Mastiff

By Tamora Pierce

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Random House, 2011

Genres: Fantasy, mystery, paranormal

Series: Beka Cooper; 3

ISBN: 9780375814709

Audience: Young adult

Number of pages: 593

Setting: Kingdom of Tortall

Time period: 249 H.E. (medieval)

Plot summary: Beka Cooper and her partner, Mattias Tunstall, are summoned to a hunt by their Lord Gershom in the middle of the night.  Beka and her scent hound, Achoo, along with Tunstall, Lord Gershom, Pounce, and a mage named Farmer Cape, travel to the Summer Palace where they discover a royal kidnapping has occurred and the kidnappers had inside help.  It’s up to Beka and her colleagues to track down Prince Gareth, who has been sold into slavery, and return him safely to the king and queen.

Into the Beautiful North

By Luis Alberto Urrea

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Back Bay Books, 2009

Genre: General fiction

ISBN: 9780316025263

Audience: Adult, young adult

Number of pages: 338

Setting: Tres Camarones & Tijuana, Mexico, San Diego, CA, & Kankakee, IL

Time period: Contemporary

Plot summary: When narcos come to the sleepy town of Tres Camarones, nineteen year old Nayeli, comes up with a brilliant plan for getting rid of them.  Inspired by the movie, The Magificient Seven, she and three of her friends embark on a mission to find seven warriors (cops or soldiers) to drive off the bandits and help repopulate the town.  Nayeli hopes to travel as far as Kankakee, IL to find her father, who (along with most of the other town’s men) left many years earlier in search of work.

Level Up

By Gene Luen Yang; art by Thien Pham

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: First Second, 2011

Genres: Fantasy, contemporary fantasy, paranormal

Format: Graphic novel

ISBN: 9781596432352

Audience: Adult, young adult

Number of pages: 160

Setting: An unspecified town somewhere in the US.

Time period: Contemporary

Plot summary: When Dennis Ouyang is kicked out of college due to his horrible study habits and excessive gaming tendencies, four angels come to his rescue and get him re-enrolled.  They have arrived to help Dennis fulfill his destiny and go to medical school to become a gastroenterologist.

Miss Peregrines’s Home for Peculiar Children

By Ransom Riggs

Place: Publisher & Year: Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2011

Genres: Fantasy, contemporary fantasy, time travel fantasy, historical fantasy, mystery, paranormal, historical fiction

Series: The author’s blog (8/9/2011) states that there will be a sequel to this book.

ISBN: 9781594744761

Audience: Young adult

Number of pages: 352

Setting: Englewood, Florida & Cairnholm, Wales

Time period: Contemporary & 1941

Plot summary: When Jacob Portman’s grandfather is killed in the woods behind his house, the police decide that he was attacked by feral dogs.  Jacob was in those woods that night, though, and saw something that was not a dog.  What he saw could only be described as a monster.  Of course his parents and the police don’t believe him when he tries to explain this to them.  After this, Jacob has terrible nightmares and doesn’t want to leave his house, even in broad daylight.  Jacob’s parents send him to a psychiatrist where he undergoes months of therapy.  Eventually, Jacob convinces his parents to allow him to travel to Wales over the summer.  He intends to find the home where his grandfather lived as a child.  He also hopes to find some answers to the mysteries which surrounded his grandfather.

Queen of the Dead

By Stacey Kade

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Hyperion, 2011

Genres:  Fantasy, contemporary fantasy, paranormal

Series: A Ghost and the Goth Novel; 2

ISBN: 9781423134671

Audience: Young adult

Number of pages: 267

Setting: Groundsboro (state not specified but the town is near Decatur, so it could be Illinois)

Time period: Contemporary

Plot summary: Alona Dare is Will Killian’s spirit guide.  She’s a ghost, he’s a ghost talker, and the ghosts in town know that they have to go through Alona to get help from Will.  Alona and Will have been through a lot together in the past couple of months, but now it’s summer and life should be a bit more relaxed.  Except, there’s a new ghost talker in town.  Only she seems less interested in communicating with ghosts, than in capturing them.

