Maggie Chen was born with ink in her blood. Her journalist father has fired her imagination with the thrill of the newsroom, and when her father is killed, she is determined to keep his dreams alive by interning at the local newspaper.While assisting on her first story, Maggie learns that her father is suspected of illegal activity, and she knows she must clear his name. Drawn to Seattle's Chinatown, she discovers things that are far from what she expected: secrets, lies, and a connection to the Chinese Exclusion Era. Using all of her newspaper instincts and resources, Maggie is forced to confront her ethnicity—and a family she never knew.

Mandy survived the terrible accident that killed her mother, but she was left blind and alone. Now she lives with relatives she doesn't know, attends a new school, and tries to make friends--all the while struggling to function without sight.Her unpredictable life takes its strangest turn when she begins to hear the oddest things through the window of her attic room. In fact, what she hears--and seems to "see"--are events that happened years ago, before she was even born. . . .From School Library JournalGrade 6-9-Mandy, blinded in an automobile accident that killed her mother, goes to live with her two great uncles and a great aunt whom she has never met. Once on the family homestead in northern Texas, she travels to her grandmother's teenage years when she leans out of her attic bedroom window. Through her travels into the past, she pieces together the tragic story of the family she never knew existed and learns much about herself. In the present-day world, Mandy is adjusting to a new school, new friends, and being blind. She makes friends with ease, and their support helps her adjust to all of the other changes she is experiencing. There is no real conflict in this novel. The only real tension arises in the past world and transfers to the present day when Mandy tries to piece together the mystery of her mother's and grandmother's lives. By placing the protagonist in the home of her great uncle and aunt, and by making Mandy's adjustment to her new life relatively smooth, Ingold avoids many of the weaknesses of the YA time-travel genre. Mandy is not running from anything; however, the knowledge she gains through her journeys into the past allows her to see her own life more clearly and to adjust to her new circumstances more easily.Lucinda Lockwood, Thomas Haney Secondary School, Maple Ridge, BCCopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. From BooklistGr.7^-10. When Mandy is blinded in an accident that kills her mother, the teen goes to live in Texas with relatives, who heretofore have not known of her existence. Another YA novel ringing with excess tragedy? Perhaps, but Ingold does such a good job of bringing Mandy's character to life, along with that of her great-aunt Emma and those of great-uncles Abe and Gabriel, that the reader gladly sticks with the story to find out what will happen. And there's plenty to find out. From almost the moment Mandy enters her new home, her mysterious family history begins to emerge. The girl seems to hear voices from another time and is gradually able to piece together what happened that caused her mother's family life to be unknown for so many years. The voices and time travel devices are deftly handled and make the suspension of belief workable. The real power of the story, however, is the girl's voice, which makes us feel what it would be like to suddenly face the world with no sight, and the touching, albeit unsentimental, efforts of the relatives to accept and love her. As it turns out, Mandy's social adjustment at school is almost too smooth to be convincing, and she may end up overloading a bit on self-knowledge and success, but this is nonetheless a strong and satisfying work. Anne O'Malley

"Jarrett is sixteen—old enough to reject the railroad job his father wants him to take, old enough to court Lizbeth Whitcomb, old enough to join the fight against the forest fires that are destroying Idaho and Montana. But the fires are worse than anyone dreamed, and soon the flames have has come between Jarrett and everything he holds dear, between Jarrett and Lizbeth, and thrown him into the company of a young black private named Seth, whose own plans to desert the army have been cut short by the disaster. A about the biggest wildfire of the century—the big blow-up of 1910—The Big Burn is a portrait of a time, a place, and an event that changed the way we fight wildfires, altered the landscape of Idaho and Montana, and transformed forever the lives of the people at the front lines.

Sixteen-year-old Tess's life has been shaped by her violin.From the moment she picked up the instrument, it's been clear she isn't like other kids. She is a prodigy, and her life is that of a virtuoso-to-be: constant training, special schools, and a big debut before an audience of thousands. But when she blows her moment in the spotlight, she throws it all away, moves away from New York City to join her father in Montana, and tries to lead a normal life—whatever that is.Tess has hardly arrived when she is drawn into a mystery: a hunt for the wilderness homestead of a lost pioneer who played violin himself. Maybe, through his story, Tess will find the strength to pick up her violin again.

In the early days of aviation, Beatty and Moss hang out around the airport Beatty's uncle manages. Beatty's hoping to see her father when he flies in—and quickly out again—on a mail flight. And Moss is hoping his mechanical skills will help him to support himself. Neither anticipates their crucial roles in the airfield's survival—or in saving Beatty's father's life.