Empire of Ivory (Temeraire book 4) by Naomi Novik
In the first Temeraire novel, His Majesty’s Dragon, England is at war with Napoleon and the French. William Laurence is an ordinary ship’s captain in His Majesty’s Navy. That is until his crew captures a French ship harboring a dragon egg. When it hatches the young dragon imprints upon Laurence, which forces him to become the dragon’s caregiver and pilot. He must leave the Navy and join His Majesty’s Aerial Corp, an air force made entirely of dragons and their crews. The first book in the series follows Laurence and his dragon, Temeraire, as they get used to being part of the Aerial Corp and help to defend England from an invasion. The second book’s adventure finds the duo traveling to China, Temeraire’s country of origin. The third book picks up where the second book ends and covers their return trip to England by land. They finally make it back to England at the start of the fourth book only to find a mysterious dragon plague has decimated the Aerial Corp. They must sail to Africa in order to find a cure. There they encounter a hidden nation where humans and dragons are equals. Although they try to make a good first impression the first contact turns sour because of England’s continuing involvement in the slave trade. Laurence is taken prisoner and the hidden empire begins to muster an army to raid the coastal ports England has established. Temeraire must save Laurence and find the cure for his dragon brethren.
I really enjoy this series. It reads a lot like an old swashbuckling, high seas adventure, except with dragons. 
The series’s prose captures the historical time period extremely well. It has the right mixture of detail and action that creates for a semi-quick read. I really enjoy how each book in the series provides greater insight on dragons and their culture. Dragons are just as complex and intelligent as humans, although humans in the western world tend to treat them as they would a horse or a ship. I would recommend this series to anyone who likes dragons, or historical high seas adventure. It is appropriate for advanced readers, 14 and up.
June 25th, 2008
Melinda and the Wild West by Linda Weaver Clarke
5 Stars
A young schoolteacher moves to the west to teach school. She endures many trials but becomes stronger in the process. It is tough to find a sweet, clean romance. I enjoyed finding a book without anything inappropriate, yet it still had sweet love scenes between the characters. I love reading love stories with some adventure and that is what the author has done in this book. I really worried when Melinda got caught in the blizzard, but it turned out to be one of my favorite parts. This book is fun to read over and over because it leaves you with “warm fuzzies”! It is a great book that I would not be embarrassed to recommend to a friend or anyone.
June 24th, 2008
The Seeing Stone by Kevin Crossley-Holland
This book deserves 4 stars
This is a book about a boy named Arthur living in a castle in the Middle Ages who wants to be a knight. Then he gets a black stone that shows him visions of King Arthur and shows how their lives are connected. It’s a great book.
June 18th, 2008
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
This book deserves 4 stars
To Kill a Mockingbird is a wonderful novel about a family living in an old Alabama town in the 1960’s. In To Kill a Mockingbird I was experienced to racism, prejudice, and I was reminded that we are human, too, although we may do things we aren’t proud of in the end. To Kill a Mockingbird is an amazing book that reveals a lot of life lessons. I would defiantly recommend this book to another person.
June 18th, 2008
(These are books that Maria Levetzow recommends for younger teens, which generally have no swearing, sex, drug use, or graphic violence. If these don’t fit your definition of a “gentle read”, please contact us and we’ll help you find other titles.)
Does My Head Look Big In This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
YA FIC ABDE
For a Christian, wearing a cross all the time isn’t a big deal. For a Muslim in the post 9/11 world, making a point of your religion is, at best, problematic. But Amal has decided that it’s time to wear a veil, a hijab, full-time, regardless of what the snooty people at her exclusive private school think about it.
Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham
YA FIC BING
Jane thought it was just another day at the beach with her mom and brother. Until she went swimming, and her whole life changed in an instant. Now she has the rest of the summer to mourn her lost career as an artist and to dread the first day of school where everyone will be pointing at her and whispering, “There’s the shark girl.”
Dragon’s Keep by Janet Lee Carey
YA SF/FAN CARE
The prophecy foretells the birth of a princess that will bring peace to her land and restore the throne to her banished royal family. Rosalind is the princess that Merlin foretold, but her flaw, being born with a dragon claw, will stop anyone from accepting her as anything other than a witch.
Revolution Is Not A Dinner Party by Ying Chang Compestine
YA FIC COMP
Ling lives with her physician father and mother, right outside the hospital where they both work. She doesn’t really understand Mao’s Cultural Revolution, but goes along with much of it, until her father is taken and other loved ones disappear.
The Land of the Silver Apples by Nancy Farmer
YA SF/FAN FARM
Jack has to save Lucy, once again, after she’s this time taken by the Lady of the Lake. But does Lucy want to be rescued?
The Falconer’s Knot by Mary Hoffman
YA FIC HOFF
Silvano has a good life - until he’s accused of a murder that he didn’t commit. Until his name can be cleared, he goes into hiding in a monastery. Chiara’s family has no money, which means no dowry to use to arrange a marriage. So she goes into a convent. Instead of being mired in a boring life, they get involved in solving a series of murders that take place at the formerly peaceful monastery.