Nickel Plated

By Aric Davis

Place: Publisher & Year: Las Vegas, NV: AmazonEncore, c2010

Genre: Mystery, hard boiled crime fiction, suspense

ISBN: 9781935597322

Audience: Young adult

Number of pages: 197

Setting: Grand Rapids, Michigan

Time period: Contemporary

Plot summary: Nickel is a twelve year old child abuse survivor and foster child escapee.  At the age of ten, he ran away from his foster home and has been living outside the system since then.  He makes his money in a variety of ways, including growing marijuana and blackmailing pedophiles he finds online.  While he worries about his income, he also works for free for kids.  When a beautiful high school student, Arrow, comes to Nickel for help finding her younger sister, Shelby, Nickel can’t say no.  Hopefully, he’ll be able to find Shelby soon.  The longer it takes, the less chance she has of being found alive.

The Ghost and the Goth

By Stacey Kade

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Hyperion, 2010

Genres:  Fantasy, contemporary fantasy, paranormal

Series: A Ghost and the Goth Novel; 1

ISBN: 9781423124870

Audience: Young adult

Number of pages: 281

Setting: Groundsboro (state not specified but the town is near Decatur, so it could be Illinois)

Time period: Contemporary

Plot summary: When the most popular girl in high school, Alona Dare,  is struck by a bus and killed, she finds death to be more challenging than life.  As a ghost, there is much she doesn’t understand about her existence.  One of the worst aspects, however, is that the only one who seems to even notice her is Will Killian – one of the most unpopular kids in school.  People think that Will is mentally disturbed, when his real problem is that he has a hard time ignoring all of the ghosts he encounters.  He’s been particularly disturbed lately by a spirit who attacks him every time it’s close.  He has no reason to help Alona.  She’s just one more ghost clamoring for his attention.

The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint

By Brady Udall

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Vintage Contemporaries, c2001, 2002

Genre: General fiction

ISBN: 9780375719189

Audience: Adult, young adult

Number of pages: 423

Setting: Various locations in Arizona, including San Carlos Reservation, Globe, and Fort Apache.  Also set in Richland, UT and Stony Run, PA.

Time period: Hard to decipher, but it seems like late 1960s to early 1970s.

Plot summary: “If I could tell you only one thing about my life it would be this: when I was seven years old the mailman ran over my head” (p. 13).  Edgar Mint’s life is not an easy one.  After dying and being brought back to life, Edgar awakens from a coma utterly alone in the world.  His mother and grandmother, both believing he is dead, have disappeared.  Once well enough to leave the hospital, Edgar is sent to live at a BIA school where a distant ancient uncle works.  The trials Edgar endures here make the mail truck incident seem like a picnic.  In spite of this, Edgar not only perseveres, but manages to leave the school for an idyllic family setting in Utah, which ends up being not so idyllic.  What seems like it should be a tragically sad story is filled with humorous incidents, offbeat characters, and Edgar’s  persistent wish to find and forgive the man who almost killed him.

Mockingjay

By Suzanne Collins

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Scholastic Press, 2010

Genres: Science fiction, adventure, dystopian, thriller

Series: The Hunger Games; 3

ISBN: 9780439023511

Audience: Young adult

Number of pages: 392

Setting: Panem – mainly District 13 & the Capitol, but also Districts 12, 8, and 2

Time period: Sometime in the future

Plot summary: Katniss must face the reality of her new situation.  She and her family are all alive and living underground in the rebel District 13.  Peeta has been captured by the Capitol.  The rebels of District 13 want Katniss to become the face of the revolution; they want her to become the “Mockingjay”, a role which has already been designed for her without her knowledge or acceptance.  The questions are: what does Katniss want?  And how will she go about getting it?

Matched

By Ally Condie

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Dutton Books, 2010

Genres: Science fiction, dystopian, romance

Series: Matched; 1

ISBN: 9780525423645

Audience: Young adult

Number of pages: 369

Setting: The City & Mapletree Borough, Oria Province

Time period: An unspecified time in the future

Plot summary: Cassia Reyes lives in a perfect society.  Debilitating illnesses have been eliminated.  People die when they are old, surrounded by loved ones.  The Society makes all the decisions for everyone to ensure that everyone is contributing to The Society for the benefit of all.  This includes who people will love and to whom they will be Matched.

When Cassia learns that her Match is her best friend Xander, she is both happy and confused.  It is extremely rare for Matches to know one another from childhood.  Her confusion is magnified, however, when she looks up the information about her Match given to her by The Society at the Matching Banquet.  For a moment, she does not see Xander’s face on the screen; she sees another friend.  But how can this be?  The Society does not make mistakes.