Nine Days

Tenth-graders Ethan and Ti-Anna go to Hong Kong seeking her father, an exiled Chinese democracy activist who has disappeared, and follow his trail to Vietnam and back, also uncovering illegal activity along the way. Includes author’s note and the history behind the novel written by the girl who inspired it.

Black Flame

A compelling novel set in Tibet, Mongolia, and China, about the adventures of a fiercely powerful yet lovable Tibetan mastiff. Kelsang is just a tiny puppy when his mother dies after a vicious fight with a snow leopard. As he grows he becomes a prize sheepdog, roaming the northern Tibetan grasslands with his master Tenzin. But one day visitors ply Tenzin with drink and convince him to sell his beautiful, purebred dog. In no time Kelsang finds himself chained up in the back of a jeep traveling far from everything he knows. A series of adventures take Kelsang from the streets of Lhasa to brief refuge with an elderly painter and finally to his new master Han Ma, who inspires his love and loyalty. Through it all Kelsang longs for the freedom of the grasslands. Black Flame proudly takes its place among much-loved classic dog stories.

Blood Ninja III

The fate of feudal Japan hangs in the balance in this bloody conclusion to the epic trilogy. Taro is at a crossroads: He has vanquished Lord Oda for good, but with no land and no title, he has no hope of marrying Hana, the daughter of a daimyo. So when Taro receives news of a murderous dragon and the large reward for killing it, he and his friends find themselves on a dangerous quest to slay the beast. Their mission has the potential to save the people of Japan—but failure will result in the deaths of thousands. And dragons are not the only monsters they will encounter: The dead, led by the odious Kenji Kira, have begun to rise, and they have Taro in their sights. In this heart-stopping conclusion to the Blood Ninja trilogy, the future of all feudal Japan is in danger, and everything Taro holds dear will be threatened. But it is the betrayal of flesh and blood—his own flesh and blood—that may be his ultimate undoing.

The Milk Of Birds

When a nonprofit organization called Save the Girls pairs a fourteen-year-old Sudanese refugee with an American teenager from Richmond, Virginia, the pen pals teach each other compassion and share a bond that bridges two continents.

Featured in Volume VI, Issue 1 of WOW Review.

When We Wuz Famous

Francisco Ortiz, a handsome straight-A student and gifted basketball player from the barrio, wins a full scholarship to an elite boarding school. His future seems promising. But soon after Francisco moves into the dorm, his new classmates assume the worst of him: they pepper him with questions about drugs and gangs. It’s all so confusing, made even more complicated when Francisco realizes that back home in the hood, he no longer fits in, though his friends still rely on him to solve their problems. In a desperate attempt to help one of his homies, Francisco makes a terrible decision and becomes everything he fought so hard to rise against. Novel adaptation of the author’s feature film, “Up with me.”

Precocia: The Sixth Circle of Heck

Following sentencing in the court of Judge Judas, eleven-year-old Milton and his older sister Marlo find themselves in Precocia, the circle of Heck for kids that grow up too fast.