Sword of the Rightful King: A Novel of King Arthur
by Jane Yolen
Published 2003 by Harcourt Children's Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780152025274

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REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 04/14/2003

In Yolen's spellbinding twist on the Round Table legend, Morgause feels that her 17-year-old son Gawaine belongs on the throne of England. As she attempts to install him there, she tangles with both the court wizard and Gawaine himself. The author makes Gawaine the emotional lynchpin of the story; he mistrusts his mother and is wholly devoted to the only slightly older King Arthur. Portrayed here as the North Witch, Morgause detests Arthur (her half-brother, according to Arthurian lore), who she feels has usurped the throne. Morgause sends three of Gawaine's brothers back with him to Arthur's court under a diplomatic pretext, and Merlinnus, learning that one of Morgause's sons intends to assassinate Arthur, manufactures the tale of a sword lodged in a block of stone (which, of course, will prove Arthur's fated place upon the throne to a kingdom that has yet to fully embrace him). Yolen constructs a fascinating history linking Morgause to Merlinnus, and breathes fresh life into well-established characters; their encounters crackle with the vitality of overheard conversations. The dynamic between Merlinnus and Arthur is especially well realized: the former a shrewd, resourceful, fatherly man battling the discomforts of age, the latter a restless young king who merely tolerates the mundane responsibilities of monarchy ("Arthur had never met a chair he liked. Or a sport he disliked"). Yolen has explored Arthurian legend before, but her latest foray is a standout in this enormous canon. Ages 12-up. (May)

07/01/2003 REVIEW: School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-A prolific fantasy writer retells a familiar hero tale with an entirely new twist. Following Thomas Malory's 15th-century Le Morte d'Arthur, modern writers, notably T. H. White in The Once and Future King (Putnam, 1958), have described the magnificent sword locked in a great stone and its fateful inscription. As in Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset (Tor, 1987), Yolen sets the story in post-Roman Britain. Arthur is already king, but as the son of usurper Uther Pendragon, he is barely holding together a country divided along ethnic and religious lines. His chief rival is his older half-sister Morgause, the crazed witch queen of Orkney who longs to place her son Gawaine on the throne, so she can be the power behind him. Merlinnus, Arthur's elderly protector, constructs the stone and sword as a dramatic piece of showmanship supported by his own magic to confirm Arthur's right to rule. But a mysterious young page, Gawen, appears at Cadbury, gaining the trust and affection of the mage and the king, and upsetting all expectations, including those of readers. Yolen has clearly immersed herself in Arthurian legends and Celtic lore, but her scholarship rests lightly on this page-turning tale of magic and adventure, betrayal, loyalty, and love. Through smooth, accessible prose, she draws her characters with broad strokes. Those familiar with stories about King Arthur will note points in the plot that hint at a sequel. An entertaining addition to fantasy collections.-Margaret A. Chang, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams

Touching Spirit Bear
by Ben Mikaelsen
Published 2001 by HarperCollins Publishers

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780380977444

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Sent to a remote Alaskan island as part of an alternative program after attacking a classmate, Cole Matthews has a chance to straighten out his life. On this island, Cole's rage and isolation lead him to a brazen attack on the Spirit Bear of Native American legend, and the clumsy assault ends with Cole mauled nearly to death, desperately clinging to the life he had tried so hard to waste.

02/01/2001 REVIEW: School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up-Cole Matthews is a violent teen offender convicted of viciously beating a classmate, Peter, causing neurological and psychological problems. Cole elects to participate in Circle Justice, an alternative sentencing program based on traditional Native American practices that results in his being banished to a remote Alaskan Island where he is left to survive for a year. Cynical and street smart, he expects to fake his way through the preliminaries, escape by swimming off the island, and beat the system, again. But his encounter with the Spirit Bear of the title leaves him desperately wounded and gives him six months of hospitalization to reconsider his options. Mikaelsen's portrayal of this angry, manipulative, damaged teen is dead on. Cole's gradual transformation into a human kind of being happens in fits and starts. He realizes he must accept responsibility for what he has done, but his pride, pain, and conditioning continue to interfere. He learns that his anger may never be gone, but that he can learn to control it. The author concedes in a note that the culminating plot element, in which Peter joins Cole on the island so that both can learn to heal, is unlikely. But it sure works well as an adventure story with strong moral underpinnings. Gross details about Cole eating raw worms, a mouse, and worse will appeal to fans of the outdoor adventure/survival genre, while the truth of the Japanese proverb cited in the frontispiece, "Fall seven times, stand up eight" is fully and effectively realized.-Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Junior High School, Iowa City, IA

