Current Book Recommendations

Some of these books were recommended to me by my friend Dr. Ken Stamatis. They were great! Thanks Ken.

A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban

Grade 4–6—An impressive and poignant debut novel. Eleven-year-old Zoe dreams of giving piano recitals at Carnegie Hall. When her father purchases a Perfectone D-60, though, she must settle for the sounds of the organ rather than the distinguished sounds of a baby grand. Her organ teacher, Mabelline Person, notices the child’s small talent for music and recommends her for the “Perfectone Perform-O-Rama”; she will play Neil Diamond’s “Forever in Blue Jeans.” Accepting this new twist to her ambitions, Zoe must depend on a quirky support system: her father, who gets anxious when he leaves the house and who earns diplomas from Living Room University; her workaholic mother; and her classmate Wheeler, who follows Zoe home from school daily to spend time with her father, baking. Playing television theme songs from the ’60s and ’70s rather than Bach doesn’t get Zoe down. Instead, aware of the stark difference between her dream and her reality, she forges ahead and, as an underdog, faces the uncertainty of entering the competition. In the end, resilient and resourceful Zoe finds perfection in the most imperfect and unique situations, and she shines. The refreshing writing is full of pearls of wisdom, and readers will relate to this fully developed character. The sensitive story is filled with hope and humor. It has a feel-good quality and a subtle message about how doing one’s best and believing in oneself are what really matter.—Jennifer Cogan, Bucks County Free Library, Doylestown, PA

Thirteen Reasons Why

When Clay Jenson plays the cassette tapes he received in a mysterious package, he’s surprised to hear the voice of dead classmate Hannah Baker. He’s one of 13 people who receive Hannah’s story, which details the circumstances that led to her suicide. Clay spends the rest of the day and long into the night listening to Hannah’s voice and going to the locations she wants him to visit. The text alternates, sometimes quickly, between Hannah’s voice (italicized) and Clay’s thoughts as he listens to her words, which illuminate betrayals and secrets that demonstrate the consequences of even small actions. Hannah, herself, is not free from guilt, her own inaction having played a part in an accidental auto death and a rape. The message about how we treat one another, although sometimes heavy, makes for compelling reading.

Allie Finkles Rules for Girls

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Signature Reviewed by Rachel VailIn Cabot’s (the Princess Diaries) first foray into novels for kids who are still in single digits, her trademark frank humor makes for compulsive reading—as always. The first installment of a new series presents a nine-year-old girl attempting to impose rules for living on her increasingly complex world. Allie is funny, believable and plucky (of course; all girls are plucky, at least in books), but most of all, and most interestingly, Allie is ambivalent. As the book starts, Allie learns that her family is moving across town. It is a mark of Cabot’s insight to understand that, to a nine-year-old, a car ride’s separation from the world she has known makes that distance as vast as the universe. Allie will be enrolled in a different elementary school, and will therefore be that most hideous thing: the new kid. To make matters worse, the Finkle family will be moving to a dark, old, creaky Victorian, which, Allie becomes convinced, has a zombie hand in the attic. Moving will mean leaving behind not only her geode collection but also her best friend. And here is where the story deepens. Allie’s best friend is difficult. She cries easily and always insists on getting her own way. To keep the peace, Allie makes rules for herself, often after the fact, to teach herself such important friendship truisms as Don’t Shove a Spatula Down Your Best Friend’s Throat. Mary Kate is the kind of best friend anybody would want to shove a spatula down the throat of, is the thing. As Allie marshals her energies to fight the move in increasingly desperate ways, sophisticated readers may well conclude ahead of Allie that the friends she is meeting at the new school are more fun and better for her than spoiled Mary Kate and the cat-torturer, Brittany Hauser. Coming to this realization on their own, however, is part of the empowering fun. Told from the distinctive perspective of a good-hearted, impulsive, morally centered kid, this is a story that captures the conflicted feelings with which so many seemingly strong nine-year-olds struggle. Ambivalence is uncomfortable. It is also a sign of growing up. Early elementary school is all about primary colors, where rules, imposed by adults, are clear guidelines to good behavior and getting along. The more complex hues of the second half of elementary school, when complicated friendship dynamics begin to outpace the adult-imposed rules of home and school, leave many kids floundering and confused. In the character Allie Finkle, Cabot captures this moment of transition and makes it feel not just real, but also fun, and funny. Rachel Vail’s forthcoming novel, Lucky (HarperTeen, May), is the start of a trilogy about three sisters.

Amulet

Almost too clever and poignant, Amulet is, on the surface, about navigating the murky waters of adolescence and, beneath that, an exploration of abandonment and survival. Emily and Navin are lost children, literally lost in a dark, new world and struggling to save their mother, who has been kidnapped by a drooling, tentacled beast. With stellar artwork, imaginative character design, moody color and consistent pacing, this first volume’s weakness lies in its largely disjointed storytelling. There is the strong, young, heroine; cute, furry, sidekicks; scary monsters—all extraordinary components, but pieced together in a patchwork manner. There is little hope in his dark world as Kibuishi removes Emily and Navin’s frame of safety. Their hopes rest in a magic amulet that seems to be working in the interest of the children—until it suddenly isn’t. The most frightening element of Amulet is the sense of insecurity we feel for Emily, fighting her way through uncharted terrain with no guide and no support system. This first volume of Amulet isn’t a disappointment, but it does feel like a warmup to the main event. If anything, it’s a clear indication that Kibuishi has just begun skimming the surface of his own talent. (Jan.)

Jenna Bush

From Booklist

First Daughter Jenna Bush worked as an intern with UNICEF throughout Latin America, and in her first book, she focuses on the life of a young woman she befriended during her travels. Infected with HIV/AIDS at birth, Ana loses both parents to the disease. After suffering abuse at relatives’ homes, she finds a caring center for those living with HIV/AIDS, where she falls in love and eventually gets pregnant. Her child is born without the virus, and at the story’s close, Ana has found a peaceful home where she can plan a new life for herself and her baby. The pace is brisk: chapters are only a few pages long, and the accessible language and simple sentences will pull reluctant readers. A few jarring passages point to Bush’s outsider’s view (a comparison between Ana and “the exotic subjects in Gaugin’s Tahiti paintings” stands out), but the wrenching story, illustrated with a few photos, effectively sends an urgent message: too many children are unsafe and burdened by secrets. Classroom-ready resources include discussion questions and suggestions for volunteering. Engberg, Gillian –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 7 Up—Tan captures the displacement and awe with which immigrants respond to their new surroundings in this wordless graphic novel. It depicts the journey of one man, threatened by dark shapes that cast shadows on his family’s life, to a new country. The only writing is in an invented alphabet, which creates the sensation immigrants must feel when they encounter a strange new language and way of life. A wide variety of ethnicities is represented in Tan’s hyper-realistic style, and the sense of warmth and caring for others, regardless of race, age, or background, is present on nearly every page. Young readers will be fascinated by the strange new world the artist creates, complete with floating elevators and unusual creatures, but may not realize the depth of meaning or understand what the man’s journey symbolizes. More sophisticated readers, however, will grasp the sense of strangeness and find themselves participating in the man’s experiences. They will linger over the details in the beautiful sepia pictures and will likely pick up the book to pore over it again and again.—Alana Abbott, James Blackstone Memorial Library, Branford, CT

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Recipient of numerous awards and nominations in Australia, The Arrival proves a beautiful, compelling piece of art, in both content and form. Tan (The Lost Thing, 2004) has previously produced a small body of off-kilter, frequently haunting stories of children trapped in surreal industrial landscapes. Here, he has distilled his themes and aesthetic into a silent, fantastical masterpiece. A lone immigrant leaves his family and journeys to a new world, both bizarre and awesome, finding struggle and dehumanizing industry but also friendship and a new life. Tan infuses this simple, universal narrative with vibrant, resonating life through confident mastery of sequential art forms and conventions. Strong visual metaphors convey personal longing, political suppression, and totalitarian control; imaginative use of panel size and shape powerfully depicts sensations and ideas as diverse as interminable waiting, awe-inspiring majesty, and forlorn memories; delicate alterations in light and color saturate the pages with a sense of time and place. Soft brushstrokes and grand Art Deco–style architecture evoke a time long ago, but the story’s immediacy and fantasy elements will appeal even to readers younger than the target audience, though they may miss many of the complexities. Filled with subtlety and grandeur, the book is a unique work that not only fulfills but also expands the potential of its form. Karp, Jesse

Amazon.com

In Beowulf warriors must back up their mead-hall boasts with instant action, monsters abound, and fights are always to the death. The Anglo-Saxon epic, composed between the 7th and 10th centuries, has long been accorded its place in literature, though its hold on our imagination has been less secure. In the introduction to his translation, Seamus Heaney argues that Beowulf’s role as a required text for many English students obscured its mysteries and “mythic potency.” Now, thanks to the Irish poet’s marvelous recreation (in both senses of the word) under Alfred David’s watch, this dark, doom-ridden work gets its day in the sun.

There are endless pleasures in Heaney’s analysis, but readers should head straight for the poem and then to the prose. (Some will also take advantage of the dual-language edition and do some linguistic teasing out of their own.) The epic’s outlines seem simple, depicting Beowulf’s three key battles with the scaliest brutes in all of art: Grendel, Grendel’s mother (who’s in a suitably monstrous snit after her son’s dismemberment and death), and then, 50 years later, a gold-hoarding dragon “threatening the night sky / with streamers of fire.” Along the way, however, we are treated to flashes back and forward and to a world view in which a thane’s allegiance to his lord and to God is absolute. In the first fight, the man from Geatland must travel to Denmark to take on the “shadow-stalker” terrorizing Heorot Hall. Here Beowulf and company set sail:

Men climbed eagerly up the gangplank,

sand churned in the surf, warriors loaded

a cargo of weapons, shining war-gear

in the vessel’s hold, then heaved out,

away with a will in their wood-wreathed ship.

Over the waves, with the wind behind her

and foam at her neck, she flew like a bird…

After a fearsome night victory over march-haunting and heath-marauding Grendel, our high-born hero is suitably strewn with gold and praise, the queen declaring: “Your sway is wide as the wind’s home, / as the sea around cliffs.” Few will disagree. And remember, Beowulf has two more trials to undergo.

Heaney claims that when he began his translation it all too often seemed “like trying to bring down a megalith with a toy hammer.” The poem’s challenges are many: its strong four-stress line, heavy alliteration, and profusion of kennings could have been daunting. (The sea is, among other things, “the whale-road,” the sun is “the world’s candle,” and Beowulf’s third opponent is a “vile sky-winger.” When it came to over-the-top compound phrases, the temptations must have been endless, but for the most part, Heaney smiles, he “called a sword a sword.”) Yet there are few signs of effort in the poet’s Englishing. Heaney varies his lines with ease, offering up stirring dialogue, action, and description while not stinting on the epic’s mix of fate and fear. After Grendel’s misbegotten mother comes to call, the king’s evocation of her haunted home may strike dread into the hearts of men and beasts, but it’s a gift to the reader:

A few miles from here

a frost-stiffened wood waits and keeps watch

above a mere; the overhanging bank

is a maze of tree-roots mirrored in its surface.

At night there, something uncanny happens:

the water burns. And the mere bottom

has never been sounded by the sons of men.

On its bank, the heather-stepper halts:

the hart in flight from pursuing hounds

will turn to face them with firm-set horns

and die in the wood rather than dive

beneath its surface. That is no good place.

In Heaney’s hands, the poem’s apparent archaisms and Anglo-Saxon attitudes–its formality, blood-feuds, and insane courage–turn the art of an ancient island nation into world literature. –Kerry Fried

From Publishers Weekly

When the great monster Grendel comes to Denmark and dashes its warriors’ hopes, installing himself in their great hall and eating alive the valiant lords, the hero Beowulf arrives from over the ocean to wrestle the beast. He saves the Danes, who sing of his triumphs, but soon the monster’s mother turns up to take him hostage: having killed her, our hero goes home to the land of the Geats, acquires the kingship, and fights to the death an enormous dragon. That’s the plot of this narrative poem, composed more than a millennium ago in the Germanic language that gave birth (eventually) to our version of English. Long a thing for professors to gloss, the poem includes battles, aggressive boasts, glorious funerals, frightening creatures and a much-studied alliterative meter; earlier versions in current vernacular have pleased lay readers and helped hard-pressed students. Nobel laureate Heaney has brought forth a finely wrought, controversial (for having won a prize over a children’s book) modern English version, one which retains, even recommends, the archaic strengths of its warrior world, where “The Spear-Danes in days gone by/ and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.” Well-known digressionsAa detailed dirge, the tale-within-a-tale of Hengest, “homesick and helpless” in ancient FrieslandAfind their ways into Heaney’s English, which holds to the spirit (not always the letter) of the en face Anglo-Saxon, fusing swift story and seamless description, numinous adjectives and earthy nouns: in one swift scene of difficult swimming, “Shoulder to shoulder, we struggled on/ for five nights, until the long flow/ and pitch of the waves, the perishing cold drove us apart. The deep boiled up/ and its wallowing sent the sea-brutes wild.” Heaney’s evocative introduction voices his long-felt attraction to the poem’s “melancholy fortitude,” describing the decades his rendering took and the use he discovered for dialect terms. It extends in dramatic fashion Heaney’s long-term archeological delvings, his dig into the origins of his beloved, conflictedAby politics and placeAEnglish language. (Feb.)

