This Librarian's Quick Picks: Children of Exile

Children of Exile
by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Simon & Schuster (2016)
Middle grade science fiction

Summary:

For the past twelve years, adults called “Freds” have raised Rosi, her younger brother Bobo, and the other children of their town, saying it is too dangerous for them to stay with their parents, but now they are all being sent back. Since Rosi is the oldest, all the younger kids are looking to her with questions she doesn’t have the answers to. She’d always trusted the Freds completely, but now she’s not so sure.

Why You'll Love It:

• It's a perfect next read for kiddos who loved Haddix's Shadow Children series.
• Haddix's tone and language and the absence of graphic violence make this an ideal selection for younger readers eager for a dystopian novel. 
• Fast-paced action, plot twists, and cliff-hanger chapter endings will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

Who Should Read It:

Great for 4th-8th graders.

What Else You Should Read:

• City of Ember series by Jeanne DuPrau
• School of the Dead by Avi
• Psi Chronicles series by Lana Krumwiede

Spread the middle grade love! Visit Marvelous Middle Grade Monday for more great MG literature.

Books by Theme: If You Like Alan Bradley...

Flavia de Luce, Canadian author Alan Bradley's precocious 11-year-old chemistry-loving creation, has charmed mystery readers since her award-winning debut in 2009's The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. In a small 1950s English village, clever Flavia tinkers around the chemistry lab in the large country home she shares with her eccentric widower father and quarrelsome older sisters -- and she occasionally solves a murder. While there isn't another sleuth quite like daring, droll Flavia, some of the books below might interest her smitten fans.

Inspector Armand Gamache mysteries by Louise Penny

The Armand Gamache and Flavia De Luce mysteries are intelligent, character centered, cozies set in small towns. Although the locales and time periods differ, the conversational tone and feel are similar. They also share casts of eccentric secondary characters as well as unique investigators.

Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes mysteries by Laurie R. King

If you prefer your settings English and your young heroines fearless, the precocious young women in these historical mystery series should be your cup of tea. However, while Mary Russell ages throughout that series, 11-year-old Flavia de Luce does not.

Maisie Dobbs novels by Jacqueline Winspear

Despite the age difference between these two sleuths, who investigate during different historical periods, readers who enjoy intelligent characters, well-depicted British settings, and strong, resourceful female protagonists may enjoy both the 11-year-old Flavia and the slightly older Maisie Dobbs.

Books By Theme: British Crime Fiction

Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes was a confirmed bachelor. However, Laurie R. King has created a “fictitious” wife for Holmes’s later years, the intrepid Mary Russell, who, at an early age, becomes an informal student of Holmes and later his independent and scholarly spouse. Together, the two sleuths sharpen their considerable deductive powers through conversation and battles of intellect. There are currently six novels in the series, starting with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice.

Jane Austen herself “stars” as a sleuth in Stephanie Barron’s sprightly series that re-creates well-structured plots and social intrigue set in English country houses—the hallmark of Austen’s fiction. The debut, Jane And The Unpleasantness At Scargrave Manor, finds Miss Austen using her acute powers of observation as a natural tool for detecting the crime beneath genteel Regency façades.

The Bow Street Runners, founded by novelist and magistrate Henry Fielding (of Tom Jones fame), could be considered the first professional constables and were the precursors to Scotland Yard. Fielding’s blind brother John took over as chief magistrate at London’s Bow Street Court in 1754. Sir John’s fictional—and eponymous—counterpart is at the heart of Bruce Alexander’s rousing 18th-century historical series, launched by the aptly titled Blind Justice.

Victorian England’s attitudes and mores, as well as London’s dark shadows, are well depicted in Anne Perry’s two Victorian detective series. The first, featuring Inspector Thomas Pitt and his wife, Charlotte, debuted with The Cater Street Hangman. The second series, with police detective and later private investigator William Monk, is set in the London of a few decades earlier, with the initial volume being The Face Of A Stranger.

Embodying the Victorian woman explorer is Elizabeth Peters’s intrepid Egyptologist and amateur sleuth Amelia Peabody. Starting with Crocodile In The Sandbank, in which Amelia travels to Egypt where she meets and marries archaeologist Radcliffe Emerson, ancient and contemporary crimes traverse the more than a dozen books in the series, as do such geopolitical realities as colonial wars and international espionage.   


~ For more themed book lists, check out Listless by One Librarian's Book Reviews and Listed by Once Upon a Bookshelf ~

~ All summaries from Library Journal ~