ON THE OTHER SIDE

This week I switched over to the world of science fiction and fantasy. First, I read 100 Cupboards by N. D. Wilson. This was a weird and frightening book since it starts off in a boy's bedroom. Henry goes to stay with his Aunt Dotty, Uncle Frank, and their three girls. He has a room in the attic where he starts to hear bumps in the wall. As he peels away the plaster he finds a wall covered with cupboards -- big one, small ones, light ones, dark ones. Henry and his cousin Henrietta begin to explore the cupboards and learn how to get through them to different worlds. Unfortunately something dark comes through to Henry's side. The whole family battles the dark force in an exciting battle. This book is quite a change from Wilson's other book Leepike Ridge, a straight adventure story that I really liked.

Next I went to a future world in XVI by Julia Karr. In this story teens look forward to their sixteenth birthday when they are considered adults, all except Nina who doesn't like the choices facing her. In addition her mother is killed and the father she thought was dead may be alive and in hiding. With her life in turmoil Nina becomes part of the rebellion against the oppressive government forces everyone to live in certain social/economic groups with little hope of moving up into a better group. This is a strange and frightening look at what could become our future. Both of the above books will be new to the collection in the fall.

Finally I came across a book at my public library with the title Alcatraz verses the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson that I couldn't resist. In this hilarious scifi/fantasy, the orphan Alcatraz who has been bounced from foster home to foster home learns that he is a member of a superpowerful family that fights the lies and ambitions of the Librarians who secretly ruled the world we know. If that wasn't enough, Alcatraz's superpower is the ability to break things and his grandfather's power is to arrive later. Not your usual super powers! With that much of a teaser, I was hooked. And I chuckled through the entire book. This series will be on my first book order of the new school year.