The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick

by Rebekah Layton | Apr 14, 2016 | 0 comments

The Ghosts of Heaven

by Marcus Sedgwick

A bold, genre-bending epic that chronicles madness, obsession, and creation, from the Paleolithic era through the Witch Hunts and into the space-bound future.

Four linked stories boldly chronicle madness, obsession, and creation through the ages. Beginning with the cave-drawings of a young girl on the brink of creating the earliest form of writing, Sedgwick traverses history, plunging into the seventeenth century witch hunts and a 1920s insane asylum where a mad poet’s obsession with spirals seems to be about to unhinge the world of the doctor trying to save him. Sedgwick moves beyond the boundaries of historical fiction and into the future in the book’s final section, set upon a spaceship voyaging to settle another world for the first time. Merging Sedgwick’s gift for suspense with science- and historical-fiction, Ghosts of Heaven is a tale is worthy of intense obsession.

YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Nominees 2016

historicalscience fictionYAfiction

Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell

by Rebekah Layton | Apr 14, 2016 | 0 comments

Mechanica

by Betsy Cornwell

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Nicolette’s awful stepsisters call her “Mechanica” to demean her, but the nickname fits: she learned to be an inventor at her mother’s knee. Her mom is gone now, though, and the Steps have turned her into a servant in her own home.

But on her sixteenth birthday, Nicolette discovers a secret workshop in the cellar and begins to dare to imagine a new life for herself. Could the mysterious books and tools hidden there—and the mechanical menagerie, led by a tiny metal horse named Jules—be the key to escaping her dreary existence? With a technological exposition and royal ball on the horizon, the timing might just be perfect for Nicolette to earn her freedom at last.

Gorgeous prose and themes of social justice and family shine in this richly imagined Cinderella retelling about an indomitable inventor who finds her prince…but realizes she doesn’t want a fairy tale happy ending after all.

YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Nominees 2016

fairy talessteampunkscience fictionYAfiction

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

by Rebekah Layton | Dec 1, 2015 | 0 comments

The Time Traveler's Wife

by Audrey Niffenegger

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Audrey Niffenegger’s dazzling debut is the story of Clare, a beautiful, strong-minded art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: his genetic clock randomly resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous and unpredictable, and lend a spectacular urgency to Clare and Henry’s unconventional love story. That their attempt to live normal lives together is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control makes their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians

Bekka rated it ★★★★ and said, “A nice grown-up book.”

Miranda rated it ★★★★★.

Timely Topic: Tired of Trilogies?

book-to-screenromance time travelscience fictionfiction

The Inventor’s Secret by Andrea Cremer

by Rebekah Layton | Jul 24, 2015 | 0 comments

The Inventor's Secret

by Andrea Cremer

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Sixteen-year-old Charlotte and her fellow refugees have scraped out an existence on the edge of Britain’s industrial empire. Though they live by the skin of their teeth they have their health (at least when they can find enough food and avoid the Imperial Labor Gatherers) and each other. When a new exile with no memory of his escape from the coastal cities or even his own name seeks shelter in their camp he brings new dangers with him and secrets about the terrible future that awaits all those who have struggled has to live free of the bonds of the empire’s Machineworks.

The Inventor’s Secret is the first book of a YA steampunk series set in an alternate nineteenth-century North America where the Revolutionary War never took place and the British Empire has expanded into a global juggernaut propelled by marvelous and horrible machinery.

book 1 of the Inventor’s Secret series

YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Nominees 2015

steampunk science fiction YA fiction

I Become Shadow by Joe Shine

by Rebekah Layton | Jul 23, 2015 | 0 comments

I Become Shadow

by Joe Shine

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Ren Sharpe was abducted at fourteen and chosen by the mysterious F.A.T.E. Center to become a Shadow: the fearless and unstoppable guardian of a future leader. Everything she held dear—her family, her home, her former life—is gone forever.

Ren survives four years of training, torture, and misery, in large part thanks to Junie, a fellow F.A.T.E. abductee who started out as lost and confused as she did. She wouldn’t admit it was possible to find love in a prison beyond imagining, but what she feels for Junie may just be the closest thing to it.

At eighteen they part ways when Ren receives her assignment: find and protect college science student Gareth Young, or die trying. Life following a college nerd is uneventful, until an attack on Gareth forces Ren to track down the only person she can trust. When she and Junie discover that the F.A.T.E. itself might be behind the attacks, even certain knowledge of the future may not be enough to save their kidnappers from the killing machines they created.

