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The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry

11/17/2016

In 13th century France, Dolssa is a girl to whom God speaks. Condemned by the church as a heretic, Dolssa is sentenced to death, but she escapes right before she is to be executed.
Botille is a sassy teenage matchmaker who runs a tavern with her sisters and tries to eke out a living in her poor, rural fishing village.
When Botille finds Dolssa hunted and on the run and close to death, her decision to help Dolssa puts not only Botille and her two sisters but also Botille's entire village in enormous danger.

I wasn't sure what to expect with from this book, but I love, love, loved this story of courage, miracles, grit, and sisterhood. Berry recreates life in the 1200s in such vivid and meticulous detail that you'll feel the sea breeze and smell the bean stew. Just give it a try!

Grades 7-12

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Court of Fives by Kate Elliot

11/7/2016

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Jessamy is the daughter of a Commoner mother and a Patron father, a commander whose status is dependent on his rank in the army. Jes and her sisters are mixed-race and are looked down on in her world, so they must be very careful in everything they do
When disaster strikes and threatens to tear her family apart, Jes takes the opportunity to compete in the Fives, a complex athletic competition for which she has secretly been training for years.
Jes hopes that the Fives will give her the chance to protect her mother and sisters, save her father’s reputation, and perhaps bring herself a little glory.

The author describes her book as "Little Women meets American Ninja Warrior in a setting inspired by Greco-Roman Egypt" while her publisher has pitched it as "Little Women meets Game of Thrones meets The Hunger Games" -- but I would just say it's a great adventure fantasy story set in a unique world.

Grades 7-12
Book 1 of Court of Fives Series

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Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

11/7/2016

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Seventeen-year-old Greg Gaines likes making movies with his sort-of-friend Earl and tries to get through high school by having access to all the social groups but by not belonging to any one clique, which in his own words means he keeps "an insanely low profile."
Keeping a low profile becomes tricky when Greg's mom asks him to befriend a girl, Rachel, who he has some embarrassing history with and who now has cancer.
What ensues is Greg (and sometimes Earl) doing their best to cheer up Rachel without punching themselves in the face too many times.

Imagine The Fault in Our Stars with a lot less romance and way more boy humor, movie-making, and inter-racial friendship. The narrator, Greg, says this book "contains precisely zero Important Life Lessons, or Little-Known Facts About Love, or sappy tear-jerking Moments When We Knew We Had Left Our Childhood Behind for Good, or whatever," but it will make you laugh a lot more than it will make you cry (and I do mean a lot).

Grades 9-12

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book reviews

The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry

Court of Fives by Kate Elliot

Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

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