Angela Leeper

It wasn’t terrorist attacks but a war between humans and faeries that left the Earth destroyed 20 years ago. In the post-apocalyptic Bones of Faerie, Janni Lee Simner’s first young-adult novel, 15-year-old Liza has been taught by her xenophobic father that magic leads to death. When her baby sister is born with pale, almost translucent hair, a sure faerie sign, and left to die; her mother disappears; and she begins to see disturbing visions of the War and her mother, Liza must escape before her father discovers her own treacherous secret.

The teen flees her isolated village, despite warnings that trees in the adjoining forest start to kill at night. She is not alone long before she is joined by Matthew, another teenaged villager who has been hiding his shape-shifting abilities. Soon, the two are indeed attacked by sinister trees. Rescued by a wandering faerie and taken to a fey village, Liza must reconcile her trust of the faeries and her own growing magic with her teachings about the War.

Riddled by more visions and a puzzling connection between her mother and her faerie caretakers, Liza must find her runaway mother. Matthew joins her again, as does Allie, a faerie healer. The three young people head for St. Louis, now known as Faerie, where the famous Gateway Arch has become a portal to a world of magic. They use their special gifts of sight, touch and smell to help one another and ward off evil.

Amid the recent deluge of post-apocalyptic novels, Simner offers a unique spin, with her poetic, atmospheric prose brilliantly capturing the tug between human and faerie and the blending of the two. Because Liza narrates the story, readers, pulled into the teen’s search for her mother and questions about the War, slowly learn the answers along with her. They not only relish her gains in magic, but in her self-confidence, trust and love. Readers can only hope that lingering questions in the book will be answered with a sequel and more glimpses into Liza’s faerie powers.

Angela Leeper recently visited the Arch and saw no signs of faerie infiltration.

It’s 1944 and everyone is doing their part for the war effort. While her mother and sister roll bandages for the Red Cross, 18-year-old Bernadette “Byrd” Thompson sneaks out of their poor, small-town Iowa home and hops a train to Sweetwater, Texas. In Skies Over Sweetwater, an absorbing coming-of-age novel by Julia Moberg, the insecure teen joins the elite Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) training program at Avenger Field.

By donning oversized men’s overalls (aka “zoot suits”), suffering through morning calisthenics, studying meteorology and Morse code, and learning to fly trainers, utility planes, bombers and other aircraft, the WASPs free up men for combat overseas. Byrd is eager to share these exhilarating experiences with Sadie, a spunky, college-educated Oklahoman; Opal, a Chinatown native who elicits many stares; and even “Miss Peach” Cornelia, the smug socialite from Atlanta. But she’s not ready to divulge what happened eight years ago: her father’s accidental death while performing an aerial dive and her own narrow escape from the broken plane.

Byrd’s passion never wavers, but still harboring guilt and fear over her father’s tragedy, she questions her ability to fly among the nation’s best, especially during the required training dives. When another disastrous event turns into a heroic, life-saving act, the young woman is finally able to prove to her commander, her selfish training partner, the men who scoff at women pilots – and most importantly, to herself – that she can succeed. And when not flying or catching the local rattlesnakes, Byrd just might capture the heart of Lt. Andrews, an instructor with a secret of his own.

From Victory Gardens to butter rations to lines drawn on the back of women’s legs to look like nylon stockings, Moberg includes many details that allow readers to understand Byrd’s time in history. The teen’s struggles and achievements form an inspiring portrayal of America’s first military-trained female pilots, bringing this often forgotten part of history to light and showing that men were not the only ones risking their lives during World War II.

Angela Leeper prefers life on the ground in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

Skillful storytelling, incisive characters and thought-provoking themes are at the heart of two-time Newbery Medalist E.L. Konigsburg’s novels, including her latest, The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World. In this stunning narrative, sixth-grader Amedeo Kaplan, the son of divorced artist Jacob Kaplan and telephone company executive Loretta Bevilaqua (whom readers met in The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place), wants to find something that had been lost, something that people didn’t even know was lost until it was found by him, much like the discovery of the Rosetta Stone or the cave paintings of Lascaux.

When Amedeo’s mother relocates the family from New York City to St. Malo, Florida, the boy doubts he will ever find anything interesting until he meets their neighbor, Mrs. Zender, a one-time diva and retired opera singer. She decides that the world as it ought to be has come to an end, or rather, that she can no longer manage her mansion financially, and must downsize to a retirement community. Amedeo’s interest in the eccentric woman leads to his friendship with his classmate, William Wilcox, whose mother is managing the estate sale. Soon the boys are working side by side, helping Mrs. Wilcox and swapping stories about art, antiques and Mrs. Zender’s life.

Amedeo’s dream comes true when he finds a signed Modigliani hidden among Mrs. Zender’s treasures. He immediately turns to his godfather, Peter Vanderwaal (another character originally from The Outcasts). Also an art director, Peter has created a show on Degenerate Art, works of art reviled by Hitler and his Nazi regime. Amedeo’s search for the truth about this mysterious sketch also reveals secrets about Peter’s father during the German occupation of Amsterdam, Mrs. Zender’s past and how the two are related.

Each interlocking piece of this mystery produces an astounding puzzle that shows the importance of art, history, family and friendship. For middle-grade readers and younger teens, The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World is a true find!

Brightly clad creatures, strange-sounding instruments, colored lights shaped like birds and flowers, and five human sisters (Tatiana, Jenica, Iulia, Paula and Stela) all play a part in the revelry that takes place in the Dancing Glade under a full moon in Wildwood Dancing, Australian fantasy writer Juliet Marillier’s first young adult novel. Ever since Jena, 15, the narrator of the story, and Tati, 16, discovered a portal to the Other Kingdom nine years ago, they have been making secret monthly jaunts to the glade from their Transylvanian castle, Piscul Dracului.

Several factors in both the human world and the Other Kingdom threaten to end the girls’ magical dancing parties. Unsure whether he can sustain another brutal Transylvanian winter, their widowed, merchant father heads for a milder climate. The Night People enter the wildwood, bringing alluring promises to see the future, and Sorrow, a mysterious young man who captures Tati’s heart. With no male heirs residing at Piscul Dracului, the girls’ older (and aptly named) cousin, Cezar, seizes control of the estate and enlists neighboring folk to violently drive out the Night People.

Jena also confronts a personal dilemma when a kiss to her faithful and loving advisor, a talking frog named Gogu, begets a monster rather than a prince. Could the difficulties at home and in the wildwood stem from a childhood game in which Draguta, witch of the wood, demanded a hefty price as payment for Jena to become Queen of the Fairies? To restore peace to the wildwood, unite Tati with her true love and claim her own love, Jena must learn to trust her instincts and let her sisters live their own lives, even if that means saying goodbye forever.

Marillier concludes this enchanting novel with a brief note on the mythology and folklore of the Transylvanian region. Blending Little Women, The Chronicles of Narnia, Dracula, Romeo and Juliet and the author’s own fanciful creations, this romantic historical fantasy is destined to become a classic.

Angela Leeper is a writer and former ballroom dancer (but only in the human world) in Wake Forest, North Carolina.