| Number | Call Number | Branch | Status | Volume |
| 1 |
YA F Haddix Margaret |
CP |
In at CP (Corporate Parkway) |
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| 2 |
YA F Haddix Margaret |
DR |
In at DR (Deer Run) |
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| 3 |
YA F Haddix Margaret |
KL |
In at KL (Kathryn Linnemann) |
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| 4 |
YA F Haddix Margaret |
KR |
In at KR (Kisker Road) |
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| 5 |
YA F Haddix Margaret |
MK |
In at MK (Middendorf-Kredell) |
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| 6 |
YA F Haddix Margaret |
MY |
In at MY (McClay) |
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| 7 |
YA F Haddix Margaret |
SP |
Out: Due May 14 2013 |
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| Gr. 6-9. While under hypnosis at a sleepover, Kira remembers a strange tidbit from her past--her eccentric mother has been lying about how she and Kira ended up in small-town Ohio. It turns out that Kira comes from Crythe, a community that, legend has it, descended from the Ancient Romans. The Crythains believe that people are what they remember, so they forget nothing--remembering every word, thought, and action they've ever experienced. Having escaped the strange world of Crythe as a toddler, Kira returns, hoping to discover her past and perhaps save her people. But soon she finds herself imprisoned with her best friend and the woman she always believed was her mother; if Kira has any chance of escaping, she'll have to unlock the memories hidden inside her. Tightly plotted and Matrix-esque in its thought-provoking complexity, this will have special appeal for the computer cognoscenti. Haddix nimbly balances a fascinating examination of the significance of memory with an exciting, fantastical adventure story. ((Reviewed September 1, 2003)) Copyright 2003 Booklist Reviews | | | |
| A game of hypnosis begins a chain of events in which Kira is kidnapped, discovers her lost heritage as a Crythian (a culture in which the people value memory--they remember everything), and forms a plan to deceive her kidnapper Rona long enough to keep herself, her mom, and her best friend alive. The memory conceit is not developed enough to keep the plot from seeming contrived, and Rona is cartoonish and one dimensional. Copyright 2004 Horn Book Guide Reviews. | | | |
| A thrill ride ensues when an all-American teen discovers her mysterious origins. Goofing around with hypnosis at a slumber party, Kira unearths buried memories of violent escape that don't fit in her Ohio childhood. For reassurance, she turns to her mother-who, now that she thinks of it, seems oddly foreign-and is brusquely rebuffed. Further investigations are interrupted when Kira's mother vanishes, and Kira is carried off by a mysterious stranger who claims to be rescuing Kira's kidnapped mom. Somehow, the answer to Kira's buried memories lies with this stranger and a mysterious land called Crythe, where memory is more important than happiness. The true identities of both Kira and her mother are concealed by layers of lost memory that hide secrets for which many have died. Greed, family love, and remnants of Cold War politics combine into a startling and intricate thriller. Some odd plot inconsistencies, but an exciting adventure, climaxing in a tense armed standoff. Well worth it. (Science fiction. 12-16) Copyright Kirkus 2003 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved. | | | |
| Fifteen-year-old Kira's life is a lie, which she discovers after allowing her best friend Lynne to hypnotize her during a sleepover. Her unconscious brings up a terrifying memory of a very young Kira and her mother Sophia fleeing from an unknown danger in an unfamiliar town. This sets off a chain of events in which Kira and Lynne are taken hostage by Rona, a ruthless computer entrepreneur. Kira learns the truth about her origins and her heritage with Lynne's assistance. In this engrossing suspense story, author Margaret Peterson Haddix has created Crythe, a society where people have prolific memories. Haddix asks the reader to accept the premise that during the Cold War, the U.S. government smuggled Crythians out of the path of the Chernobyl fallout to a remote site in mountains in California in order to use their knowledge against the Soviet Union. The information is presented logically so that it is believable. The plot moves at a fast pace as Kira begins to search her memory for i formation about her past. While Rona may be a bit stereotyped as a greedy villain, Kira and Lynne are fully developed characters. The plot twists and turns until it reaches a satisfactory conclusion. Once again Haddix has produced a thriller that will keep readers turning pages. Recommended. Charlotte Decker, Librarian, Children's Learning Center, Public Library of Cincinnati (Ohio) and Hamilton County © 2004 Linworth Publishing, Inc. | | | |
