Lucy

Author:  Nancy Rue  (christian author)

Rating:   4

Summary:  Lucy is about a tomboy, who has no interest in boys, clothes, and loves to play soccer.  Lucy's mom is dead, and her dad has hired a housekeeper/nanny to be a sort of mother figure for Lucy.  In Lucy Doesn't Wear Pink and Lucy Out of Bounds, the housekeeper teaches her a couple different bible stories about women, and from the stories shows her what it means to be a girl.  By the end, Lucy is still the girl who loves soccer, and hates romance and clothes, but she has learned that there's more to being a girl than just that.

           Girl drama:  Even though Lucy hates girl problems and drama, that doesn't mean there isn't any in the books.  She is surrounded by girls who love drama, and with hormones, it gets out of hand sometimes.  There are two girls who Lucy thinks doesn't like her, and she doesn't like them back.  There's another girl who has a crush on Lucy's friend, Joe, and she causes some drama there.

           Morals:  Lucy is taught what it means to be a girl in these two books, from the stories of Lea and Rachel, and Ruth.  I'm a tomboy, and Lucy's story and view was very close to mine, so this was an interesting read for me.  If you have a girl who is a tomboy, I highly recommend this.

Girls, 9-12 years old, contemporary

Allie Finkle

Author:  Meg Cabot

Rating:  4

Summary:  Allie Finkle is all about rules for life.  Allie is going through middle school, and tired of all the stuff she has to deal with, so she constantly goes back to her notebook, where she keeps her rules for life.  Through the series, she deals with bullying, drama, kissing, and the future.

           Girl drama:  Allie has to deal with the normal every day middle school drama, full of crushes on boys, being teased, jealousy towards other girls, etc.  Allie is invited to a birthday party, and everyone there wants to damage some property.  Allie doesn't feel right, so she leaves the party, and is ridiculed by her so called friends.  At one time,  the new 'thing' at the school is a kissing game, and Allie has to deal with the peer pressure of the entire school.

           Morals:  A lot of this book is about standing up for what you believe in, being patient, rules, and dealing with difficult people.

Girls, 9-12 years old, contemporary

London Confidential

Author:  Sandra Byrd (christian author)

Rating:  5

Summary:  Savvy has just moved to London, and is a loner in a brand new high school.  She is an aspiring journalist, and when her school newspaper is accepting new journalists, she wants to try for it.  She ends up getting the job of a secret advisor.  Kids from the high school submit questions to an anonymous writer, she answers them, and it's published in the school newspaper.  She soon finds out though, that whatever she gives advice, God is going to have her go through the trial as well.

           Girl drama:  This is a book from a high school girl's point of view, so there's definitely going to be drama in it.  First of all, Savvy likes a boy that every other girl likes, and she is constantly fighting for his attention.  There's a girl at the newspaper, that Savvy doesn't particularly like,  but she has to find a  way to work with anyways.  Savvy disobeys and lies to her mother so that she can go shopping in downtown London.  Also, Savvy and her family have just moved to London from America, so they are tasked with finding a new church.  Savvy is constantly fighting for a public place in the newspaper, and has to deal with other competition.

           Morals:  Savvy learns the importance of secrets.  She learns when it's right to keep a secret, and when it's wrong.  She's also challenged to obey her parents, and she doesn't, and she finds out what the consequences are.

Girls, 9-12 years old, contemporary

The Mother-Daughter Book Club

Author:  Heather Vogel Frederick

Rating:  4

Summary:  The Mother-Daughter Book Club is from the point of view of four girls who are nothing alike.  There's Cassidy, the jock, Emma, the bookworm, Meg, the fashionista, and Jess, the smart farm girl.  The story starts when their moms come up with the brilliant idea of a mother daughter book club.  The book club starts out with the four hating each other, and ends with another member, and best friends.  Throughout the series, they read classics like, Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, and  Anne of Green Gables.

           Sexual content:  Emma gets a boyfriend, and in one of the books they have a moment of very deep kissing.  That's it.

           Girl drama:  They all have crushes on boys at some point in the books, and sometimes it causes fights.  There are also fights about money, parent issues, and rivals.  Emma and Jess are bullied a lot for being such big nerds, and Meg begins as one of those bullies.  Cassidy also goes through a rough time when her mom is remarried only a couple years after her father's death.

           Morals:  These girls taught me that even if someone has wronged you, friendships can still heal.  It shows how great the right group of friends can be, and how amazing classics are.  It's really a big series about friendships and books- a great combination in my eyes.  They also do some amazing things, despite people telling them they couldn't do it.  You need to find friends who will always be there for you- no matter how far you go.

Girls, 9-12, contemporary

Michael Vey

Author:  Richard Paul Evans

Rating:  4

Summary:  Michael Vey has a secret.  He can create electricity.  In the beginning of book one, Michael's mom is kidnapped, and he has to go to California with some of his friends to save her.  Unfortunately, it turns out in a way bigger ordeal than what it seemed to start out as.  He discovers that there is an electric company building an empire to take over the world- and this company is the reason Michael, and sixteen other teenagers, have electrical powers.  Throughout the rest of the series, Michael and his team- they call themselves the Electroclan- travel all over the world to take down the empire called, the Elgen.

