Keely is a faithful member of our Book Owls book club and has written her review of young adult author Jessica Warman’s new book, Between:

Between by Jessica Warman is a thrilling novel with romance and drama is one of the most unique ideas in teen fiction. The book is a page turner that you can’t put down. Jessica has written a book that will make you cry and laugh at the same time.

Between begins with a regular eighteenth birthday slumber party on a yacht for a snobby stuck up girl. When they go to sleep, there are seven people on the boat, but when they wake up Liz, the snobby stuck up girl, is missing. They find her dead body floating in the water. What they don’t know is that Liz is there watching them. She’s stuck in Limbo. She lives among them but they can’t hear or see her. With her is Alex Berg, a student at her school who died months ago.

After Liz dies she doesn’t have clear memories of her life. She spends most of the book trying to figure out how she dies and remembering her life’s memories. During this time she finds her life was getting twisted before she died. Her boyfriend had been cheating on her with her best friend/stepsister and she found some disturbing pictures of herself that she doesn’t remember taking. She finds that her life had been full of lies and her dad had been cheating on her mom before she died. She also finds that she played a part in Alex’s death and that she wasn’t as good of a kid as she thought she was. She realizes the changes she should have made in her life and herself.

The book is about moving on, family and forgiveness. Jessica Warman has written a couple other young adult novels. A couple that look really interesting are Breathless and Where the Truth Lies.

The following review is by an 8th grader from St. Andrew’s Episcopal School. Millie is one of those readers that every librarian and book seller hopes will walk through their doors. She is an opinionated, voracious, choosy reader, and I love talking to her about books. She has read Anna Carey’s debut novel Eve, and as always, is here to tell if this book held her interest:

Eve is unlike any other Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic novel I have ever had the pleasure of reading. From the get-go Eve had me wrapped up in the world and lives of Caleb and Eve. This exquisite page-turner is practically impossible to put down! The world of “New America” is extremely addicting and an eye opener to how love can survive even the toughest situations with characters as inexperienced as they are. Rather than having brain-craving zombies running amuck, the world’s run with an extremely oppressive totalitarian government, which runs on subordination, ignorance, and the willingness of the people to serve.

Sixteen-year-old Eve lives in the dystopic, post-apocalyptic world, which was devastated by a plague ten-year prior. The plague killed the majority of women in New America, including Eve’s mother. With a dead mother and a father who abandoned her at a very young age out of the picture, Eve was sent to government run boarding school, as were many other girls her age. In 2025, she is valedictorian and ecstatic about crossing the lake, where all sixteen year olds go to learn a specific trade. Days before graduation the school outcast, Arden, tells Eve that across the lake is a mass reproduction hospital for the dying country of New America. Arden was right and Eve runs away the night before graduation, leaving her friends and world behind. Eve is a story of living in a broken world with misconceptions, tyranny, and pure, innocent love. It is survival of the fittest. She soon discovers the fears and secrets of the perilous, sexist, outside world with Arden and her love-interest Caleb.

Eve is unforgettable story of uncovering the truth, and rediscovering the true meaning of love in a practically barbaric world, and learning how to survive in a dilapidated, scary world. Eve is the first of The Eve Trilogy. I cannot wait for the second installment of this promising series!

Ashley is another great reader from the Lemuria Book Owls Book Club. She is a smart reader and has reviewed the new book from writing duo Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie, Unleashed:

I’ve read several books about werewolves and loved all of them. Unleashed was no exception. When Katelyn McBride moves to Arkansas from L.A. because of her parents’ deaths, she is dreading living with her grandfather who she barely knows, not to mention having to leave her best friend, and possibly ending her gymnastics career. When Katelyn arrives in Arkansas, she is in culture shock. She thought that the new town she was moving to would be boring, backwards, and extremely country. She is in for a surprise when she discovers the town has charm and the people are close to one another.

The Book Owls meet once a month and discuss young adult books. To be a part of this book club, or any of our Lemuria Kids books clubs, email emily@lemuriabooks.com.

Back in June, my middle grade girls book club, now formally called The Book Owls, begged me to read a series that they were in love with. They wrote me email proclaiming their love and worked hard to educate those who didn’t know what the series so they could win them over to the dark side. Or rather the tiger side as it turns out. The series they were in love with was the Tiger Saga by Colleen Houck.

They read the first two books in the series, Tiger’s Curse and Tiger’s Quest, and were ravenous for more, but the third book hadn’t come out yet. As some of you may know, one of the perks of being a bookseller is that we often get review copies of books that haven’t come out yet. I happened to receive a review copy of the third book in this series, entitled Tiger’s Voyage, the day before we met for book club. It was too good to be true, especially for the girls. They started passing the review copy around and hatching a plan: They were going to get Colleen Houck to come here.

