Kliatt articles from September 2003

Kliatt archives from September 2003

Fat characters in recent young adult fiction.
September 1, 2003... Imagine someone tells you about a character named Joe, or Josephine. You don't know anything about the character. Then you find out that he, or she, is fat. What images come to mind? Do you feel like you've learned something about this...

Agell, Charlotte. Welcome home or someplace like it.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Henry Holt. 230p. illus. c2003.0-8050-7083-4. $16.95. J* This is Agell's first novel. She is a language arts teacher in a middle school and also an artist in residence, She lives in Maine, where this wonderfully quirky story (complete with...

Ambrose, Stephen E. This vast land; a young man's journal of the Lewis and Clark expedition.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Simon & Schuster. 304p. c2003. 0-689-86448-5. $17.95. JS This posthumous book by the famous historian commemorating the bicentennial of the journey of the Corps of Discovery is his only work of fiction. George Shannon was a real teenager,...

Banks, Kate. Walk softly, Rachel.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 149p. c2003. 0-374-38230-1. $16.00. JS Rachel lives, but her older brother is dead. Jake died when Rachel was a little girl and he was a teenager. She doesn't know much about him, really, until she finds his...

Bell, Hilari. Flame.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... (The Book of Sorahb, Volume 1). Simon & Schuster. 352p. c2003. 0-68985413-7. $16.95. JS Set in the imaginary land of Farsala, this fantasy features three teenagers: the spirited lady Soraya, daughter of the commander of the army; the...

Block, Francesca Lia. Wasteland.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... HarperCollins. 150p. c2003. 0-06-028655-X. $15.99. SA Always one to test the boundaries of form and topic, Block gives us a story with multiple narrators and unexpected twists. Marina is 16 and from the time she was a crying baby in her...

Bunting, Eve. The presence, a ghost story.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Houghton Mifflin, Clarion. 195p. c2003. 0-618-26919-3. $15.00. JS A handsome ghost, lurking about in a lovely California church, waits to claim his next beautiful lover--there have been a series of them over the century he has been dead....

Cadnum, Michael. Ship of fire.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Penguin Putnam, Viking. 190p. c2003. 0-670-89907-0. $16.99. JS Seventeen-year-old Thomas Spyre, a surgeon's apprentice in London, anticipates rare adventure when he and his master are asked to serve on a voyage with the famous sea captain...

Coburn, Jake. Prep.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Penguin Putnam, Dutton. 176p. c2003.0-44-47135-9. $15.99. SA Nick attends prep school in Manhattan and comes from a wealthy family--but, like Holden Caulfield, phonies and doubts beset him, and danger lurks at every turn. The evil...

Collins, Pat Lowery. The fattening hut.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Houghton Mifflin. 186p. c2003. 0-618-30955-1. $16.00. JS This story, told as a novel in poetry, is based on the actual customs of some cultures in various parts of the world that have rituals during puberty to fatten girls up to ready them...

Dent, Grace. LBD; it's a girl thing.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Penguin Putnam. 275p. c2003. 0-399-24187-6. $15.99. JS Here is another engagingly wacky narrator from Great Britain--think of the Georgia Nicolson series by Louise Rennison--created by a contributor to British teen magazines and column...

Ellis, Deborah. Mud City.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Groundwood Books. 164p. map. c2003. 0-88899-518-0. $15.95. JS Ellis, familiar to NPR listeners for her reporting from Afghanistan, has given us another novel about street children there (following Parvana's Journey and The Breadwinner). Mud...

Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Escape from memory.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Simon & Schuster. 218p. c2003. 0689-85421-8. $16.95. JS Haddix (author of Turnabout, Just Ella, and Takeoffs and Landings) writes a thriller about a teenager living in a small town in the Midwest who is hypnotized by her friends as a party...

Hesse, Karen. Aleutian sparrow.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Simon & Schuster. 156p. c2003.0-689-66169-3. $16.95. JS A beautifully designed cover introduces this series of short poems that tell a story about Aleutian people during WW II. The Japanese bombed some of their villages, and "for their own...