Praise for The Black Book of Secrets:

“This polished debut from a British writer tantalizingly blends secrets and thick, evocative atmosphere . . . Higgins, framing her book as texts discovered in a hallowed wooden leg, expertly sustains the audience’s curiosity, revealing just enough information to keep readers riveted. And for all the grisly details, the novel gets at important themes about self-determination and trust. Original and engrossing.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Wonderful. Anyone looking for the next big thing has come to the right place. Higgins has created a uniquely grim fantasy world that more than holds its own with Dickens or Peake. Her characters are brilliantly realized and the story grabs at the reader with hooked talons.”—Eoin Colfer

“The story’s vaguely Dickensian atmosphere is exquisite . . . A tantalizingly revelatory ending leaves at least one thread dangling for future volumes (which are sure to evoke more picaresque oddities and nefarious tales), making this a smart, peculiarly thrilling book that is sure to appeal to readers ready to sidestep the goodygoody Harry Potters of adventure fiction.” —Booklist, Starred Review

“Higgins’s debut begins with a bang—on the streets of a London as dark as in any Dickens novel—and ends in a mysterious cave, with no let-up in pacing from start to finish . . . One of Higgins’s great achievements is the way she manages to convey a degree of innocence in Ludlow despite his harsh life surviving the city streets. Redemption emerges as a strong theme in the book, as she reveals the complexities of human nature, and she leaves open several mysteries (including the history behind a wooden leg and Joe’s prized pet frog). Readers can only hope for many more black books filled with secrets.” —Shelf Awareness

“Pre-teens who enjoy historically based fantasy . . . will find The Black Book of Secrets thoroughly rewarding.”—The Washington Post

“. . . will keep readers on the edge of their seats.” —Scripps Howard News Service

“There can be few more nightmarish openings than that of The Black Book of Secrets . . . A beguiling mix of gothic fairy tale and Dalhesque macabre for 9-13-year-olds.” —The Telegraph (UK)

“Higgins creates a fascinating novel peopled with colorful characters and imbued with clever plot twists . . . the novel’s climax is both excellent and surprising.” —VOYA

“Higgins’s fine writing and wry tale will charm readers who are ready for the unusual . . . like the film Chocolat . . . a stranger enters a town and changes the lives there forever, all from the confines of a small shop, this time a pawnbroker’s place.” —KLIATT

“The resolution, as tidy a piece of plotting as can be imagined, not only collects all the plot threads but leads to the deeper revelation of who Joe is and why he plies such a curious trade. Strongly seasoned with details of nineteenth-century oddities, the story abounds with puzzles, quirks, and enticing disclosures.” —The Horn Book

“While Ludlow & Co. do live in an alternate reality, there are many details about life in the late 1800s that readers of historical fiction will enjoy—especially those who like reading about the more gruesome, less well-known details, like stealing and selling teeth, grave robbers, body snatchers and Sweeney Todd.” —Bookshelves of Doom

“I thought this book was outstanding. It’s a horror book with lots of mystery. I would give it four stars.” —Jennifer Hopkins, age 11, in the Washington Times

Product Description

When Dashti, a maid, and Lady Saren, her mistress, are shut in a tower for seven years for Saren’s refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment.

As food runs low and the days go from broiling hot to freezing cold, it is all Dashti can do to keep them fed and comfortable. But the arrival outside the tower of Saren’s two suitors—one welcome, and the other decidedly less so—brings both hope and great danger, and Dashti must make the desperate choices of a girl whose life is worth more than she knows.

With Shannon Hale’s lyrical language, this forgotten but classic fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm is reimagined and reset on the central Asian steppes; it is a completely unique retelling filled with adventure and romance, drama and disguise.

About the Author

Shannon Hale is the Newbery Honor–winning author of Princess Academy as well as the highly acclaimed and award-winning Books of Bayern: Goose Girl, Enna Burning, and River Secrets. She has written a novel for adults, Austenland, and is working on a graphic novel, Rapunzel’s Revenge. She lives with her husband and two young children in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Dramatic cover art will draw readers to this time-travel story, and the fast-paced adventure will hold their interest. Sam’s father has been missing for 10 days. Searching a dusty bookstore for clues, Sam discovers a hidden room containing an old book, a strange coin, and an oddly carved stone that send him on a gut-wrenching journey back to medieval Iona, just in time for a Viking invasion. Next, he lands in France during World War I, then in ancient Egypt. After he returns, Sam struggles to understand how the time-travel device works and what it all means. The book ends as he discovers that his father, imprisoned in the castle of Vlad Tepes (a.k.a. Dracula), has sent him a message across six centuries: Help Me, Sam. The appeal of the novel, which is translated from French, comes from both well-drawn characters and a swiftly moving story. With the central mystery as yet unsolved, a villain still unmasked, and Sam’s father in peril at the end, readers will be scrambling for the second book of the planned trilogy. Phelan, Carolyn –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Starred Review. Grade 9 Up–Zusak has created a work that deserves the attention of sophisticated teen and adult readers. Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids, acid-tongued mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands. The child arrives having just stolen her first book–although she has not yet learned how to read–and her foster father uses it, The Gravediggers Handbook, to lull her to sleep when shes roused by regular nightmares about her younger brothers death. Across the ensuing years of the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Liesel collects more stolen books as well as a peculiar set of friends: the boy Rudy, the Jewish refugee Max, the mayors reclusive wife (who has a whole library from which she allows Liesel to steal), and especially her foster parents. Zusak not only creates a mesmerizing and original story but also writes with poetic syntax, causing readers to deliberate over phrases and lines, even as the action impels them forward. Death is not a sentimental storyteller, but he does attend to an array of satisfying details, giving Liesels story all the nuances of chance, folly, and fulfilled expectation that it deserves. An extraordinary narrative.–Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Death, it turns out, is not proud.

The narrator of The Book Thief is many things — sardonic, wry, darkly humorous, compassionate — but not especially proud. As author Marcus Zusak channels him, Death — who doesn’t carry a scythe but gets a kick out of the idea — is as afraid of humans as humans are of him.

Knopf is blitz-marketing this 550-page book set in Nazi Germany as a young-adult novel, though it was published in the author’s native Australia for grown-ups. (Zusak, 30, has written several books for kids, including the award-winning I Am the Messenger.) The book’s length, subject matter and approach might give early teen readers pause, but those who can get beyond the rather confusing first pages will find an absorbing and searing narrative.

Death meets the book thief, a 9-year-old girl named Liesel Meminger, when he comes to take her little brother, and she becomes an enduring force in his life, despite his efforts to resist her. “I traveled the globe . . . handing souls to the conveyor belt of eternity,” Death writes. “I warned myself that I should keep a good distance from the burial of Liesel Meminger’s brother. I did not heed my advice.” As Death lingers at the burial, he watches the girl, who can’t yet read, steal a gravedigger’s instruction manual. Thus Liesel is touched first by Death, then by words, as if she knows she’ll need their comfort during the hardships ahead.

And there are plenty to come. Liesel’s father has already been carted off for being a communist and soon her mother disappears, too, leaving her in the care of foster parents: the accordion-playing, silver-eyed Hans Hubermann and his wife, Rosa, who has a face like “creased-up cardboard.” Liesel’s new family lives on the unfortunately named Himmel (Heaven) Street, in a small town on the outskirts of Munich populated by vivid characters: from the blond-haired boy who relates to Jesse Owens to the mayor’s wife who hides from despair in her library. They are, for the most part, foul-spoken but good-hearted folks, some of whom have the strength to stand up to the Nazis in small but telling ways.

Stolen books form the spine of the story. Though Liesel’s foster father realizes the subject matter isn’t ideal, he uses “The Grave Digger’s Handbook” to teach her to read. “If I die anytime soon, you make sure they bury me right,” he tells her, and she solemnly agrees. Reading opens new worlds to her; soon she is looking for other material for distraction. She rescues a book from a pile being burned by the Nazis, then begins stealing more books from the mayor’s wife. After a Jewish fist-fighter hides behind a copy of Mein Kampf as he makes his way to the relative safety of the Hubermanns’ basement, he then literally whitewashes the pages to create his own book for Liesel, which sustains her through her darkest times. Other books come in handy as diversions during bombing raids or hedges against grief. And it is the book she is writing herself that, ultimately, will save Liesel’s life.

Death recounts all this mostly dispassionately — you can tell he almost hates to be involved. His language is spare but evocative, and he’s fond of emphasizing points with bold type and centered pronouncements, just to make sure you get them (how almost endearing that is, that Death feels a need to emphasize anything). “A NICE THOUGHT,” Death will suddenly announce, or “A KEY WORD.” He’s also full of deft descriptions: “Pimples were gathered in peer groups on his face.”

Death, like Liesel, has a way with words. And he recognizes them not only for the good they can do, but for the evil as well. What would Hitler have been, after all, without words? As this book reminds us, what would any of us be?

Review

`I get sent quite a lot of books…and can’t get past the first few pages of most of them. Thankfully Bunker 10 was an exception. I raced through it. All the excitement of a computer game and all the tricksiness of The Matrix. Plus a lot of humour, some fun characters and no squeamishness about violence. Great stuff. I can’t remember when I last read a book with such a high body count. If there were more books like this out there maybe boys would be reading more.’ Charlie Higson

Product Description

At eight o’clock in the evening, on Monday 24th December 2007, Pinewood Military Installation exploded. The blast ripped apart acres of forest and devastated the remote highland valley where the base was located. No official cause was given for the incident. Inside Pinewood were 185 male and female military personnel – a mixture of scientists and soldiers. There were also seven teenagers there. This is the story of their last day . . .

Fergal Bamfield doesn’t collect stamps like normal kids. He’s an oddball (his mother prefers to call him “clever”), and his collection is as strange as everything else about him. Fergal Bamfield collects tin cans.

Then one day he finds a can without a label. What could be in it? Peaches, soup, perhaps revolting spam? But instead it’s something gruesome: a human finger. Then Fergal finds another can, this time containing a one-word message, HELP! Now Fergal and his friend Charlotte are knee-deep in an adventure, and they’re about to learn something horrible: Everybody has an expiration date.

Found: One girl, age 13. Unconscious. Unharmed. Unclaimed. Unidentified.

Lost: Everything.

JD may not know the truth about her past, but she knows she’s in danger, and she can’t shake the dark visions haunting her dreams. She won’t be safe until she figures out who she is and where she came from. She can trust no one, not even herself–especially not herself. Because it turns out there’s one thing even more terrible than forgetting her past: remembering.

Product Description

On his birthday, Don Schmidt spends the day waiting patiently for his big surprise—a cake, presents, maybe a Chinese clown . . . . But instead, his batty parents get into their monthly argument. This time it’s because his mother has to feed the chickens. It ends with her shouting the same thing as always about their Louisiana chicken farm: “I hate it here!”

What follows is Don’s journey from obscurity to fame and back again, when he becomes the youngest kid to ever win the Horse Island Dairy Festival chicken-judging contest. Gradually, his mom notices that something strange is going on—everyone knows her son!—but once she realizes that Don has become the town celebrity, she sees that there may be benefits to living on a chicken farm. What she doesn’t seem to see are the benefits of having a son like Don.

For Don, the contest is the beginning of a big, big adventure. It involves trips to New Orleans and Baton Rouge, fair weather friends, a missing sister, and one big secret. Readers will cheer for Don, who goes out of his way to see the good in everything.

About the Author

JACQUES COUVILLON was born and raised on a farm in Cow Island, Louisiana. Although he has lived in different cities, he will always consider Cow Island as his home. He will not say which, but some of the events in The Chicken Dance may actually have happened to Jacques.

From Booklist

Bart is dubbed the “miracle boy” when his flu causes his mother to stay home from work on September 11, 2001, saving her from the attacks that kill his recently estranged father. This attention earns him a scholarship to a prestigious school, known for its intense hazing. Not wanting to disappoint his grieving mother, Bart enrolls. The hazing begins immediately and builds to an emotional crescendo. Bart finally retaliates by keying the ringleader’s car, at which point the whole truth comes out. Assigned to community service, Bart keeps a young hospitalized girl company. When she dies, he realizes that she was his tormentor’s sister, but this intensifies rather than softens the abuse Bart undergoes. The book addresses many important topics—bullying, grief, and illness—which make it useful for classroom discussion, and although some readers will wish for a more thorough resolution to the story, Bart is a sympathetic character that readers will pull for. Booth, Heather –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

Bartoletti has taken one episode from her Newbery Honor Book, HITLER YOUTH, and fleshed it out into thought-provoking novel. When 16-year-old Helmuth Hubner listens to the BBC news on an illegal short-wave radio, he quickly discovers Germany is lying to the people. But when he tries to expose the truth with leaflets, he’s tried for treason. Sentenced to death and waiting in a jail cell, Helmuth’s story emerges in a series of flashbacks that show his growth from a naive child caught up in the patriotism of the times, to a sensitive and mature young man who thinks for himself.

Product Description

A video message from a dead person. A larcenous teenager. A man who can stick his left toe behind his head and in his ear. An epileptic girl seeking answers in a fairy tale. A boy who loses everything in World War II, and his brother who loses even more. And a family with a secret so big that it changes everything.

The world’s best beloved authors each contribute a chapter in the life of the mysterious George “Gee” Keane, photographer, soldier, adventurer and enigma. Under different pens, a startling portrait emerges of a man, his family, and his gloriously complicated tangle of a life.

The full list of authors includes:

Roddy Doyle, Booker Prize-winning author of A STAR CALLED HENRY; Nick Hornby, author of ABOUT A BOY; Ruth Ozeki, author of MY YEAR OF MEATS; Margo Lanagan, Prinz Honor Award-winning author of BLACK JUICE; Linda Sue Park, Newbery Award-winning author of A SINGLE SHARD; David Almond, winner of the Whitbread Award and Carnegie Medal and author of SKELLIG; Gregory Maguire, author of WICKED; Tim Wynne-Jones, two-time winner of Canada’s Governor General’s award and author of ONE OF THE KINDER PLANETS; Deborah Ellis, author of THE BREADWINNER; Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl Books.

And more are signing on!

