Excellent Reads

If you follow me on Twitter, then you've probably seen me tweet and re-tweet about the annual PAYA event which comes up in late August. This event is to raise money for libraries in Pennsylvania and donate fantastic YA fiction to libraries. You can read more about it here . Please consider donating books here . This is the third annual PAYA event, and I am thrilled to be attending for the third time. I have a stack of books to bring to be signed and a list of books to buy there. But since a percentage of books sold there will go to the libraries, I'd like to add another book to my list. So I am giving one away! To be specific, one of the six following books! From her birth, Abisina has been outcast--for the color of her eyes and skin, and for her lack of a father. Only her mother's status as the village healer has kept her safe. But when a mythic leader arrives, Abisina's life is ripped apart. She escapes alone to try to find the father and the home she has never known....

THE VALLEY OF ADVENTURE By Enid Blyton 208 pp. Macmillan Children's Books. £4.99. (Ages 8 and up) ISBN 9780330448352 Rating: ? Stars    I like the book because its about adventure. These children like adventure very much.I can learn a lot from adventure because it brings you to different places and to learn more about the places. Adventure sometimes scary, sad, happy, and cool. the thing about adventure is about finding something like treasure.    My favorite part of the book is when the children found the caves.The caves were so strange caves that they keep looking at the caves and wondering what is the caves called. the first cave is so beautiful that they were like glittering icicles in the cave. Then the second cave was very cool because it was like night time and the stars are glittering on the sky. At last the cave of treasure.    My favorite character is Jack . Jack is Lucy - Ann brother. Jack is brave ,strong ,kind and the only one who can he...

HARRIET TUBMAN, SECRET AGENT By Thomas B. Allen 192 pp. National Geographic Society. $5.95. (Ages 9 and up) ISBN 9781426304019 Rating: ? Stars             My dad got me this book last year. For a long time it just sat sadly on my shelf as I am not a big fan of non fiction, but finally I took it down one day and began to read it. Unlike other non fiction books this one was so adventurous, surprising and amazing that it seemed more like a fiction book then a non fiction book, and kept me happy for a while.             This book is about Harriet Tubman and her amazing life full of heroic adventures. This all really happened one hundred and fifty years ago back in America, when black people where still slaves to the white people. Even though most of the white people were bad not all of them were and some extra nice white people like Elizabeth Van Lew even tried their best to help the blacks.         ...

It's Hell on heels--again When Shar tries on a ring from Hades, it activates an obscure contractual clause that puts Shar and former-frenemy-now-friend Meg in Hades' service once more. Shar is whisked away to the Underworld to prepare a ball for Persephone, while Meg is sent to retrieve the errant soul of spoiled rich girl Paulina Swanson and send her to the abyss. Just when it appears the girls will be doomed to serve Hades for eternity, Shar meets two possibly helpful demi-gods who also happen to be gorgeous. Can the girls finally ditch the Lord of the Dead once and for all? Only recently read Sirenz by Charlotte Bennardo and Natalie Zaman and loved it. So I was very excited to get my hands on Sirenz Back in Fashion . In the first book, Meg and Shar completed their task and were freed, more or less, from their bond with Hades. But Hades seems like the kind of god who won't let you go easily. So here our sirens are, trying to enjoy their normal existence as high school se...

THE DEADLY DESPERADOS By Caroline Lawrence 288 pp. Orion. £9.99. (Ages 9 and up) ISBN 9781444001693 Rating: ? Stars             I got this book along with two others and because it looked like the best one I decided to read it last. Just as I had predicted this was the best one.             When I first started reading this book the author foreshadowed that the main character was going to die, but did he really? Well for most of the book it seemed like the main character was definitely going to die. However this didn't happen in most books so I doubted what the author had foreshadowed a bit.             This book is about a boy called PK Pinkerton whose foster parents were killed by the most deadly desperados. His foster mother tells him to take her medicine bag with him when he runs away as she lay dying. The re...

Lesbian zombies, fucked up love and a sentient world... Once, Mana stole back souls for a living. As a Runner, it was her job to snatch the dead out of After and spare them from a dubious future provided by a machine known as the Recycler. Through magic and will, she joined the stolen souls to their dead bodies and brought them back to "life" as Reanima. It was gruesome--and illegal--but it was business. Mana was the best Runner in the nameless city... And then she met Far. Far had been waiting her entire life to die. The city smothered her, and there was no way out. Far had treasonous questions about her existence, and though Mana loved Far with all her heart, love was not enough to save her. When Far dies, Mana goes against her wishes and steals back her lover's soul, losing her own in the process. Now a Reanima and alone, Far must decide what's more important: truth, freedom, or the love of her death. "Far" is a dark fantasy short story, just over ten tho...

Sugar Moon Elise sells magic, charms and dreams out the back door of her brightly painted wagon. A Witch and daughter of the Maja, she believes that everything happens for a reason, but she has never quite understood why there is a hollow feeling in the place where her heart should be. One night, at the fabled Moon Market, she meets a stranger. The woman's name is Via, and in a single night, love finds Elise; for the first time in her young life, she feels no emptiness. But Elise's past is catching up with her. In the dark of night and burn of day, the Fevered turn their soulless faces in her direction, changing course. They hunt her, intent on devouring her light. SUGAR MOON is the first novella in the MAJA Trilogy. I picked up Sugar Moon by Sarah Diemer because it sounded like something a lovely pagan, such as myself, should read. While I love witchy tales (including Harry Potter, The Hollows, and the Caster Chronicles), there is a distinct lack of witchy tales that are tr...

And the winner is... Ricki from Reading Challenged! She chose "Her Secret Life". Check your email!