Tag Archive | fathers

William and the Lost Spirit, by Gwen de Bonneval and Matthieu Bonhomme (book review) – quest for father trapped in time

Jun16

book cover of William and the Lost Spirit by Gwen de Bonneval, art by Matthieu Bonhomme, published by Graphic UniverseA way-finding goat,
Mythical creatures and legendary people,
Trust your spirit, not your eyes.

Hilane is sure that Father is alive when everyone else thinks he’s dead, and her quest to find him turns into brother William’s odyssey through lands of fable and myth to discover a way to release his spirit from whoever (or whatever) holds it captive.

Brigands and knights and political treachery are all part of this sweeping medieval tale in graphic novel format.

Is their father dead or alive? You’ll have to read William and the Lost Spirit for yourself to find out.

May your Father’s Day be much less-adventurous than William and Hilane’s travels!
**kmm

Book info: William and the Lost Spirit / Gwen de Bonneval; art by Matthieu Bonhomme; translation and commentary by Ann and Owen Smith. Graphic Universe, 2013.   [author Facebook – in French]  [artist biography]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]

My book talk: Bandits roam the French countryside and their widowed mother prepares to wed the seneschal for safety, but William and his sister Hilane still sense their father’s life-force and undertake a treacherous journey to find him.

As the Count’s business manager, the seneschal should have ensured that the knights have the resources to clear the area of bandits, yet somehow the peasants are still being killed or run off. Now that Brifaut is marrying the widow of the Count’s son, he will receive a title and much of the abandoned land. Hilane and William think that their father’s “death” was most suspicious – how can a healer die of unknown poison?

When Hilane runs away before the wedding, William follows, turning to their other-worldly aunt Ysane for clues to her whereabouts and meeting up with a Crusades-experienced knight, a troubadour, and a friendly goat. Ysane says that William’s father is alive in “the Far-Off Lands” and that he’ll be guided on his journey as needed. So off they go, encountering turn-coat knights, fearsome creatures, Prester John of legend, and many perils along the way.

Can William find Hilane before it’s too late?
Will he survive the challenges and bring justice to his grandfather’s land?
Is his father truly alive?

This action-packed French graphic novel includes all three original volumes of William’s adventures, plus extensive commentary by the translators in the US publication.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Legacy of the Clockwork Key, by Kristin Bailey (book review) – key to danger, love, time itself

May24

book cover of Legacy of the Clockwork Key by Kristin Bailey published by Simon PulseA pocket-watch that is actually a key,
a key made of clockwork
and music and love and danger.

The infinitely intricate clockwork devices made by Meg’s late father and grandfather and other Secret Order ‘amusementists’ make the automatons whirring and blinking in Europe’s royal courts seem like primitive toys in comparison.

Read the beginning of Meg’s story, as Kristin shares part of chapter one here, and be sure to watch the book trailer, one of my favorites!

You’ll want to hurry to your local library  or independent bookstore to pick up this first book of the Secret Order series so you can travel through the mystery with Meg and Will, outwitting mazes and mechanical monsters, solving puzzles on a pirate ship, and trying to stay one step ahead of pure human evil.

What’s the most amazing clockwork device you’ve seen in action?
**kmm

Book info: Legacy of the Clockwork Key (The Secret Order, #1) / Kristin Bailey. Simon Pulse, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]

My book talk: Rescued by a secretive benefactor, Meg is no longer a young lady of good society in Victorian England, but a orphaned housemaid in a mansion that time forgot. When intricate devices point to clues regarding her parents’ deaths, the sixteen-year-old knows she must follow them, despite the danger to herself, her reputation, and her heart.

Meg wonders why every detail here must stay as it was, why the Baron took her in, why the staff knows “he’s always watching” when no one sees him. She mourns for her learned parents, killed in the fire which consumed their clock shop and her future six months ago. If only her grandfather were still alive…

When she asks the Baron’s young coachman to repair the clock-locket which alone survived the fire, it turns out to be a clockwork key. Meg recognizes its design in the parlor fireplace and unlocks secrets about the Baron (and her grandfather) that send her rushing to Will for help. Visiting a graveyard, unlocking more secrets, befriending a young widow – the pair uncovers a far-reaching organization of inventors, a sinister plot, and a terrifying problem.

