Fombelle, Timothee de Prince. A Prince Without a Kingdom.

Fombelle, Timothee de Prince.  A Prince Without a Kingdom.  Candlewick Press  2014  443p  $17.99  ISBN 978-0-7636-7950-7  jr/sr  Historical fiction  VG-BN

The sequel to Vango: Between Sky and Earth, this book concludes Vango’s quest to find answers and ties up the loose ends for the many colorful characters involved in his tale.  It is an in-depth historical novel that takes the reader all over Europe and to America, touching on actual historical people and events, such as the explosion of the Hindenburg and the Nazi occupation of Paris and the resistance, while following the myriad paths of Vango’s friends, acquaintances, and enemies.  It does a rather wonderful job of covering events throughout Europe, rather than focusing solely on America or France, although a significant portion of the story occurs in these two places.  The revelations about numerous characters’ backgrounds are handled well, and revelations about Vango in particular were welcome when they were finally revealed to the reader, although this happened long before Vango himself would ever learn them.  The series concludes satisfactorily, leaving the reader with the feeling of having watched a somewhat more dynamic (and less iconic, it must be said) version of Casablanca.  It is important to note, however, that this book does NOT work as a stand-alone, and attempting to read it without reading its prequel will only result in confusion and frustration.                       

Summary: The sequel to Vango: Between Sky and Earth, this book concludes Vango’s quest to find answers and ties up the loose ends for the many colorful characters involved in his tale.

World War II-Fiction, Revenge-Fiction, Romance-Fiction      --Bethany Geleskie

Schraff, Anne. Vengeance. (Urban Underground.)

Schraff, Anne.    Vengeance. (Urban Underground.)     Saddleback  200p  $8.95 978-1-61651-961-2 ms/hs       VG    Realistic fiction    

As president of the senior class, Ernesto must handle a lot.  In this book, he sets up a mentoring program that supports struggling ninth graders, encourages his peers to treat a teacher with respect, and offers support to his friend Abel when his father is almost killed in a hit-and-run accident.  Anne Schraff uses two stories to illustrate her moral, which is that vengeance should never be an option in the pursuit of justice. 

Using her usual setting, Chavez High, and her cast of characters, including Ernesto Sandoval, his girlfriend Naomi, and various other regulars of her Urban Underground series, Schraff accomplishes her purpose with one story about bullying and another about leaving the scene of a crime.  In the first story, the granddaughter of beloved history teacher Mr. Davila is bullied while she is walking her disabled grandmother through the streets after school.  Two mean girls mimic the characteristics of Parkinson’s disease, and Angel is devastated and furious too!  To get even, she frames one of the bullies for a crime that she herself has committed, that of spray-painting obscenities all over the walls of the high school library.  In a parallel, yet unrelated, segment of the story, the son of a different social-studies teacher is guilty of leaving the scene of a crime, which seriously injures the father of one of Ernesto’s best friends.  Seeking revenge becomes an issue again, and Schraff assures her readers that revenge is unacceptable.  Although the writing is not world-class, Schraff nevertheless gets teenagers reading.  Her books resonate with a variety of readers, especially with Latinos, since all of the characters live in the barrio.  This book is easy-to-read, fast-paced and contemporary.

  
On page 94, note the punctuation error in the sentence “Dad admires him.”  The sentence needs to end with a period instead of a comma. The Urban Underground series comprises around thirty books, all related to teaching morals and values to inner-city youth as well as other teenagers.  With a setting in a Latino high school, a repeat cast of characters, and easy-to-comprehend content, Schraff engages students and educates them as well! High-school students and middle-school students will like this new volume, and bilingual classrooms should stock it as well!

Revenge–Fiction, High school–Fiction                        -- Martha Squaresky