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Marie, a tabby cat, mixed with Persian and Maine Coon, begins life inside a cardboard box which she shares with her parents and siblings. Though she likes Mrs. Woodward, her human owner, Marie's penchant for making mischief often lands in her trouble, and before long, it sends her on the path through a whole host of different exciting lives. Because of her strong sense of curiosity, Marie finds herself in the company of a mail carrier, an airplane pilot, a store owner, an elderly society woman, a pet modeling agent, a frat boy, a con man, and finally, a family with children.

This book is formatted like an early chapter book, but its vocabulary and sentence structure are too sophisticated for new readers, causing me to categorize it as middle grade. The story itself is short and sweet, following mischievous Marie from one life to the next in a very breezy and readable tone. There isn't much dialogue, since cats don't speak, and the omniscient narrator doesn't really delve too deeply into Marie's thoughts or the thoughts of her various human companions. This creates some distance between the reader and the characters, which bothered me at a few points, but mostly was not a problem. In fact, I liked the straightforward storytelling style. It reminded me of the tone used in fairy tales and folk tales, where the narrator's telling of  the story is as important as the story itself.

There were a few minor editing issues - mainly misplaced or unnecessary punctuation - which always pull me out of a story, because those kinds of mistakes are huge pet peeves for me, but I did my best to put those aside and tried to focus more on the content of the book. In that respect, I think the absence of characters who are children could be problematic, since kids like to see themselves in books. Some of the adult characters make fine stand-ins for a child in the same way that Cynthia Rylant's Mr. Putter or Peggy Rathmann's Officer Buckle stand in for kids in their books, but others - namely the frat boy and the con man - may be too far removed from a child's experiences to be fully understood by the book's intended audience. I also really wished for more illustrations. The ones that are included suit the story perfectly, but they seemed sort of randomly placed, and were really few and far between.

All of that said, though, for the most part, I really enjoyed the book. I think it would make a great gift for cat lovers of any age, and it also provides an interesting jumping off point for readers to imagine their own sets of lives for their own pets. I'd recommend Marie's 9 Lives especially to kids who like the Puppy Place and Vet Volunteers series, and to fans of Beverly Cleary's 1973 novel, Socks.

I received a finished copy of this book from the author.

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This chapter book series by Lara Bergen is about third grader Sophie Miller, who, back in the first book, Sophie the Awesome, decides that she is boring and needs to make a name for herself. In books two through five, Sophie tried on identities - Sophie the Hero, Sophie the Chatterbox, Sophie the Zillionaire, and Sophie the Snoop. In this, the sixth book, she has become Sophie the Daredevil. Her daredevil motto is "There's not a dare that I won't do," and she takes it very seriously. In the cafeteria, she eats the most disgusting concoctions her classmates can dream up. She bravely sneaks into the boy's bathroom, even when she runs into an actual boy on the way in. She even tries diving off the high dive at her friend Mia's pool party. Sophie feels pretty good about her daring deeds, but not everyone feels the same way. Kate, her levelheaded best friend, second guesses some of Sophie's ideas, and Mindy, a snobby girl in the class, raises the stakes just a bit too high, giving Sophie a dare that will actually hurt someone's feelings. When Sophie accepts it, she must also accept the negative consequences that come along with it.

Though there is obviously a formula to this series, it works really well and offers a lot of possibilities. Sophie's search for a comfortable identity is a struggle all of us - children and adults - can relate to and appreciate. And her need to impress her peers and to maintain her daredevil identity also rang really true for me. I also really loved the interplay between and among Sophie's classmates. Bergen has perfectly captured the way boys and girls relate to one another in third grade, and she also has a real feel for what kinds of dares would be popular among kids of that age group. The taboo of going into the opposite sex's bathroom was an especially great detail to explore, and definitely the kind of mystery kids love to speculate about.

This book is funny, fast-paced, contemporary, and true to life. Readers will enjoy living vicariously through Sophie's outlandish and daring behavior, and they'll also take away an important lesson about doing the right thing, even when it's hard, and making amends for big mistakes, even when it means having to humble yourself and apologize to the people you've hurt. This book was published on July 1, 2011. Look for the next Sophie book, Sophie the Sweetheart (in which it appears she will play matchmaker for her teacher!) on November 1, 2011. 

I received a finished copy of Sophie the Daredevil from the author.

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Codename: Dancer is set at a performing arts boarding school, where Daniela "Dani" Spevak has just enrolled in the dance program. Though she is new to the school and somewhat self-conscious, she is thrilled to be cast in the reality TV show, Teen Celebrity Dance Off, which will film on campus during the semester. She is even more excited when she learns her partner will be heartthrob Nick Galliano. Excitement aside, though, the show is plagued from the outset by strange and dangerous mishaps. Bomb threats, arson, attempted poisoning - it seems like someone is maliciously targeting Dani, but she has no idea who, or why. She and her friends are determined to find out, though, before Dani is seriously injured - or worse.

I really like the concept for this book. I am not usually a fan of books about dancing, with the possible exception of Ballet Shoes, but the combination of dance and crime-fighting is really appealing, and brought a new, interesting layer to the mystery genre. The story reminded me a lot of Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls books, both in style and substance. Brice and Carter both have very breezy, easy-to-read writing styles, as well as a strong flair for combining suspense and romance. The reality show thread of the story also made it feel fresh and contemporary, as did the many teen-friendly pop culture references.

