The Apothecary

by Maile Meloy

Age group: 10+
Rating: ****` (4.5 stars)
Type: Fantasy/historical fiction

It's 1952. Janie Scott used to live in Los Angeles, but when the government started following her home from school because her parents were communists, her family moved to London. Her school is strange, and she doesn't really like it in England until she meets Benjamin Burrows, an interesting boy who dreams of being a spy and whose father is the apothecary down the street. Under the cover of playing chess, they spy on a Russian, Mr. Shiskin, the father of Sergei, a boy at Janie's school. And one day, he leaves a message in a newspaper, which is then picked up by... Benjamin's father! The message reads:

Jin Lo has been taken. You'll be next. 

Janie and Benjamin discover a mysterious book called the Pharmacopoeia, filled with recipes for magical potions written in Greek and Latin. The elixirs are more incredible than ever--invisibility potions, transformation potions, potions to make you temporarily mute and potions to turn you into salt. But bad people, evil people who want the book for the wrong reasons are coming. Janie and Benjamin must protect the book, keep it away from Russian spies (who could be anyone) and stop a nuclear bomb from exploding. But they can't do it alone--enlisting the help of a snobby girl, a scruffy street boy, and many magic elixirs, Janie and Benjamin embark on an incredible adventure.

I remember a really long time ago my mom got this book out for me and I was not interested in it at all. Now, I have absolutely no idea why. What really makes this book interesting is the potions. They turn it from a regular historical fiction into a fantasy historical fiction, which really can make all the difference. It's a really great story as well. The Apothecary had a fast buildup. It got exciting quickly and stayed that way. Maile Meloy is a very talented writer. I recommend this book highly.

Beauty Queens

by Libba Bray
Age group: 13+
Rating: **** (4 stars)
Type: realistic fiction, mystery

The fifty contestants in the Miss Teen Dream Pageant are on their way to the competition, when their plane unexpectedly crash-lands on an uninhabited island covered in tropical plants and animals.
What a way to start the day! Most of the girls die in the crash, and others are wounded. Miss New Mexico even got an airplane tray stuck in her forehead! Finally, Miss Texas, a girl named Taylor Rene Crystal Hawkins takes charge. She idolizes Ladybird Hope, former Miss Teen Dream, and supposedly knows exactly how to run a group of beauty queens abandoned on an island. But even with a leader, the girls don't have much experience in survival skills. Should they be practicing their dance routine or hunting for food? Sunbathing in bikinis or building a shelter? Each girl has their own specific problems, from dealing with transgender-ness to having an obsessive mother to actually hating pageants and just joining so they can ruin it. Not all of them agree and get along, but somehow they have to manage... or else they die!
But not everything is what it seems... MoMo B. ChaCha, president of the Republic of ChaCha, is developing some sort of weapon to destroy The Corporation and... the Miss Teen Dream Contestants! And he may be having an affair with Ladybird Hope! Can the girls manage to get off this island and save themselves and save their world?
This book is really, really funny. For your entertainment, The Corporation provides many ads for their products throughout the book--Lady 'Stache Off, Git R Done, the TV show Patriot Daughters, and the movie Wedding Day 3: Third Time's the Charm--which are exceedingly funny and lighten the mood of the book, even with sinister things happening in the book. Even if this book does have some swear words in it, I definitely recommend it. It shows the bad side of things like beauty pageants. I have heard that the audiobook version of this is very good as well.