Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

Specialty bookshelf: Reviews of children's, thriller and mystery titles

Rocky Mountain News

Published June 26, 2008 at 6 p.m.

Text size  

More Books

More stories »

CHILDREN

Market Day

By Carol Foskett Cordsen; illustrated by Douglas B. Jones. Dutton Children's Books, $16.99, ages 3 and up. Grade: A

Fort Collins' Cordsen and British Columbia's Jones follow up their acclaimed The Milkman with another appealingly wholesome read-aloud. When the Benson family oversleeps on market day, they forget to feed the cow and hurry off to pick apples to sell at market. "Bread and butter. Apple jam. Hats on. Shoes on. Screen door slams." Harried and running late, they drive off without closing the farmyard gate. As they scramble to set up their apple boxes at the last open stand, they're oblivious to the stares and shouts of neighboring vendors. But as pies tip over, pea pods fly and tables wiggle, the commotion catches their attention. Their hungry cow is charging through the market. But the calm, collected Bensons know just what to do.

Final word: Like The Milkman, Market Day flows off the tongue and imparts its pace and rhythm to the person reading it.

-Jennifer Miller

THRILLERS

City of Thieves

By David Benioff. Viking, $24.95. Grade: A

Set during the 900-day siege of Leningrad during WWII, this wonderful story follows the misadventures of two young men caught in the horrors and absurdity of war. Thrown together in a secret police cell, Lev and Kolya believe they will be shot by their own countrymen in the morning. Instead they are offered a reprieve. They will be spared if they can find a dozen eggs to go into a wedding cake of a colonel's daughter - in a city so hungry rats are being eaten.

Final word: Benioff offers a classic story of friendship built in the worst of times.

-Peter Mergendahl

MYSTERY

A Poisoned Mind

by Natasha Cooper, St. Martin's Minotaur, $25.95. Grade: A

Cooper, one of Britain's best, has come up with that rarest of gems: a fresh take on the mystery genre. Her novel opens with a blazing explosion, followed by the resulting lawsuit. Trish Maguire, Cooper's likeable barrister/sleuth, defends the corporation whose chemical storage tanks exploded. Breathe a sigh of relief that the obvious villains won't be flogged again - Trish works hard for her corporate clients and must overcome pressure from colleagues and her client to look below the surface and find the ugly truth of the matter.

Final word: One of the best legal mysteries in a long while, this deserves a spot on your summer whodunit list.

-Jane Dickinson