When

TITLE: When
AUTHOR: Victoria Laurie
RELEASE DATE: January 2015
PUBLISHER: Hyperion
PAGES: 327 pages
GENRE: Sci-Fi, Adventure, Mystery
OVERALL RATING: 4/5
APPROPRIATE AGE: grades 8-12

SUMMARY: Maddie Flynn has always seen numbers when she looks at people, whether it be in person, in a picture, or on the television. It wasn't until her father was killed in the line of duty that they figured out the numbers that Maddie sees are the person's death date. When Maddie predicts a boy's death date and then he turns up missing, Madelyn is at the top of list of suspects. The FBI believe Maddie and her best friend, Stubs, are part of a string of murders. But how can Madelyn prove that her ability is real and get her best friend out of jail without putting herself in danger?

WHAT I LIKED: This book is great for both boys and girls. It has a gruesome murder and police investigation, but also includes the drama-filled life of a teenage girl. As part of the 2016 Lone Star List, I've booked talked this with my junior high students and they eat it up. The students race to the computer to be the first to put it on hold. I currently have a list of over a dozen students waiting to read this book, and we own three copies in our library. 

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: This ending was just a little cliche. It seemed like the entire story, one bad thing after another is happening to Maddie, then for some reason the author felt they needed to tie it all up in a pretty little bow with a Happily Ever After...

READALIKES: Numbers by Rachel Ward

BOOK TRAILER: not the official book trailer, but a good one created by Kimberly Zavala

Proxy

TITLE: Proxy
AUTHOR: Alex London
RELEASE DATE: June 2013
PUBLISHER: Philomel Books
PAGES: 379 pages
GENRE: Science Fiction
OVERALL RATING: 2/5
APPROPRIATE AGE: grades 8-12 (language) 

SUMMARY: Knox is a playboy, he likes to party, loves the girls, and never gets in trouble. When he steals his dad's car, takes it off autodrive and crashes, instantly killing his passenger, there is no punishment for him. Instead, Knox's proxy Syd is the one who receives the punishment. As Knox watches; Syd is tied up, electrocuted, branded and punished to manual labor in a work camp... all for something a kid he has never met did. So what happens when by some small chance, Knox and Syd finally meet? 

   

FAVORITE QUOTE: "He laughed at himself for thinking about Mr. Baram's weird saying and picked up an ancient plastic pen that had rolled out of one of the bins. He mindlessly clicked the back of it to make the little tip go in and out with a satisfying sound. Why did they even have this antique? Who knew how to write by hand anymore?" (London, 43)

WHAT I LIKED/DIDN'T LIKE: I was not a big fan of this book. The high-tech dystopian society was kind of cool. But it seemed like there were a lot of questionable gaps. The beginning of the story would mention one thing and you would have to wait till several chapters later as to find out why. I never felt any bond toward the characters. It's not like I was tearing up when a character died. Another thing that really bothered me was the language. You would think in this futuristic world, they would come up with new curse words. The author created several new terms, but still felt the need to add curse words so that I don't feel comfortable allowing my middle grade students to read the book. 

SERIES UPDATE: Book 2: Guardian out in May 2015

READALIKES: Red Rising by Pierce Brown, The Eye of Minds by James Dashner

Bone Gap

TITLE: Bone Gap
AUTHOR: Laura Ruby
RELEASE DATE: March 2015
PUBLISHER: Balzer + Bray
PAGES: 345 pages
GENRE: Mystery, Fantasy
OVERALL RATING: 1/5
APPROPRIATE AGE: grades 9-12 (curse words, sexual references)

SUMMARY: Finn O'Sullivan is an outsider in the small town of Bone Gap, Illinois. Often called names such as Moonface, Sidetrack, Spaceman, and beat up on a regular basis by a group of boys he calls the Rudes. Finn is alone in the world, his mom ran off to Oregon with a man she met on the Internet, his brother, Sean always at work as a paramedic, even Roza disappeared. But Finn is the only one that knows Roza didn't disappear, she was kidnapped, and no one in Bone Gap will listen. So it is up to Finn to find the mysterious girl who magically appeared in the barn, and magically disappeared the same way. 

WHAT I LIKED: This book received several awards, and was listed as one of the Top Ten Books For Young Adults in 2016. It received nothing but five star reviews by readers on GoodReads. When I saw this book listed over and over for different awards, I just knew it was a Must Read. I enjoyed the way that the author described things in the story, especially the physical appearances of the characters. How do you describe a person's face if you can't really see it?

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: Although it seems like everyone in the world absolutely loves this book... I did not! To me, it seemed like the story had ADD, it jumped all over the place. It was difficult for me to tell what was currently happening and then what was a flashback. So many of the storylines seemed pointless, for example, when Finn was with Miguel building the fence. There were two short chapters about this, but did they ever finish building the fence? Reading the story, it seems like a Realistic Fiction book, but then this horse appears that takes them riding off cliffs and through the sky? What was in that honey? Are the characters high and these midnight runs are actually a dream? And what happened to Roza? Where exactly has she been all this time? Without giving away spoilers, let me know just say that if you're the type of person that likes to figure out mysteries, you will never see this one coming! 

READALIKES: 

BOOK TRAILER: none found

I Am Princess X

TITLE: I Am Princess X
AUTHOR: Cherie Priest
RELEASE DATE: May 2015
PUBLISHER: Arthur A. Levine Books
PAGES: 245 pages 
GENRE: Mystery, Adventure, Graphic Novel
OVERALL RATING: 5/5
APPROPRIATE AGE: grades 6-12

SUMMARY: May and Libby meet on the playground in the fifth grade where they first create Princess X. May writes the stories while Libby draws the pictures. Their friendship is one for the ages, until one day Libby's mom falls asleep at the wheel, driving the car off a bridge killing herself and Libby. Or so May was told. 

Fast forward three years when May begins seeing her Princess X all over Seattle, in pictures on sign posts, patches on kids' backpacks, etc. She is everywhere, but how could that be? She and Libby were the only ones who knew about Princess X. Unless Libby is the one creating it all. After this, May is determined to get to the bottom of Princess X, which leads her on an adventure she never expected: computer hacking, kidnapping, and murder. 

WHAT I LIKED: I first saw this book because it was chosen for the 2016 Texas Lone Star list. As a middle school librarian, I try to read all the books on the list before suggesting them to my students. When it came across my path through a Scholastic Book Fair, the cover caught my attention, who doesn't love a pink princess with a katana sword? But what I really loved about this story is that the cute princess was just the beginning! I read this entire book in one day, I could not put it down! There wasn't a single slow part in the entire story line. I can easily suggest this book to all my students, we just need to get the boys past the pink princess on the cover.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: I enjoyed every part of this book, the only tiny, miniscule thing I can complain about is the ending. I felt it happened too abruptly. There was such building up, the characters running for their lives and then all of a sudden, everything is happily ever after. I felt there needed to be a little more details about what happened after.

BOOK TRAILER: I wasn't able to find an official Book Trailer for I Am Princess X. But because I found this book through the Scholastic Book Fair, I have included a link to the video that they use to advertise the book: Scholastic's I Am Princess X Book Trailer