The Book of Dust, Volume One: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman

This is the story of Malcolm Polstead, son of a tavern owner, friend of nuns, and protector of Lyra Belacqua. About a decade before Lyra's adventures in Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy she is a baby being cared for by a priory of nuns in Oxford. But sinister people are trying to take Lyra away from the priory and Malcolm knows it. When a massive flood hits Oxford Malcolm and Alice, a teenager who works in Malcolm's family tavern, save Lyra and escape down river in Malcolm's canoe, La Belle Sauvage. They must struggle to stay alive and get Lyra to the safety of her father.

I was not impressed with this book, especially since I love the original trilogy. This is part one of a two-part prequel to His Dark Materials, an amazing Young Adult trilogy set in a parallel universe. I felt like Pullman was trying to make this story just as magical and fantastic as the other stories, and he couldn't quite pull it off. Parts of the story, like the giant flood, don't make sense no matter what universe you're in. It was just interesting enough to keep me reading and since I need to know how the adventure ends, I'll read part two when it's published. 

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

This is a collection of fifteen Norse myths, focusing on Odin, Thor, and Loki as well as the beginning and the end of the world. These adventure stories of the gods are funny, entertaining, and great for younger readers. Nowadays most of us know the Marvel comics/movie versions of these gods, which is a bit nicer than the original stories. I like the parallels to other religions and mythologies (like Odin sacrificing himself to himself like Jesus). Some of the stories are absolutely absurd but will at least give you a good laugh. I look forward to introducing my son to this when he gets a little bit older. 

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova

On her Deathday, Alex is supposed to get her family's magical blessing and be welcomed as a bruja. But Alex doesn't want her power, so she plans a ceremony to rid herself of magic on her Deathday. Instead of losing her powers, she loses her entire family in the blink of an eye. She learns they've been taken to the realm of Los Lagos, where a monster known as the Devourer is waiting for her and her magic. Alex descends into the underworld, a place between life and death, where she must rescue her family (both living and dead) before their souls are devoured and lost forever.

Labyrinth Lost is a great adventure story that mixes the old with the new. Bruja is Spanish for witch and in many Latin American countries it's not something to be proud of, but in Brooklyn, in a day and age where magic is fading and technology is everywhere, a new type of hero is born. With issues that speak to the poor, people of color, and the LGBT+ community, this is a book filled with diversity, just like our modern world. 

Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Maguire's Wicked is the life story of Elphaba, who we know as the Wicked Witch of the West. Her life begins rough, being born green and all. She is the oldest daughter of a Unionist missionary and spends most of her childhood traveling with her family in the Quadling region of Oz. Elphaba attends Shiz University, where she meets and rooms with Galinda, who will eventually change her name to Glinda following a tragedy. After a disastrous meeting with the Wizard in the Emerald City, Elphaba drops out of Shiz and disappears. Her family, especially her younger disabled sister Nessarose, is devastated over her disappearance and wonder if she died. Elphaba surfaces again, still in the Emerald City working for an underground anti-Wizard movement (some might call it a terrorist cell). After a plan goes horribly wrong, Elphaba disappears again before wandering the farthest areas of Oz. She has begun dressing like and calling herself a witch so people will leave her alone. She is taken in by the family of an old friend from Shiz University and she feels like she's part of a family again. She begins to hear rumors of her sister Nessarose, now known throughout Oz as the Wicked Witch of the East, and decides to visit her sister. The sisters don't part on good terms and before they see each other again a storm rips through Munchkinland and a house falls on Nessarose, killing her. In the days and weeks that follow, Elphaba makes a number of poor, rash decisions and we all know how that story ends.

Wicked is a wonderfully written prequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, so engaging that it was turned into an award-winning Broadway musical. Elphaba is judged from the minute she's born and her green skin seems to make people assume she's a bad person. (She's got a bit of an attitude, but who wouldn't if everyone treated them suspiciously.) Nessarose became wicked out of her belief that she was some kind of prophet for her Unnamed God, while Elphaba was more misunderstood than wicked. It's a great story and already knowing the ending doesn't spoil a word of it. 

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

A school shooting shatters a small town, as it always does. The teenage shooter is arrested and brought to trial, with his living victims testifying against him. But the most important witness doesn't remember what happened, and she's terrified she will remember. This story tries to answer the question of how and why does this happen so often in America; what causes these troubled teens to lash out?

Nineteen Minutes follows multiple characters throughout the story, beginning on the day of the school shooting. We see the shooting and immediate aftermath before Picoult rewinds seventeen years and shows us the childhood of the shooter and his classmates. As the story jumps between the past and present we understand exactly what drove him to mass murder and we can even feel sympathy for him. Another viewpoint we get post-shooting is that of the shooter's parents, especially his mother. She is blamed by society for her son's actions because it's perceived to be a fault in her parenting. This is such a common belief that I've found myself thinking the same thing in the past. How could the parents let this happen? It's the number one question we all ask and we like to believe we're good parents and our child would never do something like that. Every parent believes this, but maybe we don't have as much control as we'd like to believe.