Wings

May 11, 2009
Pike's debut novel—a faerie story with a touch of Arthurian legend—offers a botanical twist on the genre. Laurel Sewell, the new girl in town, discovers a strange “zit” on her back, which blooms into a flower. With the help of her friend and growing love interest, David, with whom she entrusts this information, Laurel finds out that she is a faerie, and that faeries are really highly evolved plants (Pike gives readers hints: Laurel prefers to have lunch outside and eats little besides vegetables and Sprite). Tamani, her sexy faerie guardian, completes the love triangle, as he protects Laurel from encroaching dark forces and fills in the blanks about her past. As Laurel and David never muster much chemistry, her rocky journey of self-discovery is the main draw (“It makes me want to go home and go to sleep and wake up to find that all of this is a dream. That the flower, the bump, even public school never happened”). Pike's novel mythology should win fans for this book, billed as the first in a series. Ages 12–up.

Most teenage girls would be delighted to discover that their perfect looks come from fairy ancestry--but not Laurel. Mandy Siegfried faithfully conveys Laurel's fear of being different and her disbelief of her magical identity. Siegfreid's credible teen voices will draw in young listeners, who will identify with Laurel's desire to fit in. It will be Team David versus Team Tamani as listeners meet Lauren's two potential boyfriends--one mortal, one fairy. Through Siegfried's voicings, they emerge vividly as the sincere dreamboat and the mysterious stranger in a teenage love triangle. Siegfried manages to smooth over mundane dialogue and plot contrivances to strengthen the story. The tense pacing of Laurel and David's death-defying escape from thug trolls is especially delicious to hear. C.A. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

July 1, 2009
Gr 7-10-Homeschooled Laurel begins public high school as a tenth grader when her adoptive parents move to LA., leaving behind the land that has been in her mothers family since the Gold Rush days. The many clues that Laurel is different (she is strictly vegan; sunlight seems to shine through her fair skin; she never gets cold; she craves the outdoors; she doesnt menstruate) culminate in a bump on her back growing to the size of a softball and blooming into a flower that has foot-long petals. Returning to her parents land, she meets Tamini, a faerie to whom she is attracted, who tells her that she is not human, but rather is a plant or, more specifically, a faerie. David, her accepting and supportive classmate, tests her tissue and confirms that Tamini is right. When a creepy alleged realtor pressures the family to sell the land, the teens become suspicious, and they are soon fighting for their lives in a centuries-old battle between faeries and trolls. Laurels struggles to figure out what it means to be human are matched by her struggles to determine what it means to be a faerie, and she is torn between love for David and love for Tamini. The ending allows for many possibilities in the upcoming sequels. The book has a nice mix of danger and romance, the world of magic and the world of high school, with well-developed characters and a quick-moving plot."Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2009
Grades 6-9 Fifteen-year-old Laurel has led a sheltered, homeschooled life in a very small town, so when her parents decide to move and enroll her in high school, she has trouble getting used to her new life. A life, as it turns out, thats not at all likethose of other kids.One clear sign is a winglike blossom that blooms on her back. Oh, and her new best friend, the scientifically minded David, reveals under a microscopethat her cells are more plant than animal. But it takesan encounterat her old home with the handsome but decidedly different Tamani to convince her that she is a faerie.She also learnsits up to her to save her land from the evil influences that are trying to take it away from her and her family.This first novel is clearly designed to attract the Twilight set, though theres significantly less edge (and blood). There is, however, a familiar triangle. Will Laurel choose solid, steady David, or will she be unable to resist Tamanis lure? Stay tuned.Fine escapistfare, this neatly mixes the everyday with the otherworldly.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)