Saturday's Blurbs - Books by Mikki Sadil #MFRWauthor #YA

Blurb for THE FREEDOM THIEF

The year is 1859. The place: a hemp plantation in Kentucky. The era: pre-Civil War. Thirteen year old Ben McKenna is fighting a war of his own, with his parents and brothers. He hates slavery. His family own slaves, one of which is a young crippled boy, Josiah, Ben’s best friend. Ben’s father is going to sell Josiah, and the only way to stop this is for the boy and his slave parents to escape. Ben arranges that escape, and leads the four of them into a world of danger, deceit, and desperation. Slave hunters are on their trail, spurred to travel faster and faster because of the huge reward Ben’s father has put up for their return. A dangerous swamp almost kills Josiah; an Abolitionist family pretends to hide them, but in reality, are only waiting for the right moment to sell them back to slave hunters. For months, they are on the run, fighting treacherous virgin forests who have never had a human try to get through; hiding from the hunters and their dogs; fearing for their lives but having to put their trust into people they do not know. Freedom lies on the other side of the Ohio River, but will they live to get there?

Blurb for CHEERS, CHOCOLATE, AND OTHER DISASTERS

Thirteen year old Alyson Joanne Devlin ( better known as AJ ) is quite content with the life she has. After all, she has two BFFs, Jamie and Julie, a Champion Quarter Horse mare, and a pretty neat family, all living in a small, horsey western town in Colorado. What could be better? Then the new girl comes to town, seemingly with nothing more on her mind than to ruin AJ’s life. She intrudes into the close friendship between AJ, Jamie, and Julie, and suddenly, has the J’s, as AJ refers to them, completely on her side, and AJ is shut out. This new girl, Celine Carroll, manages to wrangle the partnership with Julie and Jamie in cheerleading, leaving AJ to partner with the two most unliked girls in school, Lisa and Amberley. The disasters just seem to keep coming: the very unexpected divorce plans of her parents; a near disastrous fall in cheerleading, orchestrated by Celine; her mare come down with colic, the number one horse killer; and finally, Amberley’s death, after she and AJ have become best friends. And all the while, Celine stands by with the same sneer on her face she had when she and AJ first met. Will AJ be able to deal with the psychological bullying by Celine, and the destruction of so many deeply important relationships?

Blurb for LILY LETICIA LANGFORD AND THE BOOK OF PRACTICAL MAGIC

An eleven year old girl in high school. An IQ of 160. An ancient book of practical magic. What could possibly go wrong?

Lily Leticia Langford is eleven years old, has an IQ of 160, and is a freshman in high school. Lily Leticia has long believed that because she is so much smarter than most people…including adults, of course…she can solve most everyone’s problems. IF they would just listen to her. She is an outcast in school, because of her IQ and her age. She is an outcast with kids of her own age, because of her IQ. Lily Leticia’s three best friends in school are also outcasts: Joseph Spotted Elk, because he is an Indian; Kyle, because he is Jewish in an all Christian high school; and Heather, because…well, just because. When Lily Leticia finds an ancient book in the attic of the old Victorian house her family is renting, her friend Joseph warns her not to take it out of the box it is in. He believes the book was written by Indian witches, and is all about “practical magic,” which meant for the Indians, where to find buffalo for food and hides, how to divert winds that would damage their teepees, and so on. Telling Lily Leticia not to do something is pretty much a waste of time. Besides, with her IQ and a book of Practical Magic, just think of all the problems she can solve! Trouble seems to follow Lily Leticia like a puppy dog, but if you think the past was troublesome, just wait for the future!

Blurb for NIGHT CRIES, BENEATH the POSSUM BELLY: Book One

Cries in the night. Whispers against her cheek. Sixteen year old psychic, Gabriela Gaudet, is awakened night after night by these sounds. The traveling carnival/circus that Gabriela’s French-Creole parents own has come to the small town of Dead Man’s Crossing, Iowa, and the cries and whispers have become loud and pleading .Three small girls. A brutal murder. An entire town that has closed ranks and glossed over this terrible crime as though it never happened. Now it’s up to Gabriela to find the killer, and put the souls of these children to rest. A handsome young man, Remi Duvernay, who seems to come out of thin air, and disappears just as fast, wants to help Gabriela in her search for justice. But there are strange forces in this town that work against Gabriela…to say nothing of six gargoyles who apparently come to life at dark, and, while not wanting to hurt the humans, don’t want Gabriela interfering where she doesn’t belong. And then there are the six women in the high school attendance office, who look perfectly normal…except for the tall, cone-shaped hats that each one wears. Accidents begin to happen at the carnival, and suddenly, the trucks and train cars that bring the carnival trappings are disabled, and nothing can be found in the town to fix them. Danger stalks Gabriela in the high school, in the town café, and on the carnival’s carousel. A web of evil surrounds this town, and threatens to envelop her in its sticky strands. Are her psychic powers and her magic great enough to withstand all that work against her? The Possum Belly waits.