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Julia lives with her grandmother and aunt in an old house called Windy Ridge. Her mom has been gone quite some time, and Julia has pretty much settled into a life with her friend Belfry, taking pictures with her Brownie camera of things she finds interesting. Well, her grandmother decides to die one day, so Aunt Constance and Julia pack up the house and head out on the road to find Julia's mother. Without any idea of where they are going, quite a quirky, entertaining adventure unfolds. With a bit of humor and a whole lot of weird, this historical fiction just may capture the attention of even the most reluctant reader. JULIA AND THE ART OF PRACTICAL TRAVEL by Lesley M. M. Blume is an entertaining read for 5th - 8th grades.
NOV 2015
If you read Harry Potter or the Hunger Games, and you like stories where society is out to destroy the lives of children, then THE UNWANTEDS by Lisa McMann is a good book to read along the same lines. In the dark, dreary land of Quill, some kids become "wanteds" and some are relegated to "unwanted" status, which means they are sent to die in a giant pit of boiling oil. Only the unwanteds actually end up in a magical world of creativity and free thought, something completely frowned upon in the land of Quill. Kids learn magical fighting techniques, in preparation to fight for their beliefs in a battle that comes when not everyone is prepared to fight. It's not to difficult to read, it is action-packed, and reflects positively on those that are more creative than calculating. For grades 4 and up.
Do you fear the "walking dead"? Maybe they're a little too creepy for you, but in James Ponti's second zombie-related book, DEAD CITY: BLUE MOON, Molly Bigelow is back to defeat the worst of them. But with less disgusting stuff and more action and adventure, with a little mystery thrown in. Molly and her zombie fighting Omega Team are tracking down the original 13 zombies all over New York, and along the way Molly comes across some information about her mother that has her wondering - is her mother still alive?
A lively story for any zombie fan. For 5th - 8th grades.
OCT 2015
When two words sound the same but are spelled differently, we call those words homonyms. Rose will tell you all about her list of homonyms, including one for her dog Rain (reign). Life is challenging for Rose because of her Asperger's. This just means she sees the world a little differently than other kids, and certain things can really upset her. She lives with her Dad because her mom left, but her Dad doesn't really understand Rose sometimes and gets mad. Thank goodness Rose has Uncle Weldon.
RAIN REIGN by Ann Martin might be a little quirky, but once you start reading, it will be hard to put down. There's always something exciting every few pages. For 5th - 8th grades.
SEPT 2015
LOWRIDERS IN SPACE by Cathy Camper is a unique graphic novel because the illustrator Raul the Third did all the art work with three colors of ball point pen! He does a fantastic job of helping to tell the story of Lupe Impala, a female mechanic, El Chavo Flapjack, a car detailing octopus, and Elirio Malario, a Zoot Suit wearing mosquito who does amazing car paint jobs! Why do they do all of this? Because they love cars. All they need to do now is win the Universal Car Competition so they can open their very own garage instead of working for "el jefe". Their lowrider turns out being out of this world! Many car lovers and those that appreciate great drawing will be drawn to this book, but it's especially good for 4th - 8th grades.
Yup, apparently there are chefs in the underworld, in the form of vampires that like to bake. At least that is what Andi Watson implies in her graphic novel called PRINCESS DECOMPOSIA AND COUNT SPATULA. Decomposia, or Dee for short, is a little overwhelmed with the duties of her father the king. He is much too unwell to handle his normal duties, which might be because all he eats are kippers and carrot water! You will have to read it for yourself and tell me what you think because I think this book is just SILLY!!! Definitely for 4th-8th grades.
JUNE 2015
You would be wise not to anger the Brixen witch. But what if you make her angry by accident? Nope, doesn't matter. She is still going to haunt and hex you. That's what happens to Rudi when he stumbles upon a gold coin while he's out foraging around the forest. The next thing he knows he is being haunted by a creepy noise. Even after he puts the coin back on the mountain (sort of) a plague of rats infects the town!
THE BRIXEN WITCH by Stacy DeKeyser will have you guessing about what happens next, and it's not what you expect! This is a retelling of the classic Pied Piper story, but with many great twists and a completely different ending.
For 3rd - 6th grades.