           Violence and gore:  Michael's power is being able to shock people, and throughout the series his power grows to the point that with hardly a flinch he can kill people.  He doesn't do this often, but there is once or twice where he comes close to it, and that doesn't mean he doesn't hurt people.  They use bombs in the books, someone is thrown into the ocean, the Elgen inflict physical and emotional pain to people, and a kid is shot and killed in the third book.  None of this is explained graphically at all, though.

           Sexual content:  Michael has a girlfriend, and they do kiss, and you do find out that they have slept together before.

           Religion:  Richard Paul Evans is a mormon, and, surprisingly, it is actually brought up a couple times in the series.  Dr. Hatch- the villain- refers to himself as the anti-christ, and constantly refers to the end times, and what will come.

           Morals:  This book asks the reader what they would do to save the world, and what they would do to save their loved ones?  And what would you do if you had to save one or the other?

Boys, 9-12 years old, science fiction

The Door Within

Author:  Wayne Thomas Batson (christian author)

Rating:  4

Summary:  The Door Within trilogy is from three different point of views- Aidan, Antoinette, and Robby.  The first book opens with Aidan discovering this new world, and he soon starts on a quest full of adventure and betrayal.  Rise of the Wyrm Lord is mostly from Antoinette's point of view, and once again starts in this world.  Antoinette and Aidan meet, and she soon gets to the other world, and begins her own adventures.  She makes new friends, and frees slaves, and comes close to dying several times.  The Final Storm starts right where Rise of the Wyrm Lord ended, from Robby's point of view.  There's a battle going on for Robby's soul, and his journey is to decide who gets it.  In the end, the trio have meet up again for their final battle.  But they can't win through their own strength.  The three die, instead of relinquishing their faith in Eliam, and go to heaven.  But there story isn't done yet.  For one last battle, Eliam has chosen specific people to come back with him, and defeat Paragor.

           Violence and gore:  Almost every single fantasy book will have a violence and gore parent alert on it, because there's swords a lot of the time, and people are stabbed.  All three of the teens kill other soldiers, and there is a moment with Aidan- the first time he kills someone- that he realizes what he's done, but he has to go on, because this is war.  Someone is shot down and killed with arrows, and another time, someone is ravaged by wolves.  As I said, all three of the kids are killed, and Paragor destroys an entire city.

           Morals:  These kids taught me love, sacrifice, and forgiveness.  The whole book is a great display of spiritual warfare, and the end times.

Boys, 9-12 years old, fantasy

Book of a Thousand Days

Author:  Shannon Hale

Rating:  4

Summary:  Dashti has just finished her training for being a lady’s maid, when her lady is locked away in a tower.  Dashti has a choice- remain loyal to her maid, and be locked away in the tower with her, or remain free and get another job.  Dashti chooses to be locked away with her lady for the next seven years, and she keeps record of those days, and the adventures thereafter, in her journal.  Through the course of Dashti’s story, her lady orders her to pretend to be her, while talking to royalty outside of the tower.  If Dashti is caught, she will be put to death.

Violence and gore:  Almost every single fantasy book will have a violence and gore parent alert on it, because there's swords a lot of the time, and people are stabbed.  There is a man in this story that can turn into a wolf beast, and he goes on killing sprees in the night, leaving his victims with their intestines outside of their bodies.  The wolf man kills an entire kingdom, and several random people on the side.  Towards the end of the book, Dashti is attacked by the monster, and suffers a broken ankle.  

Sexual content and symbolism of rape:  In the recordings of Dashti, it holds an anecdote of Lady Saren and her experience with a grown man she was betrothed to when she was ten years old.  Lady Saren has spent almost the entire book being terrified of this man, and it’s revealed that it’s because he is a wolf man, and kills people in the night.  She recounts the night she found out, and says she asked for him to come out into the courtyard, where he proceeds to take his clothes off.  Then, he begins to transform into a monster, and she is terrified of the monster and the man for the rest of her life.  In my opinion, this is meant to symbolize rape, and sexual abuse.

  When Dashti and Lady Saren escape the tower, it is because Dashti hears men outside, tearing the tower down.  She hears the men talking about two young girls inside, and they’re intentions to rape them when they get inside.  Dashti kisses a royal gentry, and at another time she has to prove that she is weaponless to an enemy, so she strips naked.

Magic:  In it, Dashti refers to herself as a ‘mucker.’  A mucker is kind of like gypsies, except they’re more fine with staying in one place.  But there is a sort of healing magic that muckers can do, that Dashti is very good at.  She sings ‘songs of ailment.’  While these songs aren’t supposed to heal people- only “make their bones remember what it once was to be whole”- Dashti does manage to heal a man from a stab wound.

Religion:  Dashti and everyone else in the city worship and pray to their ancestors, and believe that they guide and protect them.  They also believe in an assembly of gods, which they model their government after.

Morals:  Lady Saren is very difficult throughout this book, and Dashti is a great example of how you should treat difficult people.  Of course, Lady Saren is probably suffering from some mental illness, which means this is also a story of how to deal someone with a mental illness- even a physical illness.  Ultimately, it’s a story which challenges you to treat every person with kindness and love.

Girls, 13-14 years old, fantasy