Time Riders by Alex Scarrow ★★★★☆

A great addition to the time travel genre!

Fiction – YA- Sci-Fi

425 pages

Age Range: 12 - 17 years

Grade Level: 7 – 12

Publication Date: 2010

Time Riders #1

Liam, Maddy and Sal were all rescued from death and disaster to work for a secret agency called Time Riders.  Their purpose is to fix and mitigate the consequences of others playing with time.   But when someone goes into the past in order to fix their future and things start going wrong can these newbies save the human race from total annihilation?

This book starts with a bang and I quickly knew it was going to be an exciting adventure.  The story was very well executed and creative in itself, but add to that how much potential the premise holds the skies the limit(by the way there are several more Time Rider books on the market currently).  The storytelling characters were engaging and broad enough to be interesting while leaving plenty of room for growth.  Mr. Scarrow used the time travel in a very imaginative way and created a fully thought out set of rules and procedures pertaining to it allowing the concept of the books and need for time riders to be legitimized. I also like Mr. Scarrow’s use of suspense with just enough grit to increase the stakes, but not so much as to make it off putting.

Now on the other side of thing the short chapters kind of bugged me.  It made the story telling really jumpy and jarring, but that was probably the point, so in this case it is a matter of preference.  Also there were a couple of places where Mr. Scarrow tried a bit too hard to make this YA, creating awkwardness that did not characterize a majority of the novel.  Okay and now my last major complaint.  One thing that really grated on my nerves was the frequent use of the Lord’s name in vain.  It didn’t add anything to the story or characters and I found it completely unnecessary and rather offensive. 

Freaks by Kieran Larwood ★★★☆☆

Even freaks have a role to play.

Fiction – Juvenile – Steampunk/Mystery

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

256 pages

Publication Date: March 1, 2013

When impoverish children in Victoria London, begin to go missing, supposedly taken by a monster in the river, Sheba, the Wolfgirl, and her fellow sideshow freaks use their unique gifts to track down the crooks.

Being a parent finally pays off (you know apart from it being so very glamorous)!  My daughter’s school has book fairs; a new venue where I can purchase – for the kids, of course– new books for a good price.  Growing-up I loved the book fair and all of the amazing possibilities it held.  Most of the time I fell back on the tried and true Babysitter’s Club or the like, but just seeing the possibilities of the worlds these books held took my breath away.  It opened my closed little world to the potential, even I might have.  And frankly they still inspire those feelings.

The title, Freaks, immediately caught my attention and with the back blurb being interesting and the price great I took a chance.  I am trying to explore more books in the juvenile age now that my kids are getting close to that age, so this was a great chance to make that happen.  Also, I read a lot of inappropriate books as a kid, so I want be very aware of the books my kids are reading. 

The fun infusion of steampunk for kids with a non-glamorous look at Victorian London was great.  Plus the fun extra sections at the back about the characters and author notes about Victorian London, gave it a little depth.  Mr. Larwood starts feeding out info at a very comfortable pace and creates an entertaining story.  I liked the main character, Sheba, from the beginning, but the book was a bit too in your face about her past.  As for the other characters while each was unique in background, temperament and interest, I found a lot of holes in Monkey Boy’s back story.  But for the age group this was intended for I doubt they will see any flaws.

So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane ★★★☆☆

Modest hopes give way to bigger expectations

Fiction – Juvenile – Urban Fantasy

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

336 pages

Publication Date: 1983

Young Wizards #1

Nita wanted only a chance to escape the bullies pursuing her when she sought sanctuary in the children’s section of her local library, but she found so much more.  Clutching a copy of, So you Want to be a Wizard, she left the library and embarked on the adventure of a life time.  With Kit, another wizard in training, and Fred the white hole, Nita was sent on a quest to return a missing book and right a multiverse going wrong.

Encouraged by the title – which I adore - I started this book, the first of the multi-book series (last count I saw it was up to 10 – to be published this year), with modest hopes, but rapidly I realized my expectations were too low. 

So You Want to Be a Wizard, was very well written for a Juvenile age group, with a good balance between amazing descriptions and allowing for my imagination to work its wonders.  Duane has a great ability to put you right into the fast paced scenes, while creating a fascinating and imaginative story leaving me wondering where it was going next.  The scope was very ambitious, which I found to be both a strength and at times a weakness.  On an occasion I had a hard time following the action and found the mythology to be a bit complicated for the first book, especially considering it is meant for early grade schoolers.  

As for the characters Duane quickly and thoroughly introduced me to Nita with her love of books – she definitely put my feelings on book and library into something much more eloquent than I could ever express myself – her affinity for living things, and the trials and tribulations of her life from her family to school bullies.  Kit and Fred were a little more aloof, but not so much that I didn’t feel sympathetic toward them and care about them as part of the trio. 

Overall I enjoyed this book, not only because I am sure it has sparked generations of other fantasy stories ( I mean it is still going strong  30 years later, talk about longevity), but also just for the story’s own sake.

ISBN  0152047387 (ISBN13: 9780152047382)