This exciting account of President Lincoln's assassination and the 12-day search for his killer reads like a historical thriller. The dialogue all comes from original sources, which adds a chill to the already disturbing conspiracy! The book takes the reader on a journey, almost hour by hour, following the brutal murder scene at Ford’s Theatre. While the President lay dying, John Wilkes Booth’s accomplices attempted to assassinate Secretary of State William H. Seward, and Booth had to convince or trick friends and strangers into helping him escape. The text is accompanied by abundant period photos of the key players in the conspiracy and historical documents. This is the young adult version of Swanson’s bestselling Manhunt.

*Note that the Waupaca Area Public Library will be hosting a traveling Lincoln Exhibit August 16-September 24 and is one of only 25 sites nationwide to host this traveling exhibit! Stay tuned for more details about events including a Lincoln impersonator!

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Montmorency is the story of a thief who falls through a glass roof and hovers on the brink of death. A brilliant young doctor convinces the prison warden in charge to let him saves the thief’s life. The doctor takes the thief to lectures to display the miraculous recovery of Prisoner 493. After completing his term in prison, and with an exclusive knowledge of Victorian London’s new sewer system gained by listening to the various lectures he attended with the doctor, 493 becomes the most successful and elusive thief in London—a man he calls Scarper. In order to keep his identity a secret, he has also become a man named Montmorency, who is a respectable, wealthy gentleman. By maintaining the dual identities, he has a successful career as a thief, but Montmorency starts to prefer the honest life. And one tiny mistake could betray his whole existence! Will he decide to quit being Scarper the thief, or will he continue to live as two different people? And can he keep it a secret?

Don’t miss the exciting sequels:
Montmorency on the Rocks
Montmorency and the Assassins
Montmorency’s Revenge

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On a trip to the art museum with his dad, Max McDaniels discovers a magical Celtic tapestry showing the mythic Cattle Raid of Cooley, in a secret room at the museum. His discovery doesn’t go unnoticed, as he is soon after contacted by the Rowan Academy, a secret school for Potentials. A Potential is a student who displays special aptitude or skills in aspects of magic. After being invited to attend Rowan and surviving the perilous journey there, Max discovers that there’s more to being a Potential than just learning some fancy tricks. He soon learns that Rowan Academy trains the Potentials to become Agents who work against the Enemy. Finding himself firmly embroiled in a centuries old battle between good and evil, Max must learn to use his skills much sooner than a Potential normally would. His life depends on it.

I felt this book was a combination of the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, and the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. There’s Celtic mythology, a boy with special magical powers, only one parent is present, there are magical creatures, and a magical school building. The disappointing factor is that the writing didn’t measure up to the quality of Rowling or Riordan. Max is a fantastic character, well developed and complex, but the supporting cast wasn’t given compelling histories of their own. They seem to purely exist to move the story along. In many ways they are interchangeable. I wonder if this is fixed in the second book of the series, The Second Siege. And maybe it is unfair to make the comparisons between Riordan, Rowling, and Neff, but with so many similarities, it’s hard not to do so.

Overall it was a good book to read, and I liked it a lot. I would recommend it.

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While on a camping trip one night nine-year-old Eli, his billionaire father, and his family are alerted of a pending nuclear attack, and rush to the safety of an underground compound that Eli’s father has built to house the family in case of nuclear war. Only after the door is sealed, Eli realizes that his Gram and his twin brother Eddy didn’t make it into the compound. And Dad won’t open the door. Heartbroken, Eli finds that Dad has created a world very similar to their life above ground. There’s a gym, a library, a media room with more CDs and DVDs than Eli could ever watch or listen to in fifteen years. And fifteen years is the amount of time they need to spend in the compound to outlast the nuclear fallout. Six years pass, and in spite of Dad’s planning for every contingency, the family’s situation has become dismal. Eli has created a routine for himself that involves as little contact with his family as possible. He can’t bear to think about his brother Eddy, and distances himself as much as he can. The family’s food supplies have started to dwindle and the livestock that was supposed to sustain them has died. Dad has a plan involving something called “The Supplements,” but Eli is sure that he wants nothing to do with it. One day, Dad gives Eli a CD with a faulty label. As Eli peels it away, he sees that it was recorded only a few weeks ago. But if that’s true, how did his Dad get it? And what is happening in the outside world? Was there really a nuclear threat, or is the family captive for another reason?

The writing in the book is very action driven. In some sections there doesn’t seem to be enough words on the page to fully describe what is happening. I had to reread sections just to make sure I understood at least part of what was going on in the scene. In that sense, I don’t think the writing was very well done. However, the plot really was interesting, and I was impatient to know what was going to happen next. Another criticism I have is that there were a few characters that would be more believable if the author had given them some flaws. Eddy, the twin left behind, was described as being the “good” brother. In all the memories that include Eddy, the reader never sees him doing anything remotely bad. He’s always the hero. I didn’t feel that this was very realistic. Also, Eddy and Eli are supposed to be twins, but I really felt the way their relationship was described, Eddy seemed much older than Eli. I thought that the character of the older sister Lexie was very well done. She was written as a very complete character. She had mean qualities, and a rough relationship with Eli, but she was smart and knew where her loyalties needed to be even if it meant she was in some danger.

I didn’t love this book, but the plot was so intense and unique that I rushed to finish it. I would recommend it.