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Written by Audrey Sauble

What happens when an 11-year-old from New York City falls through a grate into the world below?

That question prompted Suzanne Collins to write Gregor the Overlander, the story of a boy who accidently falls through into the Underworld along with his two-year-old sister Boots (also known as Margaret). Gregor hasn’t had an easy life—his dad disappeared two years, seven months, and thirteen days before; he’s home babysitting Boots instead of heading to camp; and he soon finds himself in a place where smelling wrong can mean serious trouble.

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Written by Isaac

Swallows and Amazons Forever

My first introduction to the world of the ruthless Amazons and their friends, the sailors of the Swallow, came in the form of a read-aloud at lunchtime. I was thrilled by the adventures of the Swallows and Amazons. I cannot name any other book in the world that starts off with a description of a young boy pretending to be a tea-clipper.

We first heard of the Ransome books from a friend of ours,who had read and enjoyed the books for a long time. We eventually laid hands on a copy of the first book, and our mother read it to us during our lunch. It was a popular book with us–so popular, that when there was just one more chapter left of the book, which was due to the library the next day, we persuaded our mother to finish it.

Based on the quality of the Arthur Ransome books that I have read, I think that I would still recommend those that I have not read,

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Written by Emma Engel

This book intrigued me. Most books I can read through and decide easily whether I liked or disliked it. I might even be able to label it “good” or “great.” With Halflings, not so much. I found myself equally drawn in and pushed away as I read through a book the jacket blurb had made sound so straightforward. After mulling it over for several days, I decided that what troubled me was the question of originality. I’ve lent my copy to friend who I know hasn’t read some books that I have been exposed to just to see how she reacted to Halflings without that particular filter. And in fairness to what really was a good book, I’m going to review first and then rant.

Halflings is mostly the story of one, normal human teenager girl Nikki Youngblood. The story starts though, on not so normal of day. Fleeing through the forest after randomly being set on by four dog-like creatures, Nikki receives help from a most unexpected quarter, three Halfling boys. Drawn into a world of angels and half-angels, Nikki starts to realize how complicated the world really is. Hellhounds want to kill her, secrets her parents had kept from her start coming to light, and what is she to make of the three gorgeous boys suddenly assigned to protect her? Mace, Raven, and Vine are having problems of their own, and not all of them are centered around the human girl they think is their heavenly assignment. For one thing, they’re trying to figure out how they fit into a heavenly world they are banned from and an earthly world forbidden to them – and what’s really left for them without those two.

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Written by Emma Engel

Moontown is like any other American mining town, full of long shifts and kids dreaming about the outside world. Except, of course, it’s on the moon. Sixteen year old Crater Trueblood is one of the few who seem happy working helium-3 mines, unlike his best friend Pedro. But Crater is a rare, honest man in a world full of people running from their pasts, and the Colonel has a job it seems only Crater is qualified for – a job that becomes more and more like a quest the further Crater gets from Moontown. The clock is ticking, genetically modified warriors are hunting him, and the Colonel’s granddaughter has caught his eye, and those are only the beginning of the problems Crater will face as he crosses the moon.

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Written by Emma Engel

I first stumbled across one of Kathy Tyers’ books while shelving books at the library. The title Firebird and rather outer space themed cover made me stop to look at the book more carefully. After all, according to its call number it belonged in the Inspirational Fiction section, and it had been published by Bethany House*, but it sure looked like a book that belonged over in the science fiction. I had, naturally, read George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien, so the idea of Christian themed fantasy wasn’t completely foreign. But all the modern science fiction and fantasy I’d read up until that point had been secular, and the idea of contemporary Christian science fiction – really good contemporary Christian science fiction – was new. Then I read Firebird.