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 8 Up–This action-packed, multifaceted, character-rich story describes the shocking realities of the slave trade and plantation life while portraying the perseverance, resourcefulness, and triumph of the human spirit. Amari is a 15-year-old Ashanti girl who is happily anticipating her marriage to Besa. Then, slavers arrive in her village, slaughter her family, and shatter her world. Shackled, frightened, and despondent, she is led to the Cape Coast where she is branded and forced onto a boat of death for the infamous Middle Passage to the Carolinas. There, Percival Derby buys her as a gift for his son’s 16th birthday. Trust and friendship develop between Amari and Polly, a white indentured servant, and when their mistress gives birth to a black baby, the teens try to cover up Mrs. Derby’s transgression. However, Mr. Derby’s brutal fury spurs them to escape toward the rumored freedom of Fort Mose, a Spanish colony in Florida. Although the narrative focuses alternately on Amari and Polly, the story is primarily Amari’s, and her pain, hope, and determination are acute. Cruel white stereotypes abound except for the plantation’s mistress, whose love is colorblind; the doctor who provides the ruse for the girls’ escape; and the Irish woman who gives the fugitives a horse and wagon. As readers embrace Amari and Polly, they will better understand the impact of human exploitation and suffering throughout history. In addition, they will gain a deeper knowledge of slavery, indentured servitude, and 18th-century sanctuaries for runaway slaves.–Gerry Larson, Durham School of the Arts, NC

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Gr. 9-12. Best known for her contemporary African American characters, Draper’s latest novel is a searing work of historical fiction that imagines a 15-year-old African girl’s journey through American slavery. The story begins in Amari’s Ashanti village, but the idyllic scene explodes in bloodshed when slavers arrive and murder her family. Amari and her beloved, Besa, are shackled, and so begins the account of impossible horrors from the slave fort, the Middle Passage, and auction on American shores, where a rice plantation owner buys Amari for his 16-year-old son’s sexual enjoyment. In brutal specifics, Draper shows the inhumanity: Amari is systematically raped on the slave ship and on the plantation and a slave child is used as alligator bait by white teenagers. And she adds to the complex history in alternating chapters that flip between Amari and Polly, an indentured white servant on Amari’s plantation. A few plot elements, such as Amari’s chance meeting with Besa, are contrived. But Draper builds the explosive tension to the last chapter, and the sheer power of the story, balanced between the overwhelmingly brutal facts of slavery and Amari’s ferocious survivor’s spirit, will leave readers breathless, even as they consider the story’s larger questions about the infinite costs of slavery and how to reconcile history. A moving author’s note discusses the real places and events on which the story is based. Give this to teens who have read Julius Lester’s Day of Tears (2005). Gillian Engberg

Amazon.com

Equal parts droll and gorgeous nostalgia book and heartfelt plea for a renewed sense of adventure in the lives of boys and men, Conn and Hal Iggulden’s The Dangerous Book for Boys became a mammoth bestseller in the United Kingdom in 2006. Adapted, in moderation, for American customs in this edition (cricket is gone, rugby remains; conkers are out, Navajo Code Talkers in), The Dangerous Book is a guide book for dads as well as their sons, as a reminder of lore and technique that have not yet been completely lost to the digital age. Recall the adventures of Scott of the Antarctic and the Battle of the Somme, relearn how to palm a coin, tan a skin, and, most charmingly, wrap a package in brown paper and string. The book’s ambitions are both modest and winningly optimistic: you get the sense that by learning how to place a splint or write in invisible ink, a boy might be prepared for anything, even girls (which warrant a small but wise chapter of their own).

From Publishers Weekly

Kadushin, whose lush voice brought the heroine of Stephenie Meyers’s Twilight series to life, does her best to inject some intrigue and mystery into this mile-wide, inch-deep compendium of random facts billed as a manual for everything that girls need to know, a selection from the bestselling book. Alas, the audio version, replete with time lines, 14 variations of how to play tag and sesquipedalian vocabulary words, sorely lacks dynamism. The brief histories of famous women—Joan of Arc, Marie Curie, Salome—make for more engaging listening than material about how to change a tire or administer first aid. Listeners might find themselves wishing for something akin to the screen selection feature on a DVD, so that if they need information on, say, what constitutes a foul in tetherball, they could get to it without having to wade through the section on women who have earned patents for various inventions. Without such an index, the listener is reduced to writing down the information Kadushin relays, which raises the question: isn’t this available in book form?

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-10–In Victorian London, Albert Wilkes returns home for tea four days after his funeral. While his shocked and terrified wife rushes to prepare it, Wilkes takes the family dog for a walk and is abducted. His kidnapping is witnessed by young pickpocket Eddie, who becomes embroiled, along with an assistant at the British Museum and a clergyman’s daughter, in a deadly plot involving the fragments of a diary, a secret department at the British Museum, and a dinosaur like creature roaming the streets. Oh, and there are some zombies. This thoroughly absorbing page-turner is a terrific blend of horror and mystery with three teen protagonists. It is a quick read packed with twists, turns, and just enough gore to keep things interesting. A great choice for horror fans.–Michele Capozzella, Chappaqua Public Library, NY

From AudioFile

Dinosaurs roam the foggy streets of Victorian London? In this Frankenstein retelling, an industrialist with a God-complex exhumes bodies to create zombie slave laborers. George is a clerk in the British Museum investigating unexplained mysteries when one falls into his lap, or rather, out of his pocket when it’s picked by urchin Eddie. With the help of Liz, daughter of a clergyman and an aspiring actress, the pair attempt to solve the mystery of reanimated corpses and stolen dinosaur eggs. Steven Pacey expertly voices these British characters with distinctive regional and class accents. His portrayal of the megalomaniac sends shivers down the spine, and his rendition of Liz copying Eddie’s cockney accent brings humor to this gothic adventure. M.M.O. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine– Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine –This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 Up—When the Finches take in a church-sponsored refugee family from war-torn Sierra Leone, teenage Jared is annoyed that he has to share his room with Mattu, who is his age. Sixth-grader Mopsy, however, is thrilled to embrace Alake and wants to turn her into a “best” friend. Alake doesn’t talk, barely eats, and is plagued by nightmares. Meanwhile, Kara Finch takes the Amabo parents under her wing, teaching them about conveniences such as microwaves. The family brings no luggage except for two boxes of cremated remains. Through snooping, Jared and Mopsy find uncut diamonds in the ashes. Unlike their parents, they realize that something is amiss in this family. The Amabos do not talk, or touch, or seem to care about each other. Cooney brilliantly contrasts the horror of Africa’s civil wars with the overwhelming abundance and naivety of American suburban life. Jared’s narcissism, selfishness, and racism disintegrate when he confronts true evil. How families mysteriously bond and care for one another is examined under the dramatic circumstances of two disparate groups trying to make things work. When Jared learns that Mattu never heard of the Holocaust, he is astonished. But, Mattu tells him, “We have those in Africa. I have been in one.” Indeed, more than 60 years later, we are learning about ever-new Holocausts.—Lillian Hecker, Town of Pelham Public Library, NY

From Booklist

Cooney’s Connecticut church has sponsored war refugee families, and her stirring teen novel neither sensationalizes nor minimizes the brutality of their experiences. Her story unfolds through the alternating narratives of the American teens in a host family and African refugee teens, who can’t forget what happened even as they adjust to their new surroundings and try to convince themselves they will eventually find a safe home. While Jared is angry that he has to share his room with Mattu and introduce the refugee at school, his younger sister tries to help Alake, who is mute and still. What horrors did Alake witness? Even in America, there’s fear to be dealt with: a killer wants the uncut diamonds he forced Mattu and Alake to smuggle out for him. The climax is too neat, but tension mounts in a novel that combines thrilling suspense and a story about innocence lost. Rochman, Hazel

Product Description

The highly anticipated sequel to the #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling book!

Secrets have a way of getting out, especially when a diary is involved.

Whatever you do, don’t ask Greg Heffley how he spent his summer vacation, because he definitely doesn’t want to talk about it.

As Greg enters the new school year, he’s eager to put the past three months behind him . . . and one event in particular.

Unfortunately for Greg, his older brother, Rodrick, knows all about the incident Greg wants to keep under wraps. But secrets have a way of getting out . . . especially when a diary is involved.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules chronicles Greg’s attempts to navigate the hazards of middle school, impress the girls, steer clear of the school talent show, and most important, keep his secret safe.

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-7 Yep looks at the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 from two points of view. Chin is a young Chinese immigrant whose father is a houseboy for a prominent banker and his family. He has become friendly with young Henry Travis, the banker’s son, through their interest in low-brow but exciting penny dreadfuls. The stories depict heroic people doing heroic things and, while both boys appreciate their fathers, they certainly do not regard them as heroes. Not, that is, until the Earth Dragon roars into consciousness one spring morning, tearing the city asunder and making heroes out of otherwise ordinary men. Yep’s research is exhaustive. He covers all the most significant repercussions of the event, its aftershocks, and days of devastating fires, and peppers the story with interesting true-to-life anecdotes. The format is a little tedious one chapter visits Henry’s affluent neighborhood, the next ventures to Chin’s home in Chinatown, and back again and the ordinary heroes theme is presented a bit heavy-handedly. Throughout the text, the boys compare their fathers to Wyatt Earp. But the story as a whole should appeal to reluctant readers. Its natural disaster subject is both timely and topical, and Yep weaves snippets of information on plate tectonics and more very neatly around his prose. A solid supplemental choice. Catherine Threadgill, Charleston County Public Library, SC

From Booklist

Gr. 3-5. On the evening of April 17, 1906, neither eight-year-old Henry nor his friend Ching is aware that the earth beneath their San Francisco homes is shifting. Devotees of “penny dreadfuls,” both boys long for excitement, not their fathers’ ordinary routine lives. When the earthquake shakes the city and a firestorm breaks out, Henry and his parents scramble in the chaos and battle the fire, but must ultimately evacuate their home. Ching and his father survive the collapse of their Chinatown tenement, and flee to the ferry through the debris and turmoil. In the midst of catastrophe, the boys realize that their fathers are real-life heroes. Henry and Ching’s stories are told in alternating chapters with a few interruptions for the insertion of earthquake information. Told in the present tense, the narration provides a “you are there” sense of immediacy and will appeal to readers who enjoy action-packed survival stories. Linda Perkins

ELEPHANT RUN is an exciting, historical adventure novel that will appeal to all middle grade readers (and their parents!). In 1941, Nick Freestone joins his estranged father at the family plantation in Burma to escape the bombs falling on England. Instead of finding refuge, he is plunged into the Japanese invasion of Burma. With the help of his young friend, Mya, Nick tries to learn more about the timber elephants trained on the plantation. Mya, a girl who hopes to become an elephant trainer, or “mahout,” barely has time to show Nick around the plantation before Nick’s father is taken prisoner by the Japanese. With Japanese soldiers in charge of the family home, Nick becomes an unwilling servant of the Japanese. But there are hidden passageways in the house, and soon Mya and Nick have found a way to escape into the jungle, riding on the back of a much-feared rogue elephant named Hannibal.

For readers who’ve already exhausted the many books about WWII in Europe, this book offers a view of the war in Asia. While the book is mainly about Nick and Mya, readers will see multi-dimensional Japanese, Burmese, and British characters and learn more about life in Burma before and during the war. Issues of colonialism, foreign exploitation, and the desire for Burmese independence are introduced by the various characters who people the story, but the novel is focused primarily on Nick and Mya’s need to escape from their Japanese captors. The elephants are part of the story as well, with Hannibal and Miss Pretty representing some of the many elephants trained to work British plantations in Burma.

Fast-paced action drives this story forward, with historical details supporting the action. Nick’s father is sent to work on the infamous Japanese railroad, and the story provides a look inside the labor camps. History never slows the action, but information about the Japanese invasion and Burmese reaction abound in the story. Teachers may want to use this story to draw reluctant readers into learning more about World War II in Asia. Be sure to have a map or atlas handy as you’ll want to look up the places named in the story. Readers will be sure to want to learn more about elephants and “mahouts” after reading this novel. War Elephants makes good companion reading.

If you like fast-paced adventure novels, stories of World War II, or historical novels, you’ll enjoy this exciting novel. My only complaint was the quick resolution at the end — I would have liked to read more about Nick’s actual escape and journey to Australia, but that would take another novel. Let’s hope the author is planning to write more about Nick and Mya!

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Looking forward” is the message that runs through Woodson’s (The House You Pass on the Way) novel. Narrator Frannie is fascinated with Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Hope is the thing with feathers/ that perches in the soul,” and grapples with its meaning, especially after a white student joins Frannie’s all-black sixth-grade classroom. Trevor, the classroom bully, promptly nicknames him “Jesus Boy,” because he is “pale and his hair [is] long.” Frannie’s best friend, Samantha, a preacher’s daughter, starts to believe that the new boy truly could be Jesus (”If there was a world for Jesus to need to walk back into, wouldn’t this one be it?”). The Jesus Boy’s sense of calm and its effect on her classmates make Frannie wonder if there is some truth to Samantha’a musings, but a climactic faceoff between him and Trevor bring the newcomer’s human flaws to light. Frannie’s keen perceptions allow readers to observe a ripple of changes. Because she has experienced so much sadness in her life (her brother’s deafness, her mother’s miscarriages) the heroine is able to see beyond it all—to look forward to a time when the pain subsides and life continues. Set in 1971, Woodson’s novel skillfully weaves in the music and events surrounding the rising opposition to the Vietnam War, giving this gentle, timeless story depth. She raises important questions about God, racial segregation and issues surrounding the hearing-impaired with a light and thoughtful touch. Ages 8-up.

