The Earthly Knight by Janet McNaughton

I love reading books about the Middle Ages and this one didn't disappoint (actually, it takes place prior to the Middle Ages). It's set in Scotland in 1162, when Norman lords have been given land in Scotland by the King of England. Jennie lives with her father, a Norman lord, and sister Isabel, who was recently disgraced by a wandering knight but refuses to tell her family what happened to her when she ran away with him. Now her father turns to Jennie to make a valuable wedding match, but she falls instead for Tam Lin, a mysterious man from a once powerful family who was said to have been raised by fairies.

This book has just enough magic realism to make you believe it's true; McNaughton weaves two old folktales, the story of Tam Lin and the story of Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight, into a satisfying book. Jennie is outspoken but she still understands the roles that women must play in her society. While she is at the mercy of her father's wishes, she manages to insert her own independence into her fate.

Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd

Another book by Dowd (she wrote The London-Eye Mystery) about an Irish boy in the 1970s, when Ireland was going through the Troubles and Irish prisoners were going on a hunger strike. Fergus is digging for peat when he discovers the body of what looks like a young girl. She turns out to be a mummy from several hundred years before. Dowd weaves her story with Fergus' as they both struggle with family problems, growing relationships, and doing what's right for the sake of the many -- and of the one. Dowd is a wonderful writer, Fergus a great character, and kids will learn something about what was happening in Ireland just 30 years ago.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

There was something of a controversy when this book won the 2009 Newbery Award; it's one of those books that kids probably love and adults don't understand -- or find scary or strange or downright weird. It begins with the murder of a family which in and of itself is pretty awful. A baby is the only survivor, and he manages to crawl to a nearby graveyard, when the denizens (read dead people) decide to raise him. Named Bod (for Nobody), the baby grows to a teen among the ghosts and spirts of the graveyard.

Sounds weird, right? However, it's a wonderful book. Gaiman (author of Coraline) creates a fascinating world with its own believeable rules, and the tension rises as the killer closes in on Bod in his graveyard. Read it!

Rules by Cynthia Lord

Catherine is 12 years old and has a brother with autism. While she waits with her mother in the waiting room at his physical therapy session, she meets Jason, a boy her age who is in a wheelchair and can only communicate by pointing at cards with pictures or words. She begins making new words for him and develops a relationship with him. Then comes the school dance . . .

You can almost see the plot thicken in this book as the day of the school dance approaches. However, Lord does a good job of showing Catherine's frustration with and understanding of her brother at the same time. Having a brother with a disability gives her a better understanding of Jason, but also of what it is like living with someone with a disability.

I enjoyed this book; Catherine is a good character who grows just a bit during the book. I've noticed that many recent books have endings that don't tie everything up all nice and neat, but at least the endings are tied into reality; this is one of those books.

Revolution is Not a Dinner Party by Ying Chang Compestine

Compestine was one of the featured authors at the Second Annual Tucson Festival of Books held here this past weekend, so I read this book to get ready. While it is not a biographical book, Compestine did grow up during the Chinese cultural revolution and experienced and/or witnessed many of the scenes in the book. Reading books about terrible times in history generally depress me because of the horrible things that people can do to each other. Did you know that during the Chinese Revolution the doctors were made into janitors and the janitors became surgeons? They trained peasant boys from the fields to be surgeons and sent them into surgery after just a few weeks of training. Mao's faithful made sure that they still had access to quality surgeons even as they allowed peasants to operate on the soldiers.

The good thing about this book is that Ling is a strong character and she stays true to herself through the book.

Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf by Sonya Hartnett

Hartnett is an Australian writer and this book takes place in a small town in Australia that is slowly dying. Satchel O'Rye lives with his parents in the unnamed town, dying because the new highway takes people right past it. His parents refuse to recognize the fact that his father is suffering from dementia. While picking up wood in the outback, Satchel sees a strange creature; when he describes it to a local girl, Chelsea Piper, she discovers an astonishing fact, one that could save Satchel's beloved dog when he injures her by mistake.

Hartnett perfectly captures the feeling of the dying town by comparing it with Satchel's own sense of slowly dying under the weight of his father's illness. While the ending doesn't make everything hunky-dory, you do realize that Satchel, in the end, will be just fine.

The Braid by Helen Frost

The Braid tells the story of two sisters living in the Scottish Highlands during the 1850s, when landlords forced people off the Western Isles so they could raise sheep there. One sister travels with her family to America while the other runs away to stay with her grandmother on the Isle of Barra off the western coast. Frost uses two voices written in narrative poems to follow Jeannie and Sarah.

I enjoyed this book; it's a very quick read and Frost includes a poem to introduce each new section that ties in with the story. While most of us know about the Irish potato famine, this book tells us about a piece of history most of us probably never knew. Sarah in particular is a well-written character.