Posts Tagged «suspense»
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
by Marie Lu, 305 pages, Grades 7-12
In a dystopian future society, the western United States has become the Republic, a military dictatorship in a constant war with the surrounding Colonies. Student trials determine where you will be placed in the social order, but Day lives outside the law; he is the Republic’s most infamous criminal. June, on the other hand, was raised in a wealthy family; her parents and her brother held high positions in the Republic; she scored the highest ever on the Trials and attends one of the Republic’s best military academies. An accident throws these two opposites together. They should be instant enemies, but maybe what brought them together was not an accident after all, but what they are up against might be too big for the greatest outlaw and the smartest citizen even if they are working together.
Click here to see if it’s available for check out.
If you like dystopian fiction, you might also enjoy: The Hunger Games, by Susanne Collins, The Maze Runner, by James Dashner, or Matched, by Ally Condie.
Tags: adventure, dystopian, identity, science fiction, suspense
Posted in Library News | Comments Off
Sunday, October 2nd, 2011
by Royce Buckingham, 216 pages Grades 6-7
After his mentor disappeared, Nat was left alone to care for all of the demons in their run-down, old house in Seattle. Most of the demons aren’t too much trouble, just a little pesky. But, the Beast in the basement is a different story. Nat has never seen the Beast; the terrifying creature must be kept locked away to protect runaway and orphan children, its chosen prey. Of course, on the one night that Nat decides to leave the house to go on a date with Sandy, the girl he met at the library, two boys break into the house and release the chaos that Nat, and all of the previous demonkeepers before him, have so carefully kept in check. At the same time, another less honorable demonkeeper has slipped into town intending to use the demons, especially the Beast, for his own dastardly plans. Can Nat control the chaos and defeat the destructive demonkeeper?
Connections: For other stories of kids left to battle monsters, check out Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, and The Shadow Thieves by Anne Ursu.
Tags: Add new tag, adventure, demonology, horror, loyalty, occult, supernatural, suspense
Posted in New Book Reviews | Comments Off
Sunday, September 4th, 2011
by Eoin Colfer, 412 pages, Grades 7-8
Conor Broekhart was born in the air. His parents took a ride in a hot air balloon at the 1878 Paris World’s Fair, and that is the moment Conor decided to arrive. It is no wonder he is determined to fly; he is a brilliant engineer from very young and is lucky enough to work with another brilliant man, Victor Vigny, advisor to the king. The king’s daughter admires Conor’s talent as well, and all seems to be perfect for the Broekhart family.
Unfortunately, his life takes a dramatic turn. The good king has placed his trust in the wrong man; one of his confidants, Marshall Bonvilain, kills the king and frames Conor for the murder! Conor is thrown into a high security prison on an island, and his parents believe him to be dead. He is subjected a brutal life in the prison, but also makes some allies that help him attempt to save the kingdom, and his family as well as seek revenge on the evil Bonvilain.
Connections: If you enjoy steam punk fiction, you might also like: Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld, or Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas is the first novel about a man being mistakenly imprisoned and escaping to seek his revenge.
Click here to see if it’s available for check out.
Tags: adventure, fantasy, science fiction, steam punk, survival, suspense, Young Adult
Posted in Library News | Comments Off
Friday, May 13th, 2011
by Ally Carter, 287 pages, Grades 6-10
Kat knows a lot about famous works of art, she is an expert when it comes to museums, but she is not a museum curator or an art history major; she is a teenager. Kat was raised surrounded some of the greatest criminal masterminds in history; her mom died when she was young, but her dad and her Uncle Eddie taught her everything she knows, and she knows a lot!
Kat thinks she is taking a break from the family business; she is enrolled in a private boarding school, but then her dad is in trouble and she has to pull a heist herself to save him.
If you liked any of the Oceans movies you’ll enjoy Heist Society; it is Oceans Eleven with teen criminals and a female in charge.
Tags: adventure, crime, families, mystery, suspense, teens
Posted in Library News | Comments Off
Sunday, May 1st, 2011
By Tom Birdseye, 135 pages Grades 5-8
Somehow… one thing led to another, and before Cat knew what what was going on, she and her cousin, Ty, were stuck in a winter storm on Storm Mountain… just like the one their fathers had died in two years before. Cat knew it was crazy when Ty showed up at their door and suggested they climb the mountain to spread their fathers’ ashes, but she didn’t think Ty was insane enough to take off on his own when she said she wouldn’t go. Challenge after challenge leave Cat wondering if her limited mountaineering skills can save them both.
