Hothouse, by Chris Lynch

Rating: Very Good

HarperTeen, 2010, $16.99

ISBN: 978-0-06-167379-5

Age/Grade Level: Younger teen

View this book on Amazon

Life is not so straightforward in Chris Lynch's Hothouse. Russ and DJ, friends since boyhood, are bonded by the fact that both of their fathers are firefighters. Both fathers die together in what the town extols as heroism. Russ copes with a flood of memories and a tangled, twisted heap of smoldering emotion. Characters are all too real. Lynch knows the nuances of coping with tragedy and portrays the unfolding events with skill. The town that once heralded the boys' fathers as fallen heroes begins to learn trughts that knock the dead men off their pedestals. Recommended for the right reader, who has an interest in real, gritty, teenage boy bildungsroman.

Reviewer: Rebecca Porter, OCPL/Laguna Beach

Prairie Winter, by Bonnie Geisert

Rating: Additional

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009, $16.00

ISBN: 9780618685882

Age/Grade Level: Grades 4-6

View this book on Amazon

With the wild winter we have been having, this book's subject matter is stilli topical even though it is set in the 1950's. Rachel and her family, who live on a farm, get cut off by severe blizzards. She and her two older sisters are allowed to move into a motel in town so they can continue school. The story, as were the earlier titles Prairie Summer and Lessons, is based on autho Bonnie Geisert's memories of growing up in South Dakota. Unfortunately, it reads more like a memoir than a novel; characters are only sketchily developed and the overall writing style is wooden.

Reviewer: Mary Smith, OCPL/El Toro