Martin Luther King, Jr A dream of hope

Gr 6-9-Edward, 12, finds The Other Book, old and dusty, in the school library, and suddenly his life is far more interesting than he would like. Connected with Merlin, this magical tome gives whomever possesses it tremendous powers, which have been horribly misused in the past. While trying to protect the book and figure out what's going on, Edward experiences terrifying visions, ghostly knights, betrayal upon betrayal, kidnapping, and a sinister new teacher who will do anything, including commit murder, to get her hands on it. Part Arthurian quest, part gothic boarding school fantasy, the story includes a fair amount of violence and a not-completely-coherent plot. Characters appear out of the woodwork to rescue or impede Edward, who seems to make the wrong decisions over and over. Darren Shan fans might find this one appealing, but most readers can skip it.-Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Attractive layouts and well-chosen images including photographs, paintings, documents (e.g., the police report on Rosa Parks's arrest), etc. make for accessible, if adulatory, biographies of six noteworthy African Americans. Sidebars flesh out historical contexts and important contemporaries. Malcolm X is the most riveting, both because of the subject's criminal past and his controversial beliefs. Across the volumes, quotations aren't cited. Timeline. Bib., glos., ind. [Review covers these Sterling Biographies titles: Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Marian Anderson, and Frederick Douglass.] (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.