Book+talks

4th/5th/6th Grade Booktalks
On the 3:23 Express to Whiska City, five unlikely friends meet and decide to form a detective agency. There is Jenny the wise donkey, Roger the gourmet dung beetle, Priscilla the theatrical penguin, Slingshot the hyperactive sloth, and Bluebell, the shy but brave rat. With little training but a lot of pluck, they set up shop in Whiska City and soon tackle their first mystery: a rash of disappearances linked to a pink poodle’s beauty salon. The detectives must find who’s behind this devious scheme before one of their own is snatched next.
 * The 3-2-3 Detective Agency: The Disappearance of Dave Warthog by Fiona Robinson**

Amanda and Leo were born on the same day, and on that day, their parents made a promise to an old woman that the two would always celebrate their birthdays together. Which happened for the first 10, but at their 10th birthday party, the two best friends had a falling out and now barely speak to one another. For their 11th birthdays, each is holding a separate party. For Amanda, her 11th birthday is a pretty big disaster and she can’t wait until the next day when she can put it all behind her. Trouble is when she wakes up the next morning, she finds that it’s a repeat of her 11th birthday. She is reliving the same day over and over again. Amanda believes she’s going crazy until Leo lets her in on a little secret--he’s experiencing the same day over and over again too. Will they be able to break this cycle or will they be stuck at 11 forever?
 * 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass**

It all begins with a goat. Tara Brennan is forced to spend the summer with relatives she barely knows after being suspended from school. She agreed to steal the principal's prized stuff goat in return for a coveted spot at Shelby Malone's lunch table. She didn't think she'd be caught or when caught, that her first instinct would be to unleash pepper spray in the principal's face, but here she is. Tara normally doesn't care about making friends, preferring to watch life from the sidelines, but her mother has been harping on her for years the importance of friendship. Now her parents are headed for Madegascar, and Tara for Willow Falls to stay with her cousin Emily. Last time Tara saw Emily, Emily went to the emergency room for eating a stick of glue. Her Aunt Bethany wants to introduce Tara to the community wth a big first day barbecue. This idea fills Tara with dread. The center of attention? Social interaction? These are the things Tara has avoided all her life. She finds her situation even dire when she finds herself beholden to Angelina, the strange proprietor of an antique store that appears empty to some and full to others. When Tara steals her uncle's comic book to sell as a way to make money, she finds herself agreeing to track down 13 items for Angelina. Angelina warns something bad will happen to Tara's soul if she doesn't agree to the deed and finish it before her 13th birthday.
 * 13 Gifts by Wendy Mass**

When 12-year-old Henry’s parents are kidnapped, he moves to the unremarkable town of Henry, Kansas, to live with his uncle and aunt. After the plaster on his bedroom walls starts to crack, he discovers that behind the plaster are 99 very different cupboard doors, which he uncovers with the help of his cousin Henrietta. If that’s not odd enough, it turns out each cupboard opens into a very different place, not one of which is the Kansas sky. The cousins learn that the cupboards are the keys to a series of universes, all of which can be accessed through another door in their dead grandfather’s bedroom—and which can let intruders into their own.
 * 100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson**

Twelve-year-old Xena Holmes and her younger brother Xander have just moved from Florida to their new home in London, England. To pass the time, the siblings play one of their favorite games outside their hotel. The game involves watching pedestrians and trying to figure something out about them, say, where they're from or what they do for a living. While playing, a man passes by Xena and presses a piece of paper into her hand and mutters "it fades fast" before scurrying away. The note is a welcome from the The Society of the Preservation of Famous Detectives and a hint that "all will be revealed" if they head to a pub called The Dancing Men..then the ink fades. After passing a few tests, the siblings learn they are the descendants of the great detective Sherlock Holmes and are given his book of unsolved cases from 100 years ago. One unsolved case deals with a missing painting by artist Nigel Batheson. Turns out an exhibit of his work, minus the missing painting, will open soon in London. Maybe the siblings will be able to recover the whereabouts of the painting in time before the exhibit goes on tour.
 * The 100-Year-Old Secret by Tracy Barrett**

Steve “Sneeze” Wyatt was born to invent things--and his latest gadget promises to make him rich and famous! All Sneeze needs to do is attend the Invention Convention and he will be catapulted to stardom. So when Sneeze’s parents enroll him in a creative writing class instead, he is appalled. For his first writing project, Sneeze starts a list of ways to bug his parents. It keeps growing until he hits upon a brilliant plant--a plan that will enable him to attend the convention with or without his parents by his side.
 * 101 Ways to Bug Your Parents by Lee Wardlee**

Seventh-grade inventor Stephen “Sneeze” Wyatt is on a mission. He’s got to think of 101 ways to get under his teachers’ skin -- and fast. No one can quite figure out why Sneeze is behaving so strangely, but he has some pretty good reasons. He’s dealing with A) a crazy parental scheme guaranteed to take him away from his friends forever; B) a best friend with a serious hiccupping problem that only he can fix; C) one intimidating history teacher (nicknamed “Fierce”) who’s ready to give him a failing grade.
 * 101 Ways to Bug Your Teachers by Lee Wardlee**

Jordan Johnston excels at two things: babysitting and gardening. But who cares about that? She'd much rather excel at soccor or singing like her friend Kylie who has a gorgeous voice, but is too shy to use it. Why if Jordan had a voice like that, she sing into the rafters. But she doesn't. Her voice is just average like pretty much all of Jordan. Just average. She fears she will never stand out in a sea of students who seem to be the best at so many things. She's determined to discover her great talent before sixth grade ends, and has compiled a list of things she is good at, okay at and stink at. When Jordan inadvertently throws out her list in a pile of papers, it is picked up by Marlea. Marlea is beautiful on the outside, but seems to take great pleasure in making Jordan miserable.
 * About Average by Andrew Clements**

Dink is beyond excited. His favorite author Wallis Wallace has decided to come to Green Lawn to do a book signing after Dink sent him a fan letter. Short of being kidnapped, Wallace wrote in his letter, he plans to come to town to meet Dink and do a little research for his next mystery book. Dink has brought all of Wallace’s mystery books to the signing, but then Wallace never shows up. Dink begins to think back to Wallace’s letter...short of being kidnapped...Dink begins to have a sinking suspicion that that is exactly what has happened to Wallace. And it’s all Dink’s fault. He’s the one who invited Wallace to Green Lawn. Dink is determined to get to the bottom of this mystery.
 * The Absent Author by Ron Roy**

Daniel Boom was born without an inside voice. When he speaks, he can shatter glass. Before his family is about to move to Stillville, they get an unexpected visit from Uncle Stanley. Uncle Stanley warns the family that Kid-Rid Organization knows about Daniel’s powers and will stop at nothing to get rid of them. He tells them not to move to Stillville because that will be playing right into their hands. Daniel’s parents dismiss Stanley’s warnings as nonsense, but Daniel and his sister Jeannie S., who has her own power, but doesn’t know it, feel differently. While in their new home, the siblings overhear a plan to silence the world forever. Will they be able to stop the plan in time?
 * The Adventures of Daniel Boom aka Loud Boy: Sound Off!**

Flora, dreams of big adventure. Unfortunately, being a pig, her adventurous hooves are stuck inside a pigpen. Her tiny world has already been fully explored and she has little to look forward to other than eating and playing with her younger brothers. Flora is determined to find a way out. A convenient crack in the wooden slats gives Flora her first escape route to the outdoor world. She watches in awe as a group of dogs practice dragging a sled across the road, and learns from the cat Luna that the dogs are practicing for an expedition to Antarctica. What a wondrous place! Flora decides she too can be a part of the team, honing her skills as a “sled pig”. And soon she gets a chance to prove it when men show up at the pigpen to choose a pig for the expedition. Flora makes herself the chosen one and finds herself on a huge ship getting ready for an overseas journey. The dogs get nice kennels and beds while Flora is stuck in the dark, dank hold with the rats who steal her food. Will she ever be able to put her talents to use?
 * The Adventures of a South Pole Pig by Chris Kurtz**

Deputy Dangerous has zapped all of Captain Underpants’ powers with his Super Power-Taker-Awayer Ray 2000 and is planning to use those powers to take over the world. Before he can drink the power juice, the authorities arrive and Deputy Dangerous barely escapes. Meanwhile Bill and Mary Hoskins are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their new baby boy. When he is born, a doctor’s slap sends the baby out the window and into Deputy Dangerous’ glass of power juice--a superhero is born. But Deputy Dangerous is bent on revenges and getting the powers back from diaper baby. He sends a Danger Crib-2000 to the Hoskins that will transfer Super Diaper Baby’s powers once the baby is placed underneath the mobile. What gets transfered instead is the contents of baby’s poopy diaper. Now not only is deputy dangerous evil, but quite stinky.
 * The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby by Dav Pilkey**

It’s 1935, and Moose’s Dad has just started working as a prison guard on Alcatraz Island. Moose isn't too sure about this “twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd and surrounded by water”. And on Alcatraz, trouble is never very far away. Other kids live here with their families, and most of them seem all right…except for Piper. She’s the Warden’s daughter and sure, she's cute…but she's bad news. Piper has a scheme going all the time and nobody’s safe. She lies to her Dad, takes her classmates to the cleaners, and is determined to involve Moose in her plans. And let’s not even talk about the prisoners. Alcatraz gets the worst of the worst…the convicts other prisons don’t want. One of them is even famous. Alcatraz is home to the notorious gangster, Al Capone. When the Flanagan family has a crisis and there’s nowhere to turn, will Moose break the most important rule on the Island and contact a convict? Would Moose dare to ask the most famous prisoner of all, Al Capone, for help?
 * Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko**

Why would anyone wear heavy wool coats, gloves and hats in the middle of summer? That’s what Sophie wants to know when she sees three large men, wearing just that, emerge from a large black car in front of the store where her twin brother works. Maybe they have a skin condition, wonders Sophie, when she catches a glimpse of one of the men with grayer then gray skin. A fourth man emerges dressed in old-fashioned clothes and heads into the book store. Little does Sophie or her brother Josh know, but the owner of the bookstore is Nicholas Flamel, a nearly 700-year-old alchemist who created the Philosopher’s Stone, which allows him and his wife to live forever. His enemy is Dr. John Dee, the man who just entered the bookstore, looking to capture a book that if placed in the wrong hands will change the world as we know it. And little do the twins know, they will play a pivotal role in this adventure.
 * The Alchemyst by Michael Scott**

When 13-year-old Josh finds out he has to stay with his dad in Chicago for a few months, he’s not too thrilled. But when he arrives at the airport, he’s simply devastated. His father—who used to be a scatterbrained, but pretty normal, shoe salesman—has become a sideburn-wearing, hip-twisting, utterly embarrassing Elvis impersonator. Josh is determined to keep his dad’s identity a secret, but on his very first day at his new school, a note appears on his locker. It’s signed Elvisly Yours, and instead of a name, a sneering purple smiley face. The secret is out, and when his dad is invited to perform at a special 50s concert at his school, Josh is forced to take drastic action.
 * All Shook Up by Shelley Pearsall**

Fearful second-grader Alvin Ho has never, not once, said a single word in school. His voice works at home, in the car, on the school bus. But as soon as he gets to school...he is as silent as a side of beef. This doesn't mean he doesn't have adventures though. His adventures include being left stranded by his siblings during stretching exercises that leave him upside down in a tree, being sent alone to the scary piano teacher's house, deciding whether or not to hang out with the classroom bully and his fateful decision to bring his dad's beloved Johnny Astro toy in for show-and-tell.
 * Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School and other scary things by Lenore Look**


 * Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking and other Natural Disasters by Lenore Look**
 * Alvin Ho is back and his worst fear has come true: //he has to go camping.// What will he do exposed in the wilderness with bears and darkness and . . . pit toilets? Luckily, his Uncle Dennis has shared with him super secret tips to staying safe and has given him the most important piece of equipment--a Batman ring in addition to the mega flashlight, water purifying tablets, generator and other paraphernalia his brother Calvin ordered online with their dad's credit card. Still Alvin wonders if he will survive the weekend. **

Luke has never been to school. He’s never been to a birthday party, or gone to a friend’s house for an overnight. In fact, Luke has never had a friend. Luke is one of the shadow children, a third child forbidden by the Population Police. He’s lived his entire life in hiding and now with a new housing development replacing the woods next to his family’s farm, he is no longer even allowed to go outside. Then one day, Luke sees a girl’s face in the window of a house where he knows two children already live.
 * Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix**

Lucas has just hammered the nails into his mother’s coffin to bury in the family burial ground next to the graves of his uncle, father and sister. Lucas’s family was taken by a dreadful disease called consumption and now Lucas is all alone to run the family farm. He later learns from a neighbor that there is a strange cure for this fatal disease, and it involves digging up the dead so they no longer disturb their living family members. The neighbor came to tell Lucas of this while Lucas’s mother was still alive, but Lucas had ignored the knock on the door. Grief-stricken, Lucas decides to leave his home and find work in a nearby town. He begins to apprentice with Dr. Beecher in exchange for room, board and knowledge. Consumption is also tearing families apart in this town. Lucas wants to share his knowledge of the cure, but Dr. Beecher considers it nonsense. Lucas sets out to prove the doctor wrong.
 * The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker by Cynthia DeFelice**

Everyone comes from somewhere else. And if you live in your native country, then your parents, grandparents or ancestors came from a different country or countries. When they got here, they discovered places and creatures they had no experience with. People spoke a language they couldn't speak or read. They had to find a place to live, a job, and food. They were alone, they knew no one, and their friends and families were far, far away. This is the story of one of those immigrants.
 * The Arrival by Shaun Tan**

Artemis Fowl isn’t any old 12-year-old. He is a criminal mastermind and knows the key to restoring his family’s fortune; it requires getting his hand on a book no human is supposed to know about, the Book of the People, a fairy holy book, which gives him to the tools to kidnap a fairy. If he’s successful, the fairy will have to give Artemis his gold. But Artemis gets more than he bargains for when he kidnaps Captain Holly Short of the LEProchon Unit. These aren't the fairies of bedtime stories or Disney movies. These are armed and dangerous.
 * Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer**

Jamie has just moved from the city to live in a lighthouse on Dinosaur Cove. He’s psyched to start looking for dinosaur fossils and can’t wait to use his hand-held computerized fossil finder. He meets Tom on a fossil hunt, and Tom shows Jamie a secret smuggler’s cave. Jamie discovers fossilized dinosaur footprints on the cave floor and begins to follow them. Suddenly the boys find themselves in a forest and Jamie notices the footprints look new as if they were just made. Somehow the boys have traveled back to the time of the dinosaurs and take delight in seeing a wannanosaurus about their size, slamming its flattened head into a tree to shake food loose. They follow the wannanosaurus, but soon discover that not all dinosaurs are friendly when they see the glistening teeth of a T-Rex determined to make them his dinner.
 * Attack of the Tyrannosaurus by Rex Stone**

Tony Jay is certain he will take home the prize in the annual snowboarding competition--an Aurora-X snowboard. He has the best shredding skills and the best equipment his father can buy. The only snowboarder with a chance of taking Tony down is Jack Hewlitt, a son of a maintenance worker at the ski resort. Trouble is Jack can't afford to enter the competition. So the two decide to stage their own competition, to see once and for all who really is the best. A quest to see who's best turns into a race for survival when the two snowboarders find themselves in the middle of an avalanche.
 * Avalanche Freestyle by Scott Ciencin**

Joe Stoshack has the chance to solve one of baseball's greatest puzzles: During the third game of the 1932 World Series, did Babe Ruth really predict his long home run to straightaway centerfield? Joe actually has the means to solve the puzzle. For some reason, he’s able to travel back in time when holding onto old baseball cards and he so happens to have a 1932 Babe Ruth card in his possession. This time his dad, who has just been laid off and is separated from Joe’s mom, wants to go with him. His dad thinks he can make a fortune by betting on the World Series, since he already knows the outcome. When they arrive in NYC in 1932, they immediately encounter the baseball legend, who takes them under his wing, signs baseballs for them and invites them to accompany him to the famed game in Chicago. Joe begins to wonder if his dad would be happier staying in 1932.
 * Babe & Me by Dan Gutman**

It was an accident. Seamus Hinkle threw the apple to stop his substitute teacher Miss Parsippany from breaking up the fight in the cafteria. He figured it would prevent her from getting hurt, but it winded up killing her. Now Seamus has been shipped off to reform school at Kilter Academy. Seamus is expecting he will meet the same fate as the late teacher, but instead he is an instant celebrity in the eyes of the faculty--Kilter Academy's first murderer. Kilter Academy is not all it seems. It is a school the encourages its troublemakers to make more trouble and hone their trouble-making talents. In fact the more trouble, the more rewards they are given. Seamus, overcome by guilt and remorse from his single act, wants nothing to do with making trouble, but it seems the less he tries, the more successful he is at accidentally making trouble. Is everyone right? Is he the best troublemaker at the school?
 * The Bad Apple: Merits if Mischief Book 1 by T.R. Burns**

From the very first page of this book when the children are at the beach and receive terrible new, continuing on through the entire story, disaster lurks at their heels. One might say they are magnets for misfortune. So if you are looking for a happy book where the main characters are given puppies, candies and tucked into bed each night by parents who love them...you are better off reading some other book. I’m sorry to tell you the Baudelaire children are extremely unlucky soon to be extremely unlucky orphans.
 * The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket**

Down Girl does not like cats. Cats are dangerous and stick to things. She doesn’t like squirrels either. If you look up at trees, they’ve got cats and squirrels stuck all over them. That’s why Down Girl has to protect her master Rruff. He’s not as bright as her, which she thinks is why he washed her favorite rug even though it had the perfect amount of hair and stench. And then hung it outside so Here Here Kitty Kitty, the dreaded cat from next door, could go and get stuck on it. But Down Girl has another huge problem on her paws...Rruff wasn’t giving her enough attention. Her best friend Sit had the same problem with her master. It was time for the dogs to be bad...bad to the bone.
 * Bad to the Bone by Lucy Nolan**

Knuckles McGraw sounds like the name of a cowboy--a cowboy with beef jerky in his back pocket and a can of beans stuffed in his saddlebag. Kevin Mason sees the name on a passing train. He is being driven by the welfare lady to live with a foster family when he should be at home waiting for his mother. His mother left a note-- “Please look after my son. I can’t take care of him anymore”--and now he’s here. He decides he will take on the name Knuckles McGraw and maybe then he could ride the range rather than be stuck with some random couple, their mute granddaughter and a tattooed teenager named Ice who he has to share a room with. But Knuckles McGraw won’t be staying there too long. His mother will find a new job and there will be food in the house and the cable will be hooked up again and she will stop being missing.
 * The Ballad of Knuckles McGraw by Lois Peterson**

While away at boarding school, Ben learns that his father has had a bout of palsy, a stroke that has left him as helpless as newborn infant. Ben’s father always wanted more for Ben then life on a farm in the Oregon territory, but Ben instantly returns, and though younger than his two siblings, he takes charge of the property. His brother Harrison and sister Nettie will take care of the land while Ben takes care of father. It’s while Ben is talking to his father about the barn father always wanted to build that Ben notices his father is responding with his eyes. He is able to get his father to answer yes or no with blink and it’s that moment he decides he, Harrison and Nettie must build the barn his father never got to build. He believes his father will get better in return.
 * The Barn by Avi**

Josh feels like he's starting to make it big! Jaden, the school reporter, says he's going to take the baseball team to number one. Then his dad pulls him off the field and signs him up with Coach Rocky Valentine's youth championship team, the Titans. He says Josh has what it takes to be a baseball great and the Titans will help him get there. Now Josh is gulping down Rocky's "Super Stax" milkshakes to build muscle and trying to fit in with his new teammates; older, tougher kids who can suddenly become violent. All Josh really wants to do is play ball, but as he gets in deeper with the Titans, there are questions he's just got to ask. As Josh and his new friend Jaden investigate their suspicions, they find themselves in a dangerous struggle with a desperate man who doesn't want them to expose the nasty secrets they uncover.
 * Baseball Great by Tim Green**

Brian Dudley has the job of a lifetime--batboy for the Detroit Tigers. He finally gets to see the game from the perspective of the big leaguers, like his dad used to before his dad left his family to play ball over in Japan. If things aren't exciting enough, Brian's favorite player of all time Hank Bishop is returning to the Tigers after a 15-month suspension over steriod use. Bishop was suspended just before he hit his 500th home run, and all his fans are eagerly awaiting his comeback--no one more than Brian. While Bishop smiles for the cameras, he mostly keeps to himself, and Brian's few encounters with him have been nothing but devastating and humiliating. Brian soon sees his hero is much different than the one he's read about in the papers and seen on TV.
 * The Batboy by Mike Lupica**

Owen Brown thought the weirdest part of his day would be the fact he jumped on the bus headed to the high school rather than the elementary school. But that seemed like a carefree blip when he saw his best friend Dana get sucked through the school floor and disappear. Before she does, she tells Owen she knows the real reason her parents traveled to Iceland. “The monsters. They’re coming here.” She instructs Owen to find a book in her house, and throws him the key before thick black smoke billows from the floor. Owen is sure he hears a mysterious voice say “The battle begins” as the floor splits open and sucks Dana down. Owen can swear he sees eyes, thrashing shapes and fire before the floor returns to its original state. Read chap. 3
 * The Battle Begins (Underworlds #1) by Tony Abbott**

Mr. Terupt is a new fifth grade teacher starting off the school year with a class of students who have a variety of problems. Alexia is a bully who relishes pitting girls against girls and has targeted her on-again, off-again friend Danielle. Anna is the class outsider who keeps to herself like her mom says she should. Danielle never stands up for herself and takes back Alexia as a friend even though she knows Alexia is not a true friend. Jessica is the new girl who's having a hard time fitting in. Luke is the class brain who doesn't like it when others excel. Peter is the class clown who pulls pranks and Jeffrey hates school. Mr. Terupt's unconventional teaching style seems to be just what the students need to bring the class together and solve their problems, but when Peter's prank goes too far, their beloved teacher's life is on the line.
 * Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea**


 * Be First in the Universe by Stephanie Spinner**

Tod and Tessa are twins, but are as different can be. On an errand at the mall, they happen upon a store called Gemini Jack’s U Rent All, a store that rents the most unusually items. The owner Jack, who seems to not be so human, seems particularly interested in the twins. For free, he lets them borrow an electronic pet named FM that survives on others’ lies and a Do Right that convinces others to do what Tod and Tessa suggest. Jack becomes even more interested when he hears about another set of twins Ned and Nancy Gneiss, who are the opposite of what their names suggest. What is Jack up to?

**Below by Meg McKinlay**

Cassie's birth coincided with the day Mayor Howard Finkle flipped the lever submerged the entire town of Old Lower Grange underwater. Cassie has only known life in the New Lower Grange, but is drawn to the giant man-made lake that contains the old town. She decides to practice her swimming there--even though it's off-limits. She prefers the quiet and band-aid free water so she can practice her six laps in attempt to strengthen the lungs that were never fully developed from being two months premature. She's not alone for long when Liam decides to join her. Liam wears long swimming trunks to cover up the scars on his legs from the terrible car crash when he was a baby--the same car crash that killed his twin brother. The last few years of drought has led the man-made lake to retreat and some of the old remnants like the fire tree are visible. Cassie and Liam begin to explore their own underwater Atlantis and learn that the water is hiding more than the old buildings--it's hiding an old secret.

**Benjamin Bear in Fuzzy Thinking by Philippe Coudray**

Benjamin Bear comes up with inventive ways to solve problems. When he eats nearly everything in the supermarket without paying, he lets the cashier way him to determine the amount. When his pet goldfish and pet bird both want to visit under the sea, he puts the goldfish in the bird cage and the bird in the goldfish bowl. When he wants to play tennis with fox and fox refuses, he decides to bounce the tennis ball off the back of fox’s head so it comes back to bear, just like in a real tennis game. Each adventures takes up one two pages in the book.

