Reviews written by Karen Yingling, Staff Reviewer

Lina Gao has been raised by her grandmother (Lao Lao) in China while her parents establish their life in Southern California. It's hard to leave, but she's glad to finally be together with her family, including younger sister Millie. It's even harder to know that Lao Lao is now...

Fifteen-year-old Marjan is struggling after her Iranian American father's murder, but knows she has to somehow manage to continue to go to school, keep her father's veterinary practice going, and take care of herself with the occasional help of her next door neighbor and guardian. When she gets a strange...

Ash and Willow's family are on a long car trip, and as evening falls, they are caught in a dense fog. They pull over for a bit, and Ash walks their dog, Daisy. He thinks he sees a wolf off in the forest, and feels an odd...

It's World War II, and our heroes are fighting the Nazis in Lateria. Steve Rogers was a 98 pound weakling having sand kicked in his face before he participated in an Army program that treated him with Vita-Rays and Super Soldier Serum and became Captain America. Bucky Barnes, his sidekick,...

Brightling Middle School is a bustling place with lots going on. Oliver and his friend Nathan are always deeply involved in perpetrating pranks. Principal Candiotti hopes that the girls' field hockey team will someday have the same kind of winning season her own Brightling team did in the 1980s. Rosalie...

When Mo's grandmother, Nan, passes away, there is no one to take care of her. Her father was never in the picture, her mother passed away when she was younger, and her Uncle Billy is in the military and is not willing to give up his career and livelihood...

David was born in the early 2000s in Andorra. His right arm was not fully formed, ending with truncated digits at elbow level. The family later found out this was Poland syndrome, which also affected his chest muscles. His parents and grandparents were glad that he was healthy, and vowed...

Grayson, Leo, Jayla and Ace all meet at school in the B.E.S.T. program in Ace Takes Flight. There's even more intrigue now! Grayson wakes up with a new body aug (body augmentation-- the augmentations are widespread but somewhat contentious technology) but he's at the bottom of the ocean. The...

MahDi lives with MomDoc and helps "supervise" her veterinary practice, consulting with the dogs who are being taken care of. He also goes with her to the local dog shelter to help the rescues there feel more comfortable, and he and MomDoc do a lot of "matchmaking". The shelter is...

Like Atinuke's Anna Hibiscus, Tola lives in Nigeria. Unlike Anna, Tola lives in an apartment in Lagos with her Grandmommy and two older siblings, Moji and Dapo. While her grandmother sells roasted groundnuts on the street, the family has enough money to send the children to school. Moji studies hard...

Anna Hibiscus is back with further adventures in her home in lovely Africa, in Nigeria. It is now the hot season, and the big white house in the middle of a garden is as dry and sizzling as the city around it. Harmattan is a season distinguished by no...

In this sequel to Anna Hibiscus, Anna continues her adventures. This is a collection of four short stories that all start out with the same introduction to our main character: "Anna Hibiscus lives in Africa. Amazing Africa. In a country called Nigeria." She has a variety of adventures, many...

Rica (short for Fredrica) wants a pet more than anything, but her parents have delivered to her, in writing, no less, a list of reasons why she CAN'T have a pet. She and her best friend, Laini, go over the list and try to find ways around their objections. The...

Freddie Parrott III lives a comfortable, if not sumptuous, life. He has his own apartment as well as a butler, Peccary (who is indeed one of these small, hoofed mammals similar to a pig), who indulges all of his foibles. In four short stories, we see how Freddie spends his...

A little girl and her dog start to notice how many squirrels there are as they are outside in the yard. Armed with a notebook, the girl starts to count the squirrels and notice where they like to hang out, while her dog delights in chasing them. They venture to...