Realistic Fiction

Realistic Fiction genre

Permanent Rose

Feisty Rose takes center stage as the highly original Casson family faces a long, hot summer. As usual, things are a bit chaotic. Eldest daughter Caddy is now engaged to darling Michael, and she’s not altogether sure she likes it. Saffy and Sarah are on a mission to find Saffy’s biological father (while cultivating hearts of stone). Indigo is cautiosly beginning a friendship with a reformed bully, who desparately wants to feel like part of the Casson family. Rose, while missing Tom (who none of them have heard from) dreadfully, enters into a life of petty crime, shoplifting small items until her misadventures nearly bring disaster. An accidental trip to London and a visit with Rose’s father lead to a startling revelation, but through it all Rose’s single-minded determination to find Tom remains as fierce as it is hopeless. Oris it?Hilary McKay has painted the fond mayhem of this delightul family with such humor, warmth, and authenticity that readers will fall in love with them all over again. Once you’ve visited the Casson household, you may never want to leave.

Akimbo and the Baboons

Akimbo is excited to have his cousin, Kosi, visit him on the game reserve where he lives, and when a visiting scientist invites the boys to join her when she studies a pack of baboons, they can’t wait to assist her in the bush. The baboons they find are fun to observe, but when a black leopard threatens the pack—and the scientist—Akimbo and Kosi are reminded that danger is ever present in the African bush. Alexander McCall Smith takes young readers on a safari to his beloved Africa in this perfect first chapter book, beautifully brought to life with illustrations by LeUyen Pham.

See Ya, Simon

This funny and poignant novel tells the story of Nathan and his best friend, Simon–two 14-year-old boys with a passion for girls, soccer, weekends, girls, computers, and girls. Although Simon is confined to a wheelchair because of muscular dystrophy, his keen sense of humor and taste for excitement are more than a match for his disability.

Worry Warts

In this sequel to Misery Guts, the ever-cheerful Keith Shipley has reached Australia, but even halfway around the world, he frets over his parents’ happiness, hoping that making a fortune in the opal mines will save his family.

The Genuine Half-Moon Kid: 9

To escape South Africa’s turmoil, recent high-school graduate Jay Watson begins a journey that gives him new purpose, connected to the mysterious contents of a box that had belonged to his grandfather. By the author of Crocodile Burning.

Twenty-Four Hours

It is seventeen-year-old Ellis’s first night at home after graduating from prep school. By chance he bumps into Jackie Cattle, whom he remembers from grade school. Jackie is a couple of years older than Ellis, a drifter, disreputable, yet with an odd charm and a disarming wit. For the next twenty-four hours, Ellis enters an extraordinary world on the fringe of society that he never knew existed. Jackie introduces him to life at the Land-of-Smiles, a dilapidated motel where nightly a strange collection of local characters gather to drink and talk. Two attractive sisters, Ursa and Leona, the elder studying to be a lawyer, live there. Leona loves and takes care of a baby whose mother stops in only once in a while. Then the baby disappears, and Ellis is thrust into a wild, sometimes almost violent search for the child. This is a stunning novel that grips the reader as it sweeps to its conclusion. Rich characterization, breathtaking action, and an ultimately heartwarming solution distinguish this latest triumph of Margaret Mahy.

New Clothes for New Year’s Day

The New Year is the start of everything new. A young Korean girl prepares for celebrating the Lunar New Year’s Day, and the book shows a step-by-step description of her dressing in her outfit.

Featured in WOW Review Volume XI, Issue 3

Under the Ramadan Moon

Ramadan is one of the most special months of the Islamic year, when Muslims pray, fast, and help those in need. This story serves as an introduction to Ramadan.

Indigo’s Star

It’s back to school for the start of a new term, and the eccentric Cassons are up to their old tricks! Indigo, having just recovered from a bout of mononucleosis, must return to school after missing an entire semester. Only his younger sister and loyal sidekick, Rose, knows why he’s dreading it so much. As it turns out, the school bullies are eagerly awaiting Indigo’s return so that they can pick up where they left off — flushing his head in the toilet. But Indigo hasn’t counted on meeting Tom, an American student who is staying with his grandmother in England for the year. With his couldn’t-care-less attitude and rock-and-roll lifestyle, Tom becomes Indigo’s ally, and together they work to take back the school. Meanwhile, eight-year-old Rose is desperately trying to avoid wearing horrible glasses, nineteen-year-old Caddy is agonizing over her many suitors, Saffy is working overtime with her best friend, Sarah, to protect Indigo from the gang, and with their father, Bill, in London at his art studio, their mother, Eve, is just trying to stay on top of it all! In this hilarious, heartwarming companion to her award-winning Saffy’s Angel, Hilary McKay shows us a new side of the Cassons and reminds us that nothing is stronger than the bonds of family.