School Library Journal (05/01/2009):
Adult/High SchoolWhen a stranger shows up dying in her family’s cucumber patch in the middle of the night, 11-year-old Flavia de Luce expands her interests from chemistry and poisons to sleuthing and local history. The youngest of a reclusive widower’s three daughters, Flavia is accustomed to independence and takes delight in puzzles and “what if’s.” She is well suited to uncovering the meaning of the dead snipe left at the kitchen door, the story behind the bright orange Victorian postage stamps, andeventuallythe identity of the murderer and his relationship to the dying man. Bradley sets the protagonist on a merry course that includes contaminating her oldest sister’s lipstick with poison ivy, climbing the bell tower of the local boys’ school, and sifting through old newspapers in the village library’s outbuilding. Flavia is brave and true and hilarious, and the murder mystery is clever and satisfying. Set in 1950, the novel reads like a product of that time, when stories might include insouciance but relative innocence, pranks without swear words, and children who were not so overscheduled or frightened that they couldn’t make their way quite nicely in chatting up the police or the battle-shocked family retainer. Mystery fans, Anglophiles, and science buffs will delight in this book and may come away with a slightly altered view of what is possible for a headstrong girl to achieve.”Francisca Goldsmith, Halifax Public Libraries, Nova Scotia” Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Booklist (05/01/2009):
*Starred Review* Canadian Alan Bradleys first full-length crime novel is delightful. Like fellow Canadian Louise Penny, his book is the recipient of the Debut Dagger Award from Canadas Crime Writers Association. Sweetness introduces a charming and engaging sleuth who is only11 years old. Flavia is one of three precocious and extremely literate daughters being raised by English widower Colonel de Luce in 1950. Flavias passion is chemistry (with a special interest in poisons). She is able to pursue her passion in the fully equipped Victorian laboratory in Buckshaw, the English mansion where the de Luce family lives. The story begins with a dead snipe (with a rare stamp embedded on its beak) found on the back doorstep. This is followed by a dead human body in the garden and, later, bya poisonous custard pie. Revelations about the mysterious past of Colonel de Luce complicate matters. Other supporting players include the housekeeper, Mrs. Mullet, andthe gardener, Dogger, who suffers from shell shock. When Colonel de Luce is arrested for murder, its up to Flavia to solve the mystery. The 11-year-old claims she is not afraid because this was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life. Only those who dislike precocious young heroines with extraordinary vocabulary and audacious courage can fail to like this amazingly entertaining book. Expect more from the talented Bradley.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

Review Quotes:
“One of the best novels to come out of Africa in years.”–”The Baltimore Sun”
“A breathtaking debut. . .[Adichie] is very much the 21st-century daughter of that other great Igbo novelist, Chinua Achebe.”-”The Washington Post Book World
“”The author’s straightforward prose captures the tragic riddle of a man who has made an unquestionably positive contribution to the lives of strangers while abandoning the needs of those who are closest to him.”-”The New York Times Book Review
“”At once the portrait of a country and a family, of terrible choices and the tremulous pleasure of an odd, rare purple hibiscus blooming amid a conforming sea of red ones”–”San Francisco Chronicle
“”Prose as lush as the Nigerian landscape that it powerfully evokes. . . . Adichie’s understanding of a young girl’s heart is so acute that her story ultimately rises above its setting and makes her little part of Nigeria seem as close and vivid as Eudora Welty’s Mississippi.”-”The Boston Globe
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“Adichie renders this coming-of-age story beautifully. Every character has dimension; every description resonates like cello music. . . . [Her] strong, lyrical voice earns her a place on the shelf squarely next to Gabriel Garc’a M+rquez and Alex Haley and Chinua Achebe.” –”San Diego Union-Tribune”
“A fiction writer’s job is to create a world so detailed, evocative and emotionally true that, like Alice, you fall into it. Adichie does exactly that, placing among the frangipani trees and bougainvillea of her native country a family demoralized and degraded by a father’s cruelty. Amazing.” –”The Minneapolis Star Tribune”
“[A] splendid debut.” –”Vanity Fair”
“Stunning. . . .With Purple Hibiscus, Adichie has established herself as a writer of enormous promise and with important stories to tell.” –”Bust”
“Remarkable. Kambili’s voice is sensitive and unassuming. It is also, by turns, funny, full of young and passionate longing, and crushingly sad. In addition to its lovely, spare writing and complex characters, [Purple Hibiscus] has a swift, seamless story line and makes politically tumultuous and intricately textured Nigeria completely accessible. [Adichie is] a budding star on the rise.” –”The Hartford Courant”

