River Readers

Arram is sent to mage school where he outperforms his classmates and quickly advances in his studies. He develops a strong distaste for the way slaves are treated. Even if the stakes aren't high, I enjoyed this read. This is the first in a series of 3 books.

After graduating from Smith College Luma Mufley eventually found herself in the town of Clarkston (just outside Atlanta), where many refugee families had been settled. She decides to organize the refugee boys into soccer teams paired with after-school lessons. You see the prejudice they encounter, (including the major refusing to let them use the city park to practice soccer) and see the long journey these families endured to get here.
Eye-opening, and unlike many sports books, not all teams win in the end.

When highborn entitled royalty are summarily dismissed from the PennyRoyal Academy with no thoughts to unruffling their feathers, you might be generating enemies. Book 2 of this series.

Girls and boys train at the Pennyroyal Academy to become heroines and heroes or princesses and knights.
A nice read.

I was looking to download some audio on astronomy and stumbled across this title. Only when the audio ended much sooner than I expected, did I realize this was a kid's book. It provides a good history of how the planets were discovered and a very clear explanation of why Pluto doesn't fit in as a planet.

Mae was surprised that her younger brother Jamie has magic. Once again she calls on Alan and Nick's help, as Jamie is being recruited to join the evil magicians. She is also dating Sebastian whom she finds out was picking on Jamie.
The humorous banter Jamie, Nick, and Mae really had me laughing. Having read the previous book in this series had me anticipating something tricky from Alan.

Nick and his older brother Alan are constantly moving from place to place, trying to evade the evil magicians and their demons from killing them as their father was killed trying to protect them. Then 2 sibling come asking for helping in removing a third tier demon mark from the brother's leg.
I really enjoyed the unfolding story and some clever banter.

Daughter of a soft-hearted money-lender, Miryem watches her family go hungry, cold, and turn sick, because her father doesn't like to press people. Even though she can see that the townspeople are better off and do have money to splurge on festivities and extras. As the winter's grow longer and colder, and her mother fails to recover from illness, Miryem goes out to collect money and doesn't take no for an answer.

The hideous looking loaner glasses that Callie gets until her frames come in, lets her read people's minds. She is surprised to learn how other people perceive her.

Poppy is the mean girl, Wink the odd loner girl, and Midnight the teen boy who used to adore Poppy, even though she treated him like dirt, and now wants to disentangle himself from her, perhaps Wink will help him in this endeavor. I did Not care for this story. It has been compared to We Were Liars, which I've read and liked much better than this story.

Virginia Tacci is an orphan working as a shepherdess by her kindhearted uncle and begrudging aunt in Sienna in the late 1500's. Her Padrino (godfather) raises horses and Virginia Tacci would like nothing better than to ride horses and race in the Palio, the Palio being the Sienese Palio, a horse race through the streets of the city with blind curves, shaded stretches leading into bright drops. Women are Not supposed to ride astride, rather they are supposed to ride side-saddle. However, Virginia witnesses Isabella de Medici ride astride and brave scary jumps on horseback.

Fincham-Gray writes about growing up with the dream to become a veterinarian. In pursuit of her training she moves from Britain to the US. You experience what it is like to be a vet. You see lots of animals when they are critically ill or injured. You see the owners struggle with monetary issues. Often you don't know what happens to your patients if they aren't brought back in for follow-up care. And sometimes you have to euthanize your patients. I know some people have said they couldn't become vets because of euthanizations.

This title was even better than the first in the series. Johnny has left the high school where he was trapped as a ghost, and it seems that he and Maggie are headed toward real love. Unfortunately, Johnny has no memories from the 50 years he spent as a ghost, including knowing anything about Maggie. He is angry and confused at all the changes that have happened in the last 50 years as well as seeing his high school chums listed in a memorial for Vietnam soldiers.

Jenna Fox was in a horrific automobile accident and Not expected to survive. She wakes up from a coma and remembers almost nothing. They have videotapes from every year of her childhood for her to view and attempt to remember. Though her parents adore her their is something they are keeping secret from her. Things just don't add up.
This book examines what it means to be human and to be mortal.

Teenager Maggie has survived various foster homes by pouring herself into her dancing. She's grateful to be living with her great-aunt, and working with the janitorial staff at her high school to earn some money - and occasionally dance a little. However, her mundane life is interrupted when she sees the ghost of a "bad boy" who died 50 years ago. She has seen ghosts before, but not on a regular basis. And she falls for Johnny. He is reluctant to get involved with her as he cannot offer her a regular life, he can't move beyond the school walls, and only she can see him.