Reviews written by Joanne Mumley

I have to give credit whe credit is due. My male students kept telling me to read the first book in the series once it arrived in the media center. Although I was hesitant,they were right! I loved the first book so much that I had to run to the...

Since my high school days I have always loved Charlotte Brontë and most especially Jane Eyre; the Gothic romance, the mysterious woman in the attic, the haunted nature of the Yorkshire Moors. When I studied in England I lived in York very close to the moors in the novel....

Fairly new to steampunk novels,, I was pleasantly surprised with Joe Golem and the Drowning City. Set in an alternate reality where New York City has been flooded, the story takes place in 1925. Molly, a spunky girl, works as an assistant to Felix Orlov. Although she has a trouble...

A world of adventure and danger, where the dark is actually filled with monsters out to get you- this is the world of The Dead Gentleman. Matthew Cody weaves a fantastic tale that leaves you on the edge of your seat. The reader hears the tale from an early 20th...

With current gas prices predicted to rise, Empty seemed timely. Every day we hear about the rise in gas prices, causing the prices of about everything to go higher as well. We hear discussions about alternative energy sources and about research, but will it be too alte. ...

I had read A Long Way Gone, a book about the lost boys of Sudan, awhile ago and often wondered if there was anything available for younger readers. I was looking for a book that could help educate my own students about life outside the United States. I then heard...

Image a future where people’s livelihood depends upon what is thrown away. People make money selling other people’s trash. They are born in the trash and they die as part of the trash. People construct houses made of old tries and string. Corruption is rampant and no one...

After first hearing about this book from our school media specialists, I was intrigued. I had just finished The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman and Tales Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz and was looking for another "Fairy Tale" genre book. Cinder's plot line in parts is predictable,which allows the...

Not usually a fan of zombie novels,but this one had me hooked from the start. What I thought was going to be a predictable zombie story line turned out to false. Rot and Ruin takes a fresh look at what our world would be like after the ultimate zombie apocalypse....

I have to admit, this is not my typical book choice. Usually I will run to the nearest science-fiction or dystopian novel out there. I heard a lot of buzz about this book and decided to give it a try. To be honest, my main reason to not pick up...

Usually when a novel is marked as a companion and not a sequel, the novel is strong enough to stand on its own. This is not the case with Invisible Sun. At first I found this novel difficult to get into. It did not hook me...

People say that money equals power and that the lines of power must be maintained. But, seventeen-year-old Jason Weatherby doesn't agree, and he risks everything to prove that power belongs in the hands of many - not few. The Chamber of Five by Michael Harmon is a...

With a book market flooded with tales of Vampires and Zombies, Extraordinary* The True Story of My Fairygodparent,Who Almost Killed Me, and Certainly Never Made Me a Princess was a fantastic surprise! Adam Selzer has created a story line with the perfect mixture of humor, suspense, vampires, zombies and even...

The Running Dream is an inspiring novel of a young girl’s drive to reach her dreams- to run again. Jessica loses her leg in a terrible bus accident and must deal with the challenges and hardships along the way. From the moment I picked up the...

I heard so many great things about this novel, but was hesitant that it would be too similar to all the other Dystopian novels I have read. True,Matched's dystopian society is similar to others. A world where information is controlled- everything is controlled. The government tells...