Book reviews of YA lit and more

As a middle school librarian and hopeful reader of Missouri's high school award books (Gateway nominees), I am reading and reviewing as many young adult and middle grade novels as I can while working on my own writing for this age group.

Monday, August 8, 2011

The Shifter- Janice Hardy

This is book one of a series called the Healing Wars.  Nya and her younger sister, Tali, are both orphaned Takers in their society; they have the ability to take people's pain and heal their injuries with just a touch.  Tali is part of the Takers that become Healers, but Nya is different.  She is unable to push the pain into the pynvium (metal that stores the pain); however, she can shift it to other people.  None of this seems too big of a problem until Healers begin mysteriously disappearing, including Tali.  Nya has to make some decisions on how far she will take her ability in order to get her sister back.  This is not my favorite genre of literature, but I will say I enjoyed Nya as a character.  She is likable and strong.  I am not dying to read the second book (Blue Fire), but I may have some kids that like it.  There is a letter from the author in the back of the book, which is interesting and some extra tidbits.  I always wonder if kids actually read this extra stuff or not.

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