The unseen Baron fires them both for “unbecoming behavior” and Meg knows that he’s discovered her visit into his workroom. With widowed Mrs. Pricket, they flee London, trying to reach the nearest amusementist (as Lucinda Pricket calls these inventors in the Secret Order) and safety. Although the inventor is long gone, his larger-than-life clockwork-powered amusement remains, and they must reanimate it to find more clues. For if they cannot stop the Baron, then he will kill them as surely as he killed Meg’s parents and Lucinda’s husband and others of the Secret Order.

Can they outrun the man who wants to control time?
Can they survive the perils of the gigantic clockwork amusements?
Can Meg and Will ignore their attraction to one another?

An entire secret organization dedicated to inventing the most elaborate toys on earth, a murderer bent on snuffing out all competitors, a chance for love outside Victorian society’s cast-iron rules – all in the first book of The Secret Order series.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Rose Throne, by Mette Ivie Harrison (book review) – powers crossed, palace perils doubled

May22

book cover of Rose Throne by Mette Ivie Harrison published by EgmontA land divided, perhaps to perish,
Ancient prophecy says reunification will save them.
Would that their prejudices were less vicious…

The opposing forces of combative taweyr and nurturing neweyr are a bit like yin and yang, but in Rurik and Weirland if your gender does not match your inborn weyr, woe to you, as every trouble from poor crops to lack of heirs will be blamed on you… whether commoner, noble, or royal.

Just published on May 14th, The Rose Throne  tells of balance and betrayal, power and its price, two strong princesses with complementary strengths which could heal their lands, were they only allowed to use them. Oh, there’s no predictable “happily ever after” ending for this story of political alliances forged and broken, just lots of mystery and intrigue, love in the shadows, temptations and trial.

How much should we mask our less-traditional talents and interests?
**kmm

Book info: The Rose Throne / Mette Ivie Harrison. Egmont, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]

My book talk: Taweyr and neweyr – the force of brute power beyond muscles and the force of growing life – are only found on this one island shared by two kingdoms, two unlike kings, and a prophecy that could change history. Two princesses hear the prophecy, wonder whether if its fulfilment is finally here, and worry that their own gifts of weyr may not be enough to overcome human treachery.

Princess Ailsbeth loves music, a little-appreciated gift in Rurik, and knows that she’s just a political pawn to her father, King Haikor, who keeps order through might, taking taweyr from his nobles as a tax. Women’s neweyr gift of growth is despised in Rurik, and its crops suffer.  Across the narrow landbridge, King Jaap lets jousts keep the taweyr levels down, and Princess Marlissa leads Weirland’s women in strengthening their green land through neweyr.

When Duke Kellin arrives from Rurik to offer a betrothal between Prince Edik and Marlissa, the princess and her father are wary, since there’s little love lost between the two kingdoms. Accepting the offer will stave off a war and might be the first step in fulfilling the prophecy of a royal child who will have both weyrs and will reunite the island. Perhaps 13-year-old Prince Edik will grow less like his father during their long betrothal…

What a change from the simplicity of rural Weirland accosts Princess Marlissa as she enters Rurik’s cities where no green thing grows, where strict court protocol rules everything, where King Haikor’s hatred of the ekhono who hold the wrong weyr for their gender leads him to hunt them to the death.

Having no gift of neweyr seems no burden to Princess Ailsbeth, who saw that it did her mother the Queen no good in Rurik. But when the young woman discovers that she has as much taweyr as her brother Edik lacks, she must use all her skill to conceal it.

Can the two princesses become allies, if not friends?
Can they survive the treachery and deceit of the Rurese court?
Can they live long enough to give the prophecy a chance to come true?

Required to marry for royal alliances instead of love, regal opposites Ailsbeth and Marlissa are so alike in their love for their homelands in this tale of magic, intrigue, boundaries, and heart.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

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.

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)

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?
**kmm

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.

P for Pink Smog: Becoming Weetzie, by Francesca Lia Block (book review) – reinventing herself

Apr18

book cover of Pink Smog by Francesca Lia Block published by Harper CollinsDad leaves and Mom crawls into the bottle,
Mean girls with slam books rule the junior high halls,
Weetzie’s certainly glad of the guardian angel who popped into her life.

No one loves the quirks and history of Hollywood and LA like Weetzie Bat, named Louise after a famous silent film star by her B-movie director dad and former starlet mom.  No one has better friends than too-thin Lily and so-gorgeous Bobby. With their friendship, her angel, and those mysterious silver envelopes, she might make it through this year of break-ups and breakdowns in Tinseltown.

