Torrie says: "Jim Lynch, in his fictional debut, explores life on the shores of Puget Sound as seen through the eyes of a 13-year-old boy named Miles. I am not usually a fan of "coming of age" novels, but I found Miles to be surprisingly endearing and Lynch manages to avoid most of the pitfalls of the quirky child narrator. Miles' true passion is the ocean, about which he has an incredible depth of knowledge. An insomniac, he spends hours alone at night exploring the bay outside his house in a rickety old canoe. As the narrator, Miles is ostensibly telling his own story, but the main characters in this book are the myriad creatures inhabiting Puget Sound. Lynch makes even the most mundane of these animals seem beautiful and fascinating, and the heart of the book lies in this poetic description of the tidal world. The Highest Tide is an engaging read for both adults and teens."

Torrie says: "It is 1943 and 11-year-old Dewey Kerrigan is being sent to live with her father, who is involved in a top-secret governmental project in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Over the next few years Dewey gets to know the scientists

Torrie says: "'The City' is a bustling metropolis with diners, banks, jewelry stores and even a small newspaper. The people who inhabit it are ordinary in just about every way except for the countless different ways they got to the city - for example, by crossing a desert of living sand, riding a trolley through a forest of giraffes, or falling into an ocean the color of dried cherries. Also, they are all aware of the fact that they are dead. The City is the place where the nearly departed reside for as long as someone is still alive to remember them. The Brief History of the Dead alternates between the City's residents and Laura Byrd, a wildlife expert who is stranded in Antarctica. I don't want to reveal too much about the connection between the two stories; the secrets are best revealed between the pages of the book. I will say this is an amazingly enjoyable read, with an intriguing concept and riveting plot. The perspectives of the living and the dead are woven together with bits of mystery, romance, adventure and humor. Long after the story is finished you will be pondering the many questions surrounding life and death, survival and destruction. I've never read anything quite like it, and I devoured every page."