Booklist (08/01/2009):
*Starred Review* A once-famous crooner believes he must destroy the very core of his life to achieve a comeback. A young songwriter excels at selfishness rather than creativity. A gifted yet unheralded saxophone player is persuaded to undergo plastic surgery to enhance his visual appeal in a world that values image over talent. As a recipient of the Booker Prize and the Order of the British Empire, Ishiguro is no stranger to the vagaries of fame, nor, as a Japanese British writer, is he unfamiliar with the misapprehensions ones appearance can arouse. Questions of identity, artistic integrity, and success shape each of the five meshed stories in this droll and enrapturing collection. Each tale of musicians, muses, and users is funny and incisive; each is a fable about the dream of mastery and the nightmare of pragmatism; and each dramatic story line delivers arresting psychological transformations. Encompassing a palatial hotel in the insomniac dead of night and sun-kissed hills, an immigrant journeyman guitar player weathering prejudice in Venice and a young cellist enthralled by an unlikely mentor, dissonant marriages and shattering recognitions, Ishiguros stories are at once exquisite and ravaging. Much like the haunting music of down-and-out jazz great Chet Baker, whom Ishiguro names to strike just the right crepuscular note.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

Library Journal (09/15/2009):
In Venice, an old-time singer drafts a guitar player from one of the piazza’s bands to accompany him as he serenades the wife he is about to leave. She later turns up in the tale of a sax player whose own wife, having left him, offers to pay for plastic surgery that could help his career. A man who once shared a love for show tunes with an old friend is asked by her husband to act the fool to help save their marriage. A self-centered songwriter breeds disruption while working at his sister’s inn, and an inspiring cellist encounters a most unusual teacher. Despite what one might expect from the title, these aren’t stories about music, which is simply enfolded in the characters’ lives; the music doesn’t so much inspire the action as frame it. The writing is lighter and more loose-limbed than one might expect of the author of “Never Let Me Go”, but it delivers the same scary insights into human misbehavior. VERDICT Once again Ishiguro does something different; recommended for anyone who loves thoughtful writing. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 5/1/09.]Barbara Hoffert, “Library Journal” Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Booklist (10/15/2008):
Phillips, who made a big splash with Black Tickets (1979) and Machine Dreams (1986), has fallen somewhatoff the literary radar but comes back full force with a new novel that certainly reminds us of her strength as a fiction writer. Set in her native West Virginia, the author places her multivoiced narrative in the 1950s.Several characters, all related, tell their version, or let the narrator tell it, of family life, beginning with Robert Leavitt, an army corporal stationed in Korea during that dreadful conflict. Leavitt dies tragically overseas, leaving behind a young widow and infant son. In alternating sections, Leavitts Korean experiences are chronicled, as are his survivors attempts to put together a family that can decently function without husband and father. Phillips understanding of each of her characters is typically immaculate. A sense of sluggishnessin the novels first pages gives way to an appreciation of how movingthis in-depth definition of what makes a family is. Expect demand from her fans; on the other hand, readers unfamiliar with her should be encouraged to make her acquaintance.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

Publishers Weekly (10/27/2008):
From Phillips (“Motherkind”; “Shelter”) comes a long-awaited and wonderful coming-of-age tale of grief and survival. The story straddles a parallel six-day period in July, one in 1959during which 17-year-old Lark; her brother, Termite, who cant talk; and their aunt and caretaker, Nonie, are struggling to balance hope and despair in smalltown West Virginiaand nine years earlier, when Termites father, Robert Leavitt, serves a tour in Korea. Lark, living with her aunt without knowing who her father is or why her mother gave her up, was nine years old when baby Termite landed on their doorstep. Nonie works long hours at a local restaurant to support the hodgepodge family, leaving Lark to take over mothering duties, but as Lark finishes secretarial school and realizes how limited the options are for her and Termite, forces of nature and odd individuals shed light on mysteries of the past and lend a hand in steering the next course of action. Through Robert and Nonies stories and by exposing the innermost thoughts of each character, Phillips creates a wrenching portrait of devotion while keeping the suspense at a palpitating level. “(Jan.)” Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Booklist (02/01/2009):
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Leticia, a gossipy high-school student, knows that Girl fights are ugly. Girl fights are personal. She says this after overhearingthat Dominique, the tough-as-nails basketball player, is planning to beat up pink-clad fashion-plate Trina at 2:45. The infraction was minorthe oblivious Trina cut off Dominique in the hallwaybut for Dominique it was the last of a series of insults, the worst of whichwas being benched by Coach for failing toimprove her grades.Bouncing between the three first-person accounts within the span of a single school day, Williams-Garcia makes the drama feel not only immediate but suffocatingly tense, as each tick of the clock speeds the three girls toward collision. Dominiques anger and frustration is tangible; Leticias hemming over whether or not to get involved feels frighteningly authentic; and only Trinas relentless snobbery seems a bit simplified. Most impressive is how the use of voice allows readers to fully experience the complicated politics of high school; you can sense the thousand mini-dramas percolating within each crowded classroom. Along the way, the characters disregard of such high-school stalwarts as A Separate Peace and Of Mice and Men subtly prepares the reader for the messy and gut-wrenching conclusion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

