ARC Reviews

I’ve been home sick for several days, and have been reading alot of the ARC’s I brought home from the conference. ARC’s (Advanced Reading Copies) are given out by publishers so that librarians could read them and decide which books they’d like to purchase for their own libraries.

Several of the ARC’s I’ve read over the past few days are for high school. I will recommend them to my local high school librarian, and didn’t write a review for them. However, I have found some really good ones suitable for Middle School in the pile that I will be purchasing for the Pollard library. Below are several reviews for these books. I will post more as I finish reading them.

ARC: Also known as Harper by Ann Haywood Leal

Harper Lee Morgan was named for the main character in “To kill a Mockingbird,” her mother’s favorite novel. Sometimes, Harper wishes her life was like the book. She loves to write poems, and has been looking forward to the annual poetry contest at school. Before her father walked out on her, her little 6 year old brother Hemingway and her mother, he used to tell her that her poems were no good and she shouldn’t bother writing anything, and wouldn’t give her permission to be in the contest. Harper’s life changes when her mother can’t pay the rent and they’re thrown out of their house. She’s now homeless, and when her mom loses her job and has to take more time to look for one, Harper has to leave school to take care of her little brother. It seems like her dreams of reading her poetry are dead forever.

 

ARC: Escape under the forever sky by Eve Yohalem

Lucy’s mother is the U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia. Since her mother spends so much time at business dinners, Lucy spends all her days alone – hating that she doesn’t get to have any adventures or enjoy the sights of Ethiopia. One day, she decides to sneak away with her friend and is kidnapped. She has to use her knowledge of animals and all she knows in order to survive those who want to kill her.

 

ARC: Jane in bloom by Deborah Lytton

No one ever pays attention to Jane, because she’s just boring and plain. Her sister, Lizzie, is beautiful, popular, and always at the center of attention. However, when Lizzie dies, a part of Jane dies with her. Jane finds that it’s even harder to live without her sister than it was to live with her. Through her sadness, Jane learns to see life in a different way and learns how to live once again.

 

ARC: Sloan sisters by Annabelle Vestry

Sheila and Lola feel like their lives have been ruined. Sheila is obsessed with fashion, while Lola is the ugly duckling of the family, but their lives changed when they are forced to leave their friends and life in London because their supermodel mom is marrying an American. Meanwhile, their new stepsister to be, Cate, is the supermodel of NYC and, as far as she’s concerned, nobody is going to take away that title. Andie wants to be her sister’s shadow. Between the four of them, life in NY will never be the same again. Do their parents really want to bring them together forever?

 

ARC: Academy 7 by Anne Osterlund

Aerin has escaped 6 years of brutal slavery on another planet. Dane has an angry father who’s a General in the Alliance but hates his own son. The two of them meet when they’re accepted to the prestigious Academy 7 school. There, while learning how to stay safe, they become friends, and soon begin to fall for each other. They also find themselves mixed up in a secret that’s so dangerous it could affect their entire universe.

 

ARC: Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith

Ida Mae Jones loves to fly planes, and wants to join the new WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) group organized by the Army, however, they only accept white women. Ida Mae has always had doors slammed in her life because she’s African American but, since she looks white, she decides to “pass,” (pretend to be white) so that she can live out her dream to fly while also helping to win the war. While she’s working as a WASP and changing the way men see women during World War II, Ida Mae learns some things about herself, what it really means to be true to oneself, and what it means to be African American in 1940’s America.