from Angel Island will be sold into prostitution and finds a way to help her keep her out of their reach.

Will the tong uncover her involvement in the escape?
How can she keep her identity secret when Sterling Promise appears?
Can this Fire Horse overcome old beliefs to find freedom in a new land?

Set in the waning days of the tongs’ power in Chinatown, this story of Jade Moon’s quest for a new life follows the twists and turns caused by her outspoken comments and daring choices. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Renegade Magic, by Stephanie Burgis (book review) – dark magic, Regency manners, secrets everywhere

May6

book cover of Renegade Magic by Stephanie Burgis published by AtheneumThe pointed comments about their mother,
the deliberate snubs by those in high society,
the accusations of magic being used…
can the healing waters of Bath wash away their troubles?

The Guardians have refused to train Kat to handle the magical powers she inherited from her mother, and all of England may be in dreadful peril because of it!

This funny and suspenseful series owes much to the author’s love of Regency romances, like those of Georgette Heyer, and her own life as one of several siblings.

Kat, Incorrigible is the first book of the series (my recommendation here), and Stolen Magic  is the third (review coming soon).

Try out the first chapter of Renegade Magic  here and get swept into A Tangle of Magicks  in “The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson” series, as it’s known in the UK.
And the “Dueling Magicks” short story is currently available free (grab it now here!).

What magic powers would you like to use against the stuffier conventions of  society?
**kmm

Book info: Renegade Magic (Kat, Incorrigible #2) / Stephanie Burgis. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2012 hardcover, 2013 paperback.  [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]

My recommendation: Kat doesn’t care about polite society, but when accusations of witchcraft during her eldest sister’s wedding send the family fleeing to see-and-be-seen Bath, she’ll take the change of scenery. But this spirited young lady had no idea that evil magic was gathering in the fashionable city – she may have to break a few more Guardian rules to stop it!

No one could have imagined that Frederick’s mother would storm the little country church to accuse middle sister Angeline of bewitching her son – with real witchcraft! Never mind that the three sisters really did inherit their mother’s magical skills and that Stepmama pretends they are not excluded from polite Regency society because of that scandalous family history.

Suddenly, they’re off to the resort city of Bath so that Angeline may acquire a new fiance to quell the gossips, with Stepmama settling the family into her distant relative’s well-placed townhouse by hinting that Lady Fotherington is Kat’s godmother. Of course, everyone important in society respects that great Lady; only Kat knows she’s one of the Guardians using magic to protect England against evil magic-wielders – and that she despises Kat for inheriting her mother’s powers.

As Angeline and Stepmama and reluctant Kat visit all the right places during the proper hours, brother Charles gets himself entangled in gambling again (all he learned at Oxford, it seems), a notorious man singles out Angeline, and Kat seeks out the unusual magic giving off sparks of evil with her cousin Lucy’s unexpected help.

Are the famous spring waters of Bath hiding a darker secret?
Why is scandalous Viscount Scarwood wooing Angeline?
How will Kat ever get the Guardians to train her properly?

Good magic, bad magic, and treachery lurk below the surface of 19th century Britain’s preoccupation with fashion and manners in this fast-paced sequel to Kat, Incorrigible.  Be sure to follow Kat’s quest to recover Stolen Magic  in the third book of the series, too.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

The Rithmatist, by Brandon Sanderson (book review) – chalk as weapon, geometry as war

May3

Book cover of The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson published by Tor TeenHe has the strategy, but not the power.
She has the power, but not the skills.
Their enemy has all three, and will stop at nothing to have more.

Welcome to a completely new alternate Earth of the early 1900s, filled with islands instead of our current continents, Korea as world power which has pushed out European culture, and Wild Chalkling beasts which threaten to overtake and devour all flesh-based life!

If only he was a Rithmatist, Joel could be such a strong defense against the Wild Chalklings of Nebrask (a nod to author Sanderson’s birthplace)… but the power has passed him by.

Read the Prologue and chapter one here (it’s not ch. 5 as header shows) complete with McSweeney’s illustrations , and you’ll be hooked on this quirky premise which unfolds to become much more than a novelty steampunk/alternate history tale.  Contact your local independent bookstore so you can grab it on Tuesday, May 14, 2013 in the USA (the UK release date is May 23).

