Sleepless (MG)

How many times have you thought If only I had a few more hours in a day, I could finally get everything done?  What if you no longer needed to sleep?  This is what Levi, Mickey, Skye, Thea, and Cyrus ask.  The four each think they are the only ones who no longer sleep, until they find each other.   While they all agree no one else can know about this, they also use the time to become better than everyone else at things.   Levi, a big social media guy, starts making posts from different accounts around the world.  Cyrus the creator uses his time to invent new things, Skye, the great student, uses her time to become even smarter, and Thea practices songs from the upcoming play she is in.  Mickey is tired of being bullied, so he starts running and lifting weights.  It is a chance encounter on one of Mickey's runs when his running partner and best friend, his dog Baldy, gets loose, and Mickey follows to get him back, and that is when they start coming together and find they are not alone.  But the real mystery they need to solve is what caused their sleep to stop.

I'm not sure where the author keeps getting his ideas, but I hope it doesn’t stop anytime soon. This is another wonderful book that makes you stop and think, "What would I do?"  Would I even like it?  I really liked this book, told from the different viewpoints of the kids and what they are really thinking about it all, especially after it has been going on for a while, as they start to see the moral dilemma and decide how to deal with it.  This is a great book for middle-grade, reluctant readers, and would make an awesome classroom read. Maybe even read it when you can get to sleep.

 

How to Train Your Evil Robot (MG)

This is such a cute book about a girl, her dog, and a 3-inch-tall robot who thinks it can take over the world.  The girl patiently shows the robot why humans still need to exist, and they need to live together.  I like some of the facts she points out to the robot that explain the toll it takes on the environment, and how the robot had to learn from humans before it could do things on its own.  The book is in graphic novel format, so reluctant readers will enjoy this as well.  This book helps kids understand the new and rapidly evolving world of AI that they now live in.  I really liked this book a lot and hope it turns into a go-to book as an introduction to AI.

 

Stella (Best Friends Dog Tales) (MG)

Stella is a working dog.  She has been trained to sniff out explosives with her beagle nose.  But she missed a smell one day, and there was a huge explosion that killed her handler, Connie, and left Stella with some PTSD/anxiety, and she was retired.  But finding a new home has been challenging.  Minutes after her third return to the shelter, they decided she wouldn’t ever find a home and decided to put her down.  Lucky for Stella, a lady shows up and knew Connie and takes Stella back to her farm to be retrained to do something else.  But once the lady's daughter, Chloe, sees Stella, she knows that Stella is the dog for her.  What they didn’t know, and Stella had to work hard to prove, was what her new job should be.

This is a heartwarming book about second chances.  The people need to give Stella a second chance, and Stella needs to come to terms with what happened and give herself a second chance.  The book is told from the perspective of Stella and how she desperately wants to be a good dog. Hearing things from Stella’s perspective is so awesome, like the time she first sniffs Chloe.  I really liked this book, and it would be good for anyone who loves to learn about working dogs, and just a really good story.  The book has some action and suspense and will be good for any middle-grade reader, even reluctant ones.  PS: Stella does not die in this book.

 

Every Hunter is Hunted

Jazz hasn’t really done anything since putting his father in prison and writing a book.  But as all quiet ends in noise, so does Jazz’s when there is a knock on the door.  It is a young, pretty FBI agent asking for his help as brides are being murdered on their wedding nights in their dresses.  Jazz wants nothing more to do with serial killers, but is convinced to help the FBI on this so no more women are killed. 

I don’t want to go too far into this as it is a mystery for the reader as well as Jazz, so I wish you well on your journey.  I really loved this book, but I was a big fan of the other Jasper Dent books and was very happy to see this new one coming out.  This is just as awesome as those were.  They are action-packed, very suspenseful, and have a few twists and turns that might surprise.  The characters are well curated for the story, and all of it fits together like a glove.  I really enjoyed this book and cannot wait for more, and hopefully Jazz won’t take so much time off for a while.

 

Cocoon

San and her friends are recruited to become assistant nurses and end up at the front lines working in caves, seeing the horrors of war firsthand.  San would like to wrap her friends in a cocoon to protect them from the bombs and horrors.  But their toughest job is still to come.  They are sent home.  They have to find their own way, crossing enemy lines, and with no food, they are cold, starving, and scared out of their wits.  But out of all that were sent, only a few make it back. 

This was a moving book that brought to the forefront the horrors of war through a child's eyes.  The author's telling of it brings it home especially now when our world seems to be all wars.  The book is done in graphic novel form with wonderful illustrations to keep all readers engaged.  I love these books, as we now know that women have served in all kinds of wars and right up front in the thick of the combat zones, but were never given the credit they deserved until just recently, so maybe even a bit of history snuck in as well.  This book is a wonderful addition to any library.

 

Callers a Journey Home

This is a fast-paced conclusion to the series, and I will be honest: I will miss Quin and his friends.  Quin is fixing the vine as fast as he can, but his mother is destroying the vine even faster and doesn’t even care that this is all of their resources and no one will have anything if she succeeds in her ways and keeps allowing everyone to just think things into being, calling.  At the same time, the resistance is growing, but there are still a lot who just want to use the easy way.  Who will win and who will come to the rescue?

 

This is a very action-packed book, and it is a fast one for sure.  It would make a good book for any middle grader, and I think reluctant readers as well, or any kid at heart.  The characters are awesome, and the plot moves along at a good pace, making this a really good last book and end of the series.  I am sad to see it end, but one can hope that there might be some spin-off series as well in the future.

 

Dragonborn: Rite of Ascension Book 1

Hale always knew he wouldn’t make it past the arena, but he also always hoped he could so he could find and be with his brother again.  Sharing some of his coveted medicine that is used to help ease the disease that rages in his body with another boy, they become fast friends, knowing each was about to die soon.  But as Hale lies in the arena just on the edge of dying, he becomes one with a great dragon that cures his disease and allows him to choose the other boy and his lifelong friend to his team, so they all can keep moving toward a new and better tier, seemingly always uncovering more and more lies the orphans have told their whole life; first among them is they are not actually orphans. 

This was a good book with lots of action and full of suspense.  The characters are well-rounded, and each fits their own little niche in the book.  The plot is new and fresh.  Narrator Eric Jason Martin made this book come alive in my car; it was so much fun to listen to, I had to take the long way home a few times.  I really enjoyed this book a lot and can’t wait for more from this team.