Tag Archive | travel

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?
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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?
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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)

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?
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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.

W for Where the Broken Heart Still Beats, by Carolyn Meyer (book review) – captured by Indians, captured by family

Apr26

book cover of Where the Broken Heart Still Beats by Carolyn Meyer published by HarcourtWho does the land belong to?
Who is closer – family of blood or family by adoption?
Who decides which child a mother must be separated from?

While kidnapping of settlers’ children and wives by Native Americans was not uncommon on the Western frontier, bringing any back to their white families certainly was. Of course, it didn’t matter to her uncle and his family that Naduah had no interest in them or their strange customs and uncomfortable shoes.

Reunited with her children after death, Cynthia Ann is now buried in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, beside her Comanche warrior son Quanah and young daughter Topsannah.

Author of many historical fiction books for young adults, Carolyn Meyer was inspired to write Cynthia Ann’s story when she moved to Texas in the early 1990s, as she notes in this interview. Recently reissued with new cover art, Where the Broken Heart Still Beats  is a timeless tale of love, family, and conflict.

Which do you prefer – historical fiction or factual biographies?
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 local library  or independent bookstore

Book info:  Where the Broken Heart Still Beats: the Story of Cynthia Ann Parker (Great Episodes series) / Carolyn Meyer. Harcourt, 1992. [author site]  [publisher site]

My recommendation: Kidnapped not once but twice, a young girl in frontier Texas becomes the mother of a great Comanche warrior, yet feels like a prisoner as she dies among her blood relatives, far from those she loves.

Captured from her uncle’s settlement by Comanche raiders who killed many of her relatives, nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker soon adapted to life with the People, moving across the land as the seasons changed, growing into a strong young woman called Naduah who married chief Peta Nocona and bore him sons and a daughter.

Her Parker relatives never stopped searching for Cynthia Ann, as rumors of a light-eyed girl in the Comanche camps reached them through traders over the course of twenty-five years. But the elder chiefs would not accept any amount of trade goods for this hard-working daughter of the People, no matter what the white men asked.

Finally, the Parker men raided the Comanche camp when the warriors were hunting buffalo, almost shooting Naduah in their quest to remove the “Indian threat” from lands they wanted to settle. When they saw her light eyes, they realized this could be their long-gone cousin, and her startled response to the name ‘Sinty Ann’ showed they were right.

Now, Naduah and baby daughter Topsannah are securely within the Parker family compound, and her 12-year-old cousin Lucy tries to reawaken her memory of the English language and ‘civilized’ behavior. All Naduah wants is to return to her husband and sons, so she tries again and again to escape, but is always thwarted.

How long can her family keep her away from her family?
Who has rights to the land which has supported the Comanche for so long?
How long can a mother live without hearing her children’s voices?

Told in the alternating voices of cousin Lucy’s journal and Naduah’s reminiscences, this true episode from history captures the uneasy ebb and flow of relations between Native Americans and settlers in north Texas as the Lone Star State is on the brink of entering the Civil War.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

U for Undo tradition in Darkbeast, by Morgan Keyes (book review) – to murder or to escape?

Apr24

bookcover of Darkbeast by Morgan Keyes published by Margaret K. McElderry Books Give your bad habits to your darkbeast,
Give your sins to the darkbeast,
They are gone forever…
and soon your magical companion will be gone forever, too.

The ultimate end of childhood, having to kill the magical beast who’s been conversing with you mentally since you were tiny – and Keara just cannot do that to Caw.

Running away with a theatrical troupe who must perform religious plays to the satisfaction of the high priests and ruler may or may not be the escape that the young woman envisioned!

The sequel, Darkbeast Rebellion,  is scheduled for September 2013 publication, when the paperback of Darkbeast  will also be released.

Please share your favorite books where someone defies tradition to do what they know in their heart is right.
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Book info: Darkbeast / Morgan Keyes.  Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2012.  [author site] [publisher site]

My recommendation: Keara wants to be good, tries to give her rebellion over to her darkbeast Caw, to let him take her fault into himself. But she can’t let it go, can’t kill Caw on her twelfth birthday as she becomes a woman, can’t stay in the village where she’s broken custom and her mother’s heart.

It was the tales spun by the Travelers, performed on the village green just before her nameday, stories of the gods and goddesses which entranced Keara and made her twist around Mother’s orders to stay home. Now her world is bigger than Silver Hollow, and her life there will be empty when the troupe leaves.

No one else in her village has ever defied the gods and the law by refusing to sacrifice the darkbeast which contained all their sins and faults of childhood. Keara cannot imagine losing that magical connection of mind and heart which has filled her whole being, so they run away, girl and raven, trying to hide from the Inquisitors.

