The Raft

by S.A. Bodeen

Robie's parents are researchers on Midway Island, which is a small (think 2.4 miles!) island about 90 miles from Honolulu. It's beautiful there, but can be boring and lonely for a 15 year old, so Robie goes to visit her aunt in Honolulu for some city life. When her aunt is called out of town unexpectedly, she thinks she's got a week to herself, but soon realizes she might be a little young to be in the city alone. She jumps on the three-seater charter flight, the only way to get back to Midway, but a storm causes her plane to crash into the Pacific. She doesn't know the co-pilot, but he saves her, and is her only companion on the raft, although he drifts in and out of conciousness. This is a good old fashioned survival story. Robie has to find food, dodge sharks, and pray for rain. As the tension mounts, and you get closer to the end, a creative twist might make you see Robie differently, and will definitely break your heart.

I read this in one sitting. On an airplane... Really!

Wonder Show

by Hannah Barnaby

When Portia's mom dies, it doesn't take long for her dad to decide she's too much for him, and he leaves her with an aunt. He promises, of course, that he'll return, but never does, and her aunt eventually abandons her too, sending her to live at the McGreavy Home for Wayward Girls. The place is grim and depressing, and Mister, the evil man who runs the home, makes it unbearable. After one particularly tragic event, Portia follows a traveling circus out of town, and lands a job as a cook. She gets to know the "freaks" from the carnival, including a giant, (whose friend the midget almost always rides on his shoulders), conjoined twins, and Violet, a young girl who is the only non-albino in her family. Portia is hoping, as they travel from town to town, to someday find her father. Her journey is peppered with the stories of the carnival and circus workers and performers, and each tale provides a fascinating glimpse into this weird and mysterious world of the past.

I find circuses really interesting, and especially love stories about the 1920's traveling shows. Barnaby reveals in the book that after around the mid-1930's, the traveling show changed immensely. People started to understand that the "freaks" they were paying to see were simply normal people with unusual medical conditions. They began to feel guilty about gawking at these unfortunate individuals, so the show became something different. What a very unique time in history this novel explores! This book wraps you up--you can almost feel the Dust Bowl wind blowing around you as you read. A remarkable read, especially for a first novel.

Scrivener's Moon

By Philip Reeve

Picking up where A Web of Air left off, this third and final installment in the Fever Crumb series won't disappoint Reeve's many fans. Fever returns to London, but the city is now unrecognizable. The new, moveable London is almost ready, thanks in part to Wavey, Fever's mother and chief engineer. The nomad tribes of the north are threatened by this new moving city, and plan to attack. Meanwhile, Wavey hears of a black pyramid in the northlands that might contatin useful information about the past. The two are inevitably drawn north, where tragedy strikes, leaving Fever to make some tough decisions and choose alliances she never thought possible. She also meets Cluny Morvish, a member of one of the nomadic warrior tribes, and travels with her. Fever's friendship with Cluny changes her perspective on many things. Beautifully complex language and a fully realized, highly creative future world will draw in readers, although those unfamiliar with the other books in the series will struggle with characters and concepts. Fever's journey concludes with satisfying answers to long-standing questions about the basis for her society, and her own heritage. For true fans of steampunk and science fiction, it doesn't get much better.