The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp
by Richard Yancey
Published 2005 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781582346939

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Alfred is trying to survive high school when his guardian convinces him to steal the legendary sword of King Arthur. After Alfred unwittingly delivers the sword to a man with enormously evil intentions, he sets off on an unlikely quest to try to right his wrong.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 08/29/2005

After his single mother dies, the oversized, underachieving, totally endearing narrator, Alfred Kropp, is sent to Tennessee to live with his uncle, a night watchman for a business titan. Uncle Farrell, chronically poor, can't refuse a $1 million offer to retrieve a sword from the executive suite. His 15-year-old nephew, however, has reservations--"I'm not too quick on the uptake... but this whole thing smells fishy to me"--until Uncle Farrell threatens to return Alfred to foster care if he refuses to help. The attempt ends disastrously: saber-wielding monks demand the sword, motorcycle thugs fire shotguns as Alfred races across the Interstate, and in Europe, he winds up in battles where heads fly--literally. Everyone and everything has a secret identity--the monks, the sword, the hero, just to name a few. The high-speed car chases, spectacularly gory deaths and Arthurian echoes seem tailor-made for a Hollywood action flick, but it's Alfred's naivet and basic good nature that make this pageturner stand out in the crowded fantasy adventure genre. Like J.K. Rowling, first-time YA novelist Yancey (Confessions of a Tax Collector , for adults) deftly leavens the heavier plot elements with humor; this story of a "big-headed loser" is as funny as it is scary. Alfred's adventures are not the only element of this tale that is extraordinary--the reluctant hero is, too. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)

10/01/2005 REVIEW: School Library Journal

Gr 6-8 -Astonishingly tall 15-year-old Alfred is plunged into a world of adventure, assassination, and Arthurian legend when he agrees to help his uncle filch an ancient sword from the office of a CEO who just happens to be a descendent of the Knights of the Round Table. Of course the sword turns out to be none other than Excalibur, and the guy Alfred swiped it for is Mogart, a knight-gone-bad who hopes to use its magical powers to take over the world. Enter Bennacio, another descendant of the Round Table, who then takes Alfred under his wing on a quest across the Atlantic to rescue the sword from Mogart. The descriptions of minor bits of blood and gore leave much to the imagination and will make Kropp especially appealing to fans of Anthony Horowitz's "Alex Rider" books (Philomel), Geoffrey Huntington's Sorcerers of the Nightwing (ReganBooks, 2002), and even Darren Shan's "The Saga of Darren Shan" series (Little, Brown). True to its action-adventure genre, the story is lighthearted, entertaining, occasionally half-witted, but by and large fun.-Hillias J. Martin, New York Public Library

Afrika
by Colleen Craig
Published 2008 by Tundra Books (NY)

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780887768071

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For thirteen-year-old Kim, travel to South Africa with her journalist mother will mark the end of her childhood and the beginning of a remarkable journey. Expecting nothing more than three months in her mother's homeland, Kim comes to terms with the country's diverse and often shocking history. The Truth and Reconciliation Hearings in post-apartheid South Africa open her eyes to the tragedy and brutality of its segregationist policies. Kim's first meeting with her relatives, her contact with schoolmates and cousins, bring her face-to-face with the realization that she is not as removed from this powerful story

as she thought.

As her mother struggles with her past, Kim becomes more and more determined to unlock the secret that has always kept her from knowing her father. Helped by the young son of a long-time family servant, whose own father was a casualty of Apartheid history, Kim eventually unlocks her mystery and brings her mother and herself to their own truth and reconciliation.

Layered and complex, this is a novel that raises questions and challenges beliefs.

