Burning Midnight by Will McIntosh (ISBN: 9780553534108)
This book falls into the genre of science fiction with a slight smidge of romance. The premise is that in the future, colorful marbles have started showing up all around the world, mostly concentrated in urban areas, and hiding in any number of places. People have hunted for and found these spheres in order to own pairs of matching colors. You see, when a person holds a matching pair of marbles to their temples, a magic ability transfers to the holder. Teal: fall asleep easily; slate gray: enhanced singing ability; cranberry: better looking; mustard: high intelligence. As you can imagine, the wealthy are willing to pay exorbitant amounts to obtain rare marbles, and thus increase their standing in the world. Sully is a kid growing up in New York with a single mom who has just lost her job, and finding and selling marbles is the only way they survive. Hunter is a homeless girl, alone in the world, with a knack for finding hidden spheres. So the two team up together to locate rare marbles. The end up finding something unheard of: a larger marble that's gold - the only one of its kind. This marble is special though - it actively helps the holder locate its pair. A marble entrepreneur wants the gold... the two teens want cold hard cash... but what do the marbles want? You'll have to read Burning Midnight to find out! I grabbed this book off of the "New Releases" shelf at our local public library because the premise seemed interesting to me. It took a while to get into the real crux of the story, but the ending is something I didn't see coming at all. For readers who enjoyed I am Number Four or The Fifth Wave or for anyone who has secretly wished for the magical abilities of Harry Potter's wand or Clary's stele, this book will be right up your ally. Don't trust me? Check out Mandy the Glittery Nerd's review!
YA READS: Ruby Redfort: Look into my eyes by Lauren Child
Before I can possibly tell you anything about this book (series), I have to tell you two short stories from my real life: (1) If you ask me what book was the first to really get me hooked into reading, my answer would be the entire Nancy Drew series by "Carolyn Keene" (or the group of authors who used this pen-name). I. Loved. Those. Spy. Girl. Books. I would sit on my couch, drinking Yoo-Hoo banana milk, and reading each volume for hours. I fell in love with libraries and librarians when the children's librarian at my local public library informed me that they could borrow more of these swell books for me from other branches, seeing as how I had exhausted the collection at my own branch already. So Nancy Drew... I'm a forever fan. (Also, do this many crimes in real life really involve chloroform?) (2) My daughter discovered a book and TV series about two kids named Charlie and Lola about a year and a half ago, written by this lovely British author named Lauren Child. The two main characters, while strangely parent-less, are fantastic and so quirkily (now a word) clever. My little loved them, and so did I. We've read all the books, we've watched all the shows. We all love strawberry milk, just like Lola. So now I tell you that Lauren Child has created the next young Nancy Drew heroine and you can understand why I might be a bit enthused. Ruby Redfort is 13 years old, easily the most brilliant kid in her small coastal town (although her friend Clancy Crew isn't far behind... PS - CLANCY CREW!! #FanGirlNerdAlert), and loves cracking codes. She loves banana milk (BANANA MILK!! #MyLiteraryBFF). She sees details that others miss, and these combined character traits lead her to be discovered by both a spy agency (Spectrum) and some crooked bad guys wishing to steal a famous piece of art which is soon to debut at her local art museum. Spectrum recruits her as an agent when they need an insider for the upcoming museum showing being hosted by Ruby's brilliantly-stupid-but-very-rich parents. With the help of an agent-turned-butler named Hitch, Ruby has to outsmart the thieves and keep her new agent identity a secret before the Jade Buddha is stolen. She uses wits and gadgets, wears snarky t-shirts (T-SHIRTS!!), is loyal to her friends, and has totally won my heart. I am a librarian, so I always advocate for people to get books for free from their local libraries. But I actually used some of my Christmas money (five months later) to buy this book after reading the library's copy just because I wanted to own it for someday-when-my-five-year-old-can-read-it. That is years away, folks. But I bought it anyway. That should tell you how much I love this character. I'm already reading book two of the series, and I actually googled banana syrup to see where I could find some. I think I need a glass of my childhood. EXTRAS: Lauren Child - dishing on her own creation:
HOME-MADE TEES: Fan girl wear for the smart girl who solves her own problems.
< A true Ruby original
< This Nancy Drew classic has been in my Amazon cart for months... I'm gonna do it!