Hite, Sid. The journal of Rufus Rowe; a witness to the Battle of Fredericksburg, Bowling Green, Virginia, 1862.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Scholastic. (My Name is America), 130p. illus, c2003.0-439-35364-5. $10.95. J Rufus is 16, but small for his age because of rickets, so he is not enlisted in the Confederate Army--but he is old enough to run away from home to escape a...

Jacques, Brian. Loamhedge.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... (A Tale From Redwall). Illustrated by David Elliott. Penguin Putnam, Philomel. 432p. illus. c2003. 0-399-23724-0. $23.99. JSA* A young haremaid has been confined to a wheelchair all her life, but a mysterious poem that refers to a...

Jenkins, A.M. Out of order.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... HarperCollins. 248p. c2003. 0-06-623968-0. $15.99. (Library binding: 0-06-623969-9. $16.89.) S Colt, a sophomore, hates high school--except for baseball and his girlfriend, Grace. Schoolwork has always been a struggle for him, and Colt has...

Koss, Amy Goldman. Gossip times three.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Penguin Putnam. Dial. 170p. c2003. 0-8037-2849-2. $16.99. J This sequel to The Girls (An ALA Best Book for YAs and top ten Quick Pick) will appeal to the same readers with its witty, lighthearted style. The narrator goes on and on about the...

Myers, Walter Dean. The beast.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Scholastic. 176p. c2003. 0-439-36841-3. $16.95. JS Anthony "Spoon" Witherspoon has grown up in Harlem, but now he's spending his senior year of high school at a mostly white prep school in Connecticut. A new world is opening up to him, but...

Nixon, Joan Lowery. Nightmare.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Random House, Delacorte. 166p. c2003. 0-385-73026-8. $15.95. J A good old-fashioned YA thriller, with haunting dreams, loyal friendships, threatening adults, and dense parents--oh, and a summer camp setting! (A good cover too.) It's a story...

Nolan, Han. When we were saints.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Harcourt. 291p, c2003. 0-15-216371-9. $17.00. JSA Those of you familiar with Nolan's work (such as Dancing on the Edge and Born Blue) know she doesn't shy away from difficult subjects such as troubled teenagers and religious themes. An...

Oates, Joyce Carol. Freaky green eyes.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... HarperCollins. 341p. c2003. 0-06-623759-9. $16.99. JS This thriller reminds the reader of the infamous O.J. Simpson case, in that it is about the family of a highly successful sports commentator and the murder of his wife, the narrator's...

Paolini, Christopher. Eragon.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... (Inheritance Trilogy, Book 1). Random House, Knopf. 497p. illus. c2003.0-375-82668-8. $18.95. JS* Paolini takes a little Tolkien, a little McCaffrey, a coming-of-age quest, and combines them with some wicked good storytelling in this first...

Pattou, Edith. East.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Harcourt. 391p. c2003. 0-15-204563-5. $18.00. JS From the author of Fire Arrow and Hero's Song comes a retelling of the fairy tale "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" in nearly 400 pages. It's a tale that arises from several cultures, even...

Peck, Richard. The river between us.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Penguin Putnam, Dial. 164p. c2003. 0-8037-2735-6. $16.99. JS* This latest historical novel by Peck will win critical acclaim and also appeal to YA readers, even high school readers. It is set during the Civil War in a little town along the...

Plum-Ucci, Carol. The She.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Harcourt. 281p. c2003. 0-15-216819-2. $17.00. JS Seventeen-year-old Evan Barrett comes from a long line of men and women who have lived, and died, by the sea. Eight years ago, both of his parents disappeared off the Jersey coast in an...

Ranulfo. Nirvana's children.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... HarperCollins. 217p. c2001. 0-06-054155-5. $15.99. S Who are Nirvana's children? They are the next generation, the angry adolescents who seek answers about themselves and the world around them, immersed in Kurt Kobain's lyrics. Napoleon...

Rees, Celia. Pirates!(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Bloomsbury. 321p. c2003. 1-58234-816-2. $17.95. JS* The author of Witch Child and its sequel Sorceress is a gifted writer of historical fiction for YAs; she is especially good at creating strong, intelligent female characters who escape...