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 4–7—”Stepped through that door white and softly as the snow,” notes sixth-grader Frannie, on the arrival of a pale, long-haired boy to her predominantly black middle school on a winter day in 1971. He is dubbed the Jesus Boy by the class rowdy, and the name seems to suit the newcomer’s appearance and calm demeanor. Frannie is confused, not only by declarations that he’s NOT white, but that her friend Samantha, daughter of a conservative Baptist minister, also seems to believe that he is Jesus. In light of this and other surprises in her life, Frannie questions her own faith and, most of all, the meaning of the Emily Dickinson poem that she is studying in class, “Hope is a thing with feathers/that perches in the soul/….” How does she maintain hope when her newly pregnant mother has lost three babies already? She also worries about her deaf older brother, Sean, who longs to be accepted in the hearing world. She sees the anger in the bully intensify as he targets Jesus Boy. With her usual talent for creating characters who confront, reflect, and grow into their own persons, Woodson creates in Frannie a strong protagonist who thinks for herself and recognizes the value and meaning of family. The story ends with hope and thoughtfulness while speaking to those adolescents who struggle with race, faith, and prejudice. They will appreciate its wisdom and positive connections.—D. Maria LaRocco, Cuyahoga Public Library, Strongsville, OH

From Publishers Weekly

Adult author and former Atlanta Falcon Green (American Outrage) delivers a satisfying YA debut, using his own NFL experience to bring readers behind the scenes. Twelve-year-old Troy White’s athletic ability and his preternatural talent for predicting football strategy are both going to waste (he’s stuck playing second-string on his team), until frustration with a vicious bully on his team pushes him to borrow an official NFL football from local Atlanta Falcons star linebacker Seth Halloway. As Troy languishes on his own football team and resents the father who abandoned him, he strives to alert the Falcons of his gift: Sometimes a kid’s heart tells him to do something and he needs to listen, even if it means getting in trouble. Acting as a mentor, Seth encourages Troy to come clean about his adventures (The truth is more important than the trouble it brings) and to forgive his father’s desertion (All I know is, things happen. Unless you’re the one they’re happening to, you usually can’t understand it). Seth ends up dating Troy’s mother and coaching Troy’s team, giving Troy the chance to shine not only on the sidelines, where his play-predicting ability helps bring the Falcons to victory, but on the field as well. There was no rage fueling him now. It was something else, a blinding energy he never knew he had. Non-sports fans will root for underdog Troy (I want to do something. I want to be something. I thought this was my chance) and enthusiasts will thrill to the firsthand knowledge Green brings to the novel. Ages 10-up. (July)

From Booklist

Troy White has a lot of frustrations. His father abandoned the family when he was little, his beloved Atlanta Falcons team seems destined for another losing season, and, on his own football team, his gifts as a quarterback are ignored while he sits on the bench, watching the coach’s son on the field. Troy’s most unusual gift is his ability to predict coming football plays with uncanny accuracy. When his mother is hired for a PR job with the Falcons, Troy sees an opportunity, yet he can’t convince anyone to recognize his talents. Finally, the Falcons’ middle linebacker sees Troy’s gifts, and Troy becomes the team’s secret weapon. Some kids will find the premise a little far-fetched. Still, the author, who has written numerous adult titles and spent eight years in the NFL, imparts many insider details that football fans will love. Green makes Troy a winning hero, and he ties everything together with a fast-moving plot. Todd Morning

Drew Lawson knows basketball is taking him places. It has to, because his grades certainly aren’t. But lately his plan has run squarely into a pick. Coach’s new offense has made another player a star, and Drew won’t let anyone disrespect his game. Just as his team makes the playoffs, Drew must come up with something big to save his fading college prospects. It’s all up to Drew to find out just how deep his game really is.

From School Library Journal

Grade 4–6—Thirteen-year-old Jimmy, his little sister Julia, and his two best friends embark on a cross-country flight to stay with family in California, where the boys hope to get sponsorship for their skateboarding club. Jimmy helps an elderly knitter with her bag, and learns she is part of a group who is traveling to a knitting convention. When terrorists charge the cockpit and take over the plane, the boys leap into action, killing the hijackers with the help of the women and their knitting needles. They then discover that the pilots are dead and that the plane is out of fuel, and when they crash, the real story begins—survival in the deep forest. It may be highly improbable that the only survivors are the kids, the elderly knitter, and the flight attendant, but the tale remains enjoyable as the silly banter is preserved and the can-do attitude of the youngsters is easy to appreciate. The boys learn from the two adults and Julia, whose girl-scout knowledge gains everyone’s admiration, and they make it seem like almost dying in a fiery plane crash can be kind of fun. A true adventure book, with high-spirited and fundamentally good boys as the central characters, Getting Air should find a wide audience.—John Leighton, Brooklyn Public Library, NY

From Booklist

In the opening scene, 13-year-old Jimmy fantasizes about winning it all at the X Games skateboarding championship: a decisive victory, a kiss from his supermodel girlfriend, and a multimillion-dollar sponsorship deal. The first-person novel that follows is only slightly more realistic. Flying to California with his younger sister, Julia, and two skateboarding buddies, Jimmy befriends 79-year-old Mildred, who is traveling to a knitting convention. When the plane is hijacked and a flight attendant killed, the passengers overtake the four terrorists and crash-land the plane in a Canadian forest. Only six survive: the boys, Julia, Mildred, and a beautiful stewardess. Relying on Girl Scout Julia’s skills, they struggle to survive, but also find the time and tools to construct a half pipe. Mixing moments of humor with swashbuckling bravado, gruesome deaths, survival tips, and questions about God’s existence, the novel never focuses enough to get its footing. Several elements of the story, beginning with the slogan-shouting terrorists, are less than convincing. Still, readers willing to suspend disbelief will find this a fast-paced adventure keyed to today’s headlines. Phelan, Carolyn

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8–Two girls spend a year in Los Alamos as their parents work on the secret gadget that will end World War II. Dewey is a mechanically minded 10-year-old who gets along fine with the scientists at the site, but is teased by girls her own age. When her mathematician father is called away, she moves in with Suze, who initially detests her new roommate. The two draw closer, though, and their growing friendship is neatly set against the tenseness of the Los Alamos compound as the project nears completion. Clear prose brings readers right into the unusual atmosphere of the secretive scientific community, seen through the eyes of the kids and their families. Dewey is an especially engaging character, plunging on with her mechanical projects and ignoring any questions about gender roles. Occasional shifts into first person highlight the protagonist’s most emotional moments, including her journey to the site and her reaction to her father’s unexpected death. After the atomic bomb test succeeds, ethical concerns of both youngsters and adults intensify as the characters learn how it is ultimately used. Many readers will know as little about the true nature of the project as the girls do, so the gradual revelation of facts is especially effective, while those who already know about Los Alamos’s historical significance will experience the story in a different, but equally powerful, way.–Steven Engelfried, Beaverton City Library, OR

From Booklist

In November 1943, 10-year-old budding inventor Dewey Kerrigan sets off on a cross-country train ride to be with her father, who is engaged in “war work.” She is busy designing a radio when a fellow passenger named Dick Feynman offers to help her. Feynman’s presence in this finely wrought first novel is the first clue that Dewey is headed for Los Alamos. The mystery and tension surrounding “war work” and what Dewey knows only as “the gadget” trickles down to the kids living in the Los Alamos compound, who often do without adult supervision. Although disliked by her girl classmates, “Screwy Dewey” enjoys Los Alamos. There are lots of people to talk with about radios (including “Oppie”), and she has the wonderful opportunity to dig through the nearby dump for discarded science stuff. However, when Dewey’s father leaves for Washington, she is left to fend off the biggest bully in Los Alamos. The novel occasionally gets mired down in detail, but the characters are exceptionally well drawn, and the compelling, unusual setting makes a great tie-in for history classes. John Green

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–8—H.I.V.E. is operated on a volcanic island in a distant ocean by G.L.O.V.E., a shadowy organization of worldwide wickedness. And, as 13-year-old master of mischief Otto Malpense soon discovers, here the slickest of young tricksters, thieves, and hackers have been brought against their will to be trained as the next generation of supervillains. Otto and his friends refuse to be held prisoner at the institution and develop a scheme to escape from the island, but they must defeat the all-seeing computer system, a seemingly undefeatable assassin in black, and a giant carnivorous plant to succeed. Warner’s first novel is a real page-turner; those who love superhero stories will eat it up and not want to put it down. Sequels are virtually guaranteed.—Walter Minkel, New York Public Library

From Booklist

Thirteen-year-old Otto and three of his new friends are kidnapped and taken to H.I.V.E., a super academy for world domination where the particular talents encouraged are craftiness and daring. Students come from all over the world, speak varying degrees of English, and are often the offspring of H.I.V.E. graduates. Otto, however, is an orphan. He has real brilliance and a photographic mind. Both qualities made him relatively independent before he was kidnapped, and they now provide somewhat of a challenge to his would-be keepers at H.I.V.E. Otto spearheads the group’s effort to escape and return home, an escape that is foiled in the course of an evening that involves H.I.V.E.’s electronic overseer, an out-of-control flesh-eating plant, and other technothrills. H.I.V.E. comes across as the shadow side of Hogwarts, but Otto and his pals aren’t so much bad wizards as they are bright kids realizing they may be out of their depth. The cliff-hanger ending leaves much to be tied together in a sequel. Francisca Goldsmith

From AudioFile

Joey goes for a walk, and a whole new world opens up when he steps into another dimension. He must learn about his dual destinies while getting to know a new world whose inhabitants believe in science or magic. And he has to fight evil when some of those inhabitants want to harness his special powers. As Joey moves between worlds, Christopher Evan Welch voices a cadre of diverse characters: an evil guard, a benevolent teacher, a robotic pal, a gentle infant, and a crusty mentor. Joeys journey is one of friendship, and Welch aptly depicts his generous spirit as Joey meets the storys various characters. Welch makes the story come alive in every dimension. M.B. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine– Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine –This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From Booklist

A lad discovers that he can walk between alternate Earths—and is swept up in a war between them in this fast-paced, compulsively readable tale. Joey gets lost in his own house, but when he steps into a patch of fog and finds himself in a world where he died, a trillion Earths lie open to him—arranged in a vast arc, with an empire of science-based planes at one end and a realm where magic rules at the other. Recruited into an army of anything-but-identical Joeys gathered from many of these worlds and charged with maintaining the balance of power, Joey picks up companions both human and non as he travels the multidimensional In Between that links the sprawling “Altiverse.” In this first of what could and should be many episodes, Joey finishes his basic training by doing battle with melodramatically evil magic workers Lord Dogknife and Lady Indigo. Vivid, well-imagined settings and characters compensate for weak links in the internal logic of this rousing sf/fantasy hybrid. Peters, John –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–7—Awash with heart-warming philosophical and metaphysical life lessons, Jeremy Fink and his best friend, Lizzie, bounce through mysterious plot twists on their way to solving an age-old question in this novel by Wendy Mass (Little Brown, 2006). Jeremy’s father, unsure of the length of his own life due to a fortune-teller’s dire prediction of an early death, prepared a mysterious locked wooden box engraved with “The Meaning of Life: For Jeremy Fink to Open on His 13th Birthday.” The prophecy was fulfilled, and his dad died when Jeremy was eight. Two months before Jeremy’s 13th birthday, the box is delivered to him by a lawyer, but the four keys required to it are missing. Thus begins the adventure of a lifetime that leads Jeremy and Lizzie across Manhattan to search flea markets, museums, and office buildings in the hope of finding the keys before his birthday. This coming-of-age novel deals with important themes such as friendship, family, and the meaning of life that will provide fodder for group discussions. Narrator Andy Paris transitions smoothly from the high-pitched, impulsive voice of Lizzie and the nerdy voice of Jeremy on the cusp of adolescence to the various adult characters. An excellent choice for tweens who love a good mystery that allows them to become emotionally involved.—Beverly S. Almond, Moore Square Museums Magnet Middle School, Raleigh, NC

From AudioFile

When a mysterious package containing a locked box inscribed with a personal message arrives one month before his birthday, Jeremy Fink and his lifelong pal, Lizzy, set out on a quest to unlock it–and discover the meaning of life. Along the way they encounter a host of zany characters whose lifestyles give them pause. Andy Paris captures the emotions of 13-year-old Jeremy, especially as Mr. Oswald expands his horizons and helps him cope with his sadness over the loss of his father. Paris also portrays the exuberance of Lizzy and the caring of Jeremys mother. Listen and be swept into the intrigue! A.R. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine– Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Eleven-year-old Isabelle, a third-generation lace maker, is making her first delivery to the Palace of Versailles when she is nearly trampled by a crowd. Astonishingly, it’s Marie Antoinette who rescues her, and the queen invites Isabelle to meet Princess Marie-Therese, who chooses Isabelle to be her friend. So begins Isabelle’s double life–a lace maker in the morning and royal companion in the afternoon. As the French Revolution brews outside the palace, Isabelle begins to challenge the conventional wisdom that God ordains the social order, even as she staunchly disagrees with accusations leveled against the royal family. Skillfully integrated historical facts frame this engrossing, believable story. Readers will be captivated by the child’s view of Versailles, its glittering halls infested with rats; the drudgery of daily work; and the terrors of the French Revolution. The unlikely, fragile friendship that crosses class boundaries will speak straight to young readers’ own concerns. An appended author’s note gives more historical context and addresses possible complaints that Isabelle’s first meeting with the queen is a plot contrivance. Gillian Engberg

Product Description

ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD ISABELLE IS A LACEMAKER IN THE TOWN OF VERSAILLES.

One day as she delivers lace to the palace, she is almost trampled by a crowd

of courtiers — only to be rescued by Marie Antoinette. Before Isabelle can

believe it, she has a new job — companion to the queen’s daughter. Isabelle is

given a fashionable name, fashionable dresses — a new identity. At home she plies

her needle under her grandmother’s disapproving eye. At the palace she is

playmate to a princess.

Thrown into a world of luxury, Isabelle is living a fairy-tale life. But this

facade begins to crumble when rumors of starvation in the countryside lead to

whispers of revolution. How can Isabelle reconcile the ugly things she hears in

the town with the kind family she knows in the palace? And which side is she

truly on?

Inspired by an actual friendship between the French princess and a commoner who

became her companion, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley offers a vivid portrait of life

inside the palace of Versailles — and a touching tale of two friends divided by

class and the hunger for equality and freedom that fueled the French Revolution.

Product Description

Laika was the abandoned puppy destined to become Earth’s first space traveler. This is her journey.

Nick Abadzis masterfully blends fiction and fact in the intertwined stories of three compelling lives. Along with Laika, there is Korolev, once a political prisoner, now a driven engineer at the top of the Soviet space program, and Yelena, the lab technician responsible for Laika’s health and life. This intense triangle is rendered with the pitch-perfect emotionality of classics like Because of Winn Dixie, Shiloh, and Old Yeller.

Abadzis gives life to a pivotal moment in modern history, casting light on the hidden moments of deep humanity behind history.

Laika’s story will speak straight to your heart.

