Heart of a Shepherd (Random House Books for Children, 2009) by Rosanne Parry is a lovely book. I enjoyed the intergenerational relationships, the faith of the main character, and a look into a military and shepherd family's life.

12 year old Brother (Ignatius) is not happy. His dad, who is in the Reserves, has to go to Iraq. His older brothers are away at school and he and his grandparents have to keep the ranch going. Brother thinks that keeping the ranch the same will help bring his dad home safely. But sheep ranching is not really his thing.

One of the things I especially enjoyed on Rosanne's website is the story of how she got her idea for Heart of a Shepherd. Here's encouragement for other writers from her site: "It took me seven years to go from my first idea for Heart of a Shepherd to a finished book. But in those seven years I also wrote another novel, two mysteries, lots of short stories and many newspaper and magazine articles."

I next plan to read Second Fiddle, another book by Roseanne about military families.

Great first line: "I'm alive today because I was grounded." How could you not read on after that?

But there's more than one meaning of "grounded" in Grounded (Feiwel and Friends, 2010) by Kate Klise. Besides being a really good story, the book has a sympathetic character and a mystery to solve. No wonder it is an award winner!

Daralynn's brother, sister and father die in a plane crash. After her mother fixes their hair, shaves her husband for their funerals, she gets hired to do the hair for corpses at the mortuary. When her mother gets so good at doing hair that live people want her to do their hair, she uses the insurance money to open a beauty parlor. Daralynn/Dolly gets to help with the parlor. But then Clem comes to town with a crematorium which threatens her mother's job. So Dolly (nicknamed so after all the dolls she got after the funeral) puts a plan into effect: living funerals, so you can hear what people have to say before you die.

This is my first time to read a book by Kate Klise, but I plan to read more. Look at her website and see all the other books. I recently saw a mention on twitter from a librarian about Kate's book, Dying to Meet You. @tgaletti says its a popular book in her library. Guess that's the one I'll need to read next.

The title of the book Wild Things (Boyd's Mills Press, 2009) by Clay Carmichael fits in so many ways: a wild main character, a wild cat, and other things you'll have to read to discover yourself.

11 year old Zoe has basically raised herself, but now she's been sent to live with her Uncle Henry, whom she's never met. She expects him to fail her as everyone in her life has done before, including her now deceased mother and all her various boyfriends. Henry doesn't believe her when she tells him there's a cat hanging around his place, but not only is Zoe right about him, but she senses the presence of others, too. And the cat knows more than he can tell. I love how the cat and girl viewpoints work together to tell the story.

Don't miss the "Story Behind the Story" on the author's website. And, take note, the author illustrated the cover herself, plus did the drawings inside the book!

In Finding Family (Bloomsbury, 2010) by Tonya Bolden we get to see the characters grow and change in this historical middle grade novel set in 1905 Charleston, West Virginia. Author Tonya Bolden was Inspired by old pictures to create the story. Here's a brief summary:

12 year old Delana is being raised by a great aunt and her grandpa. Aunt Tilley loves visiting kinfolk by pulling the pictures out of a basket. But Aunt Tilley has been scattered lately and changing stories. Grandpa doesn't say much and Delana thinks he doesn't love her, so when Aunt Tilley dies, she wants to go home with various family members, not that she's brave enough to tell them.

See what else the author has written on her website. As for me, I'm planning to check out some of her nonfiction!

Selling Hope (Feiwel and Friends, 2010) by Kristin O'Donnell Tubb is one of those fascinating stories with characters so real you want to meet them. Here's an introduction:

It's 1910 and 13 year old Hope McDaniels and her father, a philosophical/talkative magician, are part of a vaudeville group. The group is going back to Chicago, her home town, and Hope wants to stay and in fact does things that could contribute to her father getting fired to ensure staying. Meanwhile, she knows she has to save up enough money for them to live on for a while and comes up with the scheme of selling anti-comet pills as people are afraid of Halley's Comet that will be passing by the earth.

The story includes a countdown to the arrival of the comet. It was fun learning inside knowledge on how some tricks work, and reading about their life on the train and in boarding houses. This author did her research! Great way to learn some history as well as being entertained.

Check out Kristin's other book, Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different on her website. On her About page, check out what makes her tick or ticks her off!