Mafia Approved Reading

MG Book Review: The Lifters by Dave Eggers
June 18, 20180L.S. Bridgers There are invisible doors in the town of Carousel. Something strange is going on in the town of Carousel. Sinkholes are swallowing up buildings whole. There’s little warning of the impending disasters unless you happen to notice things like walls and mailboxes get crooked. Twelve-year old Granite Flowerpetal (Gran) notices. He’s an observant kid. It’s probably because he’s worried about fitting in his new school. But it could be because a mysterious girl named Catalina... Read More

MG Book Review: Bob by Wendy Mass & Rebecca Stead
June 12, 20181L.S. Bridgers An instant classic! Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead bring us an unforgettable story about the meaning of friendship and family. It’s been five years since Livy visited her grandmother in Australia. Not surprisingly, everything looks different.  Her grandmother seems disappointed Livy doesn’t remember things. She worries Livy is growing up so fast, they won’t be able to stay a family living so far apart. Livy figures all of this is normal. She was only five... Read More

MG Book Review: HELLO, UNIVERSE by Erin Entrada Kelly
June 7, 20181Kim Zachman   There’s shy and then there’s Virgil Salinas. He’s so quiet, he usually only talks to his family and then mostly only to his grandmother Lola. So, how will he ever get up the nerve to talk Valencia Somerset, a girl in his resource class at middle school? His only hope is Kaori Tanaka, a girl in his neighborhood with a gift for the spiritual world. At least that’s what Kaori claims. On his way... Read More

MG Book Review: Brightwood by Tania Unsworth
April 30, 20181L.S. Bridgers Home Alone meets Coraline Eleven year-old Daisy Fitzjohn longs to see the world. She’s never been off the grounds of Brightwood Hall. She lives there with her eccentric mother who survived a family tragedy, and some peculiar friends, a talking rat named Tar, a topiary horse and a ghost of a young girl explorer. The outside world comes to Daisy when her mother doesn’t return from a shopping trip and a stranger who claims to... Read More

MG Book Review: The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street by Lindsay Currie
March 28, 20181L.S. Bridgers Children make peculiar ghosts. They don’t always haunt like they are supposed to! When Tessa’s family moves to Chicago her mood matches the gray skies. She’s sad because she left her best friend behind, nervous about starting a new school and dreading living in their old house. It turns out she’s not the only one unhappy on Shady Street. The house is haunted by the spirit of a little girl! This ghost is unusual. She... Read More

MG Book Review: The Boy from Tomorrow by Camille DeAngelis
February 2, 20180L.S. Bridgers *This book isn't hitting shelves until May 8th, but you can pre-order this gem now! Like time travel without the machine. Intrigued? Josie and Alec live in the same house 100 years apart! When they communicate by use of a spirit board they form an unusual friendship. Can the world of fortunetelling and computers co-exist? Is there a more sinister reason for their communication? When Josie and her sister are in grave danger Alec must... Read More

MG Book Review: Shadow Weaver by MarcyKate Connolly
January 17, 20180L.S. Bridgers                                                     Can you trust your own shadow? Emmeline is a shadow weaver. That means she can shape and control shadows, all shadows except for one, her own. Emmeline names it Dar and treats it like a best friend. It is her only friend. Other children are afraid of her. Dar maybe her friend but she is not just a shadow. When Dar does something terrible, Emmeline and Dar escape into the woods Emmeline discovers there... Read More

MG Book Review: Nutcracked by Susan Adrian
December 14, 20170L.S. Bridgers I interviewed Susan Adrian earlier this week about her writing process, inspiration, etc. Read all about it here. A magic Russian Nutcracker sweeps Georgie right off her ballet dancing feet in Nutcracked! For as long as they can remember, Georgie and her best friend Kaitlyn have dreamed of getting the part of Clara in the Nutcracker ballet. But when only Clara gets the part, their friendship is tested. Georgie is already stressed. Her Grandfather is in... Read More

MG Book Review: Wishtree by Katherine Applegate
November 6, 20170Kim Zachman Red, as she calls herself, has seen a lot over the last couple of centuries. Trees do see a lot and know a lot, more than people. Red happens to be her town's Wishtree. Every May, people from all over town write their wishes on a scrap of paper or cloth and tie it to Red. Obviously she can't grant these wishes, even though sometimes she wishes she could. When a Muslim family moves into... Read More

MG Book Review: The Secret of Nightingale Wood by Lucy Strange
October 31, 20170L.S. Bridgers So good you will read it in one sitting! The word haunted means different things. It’s 1919 and the members of Henry’s (Henrietta’s) family are haunted. Her mother is haunted by grief. Henry’s brother recently died in a fire. She’s bed-ridden with depression. Her father is haunted by anger. He runs away leaving the family behind. Henry is haunted by guilt. She argued with her brother before he died. She seeks comfort in her books... Read More