I was all for Colleen coming here, but I also knew that she lived in Salem, Oregon, which is quite a long way for here. We comprised all of our praise for the series anyway and sent them off to the publisher, Sterling, knowing that it was a shot in the dark, but trying none the less. When I got the call from the publisher to set up the signing, I could hardly believe it. I squealed, which, let me tell you, is nothing compared to what the girls did when I told them. Ah! It really worked!

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So there you have it. People, no matter their age, really can make things happen. I am so glad I get to share not only this story, but also the author event with you: Colleen Houck will be here this Friday, November 11th at 4:00. I hope you will come out and see what all the hubbub is about, and maybe pick up a couple of the books for the middle to highschool girl in your life.

Here is another review from one of Jackson’s smartest bunch of kids: the readers! Raveena is an 8th grader at St. Andrew’s and a member of Lemuria’s middle school girls book club (still working on it’s official name) and she is a lover of young adult romances. See what she has to say about Amy Plum’s debut novel, Die for Me:

I have read so many paranormal romance books, but none compared to Die for Me by Amy Plum. Usually its the same story girl meets boy and they fall in love, but in Die for Me it take that simple concept and twists it into a fabulous tale. The main problem for the characters in Die for Me (and best part of the story in my opinion) is how they have to work together to make their relationship work.

Charley Hutchison is a 6th grader at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School and an amazing reader. His voracity for reading reminds me of my own at his age–I constantly was in trouble for reading under my desk while the teacher taught the lesson. Richard Paul Evans is best know for his adult novels such as The Christmas Box and The Gift. However, in his first novel for young adults, Evans uses his own childhood for the basis of Michael Vey, who has Tourette’s syndrome like Evans. Here is Charley’s take on Richard Paul Evans’ first foray into young adult literature:

One of the best parts about my job is working with young people in our community. Claire Sykes, a 10th grader at St. Andrew’s, works in Oz with me during her Christmas and summer breaks and is a great reader. She has read Wither by Lauren Destefano and has been raving about it every since. Here is her take on this young adult book:

I’ve read lots of dystopian novels, but none like this. In most of these kinds of books, the source of conflict comes from an authoritarian government that constantly involves itself with all aspects of the citizens’ lives. However, in the novel Wither, a controlling government is the least of everyone’s worries: instead, they have another problem to worry about.

At first, everything appeared to be wonderful-scientists had perfected genetics and they created a new generation of humans immune to any illness or disease. But despite the success of this First Generation, their offspring have become infected with a lethal virus that kills males at age 25 and females at age 20. In an effort to create more children in a rapidly dying world, girls are often kidnapped and sold into polygamous marriage. This is the situation 16 year old Rhine finds herself in. She is whisked away from her home and her twin brother in New York City to the home of her new husband in Florida. However, she hates everything about this unfamiliar life and is determined to escape from her confinement. So, with the help of a servant named Gabriel, Rhine plots to run away and find her way back home again.

Ilsa J. Bick was just in front of a huge crowd at Ridgeland High School this morning. We thought we’d share a little bit of an interview done for the blog Random Acts of Reading–a great place to learn about kids and young adult books.

Q. What inspired you to write about the apocalypse?

Because it could happen tomorrow? Because people can be so destructive? Because civilization is so fragile, only a construct?

Seriously, I’ve lived through some scary times, including the nuclear arms race, but the apocalypse seems much more real to me now. In part, I’m sure that’s my reaction to 9/11, but I am and always have been very nervous when it comes to environmental issues—and I gotta say, climate change is terrifying. Mass extinctions are happening. Environmental degradation is real. Resources will just become more scarce, and water is the next huge issue. People don’t realize how much time we don’t have to fool around while the ecosystem goes to hell.

Or maybe they do, on an unconscious level at least. Perhaps that’s why we’re seeing so many teen and YA dystopian and apocalyptic narratives at the moment. Now, the apocalypse is and has always been very big in sf, and we’re not talking alien invasion here but possible and probable scenarios: asteroid strikes, overpopulation, pollution, climate change, that kind of stuff. One thing about some current YA dystopias, though, is that not only are the nitty-gritty details of how the society collapsed pretty vague, but people are also somewhat shockingly well-behaved. I remember reading one book—a very fine novel, in fact—and wondering why no one had broken into the kid’s house and taken everything. Having worked with some pretty nasty inmates, being the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, dealing with highly disturbed patients . . . I know people aren’t all that nice, especially when they’re under stress. Just turn on the news for the disaster or riot of the week, if you don’t believe me. Better yet, go read some history. As scary as the world is, it can always get worse.

But if I were only about doom and gloom, then I wouldn’t have bothered with this book or subgenre. Honestly, adults can get so mopey and, yes, things are bad, but one of the things I love about YA is how redemptive it is. These kids are in crummy situations, ones their society or parents created, and what these books are about is changing the world and making it better. We desperately need that kind of energy and optimism. We need teens and young adults to realize that they’re the game-changers here. The adults had their shot. Time for a change, if you ask me.

Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick is published by Egmont, an independent publisher distributed by Random House.

Click here for the full interview at Random Acts of Reading.