School! Adventures at the Harvey N. Trouble Elementary School by Kate McMullan

A pun-filled week at Harvey N. Trouble School is hilarious. Every morning, Ron Faster sprints to the road and boards the school bus. Given that the driver is Ivan Stuckinaditch, the bus promptly become stuck in...guess what...a ditch. Ron and the other kids, Viola Fuss, Izzy Normal and so on, get to school late. The principal, Miss Ingashoe, moves slowly because she's "missing something." Chuckie Upkins is always running to the bathroom, and Oopsie Spiller causes the daily resignations of Janitor Iquit and Assistant Janitor Quitoo. Over and over and over. The pattern changes on Friday... what a week! Booth's great cartoon illustrations add whimsy and pure fun to every page,

Easy as Falling off the Face of the Earth by Lynn Rae Perkins

On his way to summer camp in Montana, fifteen-year-old Ry opens a letter and discovers that the camp has gone out of business; when he hops off the train to try to call his grandfather, the train leaves without him, stranding him in the middle of nowhere. A lot happens in the novel. Parents, grandfathers, dogs go MIA. (The dogs' adventures are illustrated in humorous cartoon drawings.) A kind stranger who "marches to the beat of, like, I don't know, a harmonica or something" offers to shepherd Ry home to Wisconsin and winds up taking him to the Caribbean.

Ry travels by train...
Car...
Plane...
Boat...
And Feet...
Will he ever find his parents, grandfather and dogs?

book trailer

39 Clues- Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan

Grace Cahill has died, and her orphaned grandchildren Amy, 14, and Dan, 11, are among the heirs offered a choice: They can accept one million and walk, or they can take the first clue in a worldwide scavenger hunt to find the secret that has made the extended Cahill family the most powerful family in world history. Every other heir is out to get Amy and Dan, Grace's supposed favorites, as they work their way through the puzzles in this first volume of a ten-book "multi-platform" series.

Join Amy and Dan in an adventure around the world. There is a lot going on in this story!

Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood

Based on the book "The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud," Charlie St. Cloud tells the haunting story of a young man who narrowly survives a terrible car wreck that kills his little brother. Years later, the brothers’ bond remains so strong that it transcends the normal boundaries separating life and death. By day Charlie tends the lawns and monuments of the ancient cemetery where his younger brother, Sam, is buried. Graced with an extraordinary gift after surviving the accident, he can still see, talk, and even play catch with Sam’s spirit. Into his carefully ordered life comes Tess Carroll, a captivating, adventuresome woman training for a solo sailing trip around the globe. Fate steers her boat into a treacherous storm that blows her back to harbor, to a charged encounter with Charlie, and to a surprise more overwhelming than the violent sea itself. Charlie and Tess discover a beautiful and uncommon connection that leads to a race against time and a desperate choice between death and life, between the past and the future, between holding on and letting go.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Booklist starred (June 1, 2009 (Vol. 105, No. 19))
If this book makes your head hurt, you’re not alone. Sixth-grader Miranda admits that the events she relates make her head hurt, too. Time travel will do that to you. The story takes place in 1979, though time frames, as readers learn, are relative. Miranda and Sal have been best friends since way before that. They both live in a tired Manhattan apartment building and walk home together from school. One day everything changes. Sal is kicked and punched by a schoolmate and afterward barely acknowledges Miranda. Which leaves her to make new friends, even as she continues to reread her ratty copy of A Wrinkle in Time and tutor her mother for a chance to compete on The $20,000 Pyramid. She also ponders a puzzling, even alarming series of events that begins with a note: “I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own . . . you must write me a letter.” Miranda’s first-person narrative is the letter she is sending to the future. Or is it the past? It’s hard to know if the key events ultimately make sense (head hurting!), and it seems the whys, if not the hows, of a pivotal character’s actions are not truly explained. Yet everything else is quite wonderful.

