Beddor, Frank (2006). The Looking Glass Wars. New York: Speak (Penguin). 358 pages.

Summary and Evaluation: What if Wonderland truly existed . . . but Lewis Carroll got it wrong? On Princess Alyss Heart’s seventh birthday, her evil Aunt Redd storms the palace with card soldiers and the Cat (an assassin with nine lives), murders the Queen, and ( Read more... )

L’Engle, Madeleine (2008). The Joys of Love. New York: Farrer, Straus Giroux. 255 pages.

Summary and Evaluation: More than anything, Elizabeth Jerrold longs to be an actress. Her controlling aunt (and guardian) disapproves of this dream, but nevertheless allows her to try for a summer theatre job. Elizabeth is granted an apprentice scholarship; ( Read more... )

Reeve, Philip (2006). Larklight. New York: Bloomsbury U.S.A. 399 pages.

Summary and Evaluation: First of all, the *entire* title is Larklight, or The Revenge of the White Spiders!, or To Saturn’s Rings and Back!: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space, which just about sets the tone for the rest of the book. Arthur ( Read more... )

Klein, Lisa (2006). Ophelia. New York: Bloomsbury U.S.A. 328 pages.

Summary and Evaluation: What if we weren't getting the full story in Hamlet? Lisa Klein reimagines Shakespeare's play from the point of view of Ophelia. The novel opens with a letter to Ophelia telling her of the events that end the play (i.e. nearly everyone dies), then jumps ( Read more... )

Pullman, Philip (1986). The Shadow in the North. New York: Laurel-Leaf Books. 361 pages.

Summary and Evaluation: This sequel to The Ruby in the Smoke picks up six years later. Sally Lockhart now has her own financial consulting firm in addition to co-owning a photography studio with her friend Fred's Uncle Webster. Fred Garland, photographer, and ( Read more... )

Rennison, Louise (1999). Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. 247 pages.

Summary and Evaluation: Meet Georgia Nicholson. She's fourteen, has an enormous mad cat (half Scottish wildcat), which terrorises the neighbors, and is trying to survive school, life, and having an overly-large nose. The novel is ( Read more... )

Bray, Libba (2003). A Great and Terrible Beauty. New York: Delacorte Press. 403 pages.

Summary and Evaluation: Sixteen-year-old Gemma Doyle is sent to the Spence Academy after a family tragedy. She attracts the disdain of the school's most popular girls, Felicity and Pippa, as they see her as little better than a charity case, but this Victorian ( Read more... )

Pearson, Mary E. (2008). The Adoration of Jenna Fox. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC. 266 pages.

Summary and Evaluation: Jenna Fox is a normal seventeen-year-old girl. At least she was before the horrible car accident that left her in a coma for over a year. Jenna doesn't remember anything at all from before the accident (or the accident ( Read more... )

McCaughrean, Geraldine. The White Darkness. New York: HarperTempest, 2007 (1st US ed.; 2005 copyright). 373 pages.

Summary and Evaluation: Sym is a fourteen-year-old girl who is obsessed with Antarctica. She doesn't really fit in at school. However, Sym does have a constant companion: Captain Lawrence “Titus” Oates, a member of Captain Scott's ( Read more... )

Halam, Ann (2002). Dr. Franklin's Island. New York: Dell Laurel-Leaf. 247 pages.

Summary and Evaluation:Semi, Miranda, and Arnie are the only survivors when their plane crashes on the way to Ecuador for a British Young Conservationists expedition. They manage to live for over a month on what they believe to be a deserted island in the tropics ( Read more... )