The Apothecary (The Apothecary #1) by Maile Meloy

The Apothecary by Maile Meloy is the first in a magical Young Adult series set in the 1950s. Janie Scott's family has moved from Los Angeles to London after her parents — both in the film industry — are accused of being Communists and feel obligated to leave the country. In London, Janie feels totally out of place but she's fascinated by Benjamin Burrows, the son of the local apothecary, an unusually defiant student who pointedly refuses to get under the table for atomic bomb drills. 

When the apothecary's shop is invaded and he disappears, Janie and Ben set out to find him and discover the apothecary's Pharmacopoeia, the book filled with magic potions that Russian spies were seeking when the apothecary disappeared. To find Ben's father, keep the Pharmacopoeia out of Russian hands, and prevent nuclear disaster, they will have to try some magical potions that do amazing things like turn people into birds. 

Highly recommended - Magic, adventure, and a touch of romance make The Apothecary a total delight. I'm kind of disappointed that I only have the first book in the series. The next two don't get quite the ratings the first does at Goodreads, but I enjoyed The Apothecary enough that I'd still like to read on. I just looked and my library system does have the second book, but not the third. I need to drop off donations, anyway, so I'm tempted to check it out in spite of my library check-out ban —  part of my book-buying ban. I haven't checked out a single book since the pandemic began so one can't hurt, right? Right?

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Shock Wave (Pick Your Fate #2) by Jack Heath

Shock Wave by Jack Heath is the second in the Pick Your Fate adventure series. If you're older, you may recall the Choose Your Adventure series from the 90s. Shock Wave is that type of book, in which you must keep making decisions that alter your path and leap around the book till you succeed or fail. This second installment in the series for middle graders (I have not read the first) is a wild ride . . . repeatedly. 

The reader chooses to be one of two characters, a male or a female, as someone approaches in a boat, then decides what that character will do. The person in the boat is a woman who claims to be an agent in pursuit of thugs who are about to blow up the island on which the main character is attending camp. But is she really an agent? Should the reader, in character, run for help or go with her? Once that decision is made, new circumstances lead to further decisions that lead, eventually, to the reader's fate. Will your choices lead to your death or will you save the day?

I recently read a series of interconnected short stories by Jack Heath and said at the time that I would read anything he wrote. I loved the tension and excitement in that first read by Heath, 400 Minutes of Danger. I have not changed my mind. 

Having said that, I confess that I did not manage to find every "You survived!" ending before I grew tired of flipping back and forth, although I found most and got blown up only a couple times. 

Highly recommended - Loads of fun for the adventure-minded child or adult. Jack Heath's books would be perfect for children who are convinced that reading is boring because you absolutely, utterly cannot be bored reading one of his books but I would not limit this book to middle graders. Anyone who likes something challenging and adventurous will enjoy Jack Heath's writing. His books are so full of breathless action that I think they're particularly well suited to both adventure lovers and children who've lost interest in reading and need something genuinely heart-pounding to lure them back. 

While Shock Wave does have a feeling of being geared to a middle grade to high school audience, it's just so much fun seeing how things unfold that I'm sure adults who love adventure will enjoy it without giving the language level much thought, as I did. 

Both of my children would have loved Heath's books, particularly my eldest, who was an avid reader of the Choose Your Own Adventure series. My youngest went through a phase during which he had no interest in reading (you can imagine the angst on the part of Mom the Bookfool) and I'm sure he would have also loved anything and everything by Jack Heath. Adventure and survival were among those rare attributes that finally helped lure him back to the reading world. That and 19th century literature. Go figure. 

My thanks to Sterling Children's Books for the review copy!

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

400 Minutes of Danger by Jack Heath

• Nika is halfway up the face of a glacier when she realizes it's melting from the inside and there's only a sheer face of ice that will fail soon, inundating the village in which her parents work for Doctors Without Borders. But, she's too far away. Can she find a way to save the village from catastrophe?
• While on a field trip in a national park, Charith spots a man creeping around with a gun. He tells his teacher and they hastily board the bus but the man gets ahead of them and plants a bomb in the road, severing their brake line and sending them careening down the mountain with a kid at the wheel. 
• Nancy is standing on the deck of a cruise ship when an island that shouldn't exist materializes out of the mist. Spotted by the people on shore, they are pursued and hit with missiles. But, Nancy left her dog in her cabin. Can she get down to the lower deck to save her dog without going down with the sinking ship? 

These are just a few of the short stories in 400 Minutes of Danger by Jack Heath, a middle grade book that is so tense and action-packed that I would not advise limiting it to a middle grade audience. Each story plunks the reader right at the beginning of a terrifying, taut situation in which the main character has a limited amount of time to figure out how to save someone, complete a dangerous job, or just survive. 

Highly recommended - Whether you have an action-loving child, one who doesn't love reading that you're trying to tempt, or just need a book that's great for breaking a reading slump, 400 Minutes of Danger is a perfect, fast-paced and lively, often outlandish, read. It took a while for me to realize that the stories in 400 Minutes of Danger are interconnected, as the author slowly drops clues and then nicely gathers those clues and explains them in the final story. I appreciated the way he wrapped things up but I would have also been perfectly happy if the stories had no connection because they're so entertaining. 400 Minutes of Danger is a wild ride not to be missed. 

My thanks to Sterling Children's books for the review copy! 

I have one more Jack Heath book for review and I would have been perfectly thrilled if Sterling had sent me everything he's ever written. I'll keep my copy of 400 Minutes of Danger for when I'm in a reading slump as this kind of fast-paced adventure is exactly what I need sometimes to break the spell. And, I'll be reading the next Jack Heath book, soon! 

