Julia lives in a big house by the sea, but the house is too quiet when she is by herself. She puts up a sign, and all sorts of lost creatures find their way to her door, asking to be taken in. The house becomes quite noisy and chaotic until Julia figures out a solution to keep everything running smoothly. Read More »

It is raining outside and Ally and Grandma are home feeling sad to be stuck inside. When her Mother comes home from work, she coaxes them both outside with the promise of a surprise. When they finally arrive at their destination they encounter something neither of them ever expected. Read More »

There is a special place in my heart for children’s books-they are so often the beginning of a life-long love affair with the written word and I gladly say that Professor Whiskerton Presents Steampunk ABC has a place on my bookshelf.

Lisa Falkenstern takes the little details from an exciting genre and lovingly crafts an adorable tale of two industrious mice and their endeavor to create something amazing from everyday household items. Read More »

Every summer, blocks are busted by movies extolling the travails and triumphs of superheroes, with plenty of screen time lavishly spent on how these unassuming individuals became endowed with their startling powers. In these movies, the villain is often little more than a sinister dance partner, following the hero’s lead, their very existence defined by the hero which they are obsessed with vanquishing. Read More »

What type of school would a young Sherlock Holmes and his indefatigable sidekick, Dr. John Watson, have gone to during their formative years? Elementary, my dear reader. Elementary. And that is indeed the setting of Jose Prendes’ Elementary, My Dear Watson #1: The Astounding Adventure of the Ancient Dragon. Read More »

Fiana is back to her trickery with one goal in mind: trap her lost love, Rowan, and steal all of his magic, making her an unstoppable force of evil. She appears to Rex, Cullen’s former foster brother, as an angel and convinces him to steal Rowan’s wand and bring it to her. She traps her former servant, Moody, now the guardian of Cullen and his sister, Aidan, and binds him to her will calling on an oath he pledged long ago. Read More »

In Fire of the Fey book three of the Rowan of the Wood series, Cullen is still trying to figure out how to share his body with Rowan. His friends, Maddy and April, get caught by their parents in the lies that they told when they were off rescuing their teacher and, for Maddy, that means being confined to home and school and being kept away from her friends. Her mother also discovers that Maddy has been cutting herself and removes any possible tool for this from Maddy’s reach causing Maddy to spiral out of control emotionally. Read More »

In this third book, Leslie is excited to try the key that Fallon gave her before he died. She believes it is the key to his castle, and she is anxious to show it to her handsome Prince. She is planning to live there with him after they marry. Unfortunately, she discovers that the key does not open any of the castle doors and the weapon she carries is becoming dangerous and unpredictable. Read More »

Riley Bloom and her guide in the Here & Now, Bodhi, along with her dog, Buttercup, are supposed to be taking a vacation away from their Soul Catching jobs to get to know each other better — to get closer so working together is not quite the chore it appears to be when Riley continually goes off on her own path, often not the path that they were supposed to follow.
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Riley Bloom had gotten her nose into something she was told to ignore, something that despite her new glow, which proved that she had done a good job, had gone against the rules. Now both she and Bohdi had to face the counsel and deal with the consequences. Told that they had to take some time off from soul catching, Bohdi and Buttercup, Riley’s best friend, Read More »

Are you looking for a paranormal twist on American history? Well, then you’ve found the perfect graphic novel! Graham and Brody are no more than two runaway slaves until they obtain surprising powers. They attempt to keep it quiet until their mentor has other plans—plans that might just change the course of history as we know it.
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Twelve-year-old Riley Bloom is in the afterlife. She and her dog, Buttercup, are now with her parents, and though Riley badly wants to rejoin the living she is settling into a fairly normal routine. But then she is summoned to appear before the council, a group of beings surrounded in glowing light. Read More »

Children’s fantasies are meant to take the reader on an adventure in a new world where they learn lessons that are applicable to ordinary life. K. S. R. Kingworth does exactly this in Secret Speakers and the Search for Selador’s Gate.

Liver is a Secret Speaker, a small being of light that lives in the throats of hoomins, a race that inhabits our world but is invisible to us. Liver, however, is not a typical Secret Speaker. Most Secret Speakers are assigned to a single hoomin, but Liver is only the third one assigned to an era.

Because Secret Speakers have to latch onto a hoomin, Liver is sent to reside in Fair O’Nelli, a wee hoomin who is about to reach her thirteenth birthday and thus become an adult hoomin. After her brother and father were captured and presumed killed, Fair’s mother locked her in the cellar to protect her from the leader of Cloven Grave, Harold King, who rounded up all the wee hoomin Fair’s age to prevent the fruition of a prophecy that he would be overturned.

