Heather Brush

by Heather Brush

Julia knows more than anyone that things don’t always go as planned. She wasn’t supposed to be the one Jessup captured in the woods. When Julia and Liv are attacked, Julia refuses to allow Liv to be abducted. She saves her and unintentionally takes her place.

A year later, when Julia starts having PTSD flashbacks, she logs keywords, thoughts and bits of remembered events in her notebook. Her psychiatrist wants to hypnotize her, but she’s figuring things out herself, with research, investigative journaling and the understanding that only friendship brings. Liv also hasn’t been the same since after the woods, even though Julia was the one held captive.

And then, inconceivably, more tragedy: A dead teenager is discovered in the same wild patch, where locals go to escape reality, the place Julia fears above all else. A TV reporter focuses her coverage on failed police procedure and charges probation officers with accountability for this new body and for Julia’s attack. The town is a circus, yet things get even stranger.

Superbly written for a young adult audience, After the Woods is darkly alluring, a compelling read with mystery, romance, drama and twists. Psychological explorations and questions of motivation drive character growth: Why does an abductor pull a knife, tie hands and refuse to let go? Why does a girl reach out to a complete stranger? What are these compulsions?

This well-paced mystery will compel readers to read hungrily, quickly, in pursuit of answers to these many questions.

YA, YA Fiction

YA Fiction YA

An honest look at teenage depression

Review by Heather Brush

by Heather Brush

After her suicide attempt, 16-year-old Vicky Cruz wakes up in the hospital with her stomach pumped. Given the choice to stay for two weeks or go home, she makes her first step toward recovery and tells her father that going home would be a mistake. In group therapy, she meets Mona, E.M. and Gabriel, each with a different mental illness and each possessing the ability to help each other in ways that doctors, family and friends cannot. They help Vicky realize she has clinical depression—as well as the emotional strength to face the life that waits for her, if she wants to live.

Straight-talking but not overbearing, honest but not overly dark, The Memory of Light offers an accurate depiction of depression. Witnessing Vicky’s breakthrough is a powerful experience for readers, and piecing together her progression to the suicide attempt and watching her grow as she begins to comprehend how her depression began is nothing less than a gift from author Francisco X. Stork, who drew from his own experience with depression to write this novel.

Through the group members, Stork touches on other mental illnesses of psychosis, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. This is a well-rounded work of fiction, with the frank and helpful lesson that sometimes we need to pretend in order to survive.

This article was originally published in the February 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Children's & YA, Middle Grade

Children's & YA Middle Grade

Miracles can happen

Review by Heather Brush

by Heather Brush

Nearly 25 years after the publication of Shiloh, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s beloved trilogy becomes a quartet with this Christmas-themed holiday companion.

Shiloh and his boy, Marty, are inseparable as always—except that Shiloh is afraid to cross over the bridge that leads to Judd Travers’ house. It’s been a year since Marty rescued Shiloh from Judd, and he seems to have found a soft spot in his neighbor’s harsh exterior. Amends have been made, and Marty has been spending time at Judd’s to help with the other dogs. The town even begins to see a very different man as well.

The community has also welcomed a new preacher to town, but soon Marty’s sister, Becky, begins to fear eternal damnation, and the preacher’s daughters, Rachel and Ruthie, seem to be afraid of their father. Marty has a lot of questions about the world but isn’t sure the preacher, who seems better versed in atoning for sins, is the one who can answer them. More questions arise when a fire starts in the neighborhood and accusations fly, blaming Judd for starting it.

The Prestons prepare for Christmas, the community helps those that suffered from the fire, and Marty continues to work in the veterinarian office, thinking he may want to be a vet and help animals. But one day, Ruthie and Rachel are too scared to go home, and Judd helps by sharing the story of his youth and the importance of dreams.

Naylor gently writes of compassion and understanding, the importance of love over fear and the bonds between dogs and their people. A bit of adventure and a few mysteries make A Shiloh Christmas perfect for cozying up in front of the Christmas tree.

Nearly 25 years after the publication of Shiloh, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s beloved trilogy becomes a quartet with this Christmas-themed holiday companion.

