A fearsome doubt - Charles Todd

A fearsome doubt: an Inspector Ian Rutledge mystery -  Todd, Charles

Summary: Seven years after sending Ben Shaw to the gallows for the brutal murders of elderly women, Inspector Ian Rutledge is approached by Shaw's widow, who claims that her husband had been innocent, and sets out to uncover the truth about a potential miscarriage of justice. By the author of Watchers of Time. - (Baker & Taylor)


Booklist Reviews
Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge may be the only sleuth in detective-fiction history to have a ghost as his sidekick. Hamish MacLeod, late of the Scottish brigade, whom Rutledge ordered executed for insubordination during the Great War, provides acerbic commentary on Rutledge's actions and thoughts, effectively underscoring Rutledge's psychological torment. Rutledge's habitual angst is stretched to the breaking point in the latest in this series, when the inspector has reason to fear that he sent the wrong man to the gallows seven years before, in 1912. The hanged man's widow presents Rutledge with new evidence that seems to place the blame on another serial killer. Fearing for his sanity, Rutledge must examine the new evidence and investigate the murder of two ex-soldiers in Kent. Both sets of serial killings become eerily intermeshed. Todd skillfully interweaves an acute psychological portrait with a compelling puzzle. Intelligent and intense history-mystery, at the level of Anne Perry and Bruce Alexander. ((Reviewed August 2002)) Copyright 2002 Booklist Reviews

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Pandemonium - Lauren Oliver

Pandemonium - Oliver, Lauren

Summary: After falling in love, Lena and Alex flee their oppressive society where love is outlawed and everyone must receive "the cure"--an operation that makes them immune to the delirium of love--but Lena alone manages to find her way to a community of resistance fighters, and although she is bereft without the boy she loves, her struggles seem to be leading her toward a new love.  

Kirkus Reviews
 It's been six months since readers first met 17-year-old Lena Haloway, desperately in love in a world that considers such feelings an infection to be permanently and irrevocably "cured." This much-anticipated sequel to Delirium (2011) picks up right where the first novel left off, with Lena and Alex's only partially successful attempt to escape to "the Wilds." Lena, alone, heartbroken and near death, must reach deep within herself to find the strength and the will to survive. "Step by step--and then, inch by inch," she is reborn. The story of Lena's new life as a rebel Invalid, determined to honor the memory of Alex by fighting for a world in which love is no longer considered a capital offense, is told through a series of flashbacks and present-day accounts that will leave readers breathless. The stakes only get higher when Lena realizes she has feelings for someone new. The novel's success can be attributed to its near pitch-perfect combination of action and suspense, coupled with the subtler but equally gripping evolution of Lena's character. From the grief-stricken shell of her former self to a nascent refugee and finally to a full-fledged resistance fighter, Lena's strength and the complexity of her internal struggles will keep readers up at night. (Dystopian romance. 14 & up) Copyright Kirkus 2012 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.  

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I want my hat back - J. Klassen

I want my hat back - Klassen, J.

Summary: A bear almost gives up his search for his missing hat until he remembers something important.



Booklist Reviews
Klassen, who illustrated Caroline Stutson's Cats' Night Out (2010), pens his first story in this odd, and oddly charming, picture book. A bummed-out bear asks if other animals have seen his lost hat. The fox knows nothing. Neither does the frog. Or the rabbit who is wearing a pointy red hat. No luck with the turtle, snake, or armadillo either. Kids will probably be squirming in their seats at this point, just dying to tell the bear what he missed three page turns ago, but then a reindeer jogs Bear's memory by asking what the hat looks like (red, pointy). He runs back to confront the rabbit, and when a squirrel asks him later if he has seen a hat-wearing rabbit, Bear is all innocence: "I haven't seen any rabbits anywhere. I would not eat a rabbit. Don't ask me any more questions." This is, obviously, a dark turn, but there is no denying that the devious humor is right at a child's level. He is a bear, after all; we should be happy he didn't gobble up the rest of the cast. Copyright 2011 Booklist Reviews.

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Listening for lions - Gloria Whelan

Listening for lions - Whelan, Gloria

Summary: Left an orphan after the influenza epidemic in British East Africa in 1918, thirteen-year-old Rachel is tricked into assuming a deceased neighbor's identity to travel to England, where her only dream is to return to Africa and rebuild her parents' mission hospital.