About the Author

Nick Abadzis is a British comics creator whose work has been published across the globe—from the U.S. to Japan. He based his book on the true story of the Sputnik 2: there was really a dog named Laika, and she touched the stars before she died. In writing his graphic novel, Nick Abadzis did thorough scientific and historical research, including travelling to Russia, visiting special Sputnik 2 archives, and interviewing experts in the field. He lives in London with his wife and daughter.

From School Library Journal

Grade 4–7—Learning the workings of the free-market economy has never been more fun than in this tall tale of entrepreneurship set in Eden Prairie, MN. When the narrator’s grandmother gives him an old rider mower for his 12th birthday, his life changes; he senses “some kind of force behind it.” Almost as soon as he figures out how to run it, the boy is in business—by the second day he has eight jobs. When he mows the lawn of Arnold Howell, an aging hippie e-trader, the cash-poor man offers a stock-market account in lieu of payment. Arnold not only invests the money; he also offers business advice. Soon lawn boy has a partner, 15 employees, a lot of money invested in the market, and a prizefighter. Chapter headings suggest business principles behind what is happening. Throughout the tale, the narrator is innocent of his success as he rises early each morning to begin each job, eats lunch on the mower, and longs for a less-hectic summer vacation. This rags-to-riches success story has colorful characters, a villain, and enough tongue-in-cheek humor to make it an enjoyable selection for the whole family.—Kathryn Kosiorek, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Brooklyn, OH

From Booklist

*Starred Review* This short and hilarious tale pitches an ordinary preteen with an old riding lawn mower into a dizzying ascent up the financial ladder. His sights set no higher than a new inner tube for his bike, the young narrator is thrilled to make $60 in one day, mowing his neighbors’ lawns. Just as demand for his services skyrockets, he meets Arnold, an honest, home-based stockbroker who becomes his business manager . . and less than a month later, the lad has a dozen migrant laborers in his employ. The legality of these workers is left vague, but their young employer treats them fairly, and the thousands of dollars he earns goes into some wildly successful investments–including sponsorship of a rising prizefighter whose help comes in handy when the burgeoning enterprise attracts a shakedown artist. Thanks to quick lessons in, to quote some of the chapter heads, “Capital Growth Coupled with the Principles of Product Expansion” and “Force of Arms and Its Application to Business,” the young tycoon ends up smarter than when he started out, and worth half a million dollars. When it comes to telling funny stories about boys, no one surpasses Paulsen, and here he is in top form. John Peters

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This absorbing account by a young man who, as a boy of 12, gets swept up in Sierra Leone’s civil war goes beyond even the best journalistic efforts in revealing the life and mind of a child abducted into the horrors of warfare. Beah’s harrowing journey transforms him overnight from a child enthralled by American hip-hop music and dance to an internal refugee bereft of family, wandering from village to village in a country grown deeply divided by the indiscriminate atrocities of unruly, sociopathic rebel and army forces. Beah then finds himself in the army—in a drug-filled life of casual mass slaughter that lasts until he is 15, when he’s brought to a rehabilitation center sponsored by UNICEF and partnering NGOs. The process marks out Beah as a gifted spokesman for the center’s work after his “repatriation” to civilian life in the capital, where he lives with his family and a distant uncle. When the war finally engulfs the capital, it sends 17-year-old Beah fleeing again, this time to the U.S., where he now lives. (Beah graduated from Oberlin College in 2004.) Told in clear, accessible language by a young writer with a gifted literary voice, this memoir seems destined to become a classic firsthand account of war and the ongoing plight of child soldiers in conflicts worldwide. (Feb.)

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School—This gripping story by a children’s-rights advocate recounts his experiences as a boy growing up in Sierra Leone in the 1990s, during one of the most brutal and violent civil wars in recent history. Beah, a boy equally thrilled by causing mischief as by memorizing passages from Shakespeare and dance moves from hip-hop videos, was a typical precocious 12-year-old. But rebel forces destroyed his childhood innocence when they hit his village, driving him to leave his home and travel the arid deserts and jungles of Africa. After several months of struggle, he was recruited by the national army, made a full soldier and learned to shoot an AK-47, and hated everyone who came up against the rebels. The first two thirds of his memoir are frightening: how easy it is for a normal boy to transform into someone as addicted to killing as he is to the cocaine that the army makes readily available. But an abrupt change occurred a few years later when agents from the United Nations pulled him out of the army and placed him in a rehabilitation center. Anger and hate slowly faded away, and readers see the first glimmers of Beah’s work as an advocate. Told in a conversational, accessible style, this powerful record of war ends as a beacon to all teens experiencing violence around them by showing them that there are other ways to survive than by adding to the chaos.—Matthew L. Moffett, Pohick Regional Library, Burke, VA

From AudioFile

Characterization is especially well done in this captivating story of Naomi, a teenager who loses her memory after a bad fall. Caitlin Greer captures the tone and timbre of a young person in the process of finding herself–and discovering that shes not the person she thought she was. Revelations of Naomis life–current and past–resonate in Greers voice. Greers performance perfectly reveals the authors latest exploration of the ethereal planes of human existence. Going beyond what is physically present, Zevin again pushes the envelope in depicting her characters psyche. Although the dialogue is not typical teen language, and the characters are mature beyond their years, both story and narration are compelling. D.L.M. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine– Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Contemporary realism, set askew, is the silver streak of Zevin, whose Elsewhere (2005) depicted a teen’s experiences in the afterlife. This equally sensitive, joyful novel, her second for YAs, tackles the slippery nature of human identity, deceptively tucked within a plot familiar from TV soaps. After high-school junior Naomi conks her head, she can’t remember anything that happened since sixth grade. She is by turns mystified and startled by evidence of her present life, from the birth-control pills in her bedside table to her parents’ astonishing, rancorous split. Eventually, the memories return, leaving Naomi questioning the basis of a new, intense romance, and wondering which of her two lives, present or former, represents her most authentic self. The amnesia device could have been more convincingly played, but Zevin writes revealingly about emotions and relationships. Especially vivid is the Hepburn-Tracy bond Naomi shares with yearbook co-chief Will, whom she wounds with her lurching self-reinvention even as she discovers deeper feelings: “I had thought the way I felt about Will was just a room, but it had turned out to be a mansion.” Pulled by the heart-bruising love story, readers will pause to contemplate irresistible questions: If the past were a blank slate, what would you become? Does the search for one’s truest identity necessarily mean rejecting all that has gone before? Mattson, Jennifer

From School Library Journal

Grade 7-10–Four friends were raised together. Each one is of a different race and has a different superpower. One is psychic, another empathic, another can morph into other forms, and the final one can travel through and control time. They live in a society in which their very faces will get them killed, a merged world where race has been eliminated and all people are the same combination of races. When the teens are caught and their caregiver is murdered by crazed Senator Broogue, they are rescued from a similar fate by four adults who are also of different races and have similar powers. The adults train the young people to strengthen their powers in order to travel back in time and reverse the merged races. This book reads like a comic book with plenty of action. The pace is generally fast, though the story does bog down occasionally in the middle. The matching powers of the teens and their adult counterparts are never explained, leaving lots of loose ends. There is also unevenness in the story line; upcoming obstacles seem to be insurmountable, but then when they are finally overcome, they are made to seem insignificant. A quick read, this is not an essential purchase but it should be well received if you can get it into the hands of graphic-novel fans.–Tasha Saecker, Caestecker Public Library, Green Lake, WI

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–7—Ginny Davis begins seventh grade with a list of items to accomplish. This list, along with lots of other “stuff”—including diary entries, refrigerator notes, cards from Grandpa, and IM screen messages—convey a year full of ups and downs. Digitally rendered collage illustrations realistically depict the various means of communication, and the story flows easily from one colorful page to the next. Ginny is fairly typical—she wants to look good for her school picture but ends up with a hair disaster the night before. She babysits but can’t seem to increase her bank balance. She has problems with friends, boys, and clothes. But readers also learn about some deeper issues. She has a hard time adjusting to a new stepfather, and her older brother has difficulties with alcohol and poor behavior choices. Ginny’s pain is expressed through report card grades that drop to Cs and hall passes to the school counselor. However, the year ends on a high note as she discovers a talent for art and gets asked to the Spring Fling. The story combines honesty and humor to create a believable and appealing voice. Not quite a graphic novel but not a traditional narrative either, Holm’s creative book should hook readers, especially girls who want something out of the ordinary.—Diana Pierce, Running Brushy Middle School, Cedar Park, TX

Product Description

Ginny has ten items on her big to-do list for seventh grade. None of them, however, include accidentally turning her hair pink. Or getting sent to detention for throwing frogs in class. Or losing the lead role in the ballet recital to her ex-best friend. Or the thousand other things that can go wrong between September and June. But it looks like it’s shaping up to be that kind of a year! Here’s the story of one girl’s worst school year ever — told completely through her stuff.

Flamingnet.com, June 2007

“This book is so different than any book I’ve read because of all the Maya information put into it.”

School Library Journal, Starred Review, October 2007

“… Suspense and intrigue, human sacrifice, smuggling, and secret doors and escape routes through pyramids ensure that the novel, the first in a projected trilogy, is likely to win legions of fans…”

From Booklist

Four sixth-graders sign up for a book club, in which they’ll read Little Women with their moms. In alternating chapters, each of the four girls describes a meeting. There is aspiring poet Emma, whose librarian mother started the group; Jess, Emma’s best friend, who lives on an organic farm; hockey-playing Cassidy, daughter of a former supermodel; and popular Megan. Despite their initial resistance to the club, the girls experience joys and sorrows and develop a closer bond, just like the characters that they grow to love. Plenty of detail and musing about Little Women will entice readers to pick up the book if they have not yet read it, but familiarity with Alcott’s classic isn’t required to enjoy this story. The girls’ relationships and feelings are complex; unfortunately, their typecast mothers are much less so, and a fairy-tale ending caps the story. Still, readers will be easily pulled along to find out how the four girls resolve their differences. A book discussion guide is included. Booth, Heather –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

The book club

is about to get

a makeover….

Even if Megan would rather be at the mall, Cassidy is late for hockey practice, Emma’s already read every book in existence, and Jess is missing her mother too much to care, the new book club is scheduled to meet every month.

But what begins as a mom-imposed ritual of reading Little Women soon helps four unlikely friends navigate the drama of middle school. From stolen journals, to secret crushes, to a fashion-fiasco first dance, the girls are up to their Wellie boots in drama. They can’t help but wonder: What would Jo March do?

Acclaimed author Heather Vogel Frederick will delight daughters of all ages in a novel about the fabulousness of fiction, family, and friendship.

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 5–9—After Reynie Muldoon responds to an advertisement recruiting “gifted children looking for special opportunities,” he finds himself in a world of mystery and adventure. The 11-year-old orphan is one of four children to complete a series of challenging and creative tasks, and he, Kate, Constance, and Sticky become the Mysterious Benedict Society. After being trained by Mr. Benedict and his assistants, the four travel to an isolated school where children are being trained by a criminal mastermind to participate in his schemes to take over the world. The young investigators need to use their special talents and abilities in order to discover Mr. Curtain’s secrets, and their only chance to defeat him is through working together. Readers will challenge their own abilities as they work with the Society members to solve clues and put together the pieces of Mr. Curtain’s plan. In spite of a variety of coincidences, Stewart’s unusual characters, threatening villains, and dramatic plot twists will grab and hold readers’ attention. Fans of Roald Dahl or Blue Balliett will find a familiar blend of kid power, clues, and adventure in Society, though its length may daunt reluctant or less-secure readers. Underlying themes about the power of media messages and the value of education add to this book’s appeal, and a happy ending with hints of more adventures to come make this first-time author one to remember.—Beth L. Meister, Pleasant View Elementary School, Franklin, WI

From AudioFile

When Reynie Muldoon’s tutor encourages him to respond to a strange ad in the newspaper, he begins an adventure that will spark the interest and challenge the intellect of listeners young and old. Through a series of mysterious, mind-bending tests, Reynie and three other unique, gifted children are recruited to go undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened to derail a plot to take over the world. Using intellect, imagination, and resourcefulness, they embark on an adventure that will entertain “gifted” children of all ages. Del Roy’s narration is inspired. His serious tone communicates his respect for the skills and talents of the youngsters in the story, as well as the listeners who are playing along. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine– Copyright © Audio File, Portland, Maine –This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From Booklist

Helen of Sparta is a feisty, beautiful young princess who is doted upon by her family, even though her determination to be independent and hunt and fight like her brothers creates various awkward, even dangerous situations for everyone. Using the mythical character of Helen of Troy as inspiration, Friesner focuses on Helen’s youth, before she became “the face that launched a thousand ships.” In an epilogue, Friesner discusses the historical facts and classical texts that she drew from to imagine Helen’s childhood. The resulting novel is a fascinating portrait of a spoiled child who uses her wily ways and privileges to learn how to use a sword, track and kill game, ride a horse, and bargain for a slave’s freedom. Along the way, Friesner skillfully exposes larger issues of women’s rights, human bondage, and individual destiny. It’s a rollicking good story all the way to the abrupt conclusion, which will leave readers crying out for a sequel. Frances Bradburn

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

When November Nelson loses her boyfriend, Josh, to a pledge stunt gone horribly wrong, she thinks her life can’t possibly get any worse. But Josh left something behind that will change November’s life forever, and now she’s faced with the biggest decision she could ever imagine. How in the world will she tell her mom? And how will Josh’s parents take the news? She’s never needed a friend more.

Jericho Prescott lost his best friend when he lost his cousin, Josh, and the pain is almost more than he can bear. His world becomes divided into “before” and “after” Josh’s death. He finds the only way he can escape the emptiness he feels is to quit doing the things that made him happy when his cousin was alive, such as playing his beloved trumpet, and take up football, where he hopes the physical pain will suppress the emotional. But will hiding behind shoulder pads really help? And will his gridiron obsession prevent him from being there for his cousin’s girlfriend when she needs him most?