Connections: For other high adventure mountaineering books, try reading Peak by Roland Smith, the Everest series by Gordon Korman, or Climb or Die by Edward Myers.
Tags: adventure, cousins, mountaineering, survival, suspense
Posted in New Book Reviews | Comments Off
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
by James Dashner 374 pages, Grades 6-10
Tom wakes up in a box without windows or doors. He fumbles around and cannot find a way out until the top opens up and beyond the glare of the bright light he hears kids voices.
“Look at that shank.”
“How old is he?”
“Looks like a klunk in a T-shirt.” (p.3)
Tom cannot remember who he is or where he came from, but he is pulled up into the Glade by a bunch of other teenage boys. All the kids there arrived in about the same state: confused, some sense of the way things work, but no clear memories of the details of their lives before the dark box that delivered them.
The Glade is a bit like a working farm and a bit like a prison. Each of the teens has a job to keep the place functioning: cook, farmer, slopper, runner, etc., but there is no way out. They all believe their one hope to get home is to decipher the maze that surrounds the Glade, but the maze changes shape every night, and there are frightening things that roam its halls.
Connections: Those who enjoyed Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins or Unwind, by Neal Shusterman will like the Maze Runner too!
Tags: dystopian world, fantasy, running, survival, suspense, teens
Posted in New Book Reviews | Comments Off
Monday, February 7th, 2011
by Benedict Carey, 259 pages, Grades 6-8
Until now living in Folsom Adjacent, a trailer park bordering the Folsom Power Plant on a circular island, has been pretty boring. In fact, Diaphanta, a.k.a. Lady Di, and Tamir al-Khwarizmi, a.ka. Tom Jones, had nothing to do but work on trying to pass math and stay out of the way of the bullies until people in their community start to disappear. The Crotona police don’t seem to be doing anything, so when their friend and math tutor vanishes from her trailer leaving behind a clue Lady Di and Tom Jones decide to see if they can solve the puzzle and save their teacher. Di and Tom, and eventually a few other allies, follow a series of math clues through the tunnels under Adjacent and battle adolescent and grown-up bullies trying to save their friend and the dirty little town that is their home.
This book will satisfy fans of Blue Balliett’s Chasing Vermeer, Trenton Lee Stewart’s Mysterious Benedict Society, or anyone who enjoys puzzling out math problems from different points of view.
Tags: bullies, friends, friendship, math_clues, mystery, outsiders, puzzles, suspense, Young Adult
Posted in New Book Reviews | Comments Off
Monday, February 7th, 2011
By Scott Westerfeld, 44o pages, Grades 7 and up
Westerfeld has created an alternative history of World War I and filled it with Clanker and Darwinist war machines. The Clankers use mechanical transports that remind readers of the Empire’s AT-AT walkers in Star Wars while the Darwinists use flying machines that live, breathe and eat. In fact, one of their greatest living machines called Leviathan is really an entire ecosystem; whale DNA, bat, and bird all mixed together to create a huge flying zeppelin manned by the military. Daryn, a girl disguised as a young soldier, joins the Darwinist army and is aboard the Leviathan when the war begins. Alek, the Austrian prince, escapes his country after his parents’ assassination in a Clanker contraption. A near fatal crash, and a famous scientist seeking to save her precious cargo bring Daryn and Alek’s worlds and missions together in the chaos of the beginning of an alternate first World War.
This book’s sequel Behemouth has recently arrived and promises to be another thrilling adventure. Another exciting adventure including a zeppelin and an alternative past is called: Airborn, by Kenneth Oppel. Oppel’s story is less of war and more like an adventure on the high seas with pirates and mysterious creatures.
Tags: adventure, Darwin, fantasy, friendship, identity, steam_punk, suspense, teens, war, World War I, Young Adult
Posted in New Book Reviews | Comments Off
Monday, January 17th, 2011
*Green Team Recommends*
by Douglas Carlton Abrams, 365 pages Adult Novel
Though not strictly written as young adult fiction, this book will appeal to Middle Schoolers interested in the natural world, especially in marine life. Eye of the Whale is an eco-thriller set primarily in the greater Bay Area, bringing together whale researchers, whalers, corporate lobbyists, activists, and government agents. One central character is actually a humpback whale, nicknamed Apollo, who swims up the Sacramento River to deliver a message, but to whom? And what is the message? And who is it that doesn’t want the message to get delivered? This thriller uses fascinating and startling facts and theories– about whales and about the impact of chemical pollutants accumulating in the natural world and eventually in our own bodies (body burden)– to tell a story that is both a page turner and a cutting commentary on the destruction, waste and poisoning that has flowed out from our modern industrial civilization into the natural world.
