Pie by Sarah Weeks

This was a nice change of pace after reading the emotional "Jefferson's Sons."  This is an intermediate Golden Sower for 2013.  It is a nice read that includes a mystery...who is searching for Aunt Polly's secret pie crust recipe. People in this town are "pie-crazy." (as am I)  Included in the book are lots of pie recipes which really made me hungry as I read it.  I really liked Alice, the main character.  Her mother does not understand her at all but Alice doesn't let that stop her.  She gets to know Charlie during this mystery and there were some chuckle out loud moments in this little book.

Jefferson's Sons by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Another YA Golden Sower checked off for me.  Boy did I like this book.  Jefferson's Sons is historical fiction about the children that Thomas Jefferson had with one of his slaves Sally Hemings.  I always found it disturbing that the man who wrote "all men are created equal" owned slaves.  I don't understand how anyone could ever be ok with owning another human being. This story took turns telling the story of several of Jefferson's children and their lives as they grew up as slaves.  Knowing who their father was but having to keep it a secret.  Reading this made me want to know more, so I went to some of the sites that the author suggests.  I wanted to know what happened to Sally's children and their children.

Dark Life by Kat Falls

Another great Golden Sower Nominee for this year.  Ty has lived on the ocean floor his entire life and now his world is being threatened by both outlaws and the "commonwealth" (the ruling body for this new world).  I loved the descriptions of Ty's underworld life.  There is talk of how kids raised "subsea" all have "dark gifts" that normal "topsiders" don't have.  There is talk of secret experiments on kids as well as exciting hunts for the outlaws.  I really enjoyed this book.  We have had it in the library for a couple of years and I just now got around to reading it.  We have book #2 in the series also.  It is called Rip Tide.

Epitaph Road by David Patneaude

Another YA Golden Sower for this year and an interesting take on the Dystopian world.  When I was a growing up in the 70s, there were no soccer leagues for girls.  My mom had to fight to get the boys soccer league to allow my sister and me to play on an all boys team.  Because of this, I know what it is like to be the "odd man out."  That is how Kellan feels only its not just in a single activity, it is within the entire world.  It is 2097 and because of a virus that hit 30 years ago 1/2 of the population has been wiped out...it just happens to be almost all of the male population.  Kellan lives in a world where women rule.  Would wars, poverty, violence and crime really disappear if only women were in charge?  I don't know about that, but I do know that I enjoyed this action packed book.  I liked how each chapter started with an epitaph (a statement about someone written in their memory, usually on a tombstone) of someone who died because of the virus.

Jessica'a Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

What a great book!  Jessica lives with her vegan parents on a "no kill" farm and has always known she was adopted.  When a gorgeous foreign exchange student shows up and tells her she is actually a vampire princess and his fiance through an age old pact, she is understandably skeptical.  This is one of those books where my feelings kept changing about the characters.  I liked how Jessica didn't immediately go all ga-ga over the supposed vampire prince.  I wasn't sure how to feel about Lucius, except his letters home to his uncle continually made me chuckle.  As the story progressed I started to like him more as you realize his upbringing didn't leave a lot of time for him to be a kid, even a vampire kid and how he was working more and more on just fitting in to this new teenage world.  I don't want to give anything away about how this story ends, you will just have to trust me and read it!

The Clockwork Three by Matthew J. Kirby

This is an intermediate Golden Sower for this year.  A couple of years ago this was at a book fair that I was running at the elementary school I taught at and a student raved about it.  It looked interesting but I just never got around to reading it and too bad for me, because it is a great book.  Guiseppe, Frederick and Hannah all live in a large city at a time when life was very hard for children.  Their lives become intertwined through a series of coincidences. This was one of those books I wished I could have read faster just so I could see how everything turned out!  I loved it!  If you like this, Matthew J. Kirby has written another book called IceFall that has gotten rave reviews by students, but I haven't had a chance to read.  I would trust them and go read it!

After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick

This is one of the Young Adult Golden Sowers for this year.  It is the sequel to "Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie."  Don't let this put you off the book, however, I didn't read the first one either and I had no trouble reading or understanding what was going on in this book. Jeffrey and Tad are best friends, they are also "the kids that had cancer."  They both have to deal with regular teen stuff as well as dealing with the after effects of the cancer treatment as well as the worry of it coming back.  This is a great story that I found very easy to read.