07/01/2008 REVIEW: School Library Journal

Gr 6-8-Growing up in Canada with her white South African mother, Kim van der Merwe does not know who her father is. Now, at 13, she goes to Cape Town for the first time, shortly after independence in the mid-1990s, because her mother, a journalist, is going to report on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Visiting and meeting her family for the first time, she decides that her mission will be to discover her father's identity. When Kim becomes involved in a friendship with the family who works for the van der Merwes', especially Themba, whose father was murdered by the police during apartheid, her life becomes more closely entwined with South Africa's political and social realities. As she gets closer to the answer she seeks, her mother becomes more and more unhinged by the horrors she hears about in her work. The climax packs a powerful emotional punch as the author dovetails Kim's personal odyssey with the pain, contradictions, and hopes of the country as it carries its devastating history into the future. The realities of the society are carefully and skillfully portrayed, so that Kim's story is truly the emotional heart of the book, and not a vehicle for ideas. Kim herself is a believable and likable character, and her relationship with Themba is tender and realistic. The author does not sugarcoat the realities of South Africa, or the details of torture that are revealed at the Truth Commission. Not just another multicultural title, by any means, this novel will really grab readers who appreciate realistic fiction about young people searching for their place in the world.-Sue Giffard, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, New York City

Sunwing
by Kenneth Oppel
Published 2008 by Aladdin Paperbacks

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9781416949978

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Shade, a young Silverwing bat in search of his father, discovers a mysterious Human building containing a vast forest. Could his father be there? Home to thousands of bats, the indoor forest is warm as a summer night, teeming with insect food, and free from the tyranny of the deadly owls. But Shade and his friend Marina aren't so sure this is paradise. Shade has seen Humans enter the forest and take away hundreds of sleeping bats for an unknown purpose. And where is Shade's father?Before long Shade and Marina are on a perilous journey to the far southern jungle, where the Vampire bat Goth rules as king of all the cannibal bats. Now Shade must use all his resourcefulness to find his father -- and stop Goth from creating eternal night.

The Angel Experiment
by James Patterson
Published 2005 by Little, Brown Young Readers

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780316155564

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Patterson's explosive debut in the young adult market. From Death Valley, California, to the bowels of the NYC subway system, 14-year-old Max leads her five feisty "family" members on a journey of action, adventure, and soul-seeking.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 03/21/2005

Thriller writer Patterson takes characters that first appeared in his adult novels When the Wind Blows and its sequel, The Lake House , and places them in an overblown, nearly incomprehensible story pitched at young adults. Max (aka Maximum Ride), the 14-year-old girl from both of the aforementioned novels, leads a band of mutant orphans hiding from the sinister scientists at "the School," who grafted avian DNA onto their genes, giving them wings (plot points established in When the Wind Blows ). When the School's henchmen--"Erasers," "half-men, half-wolves" (one of whom is their rescuer Jeb's seven-year-old son)--kidnap six-year-old Angel, the youngest member of "the flock," Max and company will stop at nothing to rescue her. Well, nothing except to aid a stranger, bond with some real birds, eat lunch and take lengthy naps. The often violent hunt-and-chase plot resembles that of a Saturday morning superhero cartoon. The point of view shifts jerkily before settling into Max's first-person narration, which is self-deprecating but never sounds like a real teen's voice, and the novel is strewn with mutations of nouns-turned-adjectives ("tunnel-visiony," "antisepticky," even "Robin Hoodsy"). Loose ends abound but presumably the sequel, scheduled for 2006, will reveal the identity of the evil "whitecoats" and their motives as well as who owns the Voice speaking inside Max's head. The Patterson name will attract readers; but his fans may be disappointed that this tale never takes flight. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)

05/01/2005 REVIEW: School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up -A group of genetically enhanced kids who can fly and have other unique talents are on the run from part-human, part-wolf predators called Erasers in this exciting SF thriller that's not wholly original but is still a compelling read. Max, 14, and her adopted family-Fang and Iggy, both 13, Nudge, 11, Gazzy, 8, and Angel, 6-were all created as experiments in a lab called the School. Jeb, a sympathetic scientist, helped them escape and, since then, they've been living on their own. The Erasers have orders to kill them so the world will never find out they exist. Max's old childhood friend, Ari, now an Eraser leader, tracks them down, kidnaps Angel, and transports her back to the School to live like a lab rat again. The youngsters are forced to use their special talents to rescue her as they attempt to learn about their pasts and their destinies. The novel ends with the promise that this journey will continue in the sequel. As with Patterson's adult mystery thrillers, in-depth characterization is secondary to the fast-moving plot. The narrative alternates between Max's first-person point-of-view and that of the others in the third person, but readers don't get to know Max very well. The only major flaw is that the children sound like adults most of the time. This novel is reminiscent of David Lubar's Hidden Talents (Tor, 1999) and Ann Halam's Dr. Franklin's Island (Random, 2002).-Sharon Rawlins, Piscataway Public Library, NJ