"Not for every reader, but richly rewarding for those caught in its spell. (Fantasy. YA)"
A gorgeous fantasy by a veteran maker of worlds who offers her own version of the events surrounding the Irish legend of The Children of Lir.
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"Susceptible readers will come to admire both of these young women, and be swept along on their emotional currents. (Fiction. 11-13)"
In a multi-stranded sequel to A Sea So Far (2001), Kate Keely returns to San Francisco two years after the Great Earthquake, determined to build a new and independent life in a male-dominated society.
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"Ably done, but without the spark of The Other Ones (1999). (Fiction. 11-13)"
Thesman (Sea So Far, 2001, etc.) proposes an inglorious take on human origins in this tale of a teenager caught between an array of magical creatures protecting one of the last "Darkwoods" on earth, and Hunters bent on destroying it.
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The lives of two teenage girls, each seeking a connection with her dead mother, intertwine as they recover from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
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"A great read, sure to appeal to middle-school readers. (Fiction. 10-12)"
Fourteen-year-old Emily Shepherd's life has just gotten better: she and her family have moved away from the school where Emily was ostracized for a facial scar sustained many years ago.
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"It's a step back for Thesman (The Storyteller's Daughter, 1997, etc.), who shows better skills and a surer hand with character in all her previous novels. (Fiction. 11-13)"
A contrived romance/mystery with an anticlimactic ending and exaggerated, two-dimensional characters.
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"Above all, Quinn's story puts a human face a time most readers only know by its namethe Depression. (Fiction 10-14)"
In a compelling novel, Thesman (The Ornament Tree, 1996, etc.) combines a tale rich in family ties and homey comforts with history that is unsettling and unpleasant.
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Thesman (Nothing Grows Here, 1994, etc.) paints a convincing picture of a young girl running scared from a life that has suddenly turned chaotic.
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"310, etc.) novel is loosely structured and a little too open-ended, but it is a poignant story that easily transcends these slight deficiencies. (Fiction. 9+)"
Seventh-grade narrator Maryanne Russell moves into the Aristocrat Arms, a rundown apartment building in a dubious neighborhood in Seattle.
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"Teen readers will find the achievement of this last particularly satisfying, and are sure to enjoy the atmospheric mix of ghost story, mystery, romance, and contemporary problem solving. (Fiction. 11-15)"
Once again, Thesman (Rachel Chance, 1990, etc.) tells a story so engrossing that readers will be glad to suspend the disbelief she always seems to arouse in the logically minded.
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"Not bad, but far from this storyteller's compelling best. (Fiction. 12-16)"
The author of several well-plotted if melodramatic novels (The Rain Catchers, 1991) uses the straightforward narration of a young Irish-American as a framework for depicting the WW II years in Seattle.
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Keller Parrish, chronically lonely because her embarrassing asthma attacks have made her painfully shy, gets to know a mysterious young man who has saved her from drowning.
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