Which alternate history world would you like to live in?
**kmm

Book info: The Rithmatist (Rithmatist #1) / Brandon Sanderson; illustrations by Ben McSweeney. Tor Teen, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]  [author video interview] (Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.)

My recommendation: n the right hands, a piece of chalk is defense against evil; in the wrong hands, it’s war on humanity; in Joel’s hands, it’s just chalk, no matter how much he longs to be a Rithmatist. When a schoolmate suggests that his dream is indeed possible, he leaps at the chance, right into a puzzle of kidnapping and conspiracy.

Joel is more interested in the Rithmatics lines that his late chalkmaker father studied than in his regular classes at Armedius Academy. Joel was sure that he’d be chosen as a Rithmatist at age 8, but events interfered with that. Who wouldn’t want to be able to defend the United Isles against the flesh-tearing Wild Chalklings with careful strategy and magic chalklines? The ability was granted to so few…

A new Rithmatist just back from the frontier of Nebrask displaces Prof. Fitch, ending the fourteen-year-old’s hopes of learning more about these arcane arts, for Prof. Nalizar is even more disdainful of ‘common’ students than the academy’s Rithmatics students (if such a thing is possible). Only Melody will speak to Joel as they spend summer term with Prof. Finch – she in remedial studies (her chalklings are stunning; her circles too wobbly to defend anything) and he as research assistant.

When an older Rithmatics student disappears, gossip says Lilly just ran away, but bloodstains and chalkling-attacked defense lines in her room tell another story. Inspector Harding of the national police arrives on campus to investigate, and Prof. Finch is given the task of uncovering any possible rogue Rithmatists.

Another advanced Rithmatics student vanishes, leaving signs of a chalk battle behind – now parents are worried, newspaper reporters clamor for details, and the investigative team at Armedius struggles to piece together the clues.

Is it mere coincidence that Prof. Nalizar arrived just before Lilly vanished?
Are the odd chalklines found at disappearance sites new Rithmatic lines of power?
Will the kidnapper strike again?

In his first novel for young adults, Brandon Sanderson unveils a brilliantly imagined alternative world where Korea’s JoSeun empire has invaded Europe and the Americas are many islands in a shallow sea, where machinery runs on clockwork instead of internal combustion and fear of the Wild Chalklings’ escape from Nebrask drives the Rithmatists’ training, where mere fragments of simple chalk stand between chaos and civilization. Ben McSweeney’s illustrations of Rithmatics lines enhance descriptions of the defenses, duels and battles, while readers can only hope that the Chalkling attackers that he draws stay firmly on the pages. First in a series that promises more adventure, magic, and treachery. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

TBR and A-to-Z – Reflecting on April alphabet soup!

May1

sketch of cloud with face blowing out wind April just whoooshed by, didn’t it? Suddenly it’s May 1st, BooksYALove’s second birthday!

This month, I shared twenty-six new book recommendations here, over half for books published before 2013, so I’m making progress on the TBR2012 Challenge and my overstuffed to-be-reviewed shelves, and attended the Texas Library Association annual conference in Fort Worth, where I met authors, got autographs, and received advance reader copies of upcoming titles which look amazing!

Last year was the first time I’d participated in the April A-to-Z Blog Challenge, and I really stressed out about it, trying to visit and comment intelligently on far too many participants’ blogs while squishing my recommendations into the restrictive A-on-this-day, B-on-next format (and also attending TLA with activities in every waking moment).

This year, I signed up anyway as a good way to prod myself into clearing my to-be-reviewed shelves of the great books which had just gotten passed over for even-more-wonderful books as time went along. I got a few new followers (which is one reason to do a blog challenge), and they left insightful comments (which is why you want followers), so I feel better about April A-to-Z Blog Challenge than I did last year and am likely to sign up next year to do it again (my to-be-reviewed shelves will undoubtedly refill themselves, as I read much quicker than I write recommendations).