Tags: eco-thriller, green team, humpback whales, marine biologists, marine pollution, San Franciso Bay Area, suspense
Posted in New Book Reviews | Comments Off
Monday, November 29th, 2010
By Neil Shusterman, 335 pages. Grades 7-9
It is the future, and if you are between the ages of thirteen and eighteen you worry every day about becoming an “unwind.”
When no one won the terrible civil war between the Pro-Choice and Pro-Life groups there was a compromise. It was decided that all babies would be born, that children would be untouchable from birth to 13, and that between 13 and 18 any child could be unwound. Every single body part goes on living in another body, so it is not considered death. The unwound teen continues to live in different places.
In this version of the future there are no doctors, only surgeons. There is a transplanting process that works so well, people just replace parts that are damaged or diseased instead of trying to cure them. The technology is great for people who lose a limb, but you can also “correct” things like baldness with a transplanted scalp full of hair, or replace your crooked teeth with a brand new set.
Connor is trouble, and his parents have had enough. Risa has no parents, and the state homes need to make space for the new babies being “storked,” left on their doorstep. Lev is a “tithe;” he has been raised since birth to be unwound as a sacrifice to god. “Unwinds” are outcasts whom no one wants to help, so how can they escape their fate?
Connections: For other survival stories full of adventure try: The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, or Graceling, by Kristin Cashore. Another edgy science fiction adventure is Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.
Tags: coming of age, creepy, family problems, identity, science fiction, survival, suspense
Posted in New Book Reviews | Comments Off
Friday, September 24th, 2010
By Michael Scott – p. 375 – Grade 6-9 – fantasy
Michael Scott is a professor of mythology and was inspired by the TRUE story of Nicholas Flamel. He was actually a real person! He was born in Paris on September 28, 1330, and buried 1418, but the tomb is empty! Thus begins the myth, or history, of the alchemyst, Nicholas Flamel, immortal and still alive in today?
The Alchemyst begins in modern day New York City; teenage twins Sophie and Josh have moved there for the summer. The brother works in a bookstore for Nick Flemming (name sound familiar?) and the sister works at a cafe across the street. Right away the bookstore is blown up by mud people and a menacing character named Dr. John Dee. When Dee and his muddy henchmen storm into the bookstore, Josh is watching from a hiding place. Dee grabs Flamel’s wife, Perry, and almost makes off with the most powerful book of magic, but Josh manages to grab a few key pages before he and Mr. Flemming have to escape the explosion. Flamel believes Josh and Sophie might be the twins of the prophecy, so he wants to keep them close in the hopes of finding his precious wife and the stopping Dee from destroying the world as we know it. From the moment the bookstore explodes Josh and Sophie are on a roller coaster adventure, full of magical, mythical creatures and frightening beasts. Sequels The Magician and The Sorceress continue the perilous adventure.
Connections: Other adventure fantasies The Lightning Thief series, by Rick Riordan, Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling, The Alchemist’s Cat, by Robin Jarvis
Tags: Add new tag, adventure, brothers and sisters, fantasy, heroes, mystery, mythology, survival, suspense, teenagers, teens
Posted in New Book Reviews | Comments Off
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
by Ian Beck p. 353 Young Adult
In 2050, central London has been transformed into a theme park for modern day tourists to visit. These ”gawkers” fly in on an airship for a day or two to experience what life was like in Victorian London, including dangerous street crime and hangings. When seventeen-year-old Caleb flies in with his father, one of the originators of Pastworld, his father is kidnapped and Caleb is accused of murder. He meets beautiful and innocent Eve, a teenage inhabitant of Pastworld, and they become embroiled in a ScotlandYard investigation of a series of gruesome murders by the mysterious Fantom. This story is a compelling mix of science and historical fiction.