The Invention of Hugo Cabaret by Brian Selznick

Selznick's "novel in words and pictures," is a unique and amazingly good book!. It is an intriguing mystery set in 1930s Paris about an orphan, a salvaged clockwork invention, and a celebrated filmmaker. This illustrated novel is somewhat similar to a graphic novel, but experiencing its mix of silvery pencil drawings and narrative interludes is ultimately more like watching a silent film. This picture novel has over 150 double-page illustrations that are integral to the story. Most are detailed drawings, but a few are photographs from the early days of motion pictures. This historical novel centers on Hugo, a young boy on his own in the Paris train station after his father dies in a museum fire, and his uncle, the caretaker of the station clocks disappears. In his room in the walls of the station, Hugo is repairing a mechanical man using his father's detailed drawings; the parts he steals from the toymaker's booth. But, the old man catches him stealing and Hugo is forced to give up the notebook and to work in the booth to pay for what he stole. The old man's granddaughter, Isabelle, holds the key to bringing the automaton to life as the bitter old man was once much more than an unhappy toymaker. Although Hugo and Isabelle are fictional characters, the old man is based on Georges Melies, whose automatons were indeed left in a museum attic.

Don't let the thick book scare you, due to all the pictures, it is actually a quick read.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephanie Meyer

A new short story that is an add-on to the Eclipse story in the Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer. The story falls in time with Eclipse and fills in details of the newborns (new vampires), Victoria’s time in Seattle and Bree Turner’s transformation. In case you forgot this character (as I did), Bree is the newborn that surrenders to Carlisle and is killed by Jane at the end of the book. An interesting look at the story from a different point of view.

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

16 year old Kristina goes to visit her estranged father and is soon introduced to a totally different world than where she lives with her mother and stepfather. Her alter ego, Bree tries crank out with her dad and is hooked. Back at home with her mother, Kristina feels ignored and smothered, and needs more drugs and more boys. Crank is a page turner that will grab you and hold on almost as tight as the drug for which it is named. Hopkins uses all kinds of creative verse, and plays with spacing on the page, sometimes providing two alternative readings.

Crank is the first book in a trilogy... check out Glass and Fallout to see what else happens to Kristina.

John, Paul, George and Ben by Lane Smith

This website explains what this book is all about way better than I can...
be sure to view the trailer and try out the game.
http://hyperionbooksforchildren.com/board/displayBook.asp?id=1598

What Happened to Cass McBride by Gail Giles

Cass is that girl in high school who will do almost anything to be popular. When dorky David asks her out, she turns him down and writes a nasty note about him that he reads. The next day David is found hanging from a tree. David's brother Kyle, blames Cass for David's suicide and kidnaps her and buries her alive because he wants to make sure that she knows why she was kidnapped before she dies. Kyle wants to blame Cass for David's death, but through discussions with Cass he learns that there were lots of other reasons that David may have killed himself. You will not believe what happens to Cass because of this whole ordeal.

book trailer

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Book 2 of The Hunger Games trilogy.

Six months have passed since Katniss and Peeta won the Hunger Games, and now they are ready to embark on their Victory Tour of the districts, but they do so under an ominous threat to the safety of their family and friends, a threat delivered in person by President Snow himself. It turns out that Katniss's game ending stunt has been interpreted as an act of defiance of the Capitol-- and because most of the districts fester with unrest, the Capitol is pressuring her to defuse that unrest. The 75th anniversary of the games is fast approaching, and since it is a Quarter Quell, there is a twist to the games that no one could have guessed. Can Katniss survive another round of The Hunger Games? Can she protect Peeta and her family? Another round of the Hunger Games with all of its violence, horror and suspense will keep you at the edge of your seat. One last cliffhanger sets the stage for the grand finale in Mockingjay, released August 24, 2010. Click on this link to learn more about the final book in this amazing trilogy: http://video.scholastic.com/services/player/bcpid1909906994?bctid=260806371001

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

To punish citizens for an earlier rebellion, the rulers require each district to send one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to participate in the Hunger Games, a fight to the death that is televised for the whole country to see. Sixteen-year old Katniss volunteers to take her younger sister's place after her name is drawn. Peeta, the baker's son, is the boy who drawn to compete for District 12 also. Peeta and Katniss fight to survive the harsh terrain, the other 22 contestants and the struggle to get enough good and water. Peeta and Katniss are able to fight off the others and everything the Capitol throws at them and survive, but the Capitol is not happy when they trick them into allowing them both to survive. Part one of three.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Through a "JOURNAL, not a diary" Greg Heffley tells you all about his first year of middle school with his journal entries and simple cartoon illustrations. Mishaps and misadventures seem to plague Greg at every turn from the minor freak outs of finding himself sitting between two morons, being a "skin" in gym class, and having a friend who wants to show him his "secret freckle." He struggles to be a good friend and a good son. He also wants to be on top of the popularity list; which is hard to climb up when you have nerdy friends, involved parents and two siblings who aren't very helpful.

