When her mother is knocked down and killed by a London bus, 15-year-old Melon Fouraki is left with no family worth mentioning. Her mother, Maria, never did introduce Melon to a “living, breathing” father. The indomitable Auntie Aphrodite, meanwhile, is hundreds of miles away on a farm in Crete and is unlikely to be jumping on a plane and coming to London anytime soon.
Young Adult (ages 14-18)
Material appropriate for young adults
The Disappearance Of Ember Crow
After a daring raid on Detention Center 3 to rescue their trapped peers, Ashala Wolf and her Tribe of fellow Illegals — children with powerful and inexplicable abilities — are once again entrenched in their safe haven, the Firstwood.
The Distance Between Us
At the age of 8, Reyna Grande made the dangerous and illegal trek across the border from Mexico to the United States, and discovered that the American Dream is much more complicated that it seemed.
Bloodline
Seventeen-year-old Abraham is in love, but his girlfriend and the grandmother who raised him are worried about his fighting, and things only get worse when his uncle introduces him to boxing.
The Book Thief
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel–a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.
Raymie Nightingale
Hoping that if she wins a local beauty pageant her father will come home, Raymie practices twirling a baton and performing good deeds as she is drawn into an unlikely friendship with a drama queen and a saboteur.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume 8, Issue 4
Anna and the Swallow Man
When her university professor father is sent by the Gestapo to a concentration camp, seven-year-old Anna travels the Polish countryside with the mysterious Swallow Man during World War II.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume 8, Issue 4
A Year In The Life Of A Complete And Total Genius
Arthur Bean is a genius-it’s just that no one else realizes this quite yet. He’s going to be a world-famous author, and the first step is to win this year’s story-writing contest. What he writes is pretty funny, but it gets him into trouble too.
Reunion de Monstruas (Meeting of Monsters)
The Lie Tree
On an island off the south coast of Victorian England, fourteen-year-old Faith investigates the mysterious death of her father, who was involved in a scandal, and discovers a tree that feeds upon lies and gives those who eat its fruit visions of truth.
Featured in WOW Review Volume IX, Issue 3.
