FRAZZLED

Abbie Wu is suffering from an extreme case of the middles.

Not only is Abbie a middle child (squarely between her amazingly good at everything older brother Peter and her annoyingly adorable younger sister Clara), she’s now starting middle school, and she’s currently in the middle of an identity crisis!

It seems like her best friends know exactly where their talents lie: Maxine is natural actress, while Logan is a young tech genius. Meanwhile, Abbie has tried plenty, but has yet to find her Thing. So when it comes time to choose the ever-important elective class, Abbie finds herself in dread study hall instead. But it’s once there that Abbie is drawn into a campus-wide underground lunch revolution that may reveal to everyone, including herself, just how much she has to offer.

With an air of dramatic doom and plenty of attractive cartoon illustrations on every page, Frazzled: Everyday Disasters and Impending Doom by Booki Vivat is a great read-alike to middle grade staples like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Dork Diaries. Perfect for the humorously hyperbolic and melodramatic middle grade reader in your life.

Grades 4-6

TOM TRUEHEART FANS!!

The writer from the Land of Stories has written stories that lead the great Trueheart adventurers to talk about their triumphs. Their grand stories show the villagers that beginning and ending an adventure in the Land of Stories is courageous and exciting, especially, to Tom, the youngest of the seven brothers. Unfortunately, the rogue writer secretly changes the stories that lead the brothers to danger. Tom is just about old enough to enter the Land of Stories, but is he ready to complete one adventure of his own, or how about six adventures?
The Secret of the Tom Trueheart is a fun read. I know that other Glendale readers are ready to continue the adventure, too! Click on the book cover and reserve your copy of the next adventure story, Tom Trueheart and the Land of Dark Stories.

CURSES AND COMICS

Just when it seems like things can not get any worse, they do for Addy. She would like to blame it all on that Irish ancestor who chopped down the fairy tree but her mother says the stories are just jokes. When her best friend deserts her because one of her hand drawn comics got shown around the entire school and her mother's boyfriend moves into the guest room she is not so sure that she isn't cursed.

Katie Davis tells the story of a talented creator of her own "autobiogra-strip"* in The Curse of Addy McMahon. Best for readers in grades 4-6,

*Read the book to discover just exactly what this is!

LILY LOVES NANCY DREW

Everyone in her small town thinks that Lily is brain damaged because since her brother's death two years ago she had not spoken a word and finds making eye contact with anyone difficult. Only her father and a neighbor, Fern, keep on talking to her even though she never answers. When Fern's grand-niece Tinny arrives in town and discovers that Lily can read, she in fact has read every Nancy Drew mystery in the Library, she threatens to expose her secret. But Tinny doesn't know that Lily has a much darker secret which the reader can discover in Cicada Summer by Andrea Beatty

For grades 4-6.

PERFECT OR MAYBE NOT

For ten-year-old Zoe life doesn't always seem to be working out. First there's her stay-at home father who has trouble leaving the house and spends his time on the Internet, a mother who spends too much time at work and finally the piano that she dreamed of playing turns out to be an a Perfectone D-60 organ that her father bought instead. It turns out that Zoe discovers that she has some talent for the organ and while her skills develop, so does her self-confidence in Linda Urban's A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT

For grades 4-6

MYSTERY IN THE HLLS

The Hollywood Sisters: Backstage Pass by Mary Wilcox is a new mystery series about the Ortiz sisters newly plunked into their rented Beverly Hills mansion from more humble digs in Anaheim. Jessie, the shy and younger sister of the now famous Eva, is determined to stop the bad press, but she seems to only be getting in the way and creating ill feelings with the crew and cast members instead.

For readers in 4th-6th grade.

GIRLS ROCK!

We have always known that girls rock at whatever it is that they set out to do. But to rock in a sport where the dominating majority of it's athletes are males is one to call for a celebration. In the racing world, there is a new girl whose name is Danica Patrick and she is probably winning car races as you are reading this. The good news is that she is not the only girl in this sport. New girls are emerging rapidly. In the book RACER GIRLS by BOB WOODS you will learn more about her journey and about other women drivers before her that inspired her to follow her passion. Each day more women get interested in this sport. And maybe you too can start thinking about it after you read the book.

For ages 9-12.

ONE POWER PACKED BIRTHDAY GIFT

After Zoe turned 12 years old, she started noticing changes about herself. Not your usual adolescent changes, but weird things like being able to lift heavy objects, and time slowing down. Her grandfather has also been watching to see if she was changing, too. Unbeknownst to Zoe, she has inherited super powers and is about to begin her superhero apprenticeship. But being a superhero like her comic book idol is not all that she thought it would be.

Caped 6th Grader: Happy Birthday, Hero by Zoe Quinn is just super for readers 4th - 6th grade.

SUMMER OF MYSTERY: A TICK TOCK SECRET

After coming to the rescue of a little girl raised by two elderly aunts, Nancy Drew, begins looking for clues to a second will left by their wealthier cousin only to find out that many others are also desperately seeking the new will.

Nancy Drew and the Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene is the first in this classic girl sleuth series. For readers in 4th - 6th grade.