Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix - I love M.P. Haddix, especially her Shadow Children Series, so when I saw that she had a new series I was quite excited to read the first book. This series begins with a stirring Prologue where we learn about a plane full of babies, 36 in all, that mysteriously appears out of nowhere. The first chapter then jumps ahead 13 years and we meet our main characters, Chip and Jonah, who are both adopted. Jonah's family had been open about his adoption from the start, and his parents are the picture of parental bliss. They do the right things and say the right things are very supportive of him. Quite "by the book" if you will. Chip's parents, on the other hand, are the exact opposites of Jonah's, not telling him he was adopted until he confronts them after receiving a mysterious letter, just like Jonah had received. As the plot progresses, Jonah and Chip, along with the help of Jonah's sister Katherine, begin to be caught up in the mystery of how both of them were adopted and how their adoptions relate to the plane full of babies, time travel, and the "missing children of history."
Walking on Glass by Alma Fullerton - A short story written in verse, this book is a moving account of a lost young man. We don't learn his name, but we learn so much more as, in the first few pages, he reveals that his mother is lingering in the hospital on life-support. As the book progresses we come to understand that his mother more than likely suffered from some sort of mental illness, and eerily we infer that our main character my well be suffering from this same affliction. He struggles with peer pressure and is able to step away from the downward spiral of his best friend, Jack, in order to do the right thing. Caught between a mother who he could have saved from suicide if he had "just been 5 minutes earlier getting home" and his father who can't make the hard choices of an adult, he does what he knows is right, despite his own fears.
