ALAN’s Picks is a monthly book review column that is compiled and edited by Dr. Pam B. Cole of Kennesaw State University.

Reviewed this month:

Cleopatra’s Moon by Vicky Alvear Shecter
A Drowned Maiden’s Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz
Blink & Caution by Tim Wynne-Jones
Halo by Alexandra Adornetto
Huntress by Malinda Lo
Jersey Tomatoes Are the Best by Maria Padian
The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, &Treachery by Steve Sheinkin
Operation Redwood by S. Terrell French
She Said/She Saw by Norah McClintock
Small As an Elephant by Jennifer Jacobson
Spray by Harry Edge
Through Her Eyes by Jennifer Archer
To Timbuktu: Nine Countries, Two People, One True Story by Casey Scieszka and Steven Weinberg
A Touch Mortal by Leah Clifford

Cleopatra’s Moon by Vicky Alvear Shecter
Levine/Scholastic, 2011, 350 pp., $18.99
Ancient Egypt/Roman Empire/Relationships/Revenge/Power/Coming  of Age
ISBN: 978-0-545-22130-6

Ripped from her beloved Egypt after the deaths of Cleopatra and Marcus Antonius, Cleopatra Selene, daughter of the dazzling lovers, feels as if she is in the shadows of the night without guidance.  She and her brothers, Alexandros and Ptolly, must navigate the twisted and convoluted paths of Roman politics. As the siblings enter Rome, they battle new and hidden enemies, including those disguised as friends. Will Cleopatra Selene forever remain in her mother’s shadow? Is she fated to relive her mother’s life, or can she create her own? Bound to her mother’s choices and bound by her remarkable resemblance to her mother, Cleopatra Selene tries to uncover the path she should follow. Fate, however, seems to direct a dark and foreboding future.

Shecter relates the story of a dying empire through the destruction of a family. In addition to having created rich historical settings, the author has created characters that the reader roots for and has developed intriguing plot twists.  For Cleopatra Selene, enemies and friends are hard to distinguish until events play out.  Teachers might discuss the historical events and how they shaped the world. What actions or duties honor a family or a nation? What dictates the outcome of your life? Can you fight against fate and win?  How can you choose to serve? Such questions could bring this ancient story alive for young readers.

Reviewed by Sandra Fisher, Hiram, GA

A Drowned Maiden’s Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz
Candlewick, 2006, 389 pp., $7.99
Orphans/Deception/Supernatural
ISBN: 978-0-7636-3812-2

Maud has lived at the Barbary Asylum for Female Orphans for years, left behind after her brother and sister were adopted.  A dream comes true when the wealthy, stylish Hawthorne sisters adopt her, especially considering Maud is not the prettiest or best behaved child.  However, the sisters keep Maud their “secret child.”  She is not permitted to go outside, and she must stay quietly in her room in the attic whenever visitors drop by.  This treatment is a small price to pay for the beautiful dresses and delicious foods she gets, or so Maud thinks, until she learns the part she is to play in the “family business.”  In the end, Maud must question everything she feels and decide just how far she is willing to go for a home with the Hawthornes.

Schlitz does a masterful job setting up puzzle pieces and gradually putting them together for readers.  Readers sympathize with Maud, a spunky and utterly lovable young heroine.  Much of the characterization Schlitz uses to develop the book’s cast is indirect, a choice few authors of literature for younger readers choose to make, but her characterization is flawless. Though readers may not as quickly admire the Hawthorne sisters as Maud does when she meets them, readers easily understand why she is so fascinated by them.  Set in the year 1909, the plot is perfectly paced, filled with characters who linger in the gray areas of morality—almost every character does some morally questionable act. Part mystery, part historical fiction, and part classic story of an orphan looking for a loving home, A Drowned Maiden’s Hair is a tale readers of all ages may enjoy.

