The Call, by Peadar O'Guilam

The Call begins with an interest idea. Modern Ireland is now separated from the rest of the world, as the ancient Sidhe are working to take back their land from the descendants of the people who stole it from them. They enact this by "calling" all children, randomly, from around the ages of 11 to 17, to their own Grey Land. Most children do not survive the calling, though it happens for a little over three minutes in this world, while a day passes in the Grey Land. The touch of the Sidhe twists the children, physically and mentally.  The few who survive are strangely altered, as are the bodies of those who have died. The novel follows young Nessa, a girl who had childhood polio and who thus has crippled legs. She and her friends are gathered at a school which attempts to teach them ways to survive their inevitable calling. This works pretty well for setting up the first half of the book, but gradually the plot unravels, as only a few of the characters become more than cardboard ciphers, and the motivations of any of them (as well as the Sidhe) shift without cause or reason on a dime. And the writing is fairly pedestrian. By the time one gets to the end one is relieved for the book to be over. There is a sequel, but I simply don't care to know about it. 

Noughts & Crosses, by Malorie Blackman

Noughts & Crosses imagines an alternate modern Great Britain where the Noughts (light-skinned people) are politically and economically oppressed, while the Crosses (dark-skinned people) rule over them. A young woman Sephy (a Cross, whose father is high up in government), falls in love with Callum (a Nought, whose family has ties to the radical underground).  Of course they encounter many problems. This book is the first of a series. It is lightly written, and engaging, but I often felt the plot and scenario was developed on the fly, and not as well done as it could have been. This book was subsequently made into a television program (two series), and the scriptwriters deserve major kudos for altering and matching the motivations of the characters and the plot in ways the novel didn't. This worthwhile and interesting idea is better realized in the tv series, which (unusually for me) I recommend over the novel. Still either (or both) is worthwhile. 

The Adventures of Egg Box Dragon, by Richard Adams

In 2015, at the age of 95, Richard Adams wrote a short tale for five year olds. Adams died in 2016, and his book, with illustrations by Alex T. Smith, came out the following year. It tells of a dragon made by young Emma out of egg boxes. The dragon has a peculiar ability for finding lost things, and so the dragon comes to help the Queen find her lost diamonds. The story is, of course, slight, and the exaggerated illustrations help it along nicely. For what it is--an illustrated picture book for younger children--it works nicely, and shouldn't be compared to Adams's greater achievements like Watership Down.