The last thing Harry “Dit” Sims expects when Emma Walker comes to town is to become friends. Proper-talking, brainy Emma doesn’t play baseball or fish too well, but she sure makes Dit think, especially about the differences between black and white. He begins to wonder why black kids and white kids can’t go to school together. When Emma is included in the school play, some folks aren’t happy about it. But soon Dit is thinking about a whole lot more when the town barber, who is black, is put on trial for a terrible crime. Together Dit and Emma come up with a daring plan to save him from the unthinkable.
 * The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristine Levine**

**The BFG by Roald Dahl**

One night when Sophie can't sleep, she goes to the window of her orphanage and sees a giant walking down the street, blowing something into the windows. When the giant sees her, he grabs her and takes her back to his desert cave home. There he explains, in his strange and garbled English, that he was blowing dreams into the minds of children, and that the other giants who live in the desert -- and are twice his size -- eat children all over the world. He, though, is the Big Friendly Giant (BFG), and eats nothing but disgusting snozzcumbers. But when the other giants head to England to eat children, Sophie hatches a plan, involving dreams, the Queen of England, and the BFG, to stop them once and for all.

Hutch lives and breathes baseball. He loves it so much he's willing to overlook his move to second base although he is a shortstop through and through to make room for the more talented, but arrogant, new player Darryl. His good sportsmanship and love for the game lands Hutch the job of captain of the team. While Darryl pretends to care about little, he seems irked by Hutch's new title and his media coverage from Hutch's performances during the games. Hutch thinks Darryl deliberately got Hutch knocked down by a runner during baseball practice. No biggie, they still need to work together to win the state championships. But then Hutch sees something that even he cannot push aside for the good of the team. His father, who almost made the major leagues, but now caddies and drives a limo, shows up at practice early and warms up Darryl. Hutch's father has never shown an interest in Hutch or his games so the sight of the two of them makes his blood boil. Can Hutch get together enough to be able to play on the big field?
 * Big Field by Mike Lupica**

Rufus has been left at his grandmother’s where he can look forward to a weekend filled with soap operas and prune juice. Bored out of his mind, Rufus decides to explore the neighboring woods. He finds a special necklace inside the hollow of a tree ands reads the inscription engraved on it. Sasquatch. Suddenly Rufus is transformed from a boy into a beast, into a bigfoot. He now finds he has super strength, a lot of hair and can communicate with animals. But others want his powers and would do anything to get their hands on the special totem.
 * Bigfoot Boy: Into the Woods by J. Torres**

What if you could have anything you wished for and the only limitation was it could fit inside a bread box. What would you wish for? Money? A DS? An iPad? Rebecca has discovered such a magical item in her grandmother’s attic. She could use magic at a time like this. She’s been depressed ever since her mother uprooted Rebecca and her brother from their home, from their dad. Left their dad yelling “Come back! Come back!” as he chased their car down the road. It began with a simple wish. A wish for a book. But Rebecca soon finds out that her wishes don’t materialize out of thin air. They come from some place, from someone else’s home or pocket, and suddenly Rebecca’s life has become much more difficult.
 * Bigger Than A Bread Box by Laurel Snyder**

Nine-year old Charley Maplewood may not have a present father or any friends, but he does have three passions in life: hanging with his dog Boing-Boing, cooking gourmet meals and collecting issues of Monsters & Maniacs, a creepy, scary, funny comic book that Charley swears is “only the greatest literature in the history of the world!” A greeting card arrives from Charley’s dad, on the wrong day as usual, which asks, “What are you going to do for your big day?” Those ten words send Charley off on a journey of discovery… and disaster. Determined to make his tenth birthday – his big one-oh – special, Charley sets about making plans and making friends, but even his most earnest efforts meet with crushing disappointment.
 * The Big One-Oh by Dean Pitchford**

Bink and Gollie are total opposites, but are best friends. Their differences sometimes make it necessary to compromise, which they occasionally aren’t willing to do. Like when Bink buys a pair of outrageous socks. Gollie won’t share her pancakes unless Bink takes them off, which she refuses to do. Or the time when Gollie becomes jealous of Bink’s latest companion, a pet goldfish. Gollie wants nothing to do with Fred, but a terrible accidents makes her the unlikely hero.
 * Bink & Gollie by Kate DiCamillo**

It finally comes in the mail. Binky has been waiting for weeks, but now it’s here--Binky’s official notice of Space Cat qualifications from the Felines of the Universe Ready for Space Travel, or FURST. He must keep his super top-secret space documents a secret because anyone caught unlawfully reading them may be subject to hissing and scratching. Binky is now unlike your average cat because he has a purpose: to blast off into outer space, explore unknown places and battle alien creatures. So what if Binky thinks outside is outerspace and that insects are alien creatures?
 * Binky the Space Cat by Ashley Spires**

When Rose Bliss turned 10, she learned just how special her parent's recipes were. Little Kenny Calhoun had been nearly electrocuted and languished in Calamity Falls hospital in a coma. Albert and Purdy Bliss drive the family into an electrical storm just so Purdy could capture a bolt of lightning in a mason jar. The lightning bolt is added to the batter of a pastry that brings Kenny Calhoun back to the living, and Rose knows her parent's recipes aren't just delicious, they're magical. Rose hopes she will become a magical baker, but her parent's refuse access to the magical recipe book and assign her more mundane tasks like buying eggs. When Albert and Purdy are called away to cure a flu outbreak, they leave Rose in charge of the bakery and the guardianship of their special recipe book with explicit instructions to never open it. Rose's promise is challenged when a mysterious, beautiful stranger shows up on a motorcycle, claiming to be "Aunt" Lily and wanting to help run the bakery in the Bliss's absence. Rose doesn't quite trust her newly discovered aunt although the rest of her brothers and sister are smitten. Her brothers think it's time to break out the Bliss Cookery Booke to impress Aunt Lily, and Rose begrudgling agrees. What could go wrong?
 * Bliss by Kathryn Littlewood**

Brothers Jeff and David and their cousin Claire are spending winter break working in the cafeteria at the chalet ski lodge on Blue Mountain. In exchange for their work, they get free food and free lift tickets, but the cousins are worried their jobs might be in jeopardy. David has lost his work key again and other items, like bags of potato chips and brownies, go missing nearly daily. And now so has Miss Allen's watch and Jeff's snowboard. They're afraid Miss Allen, the manager, will blame them for the all the thefts and take away their ski passes. Who's the thief? Could it be Miss Allen's brother Johnny who works maintenance at the lodge? He seems to be hiding something. Or that man in the black ski suit? He seems to always be glaring at the boys after David nearly mowed him over on his snowboard. Or is it the lift operator who's brother was fired when Claire and her friend Sophie almost fell off the lift due to a broken chair? The cousins decide they need to solve this mystery before they're stuck spending winter break in town and their reputations are ruined.
 * The Blizzard on Blue Mountain by Kristiana Gregory**


 * The Borrowers by Mary Norton**
 * Did you ever wonder where missing keys, pins, batteries, etc go? Well it could be you have a family of borrowers living in your house. Borrowers "borrow" items from the humans they believe exist to serve them. At one time, many borrower families lived in Aunt Sophie's house, but now there's just The Clocks, a family of three. Pod, the father, ventures out into the house to collect whatever the family needs or whatever strike his wife's Homily's whim. Their teenage daughter Arrietty longs to leave their home underneath the kitchen floor and explore the outside world like her father. Her parents decide to give her the chance when Pod is "seen" by a young boy staying at Aunt Sophie's. On her first outing with her father, Arriety is not just seen by the same boy, but engages in conversation with him, giving him enough information to figure out where the family lives. When her parents find out, they are frightened and figure it is time to move. They soon learn that the boy wishes to help them, but will his help save them in time when the house cook finds their home and decides to call the rat-catcher. **

It is a long book--527 pages--but it is chock full of mystery, suspense, adventure, thrills, chills and a weird dude named Dr. Jericho who resembles a combination skeleton/spider. The story stars Horace F. Andrews, a regular kid riding a regular bus, when he notices an odd sign listing Artifacts, Mysteries, Miseries,--and then his name right at the bottom. This causes a spark of curiosity to flare up inside Horace as you would expect, and he decides to investigate. It is not Horace F. Andrews, but House of Answers, a mysterious cavernous warehouse filled with mysterious objects. Horace sets his sights on the Box of Promises and to his tremendous surprise, sees that the box is made for him. He is its Keeper, and his job is to keep it away from the Riven, a weird nonhuman sect that is seeking mystical objects for evil purposes. He meets another Keeper, Chloe who can make herself incorporeal to slide through walls, and together they need to face danger. Too good to leave on the library shelf. Check it out!
 * The Box and the Dragonfly by Ted Sanders **

Nothing will ever be the same sense the Bensons moved away. The Hartford boys, twins Josh and Jake, Wally and Peter, did everything with the five Benson brothers, and now a family with three girls has moved in. Jake, the ringleader of the brothers, thinks it’s not enough to ignore the new neighbors, the Hartford boys need to drive them away and then the Bensons can move back in. Wally suggests dead fish, and Jake suggests throwing every dead thing they can find into the river by the house so the family thinks the river is polluted and leave. Thus begins the feud between the Hartfords and their new neighbors the Malloys. Little do the boys realize that they have found themselves some tough opponents who aren’t easily scared by a handful of roadkill.
 * The Boys Start the War by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor**

Hazel feels like she doesn't fit with the rest of the world. The only fit that makes sense is her friendship with Jack, her next-door neighbor and fellow traveler on all the adventures their imaginations take them. But one day, Jack stops speaking to her. It begins when the boy gets a piece of glass in his eye, and suddenly has no time for pirate adventures or Hogwarts, and only wants to play with the guys at school. Hazel, with her one footing in the world gone, feels frozen. Then suddenly Jack does not turn up for school--the story is he went to live with some great aunt, but Tyler knows different. He tells Hazel he saw Jack speaking to a wisp of a woman all in white who took Jack on a sleigh into the woods. Tyler can barely believe what he say, but he knows Hazel will believe him. The piece of glass was no ordinary piece of glass and the woman was no ordinary woman. Hazel must travel into the woods--a place where anyone or anything lived--and rescue her best friend.
 * Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu**

Ten-year-old Tae Kwon Do blue belt and budding rock hound Brendan Buckley keeps a "Confidential" notebook for his top-secret scientific discoveries. And he's found something totally top secret. The grandpa he's never met, who his mom refuses to talk about or see, is an expert mineral collector and lives nearby! Secretly, Brendan visits Ed DeBose, whose skin is pink, not brown like Brendan's, his dad's, or that of Grampa Clem's, who recently died. Brendan sets out to find the reason behind Ed's absence, but what he discovers can't be explained by science, and now he wishes he'd never found him at all.
 * Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything in It by Sundee T. Frazier**


 * Bud Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis**
 * A 10 year-old orphan with nothing but an old suitcase a blanket and some flyers to his name, Bud, not Buddy Caldwell is determined to find his long lost father, no matter where it might lead him. Bud has been moving from home to home all his life due to the sudden death of his mother, and he is determined to find his real home, a place where he knows he belongs. Bud's mother left him with flyers of a talented Jazz band, leaving Bud with the impression that his dad, who is featured on the front, is still performing and will be in Grand Rapids next for a show. With hopes to reconcile with his father, some flyers that his mother left him for guidance, and his precious suitcase Bud embarks on an unforgettable journey that will lead him where he never imagined. **

Panic grips the Landon kids and 13-year-old Nicky Milano as they realize they have been abandoned in the wilds of Alaska’s Denali National Park. If someone doesn’t find them soon, they will freeze to death. They should never have accepted a dogsled ride from a stranger, but he was wearing a Park Service uniform and seemed to know about the wolverine meeting their mother was attending. Why would he kidnap three kids and leave them to die? As they huddle together against the cold, they hear a deafening roar. Avalanche! Suddenly keeping warm is the least of their worries. Can they figure out a ways to escape the thundering mass of snow, or will they be buried alive?
 * Buried Alive by Gloria Skurzynski and Alane Ferguson**

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.
 * Canned by Alex Shearer**

Jenny McAfee has read the entire student handbook, practiced opening up a combination lock and has picked out her sleepaway camp T-shirt to wear--all in preparation for her first day of 6th grade at Joyce Kilmer Middle School. She's excited to catch up with her best friend Addie who she hasn't really seen since the beginning of the summer. But things have clearly changed the first time she meets up with Addie. Suddenly Jenny doesn't wear the right clothes, eats the right foods, says the right things or has the same interests as Addie. Addie has become a Pops, a member of the most popular clique, and when she's not ignoring Jenny, she's talking behind Jenny's back. Will Jenny ever be able to fit in with her old friend or will she be on the outside forever?
 * Can You Get an F in Lunch? by Nancy Krulik**

Hank's father thinks Hank's interest in photography is a waste of time. But Hank doesn't want to work at his father's store. He heads off with his friend James on a camping trip to take some photographs and maybe how his father it isn't a waste of time. Instead Hank finds himself in the middle of an unexpected attack. Japanese fighter pilots have bombed Pearl Harbor, sending up wave after wave of destruction and damage. Instead of heading to safety, Hank heads towards the action determined to show his father just how important photography can be.
 * Captured off Guard: The Attack on Pearl Harbor by Donald Lemke**

Steve Brixton always wanted to be a detective. Little did he know the trouble it would cause him. When Steve checks out a book on American quilts at the library for a report, he is shocked when people in black jumpsuits come crashing through the library windows. And they're out to get him. Turns out the people in black are librarians. They have a sacred duty to protect a quilt that contains all of America's secrets, but they don't know where it is. The former head librarian, before he died, was forced to reveal its location to a henchman of the mysterious Mr. E. The librarians think Steve is working for Mr. E, and have labeled him a traitor to his country. Steve must actually solve this case before he finds himself in even more trouble.
 * The Case of the Case of the Mistaken Identity by Mac Barnett**

Ten-year-old William is upset to learn that his nanny Mrs. Phillips is moving back to England. Although he loves his parents, he feels life won’t be the same without her and would do anything to make her stay. As a farewell gift, Mrs. Phillips gives William a wooden model of a medieval castle. It has everything William could possibly want right down to its miniature drawbridge and silver knight. But despite the castle, William is miserable. He wants to find a way to keep Mrs. Phillips with him forever. And he does. . . once he breaks the spell cast on the silver knight.
 * The Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop**

Charlie Joe Jackson hates reading, but sometimes it’s unavoidable--that’s why he developed some tips. Tip 1: If you have to read a book, make sure it has short chapters. Ideally find a book where the chapters are one-page long rather than 10 pages long so if your parents say read three chapters, you’re reading three pages rather than 30. Charlie Joe even has his own system when he’s assigned a book. He reads the back cover, inside flap, first and last chapter and then buys his friend Timmy McGibney an ice cream sandwich to read the book and tell him the rest. Only this time, Timmy ups the ante to two ice cream sandwiches. Then it’s three and a slice of pizza and chocolate milk. Charlie Joe is beginning to wonder if Timmy is ever going to keep up his end of the bargain, but that turns out to be the least of Charlie Joe’s worries.
 * Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading by Tommy Greenwald**

Meg and Aiden Falconer are prisoners at Sunnydale Farm although their only crime is having parents convicted of treason and having no foster home willing to take in the children of traitors. Although his parents are facing life in prison, Aiden is convinced they are innocent of the crime. He's determined to prove it...except he's stuck in a juvenile detention center. When Aiden's chosen to the feed the farm animals at night, the unexpected happens. His kerosene lamp tips over, catching the barn on fire...soon the whole complex is up in flames. Aiden sees this as his opportunity to escape and find the real culprit behind the crime. With Meg in tow, he two become fugitives on the run. With no money or food, the two must survive by their wits.
 * Chasing the Falconers by Gordon Korman**

Henry Green loves chocolate--so much so that he can eat no other food without it. He stirs chocolate syrup into his mashed potatoes, sprinkles chocolate sprinkles on noodles and eats chocolate sandwiches. One day, Henry notices brown spots on his arms, very much like freckles. The brown spots quickly spread over his body and grow much large. A doctor diagnosis it as “chocolate fever” and wants to subject Henry to tests. He makes a run for it and gets caught in an adventure that finally leads to an explanation of his ailment.
 * Chocolate Fever by Robert Kimmel Smith**

Cinderella thought her troubles were over when she married Prince Charming, but the prince’s mother is a royal pain. She’s always mean to poor Cinderella. When Cinderella sets out to prove she’s more than a pretty face, it just seems to make the queen meaner. What can Cinderella do?
 * Cinderella and The Mean Queen by Tony Bradshaw**


 * Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley **

Thirteen-year-old Piper lives alone in Scrap Town #16 in the Merrow Kingdom. She scrapes by with her uncanny ability to fix machines residents scavenge during the big meteor storms when artifacts from some place beyond fall to the ground. On one meteor night, her best friend Micah stays outdoors against the orders of the kingdom instead of staying protected in the underground shelter. Piper goes after him. The two barely escape with their lives as meteors crash around them. One knocks Micah unconscious, another goes careening into a traveling caravan. In the wreckage, Piper finds an unconscious girl. She manages to get both back to the village. The girl appears to have amnesia and does not understand why or who she was traveling with the night of the storm. All she knows is she must keep away from a dangerous wolf. When the wolf--a man--turns up on Piper’s doorstep, the two flee and wind up on steam train 401 for an adventure they’ll never forget.

In the city of Ember, the sky is always dark. That’s because the city was built underground. It was intended as a temporary refuge for the human race after disaster obliterated much of civilization. Two hundred years later, the city leaders still have not found the plans left behind by the builders to lead the residents into the light. So the city continues although its great lamps, holding the ever-present darkness at bay, are beginning to flicker and supplies are running dangerously low. Will a solution be found before the lights flicker out forever?
 * City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau**

Clementine is a “hard” kid--as opposed to her little brother who is an “easy” child. She talks fast and thinks even faster. Her mind spins out of control on ideas. She watches for ceiling snakes, saves money to buy a gorilla and swears she’s allergic to sitting still. When she’s not whirling her brother around in a wok on the kitchen floor, she’s helping her dad fight The Great Pigeons War. Despite her best attempts to pay attention and be good, Clementine slides from one disaster into another. She was only trying to help her friend Margaret when she accidentally cut off most of Margaret’s hair and then tried to redraw it in with a magic marker. Before long her family and her friendship with Margaret is tested and she fears her parents are about to tell her “Good-bye and good riddance.”
 * Clementine by Sara Pennypacker**


 * Cliff-hanger** **by Gloria Skurzynski and Alane Ferguson**
 * Just as the Landon family is ready to embark on a trip to Mesa Verde National Park to deal with a cougar problem, the family is asked to take in a foster child named Lucky on an emergency basis. Jack overhears the case worker telling his parents that Lucky cannot be trusted. Jack, however, falls for Lucky, which causes a rift between him and his sister Ashley. Lucky refuses to answer questions, makes mysterious phone calls in the middle of the night and tells outlandish tales. Ashley is quicker than Jack to catch onto Lucky's inconsistencies, mainly because Jack doesn't want to believe that his sister is right. Lucky's actions eventually lead all three into a life-threatening situation involving the attacking cougar. **

New to the neighborhood, Logan isn't exactly thrilled when Arthur, the weird kid next door, bustles over to welcome him. Right away Logan can tell that Arthur is going to be a challenge. The other less than thrilling thing that Logan learns about his new home is that its previous owner, Myrtle Donaldson, was murdered. How come his parents didn't check out something like that before they agreed to buy the rundown place? With school out and no friends, Logan finds himself hanging around Arthur. Arthur is convinced that he and Logan will be able to solve Myrtle’s murder. Their quest takes them to the lowest--and highest--levels of society in the small Virginia town, and to the door of a rundown and creepy amusement park. What secrets does the Magic Forest hold behind its locked gates?
 * Closed for the Season: a mystery by Mary Downing Hahn**

Late one night, 12-year-old Josh Bridger is awakened by the sound of a motorboat on the lake. Grabbing his binoculars, Jeff spies a boat slowly puttering on the lake, a figure holding lantern. Jeff wakes his brother David and the two watch the figure dump something heavy overboard. Was it a body? The brothers decide to investigate and alert their cousin Claire that something strange is afoot. They next day, the trio overhear Rex McCoy bragging about how he took his dad’s boat. They know the McCoys are troublemakers and bullies. Could Rex have been the one who dumped the package in the lake. Josh, Claire and David decide it’s time to bring the package to the surface.
 * The Clue at the Bottom of the Lake by Kristiana Gregory**

At first it was just a speck, but the more Hugh peered with his binoculars, the more certain he was that it was a periscope peeking out above the waves of the ocean. Hugh and his family are spending the summer at the beach to get away from the polio epidemic. That’s all people seem to talk about--that and the war against the Germans. Hugh watches the coastline with his eyes peeled for enemy U-boats. His war scrapbook contains newsclippings of the attacks on allied ships last summer of 1942, including the story of two tankers torpedoed by German sailers which killed 19 Americans. Things seem quieter this summer along the Atlantic coast, but who knows what danger can be lurking under the calm waters?
 * The Coastwatcher by Elise Weston**

The Peterson Family has found itself with another foster puppy. Cody, an energetic dalmatian, was left with a note saying he barked, shed and pulled at his leash too much for the family to handle. They asked the Petersons to find him a good home. Lizzie can tell this puppy will take a lot of time and patience to train, but she thinks she can do it. It would be perfect if there was an older, calmer dog that could help set a good example. Lizzie knows just the dog, Gunnar, the dalmatian at the firehouse. Maybe the fire chief might even want to adopt Cody. Just when Lizzie has set up the perfect situation for the lovable puppy, Cody's former owners decide they want him back.
 * Cody by Ellen Miles**

In a series of short adventures, curious Copper and his fearful, talking dog, Fred, have a knack for finding themselves in odd situations, thanks to Copper’s overactive imagination. Join them as they hunt for melon bread or take a shortcut through a field of giant mushrooms... giant mushrooms that happen to be alive and don’t appreciate people or dogs bouncing on their heads.
 * Copper by Kazu Kibuishi**

Coraline has moved to an apartment in an old Victorian House. She’s bored and lonely and her parents are too busy to have anything to do with her. She’s already met the crazy ladies downstairs and the weird old guy with all the mice who lives in the attic. She’s counted everything in the apartment that’s blue--153. She’s counted all the windows--21. She’s counted all the doors--14. The 14th door was locked, but when she gets her mother to unlock it, she finds the entrance has been bricked over. The next days she goes back to that door, only this time it opens into a dark nothing. Coraline decides to see where it leads and ends up in an apartment that looks exactly like hers and is greeted by a mother who looks like her own--apart from the long fingers like talons and the buttons in place of eyes. This mother--Coraline’s other mother--will do anything to keep Coraline with her.
 * Coraline by Neil Gaiman**

At first Charli is excited about the prospect of helping her Uncle Will fix up the old Crandall Castle he bought with the intention of setting up a bed and breakfast. Her adjustment to life with a new stepfather is not going as smoothly as she hoped and at least this will be a way to get her out of the house for the summer. She also sees it as a chance to get to know Sophia, an orphan taken in by the Crandalls..but Sophia is cold and seems to want little to do with Charli. Charli doesn't know, but Sophia is harboring a secret. She wants no one to know that she can catch glimpses of the future..her unfortunate gift has gotten her thrown out of too many foster homes. And the future of Crandall's Castle is something that deeply disturbs Sophia. She knows it will be disastrous. Charli begins to feel the same way her first time there when she sees a dark shadow fall over the room and hears the laughter of a child...although no one is there.
 * Crandall's Castle by Betty Ren Wright**

Jackson notices several weird things about the surfboarding cat. Number one: he's a surfboarding cat. Number 2; he's wearing a t-shirt that said "Cats rule, dogs drool." Number 3: he's holding an umbrella. Number 4: no one on the beach seems to see him. Number 5: he looks awfully familiar, like a bigger version of Jackson's imaginary cat-friend Crenshaw. Jackson's in fifth grade now so he shouldn't be seeing his imaginary friend. The only other solution is that he's crazy or he's delirious from hunger. His family never seems to have enough to eat and are on the verge of being evicted from their apartment. Jackson dreads the idea of living in their minivan again. It ties his stomach in knots, but he's trying to put on a brave face. Crenshaw says that he's definitely back because he knows Jackson needs his help. He tells Jackson, it's time Jackson told the truth. **A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban** Zoe Elias is a 10 (almost 11) year old girl with big dreams. She wants to be a piano prodigy.S he dreams of playing at Carnegie Hall. However, life takes a turn and her dad buys her anorgan. The Perfectone D-60 to be exact. Zoe feels that life is not treating her fairly. Her mom works all the time, her dad has difficulty dealing with the world outside their house and her best friend has a new best friend. Also an odd boy named Wheeler begins to follow her home from school every day. Zoe realizes that her life is anything but perfect.
 * Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate**