This sequel to The Battle of Jericho is a no-holds-barred look at what happens when life doesn’t go as planned, by the acclaimed author of the 2007 Coretta Scott King Award winner Copper Sun.

CHAPTER 1

NOVEMBER NELSON

TUESDAY, MARCH 30

November Nelson lurched to the bathroom, feeling faint and not quite in control of her suddenly unsteady legs. She touched her forehead and found it warm and glazed with sweat. Sinking down on the soft blue rug in front of the toilet, she was grateful for the momentary stability of the floor. But her head continued to spin, and her stomach churned. She lifted the toilet lid, gazed into the water, and wished she could disappear into its depths. Her breath became more shallow, and her nausea more intense. Finally, uncontrollably, and forcefully, all her distress erupted and she lost her lunch in heaves and waves of vomiting. Pepperoni pizza.

She flushed the toilet several times as she sat on the floor waiting to feel normal again. Finally she stood up shakily, gargled with peppermint mouthwash, and peered at herself in the mirror.

“You look like a hot mess,” she whispered to her reflection. Her skin, instead of its usual coppery brown, looked gray and mottled. She hadn’t combed her hair all day, so it was a halo of tangles.

November knew her mother would be home soon and would be angry to find out she’d skipped school. She didn’t care. Her thoughts were focused on the package in her backpack. Even though she knew the house was empty, she made sure the bathroom door was locked. She dug the little purple and pink box out of her book bag and placed it on the sink. It seemed out of place in her mother’s perfectly coordinated powder blue bathroom.

With trembling hands she unwrapped the plastic and opened the box. She read the directions carefully. She looked out of the small bathroom window and watched the last of the early spring snow melting on the grass. Everything looked the same, but she knew in her heart that it was all different now.

November finally turned back to the little white tube in the box and followed the instructions, which were written, she noticed, in Spanish and French as well. Three minutes later the indicator silently screamed the news that she already suspected. She was pregnant.

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 5-8–Diana and her younger brother, Georgie, have been living on the grounds of the old Willis place for oh, so long. They’ve seen caretakers come and go, but the new one seems different. Mr. Morrison has a daughter, Lissa, who seems to be about Diana’s age. Both girls are lonely and long for a friend but Georgie reminds Diana that it’s “against the rules” to have friends; that they must remain out of sight. But Lissa remains intriguing to the children. She not only has a bicycle, but she also has many books and a stuffed animal that reminds Georgie of one he once had. They share even more; Lissa, too, has suffered a huge loss. Masterfully constructed, the story shows readers the same events from the perspectives of both girls; Diana narrates, and Lissa writes in her diary. The combination builds tension, raises questions, and allows characters–and the mysteries that surround them–to unfold gradually. The story is taut, spooky, and fast-paced with amazingly credible, memorable characters. More than just a ghost story, this riveting novel is a mystery and a story of friendship and of redemption. After this tale, readers are not likely to think of ghosts in the same way.–Maria B. Salvadore, formerly at Washington DC Public Library

From Booklist

Gr. 4-7. Hahn is a master at stretching the suspense, and that’s what she does here. Diana and her little brother, Georgie, watch as the caretaker and his daughter move into a trailer near the decaying Willis mansion. The children have seen caretakers come and go, but Diana, who has no friends, is tempted by the sight of a girl her own age. Hahn unfurls the story slowly, but because of the subtitle, readers will know there’s a ghost. They’ll assume it’s wicked Miss Willis, who died in the house, but soon they’ll start wondering about Diana and Georgie, too. Where are their parents? What are these arcane rules they seem to live by? To Hahn’s credit, children won’t be entirely sure of the answers until the very end. Some of the action is told through Lissa’s diary. Most of the time this works, but it’s too bad the climax is revealed this way as the device puts a barrier between readers and the action. Kids will love this anyway: it’s just the right mix of chilling and thrilling. Ilene Cooper

From AudioFile

Orphaned, Maya has lived most of her life feeling like a captive in the rule-bound house of her grandmother. Denied friendship, family, and stories about the mother and father she can barely remember, she learns at her grandmothers death that she has a Wyoming family longing to meet her. Kathleen McInerneys portrayal of 11-year-old Maya embraces the tensions that come from being put in the position of being overly concerned about the reactions of others. Interspersed are sections that follow the life of Artemesia, a wild mustang mare. In these parts McInerneys voice is stronger as the mare questions the dominant stallion and protects her foal. Its no surprise when the horse and child meet, and McInerneys narration measures Mayas increasing self-confidence and joy. S.W. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine– Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine –This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Description

Maya is a captive. In Grandmother’s house in California, every word and action is strictly monitored, and even Maya’s memories of her mother have been erased — except within the imaginary world she has created. A world away, in the rugged Wyoming wilderness, a tobiano Paint horse called Artemisia runs free, belonging only to the stars. She embodies the spirit of the wild — and she holds the key to Maya’s memories. How Maya’s and Artemisia’s lives intertwine, like a braided rein, is at the heart of this richly drawn adventure about captivity and freedom, about holding on and letting go.

Amazon.com’s Best of 2001

To the list of great American child narrators that includes Huck Finn and Scout Finch, let us now add Reuben “Rube” Land, the asthmatic 11-year-old boy at the center of Leif Enger’s remarkable first novel, Peace Like a River. Rube recalls the events of his childhood, in small-town Minnesota circa 1962, in a voice that perfectly captures the poetic, verbal stoicism of the northern Great Plains. “Here’s what I saw,” Rube warns his readers. “Here’s how it went. Make of it what you will.” And Rube sees plenty.

In the winter of his 11th year, two schoolyard bullies break into the Lands’ house, and Rube’s big brother Davy guns them down with a Winchester. Shortly after his arrest, Davy breaks out of jail and goes on the lam. Swede is Rube’s younger sister, a precocious writer who crafts rhymed epics of romantic Western outlawry. Shortly after Davy’s escape, Rube, Swede, and their father, a widowed school custodian, hit the road too, swerving this way and that across Minnesota and North Dakota, determined to find their lost outlaw Davy. In the end it’s not Rube who haunts the reader’s imagination, it’s his father, torn between love for his outlaw son and the duty to do the right, honest thing. Enger finds something quietly heroic in the bred-in-the-bone Minnesota decency of America’s heartland. Peace Like a River opens up a new chapter in Midwestern literature. –Claire Dederer –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 Up—In this high-altitude adventure, 14-year-old Peak Marcello’s passion for climbing is clearly in the genes, but when he is arrested for scaling tall buildings, his mom and stepdad make a deal with the judge to ship him out of the country to live with her ex-husband and squelch the media attention that might inspire “Spider Boy” copycats. The teen’s father, Josh, and his Himalayan expedition company are preparing teams to climb Mount Everest and suddenly Peak is faced with the possibility of becoming the youngest climber to reach the summit. Excited about the adventure, he learns that Josh may have less-than-fatherly motives involving publicity and financial gain for his company, at the expense of his paying customers. Peak is handed off to his father’s head Sherpa for training and altitude acclimation with a Nepalese boy his own age, named Sun-jo. At the same time, a media crew gathers at base camp to witness the climb, and an overzealous Chinese police captain doggedly searches for passport violations and underage climbers. Facts about Mount Everest, base camps, and the dangers of climbing are plentiful, depicting an international culture made up of individuals who are often self-absorbed and indifferent to the Tibetan Sherpas, who risk their lives for them. Peak’s empathy for Sun-jo helps him make a critical decision as they near the summit, revealing his emotional growth and maturity. A well-crafted plot and exotic setting give the novel great appeal to survival adventure fans.—Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Fourteen-year-old New Yorker Peak (”It could have been worse. My parents could have named me Glacier, or Abyss, or Crampon.”) Marcello hones his climbing skills by scaling skyscrapers. After Peak is caught climbing the Woolworth Building, an angry judge gives him probation, with an understanding that Peak will leave New York and live with his famous mountaineer father in Thailand. Peak soon learns, however, that his father has other plans for him; he hopes that Peak will become the youngest person to climb Mt. Everest. Peak is whisked off to Tibet and finds himself in the complex world of an Everest base camp, where large amounts of money are at stake and climbing operations offer people an often-deadly shot at the summit. This is a thrilling, multifaceted adventure story. Smith includes plenty of mountaineering facts told in vivid detail (particularly creepy is his description of the frozen corpses that litter the mountain). But he also explores other issues, such as the selfishness that nearly always accompanies the intensely single-minded. A winner at every level. For more mountaineering adventures, suggest Edward Meyers’ Climb or Die (1994) and Michael Dahl’s The Viking Claw (2001), both for a slightly younger audience. Todd Morning

From School Library Journal

Grade 6–9—Phoebe Trask’s story begins with the hot Texas summer before her freshman year in high school. A self-proclaimed daddy’s girl, still Phoebe struggles when her mother becomes a traveling spokeswoman for a cosmetics company, virtually abandoning the family. Phoebe’s sister is away at college; her best friend recently moved; and her father, a judge, is always busy, so she and her brother often find themselves on their own. Then a new next-door neighbor shakes things up: Beverly Grace, a lonely writer recently returned from Italy, strikes up a friendship with the judge. As Phoebe worries about events like her first kiss and her first dance, she also worries that her family won’t survive her parents’ separation. When her mother finally comes home for good, it is because she has been diagnosed with cancer. Despite a plethora of issues cluttering the plot (including a controversial case that the judge must decide and Phoebe’s boyfriend’s alcoholic father), the family dynamics are realistic, and the protagonist’s voice rings true. The uplifting ending will leave readers satisfied.—Laurie Slagenwhite, Baldwin Public Library, Birmingham, MI

From Booklist

When Phoebe watches her mother leave for a five-day Bee Beautiful convention in Las Vegas, this 14-year-old Texan doesn’t see any changes coming beyond the start of high school. She is blindsided when her mother takes a job in Nevada and disturbed when family dynamics begin to shift in unsettling ways. Phoebe’s supportive big brother, Zane, gets in trouble with the law but, oddly, that brings him closer to their father, a judge. An attractive widow moves next door and becomes too friendly with their dad for Phoebe and Zane’s comfort. Meanwhile, Phoebe navigates first love. At times the many subplots threaten to sprawl out of control, but Love chronicles events in a matter-of-fact manner and manages to weave the plotlines into a cohesive novel. As narrator, Phoebe is quite believable, letting her fears, hopes, and resentments show while trying to understand the bigger picture. A well-developed cast of supporting characters enriches this solid, contemporary family story. Carolyn Phelan

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-7-Twelve-year-old Catherine has conflicting feelings about her younger brother, David, who is autistic. While she loves him, she is also embarrassed by his behavior and feels neglected by their parents. In an effort to keep life on an even keel, Catherine creates rules for him (It’s okay to hug Mom but not the clerk at the video store). Each chapter title is also a rule, and lots more are interspersed throughout the book. When Kristi moves in next door, Catherine hopes that the girl will become a friend, but is anxious about her reaction to David. Then Catherine meets and befriends Jason, a nonverbal paraplegic who uses a book of pictures to communicate, she begins to understand that normal is difficult, and perhaps unnecessary, to define. Rules of behavior are less important than acceptance of others. Catherine is an endearing narrator who tells her story with both humor and heartbreak. Her love for her brother is as real as are her frustrations with him. Lord has candidly captured the delicate dynamics in a family that revolves around a child’s disability. Set in coastal Maine, this sensitive story is about being different, feeling different, and finding acceptance. A lovely, warm read, and a great discussion starter.-Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME

From Booklist

Gr. 4-7. “No toys in the fish tank” is one of many rules that 12-year-old Catherine shares with her autistic younger brother, David, to help him understand his world. Lots of the rules are practical. Others are more subtle and shed light on issues in Catherine’s own life. Torn between love for her brother and impatience with the responsibilities and embarrassment he brings, she strives to be on her parents’ radar and to establish an identity of her own. At her brother’s clinic, Catherine befriends a wheelchair-bound boy, Jason, who talks by pointing at word cards in a communication notebook. Her drawing skills and additional vocabulary cards–including “whatever” (which prompts Jason to roll his eyes at his mother)–enliven his speech. The details of autistic behavior are handled well, as are depictions of relationships: Catherine experiences some of the same unease with Jason that others do in the presence of her brother. In the end, Jason helps Catherine see that her rules may really be excuses, opening the way for her to look at things differently. A heartwarming first novel. Cindy Dobrez

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Homeschooled on an isolated “alternate farm commune” that has dwindled since the 1960s to 2 members, 13-year-old Cap has always lived with his grandmother, Rain. When she is hospitalized, Cap is taken in by a social worker and sent—like a lamb to slaughter—to middle school. Smart and capable, innocent and inexperienced (he learned to drive on the farm, but he has never watched television), long-haired Cap soon becomes the butt of pranks. He reacts in unexpected ways and, in the end, elevates those around him to higher ground. From chapter to chapter, the first-person narrative shifts among certain characters: Cap, a social worker (who takes him into her home), her daughter (who resents his presence there), an A-list bully, a Z-list victim, a popular girl, the school principal, and a football player (who unintentionally decks Cap twice in one day). Korman capably manages the shifting points of view of characters who begin by scorning or resenting Cap and end up on his side. From the eye-catching jacket art to the scene in which Cap says good-bye to his 1,100 fellow students, individually and by name, this rewarding novel features an engaging main character and some memorable moments of comedy, tenderness, and reflection. Pair this with Jerry Spinelli’s 2000 Stargirl (the sequel is reviewed in this issue) for a discussion of the stifling effects of conformity within school culture or just read it for the fun of it. Phelan, Carolyn –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

JAMIE THINKS HER FATHER CAN DO ANYTHING….

UNTIL THE ONE TIME HE CAN DO NOTHING.

When twelve-year-old Jamie Dexter’s brother joins the Army and is sent to Vietnam, Jamie is plum thrilled. She can’t wait to get letters from the front lines describing the excitement of real-life combat: the sound of helicopters, the smell of gunpowder, the exhilaration of being right in the thick of it. After all, they’ve both dreamed of following in the foot steps of their father, the Colonel.

