Revenge of the Witch

Book: Revenge of the Witch (Book One of The Last Apprentice)
Author: Joseph Delaney
Audience: Grades 5 to 8
In a Nutshell: an apprentice spook accidentally lets a nasty witch out of her hole

Thomas Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son, which doesn't leave him a lot of career options. With the family land and the more desirable apprenticeships already taken by his brothers, he's left with apprenticing as a feared but needed spook- a man who takes care of witches, ghosts and other unwelcome supernatural problems in the villages. Plus, according to his mam, he is destined to fill this position. The current spook, Gregory, is a strict but fair master, and Thomas has a lot to learn quickly. Things like how to deal with witches. For the worst of the lot, you can't kill them, because they'll just come back in a more dangerous form. You stick them in a hole and keep them alive, but barely. It seems cruel to Thomas, but he soon learns the wisdom of it when he is tricked into feeding nasty old Mother Malkin a special strengthening blood muffin (or something equally disgusting), and she escapes and goes after her favorite delicacy: little children. The "Mother"nickname is ironic. And she's not the only Nasty out there. The life of a spook is a lonely one; the town and even Thomas's own family may not welcome him anymore, but they need him.

Good creepy reading, and the first of a series.

Avalon High

Book: Avalon High
Author: Meg Cabot
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: King Arthur & Co. reappear in high school form

Elaine is the new kid at Avalon High. Her professor parents have moved from Minnesota to Annapolis, MD, for their one-year sabbatical. Elaine is just biding her time, floating in the pool and waiting for the year to be over so she can go back to her own friends and school. But then she meets Will on a jog in the park, and she is drawn into a high school drama with characters that bear an uncanny resemblance to King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the rest.

Fun reading, even if I did guess the ending very early on; slightly more meaty than Cabot's usual fun fluff, thanks to the infusion of Arthurian legend, but still easy going.

The Dragonslayer (Bone, book 4)

Book: The Dragonslayer (Bone, Vol. 4)
Author/Illust.: Jeff Smith
Audience: Grades 4 to 7 or so
In a Nutshell: Thorn chops an arm and accepts her destiny

If you've never read the Bone series of graphic novels, by all means, do it. Start at the beginning, with Out from Boneville. They're quick reads, they're clever and funny and all-around top-shelf material. After a few pages you forget that the protagonist is a lovable little femur (or something). And one of the rat creature cronies is obsessed with not merely eating the good guys, but baking them in a quiche. That's really funny to me.

The Goblin Wood

Book: The Goblin Wood
Author: Hilari Bell
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: hedgewitch leads goblins, knight tries to catch hedgewitch, nothing is as simple as it seemed

Makenna is a hedgewitch with limited power. She and her mother's kind used to be quietly accepted and used by the villages for healing and spells. Then the Hierarch and his priests declared all non-official magic evil. The villagers killed her mother, but she escaped, flooded the village, and swore off all human relationships. The goblins, who have also been declared evil and are no longer fed and appeased nearly so often, follow her and cleverly torment her until she finally captures one named Cogswallop, which starts her friendship with the goblins.
Five years later, she has become their "general" as the goblins drive away the increasing number of human settlers coming beyond the (human-built) Goblin Wall and into their northern woods.

Tobin, an honorable young knight convicted, punished, and exiled for a crime his brother commited, has a chance to redeem himself by leading the Hierarch's forces to the "Sorceress" controlling the goblins. He is soon captured by Makenna and the goblin army and gradually discovers that the goblins are not mindless savages, Makenna is not an evil sorceress, and the Hierarch and his priests do not have the pure motives he once thought they did.

I have yet to read a less-than-really-good book by Hilari Bell. She weaves in enough complex politics within her worlds to make the story that much more interesting, but never so much as to get confusing. Makenna is a fierce and independent character, and Tobin is very likable despite his oversimplified black-and-white views of the world early on. They both change and grow and there's action and adventure and cute goblin children and ain't that just the way a good book should go down?

Blue Bloods

Book: Blue Bloods
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: blood-sucking New York socialites really are blood-suckers

Schuyler Van Alen comes from old money and an old New York family, but the money has run low, and even her historic name doesn't keep her from being an outcast at Duchesne, a prestigious private school where most of the students can trace their ancestors back to the Mayflower. She and friends Oliver and newcomer Dylan keep to themselves and prefer more of a grunge/goth look to their classmates' uber-style. But just like some of her fellow sophomores, Schuyler has begun to get prominent blue veins and flashbacks to places and times she's never been.

Turns out she's a Blue Blood, better known as a vampire. They do feed on human blood, but not to the death, and after about a hundred years in one body, they go into a sort of blood hibernation until a drop of their blood is entered into another body and they are reborn. They are fallen angels who no longer follow Lucifer, but wish to regain God's favor and re-enter heaven. The same vamps have lived over and over since the time of ancient Egypt. But now something is happening to Blue Bloods. One of Schuyler's classmates is found murdered, drained dry by another Blue Blood. The leaders don't want to admit it, but the dreaded Silver Bloods have returned to gain power through the blood strength of other Blue Bloods.

I didn't want to like this book (needed to clean up my pile quickly), and I'm not entirely sure I did, but I couldn't stop reading. The constant label- and name-dropping irritated me to no end, but I wanted to know what would happen next. De la Cruz reveals the mystery of who BB's are very gradually, darn her. The ending is a huge set-up for the forthcoming books in the series. I would recommend this for older teen vampire fans, especially those drawn to Laurell K. Hamilton, mostly because vamp readers usually can't get enough and this isn't too bad. Maybe more fashion-minded readers will like all the name-dropping more, but it just got on my nerves.

Freedom Walkers

Book: Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Author: Russell Freedman
Audience: Grades 5-8
In a Nutshell: "My feets is tired, but my soul is rested."

Every school child past the age of 10 has heard of the Montgomery bus boycott, or at least they should have. But I realized that there were a lot of interesting parts of the story that I'd never heard, or at least had long forgotten. That's the great thing about Freedman's books: even for an occasional non-fiction reader like myself, the topics he picks are always engaging, the narrative is well written, and he finds the best photos available to illustrate. He's one of the only nonfic authors whose books I will pick up based on author alone and know I will leave the experience with more interest in the topic.