Publishers Weekly (02/02/2009):
Alternating among the perspectives of three girls at an urban high school, Williams-Garcia (“Like Sisters on the Homefront”) shows once again her uncanny ability to project unique voices. Benched by the basketball coach for her low grades, Dominique is trying to bite back her rage when some stupid little flit comes skipping down B corridor like the Easter Bunny…. Skipping. In all that pink and walks between Dominique and her girls, like she don’t see I’m here and all the space around me is mines. That’s itDominique vows to kick her ass at exactly 2:45. Her intended victim, Trinaalready full of herself over her looks, and pumped up because she’s about to hang her latest masterpiece of art in a hallway)does not hear, but Leticia does, and she can’t wait to tell her best friend (That would be something to see…. Trina getting stomped on school grounds). And when Leticia’s friend argues that Leticia ought to warn Trina, the plot quickens rather than taking a simple path around should-she/shouldn’t-she. So well observed that the characters seem to leap off the page, the novel leaves a strong and lingering impact. Ages 12up. “(Mar.)” Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Booklist (08/01/2009):
*Starred Review* Trapped and cornered like a rat in a maze. So it is for Austers brooding loners. In this edgy bildungsroman, this tightly focused tale of treachery, Adam Walker, an introspective young man, a poet no less, and a student attending Columbia University in 1967, meets his nemesis at a party. Rudolph Born, a professor in the School of International Affairs, is commanding, volatile, and dangerous. Adam knows he shouldnt trust him, yet he cannot resist Borns astonishing offer to bankroll a literary magazine and put Adam in charge, nor can he spurn the advances of Borns sexy lover. Witness to Borns capacity for violence, Adam first seeks justice, and then settles for revenge, but he is in over his head and harboring his own toxic secret. In this erotic, archly philosophical thriller, Auster, seductive and masterly, pilots readers from New York to Paris to California to a fortresslike island in the Caribbean, as he slyly contrasts the subtle pleasures of the mind with the wildness of the body, and delves into the repercussions of guilt, the unfathomable power of desire, and the insidious consequences of narcissism and debauchery. With fascinating characters, a spiraling structure, and a Heart of Darknesslike conclusion, this is a sublimely suspenseful, insightful, and disquieting novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