Connections: Another suspense novel with people living in an historical amusement park is Running Out of Time by Margaret Haddix. Other great mysteries set in Victorian London are Montmorency by Eleanor Updale, Smith by John Garfield, and the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Tags: amusement parks, historical fiction, London, murder, mysteries, science fiction, suspense, Victorian London
Posted in New Book Reviews | Comments Off
Friday, April 16th, 2010
by Avi p. 202 Grades: 5-8
Do photographs reveal the truth? In our age of Photoshop, we know that photos can be altered to give a different version of reality, but what about photographs taken in 1872? In Seer of Shadows, Horace Carpetine is apprenticed to a photographer who alters a photograph to make his wealthy customer believe the spirit of her adopted daughter is watching over the woman. Horace realizes that this is no photographic trick. The ghost of the daughter has actually returned to wreak revenge on her cruel parents.
Connections: For other good ghost stories, consider these authors: Cynthia DeFelice and Betty Ren Wright. The library also has good nonfiction on photography and biogrpahies of famous photographers such as Ansel Adams, Margaret Bourke-White, and Dorothea Lange.
Tags: con men, ghost stories, ghosts, New York City, photography, revenge, suspense, swindlers, swindling
Posted in New Book Reviews | Comments Off
Sunday, March 14th, 2010
by Martin Chatterton p. 212 Grades: 6-8
Farfetched but fun! The Brain does find a leg. It used to belong to Biff Manly, a seventeen-year-old surfer, who has been found dead at the bottom of a quarry. Theophilus Brain, a thirteen-year-old self-described genius and Sherlock Holmes disciple, has figured out that a saltwater crocodile (who thinks he’s a dog) severed the leg and hid it underwater. The crocodile is just the first of list of bizarre-behaving Australian wildlife who show up in this zany science fiction mystery which includes koalas that attack in gangs, possums that steal SUVs, kangaroos that rob supermarkets and whales that toss tourist boats. The Brain enlists Sheldon McGlone as his sidekick, and the two are fast on the trail of the murderer and the secret to what’s making the animals act so strangely.
Connections: Other creepy creature stories include The Cryptid Hunters, The Underneath, and Loch.
Tags: animals, Australia, crime, detectives, geniuses, humor, mystery, science fiction, suspense
Posted in New Book Reviews | Comments Off
Sunday, March 14th, 2010
by Mary Downing Hahn p. 182 Grades 6-8
Just before starting seventh grade, thirteen-year-old Logan moves to a small Virginia town with his parents. The house looks pretty rundown and has been on the market a long time. The real estate agent had neglected to tell Logan’s parents that an old lady was killed in the house–pushed down the stairs–and the crime has never been solved. In fact, the kids in town call it the Murder House. The murderer appears to have been looking in the house for over $1,000,000 that Mrs. Donaldson was suspected of embezzling from the Magic Forest amusement park. The Magic Forest has been “closed for the season,” and it too has fallen into disrepair–entangled in fast growing kudzu. With his neighbor Arthur, Logan sneaks into the Magic Forest to try to find the money and the key to Mrs. Donaldson’s demise. More than the kudzu is creeping around in the amusement park! Dangerous suspects, unsavory characters, and clever heroes make this an exciting mystery.
Connections: Other suspenseful mysteries with middle school sleuths include View from the Cherry Tree and Scared Stiff by Willo Davis Roberts and Someone Was Watching by David Patneaude.
Tags: amusement parks, bullies, crime, friends, friendship, mystery, suspense
Posted in New Book Reviews | Comments Off
Friday, November 20th, 2009
by Neil Gaiman, p. 312 – Grades 5-8
“There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife,” and so begins the story of orphan, Nobody (Bod) Owens, who has been raised by the inhabitants of the graveyard since the night his family was murdered when he was just 18 months old. Given the freedom of the graveyard, Bod lives his life in the company of the dead, and finds adventures and dangers within its walls, involving ghouls, the undead and even a human playmate, Scarlet Amber Perkins. As long as he stays in the graveyard he enjoys many non-earthly freedoms and remains safe from the man Jack who was still looking to kill him, but he longs to learn his story and explore the wide world beyond.
Connections: For other great fantasy books dealing with the dead, try reading Sabriel by Garth Nix (in print and audio), The Seer of Shadows by Avi, and Ghost Girl by Tonya Hurly. Watch “The Graveyard Book Video Tour” to see/listen to the author reading the book chapter by chapter while on his national tour.