Rees, Douglas. Vampire high.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Random House, Delacorte. 176p. c2003. 0-385-90143-7. $17.99. J Angry over his family's move from California to New Sodom, Massachusetts, Cody acts out by flunking all his courses--even homeroom. His parents search out an alternative school....

Rodowsky, Colby. Not quite a stranger.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 181p. 0-374-35548-7. $16.00. J One of the two narrators of this novel is 13year-old Tottie (for Charlotte), who starts off with typical complaints about minor irritants in her loving family. The other narrator (the...

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Scholastic. 870p. illus. c2003. 0-439-35806-X. $29.99. (library ed. 0-43956761-0. $34.99.) JSA* In this fifth volume in the justly acclaimed fantasy saga, wizard-in-training Harry is now 15, with all the sullen anger and adolescent...

Scott, Kieran. Jingle boy.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Random House, Delacorte. 230p. c2003. 0-385-73113-2. $9.95. JS Everyone loves Christmas, but no one more than Paul Nicholas, whose family has more holiday traditions "than an elf has pairs of pointy earmuffs." Their light display is themost...

Shea, Pegi Deitz. Tangled threads; a Hmong girl's story.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Houghton Mifflin, Clarion. 236p. bibliog. c2003. 0-618-24748-3. $15.00. JS Thousands of Hmong people came to the U.S. from Laos as political refugees in the 1980s, and this story is about one teenager who spent ten years in a refugee camp...

Soto, Gary. The afterlife.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Harcourt. 161p. c2003. 0-15-204774-3. $16.00. JS Chuy was looking forward to his last year of high school and especially to meeting Rachel, the girl from the back of his English class, at tonight's dance. However, he never expected to be on...

Springer, Nancy. Outlaw princess of Sherwood.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... (A Tale of Rowan Hood). Penguin Putnam, Philomel.160p. c2003. 0-399-23721-6. $16.99. J Springer's sprightly feminist take on the Robin Hood legend, featuring his daughter Rowan as the leader of a band of her own, continues in this sequel...

Tashjian, Janet. Fault line.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Henry Holt. 256p. c2003. 0-8050-7200-4. $16.95. S Becky, age 17, wants to be a stand-up comic, and she practices her routines faithfully, performing wherever she can. At one of her gigs in her hometown of San Francisco she meets a handsome...

Thesman, Jean. Rising tide.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Penguin Putnam, Viking. 228p. c2003, 0-670-036560. $16.99. JS In this sequel to A Sea So Far, we meet up again with feisty Kate Keely. She had traveled to Ireland as a companion to a sickly young woman who has just died; now Kate, age 17,...

Wallace, Rich. Restless.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Penguin Putnam, Viking. 176p. c2003. 0-670-03605-6. $15.99. JS High school student Herbie is something of a maverick and a wise guy, but he's also bright, athletic, and determined. Just to show up a detested coach, he decides to go out for...

Watts, Leander. Wild ride to heaven.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Houghton Mifflin. 169p. c2003. 0-618-26805-7 $16.00. JS The eerie cover, depicting the face of a young woman, one eye green and one eye white as a moonstone, sets the tone of this gothic novel by the author of Stonecutter. Wild Ride to...

Whytock, Cherry. My cup runneth over; the life of Angelica Cookson Potts.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Simon & Schuster, 176p. illus. c2003. 0-689-865465. $14.95. J Angelica, known as "Angel," is a large girl who simply adores food--both eating it and cooking it. She wishes, however, that she was fashionably thin, like her ex-mode] mother...

Withrow, Sarah. The black sunshine of Goody Pryne.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Groundwood Books. 177p. c2003. 0-88899-477-X. (also available in paperback: 0-88899-577-6. $5.95) $15.95. J Here's another anger management-themed book for the middle school crowd. Goody is an extremely angry girl. She is big for her age...

Abel, Kenneth. The burying field.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Penguin Putnam, Signet. 343p. c2002. 0-451-20853-6. $6.99. SA In his second Danny Chaisson novel, Abel brings to life an old crime committed in a tiny Louisiana town filled with racial problems. When Danny, a New Orleans lawyer, is asked by...