| When 15-year-old Kira's friends hypnotize her, she remembers a "Mama" who is not the woman she knows as her mother speaking a language that's not English. Her mother, Sophia, won't answer her questions, and shortly afterward, a stranger calling herself Aunt Memory appears, telling Kira that Sophia has been kidnapped and that Kira must go to Crythe, her true homeland, to save her. This is the promising start to Haddix's (Turnabout) science fiction novel; unfortunately, her premise gets muddled amid confusing details. Once in Crythe, the alleged Aunt Memory tells Kira about native culture and history; after the Chernobyl meltdown, she says, the village was relocated to California (Kira, raised in Ohio, had believed she was born in California). War broke out, and Kira's birth parents were executed. Haddix steadily infuses creative ideas: Crythe is a memory-obsessed culture where children learn from an honorary "Aunt Memory" to record every detail. Kira's birth parents, both geniuses, had built "a system to replicate memory on a computer. But it was human memory they could copy, not digital." Kira, apparently, has her parents' memories embedded within her, and these now put her in danger. Fans of the author's Shadow Children series can count on an abundance of twists and cliffhangers, but ultimately readers may be frustrated by the plot's vagueness, especially around the state of current Crythe. Additionally, the book's villain is too much of a caricature to be truly scary. Ages 12-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. | | | |
| Gr 6-8-At a sleepover, Kira, 15, agrees to let her friends hypnotize her for the fun of it. Instead of the expected revelation of a secret crush, her friends hear a child's buried memory of fleeing from danger with her mother and speaking in a language none of them understands. Kira's assumptions about her life in their small Ohio town are challenged, and her reticent, eccentric mother is frightened rather than reassuring when confronted with her daughter's questions. Then she disappears, and a woman shows up claiming to be Kira's benevolent Aunt Memory from a community called Crythe, where memories are valued above all else. Aunt Memory claims that the woman Kira thinks of as her mother is being held hostage and that only Kira can save her. Thus ensues a race across the continent involving Crythian political intrigue, deception, kidnapping, and blackmail. Of course, nothing is as it seems, and there are enough plot twists to satisfy Haddix's loyal readers. The plot-driven narrative moves at such a brisk pace that only by the end of the story do readers have time to ponder the unresolved questions concerning the power and role of memory in our lives.-Farida S. Dowler, formerly at Bellevue Regional Library, WA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. | | | |
| For fifteen-year-old Kira and her mother, life is uncomplicated in their small Ohio town, until Kira's friends hypnotize her during a sleepover. Kira gets the first inklings that her life is not exactly what it seems to be when the hypnosis triggers memories of her mother rescuing her as a baby from a war-torn locale. Soon after, Kira questions her mother about these strange visions, her mother disappears, and a woman called "Aunt Memory" kidnaps Kira. Kira finds herself on a long plane ride to an unfamiliar place, with her best friend, Lynne, in tow as a stowaway. Kira lands in a country called Crythe, originally located high in the Russian mountains and jeopardized during the Chernobyl meltdown. In secret, the then-Soviet Union and the United States transported all of Crythe, a pseudo-Old World culture with its own language, to a hidden California location. Kira discovers that her real parents were prominent figures in Crythe because of their invention that stored memories in computer chips implanted in a person's head, which Kira learns was done to her. Kira also learns Aunt Memory is really evil Rona, and Mom is not really her mother-or is she? Rona wants the memory invention, and Kira, Lynne, and Mom find themselves hostages with their very lives at stake. Computer chip implants and keepers of memory are subjects in popular young adult books, including The Giver by Lois Lowry (Houghton Mifflin, 1993), House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (Atheneum, 2002), and Feed by M. T. Anderson (Candlewick, 2002). Unlike those titles, Haddix's novel portrays a sketchy imaginary place that makes it difficult to suspend disbelief. Nevertheless, it is compelling and fast paced, and the characters are interesting. The twists and slow revelation of truth will keep readers turning pages.-Diane Tuccillo. 3Q 4P M J S Copyright 2003 Voya Reviews | | |
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