Catching up with the Travelers, Keara finds a cautious welcome when she shows them an error in their play about the goddess Nuntia. For these plays teach and retell the legends of the Twelve, and if the villagers hear a fact told wrong, they’ll never again trust this company of Travelers for the truth – and the Primate himself could order the company disbanded or worse.

Holy plays about the Twelve gods and goddesses, common plays about funny everyday things – the Travelers of Taggart’s troupe will soon decide which one to perform before the Primate and priests at the great festival three months hence. And Keara means to be with them when they do.

Can she and Caw avoid the Inquisitors while traveling and performing?
Why is every other twelve-year-old so eager to sever the magical bond with their darkbeast?
Can Keara learn the Travelers’ ways quickly enough to become a troupe member?

It’s a dangerous path that Keara has chosen for herself and Caw, a treacherous way that Taggart and his troupe choose as they prepare for the festival in the land of Duodecia where the the gods and goddesses rule over all, disregarding love.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

T for traded – The Day Before, by Lisa Schroeder (book review) – birth-switch discovered years later; now what?

Apr23

book cover of The Day Before by Lisa Schroeder published by Simon PulseFamily is family,
there for you when you need them,
there when they drive you nuts.
But what if you’re not really their flesh and blood at all?

Babies being accidentally switched at birth can happen even in modern hospitals. Sometimes the error is discovered, other times not. Amber’s birth parents uncover the unintentional swap when the girls are young teens and will go to any lengths to be involved in the Oregon teen’s life, even if she’s not interested.

Experience her one perfect day on the beach with Cade, an amazing guy burdened by his own secrets, in this novel-in-verse that reads like the waves on the shore or the beating of an anxious heart.

It’s Novels in Verse Week – what are your favorites?
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Book info:  The Day Before / Lisa Schroeder. Simon Pulse, 2011 hardcover, 2012 paperback.   [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]

My recommendation: Just one day when everything is perfect, that’s all Amber wants – before the journey, before the changes that will leave her different forever. Meeting Cade on the Oregon beach is perfect, but she worries about what he’s running from. So much can change in one day…

When her parents split up, Amber took refuge in drumming with her rock band, dissecting school rumors with best friend Madison, watching sappy late-night movies with Mom. The news took them all by surprise, three years ago. Switched at birth by mistake – sounds like something in the tabloids.

Somehow she’s really the biological daughter of a Texas couple, who discovered the mixup when their same-birthdate daughter died of a rare disorder. Bloodtypes didn’t match, records were back-traced, and suddenly Amber is someone else… and her birth parents long to meet her.

So she’s taking this last day as just Mom and Dad’s daughter to do her favorite Oregon things – walk the beach, toes in the cold Pacific, visit the aquarium. There she meets Cade, a guy her age who’s also taking a personal day off from school, revisiting favorite childhood seaside places. But he’s not just skipping school; like Amber, he’s here as if he might not ever see them again.

What’s Cade running from?
Could he see her as Amber-the-Girl instead of Amber-the-Drummer?
Why, oh why, does she have to leave tomorrow?

This novel-in-verse chronicles Amber’s perfect day with Cade, punctuated with letters from her old and new family, sprinkled with jelly beans, laced through and through with worry about her future, his future, their future. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

S for Sisters in Jane Austen Goes to Hollywood, by Abby McDonald (book review) – Sense and Sensibility and sunscreen

Apr22

book cover of Jane Austen Goes to Hollywood by Abby McDonald published by CandlewickPoor relatives can’t be picky about things,
Change can be painful…
but landing on your feet in Beverly Hills – wow!

Hallie and Grace’s very rich stepmother sells the sisters’ home so that their half-brother will “be provided for” – curses on Dad for dying without a valid will!

And Grace is attracted to stepmother’s brother (her step-uncle?) who appreciates her love of science combined with art.

You can read the first three chapters  free here, then be ready to head for your local library or independent bookstore because you’ll want to read the rest of this updated version of Sense and Sensibility ! While you’re there, look for other titles by McDonald, like Boys, Bears, and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots  (my no-spoiler recommendation here).

What other modernized classics have you read lately?
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Book info: Jane Austen Goes to Hollywood / Abby McDonald. Candlewick Press, 2013. [author site] [publisher site]

My recommendation: Dad suddenly died and left everything to his new wife, including their childhood home. So Mom, Grace, and Hallie leave the misty cool of San Francisco and move in with Mom’s cousin – in his Beverly Hills mansion. Reinvent themselves or stay the same?

So weird to meet their stepmother’s brother at Dad’s wake – he’s just a bit older than the sisters. Theo and Grace visit all her favorite places in San Francisco one last time before she moves to L.A. and he heads back east to college. They were getting along so well…

Sometimes, Grace feels like the parent as big sister is dramatic to extremes and mom is artistic, laid-back. For them, being in Cousin Auggie’s guesthouse is starting anew; for shy Grace, it’s anguishing to change, no matter how nice their cousin’s young starlet wife is to them.