Meet Ellis Coffey. He's in 4th grade. He makes most of the other kids in class laugh. He's a hard worker. Oh, and he can communicate with animals...sort of. At least that's what he thinks is happening when he finds a "woolly worm" (also know as a caterpillar) that seems to understand everything Ellis says. With such a talent, Ellis thinks he can win the woolly worm race and pay for his dad's much needed back surgery. Will his woolly worm win? THE WORM WHISPERER by Betty Hicks is a cute, simple story with a bit of Christianity thrown in.
For 3rd through 5th grades.
MARCH 2015
In Janet and Jake Tashjian's latest mother/son team effort calle EINSTEIN THE CLASS HAMSTER AND THE VERY REAL GAME SHOW, Ms. Moreno's class is off to compete on a televised game show with another elementary school. Along for the ride are Einstein, the class hamster, and his classroom comrades Ned, Bonnie and Marlon. The show is ready to go when the school principal decides it's a good idea to bring out Twinkle, the pet python! Well this sends the regular game show host flying out the door in fear, and it's Einstein's turn to shine - or is it? Pretty good follow up to the first Einstein book, and will entertain many beginning chapter book readers. For 2nd - 5th grades.
FEBRUARY 2015
I'm not going to lie, Heather Vogel Frederick is one of my favorite authors of all time. She is the writer of the "Mother-Daughter Book Club" series (which you should read if you haven't already), so I was so excited to see she'd written something new! Her latest book ABSOLUTELY TRULY is true to Frederick's style. It takes place with a large family in New England, and there's a little bit of mystery, a little bit of romance, a little comedy, a little tragedy. This book has it all! The nice thing about all of Frederick's books, but especially this one, is that it paints a picture of how different families can be, and how similar people can be to one another.
For grades 5 and up.
JANUARY 2015
Who doesn't love a good witch story? Well this is a good story about a bad witch. Not an evil witch, just a girl named Salem Hyde who isn't very good at being a witch. Enter Whammy, a talkative cat (who doesn't like flying) who serves as Salem's trainer and friend, and helps her become a better "speller."
THE MISADVENTURES OF SALEM HYDE: SPELLING TROUBLE by Frank Cammuso is the first book in what might be a very amusing Graphic Novel series for 3rd - 6th grades.
NOVEMBER 2014
Every once in a while, a book comes along that is like a perfectly wrapped present. THE FOURTEENTH GOLDFISH by Jennifer L. Holm is the big box wrapped in shiny paper with a fancy bow placed right in the center - full of anticipation of good things! Ellie is going through the usual middle school changes, with her best friend being super busy with volleyball, a cute, mysterious boy in a few of her classes, oh and of course her grandfather coming to live with her as a teenage boy! Ellie learns quite a lot about love, family, friends, and the intricate web that weaves it all together. It's a quick read that will appeal to boys and girls in the 4th-8th grades, especially those readers that like a lot of dialog.
OCTOBER 2014
It seems like more and more authors are writing about how they think the world will come to an end. Piers Torday, author of THE LAST WILD is yet another author to do this. His main character Kester Jaynes has been taken from his father and sent to what may be a boarding school, but seems more like an asylum for all the delinquent children no one knows how to deal with. A disease has devastated the world, killing all the animals and destroying the food supply, and now everyone is forced to eat flavored paste. Kester can't speak out loud, but somehow he can communicate with a cockroach. Turns out, everything they've been telling humans is a LIE!!! The cockroach helps Kester escape and the first of the lies becomes apparent when Kester sees living animals that have yet to be infected by the dreaded "red-eye" disease. Now it is up to Kester to save the remaining animals!
For grades 5 and up.
AUGUST 2014
Jared, Shireen and Miranda are three kids forced to live in Venice, Italy for their Dad's job. At first, Miranda is the only one enjoying herself. But an accidental visit to a strange bookstore shines a whole new light on the city on the water. Talking animal statues and creatures jumping out of paintings are just some of the mysterious things that happen to them, and it all seems to parallel a story their Dad is reading to them in a book that is centuries old. How is it possible?
THROUGH THE SKYLIGHT by Ian Baucom, is a very detailed mystery that has lots of danger and impossibility at every turn. You never know what is going to happen next!
For grades 5 and up.
