A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff

Target audience: Middle Reader
Rating: Dragon
 

Cady lives in a magical land where most people have a special talent, those without talents are called Fair. Cady’s talent is baking cakes, in fact, her skill is so formidable she need only look at someone to be able to bake that person’s perfect cake. Miss Mallory’s talent is matching orphans with the perfect family. Cady is the last remaining orphan at the House for Lost Girls in Poughkeepsie, NY. Her adoption sets into motion a destiny that leads her to the Lost  Luggage Emporium, multiple powder blue suitcases, and an apartment building where young Marigold desperately searches for her special talent. The Owner is a Talent Thief putting everyone within his reach at terrible risk. This delightful tale is told from multiple viewpoints with Cady’s cake recipes sprinkled throughout. Katie Honaker easily conveys the warmth and charm with a well paced narrative. She uses pitch and tone to indicate slow and fast changes in the dialogue making the listener feel as if he or she is part of the story. Each recipe is accompanied by cheerful, jaunty music and the addition of baking sounds like beating eggs, clatter of pots and pans in the kitchen during the instruction part is pure genius. The author  has created a puzzle of seemingly random events and people and with slow precision has untangled these knots to reveal a large interconnected circle of family, friends, destinies and a place of belonging. Recommend to fans of “Savvy” by Ingrid Law. (This audio was provided by Penguin Audio)

Audiobook details:

Read by Katie Honaker
Publisher/Date: Penguin Audio 2/15/13
Unabridged
Listening length: 4 hrs., 9 mins.

 

Wonder show by Hannah Barnaby

274 pgs.

Target audience: Young Adult
Rating: Wizard

It’s 1939 and the circus has come to town, bringing wonders for all ages. Young Portia goes with her father who is so enamored with what he sees that when the group pulls up stakes to leave, he takes off as well promising to return. Thirteen-year-old Portia, now run all out of family members, is shunted off to live at McGreavey’s Home for Wayward Girls. She and her fellow occupants are treated as little more than slaves by the miserly director, only known as Mister. Driven to desperation, Portia sets out on her own determined to find the one family member she has left, her dad. Her only clue is an announcement for a nearby circus and sideshow. This is her chance, she thinks, surely she’ll find her dad there. Among the freaks, marvels and normals she finds a home. Her role is to help Jackal with the bally where she uses her storytelling skills to win over the crowd. The story is told predominantly from Portia’s perspective with occasional chapters told by performers at Mosco’s Traveling Wonder Show. Although this makes for a disjointed style, it gives more depth to her growing relationships with those at the circus and shows how her new family evolves. This is a unique and quaint story which will ignite young imaginations and foster dreams of living under the Big Top. (This book provided for review by Children's Lit www.childrenslit.com).