Cherie Priest has an explanation of sorts up on what steampunk is and why she loves it. Her single complaint is one I share with her - that all too often steampunk is set in Victorian London. Her upcoming novel Boneshaker is firmly set in a steampunk Seattle however and I loved it. You've got not only an alternate history (the Civil War is still going on in 1880), and some very cool machines (airships figure prominently) but also a catastrophic set of events resulting in the walling off of most of the city and the release of a dangerous gas which brings us to the best scary thing ever - zombies!!!

If you are not so into zombies don't worry, they are mostly just one more element to dodge while getting through the city and trying to uncover a family secret for the two protagonists, teenager Zeke and his mother Briar. (Actually Zeke is trying to figure stuff out and Briar knows the answers and is just trying to save his butt.) There's plenty of action and cool mechanical marvels but what Priest really excels at in all of her books is setting and characters and she does not disappoint here. You have more than one smart and capable woman, a kid who takes a chance too many but no one would blame him for it, a very scary evil genius and more than one airship captain with his own reasons for being a good guy, bad guy, or both. I cared about Briar and Zeke and what they would find in their own home and I wanted to know what those answers were. The ending is a perfect payoff - Priest has done a killer job of steampunk lit with Boneshaker and I can't recommend it enough. (Formal review to follow in my October column.)

I finally got around to reading Laurel Snyder's Any Which Wall. This is really the perfect summer book so if you have a bored MG reader around the house and you live on the west coast (still blissfully not in school) then pick this one up. I'm holding off on a formal review until my December column when I think a dose of summer fun will likely be most welcome to more than a few kids burned out from class. (For some reason I kept thinking this would be a great holiday gift from a grandparent - fun smart adventure that any 8-10 year old boy or girl would appreciate.) I loved that the magic wasn't over analyzed, that the adventure came fast and furious, that the kids were smart enough to think things through and not do anything eye-rollingly dumb and, most importantly, that Snyder took the time to address a few of the more well known magic book tropes. She pulls them out - in the text, as part of the story - and the characters work out how stories don't always mesh with real life - albeit real life with magic. So it's fun and exciting and has a little bit of a philosophical bend to it as well. Plus a pirate, a dog, a cool librarian and a trip to NYC. As I said, total MG goodness.

The whole time i was reading Claudia Dey's Stunt I kept thinking of some certain teenage girl out there, one who truly is woefully misunderstood (like for real) and how utterly appealing this off the wall, unpredictable, downright surreal story would be to her. It is about Eugenia (aka "Stunt") who wakes up one morning with her mother and sister to discover her father has abandoned them. Eugenia is devastated and alternately determined to find him and suicidal with grief. Her mother, a former dancer and B movie actress is equally determined to make sure the neighbors believe he died rather than be embarrassed by abandonment and then all too soon she leaves as well. This second departure causes Eugenia and her sister Immaculata to age ten years overnight. They mutually decide to leave their home and seek their father - although Immaculata finds happiness just around the corner. Eugenia then commences with mailing letters to the man she thinks is her grandfather - a famous and mysterious trapeze artist - who she hopes will know all the answers.

That's the plot (briefly) but it gives you no idea at all as to how off the walls, unimaginable, unexpected, and beautiful, Stunt is. The narrative has a free wheeling elegance that takes it into improbable if not crazy places, but there is an unmistakable thread of a daughter who desperately loved her father that grounds the plot and keeps it all from spinning out of control. For myself, I like my plots tighter, I like my narrative tighter and honestly, I'm a bit of a conventional reader structure-wise but as I was reading Eugnenia's story I kept thinking of those girls out there - the ones who are so sad or angry or frustrated and they want something that is for them; something that will speak to their pain.

And Stunt will, and that's why I couldn't put it down.

The ending is amazing, the whole book is a reading experience like no other. The girls who find it will be transformed and I hope they do; I really really hope they do. [My formal review early next year - it just doesn't fit anywhere else!]

{All ARCs provided by pubs.....................and now you know!}