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Psi-Man: Mind-Force Warrior by David Peters, aka Peter David (Psi-Man #1)

I might have skipped reviewing this book completely if a friend hadn't asked me to review it (Hi, Tasha!). The first in a series of books about a man with psychic telekinetic powers, Psi-Man: Mind-Force Warrior is a book I plucked out of a box of my son's books when we were cleaning and rearranging the contents of our guest room closet, a couple weeks ago. Published in 1990, the book takes place in what was then a world 30 years in the future . . . 2020! OK, 2021, also.

Psi-Man's name is Chuck Simon and he's a coach and gym teacher working in a high school. When a student he's known to be reliably present and dutiful doesn't show up for class, Chuck is concerned. And, when he finds the student looking drugged while talking to a shifty stranger, he suspects something dangerous is happening and intervenes. What Chuck doesn't know is that a shadowy government agency has heard of his natural ability. They want to train him to use his special talent to kill. But, first they need to test him to see if he's as powerful as they think he is.

After things go horribly wrong, Chuck agrees to go with the men who claim they'll teach him to control his powers. But, when Chuck finds out the truth, will he be able to escape the well-guarded compound in which he and his new friend (a German Shepherd with whom he can communicate telepathically) have been housed?

All of this is told as a flashback after a scene that takes place in 2021. So, it's basically all set-up for the series, which at least continued for 5 more books. Kiddo owns 5 including the first (one is missing) and I suspect we got the first one at a secondhand book shop because I remember how difficult it was to track down the others at a reasonable price.

What Tasha wanted to know was how close did the author come to predicting what happens in 2020? I mentioned that he was somewhat prescient in some ways and laughably off-base in others. For example, someone rewinds a tape on page 90 of Psi-Man: Mind-Force Warrior:

He sat back, steepling his fingers, and watched intently as Jeffries rewound the tape and started it over again. 

But, payment has gone fully digital. Here's a quote I marked because I found it fascinating:

He sorted through other books, including out-of-date texts on currency. Now there had been another superb idea. Once the ID nature of the Cards had worked out so well, hard money had fallen into such disuse that it was practically obsolete. Everyone had accounts tied in to their cards, and salaries were paid directly into those accounts. Every purchase was deducted from the accounts, as were charges for such services as phone, electricity, and ash removal. 

~ p. 54

So, you can see the author came close. While there's no standard ID card that absolutely everyone owns (this takes place in the US), obviously we have direct deposit and services that are set to make automatic deductions. He didn't anticipate the Internet but did think to imagine that cash would be used less. The "ash removal" bit has to do with the dystopian aspect of 2020 in this fictional world, a world so polluted that the sun almost never breaks through the smoky haze that hangs everywhere.

Also, this is hilarious if you recall Dan Quayle:

Standing nearby was Quint. His arms were folded, and he was leaning against the base of a statue of former President Quayle. 

~ p. 104

And, there's this one moment that will make the people watching for a plague within its pages chuckle:

The sun glinted off the highly polished buildings, bathing them in a corona of light. 

~ p. 175

OK, that's as close as you get to coronavirus. Nope, he didn't predict a pandemic. But, it was funny to see the word "corona" because that obviously is a trigger word at the moment.

Highly recommended to people who like pulp-fictiony action novels - Let's face it, this is not stellar writing and it's not meant to be. It's pure, over-the-top fun with an action hero who has powers in sort of an X-Men vein but without any team of buddies with similar powers, just his faithful, telepathic dog. The dog has some amazing powers, too.

I don't know if I'll read more of the Psi-Man series but it made for a really nice mental break read. I like to step outside my comfort zone and throw in something I wouldn't normally read, now and then, just for a change of pace. It really lifted my spirits in an unexpected way. I think that was mostly because it's just a fun, action read that's not taxing but also because I enjoyed seeing how someone visualized 2020 when it was decades in his future. It was quite fun noting the differences between David Peters' imaginary world and our real one.
©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monstrous Devices by Damien Love

In Monstrous Devices by Damien Love, when Alex's grandfather sends him a robot, Alex is not surprised. He's been collecting robots for years. But, this one is different -- older, unique, even a bit creepy. And, it has a secret.

Alex's grandfather shows up in England shortly after Alex receives both the robot and an unexpected visit from two dangerous little robots that attack Alex. He'll have to miss a bit of the school term but it's almost over and Grandfather's in a hurry. So Alex quickly goes along with his Grandfather's scheme and they take the Chunnel train to Paris. There, they hope to stop a very bad man and his entourage, who use deadly robots to get what they want. As they travel, Grandad tells Alex stories, things that are are connected to the robot's secret, and bits of history that relate in some way. He tells him about the first robot ever made, in Prague, and the story of a missing robot, one of a set of three.

From England to Paris to Prague, Alex and his grandfather chase down clues, run and dodge dangerous flying robots, a man who can jump long distances, and two beefy bald men, as well as a little girl who has control of a large number of fliers (flying robots) with sharp edges and hooks. All are after the robot Grandad sent to Alex because only that robot can help them acquire something dangerous in the name of power.

Highly recommended - Monstrous Devices is an adventurous, riveting middle reader with so much action that I occasionally yearned for the slower chapters that served to allow this reader to catch her breath. It's exciting. Alex is bullied at the beginning of the book but by the afterword, he has come into his own. I enjoyed Alex's character arc and the lighthearted grandfather who always does something and then tells Alex, "You should never do this. Very unhealthy. Could get you killed." Grandfather made me smile. A nice blend of action, adventure, and humor.

Below the title it says, "Beware of things that go click in the night," in case you can't read the tiny print.

©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.