But TJ’s first letter isn’t a letter at all. It’s a roll of undeveloped film, the first of many. What Jamie sees when she develops TJ’s photographs reveals a whole new side of the war. Slowly the shine begins to fade off of Army life – and the Colonel. How can someone she’s worshipped her entire life be just as helpless to save her brother as she is?

From the author of the Edgar Award-winning Dovey Coe comes a novel, both timely and timeless, about the sacrifices we make for what we believe and the people we love.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–8—When 12-year-old Stephanie’s eccentric Uncle Gordon dies, a mysterious man bundled in an overcoat, scarf, sunglasses, and a hat shows up at both the funeral and the reading of the will. This man, as it turns out, is Skulduggery Pleasant, a walking, talking skeleton who rescues Stephanie when she is attacked while alone in the house that she has just inherited. It seems that a particularly evil person named Serpine is trying to obtain a scepter that will allow him to rule the world. Stephanie is swept into a world of magic, secrets, power, and intrigue as she and Skulduggery try to keep one step ahead of Serpine and various other nefarious folk. Deadly hand-to-hand combat, nasty villains, magical derring-do, and traitorous allies will keep readers turning the pages, but it is the dynamic duo of Stephanie and Skulduggery who provide the real magic. The girl eagerly jumps into this new, dangerous, action-packed life, but she isn’t sure that she has the guts or the power to pull it off. Skulduggery Pleasant lives up to his name, performing amazing feats with such self-effacing drollness that readers will wish they had a similar skeletal friend. Give this one to fans of Eoin Colfer’s “Artemis Fowl” books (Hyperion) or to anyone who likes a dash of violence and danger served up with the magic.—Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library

From AudioFile

This production is exactly the reason young adult fantasy fare can work so well as audio entertainment. Narrator Rupert Degas will be known to fans of Philip Pullman as Pantalaimon in the audios of His Dark Materials, and he does a bang-up job here as well. This is dark comic fantasy, and Degass timing and complete grasp of the main characters personality couldnt be better. Skulduggery is the ultimate undead; in fact, hes just a skeleton. This does not stop him from being a deadly fighter or a snappy dresser. In this first episode, Skulduggery steps in to help the niece of an old friend who unwittingly has something a group of evil magicians badly needs. What sets the story apart is Degass deadpan delivery with a hint of rumbling laughter. Here is a hero we soon find ourselves immensely attached to. Bring us more Skulduggery! D.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine– Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine –This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–7—It’s Emily Ebers’s turn to tell about the summer she meets Millicent Min and Stanford Wong, each of whom has charmed readers in earlier books. Emily, who is effervescent and enthusiastic, has her own story to tell. She’s just moved to Rancho Rosetta, CA, from New Jersey after her parents’ divorce. She directs a lot of anger and unhappiness against her mom, who is also reeling from the change. She writes down her thoughts and feelings in a journal for her dad, who is on the road with a revival tour of his old rock band and has sent the 12-year-old a credit card for her birthday. Emily befriends Millicent at a girls’ summer volleyball league where they’re the worst players. The rapport between the girls is delightful, as Millie shares her idiosyncratic take on her hometown. Emily meets Stanford and assumes that he is tutoring Millie. When she finds out that her new friends have misled her about the situation, her disappointment is palpable. As in Millicent Min, Girl Genius (2003) and Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time (2005, both Scholastic), family is vitally important. In the end, Emily patches things up with her mom and realizes that some changes can be good, even though they may not work out as expected. It’s a good message for preteens, as is Emily’s insistence on treating others with kindness. Although this book stands on its own, kids will get more pleasure if they read the other two first. With a baby sister on the way for Millicent Min, dare we hope for another sequel?—Tina Zubak, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA

From Booklist

There aren’t many authors who can bring energy to the same basic story three times running, but Yee manages to do it in this companion to Millicent Min, Girl Genius (2003)and Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time (2005). Now, the ruse unfolds from the viewpoint of Millicent’s new friend (and Stanford’s crush) Emily, a blithe spirit prone to blind spots–whether in her dealings with Millie (whose weirdly tidy bedroom prompts praise for having “totally nailed that stark look”) or in her relationship with her father, whom she adores despite his inattentiveness following her parents’ divorce. The format proves less successful than Emily’s faithfully evoked voice; the daily entries (a continuing letter to her incommunicado dad) record details and dialogue too precisely to ring true. But fans of the first two books will enjoy seeing how this telling expands its predecessors’ take on the same events, and most readers will find something to appreciate in Emily’s particular story, which tempers painful truths about divorce’s repercussions with middle-grade romance and humor. Jennifer Mattson

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-7 The author of The Head Bone’s Connected to the Neck Bone: The Weird, Wacky and Wonderful X-Ray (Farrar, 2001) takes on a related topic with equal success in this profile of the driven scientist most closely associated with the discovery of radium. Born Manya Sklodowska and educated in her native Poland at a Floating University that operated in defiance of harsh Russian policies, Curie moved to Paris to continue her studies. There, both before and after the tragic death of her beloved, kindred spirit Pierre, she dedicated her life to pure research and enlisted her father-in-law to care for her children. She never took out patents, so even as she was rising to international fame, entrepreneurs worldwide began trumpeting wild claims for the healing benefits of radioactive products. McClafferty chronicles both that fad and its dismal outcome, as the effects of long-term radiation poisoning slowly became horribly apparent. Noting that Curie maintained lifelong ties with her native land and also did significant medical work in WWI, the author follows her career to its final, illness-ridden days, then ends with an apt summation of her legacy. Archival photos and substantial multimedia resource lists enhance an engrossing study of a great scientist who tried to turn away from the world and ended up changing it profoundly. John Peters, New York Public Library

From Booklist

Gr. 7-10. Like Nick Healy’s overview, Marie Curie (2005), this readable biography examines Curie’s life and work as a groundbreaking scientist and as an independent woman. Unlike Healy’s, though, McClafferty’s account is more detailed and includes extensive documentation with chapter source notes. The groundbreaking science is as thrilling as the personal story, which describes Curie’s struggle to get to college, her happy marriage to Pierre Curie and their work together, and her recognition as the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, a prize she won again later for her work in chemistry. In addition to the triumph, though, McClafferty shows that Curie could be harsh and indifferent to her own family. The spacious design makes the text easy to read, and occasional photos, including one of the interior of the shed where she and Pierre began their research, bring the story closer. Hazel Rochman

Product Description

After a mean collector named Swindle cons him out of his most valuable baseball card, Griffin Bing must put together a band of misfits to break into Swindle’s compound and recapture the card. There are many things standing in their way — a menacing guard dog, a high-tech security system, a very secret hiding place, and their general inability to drive — but Griffin and his team are going to get back what’s rightfully his . . . even if hijinks ensue.

This is Gordon Korman at his crowd-pleasing best, perfect for readers who like to hoot, howl, and heist.

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 8 Up—This lengthy Carnegie Medal-winning novel is masterfully crafted, written in cinematic prose, and peopled by well-drawn, multidimensional characters. Intense and riveting, it is a mystery, a tale of passion, and a drama about resistance fighters in the Netherlands during World War II. The story unfolds in parallel narratives, most told by an omniscient narrator describing the resistance struggle, and fewer chapters as a narrative told by 15-year-old Tamar, the granddaughter of one of the resistance fighters. The locale and time shift between Holland in 1944 and ‘45 and England in 1995. The constant dangers faced by the resistance fighters as well as their determination to succeed in liberating their country from German occupation come vividly to life. Dart, Tamar, and Marijke are the main characters in this part of the book. Their loyalty to one another and the movement is palpable though love and jealousy gradually enter the story and painfully change the dynamics. Other characters jeopardize the safety of the group and intensify the life-threatening hazards they face. Peet deftly handles the developing intrigue that totally focuses readers. After her beloved grandfather commits suicide, modern-day Tamar is determined to undercover the mystery contained in a box of seemingly unrelated objects that he has left for her. Peet keeps the story going back and forth in time, and readers must wait till the end of this intricate book to understand fully what happened to these courageous people. This is an extraordinary, gripping novel.—Renee Steinberg, formerly at Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ

From Booklist

*Starred Review* It was her taciturn but beloved grandfather, William Hyde, who gave Tamar her strange name. But in 1995, when she was 15, he committed suicide, leaving her to wonder if she knew him at all. Later, when she opens the box of War II memorabilia that he left her, she’s struck by the need to find out what it means, who he really was, and where she fits in. Tension mounts incrementally in an intricate wrapping of wartime drama and secrecy, in which Tamar finds her namesake and herself. Forming the backbone of the novel are intense, sometimes brutal events in a small Dutch town in Nazi-occupied Holland and the relationship between the girl’s namesake, a member of the Dutch Resistance; Dart, a code operator assigned to help him; and Marijke, the love of his life. Peet’s plot is tightly constructed, and striking, descriptive language, full of metaphor, grounds the story. Most of the characters are adults here, and to some readers, the Dutch history, though deftly woven through the story, will seem remote. But Peet’s sturdy, emotionally resonant characterizations and dramatic backdrop will pull readers forward, as will the secret that gradually unravels. Despite foreshadowing, the outcome is still a stunner. Winner of Britain’s 2005 Carnegie Medal, this powerful story will grow richer with each reading. Stephanie Zvirin

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 Up–Carly Biels should have it made. She has a terrific boyfriend, good friends, and she’s popular. Okay, her parents have really high expectations and her dad is a Princeton alum, but she’s got decent grades, so that should help her get into his alma mater, right? Wrong. When the SAT scores are released, hers just aren’t good enough. Panicked, she becomes involved in a shady deal to cheat next time by having the mysterious Taker fix her score. Before she knows it, she’s committed, her boyfriend is pushing her too far too fast, and her friends are well on their way to their own successes. Feeling desperate and alone, the teen turns to super-smart nerd Ronald Gross for tutoring. To make matters worse, her best friend, the editor of the school newspaper, takes investigative reporting seriously when rumors of a cheating ring start floating around the school. As Carly’s life turns upside down, she is haunted by the choices she has made under pressure and finds out that people may not be what they seem. The protagonist’s obsession is a bit much, but she is a sympathetic character, and Steele creates enough tension and interest in the various subplots to make this an enjoyable read.–Roxanne Myers Spencer, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green

From Booklist

Carly has always counted on going to Princeton, her family’s alma mater for generations, but her SAT scores fall far short of Ivy League standards. Then a mysterious text message from “The Taker” promises nearly perfect scores when she tries the test again, and as her sense of failure intensifies, she accepts the Taker’s offer. She also signs up for tutoring sessions with her brilliant, geeky neighbor, and his creative lessons and gentle affection give Carly a new perspective not only on the test and her decision to cheat but also on her friends, family, and boyfriend. The Taker’s identity and an SAT cheating ring form an awkwardly constructed mystery that isn’t nearly as strong as Carly’s believable, first-person voice, which mixes sometimes barbed social observations with genuine insights and growth. Like Mariah Frederick’s Crunch Time (2006), this debut novel, written by anonymous authors under a joint pen name, offers a pointed view of the pressures of college admittance, standardized tests, and the discovery of love that feels respectful and right. Gillian Engberg

Product Description

14-year-old Will Burrows has little in common with his strange, dysfunctional family. In fact, the only bond he shares with his eccentric father is a passion for archaeological excavation. So when his dad mysteriously vanishes, Will is compelled to dig up the truth behind his disappearance. He unearths the unbelievable: a subterranean society that time forgot. “The Colony” has existed unchanged for a century, but it’s no benign time capsule of a bygone era. Because the Colony is ruled by a merciless overclass, the Styx. Will must free his father–is he also about to ignite a revolution?

KIDS DIG TUNNELS!

“…a unique mix of fantasy and adventure that keeps you wondering what’s going to happen next….the vivid descriptions will transport you to a whole new world.”–Matt, age 14

“…I was on the edge of my seat until the last page. It was intricately mystifying. Full praise to TUNNELS–I want more!”–Garrett, a

Product Description

KIDS DIG TUNNELS!

“My eyes were my gray metal shovel and my dark unexpected tunnel was the book. I kept digging my way deeper into the plot to find out what was going to happen next.”–Alexa, age 12

“…a unique mix of fantasy and adventure that keeps you wondering what’s going to happen next….the vivid descriptions will transport you to a whole new world.”–Matt, age 14

“…I was on the edge of my seat until the last page. It was intricately mystifying. Full praise to TUNNELS–I want more!”–Garrett, age 12

Product Description

Chris Conlan is the coolest kid in sixth grade—the golden-armed quarterback of the football team, and the boy all the others look up to. Scott Parry is the new kid, the boy with the huge brain, but with feet that trip over themselves daily. These two boys may seem like an odd couple, but each has a secret that draws them together as friends, and proves that the will to succeed is even more important than raw talent.

In a society where unwanted teens are salvaged for their body parts, three runaways fight the system that would “unwind” them

Connor’s parents want to be rid of him because he’s a troublemaker. Risa has no parents and is being unwound to cut orphanage costs. Lev’s unwinding has been planned since his birth, as part of his family’s strict religion. Brought together by chance, and kept together by desperation, these three unlikely companions make a harrowing cross-country journey, knowing their lives hang in the balance. If they can survive until their eighteenth birthday, they can’t be harmed — but when every piece of them, from their hands to their hearts, are wanted by a world gone mad, eighteen seems far, far away.

In Unwind, Boston Globe/Horn Book Award winner Neal Shusterman challenges readers’ ideas about life — not just where life begins, and where it ends, but what it truly means to be alive.

1 · Connor

“There are places you can go,” Ariana tells him, “and a guy as smart as you has a decent chance of surviving to eighteen.”

Connor isn’t so sure, but looking into Ariana’s eyes makes his doubts go away, if only for a moment. Her eyes are sweet violet with streaks of gray. She’s such a slave to fashion — always getting the newest pigment injection the second it’s in style. Connor was never into that. He’s always kept his eyes the color they came in. Brown. He never even got tattoos, like so many kids get these days when they’re little. The only color on his skin is the tan it takes during the summer, but now, in November, that tan has long faded. He tries not to think about the fact that he’ll never see the summer again. At least not as Connor Lassiter. He still can’t believe that his life is being stolen from him at sixteen.

