Good, but not quite top-notch:
Our Castle by the Sea by Lucy Strange. Pet lives in a lighthouse on the southeast coast of England just as World War II is beginning to sow mistrust and division amongst the community where she lives. For WW2 buffs and spy novel enthusiasts.
The Good Thieves by Katherine Rundell. An Irish friend recommended Rundell to me, and although I enjoyed the book, I don’t think it will stick in my memory. Vita’s grandfather has had his crumbling mansion stolen by the fraud of a powerful New York City real estate magnate. Vita and her new friends set out to take the mansion back and go through all sorts of dangers to do so. Set in the 1920’s. (Both Vita, the character, and Ms. Rundell hail from Great Britain.)
Spark by Sarah Beth Durst. When shy, quiet, and gentle Mina bonds with a lightning beast named Pixit, everyone is sure there has been a mistake, including Mina herself. How can the nearly silent farm girl master the skills of a lightning guardian and learn to speak out and be heard? At first, I liked this one a lot, but the lightning finally kind of fizzled into a moralistic tale about “finding one’s own voice.”
All the Ways Home by Elsie Chapman. Kaede Hirano’s mom died in a car accident, and Kaede has spent his seventh grade year taking his grief and anger out on everyone around him. Now he must go to Japan to stay for a few weeks with the father who hasn’t communicated with him or his mom in years and the older stepbrother who is also a mystery. The parts about Japan and how life there is different were interesting, but ultimately Kaede was just too angsty and angry and impulsively self-destructive to gain my sympathy. I felt sorry for him, but I also wanted to shake some sense into the boy. Frustrating.
The Becket List: A Blackberry Farm Story by Adele Griffin. O.K., but kind of silly. Rebecca, aka Becket, and her family move from the city to the country, and Becket enthusiastically sets out to learn to be a country kid. Becket is ten years old going on seven, and her attempts to live the country life and make friends are somewhat clumsy. But lovable.
Malamander by Thomas Taylor. Eerie-on-the-Sea is a mysterious place, and Herbert Lemon, the Lost-and-Founder at the Grand Nautilus Hotel, is the guy who tries to keep things in order. But when Violet Parma turns up looking for her lost parents, Herbert’s life becomes a series of dangerous adventures. The plot was sort of convoluted, but I guess it made sense in a way? The ride was fun, but I’m not so sure about the ending.
Rising above Shepherdsville by Anne Schoenbohm. Dulcie has been unable to speak since the recent death of her mother. Her step-father can’t care for her anymore. So Dulcie ends up in Shepherdsville with her church-going, very religious, estranged Aunt Bernie. I liked the spiritual dimension this story, quite respectful to Christians and evangelical Christianity, but some of the details felt wrong to me. Do any churches really have a “baptism Sunday” and arrange to baptize someone who has made no real profession of faith? Some of this story just felt “off”, and the turn around that Dulcie’s step-father makes toward the end of the book strained credulity. I didn’t trust him.
Bad and/or Ugly:
Spy Runner by Eugene Yelchin. This one wasn’t exactly bad, but it was confusing and sort of grey-ish. The setting is the 1953, the red scare, and everyone thinks everyone else is a Commie spy. Except for some of them who don’t believe that anyone could be a Commie spy. And the characters run around town making weird and unexplained decisions. Too much chase and not enough answers.
The Misadventured Summer of Tumbleweed Thompson by Glenn McCarty. I wanted to like this middle grade Western by a Christian author, but it just fell flat for me. And it could have used a bit more editing for grammar and typos. Too bad. A Tom Sawyer-type adventure story like this one would be just the thing for some of the readers who frequent my library.
Extraordinary Birds by Sandy Stark McGinnis. A girl named December (lovely name) thinks she is going to become a bird or is really a bird as a result of child abuse and trauma in her past. December’s new friend, Cheryllynn, thinks he is a girl, maybe also because of past child abuse and trauma? December figures out that she is deluded, but Cheryllynn remains “true to herself.” What a confusing and deceitful message.