Review: School for Psychics

School for Psychics by K.C. Archer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Meet Teddy, a young girl from Las Vegas who has a knack for reading people at the poker tables. We learn that she is down on her luck, living out of her parent’s garage, having recently been kick out of Stanford. Her adopted parents hope that she will get her life together, but that’s not very likely since we meet her, sneaking into a casino having stolen all of her parent’s savings and hoping to make it big at the poker tables. She is in disguise because she has been banned from every casino for what they believe is cheating although they can’t prove it. She just has a knack for knowing when people are lying. It is something she has always had sixth sense. It hasn’t encouraged her to have a lot of trust for her fellow man keeping her at arm’s length from every relationship. Teddy needs to win big because she owes money to a Russian mobster.

Well, she gets taken for all of her cash at the poker table and just before she gets found out by the mob help comes in the form of a huge linebacker of a man named Clint. Through mind control he whisks her out of the casino and offers her a way out. It turns out that he believes Teddy has psychic ability and that is why she can read people so well at the card table. He invites her to attend a special school that develops psychic ability in order to help different law enforcement agencies. To turn her life around, get out of the trouble she is in and be able to develop her abilities to do good in the world is what make Teddy agree to enrol. The story continues as she completes her first year, but not without a mystery to solve including the secret of her past, and learning lots about herself and allowing friends to make the difference in her new world.

I loved this book! I couldn’t wait to keep reading each chapter to see what was going to happen next. I found the characters were well developed, three dimensional and you were invested in what was going to happen to them. The whole psychic angle was so much fun, especially as you got to learn of all the different kinds of psychic abilities. I’m just saying - I wouldn’t mind some heat - am I right ladies! Don’t worry - all PG. The mystery was exciting and since Teddy is adopted, secrets from her past including who her parents are become of interest. Since psychics can’t “read” other psychics, Teddy never knows fully who she can trust and who is on her side.

This is billed as book 1 so I hoping this is one of a multiple book series. Teddy has completed one year of her program so I’m guessing there could be a book each year of her school. I can’t wait until the next book will be released.

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Book Review: Team Fugee

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review from Netgalley and I thank them very much!

Team Fugee is one of a set of novels that focus on soccer and the experiences of child refugees leaving their home and making a new one in North America. I have not read any of the other novels in this series and I am probably not inclined to after reading Team Fugee. I teach middle school children in Toronto, Ontario in Canada. The children who are adopted in this novel end up in Scarborough (a suburb in Toronto) and soccer is a sport that many children have a huge interest in because of our FIFA team and their success. It is great that a series of books are dedicated not only to the popular sport but also one that discusses what some of the refugee experience might be like. I think that it is an important topic that should have lots more novels dedicated to it, at all reading levels, so children can either learn about what that experience might be like, or see their experience reflected in a story.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this novel and I don’t think it is one that children will enjoy either. The writing style was too glib and it seemed like the author was trying to check off a whole bunch of boxes rather than tell a sincere, heartfelt story. I think children, at least the ones I teach, will see through this and not connect. I didn’t connect with either the characters, the situations all seemed forced and the entire storyline was predictable and boring. It had the feeling of a story being created in a “boardroom of executives” saying oh lets have them move into a diverse neighbourhood so they can relate (check), oh wait let’s have the mother be the doctor (check)  and so on throughout the whole novel.

The story is simple enough. Ozzie and his sister Rachel are adopted from Nigeria to Canada. There is no formal soccer program at Ozzie’s school and they are forced to share a field with the Syrian refugees. There is an altercation with Victor, the leader of the Syrian refugee soccer students and principal decides they should have a soccer showcase to settle the matter.

Although this isn’t something I would use in my classroom, with my students, it might be something that I would offer in my classroom library to at least see if there was any student interest. If some of my students pick it up and read it, I will ask for feedback. In the end, it is their opinion of the book that matters.