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Gabriel has never been the most ordinary slave laboring at Virginia's Brookfield Plantation.  As the "milk brother" of the master's son, he has spent much time in the Great House, playing with Thomas Henry Prosser, being doted on by Mrs. Prosser, even learning to read and write.  As he grows, Gabriel realizes that his "busy mind" will never be content on a plantation, that he, himself, will never be free unless he can be his own man.  After working in Richmond as an apprentice blacksmith, he becomes even more certain—he needs his freedom.  But he can't leave without his family, so he plans to buy escape for all of them, starting with Nanny, the washerwoman who will soon become his wife.  

When Gabriel's plans go awry, he decides to take a more aggressive stand.  He's heard about Touissant-Louverture, a former slave whose successful fight for freedom abolished slavery in Haiti.  He's also heard rumbles from white dissenters in Richmond.  If all who oppose slavery fought it boldly, wouldn't the leaders of Virginia and the U.S. hear their pleas?  As Gabriel battles for the rights he knows he deserves as a human being, he'll learn just how much freedom costs—in blood, sweat and tears.

Come August, Come Freedom (available September 11, 2012), a historical YA novel by Gigi Amateau, brings the cruelty and injustice of slavery to life with spare prose and poignant scenes.  Gabriel is a sympathetic character, not just because he's owned by another man, but because he's brave, loyal and true.  Although his story is difficult to read, it reminds us of the price real slaves paid for the right to be their own masters.  That being said, I didn't love Come August, Come Freedom.  The prose is a little too skimpy and distancing for my taste.  While I cared about Gabriel, I didn't know him enough to really become invested in his story.  Because of this, Gabriel's tale just didn't pack the kind of punch other books of this type have had.  It is a quick read, though, and one that has stuck in my mind nonetheless.  Overall, though, there are many other books about slavery that spoke to me stronger than this one did.  

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson; Dear America: A Picture of Freedom by Patricia C. McKissack; Day of Tears by Julius Lester; Freedom Stone by Jeffrey Kluger; Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende; and other stories about slavery)

Grade:  C+

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  PG-13 for language (no F-bombs), violence (including physical/sexual abuse) and mild sexual content

To the FTC, with love:  I received an ARC of Come August, Come Freedom from the generous folks at Candlewick Press.  Thank you!

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Things take a turn for the worse when Benny's teacher enters Dennis Acres in a contest for America's Most Charming Small Town.  With everyone in town putting the pressure on Benny's dad to clean up, Benny doesn't know what to expect—salvation or disaster?

Homesick (available September 18, 2012), a new middle grade novel by Kate Klise, is a quick, quirky story about a boy and his strangled relationship with his father.  Using the issue of compulsive hoarding as a backdrop, Klise weaves a tale that asks the reader to consider what's really important in life.  Young audiences likely won't care about the book's lesson, they'll simply be drawn to Benny with his authentic voice, his heart-tugging plight, and his cast of oddball friends.  The very contrived ending kind of soured me on the story, but, all in all, I enjoyed Homesick.   

(Readalikes:  Reminded me of Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu and Keepsake by Kristina Riggle)

Grade:  B-

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  PG for mild language (no F-bombs) and intense situations

To the FTC, with love:  I received an ARC of Homesick from the generous folks at Feiwel and Friends (an imprint of Macmillan).  Thank you!   

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After years of war and chaos, things in the U.S. have finally settled down.  As long as citizens comply with the Moral Statutes—new laws governing everything from what people can read to how they're allowed to dress to which religion they're able to practice—they're safe.  Breaking the rules means paying a hefty fine, being sent to prison, or worse.  If soldiers from the Federal Bureau of Reformation (FBR) take you away, chances are you'll never be heard from again.  

Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller's seen enough people disappear to know how serious the government is about upholding the laws, no matter how ridiculously strict they may be.  So, she does her best to stay under the radar, doing nothing that might draw the FBR's attention to her and her rebellious single mother.  It's not easy.  In fact, it's impossible.  Soldiers soon arrest Ember's mother for violating Article 5 (having children out of wedlock).  Now a piece of government property, Ember's taken to a girl's reformatory run by an anti-feminist group called the Sisters of Salvation.  She knows she can't stay there, knows she has to escape and find her mother—but how?  No one's ever made it out of the reformatory before aging out at 18.  Not alive, anyway.  Maybe she won't survive an escape attempt either, but she has to try.

As Ember battles the brutal soldiers of a fanatical government, she'll have to decide who to trust and what to risk in order to save herself and her mother.

Article 5, the first book in a new YA dystopian trilogy by newcomer Kristen Simmons, offers a premise with some unique possibilities.  Unfortunately, the book leaves most of those unexplored, focusing instead on Ember's incarceration and subsequent flight across several states.  So many YA dystopians have this exact plot that it makes Article 5 feel dull and unoriginal.  Intriguing characters can often save the day in such novels, but not in this one—Ember's whiny, selfish and irritatingly naive.  The rest of the cast are flat and/or stereotypical.  All in all, Article 5 disappointed me.  I was hoping for something unique and, although the story could have gone in some interesting directions, it just didn't.  Maybe subsequent books will, but I don't think I'll be sticking with this series long enough to find out.      

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of Eve by Anna Carey, as well as Ashfall and Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin)

Grade:  C

If this were a movie, it would be rate:  PG-13 for language (no F-bombs), violence and mild sexual innuendo/content

To the FTC, with love:  I received a finished copy of Article 5 from the generous folks at Tor Teen (a division of Tor/Forge).  Thank you!