Lemonade Mouth by Mark Peter Hughes
YA FIC HUGH
Meet five outcasts in Opoquonsett High School ’s freshman class: Wen, Stella, Charlie, Olivia, and Mo. Discover how these cultural players become the phenomenal band, Lemonade Mouth.
Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks
YA SF/FAN JINK
Cadel Piggott is a genius. And it’s gotten him into trouble, since he uses his genius to hack into computer systems and so forth. So now he’s off to see a counselor, Dr. Roth. Dr. Roth not only understands him, he trusts Cadel with computers. In fact, he does everything he can to nurture Cadel’s evil genius.
Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier
YA SF/FAN MARI
Five sisters go through the secret passage every month at the full moon to dance with the residents of the Other Kingdom. Jenna knows that her sisters will be safe so long as she is with them, although she doesn’t know why. But even she questions this when the feared Night People come to the dance.
Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
YA SF/FAN MIEV
Zanna and Deeba have seen some strange things; a fox watching intently Zanna, a cloud that looked just like her. But nothing prepares them for their entrance into a secret place under their city, where Zanna is hailed as the hero who will save Un Lun Dun.
Johnny and the Bomb by Terry Pratchett
YA SF/FAN PRAT
Johnny ends up an accidental time traveler, and he may or may not be in a position to warn him home town of a Nazi air raid. But if the damage of the air raid is averted, will Johnny and his friends still exist in the future?
Peak by Roland Smith
YA FIC SMIT
Peak is arrested after climbing a skyscraper. Since everyone wants the whole situation to go away, that’s what they arrange. Peak’s father, a famous mountain climber, takes him to Tibet to be the youngest climber to reach the peak of Mt. Everest.
Blackbringer by Laine Taylor
YA SF/FAN TAYL
Magpie Windwitch, granddaughter of the West Wind, travels the globe seeking out faerie knowledge that would be lost without her, and trapping demons whom humans have been too stupid to leave in their bottles. Then she gets on the trail of a demon that is powerful enough to destroy one of the Djinn who created the world Magpie doesn’t know if she’s powerful enough to capture this demon - but she does know that if she doesn’t, no one else will.
The Swan Maiden by Heather Tomlinson
YA SF/FAN TOML
Doucette is being trained to run a family household. She is most adamantly NOT supposed to be a swan maiden like her sisters. She does not have a swan skin that allows her to turn into a swan and fly, and she cannot study magic at her aunt’s magnificent home every summer. Until the day that she finds her swan skin, hidden under her parents’ bed. Her dreams of being a swan maiden have come true, but she knows she’ll never trust her parents again.
May 15th, 2008
The Harsh Cry of the Heron by Lian Hearn
This is the last book in the Tales of the Otori series, a wonderful series about the adventures of Otori Takeo and his love and future wife Shirakawa Kaede in feudal Japan. The original trilogy began with Takeo as a young boy whose village was destroyed by an evil warlord. He escaped and was adopted by a nobleman, Otori Shigeru. Takeo is trained as a warrior and discovers that he has special skills known only to those of the Tribe. The Tribe abilities allow him to turn himself invisible, to project the “second self” (an illusionary duplicate), and to use the Kikuta Gaze (when you stare into his eyes you fall into a deep sleep). The original adventures follow Takeo and Kaede as they fall in love, and fall in love, get captured, and eventually reunite, all in the process of uniting the Three Countries. Early on a prophecy is revealed to Takeo:
Your lands will stretch from sea to sea…Five battles will buy you peace, four to win and one to lose. Many must die, but you yourself are safe from death, except at the hands of your own son.
By the end of the third novel the prophecy is fulfilled (except for the dying part 
).There is magic, romance, adventure, action, and political intrigue. Its a great series of novels.
The Harsh Cry of the Heron is billed as the Last Tale of the Otori. It picks up 16 years after the third novel. Takeo and Kaede still rule the Three Countries and peace and trade have prosperped. This novel fulfills the last part of the prophecy Takeo heard earlier in life, that he can only die by the hand of his own son. The plot focuses on the political intrigue of the previous novels. The Emperor of Japan has let Takeo rule the Three Countries but has now called his right to rule into question. At the same time Arai Zenko is developing firearms in order to challenge Takeo’s rule in the west. Also we finally get to read about Takeo’s long lost son, and how he has been raised to despise his father. Sounds like a great read huh? Unfortunately the novel focuses too much on side plots and details that never contribute anything to the ultimate climax and resolution. I would estimate that at least half of the novel could have been trimmed down with no loss to the major plots. In the last hundred pages it finally comes around to the concluding battles and they are just as exciting as the battle scenes Hearn wrote before. There is just not enough of them. Takeo seems to hem and haw all through the novel. Nothing really gets accomplished until more then halfway through the book.
For this reason I would recommend this book only to more advanced readers who have read the previous Otori tales and absolutely loved them. I liked the ending to the series but wished it got to the good parts quicker.
April 14th, 2008
