Saint Iggy

by K.L. Going

Sixteen-year-old Iggy Corso is a projects kid who never caught a break in his whole life. Both parents are drug addicts who owe their souls to their dealer, Freddie, and hardly remember Iggy is alive.  In fact, Iggy's mom went "visiting" weeks ago and hasn't been seen since.  Iggy gets kicked out of school for doing something stupid, and it's basically his last chance.  Iggy never intends to do bad things, but he just seems to fall into situations no matter how hard he tries to stay out of trouble.  He has a hearing with the school superintendant in three days, and he decides he will figure out some way to contribute to society, so that he can convince the school authorities to let him back into school.  When he needs some help and comfort, he goes to his friend Mo's apartment, but Mo is not in a good place himself.  One thing leads to another and soon Iggy finds himself with Mo in Freddie, the drug dealer's apartment, the last place on earth Iggy wants to be.  Mo leaves the place with an assortment of drugs and a $2000 bill to Freddie that he has to pay within a few days.  No one knows better than Iggy that debts to Freddie never get paid, but he goes with Mo to his rich mother's place where Mo is sure he can get the money, and Iggy sees a life he never knew existed.  Mo's mom takes Iggy under her wing, but refuses to give Mo the money.  Iggy knows that Mo is in deep trouble, and he finally realizes what he has to do to contribute to society.  Iggy is a character that it's hard not to like, and who doesn't deserve all he gets.    Saint Iggy is an intense story of drug addiction and poverty, and how one boy chooses to deal with it.  ~reviewed by Dail Sams

Hate List
by Jennifer Brown

Ever since that terrible day last May when her boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on students in their school commons, Valerie has tried understand how she couldn't have seen what was coming. How could something like their hate list just be a way of blowing off steam for her, but deadly serious to Nick, and she never realized it?  Shot while she tried to stop Nick from targeting the people on the list, Valerie is caught between those who believe she is just as guilty as Nick, and those who think she is a hero for saving another student.  All she knows is that the hate list was her idea, and she lost the best friend she ever had when Nick turned the gun on himself.  In the months following the shootings, Valerie alternates between total self-absorption, and surprising sympathy for others. This amazing first novel by Jennifer Brown, tells the story of a girl who slowly crawls back to health from a black hole, and the unexpected compassion she receives along the way.  Highly recommended!    ~reviewed by Dail Sams

The New Policeman

by Kate Thompson

      J.J. and his family live on a farm outside the small Irish village of Kinvara.  Musicians all, the four family members struggle to keep up with everything in their lives.  There's never enough time to do it all--chores, school work, house work, fiddle-playing and dancing. It almost seems like the days get shorter and shorter all the time.  J.J.'s mom Helen has a birthday coming up.  All she wants is more time.  J.J. doesn't know how he's going to do it, but he's determined to get more time for his mom.  A chance meeting with a neighbor lady sends J.J. exploring the underground rooms of an ancient fort ruins, and there Anne Korff shows him the passageway into another world, the world of the faeries, where time is supposed to stand still.  Together they hope to discover where the time leak from one world to the other is, and plug up the hole.  The problem with traveling between the two worlds is that it's hard to remember why you've come once you cross over.  J.J. struggles to stay focused on his purpose of finding the time leak.  Meanwhile, the new policeman in Kinvara is really a faerie who entered from the faerie world to search for the leak from this side.  Only he just can't remember why he became a policeman.  Interwoven with ancient Irish legends and the traditional dance music of generations ago, this quiet and magical tale charms and seduces the reader and draws him back to a time in history when fairies and leprechans were as real as a next door neighbor.  A lovely story.

         ~reviewed by Mrs. Sams