History, YA, YA Nonfiction

YA Nonfiction YA History

The music of wartime

Review by Heather Brush

by Heather Brush

Before Hitler’s Wehrmacht surrounded Leningrad in September 1941, Stalin was already killing his own people. Foolishly, Stalin allied with Hitler before realizing too late that Russia was another target.

Leningrad was home to composer Dmitri Shostakovich, whose works taunted Stalin but were just shy of rebellion. His peers were murdered for being traitors, and he often feared for his life. But art must be created, if only to show that we are human, and while Leningrad lay under siege and its people nearly starved to death, Shostakovich’s seventh symphony became an obsession. For two and a half years, Leningrad residents ate rancid rations, grass, pets and resorted to cannibalism. They burned books for warmth along with floorboards, walls and other remains of bombarded buildings. More than a million people died. Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony told the story of Stalin’s assaults on his own people, of Hitler’s crushing entrapment of the city, and life amid this torture. The symphony captured the story of Leningrad’s people; it rallied them and encouraged them to survive.

M.T. Anderson (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing) presents a thrilling history of music and the terrible events of World War II. Extensively researched and passionately told, Symphony for the City of the Dead exposes the strengths and weaknesses of humanity through an engrossing tale of war, art and undying creativity.

This article was originally published in the October 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Children's & YA, Middle Grade

Children's & YA Middle Grade

An honest, kid-friendly look at being transgender

Review by Heather Brush

by Heather Brush

George looks and dresses like a boy, but inside, she’s not a boy. Her family doesn’t understand, but George knows that she’s a girl. It’s hard pretending to be a boy, but it’s even harder when the class bully picks on her and starts fights.

When it’s announced that the fourth-grade classes will put on a production of Charlotte’s Web, George decides to audition for Charlotte, so she can finally play a girl’s role in front of her friends and mother, but mostly so she can feel like her secret self is out in the open. Her best friend helps rehearse, and eventually George confides in her that she’s really a girl. Kelly is supportive and encouraging, but their teacher insists George can’t play a girl’s part. Fortunately, an open-minded principal shows readers that being transgender is just another part of being human, and that there are people who understand.

Debut author Alex Gino beautifully addresses the struggles of being a transgender youth. It’s an intense conflict to be one sort of person on the outside but feel like someone else on the inside, and this book recognizes and straightforwardly discusses LGBTQ issues, including family misunderstandings, peer support and public acceptance. Readers going through a similar experience will feel that they are no longer alone, and cisgender (non-transgender) readers may gain understanding and empathy.

Positive messages echo throughout George and to the reader: Be you, whoever you are.

This article was originally published in the September 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Children's & YA, Middle Grade

Children's & YA Middle Grade

The woman behind an infamous outbreak

Review by Heather Brush

by Heather Brush

More than 100 years ago, there was little understanding of the concept of invisible dangers like germs. The story of Mary Mallon, better known as Typhoid Mary, was passed off as one of intentional harm, when in reality she didn’t believe she was a danger to anyone.

Mary emigrated from Ireland to New York City, was hired as household staff and found a specialty in cooking. From 1897 to 1907, 24 people in households where she worked developed typhoid fever, and one died. Later, 25 people developed the illness after consuming her cooking. Dr. George Soper, sanitary engineer for the United States Army Sanitary Corps, began investigating the outbreak at Mary’s last house of employment and then Mary herself as a healthy carrier of typhoid. Mary was held against her will at Riverside Hospital on North Brother Island in New York’s East River, and the story only gets darker from there.

Susan Campbell Bartoletti’s extensive research, complete with photographs and illustrations from the early 1900s, brings little-known facts to light and this fascinating tale to life. Terrible Typhoid Mary provides insight and understanding for a woman previously portrayed as a villain.

This article was originally published in the August 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Children's & YA, Middle Grade

Children's & YA Middle Grade

Last chance to save the animals

Review by Heather Brush

by Heather Brush

Twelve-year-old Kester Jaynes is locked up in a “school” for troubled children that is more like a jail with solitary lock-up and nothing but goop to eat. He’s been there for six years, living in drudgery, until one night when a flock of pigeons and a gathering of cockroaches insist he break out to save the last bit of wild. These creatures are the first Kester has encountered in years, since it seemed all the animals on Earth had died of the Red-Eye virus. They’re certainly the first he has communicated with. Kester can’t speak, but as he has just discovered, he can speak telepathically with critters.