Here are the prior-to-2013 books which I recommended in April for TBR Challenge; just click on the title to read more about it:

Fantasy/Fairy Tale:
Darkbeast – Morgan Keyes
Lies, Knives, and Girls in Red Dresses – Ron Koertge; illustrated by Andrea Dezso [in verse]

Historical fiction:
The Lost Crown – Sarah Miller
Where the Broken Heart Still Beats – Carolyn Meyer

Mystery:
Death Cloud (Young Sherlock Holmes #1) – Andrew Lane

Paranormal:
Born Wicked (Cahill Witch Chronicles #1) – Jessica Spotswood
Exile (Mercy #2) – Rebecca Lim
Radiant Days – Elizabeth Hand

Realistic Fiction:
The Candymakers – Wendy Mass
The Day Before – Lisa Schroeder [in verse]
Freaks Like Us – Susan Vaught
The Key to the Golden Firebird – Maureen Johnson
Nothing Special – Geoff Herbach
Pink Smog: Becoming Weetzie Bat – Francesca Lia Block
Surviving High School – M. Doty
Wish You Were Here – Barbara Shoup

So, I’ve recommended 44 titles for TBR2012, including those featured in January, February, and March, with some still on my shelves! Stay tuned…

Which new-to-you pre-2013 books have you enjoyed lately?
**kmm

(blowing cloud image (c) FreeClipArtNow.com)

Z for zzzzz – Stung, by Bethany Wiggins (book review) – bees extinct, humanity next?

Apr30

book cover of Stung by Bethany Wiggins published by Walker BloomsburyNo bees, no pollination.
No pollination, no food.
No food, now anarchy.

Bee flu? Bioengineered bee-replacements? Vaccine-induced madness coupled with super-human strength? Not the Denver that I want to visit…

You can read an excerpt from the first chapter of Stung  here.

Will we be able to save today’s normal bees and save ourselves?
**kmm

Book info:  Stung / Bethany Wiggins. Walker & Company, 2013.  [author blog]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]

My recommendation: Fiona suddenly awakens in her bedroom, clean in a world of filth and dust, looking like she’s seventeen yet feeling thirteen. She knows she must hide the ten-legged tattoo on her hand, but can’t remember why.

Attacked by a snarling savage man who might be her brother, she flees her family’s shattered house, seeking answers, finding hostility from neighbors. Reward posters offer ounces of rarer-than-gold honey for live captives with the tattoo – she recalls something about bees dying.

Rescued from vicious men by a ragged child, Fi finds a world of refugee Fecs in the sewers. The tattooed ones turn violent as teenagers and are hunted down by the militia before they can mindlessly attack the clean citizens behind the Wall. A three can break a strong man’s arm without effort – what could a ten like Fiona do? But she still feels human…

An attempt to rescue a three from the militia goes wrong, and Fiona is sonic-shocked. She recognizes her captor as Bowen, her next-door-neighbor, the younger brother. He is stunned to hear her speak, as the violent impulses always choke out rational thought.

Eventually convinced that Fiona won’t turn violent, Bowen tells her what’s happened during her four-year memory gap. Scientists tried to rescue dwindling bee populations and created disease, tried to cure the disease and created monsters. Each leg on a tattoo means one dose received –  and one step closer to violence and madness. People with no tattoo weren’t exposed to the cure and won’t turn violent, so healthy ones can live inside the Wall – for a time.

But something is wrong with this theory – if Fiona has ten marks, why isn’t she a mindless monster by now? How did she suddenly appear in a clean dress in her old house? Why can’t she remember the past four years? Why does the Governor want her so badly that he offers full life inside the Wall for her capture, dead or alive?

Battling against more than just loss of water and resources, Fiona and Bowen work on the mystery as they try to escape from the militia, the slavetraders, the Fecs, and the Governor in a frightening future where not one bee buzzes. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Y for Yehudi Mercado’s wacky Pantalones, TX: Don’t Chicken Out! (book review) – racing, mischief, and giant chicken challenge

Apr29

book cover of Pantalones TX Don't Chicken Out by Yehudi Mercado published by ArchaiaTexas legends and tumbleweed pompons,
a schoolkid planning the biggest prank ever,
and a giant chicken that blocks out the sun!

Y is for Yehudi Mercado and for yee-haw!

Welcome to Pantalones, Texas, the town where underwear was invented, Chico Bustamante’s souped-up go-kart outruns the sheriff’s chicken-shack-mobile, and the jail doubles as the schoolhouse.

Ask for this first book in the series at your local library or independent bookstore now so you can enjoy the feuding, friendship, and sunglasses-wearing dog Baby T, Chico’s cool sidekick. Yehudi’s website says the book is “Smokey and the Bandit meets Peanuts!”  Hope we’ll see book two soon – Pantalones, TX: Night of the Underwear Wolf!