It’s Support Teen Literature Day during National Library Week, so meet Weetzie as she creates herself amid the Pink Smog, then find the rest of the Weetzie Bat books at your  local library  (or independent bookstore).
**kmm

Book info:  Pink Smog: Becoming Weetzie Bat / Francesca Lia Block. HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2012. [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]

My recommendation: New school, Dad leaves, Mom drinks away her sorrows, and no one will call her by the right nickname – if this is what being 13 is like, then Weetzie feels cheated. But a guardian angel appears, and her life in LA takes on some new sparkle.

It must have been an angel who helped Weetzie pull her mom from the swimming pool, who did CPR till the ambulance came. The family who just moved in upstairs are no angels though, that girl with long black hair and empty eyes and creepy laugh, the mother who knew Weetzie’s movie director dad a little too well. The angel guy turns out to be Winter, and somehow Weetzie’s dad asked him to watch out for her… wherever Dad is.

Eventually her solitary lunchtimes at junior high give way to friendship with Bobby and Lily, against all the mean kids who hurt everyone’s feelings. With Bobby and Lily, life is better, and when hand-delivered silver envelopes start appearing with messages for her (ransom note style, with the cut-out letters), life starts to get interesting. Weetzie turns well-loved old clothes into fantastic fashions, tries to get Mom to eat dinner instead of drink it, wonders how love so sweet could turn so bitter.

Does that girl upstairs really have voodoo dolls?
Can Winter help Weetzie find her dad again?
What are all the silver envelope messages telling her?

This long-awaited prequel to Block’s popular Weetzie Bat series weaves the pivotal life events of young Weetzie through LA’s orange blossoms, star-sprinkled pavements, and Pink Smog of the 1970s.   (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

M for Mixtape, mystery and mistakes in Wish You Were Here, by Barbara Shoup (book review)

Apr15

book cover of Wish You Were Here by Barbara Shoup published by FluxBest high school pal.
A great girlfriend.
A family that gets along.
Quit dreaming, Jackson!

Senior year of high school is rarely all sunshine and cupcakes for folks, but Jax really does have some odd and difficult things to work through before he graduates in 1994.

His rock band roadie dad is dating a vegetarian aerobics instructor, straight-arrow MBA Ted has asked Jackson if he’s okay with him marrying Mom, and Brady is still gone.

Is his life a mixtape where nothing can change or is it on the shuffle setting, like Ted’s state-of-the-art CD player?

It’s National Library Week, so head over to your  local library and look for this 2008 re-release of Shoup’s award-winning classic.
**kmm

Book info: Wish You Were Here / Barbara Shoup. Flux, 2008.   [author site]  [publisher site]

My recommendation: Jackson and his best friend are moving into their own apartment for their senior year of high school! Until Brady runs away the weekend before school begins… Now Jax has to cope with everything by himself: his mom remarrying, his dad going into the hospital, girl-trouble. Maybe he can follow the postcards and bring Brady back.

If he must have a stepdad, Ted is better than most, and now only-child Jax will have part-time little sisters. But a new house, knowing that Mom and Dad will never get together again, no Brady to escape with… and to top it off, the three stepsiblings will be going with Mom and Ted on their honeymoon trip to the tropics over Christmas Break!

At least he got to meet Amanda at the beach – funny, smart, likes Kristin and Amy, really likes Jax. They’ll just have to write letters until graduation (Class of ’94 forever) since they live so far apart. One postcard from Brady, but no real news.

Odd that Jax gets tied up with stoner Steph, Brady’s ex, when he gets back from the island. He doesn’t love her, she doesn’t love him, but it just happens. Keeps him a little bit sane when Dad is injured during a rock concert (yep, he’s a roadie) and Jax winds up staying at his house to help him recover. Another postcard from Brady, less informative than the first.

A road trip to Graceland, spring break in Florida with his classmates…life for Jax is like the random feature on the CD player in Ted’s new van – you never know what song will play next, and the surprise isn’t always a pleasant one.

How does this being a big brother thing work?
Can he find Brady before senior year is over?
Why can’t he figure out what comes after all this drama?

Published in 1994 and named to the American Library Association’s 1995 Best Books for Young Adults list, Wish You Were Here  has been re-issued by Flux Books. Jackson’s musings still ring true, as he deals with divorce, weird relatives, the end of school, and the disappearance of his best friend.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) I won this review copy in the Authors for Henryville auction. Cover image courtesy of the publisher.