A historical tale about polio for middle graders, "Scary Spring" stays true to lighthearted aspects of its era. In the spring of 1955, polio ravaged the United States, and Carol Ann, in C. A. Hartnell’s middle grade novel Scary Spring... Read More

"Pivot Point" is an engaging near-future political thriller with a too plausible plot. In Clive Hallam’s thrilling "Pivot Point", a madman with a weapon of mass destruction is unleashed on a fragile area as global forces race to stop... Read More

Cryptic puzzles, heart-pounding action, and international intrigue power this second book in Trudi Trueit’s Explorer Academy series, The Falcon’s Feather. Cruz Coronado and his peers from the Explorer Academy have boarded a ship to... Read More

There are two kinds of people in the moody, magical world of "Apprentice Needed": those who are opposed to imagination, and those who understand what a powerful force it can be. The second novel in the Wizard for Hire series revisits the... Read More

"De Anima(L)" is a rich novel that begins as a tale of campus hijinks and evolves into an exploration of contemporary ambiguities. Joe Costanzo’s "De Anima(L)" is a sophisticated, character-driven novel—a blend of a campus mystery... Read More

Dizzying and exciting, "The Exile" combines history with fantasy to set young adult hearts racing. Craig Washington’s thrilling young adult fantasy "The Exile" journeys through time, mysterious societies, and the dangerous conjuring of... Read More

"A Network Exposed" is a slow-moving but engaging cops-versus-criminals epic. Bo Wagoner’s ambitious police procedural thriller, A Network Exposed: The Line Between Badges, finds a small group of law enforcement officers fighting a... Read More