WWRW: Summer Reading Reviews here!

I have not reviewed every book by Roland Smith that I've ever read, but I've relished them all.  I did review Elephant Run here, and mentioned several others here.

Roland Smith writes fast-paced action novels about boys in tough situations.  Storm Runners is no exception.

Chase Masters lives on the road with his father, traveling from one weather related disaster to another doing home repair at high prices for the desperate and storm damaged.  His mother has passed away, and his father's life changed when he survived a lightning strike, selling his construction business and becoming a nomadic contractor.

Chase and his father, and his father's one employee, Vargas, make for Florida in the advent of Hurricane Emily.  Chase is put up at the "farm" of a friend of a friend in a supposedly safe zone, while his father and Vargas head to the expected site of the hurricane to drum up business.

The farm isn't exactly a farm.  It's the winter grounds of a circus, complete with lions, bears, and elephant about to give birth (totally sympathized with the elephant in this book).  The "farm" is run by a family of Little People, people with dwarfism, who own the circus.  Chase treats everyone with respect, and gets along with all the people and animals including the clairvoyant grandmother with second sight.

When the principal of the local middle school forces everyone (including Chase) onto to school buses during the storm of the century, Chase tries to reason with her, pointing out that the school cafeteria would be the safest place of all.  The principal wins, and everyone else loses, even to the loss of life.

Chase and the two girls who survive the deadly bus trip have to cross five miles of alligator infested flood waters to reach the farm, and when they get there, more dangers await.  Specifically, leopards and lions are on the loose, the power is out, and the elephant is ready to deliver.

Don't get too comfortable folks!  Storm Runners ends with the cliffhanger of all cliffhangers.  You are going to need Storm Runners Book 2: The Surge in hand to pick up where the Book 1 leaves off.

Might as well get Storm Runners Book 3: Eruption while you're at it and find out how the gang ends up in Mexico during a volcanic eruption just days after the hurricane in Florida.  More dangerous situations, more daring rescues, and more wild animals on the loose!   Perfect for summer reading on a rainy day.

Almost Home is my second Joan Bauer book.  I reviewed Close to Famous here.

Unlike Roland Smith novels, Joan Bauer's books tend to have spunky young female protagonists put in heart-breaking situations, and their mothers' are suckers for bad relationships with men.

That's not to say that there aren't any good adult male role models.  On the contrary.  Sugar Mae Cole idolizes her recently deceased grandfather, King Cole, as well as her sixth grade teacher, Mr. Bennet.

Times have been tough since King passed away.  Her biological father and two-time husband of her mother, Mr. Leeland, is a gambling addict, borrowing against the house, and losing big every time, even to the point of thugs coming to the house and threatening Sugar and her mother.

Sugar and her mother lose the house.  Kicked to the curb, rejected by the one cousin who had an extra-room, they end up in shelters, eventually making their way from Missouri to Chicago.  When the dream job her mother pinned all their hopes on fails to pan out, Sugar's mother loses her mind too.  Nearly getting recruited by a pimp in Millenium Park of all places, Sugar luckily ends up in foster care while her mother has a stay in a psych hospital.

Through it all, Sugar keeps writing poetry, keeps fighting for her dream of safe place to live for her and her mother.

Almost Home is the well-told story about a strong girl, and there is a happy ending, but there is so much sadness in this book too.  Too much for young readers in my opinion.

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