What’s your best chicken-chasing story?
**kmm

Book info: Pantalones, TX: Don’t Chicken Out / written and illustrated by Yehudi Mercado.  Archaia Entertainment, 2012.  [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]   (Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher)

My Book Talk: The dry riverbeds of Pantalones, Texas, are great for go-kart racing and tumbleweed chasing, but Chico wants to make his mark on history. With his trusty sidekick Baby T the sunglasses-wearing dog and best friend Pigboy (yes, he’s a boy who’s part pig), Chico plans one stunt after another, always one step ahead of the shifty sheriff.

In this tiny town where underwear was invented, the jail also serves as schoolhouse, the schoolbus is an armadillo-drawn wagon, and the sheriff speeds around in a mobile chicken-shack trying to catch Chico the prankster. Everyone thinks the New York weatherman and his son are from a foreign country, but no one knows they’re closet vegetarians.

Sheriff Cornwallis plans to make Pantalones famous for more than just underwear, so he creates a gigantic chicken and dares Chico to ride the bucking cluck like a rodeo star! Of course, Chico Bustamante and Baby T are hungry for adventure!

Can schoolkid Chico ride the giant chicken for the whole nine seconds?
Will the people of Pantalones ever realize that New York isn’t a foreign country?
What does a surfing rabbi have to do with all this?

Texas graphic novelist Yehudi Mercado uses his signature vivid color palette and wild imagination to create this bigger-than-life little town where anything could happen (and usually does) in the first book of his Pantalones, TX series. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

X for eXamine the evidence – Death Cloud, by Andrew Lane (book review) – young Sherlock’s first case!

Apr27

book cover of Death Cloud by Andrew Lane published by Farrar Straus GirouxSlack smoke, yellow dust, red boils,
Secretive Baron whom no one sees outside his villa,
Dead men tell no tales,
The game is afoot!

Summer holiday from school turns into a race to solve this mystery before more people die as Sherlock meets the unspoken-of Holmes side of his family, a canal-boat owning orphan, and an independent American miss.

This is the first young adult series about Sherlock Holmes authorized by the estate of the great detective’s creator.
paperback cover of Death Cloud by Andrew Lane published by Square Fish
Find Death Cloud and the following four books of the series at your local library or independent bookstore.

Which cover art do you prefer – the realistic young gent of the hardcover edition or the explosive red of the paperback?
**kmm

Book info: Death Cloud (Young Sherlock Holmes, book 1) / Andrew Lane. Farrar Straus Giroux, hardcover 2010; Square Fish Books, paperback 2011. [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]

My recommendation: Shuffled off to stay during school holiday with relatives he’s never met, Sherlock is not a happy young man. However, strange occurences near his uncle’s country home soon pique his interest, and his new American tutor teaches him observation skills that bring the fourteen-year-old much closer to evildoers than any of them want.

With Father just posted to India,  Mother suddenly unwell, and older brother Mycroft working in London, it’s just not possible for Sherlock to go home over the 1868 school break as he’d so anticipated. But to be forced to stay with a pious aunt and an eccentric uncle who has hired a tutor for him when just wants to ramble the woods and think!

Luckily, Mr. Crowe is an untraditional tutor, skipping over Latin verbs to show Sherlock how to carefully observe the world around him, skills that serve him well when they find a dead man at the edge of Uncle’s land, a man with boils all over his skin. Recently, another man in town had died with such marks on him said his new pal Matty, who spoke of black smoke which went into the dead man’s room – is it the plague?

Many townspeople work making uniforms for the British Army as hostilities against the French heat up, and the mysterious Baron has arrived to inspect his warehouses in Farnham. Sherlock discovers that both dead men had worked at the factory, Mr. Crowe’s daughter Virginia decides she won’t be left out, and the three teens scout for more clues in this threatening puzzle.

Did the yellow powder found near both men cause their deaths?
Does the Baron’s visit have anything to do with this?
Why is the Holmes’ housekeeper suddenly trying to keep Sherlock indoors?

Wild inventions and political intrigue are just some of the dangers that Sherlock, Matty, and Virginia must face as they race to prevent more deaths in this first book of the Young Sherlock Holmes series, fully authorized by the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who created the original character of Sherlock Holmes.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.