Promise Me Something

Promise Me Something by Sara Kocek, 2013 Albert Whitman & Company

     Reyna Fey has always gone to school with her three best friends, but when they transition from middle school to high school she is on her own at a new school. Reyna has the chance to make friends with Olive, another freshman who doesn't make sense. At first Reyna is annoyed by this girl who is completely normal one minute and in the next says something so out of the ordinary Reyna is at a loss.
     The less she sees her middle-school friends Reyna spends more and more time with Olive. The two girls develop a close friendship and Reyna introduces her new friend to the old clique when Olive points out the injustices around their school, Reyna is disconcerted. Distracted by romance with a boy in their history class and the history teacher's obvious bigotry toward a fellow, openly-gay classmate, Reyna cares little about what is not directly in front of her.
     In the midst of her drama at school Reyna's father is recovering from a car accident which nearly took his life. Reyna struggles with the anger she feels toward her father's girlfriend, her soon-to-be step-mother, for causing the wreck.
     When Olive shares her secret with Reyna, she doesn't know how to handle it. But she just learn whether a true friendship with an outcast is worth the cost or settle for fake friendships with the popular clique. Reyna is forced to grow up, as many high school students are, and her struggles are those of a real person in a difficult situation. With themes of suicide, sexuality, peer pressure, and perception versus reality Promise Me Something is appropriate for more mature readers - high school and older.

City of Secrets

City of Secrets by Mary Hoffman, 2008 Bloomsbury

   Matt Wood follows his friends, Nick and Georgia, into an antique store where he finds a book which somehow speaks to him. Matt rarely finds a connection with books as he is dyslexic, but this book is different. When he falls into a stress-induced sleep holding the book, Matt awakens in the scriptorium at the university in Padavia; a city much like Renaissance Padua.
     The man who introduces him to this strange world is Professor Constantin. Constantin explains the Scriptorium to Matt and describes Stravagation. The professor believes Matt is meant to help him print outlawed anatomy manuscripts and disperse them throughout Talia. Nick and Georgia are Stravagante too--they help Matt balance the two parts of his life and to grow with his responsibilities in Talia.
     At the Scriptorium Matt meets Lucien, a fellow classmate who has transferred into Talia and is studying at the university. Luciano's fiancee is Arianna, the Duchessa of Bellezza, and Matt struggles to deal with the rediscovery. Meanwhile, Arianna's enemies and the enemies of the Stravagante, the di Chimici, continue to use social unrest in an attempt to unite Talia and gain both the political power and ability to travel between worlds which is unavailable to them.
     When danger strikes his newfound friends, Matt finds he is the only one who can assist. He finds faith in himself enough to stand up to the di Chimici and risk his life for his beliefs. Matt struggles with his abilities and trying to be like others; early teen readers will relate to his experience in balancing the adventure and the responsibility of growing up.

The Grey King

The Grey King by Susan Cooper, 1975 Margaret K. McElderry Books

     Young Will Stanton has had a nasty illness, when he finally recovers his doctor suggests he take a holiday with family in Wales. Little does the young man know that he is drawn to this ancient place by forces more powerful than the country doctor. While in his fevered delirium Will has forgotten something he meant to keep forever.
     In Wales at his aunt and uncle's farm Will becomes stronger. Under the crags of the Grey King, a local name for the mountain, snippets of a poem return to Will. He meets Bram, a curious boy and the Raven Boy from his poem. With the new friend and ally Will remembers his mission and his place as an Old One in the cosmos.
     The quest set before Will, and inclusive of his new friend, is for a Thing of Power, a magical harp which will help him wake the Sleepers and bring aid to the Light in the upcoming ultimate battle with the Dark. But finding the harp is just the beginning.
     With his returning memories Will attracts the notice of the Lord of Darkness: the Grey King. The Grey King raises his minions to combat Will at each turn. Through the Dark the local sheepherding peoples become violent and oppose the boys and their galavanting. A neighbor to Will's uncle, Pritchard, becomes a nuisance; eventually he creates the greatest hurdle in Will's quest. Will and Bram are persistent, but will they manage to install one more stone in the wall of humanity's defense against the Dark?
     Like the previous installments of the Dark is Rising Sequence, The Grey King is high fantasy mixed with the solid traditions of the local peoples. Will is an outsider who finds his place with the help of another outsider - the albino boy Bram - and fights for the future he believes is right. Readers who enjoyed the Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia will enjoy this young adult fantasy.

Throne of Glass

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, 2012 Bloomsbury Children's

     Celaena Sardothien is an assassin. She is spirited away from the Endovier salt mines, a prison where she has the last of her eighteen years rotting, to compete against twenty-three other assassins for the post of King's Champion. If Celaena survives and becomes the Champion she will be free from imprisonment. And beholden to the king.
     The king she will serve rules with an iron fist, and would not be her first choice of employer. Celaena was once the Assassin of Adarlan and has the chance to serve the position again, with a catch: Celaena must compete against men sponsored by the king's council to be the last assassin standing and become the King's Champion.
     When Celaena agrees Crown Prince Dorian transports her to the Glass Castle at Rifthold. There she is placed under house arrest and the supervision of Captain Chaol Westfall. As one of the Empire's most talented assassins Celaena doesn't worry about losing in the competition. It is when assassins start dropping dead outside the competition that she begins to worry. Celaena must find the culprit before they get to her, or her new friends in the castle.
     Celaena was an orphan raised to her talents by an infamous assassin, while she is morally ambiguous she does have a strong sense of right and where she wants to be in her life. The friendships Celaena develops give her something beyond the thrill of the next challenge. The danger is more than the usual risks of such a competition, and Celaena has more to lose than most.
     Celaena's adventures are more suited to high school and older readers with violence and mature tension. Readers who enjoyed A Girl of Fire and Thorns, the Grisha series, and the Lunar Chronicles will find a similar style in Maas's Throne of Glass.

Always a Witch

Always a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough, 2011 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

     After being raised without knowledge of her magic, Tamsin Greene is getting a grasp of her power, learning to enjoy it and how to manage it when Alistair Knight again threatens to destroy her family. The centuries-old rivalry between the two families is about to be upset when Alistair flees into the past hoping to alter it. When her grandmother reminds Tamsin of the prophecy surrounding her fate, and that of the family, the young witch agrees to follow Alistair into the past.
     In the seventeenth century Tamsin uses a fake name to find a position as lady's maid in the Knight household. Alistair attempts to warn his ancestors of their danger from the Greene family, but La Spider (the matriarch) is not at home to receive him. La Spider's son, Liam Knight, decides Alistair could be useful in his experiments for immortality. The Knight daughter, Jessica, strikes up a friendship with her new maid and shows the young woman her power for healing - which La Spider and Liam force her to use against her will in their quest.
     Tamsin attempts to find her ancestors in the 1800s, and after some searching it appears they don't believe the girl who claims to be from their future. Thomas Greene sees Tamsin as the harbinger of his death and struggles to accept the future of their family may depend on his own sacrifice. The Greene family battles the Knights, leading to Thomas's death. It is with freely given sacrifice that the Greenes are able to bind the Knights' power into the Domani, Tamsin's friendship with Jessica Knight allows the family to cease Liam's despicable experiments and lock the Knight power safely away.
     The conclusion of Tamsin's story is fraught with danger, sacrifice and the knowledge that what is right is not the easiest or most desirable path. Always a Witch is a modern gothic aimed at high school readers.