Reviewed by Crystal Leibowitz, Moriches, NY

Blink & Caution by Tim Wynne-Jones
Candlewick, 2011, 342 pp., $16.99
Urban Fiction/Suspense
ISBN: 978-0-7636-3983-9

Brent Conboy (alias, Blink) is a homeless Toronto teenager whose chief concern in life has so far been finding a clean hotel room service tray from which to scrounge his next meal. Kitty Pettigrew (alias, Caution) is a seventeen year old on the run from a tragic past and from her abusive, criminal boyfriend. When Blink stumbles upon a possible conspiracy involving high-level government and business interests, his search for  answers intersects with Caution’s flight from Toronto, and the pair find themselves bound together in a web of deceptions and double-crosses that challenge their survival instincts and forces them to learn how (and whom) to trust.

The action moves quickly in Wynne-Jones’ edgy tale of suspense, which unfolds like a shadowy film noir-inflected sibling of David Levithan and Rachel Cohn’s dual-voiced novels. With the story alternating between second and third-person narration, the reader’s perspective is constantly shifting as long-hidden secrets gradually emerge and new plots unfold. Torontonians and readers familiar with the streets of Canada’s largest city no doubt will enjoy the significant amount of local color incorporated into the narrative. Blink & Caution is highly recommended for older readers and fans of contemporary noir and urban fiction.

Reviewed by Sean Kottke, Battle Creek, MI

Halo by Alexandra Adornetto
Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan, 2010, 484 pp., $16.99
Relationships/Angels/Good and Evil
ISBN: 978-0-312-65626-3

Bethany and her siblings, Ivy and Gabriel, are angels sent to Venus Cove from Heaven.  They are on a mission to counteract the dark forces that are spreading across the world (and in Venus Cove) with acts of kindness.  Bethany, the youngest, enrolls in the local high school in order to spread her influence.  Although hiding the fact that you are an angel is difficult, the siblings are settling into Venus Cove and making progress on their mission until Xavier Woods threatens everything.  As soon as Bethany and Xavier meet, they are instantly attracted to each other.  Their relationship develops into a deep love and an unending need; however, not only is this relationship forbidden, it is terminable as Bethany’s  assignment to earth and her mission can end at any time.

Although the topic of forbidden love is not new to young adult literature, Adornetto provides a different and intriguing new twist on the theme.  Every boy dreams of falling in love with an “angel,” but when Xavier actually does, the relationship is fraught with difficult issues such as fate, faith, cultural differences and the battle between good and evil.  This is an impressive debut for any author but even more impressive is the fact that Adornetto is only eighteen years old.  Fans of Twilight will embrace this book, and there is no doubt that Adornetto’s fan base will grow to Stephanie Meyer proportions as the series continues.

Reviewed by Aimee Rogers, Minneapolis, MN

Huntress by Malinda Lo
Little, Brown, 2011, 371 pp., $17.99
Fairies/Lesbian Relationships/Adventure
ISBN: 978-0-316-04007-5

Nature is out of balance.  The Kingdom is dying.  A gray mist covers the world, and no one knows how to make the sun shine again.  Then, mysteriously, the human king receives an unusual summons from the Fairy Queen.  The King sends a contingent to meet with her.  Among those chosen to go are rebellious Kaede, daughter of the King’s most trusted adviser, and Taisin, a star pupil at the Academy of Sages.  The two girls are faced with a dangerous mission that holds the only hope for both the fairy and human worlds alike. Though their journey brings light and hope, it is also filled with loss, longing, and deeds that leave ugly, lasting scars.

Huntress is an achingly beautiful book.  Its prose, like the chilled, gray landscape it describes, often descends into melancholy but is never dour.  The slow-to build, understated passion between characters Kaede and Taisin is unlike that in so many other books.  Their romance is refreshing, though their relationship at the end will leave some readers in happy tears, some angry, some disappointed.  However, the conclusion will leave everyone wanting to know more of their futures. Those who enjoyed Malinda Lo’s Ash will be instant fans of this book.  The action, like the love story in Huntress, builds languidly to a climax, but readers who stick with the story until the end will be glad.

