Predator Cities #2: Predator’s Gold

The second book in the exciting Mortal Engines series!When Tom and Hester’s little scrapyard aircraft is pursued by rocket-firing gunships, the ice city offers sanctuary. But it is no safe refuge. Devastated by plague and haunted by ghosts, Anchorage is heading for the Dead Continent.

Predator Cities #1: Mortal Engines

Welcome to the astounding world of Mortal Engines! London is hunting again. Emerging from its hiding place in the hills, the great Traction City is chasing a terrified little town across the wastelands. Soon, London will feed.In the attack, Tom Natsworthy is flung from the speeding city with a murderous scar-faced girl. They must run for their lives through the wreckage–and face a terrifying new weapon that threatens the future of the world.

Fishtailing

Teen violence, bullying and the burning quest to fit in are presented in the poems of four unforgettable high school students: Natalie, Kyle, Tricia, Miguel. Their stories unfold in this explosive new book told in free verse. A story of teen angst like no other, it is based on fictional characters but is rooted in the realities of the teen experience. When Natalie moves to a new high school she befriends three unwitting victims into her spider-web of manipulations, lies and deceit. Through the poetry and assignments of an English class we glimpse the world of the four teens. Natalie, whose alcoholic parents, years of neglect and ultimate rape by her father’s friend has shaped her into a cruel and manipulative teen; Tricia, dealing with her blended family, is drawn into Natalies’ forbidden world of partying and rebellion; Kyle, a would-be musician is in love with Tricia and Miguel who lusts for Natalie while hiding the secrets of his family. The story weaves us through their poetry, their lives and culminates at a party where the four lives fishtail out of control. English class will never be the same.

Gangs

Street gangs have exploded in popularity worldwide. Tattoos, baggy pants, tagging, gangsta style clothes — this unspoken threat is always just around the corner in most of the world’s major cities. In search of a sense of identity and belonging that their world has denied them, young people are pushed into gangs by a witch’s brew of violence, guns, drugs, racism, poverty, families under pressure, and ever-widening slums. Gangs exposes the roots of the problem, from the bidonvilles of France to the favelas of Brazil. It offers a startling analysis of the complicity of the adult world, as well as hard-hitting reforms that might just undermine the appeal of gang life. Most of all, it shows that we fail to understand gangs at our peril.

In Darkness

In the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake, fifteen-year-old Shorty, a poor gang member from the slums of Site Soleil, is trapped in the rubble of a ruined hospital, and as he grows weaker he has visions and memories of his life of violence, his lost twin sister, and of Toussaint L’Ouverture, who liberated Haiti from French rule in the 1804.

See the review at WOW Review, Volume 4, Issue 3

I Am Thomas

The author of “Mahtab’s Story” and the author of “The Island “team up to bring young readers another powerful social justice-related work–an inspiring, thought-provoking picture book about finding one’s way in the world “”You must do as you’re told.”””” “”Let the army make you a man.”””” “”Your country needs your vote.”” As the voices in his life crowd in on him, Thomas looks for another way, refusing to conform to the expectations and demands of family and community. A loner, Thomas refuses to feel lonely, an inspiring choice in this masterful tale of questioning authority and resisting oppression. Powerful illustrations and a spare text make a parable of Thomas’s journey, which reflects the courage we all need to find our passion and be ourselves.

See the review at WOW Review, Volume 4, Issue 2

Iboy

Sixteen-year-old Tom Harvey was an ordinary Londoner until an attack that caused fragments of an iPhone to be embedded in his brain, giving him incredible knowledge and power, but using that power against the gang that attacked him and a friend could have deadly consequences.

Desert Angel

Fourteen-year-old Angel wakes up one morning at her desert trailer home to discover her mother has been murdered by a lowlife named Scotty, who has vanished. Angel has no water, no weapon, but she knows that Scotty, an expert tracker and hunter, will surface soon in order to eliminate her as a witness. She has to run, to disappear, if she is to survive and tell the world what happened. Her flight takes her through a harsh landscape to places she never expected to be, forcing her to trust others for the first time and strengthening her in ways she doesn’t even anticipate . . . until it’s time to take a stand.