Al Capone Shines My Shoes - 2012 Book #21

Al Capone Shines My Shoes is the sequel to Gennifer Choldenko's Al Capone Does My Shirts. The story is once again told by Moose Flannagan about his life on Alcatraz Island. His sister Natalie goes off to school, and Moose finally learns what it feels like to have his mother's undivided attention. He's made friends both at school off the island and on the island. Life is good. But then, he receives a message that he thinks is from the convict Al Capone. It says, "Your turn." Moose thinks it's a message telling him that now it's his turn to do a favor for Al Capone in return for the favor Moose thinks Al Capone did for him. Moose's friend Annie finds out and gets mad when Moose refuses to tell his parents. Moose doesn't want his dad to get fired or anything, so he doesn't want to tell. It seems that everyone gets mad at Moose for something. Jimmy seems to be mad, because Moose's friend Scout makes fun of his baseball skills; Piper's mad because Theresa catches her and Moose about to kiss; Natalie's mad, because she's been away from Moose; Annie's mad, because Moose won't tell about Al Capone; and Scout's mad, because Moose tells him to stay away from Piper. Moose is just trying to please everyone, but it seems that trying to please everyone isn't as easy as it seems. On top of all that, it seems that someone off the island is trying to help the convicts escape, and it seems as though they are trying to pin the blame on Moose's family. He was just starting to like his life on Alcatraz Island and doesn't want his dad to lose his job, so he must do everything he can to stop that from happening.

This book is a great sequel to Al Capone Does My Shirts. It's fairly fast-paced, keeping the reader interested. It has real historical facts scattered throughout the book, and the story is based off of events that actually happened on Alcatraz Island during that time period. The author includes a section in the back of the book that explains all the historical details that the book was based off of. This was a great read.

Murder by the Book - 2012 Book #20

Murder by the Book was written by LDS author Betsy Brannon Green. The story is told by the main character, Kennedy Killingsworth, a young librarian in the small town of Midway. After an older man in the town comes in to the library and signs up for a library card, she hears of his supposed suicide that same day and doesn't really believe that he would do that. Why sign up for a library card if you're planning on killing yourself? She expresses her concern to the local sheriff who allows her to help with an investigation of his death as long as she works with the deputy Cade, her ex-husband. She agrees to this in her eagerness to find out what really happened. Cade takes this as a sign that she might want to get back together with him and tries to keep asking her out.

During her investigations, she also attracts the attention of some other young men in the town: Luke Scoggins, the nephew of the man who died; Drake Langston, the rich man who was waiting on the dead man for a land deal in his new development project; and Sloan, the head of Drake's construction team. The only problem is, she's not sure if she can trust any of them as they are all suspects. What starts out as something exiting that Kennedy's only read about in the books she loves, suddenly becomes very real when she finds out that her life could be in danger if she keeps digging to find the truth about what really happened to Luke's uncle.

This book is written very well, with lots of action and unpredictable events happening. I was a little disappointed with the ending. It wrapped up the story and answered all the questions of what happened with the mysterious death, but it leaves what happens in the future open to question, which is okay but makes me wish there was more. Overall, it was a very good read.

The Book of Wonders - 2012 Book #19

The Book of Wonders by Jasmine Richards is a fun, engaging read. It tells the story of Zardi, a young girl who just turned thirteen, the age of womanhood. She is now old enough to be taken by the sultan as his praisemaker. The praisemaker has to shout the sultan's praises from a tower for three months, and then they are hunted and killed by the sultan himself. The only way to escape the sultan is if she gets married. Her nonna tells her that she has a great destiny to fulfill. Zardi doesn't know what this is.

Zardi's sister is about to get married when she is taken by the sultan to be the new praisemaker. Her father stands up to the sultan, demanding that his daughter be released. Instead, the sultan takes him prisoner as well, promising that once he's through with Zardi's sister, Zubeyda, he's coming back for Zardi. Zardi decides that this is her destiny: to save her sister and father from the sultan.

Earlier that day, she and her friend Rhidan had seen the great sailor, Sinbad. She had heard that Sinbad was setting out for a nearby city where there where rumors of the rightful prince still being alive. She decides to disguise herself as a boy and go find Sinbad to help her. Her friend Rhidan comes along not only to help her but to find out more about who he is and where he's from. Earlier, Sinbad had made a comment about seeing other people like Rhidan, and Rhidan hopes that Sinbad can help him find his family.

So Zardi and Rhidan set off an adventure involving pirates, brass giants, sorcerers, fortune tellers, djinnis, magic amulets, and evil serpents.

This book is very engaging and keeps the reader wanting to know more right up to the last page. The story ends, making it very clear that the story is not over; there must be a sequel in mind for this book, because Zardi's and Rhidan's adventures are not finished. Unfortunately, that sequel has not been written yet.

Wicked Will - 2012 Book #18

Wicked Will by Bailey Macdonald was an interesting book to read. It's told in first person by a young actor called Tom who's traveling with a troup of actors with his uncle. Upon their arrival at a small town, they meet a boy named Will, who is the young William Shakespeare. He is really curious about everything the actors do and asks a million questions. Tom is worried about all Will's questions, because Tom is hiding a secret. But Will won't go away. He insists on showing Tom around the town the first day. Later that day, after the sun's gone down, the two boys find a dead body in the river. It's the body of an old man in town whom nobody really likes. Shortly before he was found dead, he had been seen in a bar fighting with Tom's uncle. From this knowledge, Tom's uncle was arrested. Tom, not having any place to stay, goes home with Will to stay at his house. Will is determined to find the real murderer and prove Tom's uncle innocent. He comes up with all sorts of crazy schemes to try to find the culprit. With town drunks, cranky actors, ghosts, twin sons of the victim, and Will's father, staying out of trouble seems to be difficult for Will, and Tom is unsure of whether or not Will is someone to be trusted.

This book is really fun, and it is interesting to read one example of how William Shakespeare might have been when he was younger. The ending of this book, however, doesn't seem to really match the almost lighthearted feel the rest of the book has. This book was engaging with a nice flow. Overall, it was a good read.