Books of the Week

Fantasy/ Fairy Tales/ YA
Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood
Meredith Ann Pierce
Viking 0670892475

Pierce, author of the Darkangel trilogy, has written another treasure. Her lyrical prose and mystical tale of Hannah, a young healer without memories, who lives at the edge of the mysterious and deadly tanglewood with her talking animal companions, will resonate with readers of literary fantasy. To heal the local cotters, she plucks herbal remedies from her hair, to infuse as medicines but once a month she must pluck all the plant life from her tresses to brew a tea she takes to the wizard in the tanglewood. When she begins to rebel, by secretly allowing some of the plants and flowers in her hair to grow unplucked, spring begins to touch the land and her gauzy dress takes on a new color. This has all the marks of a classic and hopefully it will be noticed by fantasy readers of all ages.

YA/ Science Fiction/ Dystopia
Among the Impostors
Margaret Peterson Haddix
Simon & Schuster 0689839049

Luke, a third child in a world where being a third child is an executable offense, has been taken to an isolated private school, assuming the identity of Lee, a wealthy boy, who was legal and had died. At the school he wonders around in a haze, eventually finding a door that leads to the outside of the windowless building where he finds a wood and starts a tiny garden with sprouts and potato eyes sneaked out of the cafeteria. Tormented by another boy in his eight bed dorm room, he discovers that others are sneaking out of the building and that they are also thirds hiding with false identities. Readers who read Haddix's powerful Among the Hidden will enjoy following Luke's life but readers new to the series must start with it to really understand.

YA/ Science Fiction/ Post-apocalyptic
Hole in the Sky
Pete Hautman
Simon & Schuster 0689831188

In a not so distant future, decimated by a deadly flu, the only people left are a few who were not infected and some who survived the flu but lost their hair and suffered other permanent damage. Ceej and Harryette, a teen brother and sister, live with their uncle at the Grand Canyon. When a trader comes to tell them that the town of Page has been hit by the flu while the flood gates of the Glen Canyon Dam were closed. If the gates aren’t opened the dam will eventually give way and the resulting flood will sweep everything before it into the Gulf. When Unc, Harryette, and the trader do not return, Ceej and Tim, the trader’s son, set out to find them discovering that Harryette, a Survivor, has been taken by the Kinko, a cult of Survivors who purposely infect people with the flu. As the two boys try to evade the Kinko to find the missing threesome they meet up with Isabella, a Hopi-Italian-American girl who is on a quest to the Sipapuni, the sacred limestone dome in the Little Colorado Canyon where the Hopi believe their people crossed over from the third world to this one.

Gripping adventure, a little romance, and a Mad Max, Tank Girl, kind of gritty world make this an enticing read for teens.

YA/Fantasy/
Year of the Griffin
Diana Wynne Jones
Greenwillow 0688178987

Not to be missed, this sequel to Dark Lord of Derkholm (unfortunately missed it) is a real treat. There will be inevitable comparisons to Harry Potter which is fine. Both feature talented young people in a school setting and will appeal to many of the same readers. Jones, a magnificent writer, is always original.

A group of new students start at a floundering university where wizardry is taught ineptly by unimaginative professors. All the new students are on the run from their families so mayhem will inevitably ensue when one of the professors comes up with the brilliant idea of contacting the parents, owners, or governments of the students for more money. The protagonists range from an impoverished crown prince, a huge but very feminine griffin, a dwarf slave, to a pirate's daughter. A plague of pirates turned mice and seven miniaturized assassins keep things lively as the students try to obtain an education by working around the teachers.

YA/Fantasy/Magical Realism
Sights
Susanna Vance
Delacorte 0385327617

Likely to be overlooked because of the year's worst book jacket, Sights is a terrific read. It was brought to my attention through email sent by a couple of teens who had read it. Baby Girl has the ability to see the future, in part because she spent so much time, time that she remembers, in the womb. When her mother finally figures out that Baby Girl's father has been trying to kill her they flee for as long as their money holds out. Settling in a small town turns out to be hard for the self assured Baby Girl who discovers that she does not have the popularity she had in her earlier hometown. Forming a band with a couple of other misfits, she finds belonging, while experiencing danger and adventures in this tale set in the late 1950s or early 60s. A wonderful, magical book.

Previous Weeks

YA/ Suspense
Counterfeit Son
Alphin, Elaine M.
Harcourt Brace 0152026452

Cameron's father was a monster, the kind that kidnapped, tortured, and murdered young boys. After Pop is killed in a shootout with the police, Cameron assumes the identity of one of the victims. Neil Lacey's parents buy Cameron's claim that he is their missing son but his siblings do not. When one of Pop's cronies re-enters the picture they are all in peril.

The ending twist shows that even while Cameron tortures himself for not turning Pops in or being able to save any of the victims he is and can be heroic. A fascinating page turner.

