Secrets - Different and yet the same

Here are three books published in 2016 that have different settings, (although the plots are slightly similar).  However, each main character has a secret.  And all those secrets are the same.  In a later post, I will tell you what the secret is.  Let's see if any of my readers already know.

The Kidnap Plot by Dave Butler.  When Charlie's inventor father is kidnapped by the Anti-Human League, it is up to Charlie and a ragtag band of characters, including a troll and two aviator/thieves to save the day.  This is a stem-punk romp.

The Adventures of Lettie Peppercorn by Sam Gayton and Poly Bernatrene (illustrations).  Before her mother disappeared, she told Lettie to never go outside.  Then a stranger offers to sell Lettie his wonderful new invention - snow.   The stranger also knows where Lettie's mother has gone.
So, armed with this marvelous snow, Lettie heads off to put her family back together.

Rebel Genius by Michael Dante DiMartino  Giacomo is a street urchin with a need to draw, and draw and draw.  But in his country - a land similar to Italy in the Renaissance - art is forbidden.  The Geniuses that aid artists - birds with rare powers - are hunted down and caged.  When Giacomo is attacked by two Lost Souls, a strange explosion of light and energy results in the arrival of a Genius of Giacomo's own - and his induction into a secret group of talented children.  Their benefactor has dangerous plans.  Soon, the children are put in life threatening peril.

KU Booklist

It's done.  (Check Lists page for the link or click here.)  So now I find a bunch of tiles I did not include.  This a quandary.  Do I type up an addendum?  Do I just read off those titles?  Should I gather those books and take them along?  Sigh.
What I REALLY want to do is read Tom Angleberger's The Rat with the Human Face.  Who wouldn't?  Right?


Here are some new and/or still hot topics in young people's literature:

How kids with various learning differences think and experience the world.
Prime numbers - ok, I only read TWO books with prime numbers in them but I have rarely seen prime numbers given so much attention before.
Art thefts.
Ghost infestations.  Ghosts are always popular, but infestations - good or bad - seem to be a theme these days.
The 1910s - especially in Russia and WWI
World War II evacuees
The Red Menace and Joe McCarthy.
The EVER popular finding a hidden treasure somewhere in order to save a house/town/family/school/forest!  Man, I want a hidden treasure RIGHT NOW!

I have kept away from books about kids being abducted or imprisoned but that also seems to be popular as a theme - especially in Young Adult. I'm retired.  I can read what I want.

I have a book waiting.  Gotta go.