The Lion's Run by Sara Pennypacker

From a literary standpoint, our small library in Ferguson is not a sleepy place. In a steady stream throughout the year we add thousands of carefully chosen new books of every variety to our collection. Here is one that I immediately checked out for myself as soon as we acquired it last week; it looked so appealing. And what a story it tells! This novel - written as historical fiction for middle schoolers - grabbed me in the first words and drew me right into a tense and dangerous world: that of Nazi-occupied France in 1944. 

Thirteen-year-old Lucas Dubois - so named because he was found in the woods as an infant (dubois meaning "of the woods") - lives in an orphanage. Daily life is routine and tedious, everyone is always hungry, and a couple of the other boys are a constant menace to him. After he gets a job delivering produce to local institutions in his small French village, however, the quality of his life begins to change dramatically. The people this lonely boy encounters and the relationships he builds outside of the orphanage begin to elevate a life that had previously seemed to hold very little promise. 

The German occupiers in his village have imposed a suffocating stranglehold on everyday life. On his vegetable delivery rounds, Lucas begins to see things that disturb him. He sometimes hears secrets discussed among adults who don't always notice this quiet boy as he makes the daily deliveries. Before long, he has seen and heard enough to compel him to join the underground resistance to the Nazis. The more deeply this resourceful boy gets involved in subterfuge, the more dangerous life becomes.

The Lion's Run is categorized for readers aged 8 to 12. A good story is a good story however, and this suspenseful and beautifully written novel has a universal appeal not restricted to age. 

I have read many novels about the Second World War and I have hiked mountain trails on the French side of the German-French border, where some of that war's most vicious conflicts were carried out and where barbed wire, stone and iron remnants of it are still prominent along the mountain trails. In this novel I learned more than I ever knew about the Germans' systematically brutal and exploitive treatment of the French during that war. Moreover I found unsettling echoes of some of the worldwide threats on today's horizons: the rise of racial supremacy sentiments in both the US and Europe, fears about people's safety, the official aggressions, detainments and deportations of people the government deems undesirable, the increasing US use of government surveillance on citizens, and the race-based pronatalism expressed by white supremacists. There are echoes of The Handmaid's Tale in this novel, as the Germans under Hitler were indoctrinated that "boy babies are only future soldiers and girls are only future mothers of more soldiers." Therefore in order to replenish the German population, during this military occupation thousands of teenage French girls were systematically romanced and impregnated by German soldiers and then separated from their babies. 

In an echo of that human predicament, even the poor orphanage cat - "a good mouser" - was immediately, forlornly separated from the kittens she bore each year - though for the opposite purpose. I also learned things about horses I'd never known, and fell deeply for one particularly winning horse in this novel.

After extraordinary twists and turns, the book concludes with an ending that is triumphant for Lucas and sad for other characters. The story's end is a new beginning for him, leaving him with much more confidence in himself and his future. 

This is a book I didn't want to be done with. I want a sequel!

-Marianne W. 

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

In the fantasy world of Orïsha exists a magic like no others, a magic granted by the gods. With the ability to heal, create fire, dreamwalk, or even raise the dead, those blessed with such magic are called "diviners". All others are called "kosidán".

Despite the diviners' powerful abilities, their magic has been stripped away by the king. He has a deep hatred for them, having slaughtered all of the adult diviners since their magic doesn't appear until adulthood. With only the children left, many are made slaves, or simply live harsh lives within the kingdom. They are the oppressed. They are the chained. They are the powerless.. or so we thought. 

 

The story follows diviner Zelie and her kosidán brother, Tzain, as they venture across the land on a quest to bring magic back. Accompanying them is the princess of Orïsha herself, Amari. The story swaps perspectives between them and Amari's brother, Inan as he chases them, all while struggling with secrets of his own.

Zelie's words speak on the book better than anything I could every say: 

  

“You crushed us to build your monarchy on the backs of our blood and bone. Your mistake wasn't keeping us alive. it was thinking we'd never fight back.”


- Leo H

Into the Light by Mark Oshiro

A book told with a non-linear style and a sprinkle of a split perspective, Mark Oshiro delivers a story about belonging, community, home, and trust. It heavily utilizes themes of religion, neglect, abuse, and rejection, using the foster care system as a tool to convey them.

Manny is a Latino boy who's been living on his own for a long time. He's learned the rules of how to survive alone on the streets, but everything changes when he sees a television news program of a dead body found in Idyllwild, the secluded community where his sister lives. Eli lives in this very same community, strictly abiding by its rules and doctrines, but recent changes, events, and doubts form a crack in the neatly built foundation of his life. As the two boys' lives collide, we learn lessons of what family and community really mean. 

I enjoyed this book very much because of the writing style, in addition to the non-linear story telling. There's always a sense of suspense and you really get a feeling for how deeply impacted the characters were (are) affected by the world around them. One thing I learned after reading this book though:

Love will always find you regardless of who you are or where you go.

Check it out if you're interested!

- Leo H.

The 13th Floor : A Ghost Story by Sid Fleischman

This story takes place with an orphan named Buddy Stebbins who makes his way to an abandoned building. While exploring the place he reaches the 13th floor and then gets transported to a leaky pirate ship in a roaring storm, 300 years in the past. As the ship lands, he washes up in New England where he finds a ten year old ancestor Abigail in witchcraft mania. She’s caught up in a lot of controversy and is about to be hanged to death. There is a new surprise in nearly every page in the book and I love a good ghost story.

