Mafia Approved Reading

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

Book Review: The Right Hook of Devin Velma by Jake Burt
September 10, 20180Kim Zachman Addison Gerhardt would do anything for his best friend Devin Velma. After all, it was Devin that rescued him when he accidently locked himself inside the snack cabinet in kindergarten. Devin has been saving Addison from embarrassing social situations ever since and since every social situation is paralzyingly  embarrassing to Addison, it’s almost a daily occurrence. Devin wants to make a viral video.  What better way than the Double-Barreled Monkey Bar Backflip of Doom? That... Read More

MG Book Launch: A Long Line of Cakes by Deborah Wiles
August 28, 20180Debbie D'Aurelio Happy book birthday to Deborah Wiles and her latest book in the Aurora County series, A Long Line of Cakes. In her latest novel, we are introduced to the Cakes, a large family of itinerant bakers, roaming the country wherever their talents are most needed. Emma Lane Cake has five brothers and four dogs. Her parents are the ones that decide when they're no longer needed and it's time to leave. That's usually right around... Read More

MG Book Review: Stu Truly by Dan Richards
August 24, 20183Kevin Springer Stu Truly's life had been going on like it always had - hanging with his best friend Ben, eating left over pork chops for lunch at school, and always (pretty much) telling the truth.. That all changed when new girl, Becca, came to their school. Suddenly, he had sweaty palms, stumbled over his words, and proclaimed to be a vegetarian. Dan Richards's STU TRULY tells a story of an awkward time in life where boys... Read More

MG Book Review: Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship
August 10, 20180Lisa Lewis Tyre I knew that I'd like CAN I TOUCH YOUR HAIR by Irene Latham and Charles Waters because I was already a BIG fan of Latham's work. Her book, WHEN THE SUN SHINES ON ANTARCTICA, is one that I gift to every animal-loving kid I know. Still, I wasn't prepared for the full-blown love I'd experience when reading her newest. The blurb: How can Irene and Charles work together on their fifth-grade poetry project? They don't know each... Read More