Review Dump Part 1 - Tween Reads

[kikotei]

Another book review dump. Links provided with each review back to the original review I wrote on TBRB for work. Which also, we are just that much more legit now. ^_^ We're starting to get publishers asking if we're interested in looking at ARCs for early review. Wheee!

Alienated by David O. Russell and Andrew Auseon
California junior high school students Gene and Vince have their own newsletter that they publish every week. The only problem, the two social misfits write stories about the aliens living in and around their town of Santa Rosa. Aliens that no one else believes in, not even the handful of classmates that help with the homemade tabloid.

Something strange is happening to the aliens living in Santa Rosa, shortly after each is interviewed by Gene and Vince they disappear. And that’s not the only weird thing going on, Gene’s finger prints are starting to fall off and he’s got this odd craving to eat tin foil. But when the two boys get into an argument over whether or not to publish a story about a guidance counselor and a centuries old intergalactic conflict their friendship may be damaged for good.

This is very much a boy book and reminded me a lot of MIB. Might be a great choice for middle school boys who like scifi/weird aliens but might be struggling with reading.
Original review

A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner
In this fourth installment of Turner’s ‘Queen’s Thief’ series the story’s focus turns to a character we have not seen since the first book, The Thief. Sophos was an unlikely heir to the throne of Sounis, selected as the crown prince by his childless uncle King Sounis, he grew up far more interested in poetry than leadership.

After their failure in The Thief to retrieve Hamiathes Gift for King Sounis, Sophos was practically exiled to one of Sounis’s islands, in hopes that his new tutors could reshape the boy into someone more suitable to taking over the throne. But while there, Sophos is betrayed, kidnapped and sold into slavery by a rebel baron.

Finally free of his burdens as heir, Sophos now has to make first real choice: to remain an anonymous slave for the rest of his life or escape and return to his old life. And if he does chose to return to life as the crown prince, how will he stop the civil war and save his people from invasion by the treacherous Mede Empire?

How much can I LOVE this series more. It's very very different. It's more political drama than adventure (though the 1st book had a fair amount of adventure). It's about the backroom deals, political marriages, and other things done by kings and queens.
Original review