Bone #1- Out from Boneville

This first of nine volumes, Out of Boneville, begins with greedy Phoney Bone being run out of Boneville for cheating and his cousins, Fone and Smiley, join him. The three blobby creatures get seperated and stumble into a valley full of monsters, magic, farmers, an amazing girl and a huge dragon. Fone makes friends with a country girl, her no-nonsense gran'ma and some possums. Phoney must contend with ferocious rat creatures who are led by the mysterious "hooded one" and who wants his soul. Smiley is working his bill off a bar in Barrelhaven. All keep looking for each other and want to get back to their normal life.

The Frog Scientist by Pamela S. Turner

This non-fiction book from the Scientists in the Field series begins with a trip to collect frogs with scientist Tyrone Hayes. The second chapter deals with Hayes' background, and the remainder of the book addresses his work of questioning why amphibian populations around the world are declining. It discusses in particular the chemical atrazine, an agricultural pesticide, and an experiment to determine its impact on the reproductive organs of the leopard frog. The book goes through the specifics of how the experiment is conducted in order to rule out other causes of the reproductive changes. It ends with the scientist unclear as to whether atrazine is solely responsible for the changes... and the possible reasons for the unclear results of his experiment.

Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith

This book begins in 1838 with Charles Darwin drawing a line down a sheet of paper and listing the reasons to marry or not marry. After much thought Darwin decided to marry, and marries his cousin Emma, January 29, 1839, and they begin their life together. One major difference between Charles and his wife were their religious views. Emma was deeply religious and worried much about Charles in the afterlife. Charles believed that the world was constantly changing and did not believe in the theory that God created the world all at once. Yet despite those differing views, the two of them loved each deeply and respected each other much. This is the story of the man behind the theory of Evolution- all his hopes, dreams, doubts, worries, the good and the bad- a very extraordinary man, who had a very extraordinary women by his side.

One Crazy Summer

It is 1968, and three sisters are put on a plane bound for California to spend the summer with a mother that left them when the youngest was born. Delphine, the oldest, has a few fragmented memories and a lot of information from Big Ma about Cecile, her mother. Vonetta and Fern have Delphine, a mature 11 year old, not afraid to take on the world. Their dream of a mother who wants and loves them is short-lived when they get to Oakland and find a mother who hardly acknowledges them, won't let them in the kitchen, and sends them to a Black Panther summer camp to eat and spend the day. The girls lean a lot about themselves, the Black Panthers, their mother and the world in the 28 days they spend with Cecile.

Totally Joe by James Howe

Joe Bunch is a 12 year old who just wants to be himself- Totally Joe. Joe and his gang of five, are the butt of jokes and much name-calling in their efforts to be themselves. When Joe is given an assignment to write his alphabiography, the story of his life from A to Z, he thinks it is lame. But as he writes about his experiences through the year and the alphabet, he discovers a lot of things about himself, others and the world. He also discovers that there are real life lessons all along the way.

Book Trailer

Ash by Malinda Lo

In a story that reminds one of the fairytale, Cinderella, Ash is made to be the servant when her angry step-mother realizes that there is little or no money left after her father dies. Ash finds solace in the fairy tales her mother told her, and dreams that the fairies will one day take her away from her miserable step-family. She meets Sidehean, a fairy who grants Ash some wishes, but he demands a steep price. Ash is content to pay that price until she meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress. As Ash gets to know Kaisa more and more, she questions the promises she made to Sidhean. Ash struggles to make a choice between Sidhean and Kaisa in her quest for happiness and love.

Book Trailer