Hallie can’t wait to start her acting career, but agencies won’t even let her in the door. A chance encounter on the beach gets her into an exclusive circle of young actresses where she meets Dakota, lead singer for the hottest band, new love of her life! She’ll be his inspiration now, and life is very, very good. Never mind scarred Brandon next door, offering to photograph her for agency headshots, trying to get over his tour in Iraq.

Grace stays by the pool at Auggie’s all summer, then tries to find her place among the rich and ritzy at her new high school. Her lab partner Harry at least does his share of work and business-builder Palmer is a crazy-fun antidote to the celebrity gossip around them. Mom is so wrapped up in painting a new portrait series that she honestly has no idea what her daughters are experiencing, aside from the careful comments they make during family Sunday brunch.

Will Hallie ever get an audition? Will Dakota stay true to her?
Can Grace get over what might have been with Theo?
What happens when the in-crowd gossip hits a little too close to home?

Yes, this is Sense and Sensibility  transplanted into 92010 with all the social posturing and misunderstandings intact – and an added dose of sunscreen, rock music, and current events.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Q for Quest – Exile, by Rebecca Lim (book review) – amnesiac angel on a mission

Apr19

book cover of Exile by Rebecca Lim published by Hyperion TeenWaking up in a daze, again.
In someone else’s body, again.
Clinging to a thread of her own memory again.

An exiled angel, a desperate man, hints of other powers thwarting Mercy’s attempts to remember Luc or Ryan or why she cared for them – add this to a dead-end coffee shop job and a dying mother… how will Mercy resolve Lela’s situation and give the Melbourne teen her body back?

You’ll understand more of Mercy’s predicament if you read Mercy  first (see my no-spoiler recommendation) and sneak a peek at chapter 1 of Exile here. Hoping that Muse (book 3) and Fury  (book 4) get to the USA from Australia soon!

Can you truly remember love when all other memories are gone?
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Book info: Exile (Mercy, book 2) / Rebecca Lim. Hyperion, 2012. [author info]  [publisher site]

My recommendation:  Slammed awake in yet another body, Mercy now must answer to the name Lela, to care for ‘her’ mother dying of cancer, to work at ‘her’ dead-end job at the rundown café, to discover why she’s been called into this particular body at this exact time.

She has fragmentary memories of inhabiting a young singer’s body in another country, of being loved by a young man even after he realized she was not the real Carmen…why can’t she remember more of her time there? And just a flash of celestial Luc’s searing kisses in her dreams.

Poor Lela has had such a hard-luck life in this dreary Australian city, and now this, her mother withering before her very eyes. Perhaps Mercy was brought into her body to ease the pain of Mum’s passing, or she’s supposed to help Justine escape her terrible boyfriend, maybe turn co-worker Reggie into a decent human being (nah, impossible).

Mercy lets Lela’s muscle-memory take over coffee orders called to the barista, the best ways to ease around her grumpy boss and terrifying Sulaiman the cook. One man uses the café as his mid-morning office and helps her search for Carmen’s name on his computer in exchange for a dinner date. Very twitchy and OCD, this Ranald. Lela has turned him down for dates several times, it seems.

Rushing home when Lela’s mother takes a turn for the worse, Mercy is accosted by a small patch of energy, a being who’s as trapped here as she is, who gives her a tiny clue about who or what she might truly be. But there are larger problems ahead as a crazed customer threatens to kill everyone in the café, Justine’s boyfriend gets abusive, and Mercy’s online search for Carmen and Ryan is attracting unwanted attention in the city and elsewhere.

Could she really love Ryan, or is Luc right about the past she cannot remember?
Who is she? What is she? Why is Mercy right here, right now?
As Mercy journeys from body to body, can she ever find out where she truly belongs?

This second book in the Mercy series by Australian author Rebecca Lim is followed by Muse.  While Exile  can stand alone, read Mercy  first for maximum enjoyment. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher through NetGalley.

O for Out of Nowhere, by Maria Padian (fiction) – black refugees, white town, seeing red

Apr17

book cover of Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian published by KnopfMoving far away is difficult.
Keeping your faith in a new place is hard.
Soccer… is wonderful.

The Somali migration to Lewiston, Maine, that began in the early 2000s saw the arrival of newcomers who had almost nothing in common with its residents – not race, not religion, not food traditions, not clothes styles. Yet this influx of families has revitalized the formerly dying factory town; everything’s not perfect, but many positive things are happening there.