Publishers Weekly (08/17/2009):
In his latest, Auster is in classic form, perhaps too perfectly satisfying the contention of his wearied protagonist: there is far more poetry in the world than justice. Adam Walker, a poetry student at Columbia in the spring of 1967, is Auster’s latest everyman, revealed in four parts through the diary entries of a onetime admirer, the confessions of his once-close friend, the denials of his sister and Walker’s own self-made frame. With crisp, taut prose, Auster pushes the tension and his characters’ peculiar self-awareness to their limits, giving Walker a fractured, knowing quality that doesn’t always hold. The best moments from Walker’s disparate, disturbing coming-of-age come in lush passages detailing Walker’s conflicted, incestuous love life (paramount to his education as a human being, but a violation of his self-made promise to live as an ethical human being). As the plot moves toward a “Heart of Darkness”style journey into madness, the limits of Auster’s formalism become more apparent, but this study of a young poet doomed to life as a manifestation of poetry carries startling weight. “(Nov.)” Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal (04/01/2008):
Gr 6 UpThis biography is a reworking of the best-selling “Mockingbird” (Holt, 2006), adapted for young adults. Shields spotlights Lee’s lifelong friendship with Truman Capote and the creation of “To Kill a Mockingbird”, showing how the publication and success of that book affected the rest of her life. Shields uses previously conducted interviews with Lee and her family, friends, and neighbors. He pulls from books, magazine articles, newspapers, and radio and television interviews to piece together this life story of the notoriously press-shy Lee. The author’s clear and appealing style is much the same as in “Mockingbird” and this adaptation appears to have been not so much edited as streamlined. Photos include Lee, her family, friends, and the famous Hollywood actors who made the film version of her book. “I Am Scout” moves along at a good pace, and Lee’s quiet life makes for a surprisingly fascinating read. Perhaps because Shields is pulling from so many sources, the occasional turn of phrase comes across as oddly formal, but generally, this is an immensely readable, intriguing tale of a quiet, private author.”Geri Diorio, The Ridgefield Library, CT” Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal (07/15/2009):
No one familiar with Walls’s affecting memoir, “The Glass Castle”, will be surprised by her subtitle here: Walls is a careful observer who can give true-life stories the rush and immediacy of the best fiction. Here she novelizes the life of her grandmother, giving herself just the latitude she needs to create a great story. Lily Casey Smith is one astonishing woman, tough enough to trot her pony across several hundred miles of desert to her first job when she’s only a teenager. After a brief stint in Chicago and marriage to a flim-flam man, she’s back in the West, teaching again and eventually remarrying, helping her fine new husband at the gas station, raising her children, and running hootch if she must to make ends meet during the Depression. Her story is at once simple and utterly remarkable, for this is one remarkable womana half-broke horse herself who’s clearly passed on her best traits to her granddaughter. VERDICT Told in a natural, offhand voice that is utterly enthralling, this is essential reading for anyone who loves good fictionor any work about the American West. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 6/1/09.]Barbara Hoffert, “Library Journal” Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Booklist (09/01/2009):
*Starred Review* In her best-selling memoir, The Glass Castle (2005), Walls chronicled her painfully enlightening childhood. She now loops back to tell the even more gripping tale of her maternal grandmother, the formidable horse-training, poker-playing rancher and teacher Lily Casey Smith. Because she patched the story together from reminiscences, used her imagination to fill in the gaps, and decided to have Lily narrate so we could all experience her sharp-shooters directness, Walls wisely calls this a novel. Fact, fiction, either way, every tall-tale episode in Lilys rough-and-tumble life is hugely entertaining and provocative, while Walls prose is as crystal clear and reviving as the water Lily cherishes in the high desert. Flash floods, tornadoes, blizzards, drought, con men, bigots, scum, and fools, unflappable Lily courageously faces them all. And why not? She was the smartest and toughest in her otherwise inept West Texas family. As she travels across the plains winning rodeos, selling moonshine, marrying her soul mate, raising two kids, running a ranch, and teaching in remote one-room schoolhouses Lily, proud, uncompromising, pistol-packing, and whip-smart, finds a lesson in every setback and showdown. Walls does her grandmother proud in this historically revealing and triumphant novel of a fearless, progressive woman who will not be corralled.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

Library Journal (01/01/2005):
Two outsiders-a marine biologist from America and a New Dehli businessman-radically alter the social landscape when they converge on the splattering of islands off India call the Sundarbans. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal (03/01/2005):
Oskar Schell is like any nine-year-old, except that he is tumbling through grief over his father’s death in the attack on the World Trade Center. As his mind races to outpace reality, Oskar sets out on the ultimate scavenger hunt through New York City to discover more about a key he finds among his father’s belongings. As with his debut, “Everything Is Illuminated”, Foer employs colliding time lines. Here Oskar’s grandparents inch toward “living” through emotional letters that release the horrors of their Dresden childhood. Only Oskar’s mother remains a remote caregiver for most of the novel. Throughout, Foer nimbly explores the misunderstandings that compound when grief silences its victims. It’s hard to believe that such an inherently sad story could be so entertaining, but Foer’s writing lightens the load. Oskar’s rolling chatter, punctuated by stinging declarations, is often welcome comic relief. Oskar is alive, and as he invents a safer world in his head and among all those he touches, he’s also learning to live. Foer’s excellent second novel vibrates with the details of a current tragedy but successfully explores the universal questions that trauma brings on its floodtide. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ "12/04.] -Rebecca Miller, “Library Journal” Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Booklist (02/01/2009):
Grades 7-12 *Starred Review* Nine months before Rosa Parks history-making protest on a city bus, Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old Montgomery, Alabama, high-school student, was arrested and jailed for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. Hoose draws from numerous personal interviews with Colvin in this exceptional title that is part historical account, part memoir. Hooses lucid explanations of background figures and events alternate with lengthy passages in Colvins own words, and the mix of voices creates a comprehensive view of the Montgomery bus boycott and the landmark court case, Browder v. Gayle, that grew from it. At the center of the headline-grabbing turmoil is teenager Colvin, who became pregnant during the boycott; and her frank, candid words about both her personal and political experiences will galvanize young readers. On each attractively designed spread, text boxes and archival images, including photos and reproduced documents, extend the gripping story.As inHooses We Were There, Too! Young People in U.S. History (2001), this inspiring title shows the incredible difference that a single young person can make, even as it demonstrates the multitude of interconnected lives that create and sustain a political movement. Thorough chapter notes and suggestions for further reading close this title, whichwill find an avid readership beyond the classroom.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)