Raven's Gate by Anthony Horowitz

I just Finished Raven's Gate and it was a good fantasy story. I don't normally read fantasy, but I enjoyed Horowitz's Alex Rider series so much I wanted to try something else by him. The main character's name is Matt and he is caught after trying to steal DVDs from a warehouse. This gets him put into a program called the L.E.A.F Project where he will be sent to live with a family for a while and help them out and go to school. He is assigned to this woman named Mrs. Deverill who lives outside of the town of Lesser Malling on a dingy farm. She is mean and makes him work all the time. Matt wants to escape but can't figure out how. Then strange things start happening. Matt wakes up in the middle of the night hearing chanting and sees a glow in the woods. What is going on? He tries to find the source and comes across an old abandoned nuclear power station called Omega 1. What does it have to do with what is happening around him? Why does Mrs. Deverill want him? She obviously doesn't like him but she won't let him leave. Is there any way Matt can escape or will something awful happen before he can?

Behind Rebel Lines: the Incredible Story of Emma Edmonds, Civil War Spy, by Seymour Reit

If there was a war going on would you feel it was your duty to fight for the side you felt was right? That is how Emma Edmonds felt and this is her story. The cause she felt strongly about was slavery and the war was the Civil War. As you know, women weren’t allowed to fight or be near the fighting. To get around this and do her part Emma cuts her hair, dresses up as a man named Franklin Thompson and joins the Union Army. Luckily for her they did not give physical examinations to the recruits. Emma is assigned to the infirmary to help the sick and wounded. One day she sees a sign asking for spies for the army and she decides to apply. She is chosen to spy on the rebel camps. On her first assignment she dresses up as a slave named Cuff, and so begins her career as a Union spy. Will she be caught? Will her true identity be discovered? To find out what happens read Behind Rebel Lines by Seymour Reit. --Carrie Falk, Shenandoah Public Library
144p., New York: Gulliver Books, 2001. 0152164278

Backwater, by Joan Bauer

Backwater by Joan Bauer (Grade 8)
185p., New York: Putnam’s, 1999. 0399231412

Ivy Breedlove has grown up in a family full of aggressive arguing bullheaded lawyers. She never has any peace and they all expect her to take up the family profession, as well. Ivy wants nothing to do with being a lawyer. She is fascinated with history and learning from the past. In fact, Ivy has been working on writing the Breedlove family history. She has information on everyone but her Aunt Josephine who disappeared years ago. Whenever her father or uncle talks about Aunt Josephine they use words like crazy and eccentric. People say that Ivy is a lot like Josephine too. Ivy decides to set out to meet this aunt she has never seen. Josephine lives the life of a hermit on the side of a mountain. Ivy hires a guide named Mountain Mama and starts out on the adventure of her life. What will happen on the way? What will Ivy find out about Aunt Josephine and more importantly what will she find out about herself in the Backwater? --Carrie Falk, Shenandoah Public Library

Welcome to Rad Reads for Teens!

Rad Reads is the place to come to find good books for teens to read! (Well, and adults will probably like many of them, too!) Librarians in Iowa are always on the lookout for good books, always reading, always ready to connect readers with the right book.