Smasher - Scott Bly

Charlie, a magician's apprentice from the Renaissance era, and Geneva, a time-traveling bionic girl from the future, team up to stop corporate giant Gramercy Foxx from taking over the world. They have to combine their skills in magic and technology to figure out how to stop Foxx's upcoming product, The Future, before it is released to the public.

Bly tells the story through the perspective of many different characters. Getting to know the characters in this way gives the story meaningful depth. The protagonists, antagonists, and neutral characters are all captivating and well written. 

Smasher is action packed and fast paced. There is no neat and tidy exposition as Charlie is entangled in conflict from the first page. However, once you get into it, it is hard to put down. Boys and girls ages 8-12 who like action packed stories will love this one. It is also a great introduction to science fiction.

Antonia, the Horse Whisperer - Elisabeth Zöller and Birgitte Kolloch

Eleven-year-old Antonia Rosenburg helps care for the horses on her family-owned riding stables. She has big dreams of winning riding competitions, but those dreams are put on hold when her favorite horse is injured. When her family takes on a new client with a wild-mannered horse, Antonia discovers that she has a natural gift for reaching out to this horse. The problem: their client doesn't want an eleven-year-old near his precious horse. The other problem: the horse, Elfin Dance, won't go willingly to anyone else.

This book is a cute beginning to a promising series. Instead of being about winning a big horse competition or accomplishing amazing feats, Zöller and Kolloch focus on human-to-human and human-to-horse interactions. The problems Antonia faces are realistic and not overly dramatic. Antonia never doubts her natural gifts, even if others do. She takes action to solve her problems in a realistic way. There are no "bad guys" in this book, just problems that need solving.

This is a great transitional book from intermediate to juvenile fiction. The illustrations by Gotzen-Beek are cute and plentiful, which may help girls who are reluctant to move into more advanced books. It flows nicely and quickly. I look forward to more in the series. 

Ava and Pip - Carol Weston

 

I have to begin by giving credit to Victoria Jamieson, the cover illustrator. She successfully created a cover that matches the beauty of the story. I chose this book off the shelf without ever hearing about it before simply because the cover is beautiful and intriguing.

We experience the story through Ava's diary. Ava is the younger sister who is naturally more outgoing and confident than her older sister Pip. While Ava expresses that she and Pip don't always get along, we know that she has a deep love for her sister and wants to help her out. With the many stories out there about siblings who are out to hate each other, this is much appreciated.

Ava is charming and fun. Her perspective is unique and engaging. While she is confident and outgoing, throughout this story she has realistic insecurities that she has to learn to deal with. She is real without being snarky, snide, or sarcastic.

I love it when an author takes the opportunity to make the antagonist a situation instead of a person. Instead of creating a good guy VS bad guy situation, Carol Weston shows characters that have conflict because they are all good people who make mistakes. Not only do they suffer through the embarrassment and awkwardness of the mistakes, they learn how to deal with them and move on from them.

The wordplay Weston incorporates throughout the book is icing on the cake. Don't be surprised if you find yourself trying to think of clever palindromes after reading this book.

Parents, this book is a must-read for your daughters going into or just about to go into middle school or junior high. Ava is a role model disguised as a friend. She will empathize with the insecurities they feel. She will show them that embarrassing mistakes are a normal part of growing up. Most importantly, she will encourage your girls to be problem solvers.