The town of Skeleton Creek is rich thanks to Ryan and Sarah's discovery of gold in the abandoned dredge in the woods, a dredge that supposedly is haunted by the ghost of Joe Bush who was killed on the job. The mayor now wants to turn the dredge into a haunted tourist attraction. Ryan's family started a fly-fishing shop with the money, and Sarah's parents moved to Boston for a fresh start. And supposedly the ghost is at rest, but now Ryan has embarked on a new mystery, one involving an envelope he picked up at the dredge the night he and Sarah were last there. The paper, which at first looks like the ravings of a madman, is a map of haunted places across the country with steps for finding hidden objects. Sarah has convinced her parents to let her drive to film summer school in UCLA across the country, and she plans to make stops at the various places and see what she uncovers.
 * The Crossbones: Skeleton Creek Book 3 by Patrick Carman**

Melvin Beederman has graduated the top of his class in superhero school. Now he’s ready for his first assignment, off to Los Angeles he goes. But Melvin has a few problems with his super hero skills. He can’t really leap tall buildings very easily (it takes 5 tries usually), stopping locomotive trains is no picnic, and the whole X-ray vision thing brought nothing but guilt. Everywhere Melvin looked—underwear. His greatest weakness, his kryptonite if you will, is a bologna sandwich. Fighting crime can be tough especially on the superhero uniform. When Melvin decides to get his cape dry-cleaned, he ends up with the wrong cape—a cape that comes with no super powers. Will Melvin go from Superhero Melvin to just plain old ordinary Melvin?
 * The Curse of the Bologna Sandwich by Greg Trine**

Zane is wired. Not figuratively but literally wired. His room knows his temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, when he needs to use the bathroom, eat, sleep thanks to a chip in Zane's body. His pet dog Hugo is even wired. This wiring allows Zane's famous parents to keep track of Zane while they pursue their busy careers as new icons. His parents, who mainly communicate through video screen and text messaging, are always ready to try the latest technological wonder, and this one is called the Gizzard, which coordinates all the communication technology into one handy gizmo. But the device works in unexpected ways for Zane. The communication he's mainly hearing is from Hugo. This is crazy, Zane thinks. His dog really can't be talking to him...but yes, Hugo, most certainly is, and he has a very important message...Zane is the only one who can help.
 * Cyberia by Chris Lynch**


 * Day of the Iguana by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver**
 * Hank Zipzer is thrilled that he has booked his magic act Magik 3 for his 3-year-old twin cousins birthday party. His magic partner and best friend Frankie is less than enthusiastic when he finds the party coincides with a monster moviethon, which includes the Moth Mutant, a movie Frankie has been dying to see forever. Hank assures him that he can tape the movie with his uncle’s VCR and then they can watch it after the party on his uncle’s huge TV. This seems like a perfect solution until it comes time to record. The channel line up is different at his aunt and uncle’s house and because of Hank’s problems reading, he can’t read the program guide. He thinks he tapes the right channel until later that night, he finds he taped a shopping network. Now Frankie isn’t talking to him. But the crisis gives Hank an idea for his science project. He wants to invent a way to slow down the scrolling program guide and he takes apart his cable box to figure out how to do it. Of course, he can’t put it back together. When he thinks things can’t get any worse, his sister’s iguana decides to make the cable box her nest. **

Sam loves scary movies. His favorite is Dracula. In Sam’s mind Dracula is big-time awesome. When he sees a toy dracula in the window, he knows he must have it. His grandma suggests he write a letter to Santa, but Christmas is a whole two months away. Sam has a better idea. Since it’s so close to Halloween, he decides he’ll write Dracula and ask him for the toy. He also asks Dracula to make Sam a real vampire for Halloween. Sam is surprised when Dracula shows up at his door. Will he make Sam’s wish come true?
 * Dear Dracula by Joshua Williamson**

Just before summer begins, thirteen-year-old Ali finds an old photograph. She recognizes the two children. One’s her mother, the other her aunt Dulcie but who is the third person, the one who’s been torn out of the picture? Ali will have all summer to figure it out, since she’s spending the summer with her aunt and her cousin in the same house her mom and aunt used to visit when they were kids. Then Ali meets Sissy. Sissy is mean, spiteful, and determined to ruin Ali’s summer. Sissy also has a secret. Could it have something to do with the old photo? Ali is dying to find out, and if she’s not careful, that’s exactly what might happen to her.
 * Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn**

Stone Rabbit is minding his own business when suddenly a bunny who looks just like him appears and blasts Stone Rabbit into outerspace. The twin bunny is actually shape-shifter Melvin the Plutarkian who wants Stone Rabbit to take the fall for his crimes while Melvin takes over planet Earth. Stone Rabbit finds himself on Melvin’s planet, facing a tribunal and being found guilty of trying to destroy the galaxy. The judges aren’t convinced that they have the wrong guy, and sentence Stone Rabbit to destruction in the Vkarpaxem. Will Stone Rabbit ever be able to get back to earth? And will there even be an Earth for him to go home to?
 * Deep-Space Disco by Erik Craddock**

Dinkin Dings is frightened by pretty much everything. Smelly Feet. Mutant slime. And list of things thing seem to rhyme. But now something even more frightening has happened. A new family has moved in next door. The new family has a daughter in blond pigtails, wearing a T-shirt with the words "100% Pony Crazy" and missing tooth. Clearly the girl is a flesh-eating alien space zombie from beyond horror, Dinkin thinks. He has to round up the troops so at night he summons the frightening things: the ghostly apparition wailing a bloodcurling wail, also known as Arthur; the hideous fat monster with skin as green and scaly as a crocodile's neck, also known as Herbert; and the living skeleton with eyes like two bottomless pits, also known as Edgar. Together the team comes up with a plan: Hide and run away. Hopefully that will be enough to protect Dinkin Dings.
 * Dinkin Dings and the Frightening Things by Guy Bass**

Zach, Poppy and Alice have been friends forever and it seems like forever they played the game--the made-up game of pirates and curses and kingdoms and the Great Queen who oversees it all. The Great Queen is really a creepy China doll Poppy’s mom found at a tag sale and forbids anyone from touching since she thinks it’s worth something. Zach loves the game, but he worries his basketball teammates may find out about it. And then one night, his dad throws out all his action figures associated with the game, telling him “it’s time to grow up. Devastated Zach can’t tell Poppy and Alice what really happened so he just says he doesn’t want to play anymore. He just wants to forget all about until he gets a late-night visit from Poppy and Alice (rd. pgs. 61-69, starting at “Poppy saw a ghost”)
 * Doll Bones by Holly Black**

Roscoe has two problems. He has never won a trophy and his younger sister Hazel just brought home another one for being the best at sitting still. And his grandmother knitted him in itchy sweater covered in hearts, baby ducks, flowers and smiley faces that his mother insists upon him wearing in public. Maybe a solution will be found in the pet-trick contest that is coming up where the first prize is a big old shiny trophy. Trouble is Roscoe’s dog Goofy can’t really do anything special other than chase squirrels and cats. A new friend Edward has a dog that can actually read and Edward has been eyeing that horrible sweater. Maybe Roscoe has found a solution to both his problems after all?
 * Don't Swap Your Sweater for a Dog by Katherine Applegate**

In the tiny town of Vern Hollow, Jack Creedle sees a giant flying saucer land in the woods. Pretty soon, most of town’s residents flee especially when one of the aliens appears on television. Jack, his mother and his inventor Uncle Bud stay on. They are soon joined by Dr. Shumway and her daughter Isadora who are on their way to Boston, but experience car trouble. Dr. Shumway doesn’t believe the story about the aliens even when the army’s Outer Space Division shows up in town and declares a quarantine. It turns out the aliens, The Skreeps are bent on making Earth their new home, but first mind find “The Special Item” that makes space travel quicker and less dangerous. Turns out the special item was invented by Uncle Bud himself. When he, Isadora and Jack try to sneak it out of town, they are captured by the Skreeps and find themselves aboard the spaceship along with Jack’s mother, Dr. Shumway and Jack’s enemies Officer Webb and his son Grady. It’s up against them to unite against the Skreeps and save Earth from becoming just another slave planet in the Skreepish empire.
 * The Doom Machine by Mike Teague**

A boy appears in an express mart, vacant-eyed, unwashed and shoeless. And desperately thirsty. When he reaches in the case for a quart of milk, he collapses in a heap after looking at the carton. Turns out the boy is the missing boy on the milk carton. Joseph Finney went missing a little over two years ago from a campsite in Jefferson National Forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Joseph can’t remember what happened to him. The strange thing is Joseph doesn’t look any different than he did the day he disappeared. It’s as if he hasn’t aged at all. His younger brother Kevin looks older than him. He has brain fluid constantly leaking from his nose and ringing in his ears, and a strange reaction to light than can cause him to seizure. And then there’s that voice, that voice in his head telling him to return to the door in the lake--what does that mean, and what will Joseph find if he returns to the campsite?
 * The Door in the Lake by Nancy Butts**

Sam is a new dog in town. She’s sad about the move. Jennie is the girl who lives next door who’s sad that her best friend moved away. Jennie offers to take Sam for walks, and discovers, to her shock, that she can read Sam’s thoughts. Sam thinks of herself as a dog detective, and she wants to investigate Mr. McIver, the recluse who lives in the creepiest house in town. Why is the house always dark? Why doesn’t McIver ever go outside? What secrets is he hiding? Sam, with the help of Jennie, is determined to find out.
 * Dracula Madness by Mary Labatt**

Dragon Puncher, a cat in a superhero cat costume, is on a journey to defeat a dragon. On his way, he trips over a young monster who calls himself Spoony-E. That’s because he fights with a wooden spoon. Spoony-E wants to help Dragon Puncher with his fight, but Dragon Puncher wants nothing to do with Spoony-E. He doesn’t see how a wooden spoon can be an effective weapon, and this is a quest he must make by himself. No matter what Dragon Puncher does, he can’t seem to shake this eager sidekick. Not even breaking the spoon works. Can’t a Dragon Puncher fight a dragon in peace?
 * Dragon Puncher by James Kochalka**

Gim Lew Yep's father has returned from America to his village in rural China with news--10-year-old Gim will be leaving his home forever to join him in America. Before they can make the trip, Gim must prepare for the tough entrance exam given by the immigration officials at Angel's Island. The US has tightened its immigration policies and have made it nearly impossible for Chinese immigrants to enter by asking questions about the most minute details of their lives. Gim, who is prone to stuttering when anxious, is worried that he will fail this test and disappoint his father in the process.
 * The Dragon's Child by Laurence Yep**

Are you bored? Do you like exciting and dangerous adventures? Then this is the book for you. Join brothers Orville and Wilbur as they play the secret bug at dinner table game, spy on their teachers and try to win a trip to Hollywood.
 * Drooling and Dangerous: the Riot Brothers Return by Mary Amato**

Miss Breakbone hates kids. Especially the time-squandering, mindwandering, doodling, dozing dunderheads in her class. But when she takes Junkyard’s crucial find, she finally goes too far. Enter Wheels (and his souped-up bike with forty-eight extra gears), Pencil (who can draw anything from memory), Spider (look up and you’ll find him), and their fellow misfits in a spectacular display of teamwork aimed at teaching Miss Breakbone a lesson she won’t soon forget.
 * The Dunderheads by Paul Fleischman**

Ignatius B. Grumply needs to finish a novel that has taken him decades to complete. He used to be a successful author, but a hard-core case of writer's block is keeping him from finishing his last book. He decides to rent an old manor in hopes that the peace and quiet will do wonders for his work. Unfortunately for him, he inherits a kid named Seymour, a cat named Shadow, and a ghost named Olive with the rental. Everyone in the house wants him gone, but he's grumpy enough to stay. Who will win this test of wills?
 * Dying to Meet You by Kate Klise**

**Eager by Helen Fox** More than anything Fleur Bell wants to replace their old broken-down robot, Grumps, with one of the new sleek BDC4 robots her best friend Marcia just received. This robot is so advanced that Life Corp, the company selling them, advertises them as “robots by name, friends by nature.” Instead her father gets them a strange-looking robot that is a prototype called EGR3. Nicknamed Eager by the Bell family, they notice that he, too, is different from most robots because he seems almost human. Then one day Marcia calls Fleur in a panic: The BDC4 has taken her family hostage. It’s not just Marcia’s robot, all BDC4s have gone haywire. It’s up to Fleur, her brother, Marcia and Eager to find out the real reason the robots are behaving the way they are otherwise their city will be completely overtaken.

**Edgar Allan's Official Crime Investigation Notebook by Mary Amato** At Wadsworth Elementary, just before the day began, someone stole the Slurpy the fish from the tank in Ms. Herschel's fifth-grade classroom. The thief left behind this note: The thief comes/on little cat feet/sits looking/at the goldfish/then takes it carefully/and moves on. Edgar Allan is determined to solve the crime and has started his own official crime investigation notebook. Trouble is, classmate Patrick has decided to do the same thing, and seems to find better clues and asks better question. Worse still, Peter's father is a forensics-specialist, meaning he knows how to use science to solve crimes. Edgar's parents are clowns--official clowns, and are of no help to the budding detective unless he's looking to crack a joke. Edgar knows it will be any day now Peter finds the thief.

Ed is an average little boy: He likes reading comics, and he gets tongue-tied when his teacher asks him what he wants to be when he grows up. Then one night, as he is reading comics by flashlight under his covers, three friendly extraterrestrials crash-land in his backyard and take over his treehouse. The three aliens, Marcello, Al, and Gus, are on the run from their would-be masters, who forced the aliens to work as slaves at the Intergalactic Food Court. The trio hijacked a spaceship and ran, with an enemy ship in hot pursuit, destroying their ship to such an extent, they were forced to land on earth. Now they are looking to bring more of their alien friends to Earth to pursue their real career dreams. Unfortunately the dreaded Maximus Obliterus has landed on Earth as well, looking to force the aliens back into slavery. Will Ed be able to help them?
 * Ed's Terrestrials by Scott Christian Sava**

Elise has just begun middle school and is realizing that the things she likes--her best friend Franklin and playing imaginary games--are not cool. Her lockermate Amanda takes delight in calling Elise names and smashing her lunch. Elise can't seem to get to the bus on time or complete her homework. Her Aunt Bessie's sister Annie and newborn baby have just moved in, taking precious time away from her aunt and uncle. And Elise can't seem to stop feeling mad at Franklin and making him feel bad. She was hoping turning 12 will make all the difference, but she sees she's still the same mixed-up mess. Then she finds a key with her name on it. The key was left behind by her father who died when Elise was three. Elise already lost her mother at birth. The key unlocks one of the eight locked rooms in her uncle's barn. The locked rooms each contain life lessons left behind by Elise's father. Her father loved puzzles and games. Trouble is Elise doesn't think she knows how to be the person her father expected her to be.
 * Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur**

Sam MacKenzie is about to turn 11. He doesn’t know what it is about those two ones together, but they fill him with dread. He wonders if 11 might have something to do with the locked box he find in his grandpa Mack’s attic. The one that holds a newspaper article about a missing boy name Sam Bell, with a picture that looks exactly like he did when he was a little boy of 3. Was his missing? Is Mack really his grandfather. Sam, who has always struggled with reading, enlists the help of new student Carolyn, a book worm, to uncover the truth of Sam’s past.
 * Eleven by Patricia Reilly Giff**

The first child born into freedom in Buxton Canada, a settlement of runaway slaves just over the border from Detroit, Elijah is best known in his hometown as the boy who threw up on Frederick Douglass. Not on purpose of course, he was just a baby then. But things change when a former slave calling himself the Right Rev. Zepharia W. Connerly the Third, steals money from Elijah’s friend Mr. Leroy, who has been saving to buy his family out of captivity in the south. Elijah joins Mr. Leroy on a dangerous journey to America in pursuit of the disreputable preacher and he discovers firsthand the unimaginable horrors of the life his parents fled—a life from which he’ll always be free, if he can find the courage to go back home.
 * Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis**

**Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine** When Ella was born, she was given a blessing by the fairy Lucinda - the gift of obedience. The blessing is more of a curse since it saps Ella of all free will whenever anyone issues her a command. She must obey or else she feels horribly sick even if the order is to cut off her own hand. Ella's mother commands her to never tell of her curse or else it be used against her to bring great harm. With only her mother and cook Mandy knowing of the curse, life is bearable for Ella, but when Ella's mother suddenly dies, Ella's circumstances take a turn for the worse. Her father, a greedy merchant who prefers life away from home, makes Ella attend a finishing school with Dame Olga's horrible daughters Hattie and Olive. Hattie quickly catches wind of Ella's peculiar nature to do whatever anyone commands and eagerly puts it to use. The worst command is the one where Hattie tells her not to be friends with the only girl she likes, prompting Ella to leave her school and set off to try to find Lucinda and free herself once and for all from her dreaded curse.

Ellie is not happy because while her parents are away, she is forced to go on a camping trip with her relatives. All three of her cousins are pains especially Eric, whom she describes as a nose-picking, booger-slurping, bug-infested parasite. Aunt Mug spits when she yells and Uncle Ewing has zero sense of humor. Ellie expects the trip to be a complete disaster and puts her real thoughts about her extended family in her journal, which her cousin Eric is dying to get his hands on. Will Ellie survive the week?
 * Ellie McDoodle: Have Pen Will Travel by Ruth McNally Barshaw**

Annie wasn't like anyone Natalie had ever met. She was bossy and rude, wild and tough and fearless, like an old alley cat. She was different and mysterious and even a little scary. And she had secrets, secrets she was willing to share with Natalie. It was Annie who decided that she and Natalie should have a secret-collecting club, and collect all the secrets about all the people who lived on their block. Natalie, who'd lived on the block for years, didn't think their neighbors were all that interesting. But Annie was sure that once they got started, they could find out some really cool things. And if they were going to be spies, they needed code names, just like real spies. So Annie and Natalie become Elvis and Olive. Spying on neighbors and collecting secrets, at first, seems a fun way to spend the summer, but what happens when all those secrets aren’t secret anymore?
 * Elvis and Olive by Stephanie Elaine Watson**

Emma-Jean Lazarus is not your typical seventh grader. She doesn’t care what people think of her. In fact she views her classmates as odd specimens that should be studied in a lab. She feels they behave illogically most of the time where for Emma-Jean, rational behavior is the key to living. So she keeps her distance until she becomes pulled into the sphere of middle schoolers by Colleen Pomerantz. Emma-Jean comes up Colleen sobbing in the girl’s bathroom. When Emma-Jean learns the reason behind Colleen’s despair, Emma-Jean is determined to help. In a very logical way, of course.
 * Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis**

**Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell** Emmy tried so hard to be a good girl. She received excellent grades. She did her homework without being told. She ate her vegetables even the slimy ones. But still no one noticed her and her parents seemed to stay away even longer on their trips leaving her in the care of her nanny Miss Barmy, who made her drink strange concoctions and made her see the school therapist. Emmy was a little too good, which was why she liked to sit next to the classroom rat. The rat was not good at all. He snapped at the students’ fingers and sneered when they had trouble with fractions. And then one day, the rat talked to Emmy, starting an adventure that would lead Emmy to an underground world where rodents have special powers and a few humans, including her not-so-perfect nanny, would do anything to get them.

**Erratum by Walter Sorrells** Jessica sometimes feels that she’s living the wrong life, that she doesn’t belong to the family she was born in. It turns out she’s right when she enters Queeg & Rosewood Antiquarian. The owners with the strange flickering eyes insist they have her book, which she paid $3,719 for, although Jessica has no idea what they’re talking about it. The book is called Her Lif, and upon skimming it, Jessica realizes the book is about her life--every minute detail up until the point she discovers Queeg and Rosewood. As she reads on, she discovers the owners intentions to plunge a knife into her heart, and is able to change the story in her book by escaping. The book continues to change as Jessica makes choices. The changes come through publishers' correction of mistakes in already printed books, otherwise known as erratum. Jessica soon discovers that her destiny is to save the universe from being sucked into one of the other 29 universes it coexists with. This is the evil plan of Bob Robbins Jr., a vacuum cleaner salesman who wants to control the universe and enslave its population. Jessica realizes she must make tremendous sacrifices to foil his plan. Will she be able to do so in time?

Alexandraville’s Library has been under construction for five years. All the work had been done in utmost secrecy under the tightest security. No single construction crew was on the job longer than six weeks. And now it’s ready to open, but before 12 12-year-olds will get a chance to spend the night if their essay is chosen. Kyle Kenney is not a big reader so he was initially not interested until he learned that his favorite gamemaker, the eccentric billionaire Mr. Lemoncello. Kyle writes an essay at the last minute and thankfully gets selected to preview the most amazing library in creation. Not only does he get a first glimpse, but Mr. Lemoncello has more in a store--the ultimate game. Whoever can escape from the library first wins.
 * Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein**

Halina Rudowski lives with her mother in a Jewish Ghetto in Poland. Food is scarce and terror is plenty. Halina worries about the plan to flee into the forest to avoid the next round of selections by the Nazis. Halina's mother wants to stay, but her boyfriend Georg is insistent they escape. The next day her mother goes to work in the munitions factory and Halina to her job as a housekeeper for a german commander's wife. When she returns home, her mother is not there, and Halina learns the awful truth--the Nazis rounded everyone at the munitions factory. The men were shipped away and the women shot. With her mother dead, and time of the essence, Halina takes a few belongings and heads to the escape route with her friend Batya. They head through a sewer tunnel and eventually make their way to the forest where a group of Jewish refugees and fighters have created an underground home to hide out until the war comes to an end. Will Halina be able to survive this new way of life?
 * Escaping into the Night by D. Dina Friedman**

It isn't that Abby Carson can't do her schoolwork; it's just that she doesn't like doing it. And that means she's pretty much failing sixth grade. When a warning letter is sent home, Abby realizes that all her slacking off could cause her to be held back -- for real! Unless she wants to repeat the sixth grade, she'll have to meet some specific conditions, including taking on an extra-credit project: find a pen pal in a foreign country. Abby's first letter arrives at a small school in Afghanistan, and Sadeed Bayat is chosen to be her pen pal...Well, kind of. He is the best writer, but he is also a boy, and in his village it is not appropriate for a boy to correspond with a girl. So his younger sister dictates and signs the letter. Until Sadeed decides what his sister is telling Abby isn't what he'd like Abby to know.
 * Extra Credit by Andrew Clements**

On the day before school opens, the frantic principal still has not found a teacher for the notoriously unruly fourth graders. In walks Mr. Jupiter, whose credentials include working as a translator for Big Foot, discovering the lost city of Atlantis and studying at the Coochie-Coochie Institute for Misbehaved Monkeys: he is hired on the spot. When he refuses to react to his students’ misbehavior, they think up pranks guaranteed to rile him, but no one dares to pull them off. The moral: It is one thing to talk about it, another to do it. The book is a series of fables. There's Calvin Tallywong, who wants to go back to kindergarten. But when he actually gets the chance, he's forced to do the squirrel dance and wear a school bus name tag. The moral of his story? //Be careful what you wish for.// Then there's Amisha Spelwadi, who can spell //wildebeest,// no problem. When Mr. Jupiter asks the class to spell //cat//, all Amisha can come up with is //kat//. The moral: //Don't count your chickens before they hatch.//
 * The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary School by Candace Fleming**

**The Fairy-Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley** Sisters Sabrina and Daphne Grimm have been passed along from foster family to foster family ever since their parents mysteriously disappeared a year and a half ago. Now, they are being sent to live with a grandmother they've been told was dead. The old woman seems overjoyed to see the sisters. She introduces them to Mr. Canis, a thin tired-looking gentleman with watery eyes and wearing a suit two sizes too large. He helps take care of their house in Ferryport Landing. They arrive at the strange house that sits by itself on top of a small hill surrounded by dense woods. Sabrina feels even more unsettled when she sees the assortment of locks on the door, and begins to plan their escape. When she and Daphne are overcome by a group of twinkling bugs that turn out to be pixies, they learn the strange truth of their past. They are the descendants of the Brothers Grimm. The fairy tales the brothers wrote are actual historical documents about encounters with real live fairy tale characters who all live in Ferryport Landing, kept here by a strong spell. The only thing that will break the spell is the death of the Grimm line, and some fairy tale characters would not mind seeing that happen.

**Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl** Down in the valley were three farms. The three farmers were successful, rich and nasty. They were as nasty and mean as any person can be. Farmer Boggis raised chickens, Farmer Bunce raised ducks and goose and Farmer Bean raised turkeys and grew apples. The three plentiful farms provided many meals for the fox family much to the anger of the farmers who are determined to get their hands on Mr. Fox at any cost. When Farmer Bean discovers Mr. Fox's hole, he and the other farmers decide it's time to take their revenge.

**Fashion Kitty by Charise Mericle Harper** Kiki Kitty is unusual for three reasons. Her family has a pet mouse. Kiki and her sister Lana get to pick out all their own clothes. And Kiki’s alter ego is the superhero Fashion Kitty. Up until four months ago, Kiki was a normal cat, but at her 8th birthday party, while blowing at the candles on her cake, she got knocked in the head by a bunch of fashion magazines. Next thing she knew, she could hear the distress cry of those in fashion emergencies and fly to their rescue.

**Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown** ** One morning, Stanley Lambchop wakes up with a bulletin board on him, which makes him as flat as a pancake. Stanley doesn't seem to mind his new shape at first. He helps retrieve his mother's favorite ring from a sewer grate. He can avoid the costly fares of trains and planes by being sent through the mail. And he can go in and out of rooms without evening opening the door. He even helps foil a robbery plot. But soon the novelty wears off and classmates begin to make fun of Stanley shouting such things "Super-skinny." Stanley wonders if he will remain this way forever. **

**Flight of the Phoenix: Nathaniel Fludd Beastologist Book One by R.L LaFevers** With Nathaniel's parents declared lost at sea during an expedition of the North Pole, Nathaniel is sent to live with his father's cousin Phil A. Fludd. Nathaniel comes from a long-line of adventurers and explorers, but at 10, has never felt the spark himself. He prefers to read and draw, but upon arriving at his new home finds himself embarking on an adventure with Phil--short for Philomena--the last remaining beastologist. Beastologists protect creatures that others believe are just myths. Nathaniel and his Aunt Phil are flying to Arabia to witness the rebirth of a phoenix. It is their job to make sure the phoenix is reborn. They reach an oasis and witness the bird bursting into flames, but before Aunt Phil can do her job, she is captured by Bedouins who claim the oasis belongs to them. Now it's up to Nathaniel to keep the phoenix' ashes warm, avoid being caught by the Bedouins himself and save his aunt.

Noah and Abbey's father is in jail for sinking a casino boat that he claims has been dumping raw sewage into the waters near their home in the Florida keys. He has no proof, the owner of the boat denies it, and everyone in town thinks he's a crackpot. Their mother is going to divorce him unless he shapes up and gets his anger and impulsive behavior under control. So it's up to Noah and Abbey to prove that their father was right. But with everyone mad at their father, hired goons guarding the refloated boat, members of local law enforcement paid off by the owner, and the owner's son beating up on Noah, getting that proof looks well-nigh impossible. That is, until Noah comes up with a plan that involves a tattooed barmaid, a stolen motorboat, and thirty-four bottles of fuschia food coloring.
 * Flush by Carl Hiaasen**

There is only orange juice in the fridge. Nothing to put on the cereal. It becomes a problem when dad realizes he has no milk to put on his tea. So he sets out to buy milk, but he’s gone for such a long time. When he comes back, he tells a fantastical story explaining why he’s so late. First there were the aliens that demanded he sign over the planet to them so they can redecorate it with pink flamingos. Then pirates. A dinosaur who invented a time machine. A volcano god. Wumpires. Disappearing and reappearing bottles of milk. rd pg. 19-26
 * Fortunately The Milk by Neil Gaiman**

Wyatt and Auggie have come up with the best plan for the remaining two weeks of summer. They are going to build a fort in the middle of the woods, a place to call home while they camp, hunt squirrels and fish. But trouble lurks in the distance when two older bullies discover the fort and put squirrel guts on Wyatt’s sleeping bag. Auggie knows the bullies won’t leave them alone and will be back to do further damage on their place of refuge. The two hatch plan called Operation Doom, which they hope will stop the bullying for good.
 * Fort by Cynthia Defelice **

Thirteen-year-old Jonah has always known that he was adopted, and he’s never thought it was any big deal. In fact, his parents spend more time thinking about it than he does (hence their bookshelves full of “adoption books). That all changes when he and his friend, Chip, also adopted, start receiving strange, anonymous letters. The first one says, “You are one of the missing.” The second one says, “Beware! They’re coming back to get you.” Jonah, Chip, and Jonah’s sister, Katherine, are plunged into a mystery that involves the FBI, a possible baby- smuggling operation, an airplane that appeared out of nowhere — and maybe even ghosts. The kids discover they are caught in a battle between two opposing sides that want very different things for Jonah and Chip’s lives.
 * Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix**

Franny K. Stein is not just a brilliant mad scientist, she is a busy mad scientist. Every morning she had many duties, like shaving the beards off her colony of bearded slugs, putting shoes on her giant centipede and milking her soy plant. She also has to play with her dog Igor who enjoyed making Franny laugh by juggling chainsaws, wrestling alligators and wrestling alligators who juggled chainsaws. She also had her homework, class projects, bagpipe lesson, soccer and gourmet cooking classes. All of these tasks are beginning to take their toll. Why just the other day, she shaved her soy plant, milked the giant centipede and almost sent a jillion volts of electricity into Igor. Her mother won’t let Franny cut any of her extracurricular activities so Franny, as a mad scientist is wont to do, devises a brilliant plan, one that will allow all her activities to get done even if she’s not the one actually doing them. What could go wrong?
 * The Fran with Four Brains by Jim Benton**

Nicky has freckles. They cover his face, ears and the back of his neck. Andrew doesn’t have any, but he’s convinced if he did, his mother would never make him wash his neck again since she would never be able to tell if it was dirty. But how exactly do you get freckles? For fifty cents, know-it-all Sharon has the answer – a secret freckle recipe. Fifty cents is a lot of money, but Andrew is desperate. It’s not until after he goes home and carefully mixes the strange combination of ingredients that he realizes he might be getting more than he paid for.
 * Freckle Juice by Judy Blume**

Seventh-grader Marshall Walsh used to have friends--that is until Chad Hilligas moved to town. The whole school seemed in awe of Chad. He had been kicked out of three other schools. He told fantastic stories of locking teachers in closets. Marshall was riveted too, but when Marshall exclaimed “No way” to a story about Chad riding his motorcycle to school, that’s when Marshall became Chad’s target. Marshall didn’t say it because he didn’t believe Chad; he meant it as “So cool.” Doesn’t matter. Now Chad wants to beat him up afterschool. Marshall always walks home with fifth-grader Tamaya Dhilwaddi, but today their taking a shorcut through the woods surrounding the school, a choice that will alter both their lives, and Chad’s and the town’s forever.
 * Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar**

Janna, 12, desperately wants to win the lottery so she and her mother can have a decent car, she can have a wardrobe to rival schoolmate Elizabeth Newby's, and her mother wouldn't have to worry so much about money. What she gets instead, through a random act of kindness, is a bag-lady genie. Janna soon learns that wishes come with a price, and that material possessions don't lead to the happiness she expected. With her genie's "genie wattage" dangerously low, Janna has one wish left that she wants to make count, and have an effect on the world.
 * The Genie Scheme** by Kimberly K. Jones

Jimmy, David, and Henry are on their way to fame and fortune. They are flying to California where they hope to get sponsorships from skateboard companies. Unfortunately their plane is hijacked by terrorists. Feeling that they are the only people who could save everyone (almost all of the only other passengers on the plane are group of old ladies from a knitting club), the boys spring into action. They use Jimmy’s titanium skateboard and literally beat the terrorists to death. Unfortunately the terrorists have already killed the pilots and before they died, the pilots had jettisoned the majority of the fuel. After they crash into the Canadian wilderness, there are only six people on the plane left alive: Jimmy and his sister Julia, David, Henry, an airline attendant, and an old lady from the knitting club named Mrs. Herschel. Now the survivors must find food, shelter, and water as they struggle to hold on until help arrives.
 * Getting Air by Dan Gutman**

It began with a dream of being trapped in a burning building. At first it seemed to be happening to Allie, but then it felt as if she was watching someone struggling to get out, but not before the ceiling came crashing down. The next day at school, Allie tries to push the dream out of her mind. She's excited about the upcoming Elder's Day project in Mr. Henry's class. But she soon learns that this was no regular nightmare when Allie and her friends discuss who they're interviewing at lunch. Someone says they're going to interview Mrs. Hobbs, the cafeteria lady everyone is terrified of. Allie is shocked that someone would interview until it dawns on her that the words came out of her mouth. The last time something like this happened, she had been haunted by the ghost of Lucy Stiles, and almost died trying to help her. Her best friend Dub labels Allie a ghost magnet. Is that the case? Is Allie being haunted again? And what is the connection between Mrs. Hobbs and the burning building?
 * The Ghost and Mrs. Hobbs by Cynthia DeFelice**

Ryan first catches sight of the German shepherd chained to a tree when he misses his school bus and his mom drives him to school. It's a cold October day, and icy rain pelts the animal's fur. Rusty spots no shelter in sight. He can't get the dog out of his head and decides to go to the house after school. The dog, still chained, eyes Rusty warily. Rusty can see ribs poking out through his fur, Rusty sees no bowls of food or water so he goes and buys the dog a hotdog. Although clearly hungry the dog waits until Rusty's a far distance before eating, and Rusty knows by the way the dog's behaving that he is likely mistreated by his owner. Rusty wants to help this dog. His next visit, he feels an icy poke against the back of his leg, but nothing is in sight. Must be the wind, then Rusty sees the wispy outline of another dog next to the German Shepherd. A ghost dog! Then one night, the ghost dog turns up in Rusty's bedroom and wants Rusty to follow it. He doesn't, and the next day sees the German shepherd has been hurt. Rusty knows feeding the dog isn't enough to save it, but isn't taking someone else's dog stealing?
 * Ghost Dog Secrets by Peg Kehret**

Famous Ghosthunter Hetty Hysop, Hugo the ASG (stands for Averagely Spooky Ghost), and her human assistant Tom have gotten their latest assignment. The Gloomburg Castle is being haunted by the totally moldy baroness, a particular hard type of ghost to fight. Hetty, Hugo and Tom have to figure out a way to fight the baroness before she liquifies the castle's management. The one way Hetty knows how is an equally tricky procedure that she's unsure will even be successful. And puts her own assistant at a terrible risk.
 * Ghosthunters and the Totally Moldy Baroness! by Cornelia Funke**

Chad Weldon is not in the least bit happy to be spending a few weeks with Jeannie Nichols at her eccentric aunt's boarding house. He feels even worse when he's shown his room, which looks gloomy and feels damp. He then notices his toothbrush balanced on top of his bedpost. Chad knows he didn't put it there so who did? Strange things keep happening to Chad and no one seems to believe him except for Madame Keppell who announces to anyone who will listen that Chad is in grave danger.
 * A Ghost in the Family by Betty Ren Wright**

Twelve-year-old Florence has been living at Miss Medleycoate's Home for Orphan Girls in London since her parents drowned in a boating accident when she was five. It turns out Florence has a great-uncle, and she is leaving the orphanage to live with him and his spinster sister at Crutchfield Hall. Florence's Great-Uncle Thomas is warm, welcoming and jovial although it's clear from the first meeting with Aunt Eugenie that she despises Florence. Aunt Eugenie still wears black to mourn the loss of Sophia, Florence's cousin who died almost a year ago, from a fall. She constantly compares Florence to Sophia with Florence always coming up short. Sophia's brother James still lives at the home, but is too sickly to leave his room so Florence spends much of her time alone--or is she? She constantly feels someone's watching her and sometimes hears taunting voices. She hears stories that Sophia's ghost still resides at Crutchfield Hall. If it is a ghostly presence, it's not a nice one. What could Sophia want from her cousin?
 * The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall by Mary Downing Hahn**

By now Allie has gotten better used to her ability to communicate with ghosts having had two encounters, but her latest encounter is different. She can sense that the ghost is in trouble, but apart from whimpering and overpowering bad smells she can't tell what the ghost needs or wants. She wonders if it might have something to do with L.J. Cutler, another sixth grader who has come to Allie's school, two days before summer vacation. She wants nothing to do with the sullen boy, but her favorite teacher Mr. Henry asks Allie and Dub to befriend L.J. over the summer. She becomes even more convinced L.J. is trouble when she encounters his cruel father. Hoover, Mr. Henry's beloved golden retriever whom Allie is dog sitting, barks viciously when in his presence. What are the Cutlers' hiding? And what is the connection to Allie's new ghost?
 * The Ghost of Cutler Creek by Cynthig DeFelice**

**The Ghost of Fossil Glen by Cynthia DeFelice** Allie isn't sure where the voice is coming from, but she is thankful for it when she is dangling from the side of a steep cliff in Fossil Glen. "Let go and slide" the voice reassures her, and Allie does. She's bruised, but safe--more grateful to be alive then to question a voice from nowhere. At home, Allie finds a journal in her mailbox, which is a nice coincidence because she has to keep a journal for class. But who sent it? Later that night, the words I am L appear in the journal on a page that was blank. That and the visions Allie's been having of a young girl falling convinces her that she's being pursued by a ghost, only no one but her friend Dub believes. Her other friend Karen thinks she's a liar and has been ignoring her and talking about her behind her back. The next day, Allie's class is cleaning debris from the cemetery when Allie finds a gravestone for an 11-year-old girl named Lucy Stiles. Is she the ghost that's been contacting Allie? And what does she want from Allie?

Every town has its secrets. In Hedston, the Graylock, a former psychiatric hospital, sits ruined and vacant in the state woods. It used to house thousands of patients, that is until some went missing and turned up drowned in the nearby lake. Authorities arrested the nurse who worked the graveyard shift who ended up hanging herself in her jail cell, taking the truth of what happened to her grave. Some say the ghost of Nurse Janet still walks the abandoned halls. If you dare intrude, she might catch you and drag you into the weed-covered water to your death. As the new kid in town, Neil Cady is a fan of legends and an avid watcher of //Ghostly Adventurers.// He thinks he’s ready to explore Hedston’s local legend.
 * The Ghost of Graylock by Dan Poblocki**

While auditioning for a part in town's summer pageant, Allie Nichols begins babbling in a foreign language. She has know idea what she said, but she knows what it means--she is being visited by another ghost. Surprisingly Allie is cast in the starring role of a Seneca Indian girl called Laughs-Like-a-Waterfall. The director Miss Lunsford appreciated Allie's improvisation and the inclusion of the Native American language. But Allie begins to learn that the play, a story of friendship between the Senecas and the Europeans, is based on fiction and masks the ugly truth. The ghost is the spirit of a Seneca girl whose family was killed in a massacre on Poplar Point. Businessman Darryl Kavanaugh wants to build a hotel on the site, and is using the pageant to drum up promotion. Kavanaugh has pored a ton of money into the town's downtown businesses including the antique shop run by Allie's mother. He uses his influence and connections to push Allie out of the lead role so his daughter Janelle can have it. Kavanaugh wants nothing do with the true story of the Seneca nation, but Allie knows her ghost will find no peace unless the real story comes out.
 * The Ghost of Poplar Point by Cynthia DeFelice**

Opie is looking to earn enough money to buy himself a saddle. When he does that, his great Aunt Etta has promised to buy himself a horse with the rare Indian head penny she keeps in a safe deposit box at the bank. One of Opie's money-making ventures is running errands in thick fog. He ends up escorting a new arrival from the barbershop to the hotel. Instead of earning a few coins, the stranger gives Opie two tickets to a show by Professor Pepper, the famous ghost-raiser. Prof. Pepper plans to raise the ghost of Crookneck Johnny, an outlaw and scoundrel who was hung three times before he eventually croaked. Opie is so excited for this scare-raising show that he can barely contain himself. But on the night of the show, with the lights out, Prof. Pepper claims the ghost has gotten out and has plans to terrorize Opie's town.
 * The Ghost on Saturday Night by Sid Fleischman**

What Josh thought would be the dullest summer of his life, spent with his eccentric great-aunt, turns chilling when he meets the ghost of a coal miner killed in a mine explosion. Willie has been waiting years for some kind soul to dig up his leg and rebury it with the rest of him—only then will he be at peace. Josh agrees to do the grisly deed, but when he digs in the old cemetery, he finds more than Willie's leg bones! Who buried the box of cash in the grave, and why? How far will that person go to get the money back?
 * The Ghost's Grave by Peg Kehret**

Gwen Maxwell, 12, feels as though the bottom has fallen out of her life--for the second time. Five years ago, after her parents died in a car accident, she came to live with loving Great-aunt Mary in Winfield, Wisconsin. Now Aunt Mary has also died and, Gwen is alone again. Enter kindly Dena Mercy and her family, with plenty of room for a foster child at beautiful Mercy Manor. Starting from the moment she arrives at her new home, Gwen has frequent encounters with the ghost of a girl her own age. However, any mention of these spectral appearances upsets Mrs. Mercy and angers stern Mr. Mercy to the point where he threatens to send the orphan packing. With the help of the Mercys' son, Gwen uncovers a long-hidden tragedy
 * The Ghosts of Mercy Manor by Betty Ren Wright**

**The Giver by Lois Lowry** It is almost December, and Jonas will soon find out his life assignment as will all the other 12s. He lets his mother and father know about his apprehension at the evening telling of feelings. His parents say he has nothing to worry about. The Elders of their society make very careful choices, just like the choices they make to match husbands and wives and children to family. At the Ceremony of the 12s, Jonas is shocked when he is passed over in line order and not assigned a life choice. Did he do something wrong? Will he possibly be released--the worst thing that can happen in their society. Jonas doesn't know what happens to those who've been released, but he guesses that they end up struggling in Elsewhere. At the very end, Jonas is called up to the podium where the elder announces he will be assigned one of the most important assignments in society. He will be the Receiver of memory. In the elders observation of him, they know Jonas has the capabilities to see beyond, which is essential in the receiver. Jonas is told that his assignment will cause him to feel pain, a pain nowhere near the pain felt when scraping one's knee, and no one else apart from the current Receiver could even begin to understand. Jonas immediately begins training with the current Receiver, and receives his first memory--that of sledding down a hill of snow. Snow is something Jonas has never experienced nor the color red, which is the color of the sled. When the society voted for Sameness, it removed all color, differences and pain in return for everyone being as close to the same as possible. As Jonas's training continues, he begins to question the wisdom of choosing Sameness especially as he becomes closer to Gabriel, an infant his Nurturer father has taken into their care. When Jonas finds Gabriel is about to be released, and what "release" really means, he has to make a drastic decision.

Becker Drane’s life wasn’t always exciting. He was just a regular kid, leading a regular life in a regular town. But then he sees a want ad: “Apply here for the best job in the World.” On a lark, he applies then promptly forgets about his application until a man shows up 8 months later handing him a business card identifying the man as a human resources director in The Seems. He extends Becker an invitation to become a candidate at the institute of Fixing and Repair. Becker quickly learns about a parallel world called The Seems, which exists to make the real world run smoothly. Everything is planned from the weather to people’s destinies. Becker moves up the ranks to Fixer and has been handed his first assignment--a glitch in the sleep department, which is giving the entire world insomnia. If it is not fixed quickly, the entire world will unravel.
 * The Glitch in Sleep by John Hume**

Brady was lucky he was outside watching the meteor shower or else he’d likely be the consistency of sand. You see a meteor crashed through his house, crashed through his bed in fact. It’s about the size of potato, but the speed at which it was traveling would have flattened an elephant. Brady can’t believe his luck when it turns out the meteor is a rare hunk of rock from Mars. He can’t wait to show his cousin Quinn who loves all things extreme. When Quinn arrives, he can’t help but notice that Brady seems to smoke him in all activities. He jumps higher, rides farther and faster and seems to be possessed with some sort of super endurance. Could it be the space rock or Fred as they named it? Each new day comes with a new powerful skill. And sometimes a strange symptom like numbness or paralysis. Has Brady been infected by some sort of space virus?
 * Go Big or Go Home by Will Hobbs**

Charlie asks his mother the same question every morning: "Why can't we have a dog?" His mother always has an answer back: "No." She's more of a cat person, but that doesn't stop Charlie or his older sister Lizzie from continuing to make their case for a family dog. Charlie and Lizzie get an unexpected surprise when their firefighter father brings home a puppy rescued from a burning house. Their mother allows them to keep the golden retriever Goldie temporarily until they can find it a permanent home. Charlie knows just the home...his....and he intends to prove to his mom that he's ready for this big responsibility.
 * Goldie by Eileen Miles**

Gil Goodson is one of 25,000 contestants in the Golly Toy and Game Company’s ultimate competition. If Gil wins, his dad promised the family can move out of Orchard Heights–away from all the gossip, the false friends, and bad press that have plagued the Goodsons ever since The Incident. Gil’s dad was accused of stealing money from the company. Although he was eventually cleared of the crime, everyone in town still acts like he’s guilty. Gil's been studying for months. He thinks he knows everything about Golly's history and merchandise. But does he know enough to answer the trivia, solve the brain teasers and complete the stunts? Gil's formidable opponents have their own special talents. To win, Gil must be quicker and smarter than all of them.
 * The Gollywhopper Games by Jody Feldman**

A family of wizards and witches, the Floods appear to be a normal, happy household consisting of parents and seven children, but only one, Betty, looks like a normal little girl. Under their house is a vast network of cellars where they experiment with their special magic. The Floods travel by turbo-broomsticks, eat slugs and sugar bats for breakfast, and all of the children except Betty (she goes to public school) go to a special wizard and witch school, where the school bus materializes in one of the cellars. And they are good neighbors. Unlike their next-door neighbors the Dents, a mean nasty family that shatters the calm of the neighborhood. Maybe a little of the Floods’ magic will cure the Dents of their obnoxious ways. And if not, maybe a lot of magic will cure the neighborhood of the Dents once and for all.
 * Good Neighbors by Colin Thompson**

While in Florida on vacation, Dink thinks he overhears a man planning a robbery. His friends Josh and Ruth Rose think he must have misheard and become distracted when Ruth Rose’s grandmother arrives to pick them up from the airport. The possible robbery momentarily forgotten, the three friends enjoy their Christmas break especially when they meet two treasure hunters, Spike and Chip, aboard the ship The Golden Goose. Ruth Rose’s grandmother knows the men. In fact, she and her friends are planning to invest $10,000 each to help finance the pair’s next exploration of sunken treasure. But Dink feels something might be wrong with the plan. He thinks Spike might have been the man he overheard on the phone. He convinces his friends to explore The Golden Goose to get to the bottom of things. But their lives soon become endangered when they become trapped in the hull and the boat begins to sink.
 * The Goose's Gold by Ron Roy**

Twelve-year-old Rosie has grown up with her best friend, next-door neighbor Bailey. But he's not her best friend today. Today she surprised him with the news that she could read Braille. She'd worked in secret for over a year to learn how, and she thought he'd be pleased, but he just said, “Rosie, get over yourself!” and slammed the door in her face. Now she's so mad at him she can't see straight. Granny Torelli arrives to take care of her that night, and as they make soup together, Granny helps her deal with her feelings. Granny tells tales of her own best friend from her youth, and slowly Rosie begins to see the situation through Bailey’s eyes. Will her friendship with Bailey stand up to this latest test? And what about that new girl Janine who fawns all over Bailey? Will they survive this new threat? Does Granny have a story for this new problem?
 * Granny Torelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech**

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated bu ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. An ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack, who has already killed Bod's family
 * The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman**

**The Great Egyptian Grave Robbery by Sara Pennypacker** Ever since Stanley was flattened by a bulletin board, he finds he can get into places that no one else can. His dimensions are exactly what Sir Abu Shenti Hawara the fourth needs for the start of his archeological project in Egypt. It turns out Hawara is a notorious grave robber and wants to use Stanley to steal precious treasures from a sealed tomb. Not only that, but Stanley overhears Hawara’s plan to lock Stanley in the tomb forever. Stanley thinks he can stop him, but will his plan work?

