MADreads

Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors

For the young "Hamilton" fan

Cover of Sophia's war: a tale of th
A review of Sophia's war: a tale of the Revolution by Avi

Newberry Medalist, Avi, writes a gripping story of the American Revolutionary War through the eyes of Sophia Calderwood. Sophia, a well-educated young lady, lives with her parents in British occupied New York. Her beloved older brother is a captured soldier in the Continental Army and her parents are secretly committed to the cause of the American Patriots. Sophia, herself an ardent Patriot, wants nothing more than to help the cause and free her brother from a horrific British prison. She is enlisted as a spy; however, the plot she uncovers is almost too outrageous to believe!

Posted by on Mar 31, 2022

Summer in Japan

Cover of Temple Alley Summer
A review of Temple Alley Summer by Sachiko Kashiwaba

Temple Alley Summer is full of mystery, history, and ghosts. Kazu's summer project is to learn more about his neighborhood, Temple Alley, named for the former Kimyo Temple located where Kazu's house currently stands. An old legend claims that the temple has the power to bring the dead back to life. A girl named Akari suddenly appears in the alley and Kazu starts to wonder if the legend is more than a story. 

Posted by Molly W on Mar 30, 2022

All shapes and sizes

Cover of Bodies are Cool
A review of Bodies are Cool by Tyler Feder

I LOVE Bodies Are Cool!  This glorious picture book celebrates all of the different human bodies that exist in the world. It is a truly joyous and inclusive book, and the delightful text and beautiful, exuberant illustrations combine to encourage body acceptance and confidence in the youngest readers – and the grown-ups who read to those little ones, too!  “My body, your body, every different kind of body!  All of them are good bodies!  Bodies are cool!” Pick up a copy of Tyler Feder’s Bodies Are Cool and share some body love and positivity with the ones you love. 

Posted by Madeleine on Mar 25, 2022

Choices were made

Cover of Velocity Weapon
A review of Velocity Weapon by Megan O'Keefe

Sergeant Sanda Greeve wakes alone in the medical bay of a strange ship. Worse, it's an enemy ship and the only other inhabitant is the sentient artificial intelligence who runs the ship, The Light of Berossus, aka Bero. And that's not the worst news she's about to hear. Bero shows her that Ada Prime (Sanda's home planet) and Icarion (their enemy) have both vanished from the galaxy, blown up 230 years ago during the war that left Sanda wounded. Sanda had been in stassis in a life pod until Bero, who has been alone for years, found her.

Posted by Jane J on Mar 22, 2022

High school is a killer

Cover of Cold
A review of Cold by Mariko Tamaki

Seriously. In this young adult novel, high school is the worst. Todd Mayer has died and no one at his school will answer any questions or admit to knowing him when the police investigate. Things are not right, that's for sure. Georgia's brother goes to school with Todd and is in the same grade, even, and won't acknowledge that he knows Todd. So what's up?

Posted by Molly W on Mar 21, 2022

Complicated legacy

Cover of The Last Slave Ship: The T
A review of The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning by Ben Raines

Though slavery ended in 1865, the importation of Africans as slaves was outlawed nearly fifty years earlier in 1808 with an act of Congress banning the practice. The truth, like most everything in history regarding race, is far from black and white. Environmental journalist and Alabama waterman Ben Raines sheds light on just how the ghosts of the slave trade, long thought well-buried, exist surprisingly close to the surface both literally and figuratively in The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning.

Posted by Katie H on Mar 16, 2022

An impossible crime?

Cover of Under Lock & Skeleton Key
A review of Under Lock & Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian

Tempest Raj has returned to her childhood home after a stunt in her Las Vegas magic show went dangerously (almost fatally) awry. Not only has she lost her successful show, but she's still facing legal issues related to the accident, an accident she knows is not her fault. Now home she has to figure out her next steps and while she's lying low licking her wounds, her dad asks her to take a job with his Secret Staircase Construction company. Her first act to help her dad is to examine a house that's being renovated.

Posted by Jane J on Mar 14, 2022

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