Stand Tall, Abe Lincoln

School Library Journal Review: Starred Review. Gr 1?4?This account of Lincoln's childhood is written in fast-paced, short sentences. St. George, author of So You Want to Be President? (Philomel, 2000), uses a folksy, conversational style and incorporates old-fashioned words such as "ignoramus" and "dunderheads" to add to the period feel. She chose incidents from Lincoln's […]

Change of Heart : a Novel

Publishers Weekly: Picoult bangs out another ripped-from-the-zeitgeist winner, this time examining a condemned inmate's desire to be an organ donor. Freelance carpenter Shay Bourne was sentenced to death for killing a little girl, Elizabeth Nealon, and her cop stepfather. Eleven years after the murders, Elizabeth's sister, Claire, needs a heart transplant, and Shay volunteers, which […]

A Prisoner of Birth

Publishers Weekly: Bestseller Archer (Kane and Abel) pays homage to Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristoin this delicious updating of the adventure classic. Four upper-crust friends from Cambridge University known as the Musketeers conspire to frame Danny Cartwright, an illiterate London East Ender, for the murder of Danny's oldest friend and brother-in-law to be, Bernie […]

Curse of the Spellmans

Publishers Weekly: In the two years that have passed since the action in Lutz's hit debut, The Spellman Files(2007), zany Isabel Spellman, who works for the family PI firm in San Francisco, has become "a somewhat responsible member of society." Unfortunately, she's also become obsessed with "Subject" (aka John Brown), a next-door neighbor who she's […]