Mafia Approved Reading

MG Book Review: The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day by Christopher Edge
April 22, 20190L.S. Bridgers This is sure to be a classic in children’s science fiction. Ten- year old Maisie is a science genius who dreams of building her own nuclear reactor. When she wakes up on her birthday to an empty house and blackness outside her front door that seems to be expanding, she panics. Did one of her experiments go wrong? Can she stay one step ahead of the blackness and piece together what happened? Told in alternating... Read More

MG Book Review: The Missing Piece of Charlie O’Reilly by Rebecca K.S. Ansari
March 13, 20190Kevin Springer Charlie O'Reilly is an only child. Which is why it makes everyone uncomfortable when he talks about his brother. The first line of the book blurb on the back cover of Rebecca K.S. Ansari's debut novel, THE MISSING PIECE OF CHARLIE O'REILLY, had me intrigued before I even read the first page. Notions of what this book would be and how can an only child have a brother swirled around in my head. I had... Read More

MG Book Review: Something Rotten: A Fresh Look at Roadkill by Heather L. Mongomery
March 11, 20190Kim Zachman Roadkill is disgusting. Even though I can’t imagine picking up a tire-tread-marked carcass, scientists do it all the time because it contains valuable information. Heather L. Montgomery’s obsession with roadkill began with a squashed rattlesnake. She wanted to know how rattlesnakes’ fangs retract. She decided that a dead rattlesnake was a lot safer to study than a live one. That got her thinking about what other things scientists could learn from roadkill. She discovered that... Read More

MG Book Review: Thomas Wildus and the Book of Sorrows by J.M. Bergen
February 26, 20190L.S. Bridgers Thomas Wildus and The Book of Sorrows delivers a satisfying adventure story about a boy who discovers he has magical powers. Twelve-year old Thomas needs a little magic in his life. Things have been difficult since his father died. Dealing with ordinary middle school drama is hard enough, but being puzzled by his father’s last words to him is harder. His father said, “Magic is real, Thomas. No matter what happens, always remember magic is... Read More

MG Book Review: Lost Girl by Anne Ursu
January 25, 20190Kevin Springer Review by Sherry Ellis Iris and Lark are twins. Iris is the practical one. Lark is the dreamer. The two have always been together. Iris taking care of Lark. Lark relying on Iris. But in fifth grade, things change. They are placed in separate classes. The Lost Girl is the story of how the two cope with this situation. Interwoven throughout the main story is a subplot of the arrival of a mysterious antique shop,... Read More

MG Book Review: Game of Stars by Sayantani Dasgupta
January 15, 20190Kim Zachman This is the second story in the Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond series. Kiran seems like a normal middle school kid living in New Jersey, but she’s actually Princess Kiranmala, the daughter of the evil Serpent King in the Kingdom Beyond. Her adoptive parents have raised her in New Jersey to keep her safe from her evil father. A message comes through the interdimensional television asking Kiran to come back to the Kingdom Beyond to... Read More

MG Book Review: Monstrous Devices by Damien Love
November 27, 20180L.S. Bridgers Harry Potter meet Indiana Jones in this delightfully creepy story about a boy, his grandfather and some truly monstrous robots. Alex’s life gets turned upside down when his grandfather sends him an old toy robot and the note, “This one is special.”  He has no idea the robot hides a deadly secret. Soon he and his grandfather are running for their lives across snowy Europe. The people after the robot are unusually cunning and will... Read More

MG Book Review: Watch Hallow by Gregory Funaro
November 5, 20180Kevin Springer Author Gregory Funaro has an talent for creating worlds that combine supernatural with just the right amount of weird and creepy. His NY Times best selling Alistair Grim series set the bar high, but in his upcoming release, WATCH HALLOW (February 2019), he swings for the fences once again. Funaro does a great job in developing his characters from the onset of the book. The two main characters, Lucy and Oliver Tinker, are just different... Read More

MG Book Review: The Collectors by Jacqueline West
November 2, 20180L.S. Bridgers Eleven-year old Van might miss a word or two. He wears large hearings aides. He never misses seeing small things. He likes to collect them as treasure. When he notices a girl and a squirrel going after a coin tossed into a fountain by a wisher and follows them, he stumbles upon a secret society that collects wishes. Wishes contain powerful magic it seems. It’s the kind of magic that unusual creatures need to survive.... Read More

MG Book Review: Charlie Hernandez & the League of Shadows by Ryan Calejo
October 16, 20180Kevin Springer Stories that feature a child main character that is suddenly transported to a world that forces him to overcome overwhelming odds to save the world/family/friends are very common (heck, I even wrote one). What sets certain books apart from the masses are dynamic characters and/or amazing world building. Ryan Calejo's contribution to this genre, Charlie Hernandez & the League of Shadows, delivers on both. Calejo's pacing of his debut novel is perfectly balanced to provide the reader... Read More