OOH-YUM-YUM!

Alfie and his sister Emilia have the best great-aunt Zia ever.  When she visits, she makes them feel loved, cooks delicious foods, and adds a little magic to their lives.  Zia's magic lands Alfie and Emilia in the middle of Paris and straight into a French Cooking School where they must pass their lessons and eat delicious foods while trying to figure out how to get back home to America before Alfie's big soccer game on Saturday.

In the spirit of the Magic Tree House series, kids in 3rd and 4th grade can become a foodie along with Alfie and Emilia in Giada De Laurentiis's new series, Recipe for Adventure.  The first two books, Naples! and Paris! can be found in the J Paperbacks under the letter D.  Each book also comes with two recipe cards in the back for you to enjoy the same Zia creations as Alfie and Emilia.

12 IS A MAGIC NUMBER

The year that children turn 12, their minds are capable of almost anything.  Learning a new language, taking on advanced mathematics, and moving things with their minds are simple tasks for the trained tween.  At Myers Holt Academy, a few select children are recruited to harness and train what researchers call "The Ability" - where anything is possible.  One of this year's students is Christopher Lane.  A boy with a hard home life and not many prospects, Chris has the opportunity of a lifetime, but at a price.  The students of Myers Holt Academy will be asked to put their lives at risk to save the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from the deadliest use of The Ability, something most people only hears stories about - The Inferno.

Fans of the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson series will appreciate taking a normal, misunderstood kid and placing him in a setting where the world is at his fingertips.  The Ability by M.M. Vaughn is for students in Grades 5 and up. 

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AT BOARDING SCHOOL

Another fun Pride and Prejudice redux set in a boarding school in New England. The usual misunderstandings, prejudices and snobby attitudes are had by everyone at the Longbourn and Pemberley until each romantic lead realizes that they have been at fault and have made monumental errors in judgement.

A fun and fast read for teens who wants romance, fashion, spunk and piano music. Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg is for 6th graders -high schoolers .

ALICE-MIRANDA IS ONE PRECOCIOUS LITTLE GIRL

Alice-Miranda can't wait to go to boarding school, so she decides to apply early and go at seven and one quarter years old instead of at eight years old like everyone else. She arrives a day early (of course) and sets everything on their ears. She's sweet and never takes no for an answer. So, she sets the poor cook off on a much needed vacation, the gardener gets beautiful flowers, and she evens meets the reclusive headmistress. But the headmisstress certainly has no desire to meet Alice-Miranda again and make plans to get rid of the upstart optimistic little girl with the bouncy chocolate curls.

A bubbly book about an irresistable girl with a whole slew of supporters and few enemies thrown in just for fun. Alice-Miranda at School by Jaqueline Harvey is for readers in 4th-6th grade.

FATTY LEGS: A TRUE STORY

Sometimes its hard to go to school. So learns Olemaun Pokiak, an Alaskan Inuit girl who really wants to learn to read. Her sister is allowed to go to school, but didn't like it at all, saying they take everything away from you, including your name and your hair. Even her father is against Olemaun leaving the family to go to school. But Olemaun SO wants to read, she begs and pleads. Finally, her father agrees to send her to the school. When Olemaun gets there, school is NOTHING like what she had hoped it would be. The first thing they do is change her name to Olemaun and cut off her long braids! This is a true story that took place about 60 years ago and its good for 4th grade and up.

THE DAWN OF EQUALITY?

It's the late 1950s, and Rob Garrett is off to a boarding school in Connecticut. But he's leaving his home in Virginia behind, right at an important time in history - the supposed end of segregation in the South. in NEW BOY by Julian Houston, Rob is torn between advancing himself through his educational opportunities, or furthering the role of all African Americans by participating in demonstrations going on in his home town. This year in Rob Garrett's life is an eye-opening, life-changing time, and provides a little window into a very significant era in history. The book has some pretty advanced ideas, so probably best for those reading at an 8th grade level.

NO GIRLS ALLOWED!

Sophomore, Frankie Landau-Banks doesn't want to be Bunny Rabbit anymore. She wants to be more like her popular sister, noticed and and a part of something cool. She wants to belong to her new boyfriend's cool crowd. Through chance Frankie discovers that he and his friends haved been "tapped" to join a secret male society at their boarding school just as her father had been many years ago. She wants to join desperately but realizes she would never be included because she is female.

Feeling challenged and desperate to belong, she sets on an ambitious path to prove herself. She masterminds school pranks, manipulates the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds members through a convoluted series of emails and false identities. Everyone at school enjoys the fun and Frankie is thrilled by the comments until one member is caught and everything unravels. When she unmasks herself as the secret leader of the pranks, her schoolmates, family and boyfriend have differing reactions and are thrown by this other side of Frankie.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart is about one girl's attempt to make sense of her world; love, her identity, her ambition, social acceptance and the ultimate power and role of men and women. A great novel for mature readers 6th and older.

STEPMOTHERS HAVE FEELINGS TOO YOU KNOW

Three girls are sent off to a boarding school in New England after their fathers marry for the second time. They find their lives and relationships with their fathers changed drastically from the pre-stepmother period. Slowly the girls realize the situation they have in common and form a club to empower themselves and seek revenge on their stepmothers. The plan was simple, destroy what is most important to the stepmothers. But the plan doesn't quite work out as the girls had hoped and they begin to see their stepmothers in a different light.

Poison Apples by Lily Archer is for middle school readers and older.