BORN BLUE by Han Nolan. 2001. 288 pp. 0-15-201916-2 (Harcourt Children's Books) $17.00. Janie/Leshaya is born addicted to heroin, neglected in her foster home,
and later sold to her mother's drug dealer-and she's a powerful blues singer before she's even a teenager. This is a rough and wonderful read.
ESPERANZA RISING by Pam Muņoz Ryan. 2000. 208 pp. 0-439-12041-1 (Scholastic
Press) $15.95. Inspired by the experience of the author's grandmother, this story follows a young girl's turn of fortune from a life of privilege in Mexico to one of poverty and hardship as a migrant worker in California.
Esperanza's pluck and determination make her a winning character.
HEAVEN EYES by David Almond. 2001. 240 pp. 0-385-32770-6 (Delacorte Press/Knopf Delacorte Dell Young Readers Group) $15.95. Unhappy with their life at the
orphanage, three friends escape on a raft floating through a world of abandoned warehouses and factories. There they encounter an unusual girl who will forever touch their lives.
THE HOSTILE HOSPITAL (A Series of
Unfortunate Events #8) by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Brett Helquist. 2001. 272 pp. 0-06-440866-3 (HarperCollins Children's Books) $9.95. How can you not pick up a book whose author tells you, "If you have any sense at
all you will shut this book immediately, drag it up a tall mountain, and throw it off the very top." Author Snicket (a.k.a. Daniel Handler) is never shy about proclaiming that his are some of the "most dreadful books
in the world." That being said, dive right in for your share of hilarious perils and outrageous author intervention in a world so completely evil that we can only rejoice in our good fortune to be outside looking in.
THE LAND by Mildred Taylor. 2001. 392 pp. 0-8037-1950-7 (Phyllis Fogelman Books/Dial Books for Young Readers) $17.99. In this story, loosely based on the author's family history, readers are introduced to Paul-Edward Logan,
the acknowledged son of a white plantation owner and his black slave. It is Logan's passion to own land in Mississippi and to pass this legacy on to his descendants that is at the heart of his life. How he accomplishes this
dream and discovers his own inner strengths makes an extraordinary story. Readers who have come to know the Logan family in the award-winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry will not want to miss this prequel in the saga.
THE MOUSE AND HIS CHILD by Russell Hoban, illustrated by David Small. 2001. 256 pp. 0-439-09826-2 (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic Press) $16.95. This classic tale about the journey of two clockwork mice through a dark and
frightening landscape to an eventual, hard-won home has been reillustrated in striking charcoal and ink wash by Caldecott Medal-winning artist David Small, to splendid effect.
THE RAG AND BONE SHOP by Robert Cormier.
2001. 144 pp. 0-385-72962-6 (Delacorte Press/Knopf Delacorte Dell Young Readers Group) $15.95. Dark, disturbing, and powerful, you cannot read this book without wanting to talk to someone about it. It's a fitting final work in
Cormier's long and distinguished career.
SEEK by Paul Fleischman. 2001. 176 pp. 0-8126-4900-1 (Marcato/Cricket Books) $16.95. Newbery Medal-winner Paul Fleischman is known for his innovative prose and poetry for multiple
voices. This novel unfolds in a collage of dialogue and sounds, telling the story of a boy's search for his absent father who, last he knew, was working as a radio disc jockey. The cast of characters is varied and memorable,
the story absorbing and moving.
THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS by Ann Brashares. 2001. 304 pp. 0-385-72933-2 (Delacorte Press/Knopf Delacorte Dell Young Readers Group) $14.95. We all had that one pair of favorite
jeans growing up! Four friends embark on a journey of self-discovery when they decide to share an old pair of worn jeans from a thrift shop. Thus is formed the sisterhood of the traveling pants...
WHALE TALK by Chris
Crutcher. 2001. 224 pp. 0-688-18019-1 (Greenwillow Books) $15.95. What adult wants to relive adolescence? One who can do so through the lens held up by the perceptive and very funny Chris Crutcher. Here he tells the story of a
swim team of "misfits" who take on the narrow-minded culture of their high school, tapping reserves in themselves they didn't know they had.
ZAZOO by Richard Mosher. 2001. 224 pp. 0-618-13534-0 (Clarion Books)
$16.00. Born in Vietnam and raised by her Grand-Pierre in France, fourteen-year-old Zazoo finally determines to untangle the tragic events that affected her past and the pasts of those around her. What results is a story of
love and devotion for all ages and generations.