#2 in YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten 2015

YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Nominees 2015 YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Winners 2015

science fiction YA fiction

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

by Rebekah Layton | Jul 23, 2015 | 0 comments

Grasshopper Jungle

by Andrew Smith

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Sixteen-year-old Austin Szerba interweaves the story of his Polish legacy with the story of how he and his best friend , Robby, brought about the end of humanity and the rise of an army of unstoppable, six-foot tall praying mantises in small-town Iowa.

To make matters worse, Austin’s hormones are totally oblivious; they don’t care that the world is in utter chaos: Austin is in love with his girlfriend, Shann, but remains confused about his sexual orientation. He’s stewing in a self-professed constant state of maximum horniness, directed at both Robby and Shann. Ultimately, it’s up to Austin to save the world and propagate the species in this sci-fright journey of survival, sex, and the complex realities of the human condition.

YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Nominees 2015

GLBT dystopian science fiction YA fiction

Dangerous by Shannon Hale

by Rebekah Layton | Jul 22, 2015 | 0 comments

Dangerous

by Shannon Hale

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Maisie Danger Brown just wanted to get away from home for a bit, see something new. She never intended to fall in love. And she never imagined stumbling into a frightening plot that kills her friends and just might kill her, too. A plot that is already changing life on Earth as we know it. There’s no going back. She is the only thing standing between danger and annihilation.

From NY Times bestselling author Shannon Hale comes a novel that asks, How far would you go to save the ones you love? And how far would you go to save everyone else?

#7 in MLD Teen Choice Awards 2015

Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians

Bekka rated it ★★★★ and said, “Thanks to Netgalley.com and Bloomsbury USA Childrens Books for early access to this title. I really enjoyed this read! It was suspenseful and interesting pretty much throughout. I think the characters were quite well done, and I love Maisie Danger Brown (her actual name)! The parents were good, and the villains were appropriately evil. The romance was great, and I liked the triangle which had me guessing for a while. This was a great, fast moving plot, and I would Recommend this to pretty much anyone who enjoys a good sci-fi adventure story with a great, strong female lead. A nice departure for Hale, who is so great with the re-told fairy tales! This is a new area for her to excel in.”

Miranda rated it ★★★★★ and said, “Thanks to Netgalley.com and Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books for allowing me access to this. 4.5 stars. I went into this completely blind. I had no idea what to expect. This is NOTHING like her other books, and yet the writing and story are still just as amazing. I thought the little jokes the father told were pretty funny and helped show the positive relationship she had with her parents. I could have done with a little less of the teenager-y angst, “he loves me, he hates me” stuff, but it mostly came together for me and worked in the end. And it was nice to have a love triangle appear and get squashed just as quickly. It gets really old when they drag out, and sometimes friends are just never more than friends. Overall, I think fans of Hale’s other works will enjoy this one. I would also recommend it for fans of Pittacus Lore as it has a similar feel.”

MLD Teen Choice Award Nominees 2015MLD Teen Choice Award Winners 2015

romance science fiction YA fiction

The Revenge of Seven by Pittacus Lore

by Rebekah Layton | Jul 22, 2015 | 0 comments

The Revenge of Seven

by Pittacus Lore

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The Garde have suffered an unbearable loss. Number Five has betrayed them. Eight is gone forever. Ella has been kidnapped. The others are now scattered.

In Chicago, John makes the unlikeliest of allies: Adam, a Mogadorian who turned his back on his people. He has invaluable information about Mog technology, battle strategies, and weaknesses. Most important, he knows where to hit them: their command base near Washington, DC. During the assault, however, John and Adam learn the unimaginable truth: it is too late. The Mogadorians have commenced their ultimate invasion plans.

With a front-row seat to the impending invasion, Ella finds herself in the hands of the enemy. For some reason she’s more valuable to them alive, and they’ll stop at nothing to turn her.

Meanwhile, Six, Nine, and Marina make their way through the Florida Everglades, hot on the trail of the traitorous Five. With the development of a new Legacy, Marina finally has the power to fight back—if her thirst for revenge doesn’t consume her first.

book 5 in the Lorien Legacies series

Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians

Miranda rated it ★★★ and said, “While the writing is still decent, I didn’t feel like the storyline progresses much for how long the book is. An OK addition to the series but not one of the best.”

MLD Teen Choice Award Nominees 2015

aliens science fiction YA fiction