The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

What a great read! This is the kind of book that very often gets turned into an Oscar-worthy movie script. One where the credits roll and you're left wondering who lived, who died, and what happened next. I guess that's the author's way of saying, 'figure it out for yourself and draw your own conclusions.'

Gar and Trudy Sawtelle have been trying to start a family for years, when finally their son Edgar arrives. He is an intelligent child who is born mute. Edgar spends his youth on the family farm in Wisconsin where they breed and train special dogs for particular clients. Edgar becomes part of the family business and trains his dogs by signing commands to them. Everything in their remote, self-contained world begins to change when some unexpected and mysterious deaths, and the reappearance of Gar's troubled younger brother, Claude, causes Edgar to wonder about the family's past history, and what will happen to them in the future. Can he figure out what's going on before it's too late?

This story is written with sensitivity and an eye for detail, unfolding like a Shakespearean tragedy. The author perfectly captures the interaction between Edgar and his beloved dogs, between Edgar and his parents, his discomfort around his uncle Claude, his journey of self-discovery, and his return home to the people he no longer knows. Highly recommended!

I don't know too many middle-schoolers with the patience to tackle a book of this size, so I would really only recommend it to adults with plenty of reading time on their hands. Content-wise, there are a few lines of profanity scattered throughout, some violence, moral indecision (stealing food to stay alive, for example), a little drinking, and a couple scenes of implied sexual activity. Actually a fairly tame book by today's standards.

Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead

Although I picked this novel up at our middle school book fair, it is written for adults, and Scholastic took care to place an "Adult Bestseller" sticker on the front cover so there wouldn't be any confusion. The adult content warning is for some strong language, violence in the form of Civil War battle scenes and their aftermath, plus a few brief passages about intimacy and a sexual assault.
In the same style as Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain, and Cormac McCarthy's The Road, this book follows 14-year-old Robey Childs as he heads out from his West Virginia mountain home to find his father during the height of the American Civil War. What Robey thinks is going to be an adventure when he gets the opportunity to leave his family farm for the first time turns out to be a brutal and honest journey of self-discovery as the young man quickly realizes the ways of human nature and the truths about war. If you're looking for a story full of hope and optimism, this isn't it. Along his travels, Robey meets con artists, scoundrels, thieves, murderers, rapists, and other evildoers, along with pious zealots, injured victims, and others like himself who are simply searching for deliverance from the horrors of the times.
While I found this book riveting in its prose, and almost unable to put it down, I had to take a couple of breaks just to ease the tension building within the chapters. This is a well-crafted work and one I highly recommend, but only to readers who, like the coal black horse of the title, have the strength, stamina, and endurance to see the journey through to its completion.

Partly Cloudy by Gary Soto

"Oranges" is one of my all-time favorite poems. In just a few lines it perfectly captures that elusive feeling of what it means to be young, poor, and in love. It can be found in an older collection of poems by noted writer Gary Soto. Now he has a new collection of poetry out that is sure to be just as popular. Partly Cloudy: Poems of Love and Longing is a slim volume that can be read quickly, but will probably be savored at length for its insight into young love. The first half of the book is written from a teenage girl's point of view, and the second half is from a young man's. I would recommend this title to teens, because it will show them that these new feelings they are experiencing are (or have been) shared by people the world over. I would recommend it to my older friends, to remind them of that special feeling--that "spark"--of what falling in love felt like the first time. Suitable for 8th graders and older due to some mature subject matter.

Big Red by Jim Kjelgaard

Fans of boy-and-his-dog hunting stories like "Where the Red Fern Grows" and "Old Yeller" will really like this novel. While you can pretty much guess what is going to happen by the end of the book, based on events in the opening chapters, it is the journey getting there that will keep readers interested and eager to find out exactly how the events will unfold. My only complaint--and it's a minor one--is the sometimes hokey-sounding dialect the characters use when they speak. I realize the book was written in another time, and the dialogue is supposed to convey the rural setting, but sometimes it's just a bit overdone. Other than that, this will be one I highly recommend to boys looking for hunting and adventure stories. I was a little late to the game in finding this classic, but I am glad I finally did. Now I'll have to sample some more of this author's similar works.

Starclimber by Kenneth Oppel

Set in an alternate turn-of-the-20th-century world, Starclimber is book three of a series started by Airborn, and continued in Skybreaker. Oppel is great at putting his characters into harrowing situations and letting them use their smarts to get themselves out of trouble. This book is a little different from the first two in that the two main characters are a little older and a little more worldly in their outlook. There are some truly eye-rolling moments that stretch the limits of credibility, even for such lightweight sci-fi material as this. (Without spoiling the story, let me just say it involves a monkey on board a space ship and leave it at that.) The ending, while satisfying on one level, left me shaking my head and thinking, "That'd NEVER happen in real life!" Is it an interesting read? Yes, if you've already been following the series. Is it an outstanding read? Not really....but it did keep me entertained for a few hours on a long holiday weekend.

The Sorceress by Michael Scott

Book three in the series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel continues in the same vein as Mr. Scott's two earlier titles, The Alchemyst and The Magician. This comment is not meant as a slight, though, as readers of the two previous books will understand. Mr. Scott is a gifted writer who knows how to keep a plot taut and pages turning. So much of the current series fiction for adolescents tends to get watered down and repetitive, but not so with this one. Like John Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice series, The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel just keeps getting better with each new telling. Readers can expect lots of action, mystery, strange characters, surprising plot twists, and more.

The adventures in book 2 continue to alternate between Europe and San Francisco. The Sorceress finds our legendary twins escaping from Paris, France to London, England with plenty of villains and monsters fast on their heels. Guided by Nicholas Flamel and friends, Sophie and Josh are supposedly the select twins of legend who will unite their powers to foil the plans of the Dark Elders of the Shadowrealms who want to destroy the earth. They are on the run from Dr. John Dee and his frenemy, Nicolo Machiavelli, plus their assorted henchmen, monsters, and demons. Meanwhile, Perenelle, Nicholas' wife, is imprisoned on the island of Alcatraz near San Francisco where a menagerie of creatures from the depths of the underworld continue to make her life a living nightmare.

Will Perenelle be able to flee from her captors? Can the twins develop newfound powers and insights before it's too late? Has their rag-tag team lost the opportunity to escape with their lives? Will Nicholas have a chance to reunite with his beloved wife before they both die? And what evil power is keeping an eye on things in America anyway? Read The Sorceress by Michael Scott to find out!