Reviewed by Adrienne Kisner, Boston, MA

Jersey Tomatoes Are the Best by Maria Padian
Knopf/Random House, 2011, 345 pp., $16.99
Sports/Anorexia/Friendship/Romance/Parental Relationships
ISBN: 978-0-375-86579-4

Henriette, a.k.a. Henry, and best friend Eva, both fifteen, are emerging phenoms in tennis and ballet, respectively.  Both also have one cringe-worthy, martinet parent whose histrionics are increasingly hurting their reputations and self-esteem. Separated for the first time, Henry leaves New Jersey for a Florida residential tennis camp, while Eva enters a New York ballet academy.  Henry is chagrined to learn her reputation, encouraged by her father, is winning by using opponents’ errors to humiliate them, rather than fully utilizing her talent.  However, she thrives, gaining gorgeous, top-talent boyfriend David, who assists in transforming and honing her powerhouse skills. Conversely, Eva is surrounded by catty competition, expectations of perfection, and eating disorders.  Already fragile, anorexia seizes Eva and eventually contributes to her foot fracture and early academy exit.

Alternately narrated by the humorously sarcastic Henry and more cerebral Eva, these likeable, entertaining girls, aside from having remarkable talent, will closely resemble and interest readers.  Because they seem so ordinary, their lives are the perfect canvas to illustrate the price of focusing upon a single purpose to the extent that it controls one’s life, erasing normality and sense of self. Eva’s demon, anorexia, is stereotypical yet credible, with her self-destructive thoughts relayed along with informative details of the disease and difficult recovery.

The novel is overlong, containing too many narratives with descriptions sometimes repetitive and tiresome.  Eva’s serious anorexia treatment should occur earlier, and the tidy ending shows speedily-rehabilitated parents and all newly happy.  Still, the novel’s younger female audience should relish its ending and certainly identify with the girls’ friendship and situations.

Reviewed by Lisa Hazlett, Vermillion, SD

Operation Redwood by S. Terrell French
Amulet/Abrams, 2009, 353 pp., $6.95
Environmental Protection/Friendship
ISBN: 978-0-8109-8354

Julian Carter is a twelve year old sent to live with his Uncle Sibley, Aunt Daphne, and his younger cousin, Preston. No one, except Preston, is happy about the living arrangement, but Julian’s mother is on a much coveted photography assignment in China. Uncle Sibley is CEO of an investment firm called IPX. Julian intercepts two emails. One maps out his aunt and uncle’s plan to ship him off to math camp and another is from Robin Elder, a twelve year old who has declared her hatred for Uncle Sibley because of his participation in cutting down a much cherished Redwood forest near her house. Robin’s desire to stop IPX becomes contagious, and soon Julian and his best friend, Danny, find themselves aiding in a plot against IPX and their corporate greed.

Julian’s math camp becomes a convenient distraction. Robin schemes to cancel Julian’s stay at math camp and redirects him to her house where she presents him as part of the urban/farm exchange program. Julian loves his newfound lifestyle complete with the farm chores.

Julian and Robin take a day to tour a tree house located in the center of Big Tree Grove. When they return home, they find authorities have been contacted and Julian’s Aunt Daphne has come to take Julian back to San Francisco. It appears as if Julian’s shot at saving the Redwood forest has been brought to a screeching halt. S. Terrel French does a great job examining how preadolescents view injustices. Operation Redwood is a beautiful work of fiction that brings to light a real and ever-growing concern for endangered habitats. Readers are left with the feeling that they, too, can make a difference in an ever-so-greedy world.

Reviewed by Shawna Meade, Abingdon, VA

She Said/She Saw by Norah McClintock
Orca, 2011, 211 pp., $12.95
Mystery/Murder/Drugs/Relationships
ISBN: 978-1-55469-335-1

Tegan Tyrell is in the backseat of her friend Clark’s SUV when BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—Clark and her crush (Martin) are shot to death.  Although Tegan tells the police that she did not see the shooter, no one believes her.  Her younger-by-ten-months sister, Kelly, relays the story from her point of view in the form of a movie script;  Tegan, self-absorbed, is keeping something from everyone, but what?  Did she see the shooter?  When people start ostracizing her at school and Clark’s and Martin’s parents continue to make impassioned pleas for Tegan to tell them what she saw, Tegan makes a bold move.  Will it bring the shooter to justice or put Tegan in harm’s way?