This book stood out to me because it involved a lot of ancestry and fantasy. It’s like falling into a deep dream and dreaming 1,000 different dreams. As if you’re being put on another world.

This book is recommended for those who love fantasy books and are interested in time travel. The book is very descriptive with the story and it was interesting to hear about New England 300 years in the past.

Review written by Devon W.

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

 

If you are a fan of high fantasy but you're looking for something a little outside the time-honored tropes of the genres, then you definitely need to check out Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse's epic first installment in a new series inspired by pre-Columbian America.

In the holy city Tova, the sun priest and her followers prepare for the celebration of the winter solstice.  A solar eclipse that will coincide with this festival promises to make this year a time of power and rebalancing the world, and forces swarm across the city waiting for a new world to be born.  At the same time a ship sets sail for Tova.  Its captain is a woman who can calm the seas with a song, and her single passenger is a young, blind pilgrim.  This traveler seems harmless, but as he and the eclipse close in on Tova, a dangerous destiny begins to converge as well.

This series has a lot to offer fans of epic fantasy novels, with its prophesies, intersecting character sagas, and innovative systems of magic.  Roanhorse also clearly set out to push at the boundaries of what you'd typically find in this genre.  As an indigenous writer she was very upfront about wanting to set a fantasy novel outside a typical, vaguely-European setting, and the world she created is so much fun to read about.  I liked the feeling of discovering a new place that you get from Black Sun, and each of the three main characters we follow has a story that I loved to bits.  I cannot wait for the sequel, and cannot recommend reading this enough!

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

The Blade Itself, released by Joe Abercrombie in 2006, is the massive introduction to his First Law Trilogy, now an ongoing series. It is excellent, well constructed and well written, but for very specific tastes.

To say it is from the Grimdark subgenre is an oversimplification. It certainly is, but it's from the lighter end of this notoriously heavy subgenre, and agile enough to play with expectations.  This is a very character-driven book, taking the now-popular convention of having multiple point-of-view characters following their own plots, with their own backstory, and their own inner lives. This is not a book of heroes and villains, but rather of greys and blacks. You'll spend time in the minds of good people doing bad things, and bad people doing good things. For example, the author does a masterful job of creating sympathy for a professional torturer, contempt for a strong-jawed swordsman, and hope for a reluctant berserker.

The world is wholly invented high fantasy, a curious mix of early colonialism tropes, savage Northmen tropes, and high wizard tropes, but delivered with a modern insight and a fair amount of humor.  The central story that develops as the plotlines merge is about the reappearance of magic in a world that sees sorcery as a relic of bygone eras (if not imaginary), complete with a Merlin-analogue returning. The technology is up to the level of naval armadas and saber duels, but just shy of gunpowder. The author is dealing with repugnant elements - colonialism, torture, sexism - but is fairly adept at allowing for modern insights to peek through the text, and cutting the darkness with humor and trope subversions. The author comes closest to crossing the sensibilities of the reader with the use of "savage other" tropes that echo colonialist attitudes toward the middle-east, but they are delivered by unsympathetic in-text colonialists in a way that allows the reader a wider perspective. You should know going in that torture is a recurring element of this book, but the author leaves the graphic details to the reader's imagination.

All of this is not to say this is not a dark book. It is made of ugly politics and callous manipulators and false friends, in a world where the sheen of high culture hides humanity's ugly nature. I have not read the second book yet, but the first left me eager for more. For those who like Grimdark, this is one of the best examples I have read, rivaling G.R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series (aka Game of Thrones) in scope and similar in tone and approach. This would be a fine recommendation for what to read next after catching up on Martin's grand opus. The Blade Itself is a brilliant introduction to a promising series, an excellent choice for any fantasy fan, and a must-read for Grimdark fans.

- review written by Scott Bonner

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

I recently read a book called “The Lightning Thief.” I’m very familiar with this book series. This story dives into Greek Mythology and introduced me to a lot of the Greek gods and goddesses. The story starts in upstate New York with Poseidon’s son “Percy Jackson” unaware of who his real father was. He is a 12 year old troublemaker that got kicked out of many schools in his past. He lives this miserable lifestyle with his mother being his only delight.

A time came where Percy’s mother took him on a trip to a beach. This was a chance to sit down and talk about his mental problems in and out of school, with plans to let him know his real father’s identity. Until an unfriendly 7 foot creature comes into play and takes his mother’s life. Percy manages to kill the creature and passes out in the process. He then wakes up at a place called Camp Half-Blood, a herd of Satyrs and unusual creatures from Mount Olympus. Zeus accuses Percy of stealing his master lightning bolts and it's up to him and his two companions, “Grover” and “Annabeth” to use the 10 days they’ve been given to return Zeus’s stolen property. In the process he learns who his father is with questions of his abandonment, and uses what he learns at camp to get back his mother.

This book was very adventurous and a great way to start learning about Greek mythology. It was the first advanced chapter book I read. Being a chapter book without any pictures and a blank theme, this would be the first book in that category you would actually enjoy. The author gets very detailed with his words. The book helps work your mind and has you re-imagining certain things from the book. This book is a great way to start diving into bigger and more detailed stories.

Review written by Devon W.