Life has been difficult since Gregor’s father disappeared forcing him to take on responsibilities way beyond an 11-year-old boy. One day when babysitting his toddler sister Boots, Gregor watches as Boots gets sucked up through a pipe in the basement of the laundry room. Gregor follows and the two land in a strange underground world where cockroaches are three-feet tall and rats tower over humans. This is the Underland, and Gregor can’t wait to leave as soon as possible. But it turns out he has been expected and is needed.
 * Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins**

Suzanne loves the summer because it’s filled with fishing, walks in the woods and swimming. Her mother worries about her spending so much time alone and day dreaming so much, but Suzanne knows the cure to all this—owning a dog. She has imagined just such a dog named Jeff with silky fur and big brown eyes a great imagination. When she asks her parents for one, they refuse on account of her brother’s allergies. But when the family sees a dog on the highway that ends up on their porch later that day, Suzanne knows it was meant to be. She has found her perfect summer companion, and, at first, life with Jeff proceeds happily. But then the trouble starts. He eats a neighbor’s prized rhubarb patch. He destroys Suzanne’s father’s prized train collection. He breaks the windows on another neighbor’s barn. One more incident and the dog will be sent away to live on a farm her parents warn Suzanne. Will Suzanne be able to keep Jeff out of trouble?
 * The Green Dog by Suzanne Fisher Staples**

Gulliver is a purebred Lhasa Apso with a plush life. Belonging to a single professor, Gulliver lives in a luxurious apartment on New York’s Park Avenue, eats the best food, listens to opera and summers in Paris, France. All that changes when his master marries a woman allergic to dogs, and gives Gulliver away to his doorman who lives with a rambunctious family in a crowded apartment in Queens. Convinced his master has a made a huge mistake, Gulliver is determined to get back home by any means necessary.
 * Gully's Travels by Tor Seidler**

Tiny Fletcher Moon is not popular at St. Jerome Elementary and Middle School, but being popular is not part of the detective’s code. That is what Fletcher or Half-Moon, as his tormentors call him, is. . . and he has a badge from a private detective agency in Washington D.C. to prove it. Surprisingly one of the school’s most popular and pink girl, April Devereux has hired Fletcher to find a lock of a pop star’s hair that she believes was taken by one of the infamous Sharkeys, a family well-known for its criminal activities. The trail leads Fletcher where he least expects it and gives him an unlikely ally--Red Sharkey who proves to be useful when Fletcher is knocked unconscious and accused of burning down the Devereux’s playhouse. Will Fletcher be able to solve the caper before his reputation is ruined forever?
 * Half-Moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer**

Imagine being allowed to only shop in certain shops or be outside for a certain amount of time or not being allowed to travel or attend school. Imagine your parents suddenly receiving letters demanding they leave their homes immediately to be sent away to work camps with no guarantee you’ll see them again. Imagine you receiving the same kind of letter and being sent to a camp where you are fed little and work long hours. That was what it was like for Hana Brady growing up in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s and 1940s when the Nazis rose to power. Little was known about Hana when her suitcase arrived at the children’s education center in Tokyo Japan. Center director Fumiko Ishioka was determined to learn about the girl and bring her story to life. Hana’s suitcase follows Ishioka’s quest. In alternating chapters, it tells the story of Hana and how she ultimately ended up at Auschwitz, a concentration camp in Poland, where she was killed.
 * Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine**

It’s Bad Kitty’s Birthday and all the cats in the neighborhood are invited. Bad Kitty just knows he’s going to get The World’s Greatest Cat Scratcher, which has fake mink fur balls dipped in beef gravy and wire made from the Statue of Liberty’s toenail. But each present becomes more and more of a disappointment--an old cardboard tube from Stinky Kitty, a collection of mothballs from Chatty Kitty and tufts of fur from Pretty Kitty. Then all of her presents turn up missing? Who’s the culprit behind the theft?
 * Happy Birthday Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel**

His name is Brian Robeson and he is thirteen years old and he is alone in the north woods of Canada. His parents newly divorced, Brian was on his to visit his father in a single-engine plane. While in the air, the unthinkable happens—the pilot suffers a heart attack and dies leaving Brian to fly the plane. When the gas runs out, Brian crashes into the wilderness and finds himself stranded from any signs of civilization. He’s injured, hungry, scared and alone. He’s sure a search party will find him right? Until then, Brian must learn to survive with nothing but a tattered windbreaker and a hatchet on his belt.
 * Hatchet by Gary Paulsen**

Thirteen-year-old Jon and his younger sister Tania are on location with their mother and step dad to film an episode of a ghost hunter reality TV show at a supposedly haunted hotel that looks like a castle. Jon doesn’t believe in ghosts, but his sister is a different story especially when she passes out the first day, claiming to see a ghost on the stairs. Jon begins to worry that Tania has gone crazy. Even so, Tania is insistent that ghost wants her help and it’s up to them to help the ghost find peace.
 * Haunted: Ghost on the Stairs by Chris Eboch**

Gavin likes to comb nearby places to find lost treasure with his metal detector. He hits paydirt at a local playground, uncovering a bunch of gold coins under a swing. He decides to check at all playgrounds around his house, but unfortunately some copycats have caught wind to what Gavin’s doing and have bought their own detectors. Now Gavin has to make trips to new playgrounds at night to avoid being detected. After searching for two hours at this one playground, Gavin is disappointed to have found nothing...in fact he has lost his watch. While he searches, the darkened playground floods with lights and the sounds of children’s voices. Shocked, Gavin heads back to his bike on the sidewalk. He turns and sees six boys and girls playing a game, one of the girls is standing just looking at Gavin and smiling. Who are these kids? And what are they doing playing on a playground in the middle of the night?
 * The Haunted Playground by Shaun Tan**

Claire is convinced she has seen girl’s face starting in her art class window. How can that be when her art class is on the second floor? Claire and her cousins Jeff and David, come to learn later that day from their neighbor Mr. Wellback that their school was once a mansion owned by the wealthy Tuttle family. Nine-year-old Nettie, the only daughter in the family, died from the flu. The family donated the mansion to the town of Cabin Creek on the condition it be turned into a school and Nettie’s attic room stay as is. One of Mr. Wellback’s classmates found a secret passage up to the room and fell to his death. Could their school be haunted by the ghost of Nettie?
 * The Haunting of Hillside School by Kristiana Gregory**

Only the spookiest stories get told at Annie Grave’s sleepovers so if you can’t take it, you better call your mommy and daddy to pick you up. In this story, Jack is trying to convince you that his brother is a zombie. We all know Jack is an only child, but Jack says no. He has an older brother who has changed. Who has become sullen and stinky and even once tried to take a bite out of his arm. Hear the rest if you dare.
 * Help! My Brother's a Zombie by Annie Graves**

Ordinary Boy is the only resident of Superopolis, a city of heroes, who doesn't have superpowers. He is part of the Junior Leaguers team that includes Halogen Boy, whose glowing ability depends on his consumption of apple juice; Plasma Girl, who can transform into a jellylike substance; and Stench, notable for passing overpowering gas. Ordinary Boy's personal hero is the Amazing Indestructo, the self-proclaimed greatest hero of Superopolis, who is the leader of the League of Ultimate Goodness. When the Junior Leaguers get the opportunity to help the Amazing Indestructo foil the sinister plans of villainous Professor Brain-Drain, Ordinary Boy realizes that even without superpowers, he can still do extraordinary things.
 * The Hero Revealed by William Boniface**

When Neal and Julie agree to help Eric straighten up his basement, they never imagine that they're in for more than getting a little dusty. But as the three kids follow a soccer ball into the small room under the basement stairs, the floor suddenly evaporates to reveal a rainbow staircase to another world! Before they have a chance to look around, they are caught in the midst of a battle.
 * The Hidden Stairs and the Magic Carpet by Tony Abbott**

Elvis Ruby needs to disappear, but being one of the most famous kids in the world makes that pretty impossible. The paparazzi follows him everywhere. That doesn’t mean he won’t try. He needs to get away ever since he froze up on “Tween Star” the most popular singing competition show on the planet. He’s been in the tabloids daily since that happened. He ends up in Pinelands NJ, staying with Aunt Emily--not his real aunt, but a family friend who runs The Pancake Palace. Emily’s daughter Milicent dies Elvis’s hair and concocts a story about him being “Aaron” a long-lost nephew. He seems to be blending in famously...er...I mean, not famously. That’s the point. Until one night. Elvis thinks he’s alone in the woods. He’s been going to the woods the time he used to perform 8:04 p.m., to tell the trees about who he was and what he used to do. And the strange neighbor girl Cecilia overhears him.
 * Hiding Out at the Pancake Palace by Nan Marino**

Barry McGee, left fielder for the Peach Street Mudders, would do almost anything to win a baseball game--even if that anything is to go against his coach's orders or to claim he caught a fly ball he actually dropped But no one saw right? Wrong, his little sister Susan saw him and maybe a few fans from the opposing team, but the ref's call stays the same, and the game continues. He can't believe the big deal over a stupid dropped ball anyway. Turns out little Susan wasn't the only one who saw Barry cheat. Alec Frost the High Street Bunker's fastball pitcher saw it too. When Alec takes a glass figurine of Barry's brother with no intention of giving it back, Barry comes up with a wager. Barry will hit a home run off Alec in exchange for the glass dog. Will Barry be able to succeed without bending the rules this time?
 * The Hit-Away Kid by Matt Christopher**

Camp Green Lake is not what it appears. There is no lake. There is no camp, unless you consider incarceration a fun way to spend the summer. Stanley is at the end of his luck, what little he’s had all his life. Accused of stealing sneakers, he is sent away to Camp Green Lake rather than going to jail. What he finds out is that jail would have been a whole lot better. Rising early each day, the boys are made to dg holes, five feet deep and five feet wide in the hot Texas sun, avoiding the dangers of heat and creatures. Out of necessity, Stanley learns to live in the group of outcast boys and befriends Zero. But why are they digging these holes for the warden, a woman who paints her nails with rattlesnake poison?
 * Holes by Louis Sachar**

Roy is the new kid. He's been the new kid before and he knows the drill. The local bully preys on him on the school bus. The kids at school don't socialize with him. He will get through this. But a new dimension has been added to the routine this time. One day, as he is being harassed on the bus by Dana, Roy notices a strange kid running beside the bus. The kid appears to be about Roy's age but he isn't wearing shoes. Now, Florida may have a relaxed dress code compared to Montana, but Roy is pretty sure they require shoes in school. But, the kid isn't at school that day. Or the next. Sensing a mystery, Roy sets out to find the running boy and learn his secret. Could it have anything to do with the strange goings-on at the construction site nearby? Alligators in the porta-potties? Snakes in the yard? And just what are those holes people keep stepping in?
 * Hoot by Carl Hiaasen**

The Monroes have gone on vacation, leaving Harold and Chester at Chateau Bow-Wow — not exactly a four-star hotel. On the animals' very first night there, the silence is pierced by a peculiar wake-up call — an unearthly howl that makes Chester observe that the place should be called Howliday Inn. But the mysterious cries in the night (Chester is convinced there are werewolves afoot) are just the beginning of the frightening goings-on. Soon animals start disappearing, and there are whispers of murder. Is checkout time at Chateau Bow-Wow going to come earlier than Harold and Chester anticipated?
 * Howliday Inn by James Howe**

Georgina Hayes is desperate. Ever since her father left and they were evicted from their apartment, her family has been living in their car. With mom juggling two jobs and trying to make enough money to find a place to live, Georgina is stuck looking after her younger brother Toby. When she spots a missing dog poster with a reward for $500, the solution to all of her problems suddenly seems in reach. All she has to do is borrow the right dog and its owners are sure to offer a reward. What happens next is the last thing she expected.
 * How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O'Connor**

Hiccup Horrendus Haddock the Third has been dreading the first part of a three-part initiation test to become a member of the Hairy Hooligan Viking Tribe - catching a dragon. Hiccup has read enough about dragons to know wandering into a cave with 3,000 sleeping dragons was an act of madness. But that’s what has to be done or else be exiled from the tribe forever. As son of the chief, Hiccup is tapped to lead the expedition, which quickly turns to danger when an untimely sneeze wakes one. Hiccup barely makes it out alive and later sees the dragon he managed to snag is perhaps the tiniest dragon in existence. The next test is to train it and then prove it in front of the entire tribe. Although small, Hiccup’s dragon, Toothless, is definitely stubborn and the common training technique of yelling at a dragon isn’t working. Hiccup will have to think of something quick or face banishement.
 * How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell**

Roo Henshaw has never had enough to eat, clothes to wear or responsible adults in her life. She is found hiding underneath the trailer the day her father and his girlfriend are murdered. She has never met her mother--nor the uncle she is sent to live with on Cough Rock. She is picked up by her uncle’s assistant Ms. Valentine and informed that she is not to pester her uncle or ask any questions. The secluded mansion turns out to be an old children’s hospital, one that used to house tuberculosis patients. Ms. Valentine forbids her from visiting the east wing and will not give an explanation as to why. It’s just off limits. On her first day, Roo can swear she hears humming through the walls, even though she is the only who occupies the west wing. She doesn’t believe in ghosts though even though the mail carrier and other employees say the house is filled with secrets.
 * The Humming Room by Ellen Potter**

Kirsten’s parents are barely speaking to each other, and her best friend has fallen under the spell of the school’s queen bee, Brianna. It seems like only Kirsten’s younger science-geek sister is on her side. Walker’s goal is to survive at the new white private school his mom has sent him because she thinks he’s going to screw up like his cousin. But he’s a good kid. So is his friend Matteo, though no one knows why he’ll do absolutely anything that Brianna asks of him. But all of this feels almost trivial when Kirsten and Walker discover a secret that shakes them both to the core.
 * If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period by Gennifer Choldenko**

Chip Stone is living a secret life. Only his friend Spencer knows that he is really the superhero Rockhead. In fact, Spencer wants to be his superhero sidekick. But Chip has even bigger problems to come. His nemesis, bully Troy Perkins, has just been injected with a secret serum and has turned into a Papercut, a super-bully. And as anyone who has ever played rock, paper, scissors knows, paper always covers rock.
 * The Incredible Rockhead vs. Papercut by Scott Nickel**

Grover’s Mill is not any old town. It’s located in the Weird Zone, a place where the unbelievable is the every day. Sean Vickers is out biking with his best friend Jeff and no so best sister Holly when he gets zapped by a purple light. He begins to feel strange and notices that his clothes are becoming bigger--or is it he’s becoming smaller? Sean must find a antidote before he disappears completely.
 * The Incredible Shrinking Kid by Tony Abbott**

Meet Franny K. Stein, mad scientist. She has everything a mad scientist should have--a nuclear-powered brain amplifier, a giant flesh-eating koala bear, an eyeball-remover machine. Franny is certain that if her friends knew how incredible it was to be a mad scientist, they would devote themselves to the pursuit of mad science rather than pursue their dull hobbies of Irish step dancing, stamp collecting and accordion playing. When her teacher encourages the class to share their hobbies, Franny believes this is her opportunity to help her friends see the light. She brings in a two-headed robot, but doesn’t get the reaction she expected so she sets a new plan--one where she becomes invisible to try to to influence her friends to abandon their hobbies and join forces.
 * The Invisible Fran by Jim Benton**

The Iron Giant has an insatiable appetite for barbed wire, tractors, and rusty chains, the very things the farmers need to tend to their crops. They know they must get rid of this iron destroyer, but how can then when he is so massive and they are all so small? They decide to set a trap, digging a giant hole in the earth and placing a tractor near it as bait. The trap doesn’t work until a boy named Hogarth leads the giant in. Feeling guilty, Hogarth devises a solution that will keep both the farmers and Iron Giant happy. Meanwhile, an even bigger threat hovers over the land, in the shape of an evil-looking space-bat-angel-dragon. How will the people of the world survive the impending doom?
 * The Iron Giant by Ted Hughes**

Luke, J.J., Will, Lyssa, Charla and Ian--the six are stuck on the ship Phoenix in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. None want to be there, but have been placed in the Charting a New Course program against their will. The work is grueling, the first mate Radford is abusive, but the captain seems alright. Then a giant storm hits and sweeps the captain out to sea and nearly sinks the boat. Radford and the six kids do what they can to keep the boat afloat, but with no power and no radio contact, their hope of rescue dims. Then Radford disappears taking the lifeboat and GPS system with him, leaving the kids to their deadly fate. The six sailing novices now must work together, which isn’t easy, to try to save themselves.
 * The Island: Shipwreck by Gordon Korman**

Malcolm doesn’t do things kids normally do during the summer. While they swim or play ball, Malcolm watches science programs and monster movies and conducts experiments in his lab. This summer he’s waiting for a special package to arrive. Malcolm loves ordering things from the classified ads in the back of his science magazines. This time he has ordered the new Ecto-Handheld-Automatic-Heat-Sensitive-Laser-Enhanced Spector Detector, and he knows just the place to give it its test run--The McBleaky House. Malcolm first has to convince his best friend Dandy, short for Daniel Dee, and devise a way to sneak out of his house without being detected by his parents or nosy sister.
 * It Creeps by Dottie Enderle**

Before Bean met Ivy, she didn’t like her. Ivy recently moved in across the street and Bean’s mother has been encouraging her to play with Ivy since she seems nice and is the same age. But to Bean, nice means boring. Bean’s loud, likes to splash in mud puddles and smash rocks to find gold--something she knows Ivy would never want to do. But Ivy becomes an unlikely ally when Bean is determined to play a trick on her annoying older sister Nancy, and it turns out that Ivy may actually become a friend.
 * Ivy+Bean by Annie Barrows**

Mrs. Levitt has assigned on oral report on a famous African American and set the prize as four tickets to an awesome theme park. Joe Stoshack thinks he might have a leg up on the rest of his classmates considering he can travel back in time with the help of baseball cards. Joe, or Stosh, plans to travel back to 1947 and meet Jackie Robinson, the Brooklyn Dodger who broke the color barrier by being the first African American to play major league baseball. Stosh's dad has another idea too--he wants Stosh to get some baseball cards back then that will be worth tons in the present. Stosh reluctantly agrees and transports himself back to 1947. The one thing he didn't plan on was the change in his color of skin. Now Stosh has to navigate through New York as a young African-American boy in society that still supports the idea of separate but equal.
 * Jackie & Me by Dan Gutman**

Jake Drake has been a bully magnet since day care when a runny-nosed bully took a bite out of Jake’s cookies and pushed him off his swing. In pre school it was Destructo, who destroyed everything Jake made. In first it was Jack Lerner, who Jake called the fist. He never actually hit Jake, but hit things close to him like his lunchbag. Second grade looks like it was going to be great. He has a nice teacher and zero bullies...until Link Baxter shows up. Link is a new kind of bully, a super bully, a super bully who also lives in Jake’s neighborhood. Jake’s beginning to think there’s nothing he can do about it, except live with it. But then his teacher pairs Jake and Link up to do a project together...Jake knows he has to think of something fast.
 * Jake Drake, Bully Buster by Andrew Clements**

Quiet, brilliant Portia has just moved to a new neighborhood with her mom. Adjusting to life without a father is hard enough, but school is boring and her classmates are unfriendly -- and even Portia's mom is strangely distant. But things start looking up when Portia mounts a late-night excursion into the woods behind her house and discovers a shy, sweet-natured purple monster. She feeds the monster a tuna sandwich after it tries to eat her flashlight and decides to let it follow her home. Another lonely boy Jason discovers the existence of the monster Portia names Jellaby. While at his house, Jellaby, who doesn’t talk, points out a photograph in a newspaper and Jason and Portia guess that is where Jellaby is from. They decide they need to visit the place in the photograph to bring Jellaby home.
 * Jellaby by Kean Soo**

If Howard Morton and Freddie the Frog Killer were trying to hold you down so that Mary Lou Hutton could kiss you, you might run as fast as Jeremy Thatcher did the day he stumbled into Mr. Elives’ Magic Shop, a shop he had never seen before although he lived in Blodgett’s Crossing his entire life. And if you stumbled into the strange shop, you too might be asked to make a choice. What would you buy? The Chinese rings? The Skull of Truth? or the dragon’s egg? And if you did buy the dragon’s egg, what would you do when you found out you were suppose to hatch it?
 * Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville**

Jimmy is just a normal 11-year-old boy until one night men in dark suits come to his house and tell his parents that they are here for the boy. When his mother tells him to run, Jimmy instinctively knows what to do. He races upstairs with the men in pursuit, curls himself into a ball and launches himself through his second-story bedroom window to the street below. Surprisingly Jimmy is unhurt even with a large piece of glass protruding out of his arm. He rolls underneath a car and pulls himself up by the undercarriage as the men race outside looking for him. Another group of men escort his parents and sister out of the house to a nearby vehicle. What do the men want with Jimmy? And why is he able to run, jump, climb and fight as well as he does?
 * Jimmy Coates . . . Assassin? by Joe Craig**

Joey Pigza is wired, really wired. His doctors call it ADD or Attention Deficit Disorder. Joey knows that it’s hard for him to control himself. He doesn’t mean to get into trouble: He just wondered how the pencil sharpener worked and didn’t think before he stuck his finger in it. And he knew he shouldn’t run with scissors, but he didn’t’ mean to cut his classmate’s nos. And then he swallows his house key. As Joey knows, if he keeps making bad choices, he could fall between the cracks for good. But he is determined not to let that happen.
 * Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key** by Jack Gantos

**Johnny Boo: The Best Little Ghost in the World by James Kochalka** Johnny Boo and his pet ghost Squiggle each have their own powers. Johnny has boo power, which he means he can loudly say boo. Squiggle has Squiggle power, which means he can fly through the air and do loop-de-loops. Each thinks their power is the best, but the true test of their powers come when they encounter an ice cream monster.

A huge sea monster has attacked and wrecked several ships from beneath the sea. Professor Arronax bravely joins a mission to hunt down the beast. What is thought to be a beast is really an underwater vessel called the Nautilus, headed by the mysterious Captain Nemo who has cut ties with civilization. He captures Professor Arronax, his servant Conseil and Ned Land. At first, the mission is exciting, as Nemo takes Arronax on a voyage around the underwater world. But when things start to go wrong, Arronax finds there's no escape from the Nautilus. He is now Captain Nemo's captive.
 * Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea** adapted into graphic novel format by Carl Bowen


 * Julian Rodriguez: Trash Crisis on Earth**
 * J**ulian Rodriguez is on a mission for the Mothership. He's been sent to Earth to study human lifeforms and their bizarre habits--from their disgusting diet (orange sticks named carrots, flavorless liquid called water, and the revolting substance known as veggie-dogs) to their repressive treatment of their young (forcing them to carry out menial tasks known as chores, withholding access to the great cultural masterpieces called cartoons). When Julian's Maternal Unit assigns a hideous task, it's nearly too much for the hardened space veteran to bear. He contacts the Mothership, informing it of his harsh treatment and sets Earth on a course of destruction.