There were a few very minor editing issues I picked up on throughout the book, which occasionally caused me to stumble over a sentence or passage, but didn't really take away from my enjoyment of the story. I also wondered if maybe the eating disorder aspect of the story was tied up too neatly. I think it's great that Dani took ownership of it and took steps to help correct the problem, but it seemed way too easy, possibly sending the message that anorexic urges can be turned on and off at will. The Big Reveal of Dani's roommate's secret reason for disliking dancers also felt rushed, and came out of nowhere for me. I liked that it was such a surprise, but I wanted it to be better developed.

The ending of the story is quite satisfying, though, and the saboteur and that person's motive were definitely unexpected and unique. This is the perfect type of book to recommend to young teens, or even tweens, who want some mystery and romance, but without much violence or sex. It will also appeal to fans of Dancing With the Stars, aspiring dancers, budding actors, and aspiring detectives.

Learn more about Amanda Brice on her website, and watch for the second Dani Spevak mystery, Pointe of No Return, to be released this November. 


I received Codename: Dancer in ebook format from the author.

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Almost everyone in the sixth grade at John Jay Jr. High School has received a ticket. Most kids have received a "hot ticket" - an orange rectangle made of cardboard -  as a reward for doing something cool. Some kids have also received "shame tickets," as reminders of their most embarrassing moments. Even dorky Crammit Gibson has a few tickets to his name.  But Juliet Robinson is the only one who hasn't received any tickets at all, and she's sick of it! Obsessed with the idea of the tickets, she becomes determined to find out who the ticket dispenser is - no matter what it takes. But Juliet's pursuit of this mystery has a definite cost. It puts a strain on her relationship with her best friend Lucy, complicates her blooming crush on Crammit, and interferes with her day-to-day life at school.

There were a lot of positive qualities to this book. Juliet's voice was probably the strongest aspect of the story, because of its realism, humor, and honesty. She came across as an authentic middle schooler, and her obsession with the tickets mirrored the social concerns tween girls deal with every day. I also think the concept of the tickets is a stroke of genius. There have been a lot of stories about popularity written for this age group, but the idea of an actual ticketing system is a clever - and cruel - way to highlight who is hot and who is not. The ticketing system gave the author a lot of interesting scenarios to play with, and brought new life to an often overused topic. I also thought the mystery was plotted quite well - I had trouble figuring out who the dispenser was, and I was impressed with the author's use of suspense, which kept me guessing right up until the big reveal.

The story could have used some stronger editing in some places. I don't recall seeing any spelling or grammar errors or anything like that, but there was an overall feeling that the book was not fully polished. Some parts seemed to drag and lost their cleverness and creativity. Other parts just lacked explanation. I was at least halfway through the book before I felt like I had a handle on what the tickets actually were, which was a problem since they figured so significantly into the plot. I would have benefited from a straightforward description of the ticketing system early on in the story that established for the reader what is common knowledge for all the students in the story.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Hot Ticket when the author first offered it as a free download on Smashwords, but I'm glad I took the time to download and read it. My enjoyment of the book far outweighed its flaws. In fact, it reminded me of several other novels and series about middle school that I have read, including the How I Survived Middle School series, the Snob Squad trilogy, The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman by Ben H. Winters and Nerd Girls by Alan Lawrence Sitomer. Juliet's interest in Crammit also reminded me of Sonya Sones's novel in verse, What My Mother Doesn't Know. Part of me is disappointed that this book wasn't edited and published by a traditional publishing house, but there is also a significant part of me that likes the idea of people writing, editing, publishing and marketing their own books. Certainly this book did not fit the

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The Greedy Sparrow is a retelling of a folk tale from Armenia which the author, Lucine Kasbarian, learned from her father. The story begins with a sparrow who has a thorn stuck in his foot. A woman baking bread removes the thorn for him, and the bird goes on his way. Later, though, he returns, demanding the thorn, and when he learns that the woman disposed of it, he demands something else in exchange. As the story progresses, the sparrow makes more and more demands on more and more strangers, always demanding something in exchange for an item that isn't really his to begin with. In the end, his greed gets the better of him and he ends the story no better off than when he began.

I really loved this book. The story, whose moral is, essentially, "what goes around comes around" or perhaps "you reap what you sow" has a unique flair, and there aren't many other folk tales or fables that it reminded me of. I loved that the story mentioned specific locations, such as Mount Ararat, because it grounds the tale in the culture from which it came, and provides opportunities for children to learn about a new country as they read. The illustrations, which absolutely consume every inch of white space, are beautiful, and I loved seeing the Armenian style of dress represented on each page. The sheep in this book also have wonderful facial expressions, which gave them unexpected personality.

According to a note on the copyright page inside the book, the art for this book was created with wax and oil paint, and layers were literally cut away to reveal the colors underneath the wax. Knowing this gave me a new appreciation for the illustrations, where you can actually see the strokes the artist made as she worked on each page. It's just so appealing to look at, and even the smallest details, which must have been the most difficult, appear flawless.

This book is simple enough, certainly, to be shared with preschoolers, but would also work well for an elementary school unit about folk tales or Armenian culture. I really hope my library system will purchase a copy so that I can share it at story time and beyond.

Visit Lucine Kasbarian online at lucinekasbarian.com.

Other bloggers' reviews of this book are listed below:

Jen Robinson's Book Page
Picture Book of the Day
Fuse #8
Saffron Tree

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