July 2014
It's summer vacation on Darcy Lane, and Julia is looking forward to a season of swimming, sitting around with her best friend Taylor, and thinking about the neighbor boy Peter. Lo and behold, the new neighbors move in with a girl Julia's age named Alyssa, and that changes everything. For some reason, Alyssa is rude to Julia from day one, steals best friend Taylor (is she such a good friend after all?), and basically makes Julia's life miserable - until the day of the great battle of Russia!
THE BATTLE OF DARCY LANE by Tara Altebrando is your typical, tween angst novel, but is original enough to keep you reading to the very end. Questions like "will Peter and Julia become more than friends?" and "who is the mystery prank caller" intermingle throughout the story, with everything tied up in a nice neat bow at the very end.
For 4th - 6th grades.
JUNE 2014
Picture yourself lying on the beach one day, a breeze swishing across your face, and the sun shining down on you as you lay in the sand. All of a sudden twenty wild hairy ponies come galloping by at top speed, whinnying and snorting their way down the beach. That's what it's like on the Island of Chincoteague, and every year the people on the mainland try to catch a few wild ponies and tame them. Some become work horses, some become show horses, and some get to race. Paul and Maureen Beebe are determined to get themselves one of these beautiful wild ponies to raise and care for, and hopefully someday race! MISTY OF CHINCOTEAGUE by Marguerite Henry was written a long time ago, but the story is full of excitement and adventure. The best part about this book is that it is based on a real place and a real pony! For 3rd - 6th grades.
MAY 2014
Jennifer Strange - eh, what's in a name - is responsible for finding jobs for all the magicians and wizards of the world. Oh, and she's also the last dragonslayer in the history of the world. Also, there is only one more dragon and he's going to die. Rumor has it that once this dragon dies, "BIG MAGIC" will return. Because magic lately has been pretty hard to come by. So it is up to Jennifer to determine the fate of magic whether she wants to or not. Luckily, this story is very funny because if it wasn't it would be very sad. But you will laugh a lot. Especially if you liked Adam Rex's True Meaning of Smek Day or anything in Brian Sanderson's Alcatraz series.
THE LAST DRAGONSLAYER by Jasper Fforde is sure to delight the fantasy/science fiction fan who like a little comedy here and there to lighten things up. For grades 5 and up.
AUGUST 2013
I like adventure. I like traveling to new and exciting places I've never been before. I do not, however, want to solve all the problems when I get somewhere. Maybe one or two small problems, like giving some first aid cream to a kid with diaper rash, or food for a homeless person. This is how September felt when she ended up in Fairyland, hoping for a nice, calm, relaxing adventure. Instead she is faced with evil creatures and a bunch of Fairyland problems that she is asked to help with. She meets a dragon who loves books more than she does (reading them, not eating them), and a boy named Saturday who is blue. Like blue as in color, not as in he's sad. Together they defeat evil and triumph over Fairyland.
If you like Alice in Wonderland or The Chronicles of Narnia, you will definitely love THE GIRL WHO CIRCUMNAVIGATED FAIRYLAND IN A SHIP OF HER OWN MAKING by Catherynne Valente. For grades 5 and up.
JULY 2013
An odd cast of characters takes the stage in this book, including a Black Bear named Walden (he's very philosophical), a gruff and tough Badger named Banderdock, and a mean, scrappy cat called McTavish the Monster. These are the animals that expert boy scout Max "the wolf" encounters when he awakens from a strange sleep and cannot remember anything that happened. Max and his friends quickly become THE HUNTED as they simultaneously run for their lives while trying to figure out who Max is and how he got to this strange world. Max's adventures are woven with other side stories that all tie together in a nice pretty bow, but take some quirky turns getting there. DOWN THE MYSTERLY RIVER by Bill Willingham is an exciting book for grades 5 and up.
May 2013
Diane Stanley is a beautiful storyteller who can magically capture readers only to be released at the end of the book, rubbing their eyes and wondering where the time went. She continues this captivating legacy in her latest book THE CUP AND THE CROWN. Slightly clairvoyant Molly is assigned the task of finding a "loving cup" for King Alaric, which binds two people together when they both sip from it. Despite Molly's grandfather once being a creator of these loving cups, Molly and her friends Winifred and Tobias must search far and wide to locate this coveted chalice for the king. They encounter mysterious friends and foes, and discover something very unexpected! An intriguing sequel to The Silver Bowl, and good for 5th-8th grades.
JUNE 2013