Justin K. is feeling very anxious about the start of third grade. What if his new teacher Ms. Burns is a witch? What is she’s a yeller who hates kids with curly hair or blue sneakers? What if she sticks Justin behind Noah who has an extremely large head, and then Justin will never be able to see the board because Noah’s head will be in the way. What if Ms. Burns thinks boys and girls should never be partners? His best friend is Daisy, a girl, so if Ms. Burns is against this, they will stop being friends. When school starts, Justin finds out there was a mix up and he’s in a completely different class, which brings forward a new set of anxieties. This teacher, Mrs. Termini, gives out superstar stickers and Justin does not know how to actually earn one. What if he is the only student in her class to never receive a sticker? What if she gives quizzes on her two rules in class, which are really six rules rolled into one that Justin cannot even remember? Justin is certain that this year will be a complete disaster.
 * Justin Case: School, Drool and Other Daily Disasters by Rachel Vail**

When Colonel Joesph Kershaw leaves Camden, South Carolina, to lead the American rebels in their struggle against the British, he leaves his son Joey behind to fight the enemy on his own home turf. As much as Joey fears the dreaded Redcaots, he is more afraid that he may not be able to fulfill his father’s expectations. Try as he might to protect his family, the horrors of the war reach right up to Joey’s doorstep. General Cornwallis marches into town and makes Joey’s house his headquarters. Soon after, the hanging of American prisoners begins in the family garden. Although his mother urges quiet perserverence and Euven, his Quaker teacher, is against violence of any kind, Joey feels that he must strike back at the hated enemy. Joey’s determination to avenge his countrymen and earn his father’s respect places the lives of all his loved ones in jeopardy. But Joey is willing to risk all for a chance at revenge.
 * The Keeping Room by Anna Myers**

Although Leo was pleased to be the new owner of the music box, a family treasure hundreds of years old, he had no idea what he held in his hands. It had been willed to him by his great-aunt Bethany, and it never occurred to him that anything she'd owned could be dangerous or surprising. There were rules about how to play the music box on a yellowed slip of paper stuck to the bottom of the box just above the key that wound it. "Turn the key three times only. Never turn the key while the music is playing. Never pick up the box while the music is playing. Never close the lid until the music has stopped." Leo followed the rules. It was his cousin Mimi who wound the key four times, and made the butterflies appear. But, at her urging, it was Leo who turned the key six times, and opened the door between the music box world of Rondo and Leo's own world widely enough to let in not just butterflies, but also the woman in the blue gown. She was a sorceress, who told them some of the secrets of the box, and when she was swept back into her own world, she took Mimi's dog, Mutt, with her. When the music was over, and Leo closed the lid, the woman in the blue dress now held a tousled, mustard-colored dog. Mimi knew she had to get her dog back, no matter how dangerous it might be, and when Leo tried to stop her, he was sucked into Rondo with her. Will the two of them be strong enough to overcome the Blue Queen, or will they be stuck in the world of the music box forever?
 * The Key to Rondo by Emily Rodda**

**The Kidnappers by Willo Davis Roberts** Joey is doing whatever it takes to avoid meeting up Willie afterschool. After accidentally elbowing Willie in the face during gym class, Joey knows he's dead meat. He even goes so far to hide in a nearby lobby afterschool to wait for his driver to pick him up. While he waits, ducked down in the foyer, he sees Willie standing in front of the school, his face set in a scowl and his hands clenched in fists. How long will he have to stay in here, wonders Joey, when suddenly a black limo pulls in front of Willie. A man gets out, grabs Willie, throws him into the car and speeds away. Joey has just witnessed a kidnapping! Trouble is no one believes him--not parent's chauffeur who arrives a few minutes later to take Joey home, not his parents who are too busy preparing for a big party and not his older brother who thinks Joey is making up another one of his stories. What can Joey do? As much as he doesn't like Willie, he can't get the though of Willie being tortured--or worse--out of his head.

**Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark by Ridley Pearson** Finn is a tour guide at Disney although he himself doesn’t give tours in person. His image is projected as a hologram using a new technology. He loves the perks the new job gives him; he and his family can visit for free although Finn has to be disguised so as not to confuse visitors. But now he finds himself in the park at night when it’s closed with no memory of how he got there. He meets an old man named Wayne on a park bench who asks Finn what he sees. What Finn sees, he can’t believe--Disney characters walking around the park as if they were real rather than people dressed up in costumes. Wayne says he needs Finn help. There’s a problem at the park. Some of the characters, Wayne calls them the overtakers want to take over the park and eventually the world. He tells Finn he needs to find the other hologram tour guides to put a stop to this. Finn wonders if he’s gone crazy. Disney characters have come to life? This couldn’t possibly be happening or is it?

**Kit Feeny: On the Move by Michael Townsend** **Kit Feeny loves comic books, drawing, and planning "stupid awesome" schemes with his best buddy Arnold. Like the time they painted pictures on all their clothes and sold them for pizza money, or how they spend their free time "ninja fishing." But Kit, his parents, and his icky little sisters just moved and he had to leave Arnold behind. Of course, Kit did pack Arnold in a moving box, but Kit's parents quickly caught on and foiled that plot. Armed with some crazy Hawaiian shirts and a friendship test, Kit sets out for his new school hoping to find a replacement best friend. Unfortunately, who he finds is Devon, the Bully Comedian, who tells horrible jokes and picks on Kit because he is new. Bullies, bad jokes, and annoying little sisters? These are no match for Kit Feeny. **

What would you do if in the middle of your birthday party you were transported to the land of King Arthur and the Knights of the round table? That’s just what happened to Joe and his friends Sam and Fred when Joe opens a present from his magician uncle. It’s a book that lets them travel through time and the boys have landed right in front of the evil Black Knight.
 * Knights of the Kitchen Table by Jon Scieszka**

Artie has moved to a new town with his mother and sister, and is dreading his first day at a new school. He worries the other kids will find out that he stinks at sports or he won’t be able to open his locker. It doesn’t help that he misses the school bus. He meets another student named Percy while taking a short cut and lies to Percy about being an all-state champion dodge ball player. He also encounters The Horde, a group of bullies that rule the school, and immediately have it out for Artie. Worse is principal Dagger who supports the Horde while giving the other students a bad time. She decides to assign Artie locker 001XCL, the locker no student has ever been able to open although the person who does becomes the ruler of the school. Artie unbelievably is able to do so, but this act enrages the Horde, and Artie gets challenged to a dodge ball game. The stakes get even higher when a favorite teacher, Mr. Merlin, makes a bet with Principal Dagger that he will resign if the Horde wins.
 * Knights of the lunch table by Frank Cammuso**

Has your brother ever tried to sell you your own shirt? Have you ever broken your family’s couch? Or Broken your brother’s collarbone--four times? What about calling the Bad Boys’ Home on your younger brothers so they will be taken away? Jon Sciezska has, which is probably why his dad called him and his five brothers knuckleheads. Read this true story all about the acclaimed author of the True Story of the Three Little Pigs.
 * Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka**

Kristy comes up with a great idea, to form a babysitter’s club with her three best friends Mary Anne, Claudia and Stacey. Things work out well at first, but Kristy finds at times maintaining the club isn’t so easy. Some jobs aren’t as good as others and some of the girls’ parents are stricter than other parents, and what is up with Stacey’s strange diet? Add to that Kristy’s mom is getting engaged to Walter. Will Kristy be able to survive 7th grade?
 * Kristy's Great Idea by Raina Telgemeier**

Cara Landry has been put in Mr. Larson's fifth grade class. Mr. Larson is best known for not teaching. In fact, many parents request far in advance that their children never be placed in his classroom. Mr. Larson whittles away the time reading the newspaper and lets the students take care of their own learning. His style has caught the attention of Cara. Like any good reporter, Cara knows a good story when she sees it and writes a honest editorial about his teaching methods in her newspaper The Landry News, which she tacks up onto the bullentin board. Cara has gotten in trouble with the past with her reporting abilities. She took out all of her anger over her parent's divorce in articles about her classmates and teachers. But this paper is different, this paper has a heart. Mr. Larson rips it up out of anger, but realizes that Cara's editorial was spot-on. He was not teaching. Before long, The Landry News is publishing again--this time with the entire class's invovlement and Mr. Larson's explicit approval. The principal is even excited about it because now the principal may have just the ammunition he needs to get rid of Mr. Larson for good.
 * The Landry News by Andrew Clements**

School choral director Mr. Meinert is about to be laid off because of budget cutbacks, his wife is pressuring him to get out of teaching altogether, and his students mostly hate chorus. One day he finally snaps, and, without thinking it through, tells his students that he is bowing out, and they are in charge of the holiday concert. They will be up on stage for half an hour in front of everyone, and he's having nothing more to do with it. At first the students are stunned, then thrilled to do nothing during chorus period. But it dawns on them that if they don't do something they will look like fools at the concert. So they elect popular Hart Evans, who had shot Mr. Meinert with a rubber band in class just the day before, to be in charge, even though he doesn't want to do it. Now this socially talented boy and his soon-to-be-ex-teacher may have to look to each other to make a miracle out of this mess.
 * The Last Holiday Concert by Andrew Clements**

A boy (not named) gets an old, used, riding lawnmower for his birthday from his grandmother. His next-door neighbor asks him to mow his lawn. He needs money to buy an inner tube for his bike, so he agrees. Soon he gets more customers and soon he has more than he can handle. One of his customers, an aging hippie day trader named Arnold, gives the boy advice on running his business, and invests his money for him. Soon the boy has more than a dozen employees, a wad of money, is the sponsor prize fighter, and a has a run-in with a competing lawn service company. And all he wanted was an inner tube.
 * Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen**

Will’s older brother Marty usually saves his nastiest tricks for him. Marty knows Will’s afraid of ghosts so when the family vacations at a seaside town famous for its legend of Captain Crow. Marty shares the legend with his younger brothers and tells them when the sea glows at night, it is the smelly pirate looking for his new cabin boy. Marty mentions the captain only looks for 9-year-olds, which happens to be Will’s age. Will prefers to believe the scientific explanation that his dad gives him, that is, phosphorous is the reason behind the glow. But one night, while Will is trying to get home from a dance, he sees the sea is lit with an eerie glow
 * The Legend of Captain Crow's Teeth by Eoin Colfer**

Ichabod Crane has arrived in the village of Sleepy Hollow to take over as schoolmaster. He believes he is a man about town, known for his wit, intelligence and sparkling conversation although some find him to be piggish and a bore. His greatest character trait happens to be nervous fear. Ichabod is a great believer in witchcraft and is easily swayed by tales that the nearby woods are haunted. He quickly falls for Katrina Van Tassel, the only daughter of the wealthiest man in town. His attentions do not sit kindly with Brom Bones, a local woodsman who wants Katrina for himself. One night at a dance, Brom attempts to scare Ichabod with tales of a headless horseman who lurks in the woods daring passersby to race. When Ichabod sets off for the night, his heart is full of fear. His horse seems to sense danger as well. Could that dark shape lurking in the shadows be the headless horseman?
 * The Legend of Sleepy Hollow adapted by Jeff Zornow**

Will and his older brother Marty are being forced to spend the summer at the library. The very thought of the library fills the brothers with dread because it is run by Mrs Murphy, better known as Spud Murphy for the spud gun she has behind her desk. When the brothers get dropped off for the first time, they encounter a frightened boy with a scarf wrapped tightly around his neck. He begs them not to go in there and disappears. They enter and are greeted by a sour face woman who directs them to a piece of worn carpet in front of one book shelf. “Do not set foot off that carpet until you leave,” Spud Murphy warns them. But Marty has a better idea, something he thinks will mess with Spud Murphy’s head. Will wonders if he will survive the summer without getting hit by a projectile potato.
 * The Legend of Spud Murphy by Eoin Colfer**


 * The Legend of the Worst Boy in the World by Eoin Colfer**
 * With four other complaining sons, Will Woodman's parents don't have time to listen when he needs to vent. Frustrated, he hopes that his Grandad will become his confidant. When he spends Saturdays working with the old man, who is the lighthouse keeper in a seaside village, the two strike a deal to listen to each other's "sob stories." Grandad, though, always seem to have the worst stories. Poor Will can't seem to top any of his unbelievable stories, which involve shark bites on the head, badgers stealing schoolbags, and a bad run-in with tinfoil. **

Eleven-year-old Thomas Hammond has always lived next to Leepike Ridge. He never imagined he might end up lost beneath it. But that’s exactly what happens the night Tom’s school teacher comes to dinner and asks him mother to marry him. Angry and embarrassed, Tom slips out of the house and escapes down a nearby stream on a floating slab of refrigerator packing foam. The night and stars lull Tom to sleep and when he wakes, he finds he has ridden his foam raft all the way to the ridge itself, where the stream dives underground. Pulled down with it, Tom is flung over rapids and tossed through chasms until finally, miraculously, he comes to rest, sore but alive. What Tom finds under Leepike Ridge—a corpse, a dog, a flashlight, four graves, a tomb and buried treasure—will answer questions he hadn’t known to ask and change his life forever. Now if only he can find his way home again.
 * Leepike Ridge** by N.D. Wilson

Siblings Evan and Jessie Treski used to be best friends, but their relationship sours when Jessie learns she’s skipping two grades and will be in Evan’s fourth-grade class next year. Jessie thinks it will be great, but Evan is dreading it so much so he’s been ignoring his sister and has now decided to run their summer lemonade stand with someone else. Jessie is not going to take the betrayal lying down and launches her own stand in direct competition with her brother. They even make a bet: if one of them makes $100, the other has to give the winner all the profits.
 * The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies**

Leon has difficulties with fine-motor coordination, which becomes a problem when his strange and maniacal fourth-grade teacher, Miss Hagmeyer, announces that each student will have to complete a series of increasingly difficult sewing assignments before going on to fifth grade. He also has problems with the class bully, Lumpkin, and an ice machine that keeps him up all night. For his final project, Leon makes a doll that is the spitting image of Miss Hagmeyer. But when Lumpkin pours some of the coach's chewing tobacco spit on it, Leon discovers that he can control Miss Hagmeyer's actions with the doll. Suddenly life is full of interesting possibilities.
 * Leon and the Spitting Image by Allen Kurzweil**

Jamie Kelly has much to gripe about. Her mother cooking nearly kills her, her dog really eats her homework and she narrowly escaped a nickname from the school nicknamer. But her biggest gripe is classmate Angeline who everyone thinks is so beautiful and so sweet. Angeline has started using chocomint lip balm, the flavor Jamie’s best friend Isabella only uses so now Isabella can’t use it anymore. Angeline also likes Hudson the boy Jamie likes. Jamie writes all her frustrations in her diary like “Angeline is so perfect that the word “perfect” is probably not perfect enough for her. One day they’ll have to invent another word for her and when they do, I hope it rhymes with vomit or turd because I think I have a good idea for a song if they do.”
 * Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jim Benton**

Third grade is hard for Zoe who makes up outrageous stories to make herself appear more interesting. If she didn’t, everyone would know she’s a big nothing. Now everyone knows her as a big liar. She tells so many "untruths" that her classmates, teacher, and parents doubt everything she says. When something exciting finally does happen to her - seeing an eagle nest in her backyard - no one believes her. Will she ever be able to change people’s perception of her?
 * Liar, Liar Pants on Fire by Gordon Korman**

Percy Jackson was pegged as trouble almost from the moment he was born. Of course, he never did anything intentionally, but that didn’t stop him from getting blamed for things. Now, at the age of 12, Percy is trying his best not to get thrown out of yet another private school. Unfortunately, it isn’t long before school is the least of his worries. Odd things had been happening to him throughout most of his life, but he never really tried piecing any of it together. Then one day his class takes a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s there amidst the Greek artifacts that his powers are finally released. He’s also forced to fight his first monster, a winged hag, who, up until a few moments ago, was also his Pre-Algebra teacher. From that point on everyone seems to know more than they’re willing to tell and it’s not until Percy’s attacked by yet another monster that the truth finally comes out. The Greek gods are alive and well in the 21st century and trouble is brewing on Mt. Olympus. Zeus’s most powerful weapon has been stolen, everyone is blaming everyone else, and Percy is a prime suspect. Unless he and his friends can get to California to find out what's really happening, World War III may be just around the corner. However, it doesn’t take Percy long to realize that things are not always what they seem in his new myth-infested world and he’s going to need all of his wits to get past the traps the gods have set for him.
 * The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan**

Nine-year-old Eleanor thought she’d love summer camp at Camp Wallumwahpuck. Her mother loved it as a young girl. She looks so happy in those camp pictures. But the bus to get to camp is huge and scary. Eleanor doesn’t know anybody. She’s attacked by swarms of gnats and trips over a tree root on the walk to the cabin. The food is terrible and the camp is candy-free. And worst of all is swim class where she can barely keep her head above water and is laughed at for landing in the baby class. Eleanor is desperate to go home.
 * Like Bug Juice on a Burger by Julie Steinberg**

To Rachel, it seemed she had always lived on The Property right next to the National Border Defense System or what people called the Line. The Line is invisible, but everyone knows that to cross the border means inviting danger and terror into your life. No one was allowed to leave the country without the government’s permission or face the punishment of death. And why would you want to? There were whispers about Away, the territory on the other side of the Line. There were whispers about the Others who lived there. But Rachel isn’t afraid. Away was easily seen from the greenhouses on the property where her mother worked for Ms. Elizabeth Moore. Rachel has just read about strange hybrid animals spotted very near the Line. Rachel wants to see these animals. She knows she has to at least try to cross the Line.
 * The Line by Teri Hall**

Nine-year-old Sassy usually is the one who gets stuck with the last piece of chicken or the last choice of jelly beans in the bowl because she is the youngest and smallest member of the Sanford clan. Her stature has earned her the nickname Little Sister, much to her dismay. Sassy feels there's a special sparkly part hiding deep within her; it just needs some help to shine through.
 * Little Sister is Not My Name by Sharon Draper**

Ted and Kat are excited to show their cousin Salim the sites of London. Ted particularly wants to show Salim the London Eye, a huge Ferris Wheel. When they get there, they’re told they have an hour wait until boarding. Then a stranger offers the three one single ticket. Since Salim’s never ridden the ferris wheel before, Kat and Ted decide he should take it. They watch him board the pod and Ted, who enjoys counting and keeping track of things, keeps an eye on Salim’s pod as it makes its way around the wheel. A half-hour later, the pod lands and the occupants exit. Only Salim doesn’t. Maybe Ted had the wrong pod. The next one exits with no Salim. And the next. What happened to him? They know he got on. How could he possibly have not gotten off. Did he vanish into thin air? Ted, whose brain runs on "its own unique operating system" with the help of his sister Kat begin to investigate Salim's disappearance. Ted's unique personality and thought processes begins to put the pieces together. Will he and Kat be able to solve the mystery before it is too late?
 * The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd**

**March McQuin's father Alfie is a famous cat burglar. One night in Amsterdam, March watches as his father falls from a roof during one of their heists. Before Alfie takes his final breath, he tells March "Find jewels." Jewels turns out to be Jules, a twin sister Alfie knew he never had. Both are on a plane back to the United States to live in foster care and both are angry about their circumstances. They wonder why Alfie kept them apart all these years? They know nothing of the prophecy Alfie heard the night he and two other thieves stole the famous moonstones. One thief hears he will be caught immediately, which immediately happens. Another that the thief will drown, which happens later and the third, the two who were born together will die together 13 years later.**
 * Loot by Jude Watson**

Boys don’t write poetry- girls do! At least that’s Jack’s opinion when Miss Stretchberry introduces the class to writing poetry at the beginning of the school year. He just doesn’t get it. The poems she reads to the class make no sense to him, but as he listens and writes more of his own poetry he begins to appreciate the rhythm of the words. Jack begins to notice connections as he relates themes to his own life. Finally, through poetry, he is able to express his emotions about the pet dog he loved so much.
 * Love that Dog by Sharon Creech**

Lunchbox is your average basset hound: round, floppy, and not too bright. . . until he’s abducted by aliens. Then he suddenly becomes a lean, mean, garbage-machine-making, uh, machine. Frazz and Grunfloz, the hapless aliens who abducted Lunchbox, have set him the task of converting Earth’s trash into froonga, a food adored by aliens and dogs alike. Will Lunchbox and his boy, Nate, solve the world’s garbage crisis and form the first interplanetary alliance? Or will the fate of the whole solar system come to rest on whether Lunchbox can ever learn to catch a Frisbee?
 * Lunchbox and the Aliens by Bryan W. Fields**

Favorite teacher Mr. O’Connell is out sick and Mr. Pasteur is subbing in his place. Something isn’t quite right about Mr. Pasteur. He’s assigning so much work, he’s making Mr. Edison, the dreaded science teacher, seem cool. The lunch lady thinks something’s not adding up especially since Mr. O’Connell hasn’t missed a day in 20 years. Lunch Lady, who is really a secret crime fighter, decides to get to the bottom of this mystery. While Mr. O’Connell is in the faculty room, Lunch Lady searches through his briefcase, the only thing she finds is a CD containing blueprints for robots. What could the substitute be up to?
 * Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute by Jarrett Krosoczka**

What are the school librarians up to? They’re acting strangely enough to draw the notice of Lunch Lady, a secret crime fighter. Lunch Lady’s suspicions are confirmed when Terrence, Hector and Dee, otherwise known as the Breakfast Brunch, tell Lunch Lady they think the librarians are plotting something. Turns out it’s world domination. Step one? Destroy all video games. The League of Librarians is intended to hijack a shipment of new video games and consoles and destroy them. Will Lunch Lady stop them in time?
 * Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians by Jarrett Krosoczka**

Madeline is the niece of Monsieur Lard, the owner of The Squealing Pig, a (not-so-respected) restaurant in Paris. Lard would love to be a world-renowned chef, famous for his delicacies. Unfortunately, his cooking is, well... bad. Horrible. Awful. And, on top (since it has to be this way), he's a horrible, awful, bad person as well, treating his dear, sweet niece as a servant in his restaurant. She's the dishwasher, one that's often forgotten and much abused. Except, she (in her heart of hearts) would love to be a chef, too. One day, the restaurant runs out of Monsieur Lard's favorite (albeit horrible) pâté, He sends Madeline to the market and she ends up at Madame Pampelmousse’s shop, a dark dingy, out-of-the-way place. She returns with a rare pate, which immediately becomes a sensation and turns the Squealing Pig into the hottest restaurant in Paris. Trouble is Lard doesn’t know how Madame Pamplemousse makes the pate so he decides to send in a spy.
 * Madame Pamplemousse and her Incredible Edibles by Rupert Kingfisher**

Miri and her family have moved into a big old house out in the country. At last, eleven-year old Miri is going to have a room of her own, a strange shaped little attic room, away from the rest of her family. With one set of twins (boys) a year older than her, and another set of twins (girls), five years younger, Miri feels like the odd one out--the unremarkable, lonely, middle. But exploring her bedroom, she finds a mysterious piece of glass taped to the wall. When she looks through it, she finds herself back in time, in the 1930s, face to face with Molly, another little girl who is even more lonely and out of place in her family than Miri herself. Molly is an unwanted orphaned, living in fear of her bullying cousin Horst. It's clear that Horst is a no-good thief, and every day the threat of his violent temper hangs over Molly's head. Miri must figure out the magic of time travel to save her new friend....
 * The Magic Half by Annie Barrows**

Nearly every child at Springtime Elementary knows there is something unusual about Ms. Plum's third-grade classroom although former students never say much about it. It seems that anytime they try to talk about it, something funny happens to their mouths. At the start of the school year, the class is curious and, maybe, a little scared to find out what's so special about Ms. Plum. They quickly learn that it's her supply closet. Whenever she asks students to get an eraser or pencil, they return with a mysterious animal-one that seems to have the cure for whatever ails them.
 * The Magical Ms. Plum by Bonny Becker**

Miri and her family have moved into a big old house out in the country. At last, eleven-year old Miri is going to have a room of her own, a strange shaped little attic room, away from the rest of her family. With one set of twins (boys) a year older than her, and another set of twins (girls), five years younger, Miri feels like the odd one out--the unremarkable, lonely, middle. But exploring her bedroom, she finds a mysterious piece of glass taped to the wall. When she looks through it, she finds herself back in time, in the 1930s, face to face with Molly, another little girl who is even more lonely and out of place in her family than Miri herself. Molly is an unwanted orphaned, living in fear of her bullying cousin Horst. It's clear that Horst is a no-good thief, and every day the threat of his violent temper hangs over Molly's head. Miri must figure out the magic of time travel to save her new friend....
 * The Magic Half by Annie Barrows**

A half-century ago, the brilliant scientist Doctor Formaldehyde brought to life a whole bushel of veggies. Unfortunately, most of the produce “went bad,” but humanity is lucky there is an exception in the pickle, known officially as Weapon Kosher, who has been thawed from a fifty-year sleep to stop the evil plan of the Brotherhood of Evil Produce. This is all news to Jo Jo, a young girl who’s startled to find that a superhero pickle happens to live under her bedroom in a lair that rivals anything Batman ever created. She is all too happy to help, though, especially when saving the world gives her an opportunity to launch an evil cabbage at an equally evil school bully.
 * Magic Pickle by Scott Morse**


