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In G.P. Taylor’s Mariah Mundi: The Midas Box, Mariah Mundi has ended his time at the Colonial School without a family to go home to. His parents are missing, presumed dead, somewhere in the Sudan. So Mariah is sent to take up employment at the Prince Regent Hotel, a fabulous place filled with inventions and luxury.  Mariah is to be apprenticed to the Great Bizmillah, the magician at the hotel’s theatre. It doesn’t take long for Mariah and his new-found friend Sasha to discover some unwelcome secrets about the Prince Regent. Previous boys sent there from the Colonial School have all disappeared and to where,Read More →

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Derek Landy’s Skulduggery Pleasant is a whirlwind adventure into the depths of a secret world of magic, ancient evil, and mystery.  I picked it up expecting a book targeted to boys (based on the cover art alone) and instead was pleasantly surprised to find the book perfect for girls who like action! 12 year old Stephanie Edgley inherits her eccentric uncle’s estate and fortune, and on her first night alone at the house is attacked and almost killed. She is saved by a man who was both at the funeral and the reading of the will, and who turns out not to be a manRead More →

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Summer vacation is a perfect time to read The Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark, by Ridley Pearson. It’s a fun, fast-paced adventure ride behind the scenes of DisneyWorld Park in Orlando Florida. 13-year old Finn is literally sucked into an after-hours mystery at DisneyWorld that he and 4 other kids must solve in order to save both the Park and the outside world from the rising tide of “dark magic” that has been dormant in the magical park since its inception.  Cleverly written, technologically savvy, and full of thrills, The Kingdom Keepers is a lot of fun and it definately keeps you on the edge ofRead More →

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Set in the Mississippi bayou in the summer and fall of 1963, A Thousand Never Evers tells the story of 12 year-old Addie Ann Pickett.  After graduating from Acorn Elementary School, Addie Ann looks forward to a summer of swinging in her yard, jumping double Dutch, working in the kitchen at Old Man Adam’s house,  teaching her cat, Flapjack, new tricks, and to starting 7th grade at West Thunder Creek Junior High School.  Two unexpected events change the course of her summer, and ultimately, the life she has always known: the murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers and the death of her employer, Old Man Adams. AsRead More →

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Ninth Grade Slays by Heather Brewer is an excellent follow up to her first novel, Eighth Grade Bites. Vladimir Tod is a vampire, but he’s also half human, the first of his kind. He lives on blood bags his aunt brings home from the hospital. He doesn’t feed off the source, humans. Vlad has just come out of an extremely eventful eighth grade year. Apparently, there is an entire community of vampires outside his little town of Bathory. But as for his start of high school, strange things are about to happen. Not only does Vlad have to deal with bullies and talking to theRead More →

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In my opinion this is Christopher Paul Curtis’s best novel yet.  He is a gifted storyteller, making you laugh one chapter and cry the next.  Elijah is the first child to be born free in Buxton, Canada, a town of freed and escaped slaves.  We see this period of time through Elijah’s eyes and ears, as he has adventures, welcomes escaped slaves to town, & overhears adults discussing their lives as slaves.  He learns to appreciate his freedom and so will the reader. This is a moving, beautiful novel.  I am recommending it to fifth graders and up.  It would make a great read aloud,Read More →

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If you have any Michael Crichton books on your library shelves and/or your students enjoy Ender’s Game you need Bunker 10 by J. A. Henderson. At 8pm December 24, 2007, a secret military installation blows up. The book then flashes back to tell about the last day in the lives of the soldiers, scientists, and trapped teens of the complex. What I especially love is that it counts down like 24, with each chapter being a specific time. Just like a good Crichton book the science is there and gets stretched a little. Sections of the book start out with scientific definitions (imagine my excitementRead More →

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book including Nicoletta Ceccoli’s beautiful illustrations throughout. The adventure begins when “rivery” magic gives Claire’s bullying cousin Duke a horn instead of a nose. Similar to Pinochio’s nose, whenever he bullies someone, his horn grows as he slowly transforms into a rhinocerous. Only an act of true kindness will return him to himself, but Duke is too mean and selfish to care. He runs away and gets involved with some mischievous trolls who turn his family into stone. Claire agrees to help the trolls so that she can save her stony relatives and attempt to save Duke from himself. It’s aRead More →

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Lynne Reid Banks’ newest novel is historical fiction set in Rome around the 3rd century AD. Two tiger cubs are captured and brought to Rome. One is given to the emperor’s daughter to be raised as her pampered pet. The other brother is taught to be a vicious man-eating fighter at the Colosseum. There is description of the gladiators and animals slaughtering each other, and also innocent, forbidden love between the princess and a slave. It demonstrates the social structure of Rome very vividly and also demonstrates how Christianity was viewed by the Romans. Tiger, Tiger would be excellent to use if you are teaching ancient Roman historyRead More →