And the love of soccer? Seems to be universal, a language that every cheering fan and would-be goalie understands. Will it be enough to keep things calm at Chamberlain High? You’ll have to read this new novel yourself to find out what happens to Saeed and his family, to Tom and his family, to the town whose mayor asked refugees to stop inviting their relatives to live there.
**kmm

Book info: Out of Nowhere / Maria Padian. Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2013. [author’s website] [publisher site]

My Recommendation: Saeed’s soccer is brilliant, his smile is blinding, his skin as black as the Somali refugee camp that his family had fled. Maybe Saeed could help Chamberlain High win against their biggest rivals, thought Tom, but winning over the townspeople to accept the Somali Muslim immigrants would be a far larger battle.

Tom’s small Maine hometown wasn’t thrilled at the secondary migration of Somali refugees from the big cities like Atlanta where they’d been placed on first arrival in the US. Most of these new students spoke very little English so the school counselors are frazzled.

Luckily, soccer has its own global language, so once Tom can get Saeed’s mother to sign his permission slips, the team will have their best chance ever against fancy Maquoit High School. Too bad Saeed’s sister Samira took an instant dislike to Tom (everyone likes Tom, especially the girls).

Too bad that Tom went along with his lifelong pal Donnie on a prank where they were caught redhanded. Now it’s hours of community service (bet that stoner doesn’t follow through)  along with soccer practice which lands Tom at the community center, tutoring a young Somali boy, meeting a cute college girl, and wondering if he really wants to stay with his affectionate but less-than-intelligent girlfriend.

What an amazing soccer season! Thanks to Saeed and the other Somali players, the team becomes a fast, accurate scoring machine. But the final games against their arch-rivals fall during Ramadan, when the Muslim students fast until sunset, so the team’s dream may drift away. Tom’s relatives continue to argue about the refugees, Donnie goes one goof too far, and a white supremacist group plans a rally in Enniston.

How much tension can a small town take before something snaps?
How can very different religions co-exist peacefully?
How can one small action change everything?

Tom thinks things through as he accepts these new players who came from Out of Nowhere, trying to make up his own mind about how the past impacts the future during his tumultuous senior year. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

N for Nothing Special, by Geoff Herbach (book review) – road trip to reclaim his brother, crazy times

Apr16

book cover of Nothing Special by Geoff Herbach published by SourcebooksAttend football camp or find his brother?
Be like his dad or make something of his life?
Listen to his friends or listen to his heart?

Even if you haven’t read the award-winning first book about Felton Feinstein, where he suddenly becomes Stupid Fast at running, you’ll die laughing at the high school senior’s stream-of-consciousness journaling and his screwball take on life. Running up and down the hall in the airport hotel because he can’t sleep, chasing after his brother, wanting to tell Grandpa Feinstein who he is but not wanting to tell him…

Grab this one before the last volume of the trilogy, I’m With Stupid,  is published in May 2013 so you understand everything Felton, Andrew, and Gus have gone through.

When change is so quick, even if it’s good change, is it easy to cope?
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Book info: Nothing Special / Geoff Herbach. Sourcebooks Fire, 2012. [author site] [publisher site] [fan-created book trailer]

My recommendation: Suddenly an amazing athlete after his dorky early years, Felton is still trying to sort out who he is – son of hippie mom and crazy dad, big brother of genius musician, football star, track phenom, terrible best friend to Gus… Then his brother goes missing and Felton has to find him, no matter what else he has to put aside to do it.

Gus is supposed to be Felton’s best friend, but he keeps hounding him about details for the prom (which is weeks and weeks away), bugging him about whether his girlfriend Aleah will come up for it, does he want to rent a limo, blah, blah, blah… when Felton really needs to concentrate on football games and indoor track meets and wondering if Aleah is a bit too quiet right now.

Andrew is supposed to be at orchestra camp in Michigan, but he’s not. His friends say he’s “on an adventure” and soon Felton’s skepticism about their claims turns to certainty: his too-serious little brother has taken himself to Florida to visit the Feinstein side of their family that Mom cut ties with ages ago.

Felton is supposed to go to football camp at University of Michigan, showing the coaches that he’s worthy of a scholarship. But for once in his not-the-best-decisions life, big brother decides that he absolutely must retrieve Andrew, whose made-up blog posts and stilted phone calls might placate Mom, but aren’t fooling him one bit.

So off he goes, first time on a plane, first time to book a hotel room, not the first time to find himself behaving like a total crazy man in front of people. Can’t stay still, can’t stop worrying about Andrew, can’t stop wondering why Gus is suddenly so mean to him, can’t bear to think about life after high school.

Will he find Andrew safe and sound?
Who is this cousin they never met before?
What will he say to his father’s father?

This wild and wacky road trip continues the transformation from dork to Stupid Fast  athlete begun in Herbach’s first book about Felton and sets the stage for the last book in the trilogy, I’m With Stupid.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.