Written in two genres, movie script and first-person narrative, McClintock’s quick-paced novel maintains mystery until the end.  Not only are the details surrounding the crime revealed slowly, but so are details about the two sisters, Kelly and Tegan.  As Kelly says in the opening, in order to get to the truth we need “to pull the pieces together and then take a good hard look at them.”  McClintock doles the pieces out masterfully, maintaining suspense and interest.  The tension between the two sisters and the tension within the high school as kids take sides after the murders are well-crafted and realistic.   The novel is hugely engaging and contains no sexual references or language, making it a book that could be handed to any reader.

Reviewed by Lottie Waggoner, Bloomington, IN

 Small As an Elephant by Jennifer Jacobson
Candlewick, 2011, 275 pp., $15.99
Survival/Family
ISBN: 978-0-7636-4155-9

Jack is abandoned by his mother during a long-planned camping trip to Acadia National Park; he is only eleven, but his mother’s odd behavior is not unusual in this young boy’s life.  Instead of falling apart or seeking help, Jack determines to get home to Boston’s Jamaica Plain on his own.  If anyone else finds him, he is sure they will be separated, and he will wind up with his grandmother, whom he perceives as evil.  Holding onto a small toy elephant as a talisman, Jack survives one narrow escape after another as he uses his wits, luck, and courage to escape discovery and capture.

Jack doesn’t always understand what his mother’s erratic behavior means and that his trust in her might not be wise, but his loyalty holds steadfast.  The elephant remains Jack’s dream of what is magical and mysterious.  Ironically, Jacobson reminds readers in a recent interview that unlike Jack’s mom, an elephant never abandons her young.  Jacobson used Google maps to outline Jack’s journey and then went on the trip herself, so his adventures read like a travelogue for southern coastal Maine, where she resides.

Reviewed by Judith A. Hayn, Little Rock, AR

Spray by Harry Edge
Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan, 2010, 228 pp., $9.99
Games/Friendships/Humor/Excitement
ISBN: 978-0-312-61344-0

Only two hundred eager participants, fifteen years or older, can compete in this game of assassination. The weapons are pressurized water guns or water balloons. Each participant is given the name of a target. Once you make a kill, your target’s intended victim becomes your next target. One spray and you are eliminated. The game ends when there is only one dry player left. The story follows the players as they prepare to attack their next target while, themselves, being a target of assassination. The cast of characters is diverse in age and occupation, and all have personal reasons for participating. The pace picks up as one after another is eliminated. One is gone seconds after the game starts. A few crafty ones last for nearly three weeks. Alliances are formed while eliminated players strive to help one another survive until the last shot is fired. The longer the games go on, the more clever and inventive are the strategies for assassination and survival.

This escapist novel should appeal to readers searching for non-stop action. The writing is crisp, but with so many characters, the plot is somewhat difficult to follow at times. The dialogue, like the action, is rapid-like gunfire. There is a brief romance and much humor making the book not easy to put down. Like the Alex Rider series, the reader is kept in constant suspense. What is going to happen next? Who is going to make it to the end? Harry Edge, a first time author, owns four water pistols and one amazing writer’s skill for involving the reader in the middle of the action. I recommend Spray for pool or beach reading. Just don’t drop the book in water before reading the final page.

Reviewed by John Jarvey, Cleveland Hts., OH

 Through Her Eyes by Jennifer Archer
HarperCollins, 2011, 374 pp., $16.99
Supernatural/Search for Identity
ISBN: 978-0-06-183458-5