Booklist Reviews
/*Starred Review*/ Gr. 6-9. In 1919, in British East Africa, 13-year-old Rachel loses her missionary parents during an influenza epidemic. When she turns to her English neighbors for help, the Pritchards ensnare her in a shocking, ill-intentioned scheme. Disowned by their rich family, they had planned to send their daughter, Valerie, to her grandfather's estate in England, where they hoped she would help to reinstate them in his will. But after Valerie dies of flu, the Pritchards conspire to send Rachel, whose red hair matches their daughter's. Whelan creates deliciously odious villains in the Pritchard parents, who, with shameless cunning, manipulate Rachel into agreeing to the deceit. Once in England, Rachel and the perilously ill grandfather develop a surprisingly strong, affectionate bond, although she continues the ruse, believing that "one more disappointment would be the end of the old man." In a straightforward, sympathetic voice, Rachel tells an involving, episodic story that follows her across continents and through life stages as she grapples with her dishonesty, grief for her lost parents and life in Africa, and looming questions about how to prepare for grown-up life at a time when few choices were allowed to women. Gentle, nostalgic, and fueled with old-fashioned girl power, this involving orphan story will please fans of Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic The Secret Garden (1912) and Eva Ibbotson's The Star of Kazan (2004). ((Reviewed May 15, 2005)) Copyright 2005 Booklist Reviews.

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Leap back home to me - Lauren Thompson

Leap back home to me - Thompson, Lauren

Summary: A little frog makes increasingly bold leaps out into the world, and then comes back to his mother after each excursion.

Booklist Reviews
In a short, rhymed text, a frog mother tells her young frog to leap from the lily pad: "Leap frog over the ladybug. / Leap frog over the bee. / Leap frog over the tickly clover, / then leap back home to me!" Each set of leaps becomes more adventuresome, with the young frog leaping over mountains, the sea, the sun, and ultimately "the farthest stars," returning each time to a comforting activity (book sharing, coloring, hugs) with mother. Double-page spreads of simple cartoon illustrations in muted colors show the zany leaps of the bug-eyed frog as it whizzes through the air. The simplicity of the illustrations, the brevity and repetition of the lively text, and the accompanying jumping sounds ("SPROING!") make this a natural for group sharing. Check out Steve Breen's Stick (2007), also about a frog having an adventure away from the lily pad. Copyright 2011 Booklist Reviews.

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The lily pond - Annika Thor

The lily pond - Thor, Annika

Summary: Having left Nazi-occupied Vienna a year ago, thirteen-year-old Jewish refugee Stephie Steiner adapts to life in the cultured Swedish city of Gothenburg, where she attends school, falls in love, and worries about her parents who were not allowed to emigrate.



Booklist Reviews
This sequel to the Batchelder Award–winner A Faraway Island (2009) continues the story of the Steiner sisters, refugees being cared for in Sweden while their parents work to escape Nazi-occupied Austria. Now it's 1940, and 13-year-old Stephie is moving to the cultured city of Göteborg to continue her education and board with the wealthy Soderbergs, who, despite offering her a room, view Stephie as a charity case and convenient server for dinner parties. Resilient in spite of her youth, Stephie copes with making new friends, misunderstandings, an unrequited crush, anti-Semitism from some of her teachers, and worries about her parents' worsening situation in Vienna. Although admirable, Stephie is also a believable teen; readers will sympathize as she debates whether to attend a concert she knows her fundamentalist Christian foster mother would forbid. Stephie justifies going, saying her own parents would approve, but her stronger motive is spending time with a handsome, older boy. A compelling look at World War II–era Sweden, this distinguished Holocaust story will resonate. Two more titles, meanwhile, await translation. Copyright 2011 Booklist Reviews.


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A faraway island - Annika Thor

A faraway island - Thor, Annika

Summary: In 1939 Sweden, two Jewish sisters wait for their parents to join them in fleeing the Nazis in Austria, but while eight-year-old Nellie settles in quickly, twelve-year-old Stephie feels stranded at the end of the world, with a foster mother who is as cold and unforgiving as the island on which they live.


Booklist Reviews
"In 1939, Jewish sisters Stephie and Nellie Steiner are evacuated from their home in Nazi-occupied Vienna to an island off the coast of Sweden, where separate foster families take them in. Eight-year-old Nellie adjusts very quickly—learning Swedish, making friends, and enjoying her new foster siblings. Twelve-year-old Stephie has more difficulties—she is tormented by school bullies, must deal with a cold and critical foster mother, and worries about her parents' safety. Thor successfully captures the feel of small-town Sweden circa 1939-40, with its kindly citizens devoted to Christianity and good works who nevertheless harbor latent anti-Semitic views. The translation is mostly smooth, and the use of third-person present tense narration helps distance readers from Holocaust realities while subtly reminding them that child refugees still exist. The first of four volumes featuring the Steiner sisters, this should be popular with fans of Lois Lowry's Number the Stars (1989) and make a good bridge to more visceral memoirs such as Anita Lobel's No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War (1998)." Copyright 2009 Booklist Reviews.

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