Asai, Carrie. Samurai girl.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... (The Book of the Sword, Book One). Simon & Schuster, Pulse. 218p. illus. c2003. 0-689-85948-1. $6.99. JS Mob boss and industrial giant Konishi Kogo adopts infamous baby Heaven, sole survivor of the crash of Japanese Airline flight 999....

Barrientos, Tanya Maria. Family resemblance.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Penguin Putnam, New American Library. 250p. c2003. 0-451-20872-2. $12.95. SA Nita DeLeon is at a crossroads. Her husband has left her, and she has found out that she cannot have children. She has begun a new career as a family therapist...

Cabot, Meg. All-American girl.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... HarperTrophy. 398p. c2002. 0-06-447277-9. $6.99. JS To quote from the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, September 2002: Sam doesn't think of herself as anything special. Sure, she has artistic talent, but compared with her beautiful,...

Danner, Craig Joseph. Himalayan Dhaba, a novel.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Penguin Putnam, Plume. 311p. c2002. 0-452-28387-6. $13.00. SA Richard Davis, who had worked for two months at Dr. Vikram's hospital, persuades his wife Mary that they should both travel to India to practice medicine. Mary, however, arrives...

Ebershoff, David. Pasadena.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Random House. 498p. c2002. 0-8129-6848-4. $13.95. SA Touted as "Wuthering Heights meets East of Eden" by The Wall Street Journal, this best-selling novel sectioned with verses from Emily Bronte is also reminiscent of The Great Gatsby in its...

Everett, Percival. Watershed.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Beacon. 199p. c1996. 0-8070-8361-5. $14.00. A There's something terribly wrong on the Plata Reservation in Colorado. The water levels in the creeks are not normal, and Native American activists are implicated in the murder of two FBI agents...

Giles, Gail. Shattering glass.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Simon & Schuster. 215p. c2002. 0-699-85800-0. $6.99. JS* This is an intriguing and at times painfully real story of the world of boys in a contemporary American high school that should be owned by every high school library. The boys in the...

Hartnett, Sonya. Thursday's child.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Candlewick. 261p. c2000. 0-7636-2203-6. $7.99. SA* This hauntingly beautiful novel about one Australian family's struggles during the Great Depression should appeal to thoughtful YAs. Harper Flute, a seven-year-old girl at the time of the...

Hopkins, Cathy. Mates, dates, and designer divas; how can a girl handle them?(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Simon & Schuster, Pulse. 200p. c2001. 0-689-85546-X. $4.99. JS This is the third in a series about three best friends growing up in present-day London and its surroundings. They use their cell phones, computers, and an assortment of...

Ingold, Jeanette. The big burn.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Harcourt. 301p. bibliog. map. c2002. 0-15-204924-X. $6.95. JS To quote from the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, July 2002: Ingold's novel based on the events of the Big Burn, a massive forest fire in the Northwest in the summer of 1910,...

Johnston, Julie. In spite of killer bees.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Tundra. 253p. c2002. 0-88776-601-3. $8.95. J Imagine having no parents to raise you. Imagine two older sisters trying to find their place in the world while taking care of you. Imagine the possibility of being even more alone, stuck in a...

Lawrence, Iain. Lord of the nutcracker men.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Random House, Dell Laurel-Leaf. 212p. map. c2001. 0-440-41812-7 $5.99. J* The time is 1914 and the place is England. War has broken out and German citizens living in London are fleeing. It seems that nothing will ever be the same....

Lehrer, Jim. No certain rest.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Random House. 222p. map. c2002. 0-8129-6822-0. $12.95. JSA It's easy to recommend this historical mystery. The pace is brisk, the plot--centered around a body dug up on a Civil War battlefield--is interesting, and the author gives us a good...

Maxwell, Katie. The year my life went down the loo.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Dorchester Pub. Co. (276 Fifth Ave, Suite 1008, NY, NY 10001). 221p. c2003. 08439-5251-2. $5.99. S* Sixteen-year-old Emily Marie William's life seems to swirl down the loo (toilet) when she moves from Seattle, Washington, to...