Tansy Piper is the teenage daughter of a horror novelist who moves around the country to establish the settings of her novels.  Millie Piper’s realistic settings have made her a famous novelist but have prevented her daughter from establishing roots anywhere.  Tansy feels isolated and alone.  Always “the new kid in school,” she longs for friends and a feeling of belonging.  Tansy and her mother, along with her grandfather Papa Dan, arrive in Cedar Canyon, Texas, where Tansy’s mother will write her next novel.  Cedar Canyon, however, is different from any of the other “spooky” locations they’ve occupied. For one, the strange Victorian house in the middle of the prairie looks haunted, and its sad history, as well as rumors of strange sightings and sounds, supports the idea.  Secondly, Cedar Canyon isn’t new to Papa Dan.  He grew up there, and, although his advancing dementia prevents him from voicing his fears, something about being there makes him anxious.  As Tansy is drawn into the mystery surrounding the house and its former occupants, she questions her sanity and considers leaving the life she knows with her mother and grandfather to travel back in time to be with the mysterious stranger who lived decades ago but speaks to her across time.

Archer has created a compelling story that addresses questions of understanding and acceptance of those who are different and who do not necessarily fit the ordinary teenager mold.  Through the parallel stories of Henry, Tansy, and Tate, the reader must consider the meaning of friendship.  The supernatural element of the story is both believable and entrancing.  Tansy’s haunting experiences, the dilemma she faces, and the journey toward her final decision all combine for a unique story of love and acceptance of oneself as well as others.

Reviewed by Pat Scruggs, Franklin, TN

Casey and Steven met when they were juniors in college, while studying abroad in Morocco. After a long distance relationship with Casey finishing school in California and Steven in Maine, they arrange to travel to Beijing to teach English for six months. Their plans then take them through Southeast Asia and
finally to Mali where Casey has a Fulbright Grant to study the role of Islam in the education system.

To Timbuktu is an account of their experiences in nine different countries over the course of two years as they learn to communicate in a variety of languages, make friends everywhere they go, and discover their own strengths. The saga of their journey is delightfully brought to life through Casey’s prose and Steven’s illustrations. Each encounter, detailed in both text and drawing, feels immediate and genuine. Casey and Steven do not provide readers with an idealized version of their experiences but share the exciting, as well as the unhappy times with equal attention: from the delight of teaching English to young Chinese children to the sadness of having to leave them at the end of their term. We travel with them down peaceful rivers and on buses overcrowded with people.

To Timbuktu is an account of Casey and Steven’s journey across countries and cultures. It is also an account of their journey into themselves and their relationship with each other and the people they come to care about at each stop along the way. Their tale is engaging and informative as they explore every opportunity presented. Reading of their stimulating encounters may well spur young adults to consider journeys of their own.

Reviewed by Susan M. Landt, Green Bay, WI

A Touch Mortal by Leah Clifford
Greenwillow/HarperCollins, 2011, 422 pp., $17.99
Future Life/Angels/Dead
ISBN: 978-0-06-200499-4

Feeling alone and depressed, Eden contemplates the possibility of no more tomorrows when Az and Gabe appear in her life, ultimately disrupting everything she understands about life and death, good and evil. Their unearthly mysteriousness triggers Eden to grapple with such questions as: What does it mean to be alive? How does one know whom to trust? Can the decisions we make ever be wrong for the right reasons? If angels exist, can they love a human? And, the most unsettling of all, Is it all right to hurt
others if doing so is essential for your own existence? Eden’s sudden overwhelming love for Az is tested again and again: when she discovers he is an angel, when he abandons her to find her way as a Sider, and when she suspects he is responsible for her death. The forces of evil are powerfully present in the quasi-life Eden encounters. Only Gabe, a bound angel, seems solidly aligned with the side of good. Temptation, longing, fear, and doubt permeate every action of Eden’s existence. Is there any way she can escape? Is there anyone she can trust?

Clifford demonstrates exceptional skill in creating a world within a world. Her characters’ dynamic personalities dominate the story, willing the reader to go beyond the ordinary and believe in the unbelievable. Never predictable, A Mortal Touch conceals layers of confusion and treachery, leading readers to question the truth and consequences of everyone’s actions. A not-to-be-put-down book that will mesmerize young adult readers and leave them with more questions than answers, Clifford’s tale is a perfect choice for readers searching for tantalizing, fantastical fiction.

Reviewed by Susan M. Landt, Green Bay, WI