At Fair’s birthday party, she learns she is more than just a plain hoomin – she is destined to free the residents of Cloven Grave from Harold King’s rule. To do so, though, she must pass through many gates and find Selador’s Gate, the gate that will lead her people back to the world they come from. Harold King, though, will stop at nothing to prevent this from happening, including taking her dog, Sauveren, and locking her up with the rest of the matternots, the wee hoomins he rounded up years ago, including her brother, Hale.

Fair has a wonderful strength of character that is needed in any good fantasy. Despite adversity, she always presses on to save her friends and meet her destiny. And this is not easy as her journey is fraught with twists and setbacks at every turn.

The unique and charming characters are the strong point in Secret Speakers and the Search for Selador’s Gate. The plot, however, while highly creative and imaginative, starts off rather complicated and meanders a little too much. There are also too many deus-ex-machina moments for any older fantasy fan. The world-building also suffered as some points were introduced either in too much depth too soon or not enough depth too late. Plus, the constant use of the word “hoomin” and “wee hoomin” got old quick – in the real world, we have plenty of synonyms for the words “human” and “child”.

Young fantasy fans will enjoy K. S. R. Kingworth’s imaginative new world. Older fantasy fans, however, will find Secret Speakers and the Search for Selador’s Gate both too simple and too complicated, often at the same time.

Book Stats:

• Paperback: 475 pages
• Publisher: Brigham Distributing (April 6, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0980130352
• ISBN-13: 978-0980130355

Buy a print copy of Secret Speakers and the Search for Selador’s Gate from Amazon by clicking here.
Buy a Kindle copy of Secret Speakers and the Search for Selador’s Gate from Amazon by clicking here.

 

Milton and Marlo Fauster are back in this 7th installment of the Heck series. This time, they have landed in Wise Acres, where the sassy kids go. With the newly-installed Vice Principal Lewis Carroll in control, life in Wise Acres is eerily reminiscent of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The cast of characters this time includes authors Emily Dickinson, Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens and even Dale E. Basye himself (Mr. Basye has died and been sent to Heck as a substitute teacher). Read More »

Milton and Marlo Fauster are off on another adventure in Heck but this time things are a little more complicated. Milton’s soul is inside Marlo’s body and Marlo’s soul is inside Milton’s body. When Marlo (Milton) announces this, she (or he since she is inside her brother’s body) gets sent to Fibble, the circle of Heck reserved for liars. Read More »

Milton and Marlo Fauster have still not managed to escape the clutches of the Principal of Darkness, Bea Elsa Bubb. This time, she has a special treat in store for them. The siblings are shipped off to Camp Snivel; a dreary place where the sky is literally a trash dump, it is constantly raining, and mosquitoes literally suck the color right out of you. Marlo and Milton discover that campers have been disappearing, and Marlo soon joins the ranks of the missing. Read More »

Milton and Marlo Fauster are back again, and this time, they have been sent by the principal of darkness to Precocia “where the smartypants kids go”. In this circle of Heck, being a child is no longer an option for the young citizens. Clothed in power suits that literally generate power, the unfortunate inhabitants are forced to punch in on a time clock that punches back if you take too long and sleep in filing cabinet drawers. Read More »

Albino is E.J. Dabel’s second novel and vastly different from his first, Pantheons. In Albino our hero is a white mouse and the characters are all animals. The action, adventure and violence put it in a category that is reserved for more mature children and those at the younger end of the Young Adult spectrum.
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It isn’t easy being a vampire, especially when you’re a vegetarian fruit-bat hybrid. This is just one of the things that makes it hard for the Livingstone kids to adjust to their life in the New World. Aside from losing their Old World powers, they are now facing school, friends, and complications aplenty. This is the story of three siblings—Lexie, Maddy, and Hudson—and their parents as they try and find a way to adjust to their new life, hide those pesky lingering vampiric traits, and seem to be normal in a city that is anything but.
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The Fiend and the Forge is one of the most thrilling fantasy series for children that I have read in years. It is always exciting to read an author who writes children’s literature that does not subscribe to the theory that simpler is better. The characters Neff creates are layered and often flawed but rise to greatness though great loss and tragedy that they have suffered. You will be hard-pressed to find more interesting and engaging characters in this genre.
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