Dust & Decay

The sequel to Rot & Ruin—Dust & Destroy-- is finally out!  Rot & Ruin ended with Tom & Benny and Nix all intrigued with having seen a jet fly over them. This is unheard in the fourteen years since First Night occurred which released the virus which has turned society as we know it into a much different place.

Seasoned bounty hunter and older brother Tom Imura has worked tirelessly to train Benny, Nix, & Chong so that they will be warrior smart. He knows that they aren’t quite prepared to survive in the Rot & Ruin, but events in their town have propelled them to start on their journey east towards Yosemite sooner than expected.

Tom has sent supplies head of them. What Tom doesn’t know is that someone has intercepted the supplies. He also doesn’t know that a new Gameland has been created after he burned the previous one to the ground and freed all the children being held captive.

Lilah, the Lost Girl, is also traveling with them. She has survived in the Rot & Ruin for years on her own. When Chong panics and takes off on his own, Tom leaves the others to find him.

The forces of evil have regrouped with a new leader. Could it possibly be that Charlie Pink-Eye survived? Is he the one leading them? Or has someone else surfaced?

Read Dust & Destroy to find out whether Charlie Pink-Eye did somehow miraculously survive his death. What is the New Eden that Preacher Jack wants to institute? Fans of the first book will not be let down with this sequel.

Stuck on Earth

David Klass has written a very funny book! Stuck on Earth had me laughing outloud! Imagine if you were an alien from the planet Sandovin. Imagine that you had to figure out whether the human race on earth was worth saving or whether the Gagnerian Death Ray should be used to erase the human species for good. How would you decide to go about it? 

David Klass creates the character of Ketchvar III. Ketchvar looks like a common snail. But he is much more than that! He is the alien sent to determine whether the human beings on earth should be spared. Ketchvar decides to crawl into the brain of a normal teenager. He decides to use the nose of Tom Filber to slide into and thus enter his brain where he obviously can experience everything that Tom does. What could be better than to become a part of a normal fourteen year old who is in good health with above average intelligence?

What Ketchvar doesn’t realize is that Tom Filber is not your normal teen. Rather he is awkward and not liked by his peers. Ketchvar witnesses Tom’s life—the dysfunctional family members, the school buddies, the beautiful next-door neighbor. The more Ketchvar begins to see life on earth through Tom’s eyes, the more difficult time he has in knowing whether Homo sapiens are really worth saving.

I imagine any teenager would love this hilariously funny book! Read it and see for yourself.

After Ever After

After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick is a sequel to Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie which tells the story of Jeffrey’s older brother, whose own eighth grade year will be remembered as the year his little brother got cancer. Now that the little brother, Jeffrey Alper, is in 8^th grade himself, and now that Jeffrey has passed the five year remission mark, he’s free to live the life of a normal kid. Or at least that is what most people would think.

The “after ever after” part of Jeffrey’s life includes a number of attention and learning challenges as a result of the treatments he received. He has always depended upon his older brother. This year is different. Jeffrey’s older brother is not around to help him cope. He is off in Africa learning how to listen to his own drum; literally, he is studying drumming. Jeffrey’s best friend, also a childhood cancer survivor, will face challenges of his own. A beautiful new girl in his school provides added excitement and distraction. Eighth grade is certainly going to be interesting!

This realistic fiction book is just that--realistic. It does provoke emotions in the reader. (Note: You do not have to have read Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie to thoroughly enjoy this book.)

Three Rivers Rising

Written in verse form, Three Rivers Rising, a novel of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood of 1889 has multiple narrators that tell the story of that tragic day which took so many lives.
One narrator is Celestia. She is 16 and along with her mama and papa and older sister Estrella vacation at an elite resort in the Alleghany Mountains. The resort sits on Lake Conemaugh –a reservoir held in place by an earthen dam. Three rivers—South Fork Creek, Little Conemaugh River, and Stony Creek converge at the town of Johnstown in the valley below the resort.

A second narrator, Peter, lives with his father, a coal miner in Johnstown. When he takes a job at the elite resort, he meets Celestia and is immediately attracted to her.

A third narrator, Kate, is a girl determined to become a nurse.

A final narrator is Maura. She is the mother of four children all under the age of four years old. Her husband drives the locomotive which runs through the valley where the three rivers flow.

As their stories unfold over the course of several months, you are pulled into their time and history. You can witness the flood. You will feel what it must have been like on that fateful day when the dam gave way!

Ninth Ward

What must it have been like to survive Hurricane Katrina in one of the poorest areas in New Orleans—the Ninth Ward? Read this excellently written fictionalize account which tries to help all of us who wondered why more people didn’t heed the warnings to evacuate when there was still time to escape Hurricane Katrina’s wrath.
Lanesha is twelve and living with her Mama Ya-Ya. Mama is in her 80’s but has always loved and cared for Lanesha since her birth. Lanesha’s mother died in childbirth with Mama Ya-Ya as her midwife. Mama has so much wisdom and knowledge which she has managed to impart to Lanesha through her twelve years.

Mama Ya-Ya can also sense things that others can’t.  She tells Lanesha after the brunt of the hurricane is over that the worst is yet to come. She has some type of foresight that allows her to know the future. What the worst of the storm is Lanesha has no way of knowing until it is upon them!

Read this excellent, brief, historical fiction novel  written by Jewell Parker Rhodes to feel the terror and uncertainty that all those who survived Katrina must have felt.