The pigeons were sent to bring Kester to a place where, hidden from everything, animals somehow survive. The head of the group, the Wildness, needs Kester’s help; there has to be a cure, a dream told him so.

Bigger than even the virus, there is a darkness controlled by a corporation. All of the world’s crops have been torn out, all of the farm animals are gone, and all that is left to eat is a formula produced by Facto, the company in charge of everything.

This dystopian world is full of adventure for Kester, who meets a girl who guards her cat with a gun, rides on the back of a magnificent stag and faces the threat of danger in every chapter. Kester is a likable character, full of longing, self-doubt and, eventually, inner growth. Readers will root for him to face his challenges and to make a difference in the world.

Author Piers Torday reveals through the eyes of animals just how cruel humans are to the wild. Reminiscent of Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984, this tale is not light-hearted, but it has heart-touching moments, plenty of action, a powerful story and a white pigeon of whimsy.

Children's & YA, Middle Grade

Children's & YA Middle Grade

Solving the puzzles when there’s nowhere to go

Review by Heather Brush

by Heather Brush

Early Pearl is very much her father’s daughter, an 11-year-old fascinated with words and puzzles. That interest might help her unravel the mystery of her father’s disappearance and reunite their family of four.

Early’s father, Dash, worked in the Chicago Public Library. Hoping to provide a better home for his family, he began working after hours, cataloguing books for resale. It all seemed innocent, but things aren’t always what they seem. After Dash vanishes from a wintry Chicago steet, people break into the family’s apartment, stealing everything they have left: every book, every dollar, every feeling of safety. With no place to go, mom Summer takes Early and her brother Jubie to a shelter.

Living in a shelter is scary at first; there’s no privacy and there are lines for everything from brushing your teeth to using the telephone. Jubie gets sick, Early has to go to a new school where she is singled out as a shelter kid, and her father is still missing. Things are looking bleak until Early sets her mind to figuring out what happened to Dash by deciphering the clues in his notebook.

Using text from Langston Hughes’ The Book of Rhythms, best-selling author Blue Balliett orchestrates a captivating mystery. Woven into the story are bits of history and philosophy, mathematical puzzles and most importantly, compassion for others.

Dash taught his family to hold fast to dreams; Balliett shows readers that shelters are full of people who need a dream to hold fast to, just like the rest of us.

Early’s father, Dash, worked in the Chicago Public Library. Hoping to provide a…

Children's & YA, Middle Grade

Children's & YA Middle Grade

Strange goings-on in Hazelwood

Review by Heather Brush

by Heather Brush

In Hazelwood, Iowa, corn grows, people disappear, and magic happens. Jack’s parents are getting a divorce, and he is going to live with his aunt and uncle. He has so much to learn about living in this new place that his uncle gives him a book, “The Secret History of Hazelwood.” The book is full of weird stories that are mostly true—and that’s the scary part. But he has even more to learn about his family, and himself.

Jack has never had any friends; people just seemed to overlook him. When Hazelwood’s bully, Clayton Avery, gives him a knockout welcome, Jack meets Wendy—who is gutsy enough to stand up to Clayton when he’s bullying. Wendy, her brother Frankie, and their friend Anders quickly turn into Jack’s friends, and they all set out to unravel the weird tales about the town and why children have been disappearing. Some stories have a way of sucking you into them, and Jack is about to fill the lead role in this drama. Bad magic is happening, thanks to someone making a grave mistake and trying to fool the powers-that-be. The kids need to figure out how to fix, well, just about everything that matters.

With its ever-building suspense, unexplained vanishings and soul-stealing, The Mostly True Story of Jack is a wonderful page turner. Much is left to be divulged in the book’s final chapters as the mystery grows deeper (perhaps a bit too much for readers in the younger half of the suggested 8-12 age range). Will Jack and his friends be able to set things right and balance the forces of good and bad? Hazelwood, Iowa, is in for some strange happenings, and readers who settle in for the ride are rewarded with creepy thrills.