Messenger: The Legend of Joan of Arc by Lee & Hart

Messenger: The Legend of Joan of Arc
GN L5159m
Tony Lee & Sam Hart

Acclaimed graphic-novel creators Tony Lee and Sam Hart present a dynamic retelling of the heroic and tragic tale of Joan of Arc.

It is 1424. France and England have been fighting for more than a hundred years, and Jehanne D’Arc experiences her first saintly vision. Even her parents think she's delirious—until her next vision allows them to save the village. From a small town to the besieged city of Orleans and on to the cathedral of Reims, Joan follows her faith and leads the French to victory after victory. But not everyone believes in the divine voices she hears. Some call her a heretic and want her burned at the stake. From the creators of Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood and Excalibur: The Legend of King Arthur comes a visually striking, action-packed story of a young woman facing the men who lead her country, her enemies’ deadly arrows, and her own fears, to become a heroine whose name would be remembered for centuries to come

(from publisher)

Saving Montgomery Sole by Mariko Tamaki

Saving Montgomery Sole
Fiction T15s
Mariko Tamaki

In sight not see
black light not be

This is the curious instruction that comes with the Eye of Know, the possibly powerful crystal amulet that Montgomery Sole buys online for $5.99. It’s also the next topic of discussion at Mystery Club (members: Monty and her two best friends, Thomas and Naoki), dedicated to the exploration of the strange and unexplained.

When Monty wears the Eye of Know, strange things happen, all targeted at people she despises. Maybe it will help Monty take down her newest enemy, a preacher who has come to save her town from so-called sinners—sinners like Monty’s moms. Or will its mysterious powers mean the end of the friendships Monty cherishes most?

Mariko Tamaki has created a thoughtful, funny, and painfully honest story about family, religion, ignorance, and other unsolved high school mysteries.

(from publisher)

The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry

The Passion of Dolssa
Fiction B4596p
Julie Berry

Dolssa is a young gentlewoman with uncanny gifts, on the run from an obsessed friar determined to burn her as a heretic for the passion she refuses to tame.

Botille is a wily and charismatic peasant, a matchmaker running a tavern with her two sisters in a tiny seaside town.

The year is 1241; the place, Provensa, what we now call Provence, France—a land still reeling from the bloody crusades waged there by the Catholic Church and its northern French armies.

When the matchmaker finds the mystic near death by a riverside, Botille takes Dolssa in and discovers the girl’s extraordinary healing power. But as the vengeful Friar Lucien hunts down his heretic, the two girls find themselves putting an entire village at the mercy of murderers.

(from publisher)

The Serpent King by Jeff Zinter

The Serpent King 

Fiction Z46s

Jeff Zinter 

Dill has had to wrestle with vipers his whole life—at home, as the only son of a Pentecostal minister who urges him to handle poisonous rattlesnakes, and at school, where he faces down bullies who target him for his father’s extreme faith and very public fall from grace.

The only antidote to all this venom is his friendship with fellow outcasts Travis and Lydia. But as they are starting their senior year, Dill feels the coils of his future tightening around him. Dill’s only escapes are his music and his secret feelings for Lydia—neither of which he is brave enough to share. Graduation feels more like an ending to Dill than a beginning. But even before then, he must cope with another ending—one that will rock his life to the core.

Debut novelist Jeff Zentner provides an unblinking and at times comic view of the hard realities of growing up in the Bible belt, and an intimate look at the struggles to find one’s true self in the wreckage of the past.

(from publisher)

The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz

The Hired Girl 

Laura Amy Schlitz 

Sch394h

Fourteen-year-old Joan Skraggs, just like the heroines in her beloved novels, yearns for real life and true love. But what hope is there for adventure, beauty, or art on a hardscrabble farm in Pennsylvania where the work never ends? Over the summer of 1911, Joan pours her heart out into her diary as she seeks a new, better life for herself—because maybe, just maybe, a hired girl cleaning and cooking for six dollars a week can become what a farm girl could only dream of—a woman with a future.

Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz relates Joan’s journey from the muck of the chicken coop to the comforts of a society household in Baltimore (Electricity! Carpet sweepers! Sending out the laundry!), taking readers on an exploration of feminism and housework; religion and literature; love and loyalty; cats, hats, and bunions.

(from publisher)

Vivian Apple Needs a Miracle (#2) by Katie Coyle

Vivian Apple Needs a Miracle (#2)
Katie Coyle

With the rapture predicted by the Church of America having passed, Vivian and Harpreet are two of the few who know the truth: that the rapture was staged and the believers who were chosen are either missing or dead. Can they stop Pastor Frick and the church's mad grab for power and control over society? 

Or will this rapture really be the beginning of the end. Vivian and Harpreet are idealistic teens who will stop at nothing to reveal the truth in this sequel to Vivian Apple at the End of the World (HMH, 2015). The characters are well rounded and believable and represent multiple personalities and ideologies. 

The plot is fast paced but difficult to follow for newcomers to the series. Religion—the lack of faith or unwavering belief in it—is a central component to the story line. Readers will be questioning their own belief systems and asking themselves just how far they would go to uncover the truth. Fans of the first volume will want to read this thought-provoking continuation. VERDICT A great addition to YA collections.

(from Publisher)

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly
Stephanie Oakes
Oa44s

The Kevinian cult has taken everything from seventeen-year-old Minnow: twelve years of her life, her family, her ability to trust. And when she rebelled, they took away her hands, too.

Now their Prophet has been murdered and their camp set aflame, and it's clear that Minnow knows something—but she's not talking. As she languishes in juvenile detention, she struggles to un-learn everything she has been taught to believe, adjusting to a life behind bars and recounting the events that led up to her incarceration. But when an FBI detective approaches her about making a deal, Minnow sees she can have the freedom she always dreamed of—if she’s willing to part with the terrible secrets of her past.

Gorgeously written, breathlessly page-turning and sprinkled with moments of unexpected humor, this harrowing debut is perfect for readers of Emily Murdoch's If You Find Me and Nova Ren Suma's The Walls Around Us, as well as for fans of Orange is the New Black.

(from Publisher)