McMurtry, Larry. Sin killer.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... (The Berrybender Narratives, Book 1). Pocket Books, Star. 343p. c2002. 0-7434-5141.4. $7.99. SA This is the first in a series, and Book 2 can't come soon enough for me. 1 was ready for it immediately. This tale of the Old West is filled...

Nickerson, Sara. How to disappear completely and never be found.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... HarperCollins. 281p. illus. c2002. 0-06-441027-7. $5.99. J Margaret's dad is dead; he died by drowning. She doesn't think anything is unusual until she finds a package with a swimming medal in it--her dad's medal. Margaret found this...

Norman, Diana. A catch of consequence, a novel.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Berkley. 386p. c2002. 0-425-19015-3. $14.00. SA Written in the style of the 18th century, this novel captures the tension between the colonies and England in the characters of Makepeace Burke and Lord Dapifer. Burke is an unconventional...

Pears, Iain. The dream of Scipio.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Penguin Putnam. 398p. map. c2002. 1-57322-986-5. $14.00. SA Pears writes historical fiction with such density and depth that the reader becomes immersed not in one distant time period but in three. Like twisted strands of golden thread...

Powell, Randy. Tribute to another dead rock star.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Sunburst. 215p. c1999, 0-374-47968-2. $5.95. JS To quote from the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, March 1999: Grady Grennan, age 15, has returned to his hometown of Seattle for a tribute to his mother Debbie, a...

Roberts, Willo Davis. Undercurrents.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Simon & Schuster, Aladdin. 232p. c2002. 0-68985994-5. $4.99. J Nikki is having trouble dealing with her mother's death, and her life is complicated by her father's remarriage to Crystal, who acts very strangely at times. The whole family...

Robson, Lucia St. Clair. Ghost warrior.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Tor. 592p. c2002. 0-812-57609-8. $6.99. SA The turbulent history of the West comes alive in this vivid story of the last days of the Apache. A woman shaman named Lozen and a sympathetic white man named Rafe Collins are the main characters....

Shipley, Jocelyn. Getting a life.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Sumach Press. 223p. c2002. 1-894549-18-X, $7.95. J Carly learns which friends to emulate in this paean to alternative middle-class values. Her best friend Tanya has not only moved to Australia for the year, but has sent Carly a letter...

Trembath, Don. The big show.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... (The Black Belt Series). Orca. 128p. c2003. 1-55143-266-8. $6.95. J Charlie, Sidney, and Jeffrey all need to prove to their mothers that they are not going to go through life as failures. Charlie has spent his first 12 years fearing his...

Tucker, Lisa. The song reader.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Pocket Books, Downtown. 306p. c2003.0-7434-6445-1. $12.00. SA Tucker's storytelling and writing style elevate her first novel above the usual. Her young teen narrator, Leeann, tells a compelling story of life with her older sister. Mary...

Van Draanen, Wendelin. Flipped.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Random House, Knopf. 212p. c2001. 0-375-82544-4. $8.95. J* Middle schoolers Bryce and Juli, neighbors since they were seven, recount their tortured relationship in alternating chapters. Van Draanen departs from her series of mysteries...

Van Draanen, Wendelin. Sammy Keyes and the search for snake eyes.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Random House, Dell, Yearling. 277p. c2002.0-440-41900-X. $4.99. J Mystery lovers will enjoy this new episode in the Sammy Keyes series. Sammy gets into trouble once again when she accepts a package from a girl in danger. In the package is a...

Wynne-Jones, Tim. The boy in the burning house.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Sunburst. 213p. c2000. 0-374-40887-4. $5.95. JS To quote from the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, September 2001 : "It was as if Hub Hawkins had been spirited away." Fourteen-year-old Jim's father mysteriously...

Allen, Will. Swords for hire.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... CenterPunch (PO Box 43151, Cincinnati, OH 45243). 168p. c2003. 0-9724882-0-0. $6.95. JSA This tongue-in-cheek fantasy is about a simple farm boy named Sam Hatcher and a royal guardsman and "sword for hire" called Rigby Skeet, and their...

Anderson, M.T. Thirsty.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Candlewick. 249p. c1997. 0-7636-2014-9. $6.99. S Fans of vampire fiction will sink their teeth into this one! Anderson has brought us a horror novel with the perfect blend of comedy, teen angst, gore, and mystery. This creative story is...