Tags: adventure, cemetaries, coming of age, dead, fantasy, Neil Gaiman, supernatural, suspense
Posted in New Book Reviews | Comments Off
Sunday, November 15th, 2009
by Nancy Springer. p. 181 Grades 6-8
Fans of feisty, nonconformist Enola Holmes will enjoy this fourth installment in the Victorian mystery series. Sixteen-year-old Lady Cecily has been kidnapped and is being forced into an arranged marriage. Enola, the fourteen-year-old much younger sister of Sherlock Holmes, is trying to locate and rescue the poor girl while avoiding being captured herself by older brothers Sherlock and Mycroft, who do not approve of her independent ways. Disguises, humor, and high jinks abound.
Connections: The Case of the Missing Marquess; The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline are titles in this series by Nancy Springer. Other mystery series with strong female sleuths include: Grace Cavendish by Patricia Finney; Herculeah Jones by Betsy Byars; Sammy Keyes by Wendelin Van Draanen; and Gilda Joyce by Armstrong. For a more challenging read, try The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie King, which introduces fourteen-year-old Mary Russell and another great series based on Sherlock Holmes or read the Arthur Conan Doyle short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes himself.
Tags: detectives, female protagonists, feminists, mystery, Sherlock Holmes, suspense, Victorian England
Posted in New Book Reviews | Comments Off
Sunday, October 11th, 2009
by Mark Walden. p. 309 Grades 5-8
A school for bad kids?! That’s what H.I.V.E., the Higher Institute for Villainous Education, purports to be. Kids who appear to have special talents that could be used for evil are kidnapped and brought to this school located on a remote island where adults interested in world domination train the students in various nefarious skills. The island appears to have no escape, but as soon as thirteen-year-old Otto arrives, he and three of his new classmates begin plotting their get away. A counterpoint to Hogwarts, at H.I.V.E., technology and brains replace magic and wizardry.
Connections: Other fast-paced adventures set in special schools include: David Lubar’s Hidden Talents and its sequel True Talents; James Patterson’s Maximum Ride series; Trenton Stewart’s The Mysterious Benedict Society; and Ally Carter’s I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You. PMS Library also owns the sequel–H.I.V.E. : the Overlord Protocol .
Tags: Add new tag, adventure, criminals, escape, evil, fiction, schools, series, suspense
Posted in New Book Reviews | Comments Off
Monday, September 14th, 2009
by Jen Bryant. p. 257 Grades 5-8
It’s summer vacation and what could be better than sneaking out at night to look for buried treasure with your two best friends?! After thirteen-year-old Lyza’s grandfather dies, she finds an envelope in his attic marked ”For Lyza ONLY.” It containis three maps, a key, and a letter with rather crypic directions which lead Lyza, Malcolm and Carolann on an adventure to find pirate William Kidd’s buried treasure. Set in 1968, this novel is told in verse against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the cultural revolution of the sixties.
Connections: The Voyage of the Arctic Tern by Hugh Montgomery is another pirate adventure in verse. For more books on pirates, try Sea Queens : Women Pirates Around the World by Jane Yolen, Piracy & Plunder : a Murderous Business by Milton Meltzer, Piratica by Tanith Lee, Bloody Jack by Carolyn Meyer, Voyage of Plunder by Michele Torrey, and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Tags: adventure, buried treasure, families, mystery, novels in verse, pirates, single-parent families, sixties, summer, suspense, teens, Vietnam War
Posted in New Book Reviews | Comments Off
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
by Suzanne Collins, p. 374 – Grades 7 & Up
In this book, for mature readers, what was once the United States is destroyed by climate change and war and is replaced by Panem with its wealthy rulers in the Capitol controlling twelve neighboring districts. Each year the districts must pay tribute to the Capitol by sending two of their teens (12-18) to fight to the death in the Hunger Games, which is televised and must be watched by everyone (think Survivor with weapons and a manipulated environment). Sixteen year-old Katniss Everdeen volunteers to replace her younger sister as the tribute from District 12 (the poorest district) when her sister’s name is pulled in the lottery for the 74th Hunger Games. Since her father’s death in a mining accident, Katniss has had to work hard so she and her family could survive, but in the Hunger Games she will be facing tributes who have spent their lives training for this event.
Connection: Other examples of survival fiction that will keep the reader on edge are Deathwatch by Robb White and The Dead & the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer. –CRW
Highlight: Watch this video interview with Suzanne Collins.
Tags: contests, interpersonal relations, love stories, loyalty, science fiction, survival, suspense, Suzanne Collins, television programs, Young Adult
Posted in New Book Reviews | Comments Off
by Marie Lu, 305 pages, Grades 7-12