YA/ Coming of Age/
Fantasy/ Magical Realism
Night Flying
Murphy, Rita
Delacorte 038532748X

The Hansen women can fly but they have to follow some very strict rules enforced by Grandmother. On the eve of Georgia’s birthday her rebellious Aunt Carmen turns up and Georgia flies solo in the daylight.

A powerful coming of age tale with flying that seems so real one expects to take off at any moment.

YA/Coming of Age YA/ Contemporary/ Problem
Fienberg, Anna
Borrowed Light
Delacorte 0385327587

At sixteen, Callisto, who thinks of everyone in astrophysical terms, faces some very real problems. A powerful coming of age tale that moves at a thought provoking pace.

YA/ Contemporary/ Problem
Flinn, Alex
Breathing Underwater
HarperCollins 0060291990

Nick, rich and handsome, falls for Caitlin the formerly fat girl who has blossomed into the girl of his dreams. Finally having someone to love him, he begins to control her and isolate her from her friends, chipping away at her self esteem to keep her. When he is placed under a restraining order and required to take domestic abuse classes, he remains in denial but writes a journal of their time together. Outstanding depiction of abuse from the abuser's point of view. A stunning complement to Sarah Dessen's Dreamland and Allan Stratton's Leslie's Journal.

YA/ Fantasy/ Time Travel/ Historical
Heneghan, James
The Grave
Farrar, Straus and Giroux 0374327653

Tommy was abandoned in a Liverpool department store when he was a baby and has been raised in foster care all his life. In 1974 when his school attempts a building addition, a mass grave is discovered. One night when exploring, Tommy falls into the grave and is transported back to Ireland during the great Famine of 1847 where he uses CPR to save the life of a kid named Tully who looks exactly like him and falls in love with Hannah, Tully's sister, as well as connecting with the entire Monaghan family. A blow to the head sends him back to his own time but he goes back again, discovering a sense of family and belonging that changes his life in his own time.

Fantasy/Fairy Tales/Familiar
Daughter of the Forest
Marillier, Juliet
Tor 031284879X

Sorcha would have been the seventh son of a seventh son had she been born male. With her mother dead soon after her birth, Sorcha’s six older brothers pretty much raised her in the family’s Irish keep while their father tried to keep the shores free of raiding Britons and others. Seemingly ensorcelled, their father remarries and Sorcha and her brothers are put under a curse, they to live as swans until she can spin and weave the poisonous and prickly starwort into shirts for them. Outstanding fantasy from a rising star. The sequel, Son of the Shadows is due out this month.

YA/Fantasy
The Seer and the Sword
Hanley, Victoria
Holiday House 0823415325

When Princess Torina’s father the King returns from his conquest of peace-loving Bellandra he brings back a crystal and Prince Landen to be a slave for her. Torina, instinctively moral and good, immediately frees Landen and the king sends him to be trained with the young warriors of the kingdom. Torina and Landen secretly become friends as he learns martial arts and teaches her archery and she sees the future in her crystal. Landen warns Torina that Vesputo, the man she is in love with is actually trying to usurp the kingdom but she is too late to save her father from the assassination that is blamed on Landen who has fled the kingdom. Escaping imprisonment, Torina makes a treacherous escape and hiding her vibrant red hair lives as a simple weaver in a remote village. Landen becomes a renowned fighter in Desante and in gladiatorial type combat wins the freedom of felons by refusing the gold he would receive for killing them. Forming them into an elite troop of thieves in service to the king, he comes to the attention of the high king and ends up leading them in an action that saves the kingdom.

YA/Fantasy/Alternate World
Secret Sacrament
Jordan, Sherryl
HarperCollins 006028904X

After Gabriel witnesses a rape and murder he decides to dedicate his life to healing even though it pits him against his uncles who want him to assume the profitable family business after his father’s death. Surprising all, he is selected to take holy vows and go to the citadel to train as a priest-healer where he comes to the attention of the Empress for whom he interprets dreams. Making a powerful enemy in one of her advisors, Gabriel is accused of treason and joins up with the small band of indigenous peoples who live on the plain where he finds true love and fulfills a prophecy. Nominated for BBYA.

Women’s Fiction/ Literary Fiction Hispanic Fiction
Loving Pedro Infante
Chavez, Denise
Farrar Straus & Giroux 0374194114

Spirited, raunchy li-fi (literary fiction) tale of 30 something teacher’s aid Tere who has two loves, Pedro Infante, a late movie icon and Lucio a married womanizer. Written in the combination of Spanish and English that is sometimes called Spanglish (my primo Gilbert hates that term and says “cross-coding” ) it eloquently conveys the culture of Cabritoville. The Publishers’ Weekly review (click on the ISBN number to read it at Amazon) is a delight to read and captures the essence of the book perfectly.

©2001 Diana Tixier Herald