Surrender by Sonya Hartnett.

If you are looking for a dark, deep, disturbing read for teens, look no further.  Hartnett’s latest is a psychological study of a dying boy.  Gabriel is slowly dying and remembers his strange childhood growing up in a small town but being shunned by the majority of the community because of his strange parents.  He lives under their cruelty and does not find freedom until he meets Finnegan, who volunteers to be the bad boy while Gabriel strives to be perfectly good.  Finnegan is a wild boy, who has no family and lives on his own in the forest.  He begins to exact revenge on people who are mean to Gabriel and over the course of several years burns down buildings, sets fire to cars, and eliminates the welcome sign to the town.  He is never caught even though the police and Gabriel’s father, the town attorney, devote years to it.  The relationship between the two boys is always a struggle, and never a real friendship though they are like two sides of a coin.

Psychological thrillers are always hard to review, because they rely on the surprises and twists to be thrillers.  I don’t want to reveal too much about the plot and lose some of the tortured thrill of the novel.  The book reveals its secrets slowly and revels in the twists and turns of the plot.  It is a book that drags the reader into a web and leaves them there, fighting to figure out what is really happening.  I can’t think of another book that does this so very well.

I do need to mention that the writing is exquisite.  Hartnett uses words to hide, reveal, puzzle and shock.  She is a master.  Her art moves this book to another level.  It is a horror of a novel, but written with beauty and art.  A true conundrum that really functions well. 

Recommend this to good readers who enjoy horror or thrillers.  The cover is wonderful and will lead the right readers straight to the book. 

Babies in the Bayou by Jim Arnosky.

This book is filled with evocative illustrations of bayou animals.  The illustrations are deep colored, naturally accurate, and reveal the hidden life of the bayou.  They are combined with text that is simple but also has hidden depths.  Together the words and pictures form a perfect match that will be welcoming to small children.

I appreciated the fact that the book comes full circle, demonstrating the cycle of nature in a subtle way without being heavy handed.  I also enjoyed the various perspectives of the illustrations which often reveal the relationship between two species without words. 

The book is simply lovely.  Don’t save it for a swamp unit, instead share this one whenever you do a story time on alligators, ducks, or turtles.  It is too lovely not to share.

Duck Duck Goose by Tad Hills.

Oh what joy!  A new Duck & Goose book!  I was very partial to the first in the series, and consider this a wonderful sequel.  Duck and Goose are still friends, but when a new duckling, Thistle, is added to the mix the threesome just doesn’t work.  Goose tries to play along with Thistle’s competitive games, but eventually heads off alone to look for butterflies.  It isn’t much later that Duck also gives up playing with Thistle and looks for Goose.  In the end, the two of them discover that they enjoy quiet times together after Thistle wins one last game.

The illustrations are as nice as the first, switching between white backgrounds and lush greenery.  The wording is equally child-friendly and made to read aloud. 

Perfect for a preschool storytime on ducks or friendship, I would also use this for a filler in any story time at all.  It is a winner!

Unicorn Races by Stephen J. Brooks, illustrated by Linda Crockett.

Unicorn Races arrived in my mailbox this weekend.  I added it to the large pile of books waiting to be reviewed.  But my son had a different idea and asked me to read it to him immediately.  I know that the sparkling lettering and amazing unicorns had a lot to do with it. 

The book is about a young girl, Abigail, who instead of going to sleep at night after being tucked in, goes out into the night with a unicorn to the unicorn races.  She dresses and acts as a princess throughout the night, judging who has won the race, dining on sweets, and flying on the back of her unicorn friend.  The book is illustrated in deep purples and pinks and filled with sparkling unicorns, fairies and elves.  One of the big appeals of this book is that there is no scariness to the night that Abigail goes out into.  There is only magic, wonder and a feeling of safety. 

This book is not one that will win any awards on literary merit, new subject matter, or breaking boundaries.  However, it is filled with child appeal.   From the sparkling title to the very colors and language used, Brooks knows his audience.  This book will fly off of library shelves into the hands of girls who dream of being princesses and befriending unicorns.  Recommend it to any small girl entering the library with a My Pretty Pony and they won’t be disappointed. 

Space Leftovers: a book about comets, asteroids, and meteoroids by Dana Meachen Rau, illustrated by Denise Shea.

My five-year-old is loving space nonfiction right now.  The books vary amazingly in quality for such a young reader.  But this book by Rau hits the mark perfectly as a readaloud all about space rocks. 

The pictures are very child friendly and the text is exactly the right amount for kindergarteners and first graders to absorb.  Add in the fun facts on each page, and you have all of the interesting details that fuel the love of astronomy in children.  Share this with a class studying outer space or hand it to a space-loving child.