Chalker, Jack L. Melchior's fire.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Baen. 295p. c2002. 0-7434-3583-4. $.799. SA In this sequel to Balshazzar's Serpent, the crew of the Henry Morton Stanley, a salvage space vehicle, is desperate for money after their latest job ends in disaster. Wealthy producer Norman...

Chamberlain, Penny. The olden days locket.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Sono Nis Press (P.O. Box 160,Winlaw, BC, Canada, VOG 2J0). 198p. c2002. 1-55039-128-3 $6.95. J Time travel intrigues miserable, bookish Jess in this quiet mystery. Jess hasn't made any friends among the Maxines and Tiffanies of her new...

Cooney, Caroline B. For all time.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Random House, Dell Laurel-Leaf, 261p. c2001. 0-440-22931-6. $4.99. JS In this fourth volume in a time travel/romance series (following Both Sides of Time, Out of Time, and Prisoner of Time), Annie Lockwood wants to travel back in time from...

Cox, Greg. The rise and fall of Khan Noonien Singh.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... (StarTrek: The Eugenics Wars, vol. 2). Pocket Books. 435p. c2002.0-7434-0644-3. $6.99. JSA The main tale is framed with an incident in which Captain James Kirk and the Enterprise are sent to evaluate the Federation application of a human...

Giambastiani, Kurt R.A. Shadow of the storm; an alternate history.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... (Fallen Cloud Saga, Book 3). Penguin Putnam, Roc. 348p. c2003. 0-451-45916-4. $6.99. SA* Giambastiani continues his alternate historical fiction saga (other volumes are The Year the Cloud Fell and The Spirit of Thunder) in Shadow of the...

Harrison, Harry. A stainless steel trio.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Tor. 492p. c2002. 0-765-30278-0. $17.95. JSA This collection includes A Stainless Steel Rat is Born, The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted, and The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues. It doesn't matter how far into the future you go (or how...

Hearn, Lian. Across the nightingale floor.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... (Tales of the Otori, Book One.) Penguin Putnam, Riverhead. 305p. c2002. 1-57322-332-8. $14,00. JSA This first book gives the series both a promising start and a satisfyingly complete first episode. The story of teens Takeo and Kaede...

Jordan, Sherryl. The hunting of the last dragon.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... HarperCollins. 244p. c2002. 006-447231-0. $5.99. JS* To quote from the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, July 2002: Few write for YAs with the skill Jordan has at her disposal, as we have seen in her Secret Sacrament and The Raging Quiet....

Lasky, Kathryn. The capture.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... (Book One, Guardians of Ga'Hoole). Scholastic. 220p. c2003. 0-439-40557-2. $4.99. J First in a budding series, The Capture introduces Soren, a young barn owl who, shortly after hatching, finds himself being pushed out of the safety of his...

Lubar, David. In the land of the lawn weenies; and other misadventures.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Tor, Starscape. 240p. c2003. 0-765-34570-6. $5.99. J In this collection of short stories, the bad guy sometimes wins! I intend to read some of these stories aloud in my class around Halloween because they are so different. Usually just a...

Malone, Patricia. The legend of Lady Ilena.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Random House, Dell Laurel-Leaf. 232p. map. c2002. 0-440-22909-X. $5.50. J Lady Ilena is a young woman in King Arthur's time. Her father, as he is dying, tells her to leave their quiet village and go to Dun Alyn, to claim her heritage. On...

Nova, Craig. Wetware.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Random House, Vintage. 339p. c2002. 1-4000-3117-6. $13.00. SA Imagine a world in the not-so-distant future where biotechnologists and/or genetic engineers create human clones to perform menial labor. At Galapagos Wetware, clones are created...

Resnick, Mike, ed. Women writing science fiction as men.(Book Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Penguin Putnam, DAW. 320p. c2003. 0-7564-0148-8. $6.99. SA These 16 stories written by women adhere to the following two rules: "each story... [is] told in the first person of a man. And... if changing the narrator from Victor to Victoria...