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.