The James Logan Courier

Note: Each week, The Courier spotlights books newly arrived, or expected to arrive, in the James Logan Media Center

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (September 26, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385733135
ISBN-13: 978-0385733137

From hattiebigsky.com:
For most of her life, sixteen-year-old Hattie Brooks has been shuttled from one distant relative to another. Tired of being Hattie Here-and-There, she summons the courage to leave Iowa and move all by herself to Vida, Montana, to prove up on her late uncle's homestead claim.

Under the big sky, Hattie braves hard weather, hard times, a cantankerous cow, and her own hopeless hand at the cookstove on her quest to discover the true meaning of home.

Read the first chapter. Grease Monkey by Tom Eldred
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Tor Books (May 30, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0765313251
ISBN-13: 978-0765313256

From GreaseMonkeybook.com:
Remember when you were just a kid trying to figure out the adult world? Remember walking through that minefield, never knowing when you’d put your foot in the next one? Don’t you wish you had an 800 lb. Gorilla on your side then? That’s exactly what junior spacecraft mechanic Robin Plotnik is about to get.

Mac Gimbensky has been there, done that, and laughed it off. He’s fussy, cranky, witty, clever, and the single best mechanic around. Fixing space fighters is his passion and his art. The last thing he needs is a cookie-cutter cadet nipping at his heels. But that’s exactly what he’s about to get.

Mac and Robin get off to a shaky start, but when they survive their first day together on the gigantic flagship Fist of Earth, they become fast friends. In a world like theirs, that’s nothing short of miraculous, because Mac isn’t human—he’s that 800 lb. gorilla you wish you had on your side.

Together, this unlikely duo maintains fighter craft for the all-women Barbarian Squadron, which constantly competes against the ship’s other fighter jocks. Robin’s also looking for romance, and he’s far from sure that he knows what he’s doing. Mac has already found it, but a universe of obstacles stands in his way. On top of this, their worst enemy, a by-the-book efficiency officer, seems determined to reorganize their whole lives out of existence.

Fresh and engaging, crammed with likeable characters and science-fictional inventiveness, Grease Monkey is for adults who wish they "knew then what they know now", and also for young people who wish they had a guardian angel against the onslaught of the mysterious, treacherous, and ridiculous world of adults. On behalf of all us, Mac and Robin defy the rules, strike their own path, and poke holes in the big balloon of life. Occasionally, they even get to enjoy it.

Read Chapter One.