Ariana’s violet eyes begin to shine as they fill with tears that flow down her cheeks when she blinks. “Connor, I’m so sorry.” She holds him, and for a moment it seems as if everything is okay, as if they are the only two people on Earth. For that instant, Connor feels invincible, untouchable…but she lets go, the moment passes, and the world around him returns. Once more he can feel the rumble of the freeway beneath them, as cars pass by, not knowing or caring that he’s here. Once more he is just a marked kid, a week short of unwinding.

The soft, hopeful things Ariana tells him don’t help now. He can barely hear her over the rush of traffic. This place where they hide from the world is one of those dangerous places that make adults shake their heads, grateful that their own kids aren’t stupid enough to hang out on the ledge of a freeway overpass. For Connor it’s not about stupidity, or even rebellion — it’s about feeling life. Sitting on this ledge, hidden behind an exit sign is where he feels most comfortable. Sure, one false step and he’s roadkill. Yet for Connor, life on the edge is home.

There have been no other girls he’s brought here, although he hasn’t told Ariana that. He closes his eyes, feeling the vibration of the traffic as if it’s pulsing through his veins, a part of him. This has always been a goodplace to get away from fights with his parents, or when he just feels generally boiled. But now Connor’s beyond boiled — even beyond fighting with his mom and dad. There’s nothing more to fight about. His parents signed the order — it’s a done deal.

“We should run away,” Ariana says. “I’m fed up with everything, too. My family, school, everything. I could kick-AWOL, and never look back.”

Connor hangs on the thought. The idea of kicking-AWOL by himself terrifies him. He might put up a tough front, he might act like the bad boy at school — but running away on his own? He doesn’t even know if he has the guts. But if Ariana comes, that’s different. That’s not alone. “Do you mean it?”

Ariana looks at him with her magical eyes. “Sure. Sure I do. I could leave here. If you asked me.”

Connor knows this is major. Running away with an Unwind — that’s commitment. The fact that she would do it moves him beyond words. He kisses her, and in spite of everything going on in his life Connor suddenly feels like the luckiest guy in the world. He holds her — maybe a little too tightly, because she starts to squirm. It just makes him want to hold her even more tightly, but he fights that urge and lets go. She smiles at him.

“AWOL…” she says. “What does that mean, anyway?”

“It’s an old military term or something,” Connor says. “It means ‘absent without leave.’”

Ariana thinks about it, and grins. “Hmm. More like ‘alive without lectures.’”

Connor takes her hand, trying hard not to squeeze it too tightly. She said she’d go if he asked her. Only now does he realize he hasn’t actually asked yet.

“Will you come with me, Ariana?”

Ariana smiles and nods. “Sure,” she says. “Sure I will.”

Ariana’s parents don’t like Connor. “We always knew he’d be an Unwind,” he can just hear them saying. “You should have stayed away from that Lassiter boy.” He was never “Connor” to them. He was always “that Lassiter boy.” They think that just because he’s been in and out of disciplinary school they have a right to judge him.

Still, when he walks her home that afternoon, he stops short of her door,hiding behind a tree as she goes inside. Before he heads home, he thinks how hiding is now going to be a way of life for both of them.

Home.

Connor wonders how he can call the place he lives home, when he’s about to be evicted — not just from the place he sleeps, but from the hearts of those who are supposed to love him.

His father sits in a chair, watching the news as Connor enters.

“Hi, Dad.”

His father points at some random carnage on the news. “Clappers again.”

“What did they hit this time?”

“They blew up an Old Navy in the North Akron mall.”

“Hmm,” says Connor. “You’d think they’d have better taste.”

“I don’t find that funny.”

Connor’s parents don’t know that Connor knows he’s being unwound. He wasn’t supposed to find out, but Connor has always been good at ferreting out secrets. Three weeks ago, while looking for a stapler in his dad’s home office, he found airplane tickets to the Bahamas. They were going on a family vacation over Thanksgiving. One problem, though: There were only three tickets. His mother, his father, his younger brother. No ticket for him. At first he just figured the ticket was somewhere else, but the more he thought about it, the more it seemed wrong. So Connor went looking a little deeper when his parents were out, and he found it. The Unwind order. It had been signed in old-fashioned triplicate. The white copy was already gone — off with the authorities. The yellow copy would accompany Connor to his end, and the pink would stay with his parents, as evidence of what they’d done. Perhaps they would frame it and hang it alongside his first-grade picture.

The date on the order was the day before the Bahamas trip. He was going off to be unwound, and they were going on vacation to make themselves feel better about it. The unfairness of it had made Connor want to break something. It had made him want to break a lot of things — but he hadn’t.For once he had held his temper, and aside from a few fights in school that weren’t his fault, he kept his emotions hidden. He kept what he knew to himself. Everyone knew that an unwind order was irreversible, so screaming and fighting wouldn’t change a thing. Besides, he found a certain power in knowing his parents’ secret. Now the blows he could deal them were so much more effective. Like the day he brought flowers home for his mother and she cried for hours. Like the B-plus he brought home on a science test. Best grade he ever got in science. He handed it to his father, who looked at it, the color draining from his face. “See, Dad, my grades are getting better. I could even bring my science grade up to an A by the end of the semester.” An hour later his father was sitting in a chair, still clutching the test in his hand, and staring blankly at the wall.

Connor’s motivation was simple: Make them suffer. Let them know for the rest of their lives what a horrible mistake they made.

But there was no sweetness to this revenge, and now, three weeks of rubbing it in their faces has made him feel no better. In spite of himself he’s starting to feel bad for his parents, and he hates that he feels that way.

“Did I miss dinner?”

His father doesn’t look away from the TV. “Your mother left a plate for you.”

Connor heads off toward the kitchen, but halfway there he hears:

“Connor?”

He turns to see his father looking at him. Not just looking, but staring. He’s going to tell me now, Connor thinks. He’s going to tell me they’re unwinding me, and then break down in tears, going on and on about how sorry sorry sorry he is about it all. If he does, Connor just might accept the apology. He might even forgive him, and then tell him that he doesn’t plan to be here when the Juvey-cops come to take him away. But in the end all his father says is, “Did you lock the door when you came in?”

“I’ll do it now.”

Connor locks the door, then goes to his room, no longer hungry for whatever it is his mother saved for him.

• • •

At two in the morning Connor dresses in black and fills a backpack with the things that really matter to him. He still has room for three changes of clothes. He finds it amazing, when it comes down to it, how few things are worth taking. Memories, mostly. Reminders of a time before things went so wrong between him and his parents. Between him and the rest of the world.

Connor peeks in on his brother, thinks about waking him to say good-bye, then decides it’s not a good idea. He silently slips out into the night. He can’t take his bike, because he had installed an antitheft tracking device. Connor never considered that he might be the one stealing it. Ariana has bikes for both of them though.

Ariana’s house is a twenty-minute walk, if you take the conventional route. Suburban Ohio neighborhoods never have streets that go in straight lines, so instead he takes the more direct route, through the woods, and makes it there in ten.

The lights in Ariana’s house are off. He expected this. It would have been suspicious if she had stayed awake all night. Better to pretend she’s sleeping, so she won’t alert any suspicion. He keeps his distance from the house. Ariana’s yard and front porch are equipped with motion-sensor lights that come on whenever anything moves into range. They’re meant to scare off wild animals and criminals. Ariana’s parents are convinced that Connor is both.

He pulls out his phone and dials the familiar number. From where he stands in the shadows at the edge of the backyard he can hear it ring in her room upstairs. Connor disconnects quickly and ducks farther back into the shadows, for fear that Ariana’s parents might be looking out from their windows. What is she thinking? Ariana was supposed to leave her phone on vibrate.

He makes a wide arc around the edge of the backyard, wide enough not to set off

From School Library Journal

Grade 6–8—This deftly crafted historical novel unfolds dramatically with an absorbing story and well-drawn characters who readily evoke empathy and compassion. Haddix has masterfully melded in-depth information about the history of immigration, the struggle for women’s rights, the beginnings of the organized labor movement, and the horrific Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 within a narrative that will simultaneously engross and educate its readers. The story is told from the alternating perspectives of Bella, an Italian immigrant teen; Yetta, a Russian Jewish immigrant; and Jane, the daughter of an upper-class American businessman. Yetta is opinionated and aware of how immigrants, especially women, are mistreated. She is outspoken and ready to work toward improving conditions. Bella is a new immigrant and easily taken advantage of. She only wants to earn money to send home so the rest of her family can join her in America. Though wealthy, Jane is influenced by college girls who are starting to work for women’s rights. The three girls meet during the strike at the Triangle factory. Jane bravely leaves home when she learns that her father was involved in trying to break the strike. This absorbing and informative read is a wonderful companion to Mary Jane Auch’s Ashes of Roses (Holt, 2002).—Renee Steinberg, formerly at Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ

Product Description

Around her the workers were screaming out prayers and curses…. She herself was sobbing tearlessly…. Her only prayer was still, “I don’t want to die.”

Oh, please, God, don’t let me die, she thought. I’ve never even had a chance to live.

Bella, newly arrived in New York from Italy, gets a job at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. There, along with hundreds of other immigrants, she works long hours at a grueling job under terrible conditions. Yetta, a coworker from Russia, has been crusading for a union, and when factory conditions worsen, she helps workers rise up in a strike. Wealthy Jane learns of the plight of the workers and becomes involved with their cause.

Bella and Yetta are at work — and Jane is visiting the factory — on March 25, 1911, when a spark ignites some cloth and the building is engulfed in fire, leading to one of the worst workplace disasters ever.

Margaret Peterson Haddix draws on extensive historical research to bring the tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire to tangible life through her thrilling story of Bella, Yetta, and Jane.

In the period of the Vietnam War, Holling Hoodhood starts his seventh-grade year at odds with his teacher, Mrs. Baker. Wednesday afternoons are their private time together, and the pastimes are many–from clapping erasers to dissecting various Shakespeare plays. Through Holling, his family, and his school compatriots, Schmidt takes clichés such as perfect families, battle-ax teachers, and incorrigible students and makes them original. Joel Johnstone’s narration gains potency from his even voice and pacing. Moments poignant with lost chances for understanding, such as those between Holling’s father and sister, are as vivid as those of humor. Listen, laugh, cry, and marvel at the goodness of humankind. A.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine– Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine –This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* On Wednesday afternoons, while his Catholic and Jewish schoolmates attend religious instruction, Holling Hoodhood, the only Presbyterian in his seventh grade, is alone in the classroom with his teacher, Mrs. Baker, who Holling is convinced hates his guts. He feels more certain after Mrs. Baker assigns Shakespeare’s plays for Holling to discuss during their shared afternoons. Each month in Holling’s tumultuous seventh-grade year is a chapter in this quietly powerful coming-of-age novel set in suburban Long Island during the late ’60s. The slow start may deter some readers, and Mrs. Baker is too good to be true: she arranges a meeting between Holling and the New York Yankees, brokers a deal to save a student’s father’s architectural firm, and, after revealing her past as an Olympic runner, coaches Holling to the varsity cross-country team. However, Schmidt, whose Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy (2005) was named both a Printz and a Newbery Honor Book, makes the implausible believable and the everyday momentous. Seamlessly, he knits together the story’s themes: the cultural uproar of the ’60s, the internal uproar of early adolescence, and the timeless wisdom of Shakespeare’s words. Holling’s unwavering, distinctive voice offers a gentle, hopeful, moving story of a boy who, with the right help, learns to stretch beyond the limitations of his family, his violent times, and his fear, as he leaps into his future with his eyes and his heart wide open. Engberg, Gillian

*Starred Review* A neighborhood beauty salon is the setting for lots of the fast, funny talk in these stirring contemporary stories, which nonetheless give a grim view of being “poor and black,” whether on the streets of Harlem, in prison, or on the war front in Afghanistan. Rooted in the harsh realism of widespread unemployment, drug use, and trouble (”more brothers going to jail than going to college”), the teens’ tender connections are heartbreaking. A single teenage mother loves her baby, and so does the young dad, who wishes he could support them. Some teens are college-bound, but a boy with a high-school diploma can’t find work: will he get a gun? Tough gangster Burn is gentle with handicapped kids, but he cannot connect with the girl he loves. In “Mama,” a kid who cares for her mom, a recovering addict, and tries to get her brother to preschool turns out to be only eight years old. There are lighter moments, too; in “Poets and Plumbers,” Noee feels uncomfortable in Kyle’s apartment until she shows him how to unplug his kitchen drain. Each story stands alone, but some are connected, and readers familiar with Myers’ 145th Street (2000) will welcome back some characters. Hope lies in what the book title says, finding love and community. Rochman, Hazel

Set in a small 1930s Louisiana town, this first novel about an 11-year-old girl abandoned by her mother “is filled with poignant insights into a hurt child’s fragile psyche,” said PW in a starred review. Ages 8-12. (Oct.)

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9-Nissa, 11, lives in the tiny Louisiana town of Harper in 1933, when her mother decamps, leaving a confused and grieving daughter behind. During the year that follows, Nissa tries to come to terms with her loss, with her father’s growing attachment to another woman, and with her feelings of guilt and yearnings. The historical, small-town setting lends a slower, more innocent tone to the story than a modern setting might give, yet the feelings expressed are universal and deep. The author creates a believable set of characters and a realistic environment, and sustains them well with a lyrical and leisurely use of language. Readers will care a great deal for Nissa and her family. The readability level is low enough for intermediate grade students, but the complexities of the emotions and the situations the characters must deal with are adult in nature, even though the narrative is softened with euphemisms.

Product Description

When eighth-grader San Lee moves to a new town and a new school for the umpteenth time, he doesn’t try to make new friends or be a loner or play cool. Instead he sits back and devises a plan to be totally different. When he accidentally answers too many questions in World History on Zen (only because he just had Ancient Religions two schools ago) all heads turn and San has his answer: he’s a Zen Master. And just when he thinks everyone (including the cute girl he can’t stop thinking about) is on to him, everyone believes him . . . in a major Zen way.

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