 * Mail Order Ninja by Joshua Elder**
 * Timothy McAllister is a normal kid who lives in a normal town of Cherry Creek Indiana where nothing out of the ordinary happens. He frequently gets picked on by the town bully, is frequently annoyed by his little sister, and can’t stand stuck-up rich girl Felicity Dominque Huffington. Then one day, he sees an ad in a catalog for a free ninja for up to one year. Exactly 2 to 3 weeks later, the legendary ninja warrior Yoshida Jiro arrives in a crate. Life soon changes for Timmy with a ninja warrior on his side. **

Moving is a big deal. When you move, everything changes. Your house, your neighborhood, your town...worst of all your friends. Mallory does not want to move especially since she is moving three hours away from her best friend Mary Ann. At her going away party, Mallory and Mary Ann make a pinkie swear...Mary Ann promises never to become friends with the boy moving into Mallory's old house and Mallory promises never to become friends with any boys living next door in her new neighborhood. Trouble is, the only nice kid on Mallory's street is the boy next door. Joey seems to be the only one that appreciates Mallory's sense of humor. Her older brother thinks she's an embarrassment and Joey's older sister treats Mallory with open dislike. Joey and Mallory become friends, but Mallory jeopardizes her new friendship when Mary Ann comes to visit.
 * Mallory on the Move by Laurie Friedman**

Thirteen-year-old Piper lives alone in Scrap Town #16 in the Merrow Kingdom. She scrapes by with her uncanny ability to fix machines residents scavenge during the big meteor storms when artifacts from some place beyond fall to the ground. On one meteor night, her best friend Micah stays outdoors against the orders of the kingdom instead of staying protected in the underground shelter. Piper goes after him. The two barely escape with their lives as meteors crash around them. One knocks Micah unconscious, another goes careening into a traveling caravan. In the wreckage, Piper finds an unconscious girl. She manages to get both back to the village. The girl appears to have amnesia and does not understand why or who she was traveling with the night of the storm. All she knows is she must keep away from a dangerous wolf. When the wolf--a man--turns up on Piper’s doorstep, the two flee and wind up on steam train 401 for an adventure they’ll never forget.
 * The Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson**

While playing wall-ball, Clarence, the toughest kid in third grade, calls Marvin a nose picker after Marvin beats him. The name sticks and soon everyone is acting as if Marvin always has his fingers up his nose. Even his best friends have joined in out of fear they will be labeled nose pickers as well. Then Marvin gets an idea that might put an end to the name-calling once and for all.
 * Marvin Redpost: Why Pick on Me? by Louis Sachar**

On Nov. 15, 1872, the Dei Gratia set sail from New York on course to Portugal. Onboard, a sailor spies a smudge in the distance--another boat. As the ship sails closer, the crew knows immediately something is wrong. Only three sails are still set, two have been blown away and one is loose. When the captain of the Dei Gratia uses his telescope to look on board, he sees no crewmen of any kind. Three sailors row over to the ship called The Mary Celeste. They board and search the ship from bow to stern. No people, no sign of trouble, but a few important items are missing. What’s left behind is a mystery, a mystery that has yet to be solved even to this day.
 * The Mary Celeste: An Unsolved Mystery from History by Jane Yolen and Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple**

Grace Cahill, matriarch of the world’s most powerful family, dies and leaves behind a challenge to her descendants. They can either inherit one million dollars, or forgo the money and receive the first of 39 clues that will lead them on an around-the-world adventure in search of, well, that’s a secret. Orphans Amy and Dan decided to take Grace’s challenge and find themselves competing with less honorable members of the Cahill clan who will stop at nothing to find the clues first. The siblings are lucky enough to decipher the first of 39 clues, escaping from a horrible fire that nearly takes their lives, and are soon hot on the historical trail of family member Ben Franklin to unearth the next secret.
 * The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan**

Jenna Lee is stunned when she receives a phone call from Rolly Maloo inviting her over to her house. Rolly is the most popular girl in 4th grade, and quite possibly the most popular girl in the history of the school. Jenna Lee's mother won't let her go, and Jenna feels like she just lost the greatest opportunity of a lifetime. Turns out Rolly had called Jenna to convince her to help Rolly and her friend Patty cheat on the district math test. Both Patty and Rolly are dying to get a spot on the district math team, and Jenna is the best math student in the class. During the test, Rolly tosses Jenna a note asking for the answer to question 8. Jenna is torn. She knows cheating is wrong, but she wants to feel like she belongs. She gives Rolly the answer only to be caught by Mrs. Pie when she is tossed a second note. Jenna refuses to name Rolly so Mrs. Pie begins an investigation of her own while the school swirls with rumors of Jenna Lee being a cheater.
 * Me and Rolly Maloo by Janet S. Wong**

Maggie’s 11th year was the year when everything changed. That’s when her dad’s arms and legs began falling asleep and Maggie began to see just how scary the disease “multiple sclerosis” can be. This is the year Maggie has to learn to pull herself up by her bootstraps--the family motto--and attempt to find a cure for this mysterious disease all the while continuing her plan to be the first female U.S. president and future millionaire Coca-Cola stockholder. She knows everything has to be a-okay because it has to.
 * The Meaning of Maggie by Megan Jean Sovern**

Medusa has great powers only her parents forbid her to use them. They tell her she has to find another of way of dealing with the irritating champions then by turning them into stone. Medusa is the favorite target of those three bullies Perseus, Theseus and Cassandra. They enjoy making fun of her hair full of snakes and the fact that her two best friends are a Centaur (half boy, half horse) and a minotaur (boy body with bull head). Now Medusa and her two friends are stuck on a field trip with the three champions, a camping trip on Mount Olympus. But Medusa has a secret weapon she thinks will keep her and her friends safe from the torments of the three bullies and she's bringing it with her.
 * Medusa Jones by Ross Collins**

Mr. and Mrs. Watson have a pet pig named Mercy that they treat like their own child. They sing her bedtime songs and feed her buttered toast, her favorite food in the world. One night Mercy, who is scared of the dark, decides to join the Watsons in their bed. The added weight causes the bed to almost crash through the ceiling and the Watsons are too afraid to move. Mercy scrambles out and the Watsons think she’s headed for help, but she’s really looking for buttered toast.
 * Mercy Watson to the Rescue by Kate DiCamillo**

Ginny has set ambitious goals for her 7th grade year, but as it can happen, life can be messy. Her older brother Henry is in and out of trouble, her former best friend Mary Catherine Kelly is still not talking to her after Ginny was cast as the lead in last year’s ballet and she’s not enjoying life with her step dad as much as she thought she would. Here’s the story of one girl’s worst year ever told entirely through her stuff.
 * Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf by Jennifer L. Holm**

Nate Brodie. 13, has the nickname Brady not just for his excellent throwing arm, but for his adoration of Patriot's quarterback Tom Brady. Brodie has had his eye on an autographed Brady ball for awhile and has finally saved up enough money to buy it. At the counter, his best friend Abby notices a promotion where one person will be picked up random to throw a ball from 30 yards at Gillette Stadium. If the lucky winner hits the target, he or she will win $1 million. That $1 million will go a long way for Brodie especially since his dad lost his job with his real estate company and now works two without barely making ends meet. Brodie cannot believe it when he wins the chance to make the million-dollar throw. It's supposed to be a happy and exciting time, especially considering what's going on with Abby who is suffering from a rare eye condition that is causing her to go blind. But Brodie is feeling nothing but pressure--and his great throwing arm? It feels more and more like a wet string of spaghetti.
 * Million-Dollar Throw by Mike Lupica**

Once in a house on Egypt Street, there lived a rabbit who was made almost entirely out of china. That elegantly attired rabbit was a seventh birthday present to Abilene Tulane from her grandmother, Pellegrina. Every morning, Abilene, dresses Edward in one of his extraordinary handmade silk suits and hats and winds his gold pocket watch. She sits him at the dinner table each evening, and she tucks him into his own bed each night, telling him how much she loves him. Edward doesn’t feel anything in response since most of his thoughts and feelings center on himself. He never ceases to be amazed at his own fineness, considering himself to be "an exceptional specimen"; he is not much interested in what people have to say, including the devoted Abilene. While aboard the Queen Mary, setting sail for London, Edward goes overboard into the sea. So begins his new journey when he’s plucked from ocean’s depth by a fisherman.
 * The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate Dicamillo**

Meet the Fletchers--12-year-old soccer star Sam who seems permanently attached to his cell phone; 10-year-old Jax who longs to be as cool as his older brother; 10-year-old Eli who’s excited to be attended the gifted Pinnacle School where recess is forbidden; and 6-year-old Frog who is starting kindergarten and has an imaginary cheetah named Flare. They are raised by Dad and Papa who do their best to keep their adopted brood in line. Over the course of one year, the brothers contend with a cranky neighbor who constantly threatens the cops; a new school that doesn’t seem so great; worries about popularity; and trying out new adventures.
 * The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher by Dana Alison Levy**

The day Skeet finds the dead manatee begins badly when he overhears his mom on the phone telling his dad Mac to stay away for good. Skeet, an avid angler, hopes the time on the water will help the words dissolve from his head, but what happens instead is the start of a mystery. Skeet finds the dead manatee with a bullet in its head. Who would shot an innocent manatee? Not only are they gentle, harmless creatures, but they are a protected species. Anyone who deliberately hurts one could find themselves facing a hefty fine and possibly jail time. Unfortunately Skeet's radio is busted so he has to travel back to shore to report the crime. When he returns to the scene with the sheriff deputy in tow, the manatee is gone. Skeet has a sneaking feeling that whoever did the crime was watching Skeet when he came upon the manatee, and is now covering it up. While he can't repair his parent's marriage, what Skeet can do over his spring break, is find the manatee killer.
 * The Missing Manatee by Cynthia DeFelice**

Miss Lazar is the custodian at Ella Mentry School, but she’s no ordinary custodian. In fact, most of the students are convinced she’s a superhero. She stopped a toilet from flooding the school, climbed up the side of the building to retrieve items thrown onto the roof, and has been credited with killing a ghost in the boy’s bathroom. All this attention focused on Miss Lazar has gotten the principal Mr. Klutz upset. A.J. thinks he has just the perfect plan to help Mr. Klutz feel better about himself.
 * Miss Lazar is Bizarre by Dan Gutman**

Annie Sullivan was little more than a half-blind orphan with a fiery tongue when she arrived at Ivy Green in 1887. Desperate for work, she'd taken on a seemingly impossible job -- teaching a child who was deaf, blind, and as ferocious as any wild animal. But Helen Keller needed more than a teacher. She needed someone daring enough to work a miracle. And if anyone was a match for Helen, it was the girl they used to call Miss Spitfire. For Annie, reaching Helen's mind meant losing teeth as raging fists flew. It meant standing up when everyone else had given up. It meant shedding tears at the frustrations and at the triumphs. By telling this inspiring story from Annie Sullivan's point of view, Sarah Miller's debut novel brings an amazing figure to sharp new life. Annie's past, her brazen determination, and her connection to the girl who would call her Teacher have never been clearer.
 * Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller by Sarah Miller**

It all starts when Russell Crannaker buys a “monster’s ring” from weird old Mr. Elives. Russell is sure the ring is just a silly magic trick—but he follows the instructions anyway, and slips it on his finger. Then he whispers the magic chant, twists the ring once, and suddenly he’s sprouting horns! Hair covers his face and hands. Russell has become… a monster! Russell quickly learns how to change back and forth from human to monster. But he hasn’t paid enough attention to the instructions, and when he puts on the ring on the right of a full moon, and twists it three times, Russell realizes he’s gone too far… A monster is loose in Kennituck Falls.
 * The Monster's Ring by Bruce Coville**

Jenny, 15, is happy to call her new house on Crescent Drive home. Jenny, Allie and her father have moved several times since Jenny's mother has died, so Jenny is hopeful the family will stay at this place for awhile. She loves that the street is bordered by woods, but not everything is right in the picturesque neighborhood. Her 6-year-old sister is convinced a photograph appeared and then disappeared on her bedroom wall. And then one night, the two girls see a shadowy figure and a shadowy dog in their yard. Jenny calls out "Who's there?" and watches as the man and dog drift into thin air. Things get even stranger when a new family moves in next door and the daughter April, who is Jenny's age, says she hears a woman crying in her basement. Who are these people--or ghosts--haunting the neighborhood? The elderly neighbors, the Carpeks seem to know more than they're letting on, and are refusing to talk even when things get dangerous. Jenny finds herself becoming involved in something much scarier than she ever imagined.
 * The Moonlight Man by Betty Ren Wright**

When his guardian, Uncle Squinton—the meanest man in the entire state of Maine—sells off Homer P. Figg's older brother, Harold, to take a rich man's son's place in the Union army, Homer can't just stand around doing nothing. Determined to alert the authorities (and his brother) that Harold is too young to be a soldier, Homer traces the path of the regiment. He faces many dangers, including an abduction or two, and being robbed and thrown in with the pigs, and joining the Caravan of Miracles before landing smack in the middle of the Battle of Gettysburg where the battle between the Confederate and Union army is in full swing.
 * The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by W.R. Philbrick**

Megan, Emma, Jess, and Cassidy can think of a million other things they'd rather do than be in a book club with their mothers, or with one another for that matter. But then a funny thing happens. As they explore the four girls of Little Women they learn more about themselves, their families, and one another. Will it be enough to counter all the other crazy things going on in their lives including crushes, secret dreams, real-life family drama, and all the drama of middle school?
 * The Mother Daughter Book Club by Heather Vogel Frederick**

Nine-year-old Allie Finkle likes rules. Rules help make life easier. Allie is constantly writing down new rules in her secret rule book so she will remember them. Sometimes she needs help in being a good best friend especially since her best friend Mary Kay cries a lot and always has to have her way. That's why Allie has recorded her latest rule--Don't stick a spatula down your best friend's throat--in her book after she saw how upset it made Mary Kay. Allie will need all the help she can get when her parents announce that the family is moving across town. Not only will Allie have to attend a different elementary school, but the house her parents bought is obviously haunted. Quite possibly a zombie hand lives in the attic just waiting to strangle its next sleepy vicitm--Allie knows about these things, she saw it in a movie at her Uncle Jay's house. Allie is determined to do everything she can to stop this move.
 * Moving Day: Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls, book 1 by Meg Cabot**

Mr. Louie is screwy in A.J.’s opinion. The former judge turned crossing guard is always talking about love, man. Mr. Louie tells A.J. that he drinks a love potion every morning. “School is cool,” Mr. Louie tells A.J. after he overhears A.J. saying how much he hates school. “You dudes should say you love school,” Mr. Louie says to A.J. and his friends. He’s screwy right? Now the principal Mr. Klutz has put Mr. Louie in charge of the Valentine’s Day Festival and everyone seems to be bitten by the love bug--except A.J. But then Mrs. Yonkers unveils a new Love Machine she invented that tells what a person loves and hates. Everyone is excited to test it out and it’s so accurate until it concludes that A.J. loves Andrea. Loves Andrea? He hates Andrea!
 * Mr. Louie is Screwy by Dan Gutman**

**Mudshark by Gary Paulsen** Mudshark (real name Lyle Williams), is a student with astonishing powers of observation, an iron-clad memory, and an ice-cool demeanor. Whenever something goes missing, Mudshark’s the guy to find it. But the spotlight is dimmed on Mudshark when the library gets a parrot that also knows how to find missing items. Students are so impressed that they begin to believe the bird is psychic and start coming to the bird rather than Mudshark with their questions. When all the school’s erasers disappear from the classrooms, the principal enlists Mudshark to uncover the culprit. Mudshark easily tracks down the guilty party, but wants to keep his identity secret so the man won’t lose his job. The trouble—the observant parrot. Mudshark must come up with a way to keep it from squawking the truth.

Ten-year-old girls are going missing. The girls are spotted in the middle of the night sleepwalking near the Metropolitan Museum of History and then poof, they’re gone. Maya wonders if their disappearances might have something to do with the new Mayan exhibit at the museum. When Maya’s class visited the exhibit, she swore she saw the eyes on a mummy light up although her best friend Will doesn’t seem to believe her. Then there was her encounter with the creepy security guard. He told Maya the mummy’s name was Maya and perhaps she had found her new best friend. And now Maya learns that no one else in her class saw this security guard. What is going on? Maya’s determined to find out if the disappearances and the mummy are connected even if it means putting her own life in danger.
 * The Mummy at Midnight by Steve Brezenoff**

Ever since Derek's teacher labeled him a reluctant reader, Derek has avoided reading. He'd rather have his own adventures then read some stupid book about someone else's adventures. He has a doozy of activities planned for this summer: launching water balloons at the UPS truck, using ripe avocados as hand grenades and solving the mystery behind the newspaper article he discovered in the attic. The headline said LOCAL GIRL FOUND DEAD ON THE BEACH and was dated 10 years ago. Derek knows something's up when his mom takes it from his hand all nervous like and gets rid of it. His mother has other plans for Derek, however, and they of course involve the thing he can't stand the most--reading at Learning Camp. Even though his plans for summer fun have come to a halt, he still has time to solve a mystery, right?
 * My Life as a Book by Janet Tashjian**

**My Rotten Life by David Lubar** Fifth-grader Nathan Abercrombie has more problems than just being unathletic and unpopular. After a particularly grueling day, he is convinced by outcast Abigail to try a new remedy developed by her scientist uncle called Hurt-Be-Gone, which kills emotions. When Nathan is inadvertently doused in the substance, he becomes partially dead. He no longer needs to eat, breathe, or sleep, and he doesn't feel any pain. With Abigail's uncle on the lam from the police, Nathan has only Abigail and his friend Mookie to restore him back to life before the remedy takes full effect, making him permanently dead.

When Franny's sister Zoe is recruited to attend the prestigious Allbright Academy, she refused to go unless the school admits her siblings as well. That's how Franny finds herself of the beautiful campus populated by students who are too good to be true. In fact, they're perfect; they look perfect, receive perfect grades and have perfect manners. Average, ordinary Franny's afraid she won't fit in, but then suddenly she's excelling and behaving right in line with the others. She doesn't even seem to mind that the school goes out of its way to seal off its students from the rest of the world or that students are encouraged to eat the school's signature brownies even when they're sick. But when Franny's good friend Cal comes down with appendicitis, Franny begins to suspect something ugly is underneath the perfect surface.
 * The Mysterious Case of the Allbright Academy by Diane Stanley**

It began with a jelly worm craze. Every kid at Park Place Intermediate seem to have them after reading the latest book in the popular Chillers series //The Worm Turns,// which is about jelly worms coming to life and terrorizing Cleveland. It seems like a harmless fad and Franny's dad makes a bit of cash by investing in the stock of the candy company that makes jelly worms. But Franny begins to suspect something out of the ordinary is going on when tons of students are struck down by a horrible headache. Not just at her school, but at schools across the country. Franny is beginning to believe that there is some connection between the headaches and the newest Chillers book //Mind Wave// where a character's head explodes. Franny decides to test out her theory and reads the book resulting in a horrible headache that last three days. Franny is convinced she needs to find I.M. Fine, the author of the series, to find out what is going on and put a stop to it. But it is harder than she thought to find any information on him, and events are taking a turn to the serious when students appear to be seizuring and acting like snakes after the latest Chillers release. What will the next book bring?
 * The Mysterious Matter of I.M. Fine by Diane Stanley**

**My Teacher is an Alien by Bruce Coville** Susan Simmons believes Ms. Schwartz is the best teacher ever. She is the only teacher at Kennituck Falls Elementary that does a class play. And at the beginning of the year, she threw out the boring textbook and had the students in her class read real books. But now Ms. Schwartz is mysteriously gone and Mr. Smith is subbing in her place. Mr. Smith has canceled the play, reinstated the boring textbook and has banned all music from the class. Susan notices how Mr. Smith grimaces whenever she picks up her piccolo case. This bothers Susan so much she writes a nasty note to her friend, but the note gets picked up in the rest of the math papers. Susan has to get the note back and ends up following Mr. Smith to his house. What she sees there she cannot believe.

The author would like to tell you that this book is fantastic! Gripping! He’d like to tell you about his brave 11-year old heroes, Cass and Max-Ernest. Or about how a mysterious box of vials, the Symphony of Smells, sends them on the trail of a magician who has vanished under strange (and stinky) circumstances. But he can’t. The contents of this book are secret. And he certainly wouldn't want you to know about the hair-raising adventures that follow and the nefarious villains they face. You see, not only is the name of this book secret, the story inside is, too. For it concerns a secret. A Big Secret.
 * The Name of this book is secret by Pseudonymous Bosch**

There is something wrong with the baby. It isn't like a virus, something that can be cleared up. He might not walk, or talk or feed himself. He might not even live. Steve is not sure exactly what's wrong with his baby brother, Theo. He catches snippets of conversation from his parents who spend all their time at the hospital. Then one night, Steve has a dream. He thinks he's seeing an angel, an angel who comforts him the words that she is here to help. To help with the baby. The angel is actually the queen of a colony of wasps who are building a nest outside the baby's room. In Steve's increasingly real dreams, the queen tells Steve she can make a new baby. A perfect baby to replace the broken baby. Steve just has to say yes.
 * The Nest by Kenneth Oppel**

Roscoe doesn’t mean to get into trouble. He’s a normal kid whose favorite food is blue M&Ms, favorite sport is bed jumping and favorite color is rainbow. The trouble starts when Roscoe opens the off-limits junk drawer to grab the bag of art supplies for his classroom. He also grabs three purple rubber bands, a Slinky that wouldn’t slink anymore, a doll’s head and a bottle of Super-Mega-Gonzo glue, the grown-up glue that mom calls the don’t you dare glue. His class is practicing their performance for the open house the next day, but it doesn’t go very well, and Roscoe is worried his teacher Ms. Diz will quit just like his kindergarten teacher did after Roscoe painted the class hamster. Fortunately Roscoe has a plan to save her--a super, mega, gonzo plan! What could go wrong?
 * Never Glue Your Friends to Chairs by Katherine Applegate**

Hank's class is scheduled to spend the night on The Pilgrim Spirit, a tall sailing ship docked in New York Harbor. He boards with the other students and soon learns that his nemesis, Nick McKelty, has tricked him again by nominating him for a job that involves a lot of cleaning for the mean and gruff captain. When Hank is learning knot tying, he accidentally unties the ship and they are soon adrift with a captain and first mate who are actors and know nothing about sailing.
 * The Night I Flunked My Field Trip by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver**

Your parents have let you spend the summer with your best friend Jimmy. The two of you are accompany Dr. Elizabeth Chase, an explorer and Jimmy’s aunt, to find out why a plantation on an island was abandoned. You learn from one of the crew members that the island was once home to Bloody Bob Slade, the nastiest pirate around. Legend says he hid his pirate treasure on the island. When he was out pirating, someone built the plantation on the island, infuriating Bloody Bob who in turn killed the plantation owners but kept the servants alive to serve him and his crew. One of the servants, a wise old woman put a curse on the treasure, saying if it ever left the island, the dead would come back to life. You will have to decide what you will do while on this island. Be careful, the wrong choice could make your holiday on zombie island very short.
 * Nightmare on Zombie Island by Paul D. Storrie**

Charlie Laird has not been able to sleep since he, his dad and his brother moved into the purple mansion. No, that’s not entirely true. He does not want to sleep. Because when he does, he is transported to witch’s lair. The witch promises to lock him in a cage and keep him there until it’s time for him to be eaten. These nightly visits feel to real to be just a nightmare and Charlie becomes convinced that his new stepmother Charlotte is actually a witch. He hates his stepmother, how his brother seems to not remember their real mom who got sick and died. Charlie is convinced Charlotte is the witch from his dreams and that the world of nightmares is a reality, and Charlotte plans to keep Charlie there forever.
 * Nightmares by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller**

Dylan is excited for his upcoming camping trip on the remote Halape beach in the shadow of the Kilauea volcano. The only thing that's dampening Dylan's mood is the presence of Louie, the troup's newest and toughest and most troubled member, but he promises himself he will ignore him. Never did Dylan think that he would have to rely on Louie for his very existence and the lives of others. On the first night, after a difficult trek to the campsite, the boys are awakened by violent shaking. It is an earthquake. Strong enough to shake boulders down from the cliff. The worst is not over, when a giant tsunami comes ashore and completely engulfs the camp.
 * Night of the Howling Dogs by Graham Salisbury**

The Unshusables. That’s the name for the current crop of 5th graders who can’t seem to keep their mouths shut. Add to that a mutual dislike between the boys and the girls. On a certain day, that mix--nonstop talking and boy/girl problems--almost became big trouble. Instead it became a big contest. Lynsey overhears Dave say that boys never talk as much as girls. In fact, he thinks he can prove it by challenging all fifth-grade girls to a no talking contest.
 * No Talking by Andrew Clements**

Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think of life before the war. It's now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen Denmark is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching through town. When Annemarie’s father hears that Jewish families will be rounded up and relocated to concentration camps, he devises a plan to have Ellen move in with them and pretend to be one of the family while her parents flee. Annemarie sees the danger of their situation when, on the first night, German soldiers bang on their apartment door, demanding to know where the Rosens are. Knowing that is not safe for Ellen to stay in the area, she, Annemarie and Annemarie’s mother began a dangerous journey to her Uncle Henrik’s house to keep Ellen safe.
 * Number the Stars by Lois Lowry**

Oggie Cooder is unique, unusual, one of a kind. His parents own a thrift store, and the only clothes they bought were underwear and socks. Everything else came from the store. Oggie loves plaids and stripes, especially together. But he doesn’t pay a lot of attention to what he wears. He just grabs a shirt and a pair of pants, puts on his sneakers with the laces he had crocheted himself, and he’s good to go. The only other thing he needs is his cheese. Two slices of processed American cheese in his back pocket. Oggie's talent happens to be "charving" cheese slices, which is a cross between chewing and carving. His ability to charve the outlines of different states could land him on an "American Idol"-like television program called "Hidden Talents," but before the audition, he captures the interest of Donnica Perfecto, who has great ambition but no great talent. She decides to steal her classmate's unusual talent; when that doesn't work, she takes over as his manager. Pushed to the limit, Oggie finally makes some decisions about what's important to him.
 * Oggie Cooder by Sarah Weeks**

**Oggie Cooder: Party Animal by Sarah Weeks** Oggie Cooder can barely contain his excitement. In fact it's almost impossible for him not to make his Prrriippp! Prrriiiip! sounds when he thinks about the invitation that came in the mail. Oggie has been invited to Donnica Perfecto's birthday pool party. Oggie has always wanted to take a dip in his next-door neighbor's pool and now he has the chance. You see, Oggie's been invited to Donnica Perfecto's birthday party. Little does he know, though, that Donnica was forced to by her mother who is trying to get into the local garden club by staying on good terms with Oggie's mother. Donnica has no intention of letting Oggie anywhere near her party and has devised the perfect plan to keep him out---a list of party rules that Oggie could never be able to follow.

**Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett** Johnny is playing a pirated copy of the new video game, // Only You Can Save Mankind //, when suddenly a message appears on the screen -- "We wish to talk." It takes a while for him to accept that it is a genuine message. These aliens don't want to fight, they want to surrender and be granted safe conduct back to their home world. But that's not how the game is supposed to work, right ? Before too long he finds himself in a struggle to convince Sigourney, an obnoxious but very smart girl who is the top player in the game, to stop killing the aliens and help him help them get back home. Meanwhile, the alien commander finds herself in deep trouble for having sent out the peace message and Johnny and Sigourney have to enter the alien spaceship and rescue her before Johnny can lead the aliens home and out of harms way.

Joel’s friend Tony always seems to be daring him on. It’s Tony’s idea to ride their bikes to the state park and climb on the bluffs although someone died during that very same thing. Joel tries to get out of it, but he doesn’t want to be called a chicken. On the way there, Tony stops on the bridge overlooking the treacherous Vermillion River. He challenges Joel to swim in it. Both boys have been warned never to go near the river, but Joel gives in and even dares Tony to swim out to the sandbar. When Joel surfaces, he sees no sign of Tony. It then dawns on him that his friend can’t swim.
 * On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer**

This story is told from the point of view of two dogs who think they have a handle on the human world, but are amusingly mistaken. Down Girl, who believes that is her real name because her owner Rruff is constantly saying Down Girl, and her neighbor Sit laugh at the their owners for not burying their treasures, and Down Girl protects all the food in the house by eating it. The two pooches have adventures involving a neighboring cat, a gate that is accidentally left open, and dreaded pet-sitters. Through out it all, Down Girl continually maintains that dogs don't lie, have big brains, and know how to protect their owners. Their owners may feel a bit differently.
 * On the Road by Lucy Nolan**

**Ottoline and the Yellow Cat by Chris Riddell** Ottoline Brown lives in the Pepperpot Building in the Big City with her friend, a small, very shaggy creature rescued from a Norwegian bog called Mr Munroe. Ottoline is a big problem solver. She’s always looking for something to do, work on a puzzle or figure out a clever plan. When Ottoline and Mr. Munro learn that lap dogs are missing all over town, their adventure begins. Find those lap dogs and watch that yellow cat.

**Otto's Orange Day** **by Jay Lynch** Otto loves the color orange. Without orange things, the world would be boring. When his aunt sends him an old orange lamp, Otto cannot believe his luck. The lamp holds a genie who tells Otto he will grant him one wish. Otto immediately know what he wants--he wishes everything in the world was orange. Otto loves the change, at first, but when he has to eat orange lamb chops, he thinks that maybe his wish wasn’t so wonderful after all. How can Otto get the world back to what it was?

Meet Billie Jo Kelby, a fourteen year old, who blames herself for the death of her mother and her baby brother. She tries to talk to her father but she knows that he believes it is totally her fault for the bad accident. She knows in her heart that everyone blames her, but in her mind she keeps asking the question, why did my pa put kerosene beside the stove, instead of the pail of water that was usually there? With no one to talk to, Billie Jo believes life would be better if she leaves her sorrows and searches for a new life somewhere else. Life in the Oklahoma Dust Bowl during the Great Depression is tough for anyone; but in an attempt to heal herself, can Billie Jo find the strength to take up roots and leave behind everything she has every known? Can Billie Jo forgive herself? Can she regain her father's love?
 * Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse**

In this nearly wordless comic book, Owly is desperate for a friend. He finds one when he saves a worm from drowning and nurses it back to health. Worm tells Owly about how he got separated from his parents during a thunderstorm and hopes to get back there. Although Owly knows he will be alone again, he helps Worm find his home again. In the second story Owly and Worm befriend two hummingbirds in the spring. Owly even buys flowers for the hummingbirds to feed on the nectar and launches a daring rescue attempt when one gets caged. But when winter rolls around, it’s time for the hummingbirds to say good-bye.
 * Owly by Andy Runton**

Jeff Connors is happy to be back on the hockey team after his grades in English kept him off last year. He’s determined to stay on this time and is even using the help of a tutor especially since the coach is using alternates this time to take the place of any player that becomes ineligible to play. His English essay comes back to him full of red marks when it dawns on Jeff that it wasn’t the paper he turned in. He begins to believe someone is trying to sabotage him to get him off the team permanently.
 * Penalty Shot by Matt Christopher**

Did you ever wonder why Peter Pan can fly or why he never grows up? In this prequel, Peter is just an average kid except he's an orphan from the St. Norbert's Home for Wayward Boys. Peter and a small group of orphans have been placed on the run-down ship Never Land headed toward the island of Rundoon where they will likely be the servants of King Zarboff who is known for feeding servants to his snake. Aboard the ship is a trunk that holds a magical substance with the power to change the fate of the world, and many long to get their hands on it. Fellow passenger Molly Aster explains to Peter that the trunk contains starstuff, a very powerful element that can bring people great power, transform animals, and can make people fly. Molly is an apprentice starcatcher whose job is to return the starstuff before it falls into the wrong hands. Unfortunately the infamous pirate Black Stache has heard about a trunk full of riches and has set his sights on capturing it for himself. Just as he's about to conquer the ship, a terrible storm tears the Never Land apart, and Peter, Molly, the trunk and other passengers find themselves stranded on an island. Also on this island is a village of natives who don’t like strangers, and sailors and pirates who are determined not to let a group of children stop them from obtaining the trunk.
 * Peter & the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson**

Here’s what you need to know about Phineas L. MacGuire, boy-scientist extraordinaire, aka Mac: 1) he’s allergic to purple, telephone calls, and girls and can prove it. 2) He’s probably the world’s expert on mold, including which has the highest stink potential. 3) He does have a best friend. His best friend moved away a week before school started, leaving him without a partner for the science fair. Disaster strikes when his teacher pairs Mac with a new student who happens to take great joy in bullying Mac. Worse this kid wants the project to be on dinosaurs, which is so third grade.
 * Phineas L. MacGuire. . . Erupts! by Frances O'Roark Dowell**

Tad has set five New Year’s resolutions: The first two seem the easiest to accomplish. The others...well they lead to some embarrassing situations for our young hero. Like, his idea to dress up as a Navi from Avatar for Halloween party where hardly anyone else is dressed up, earning him the nickname Smurf. (read pg. 10)
 * Planet Tad by Tim Carvell**
 * start a blog
 * finish 7th grade
 * figure out how to do a kickflip on skateboard
 * get girls to notice him
 * finally start shaving

Ms. Wurtz hid a blank book in the Writer’s Corner of her classroom hoping that students would find it and write in it. She has only two rules: Have fun and sign your name. Lizzy finds it first and hopes only the girls will know about it, but that quickly ends when Luke, his first name rhymes with puke, finds it next and draws a picture of himself puking. Soon the whole class is writing in it and Lizzy doesn’t like what some students are writing and wants to add new rules to govern the writing of the book, which she herself can’t even follow. The journal entries lead to such activities from the Stinky Feet Experiment to Collection Day. Then the book goes missing. Who could have possibly taken it and why?
 * Please Write in this Book by Mary Amato**

When his coffee table's leg breaks, Stone Rabbit replaces it with the cursed peg leg of a long-dead pirate--and inadvertently unleashes the ghostly fury of Captain Barnacle Bob Suddenly, our hero finds himself clashing cutlasses with salty specters and fleeing from scary sea beasts. Will Stone Rabbit escape with both of his long ears intact? Or will he end up as a squid's snack?
 * Pirate Palooza by Erik Craddock**

What would you do if some mysterious person gave you a machine that could undo things, fix any mistake? That’s what the mysterious old man gives to Gib Finney. Gib knows he should not take something from a stranger especially a stranger insisting he isn’t going to hurt him and that he had to talk quickly because he was about to disappear any second. The mystery man has no time to explain how the machine--the Unner, he calls it--works, but he’s desperate to get it into Gib’s hands. And poof, he’s gone. Did that just happen, Gib wonders. He fiddles with the machine, but can’t make heads or tails of it. Night quickly descends and pretty soon Gib can’t see two inches in front of his face. He rushes home to avoid missing curfew and ends up tripping and losing the machine. It’s impossible to find in the darkness and Gib leaves. But soon he finds he desperately needs this machine to reverse a terrible accident--a terrible accident he blames himself for.
 * The Power of Un by Nancy Etchemendy**

In book three of the series, Sabrina and Daphne Grimm tackle their most important mystery: Who kidnapped their parents more than a year ago? Sabrina enters the hideout of the Scarlet Hand, the sinister group of Everafters who are keeping her parents prisoner. She has a chance to rescue her mom and dad but is foiled by the most famous fairy-tale character in the world. With the help of her little sister (who might be tougher than Sabrina realizes) and a long-lost relative, Sabrina finds a powerful weapon for fighting her enemies, and discovers that magic has a high price.
 * The Problem Child by Michael Buckley**


 * Project Mulberry by Linda Sue Park**
 * Both members of an after school club with a focus on agriculture, Julia and her best friend Patrick have teamed up to do an animal project that they hope will win a blue ribbon at the state fair. But what kind of animal can they raise. Farm animals are out of the question--so are pets. Julia's mother gives them the idea of raising silkworms. Patrick is immediately excited. He sees a chance to win two ribbons since Julia could use the silk from the worms to embroider, but Julia is less than thrilled with the whole idea. She thinks it's too Korean. She wants to do a nice American project not something that calls attention to her ethnicity. In Chicago, Julia's family was one of many Korean families, but in Plainville they were the only one. She still remembers the first day of school when a group of girls made fun of her. Julia sets out to secretly sabotage the project while openly pretending to be on board. **

Tim is being forced to spend the weekend with his father while his mother is out of town. Tim barely knows the man, only seeing him on his birthday and Christmas, and even then his dad would arrive with an awful present, mumble a few words and leave as quickly as possible. The only upside to the weekend is that Tim will get to watch the taping of a TV show. His dad is in charge of staging, which means he builds sets and props. When Tim finds that it’s Dr. Riddle, a boring kids’ show starring a puppet, he knows the weekend is only going to get worse. At the TV station, his dad angrily warns Tim to stay out of the way. Tim begins to notice that something strange is going on when he sees the puppet master. It’s almost as if he treats the puppet as a real boy. When Tim overhears the puppet master talking to his puppet, he’s almost certain the puppet is answering back. When they catch Tim snooping, Tim gets a chill down his spine when it seems like the puppet is really looking at him. But that can’t be, right?
 * The Puppet's Eye by Ian Bone**

Logan knows he shouldn't have been playing tag in the library reference stacks and he's sorry that he crashed into Professor Wordsworth. But what did the strange old man mean when he said that Logan should be punished? Suddenly, the boy starts speaking in puns really awful puns and he can't stop. His family and friends think he's just smarting off, but Logan quickly realizes that he is under a curse. According to the professor, there is only one way to break the spell. Logan has three days to collect seven oxymorons, seven anagrams, and seven palindromes or the pun-ishment will continue forever.
 * Punished! by David Lubar**


 * The Puzzling World of Winston Breen by Eric Berlin**
 * Noted puzzle-solver Winston Breen never expected the birthday gift he bought his sister Katie would turn into the greatest puzzle of his life. When Katie discovers as secret compartment in the keepsake box and four strips of wood with letters and numbers on them, she has unearthed the pieces of a 25-year-old mystery. The puzzle centers around one of the town's founders, Walter Fredericks. He left the puzzle pieces to his children in his will. Three have since died leaving town librarian Violet Lewis the sole survivor. Winston soon discovers that the other strips of wood have landed n the hands of less-honest treasure hunters, and he reluctantly joins forces with them and the Lewis to see if together they can solve the puzzle. But the treasure hunt turns **
 * out to be more dangerous than Winston expected. **

Lyle and his best friends Marilla and Dave are looking for adventure on what would otherwise be a boring Christmas Day. So far their only option is checking out the gallon drum of banana puree behind the old Kroger. But then during civics class, another student brings in an article about an upgrade to the town’s sewage plant. The three learn that the upgrade will replace the old sludge fountain. Sludge fountain?!? Isn’t that basically a geyser of poop? That’s definitely worth checking out. rd. pgs 55-60
 * The Quikpick Papers: Poop Fountain! by Tom Angleberger **

Rose isn't like everybody else. When she gets upset, she may blurt out, "Two, three, five, seven, eleven, thirteen!" She loves prime numbers: they make her feel safe. She especially loves homonym--words that sound the same, but mean different things. Her name is a homonym, and she purposefully gives her dog Rain a name with two homonyms. Rain keeps Rose calm and seems to understand her when so few--her teachers, classmates and single father--do not. Then one night, her father lets Rain out during a massive storm and Rain does not come home. Rose is determined to find her dog even if it means visiting every animal shelter for miles around.
 * Rain Reign by Ann Martin **

Benny, aka Bounce, just wants to use the town’s skatepark, but Crunch, an older bully, has taken over the place with his posse of hanger-ons. Crunch has made it his mission to not let Bounce use the place. With nowhere else to skate and police officers cracking down on skateboarders, Bounce is left with nowhere to go. When his older stepbrother Marcus shows up for a visit, Bounce finds out he has something in common with him--a love for skateboarding. When he tries to show Marcus the skatepark, Bounce has another run-in with Crunch...but this one leads to a bet. If Bounce, Marcus or Bounce’s friend Pema beat Crunch at a skateboard competition, Bounce can skate there. If they lose, Bounce will never skate there again. With no place to practice, Bounce feels he will have nowhere to skate ever again.
 * Ramp Rats by Liam O'Donnell**

When Lindy, 11, gets stuck having to eat a dish prepared by Mrs. Unger, aka Granny Goose, at the annual Bloomsberry Cucumber Festival, she finds a ruby-encrusted locket in the concoction. The item is one of the many heirlooms Mrs. Grimstone reported stolen from her home earlier in the week. Lindy seriously doubts that Granny is the thief. The woman cares little for material goods and spends most of her time rescuing and looking after animals, especially her goose. Lindy’s worried that Mrs. Unger is being set up. It’s up to her, her friend Margaret and their annoying classmate Gus to find the real thief.
 * A Recipe for Robbery by Marybeth Kelsey**

Carter Kane lives out of his suitcase, flitting from this place to that, with his Egyptologist father Julius Kane. He sees his younger sister Sadie twice a year. Sadie resides with their maternal grandparents in London, and lives what Carter sees as a normal life. She gets to attend school and have friends--unlike Carter. Sadie has lived with the grandparents ever since their mother died six years ago in an accident that the grandparents blame on Julius**...**hence the separation. Sadie envies her brother's journeys especially the time he gets to spend with their father. The siblings have little in common, and Carter is not looking forward to this Christmas Eve visit especially since his father is acting oddly--always looking over his shoulder as if being chased, which it turns out he is. He needs to get to the British Museum to look at some ancient Egyptian artifact. It is the Rosetta Stone, and the children witness their father performing strange incantations over it and reciting the name of Osiris and ancient Egyptian god. What the siblings come to learn is that their father has awakened five Egyptian gods, one of whom is currently encasing their father in a golden casket. The two are now racing to save their father while trying not to get killed by the many people who are trying to stop them.
 * The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan**


 * The Real Boy by Anne Ursu**

The Barrows is the name given to the enchanted forest that encircles the shining city of Asteri. The very earth is full of magic and protected by the giant wizard trees that once were actually wizards. As legend goes, when a wizard dies, he returns to the earth. The city is a beacon of hope in a land that was once ravished by the terrible plague. Now no wizards remain in The Barrows anymore. Just the magician Caleb who can concoct any potion or spell to help the shining people find love or wealth. Oscar, a young orphan boy, works for Caleb in the cellar grinding the herbs with his pestle and keeping company with the many cats. Oscar knows he's not like other people. When Caleb keeps leaving for business on the continent and his apprentice Wolf is killed, Oscar is called upon to run Caleb's magic shop. Caleb feels as if his ordered world is coming apart. He doesn't understand these people's wants and needs. He gets help from the healer's apprentice Cassie to run the shop in exchange for Oscar's herb concoctions. Something is happening with the city children...some strange illness that is causing one to lose his memory and another to lose his sight. Not only that, but appears Wolf's death is no accident, and that a strange monster is stalking the forest. Oscar wonders why his magic world is crumbling.


 * Revenge of the McNasty Brothers by Greg Trine**
 * Things have settled down for Melvin Beederman and his assistant in uncrime Candace Brinkwater since the McNasty Brothers were sent to prison. But when things get quiet, that can only mean one thing--trouble is brewing. The McNasty Brothers are bent on revenge and break out of prison with the help of their two smelly, mean sisters Mudball and Puke. Crime leader Grunge McNasty devises a plan to capture Melvin and strip him of his superpowers. He knows all too well about Mevlin's problem with bologna, how it causes him to lose all of his strength, but he also know too well that that plan did not work so well the first time when Melvin and Candace ate the bologna and put the brothers in jail. He's sure this time, however, he will succeed. **

Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot by Dav Pilkey Ricky Ricotta is a mouse who lives with his parents in Squeakyville. He loves school, but does not like walking to school because bullies pick on him due to his size. Every day Ricky wishes for something BIG to happen. Little does he know that something BIG is happening right now in a secret cave above the city. Dr. Stinky has created a giant robot to destroy Squeakyville so he can rule the world. Ricky unwittingly earns himself a BIG friend when he stops Dr. Stinky from zapping the giant robot

Meet Sorceress Lady Lamora who wants a red and black velvet robe studded with skulls, but no gold to pay for it. She lives in a castle in the village of Fracture. Afraid to upset the Ancient Crones designing her new outfit, she concocts a scheme to turn some of the princes and princesses who live within the five kingdoms into frogs and have their parents pay for their safe transformation back. Gracie Gillypot also lives in Fracture. She tries to make the best of her situation, but her smiles land her in the cellar and earn her the ire of her mean stepfather and evil stepsister Foyce. She's hungry, cold and lonely, but is promised a better life by a bat flying through the window who gives her the tools to escape to the Ancient Crones. Gracie follows the bat because the unknown has to be better than her current life. There is also Marcus, second in line to throne at Gorebreath, but with little interest in parties and royal events. He longs for adventure, but is cooped up behind the castle walls until the same bat flies in his kingdom promising a quest. Unknown to all three, their fates are entwined together.
 * Robe of Skulls by Vivian French**

When a dog buys a mail-order robot kit and puts it together, the two become fast friends. On an ill-fated trip to the beach salt water works its corrosive way on the robot, and the dog is forced to leave his immobilized friend lying on its towel on the sand. Their separate stories unfold over the next 11 months. The dog has a change of heart and returns to the beach to repair his friend only to find the beach closed for the season. He continues trying out new friendships that aren’t quite as satisfying as the one he had with robot. Meanwhile the robot lies suffering the ravages of weather and neglect and dreaming of friendships past and possible.
 * Robot Dreams by Sara Varon**

Ted Hammond loves a good mystery, and in the spring of his fifth-grade year, he's working on a big one. How can his school in the little town of Plattsford stay open next year if there are going to be only five students? Out here on the Great Plains in western Nebraska, everyone understands that if you lose the school, you lose the town. But the mystery that has Ted's full attention at the moment is about that face, the face he sees in the upper window of the Andersons' house as he rides past on his paper route. The Andersons moved away two years ago, and their old farmhouse is empty, boarded up tight. At least it's supposed to be.
 * Room One, a Mystery or Two by Andrew Clements**

Helvetia's Hooligans are the worst bullies at school, and they have chosen nine-year-old Roxie Warbler to be their Victim of the Year, because her ears stick out. One day the Hooligans chase Roxie into a Dumpster. They all end up stranded on a deserted island far out at sea. The bullies are hungry, thirsty, and scared. It's Roxie to the rescue! Her Uncle Dangerfoot has often told her stories of his many adventures with his friend, Lord Thistlebottom. And she has read Lord Thistlebottom's Book of Pitfalls and How to Survive Them so many times that she has memorized it. She takes charge, and the bullies are glad to follow her. But there are also dangerous robbers hiding out on the island. Will Roxie's survival skills be enough to bring her and the Hooligans home?
 * Roxie and the Hooligans by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor**

It’s football season again and Rufus wants to help Coach Stone have a winning season. Sure, Rufus is the biggest kid around. But he’s too clumsy to be anything but a scrub. He’ll do anything to be a better player—even take ballet. He tries to keep it a secret, but when he has to leave practice for dance class, Rufus has to tell the coach where he’s going. Now everybody knows. And everybody—including his friends—make fun of Rufus the ballerina man. Yes he dances with 8 year old girls, but he does not wear a tutu.
 * Rufus the Scrub Does Not Wear a Tutu by James McEwan**

Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life, which is nearly impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She’s spent years trying to teach David the rules--from “a peach is not a funny-looking apple” to “Keep your pants on in public”--in order to stop his embarrassing behaviors. But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a paraplegic boy, and Kristi, the next-door friend she’s always wished for, it’s her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal?
 * Rules by Cynthia Lord**

Thirteen year old Jessie lives with her blacksmith father and midwife mother and several siblings in a frontier town in 1840. Then her mother tells her the truth: the year is really 1996 and they are actually living in a historical village, where tourists watch them via hidden cameras. The worst news is they’re being held captive by the owner of the complex who won’t provide them with medicine despite an outbreak of diptheria. Jessie has to escape and find help in a modern world she can’t even begin to understand.
 * Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix**

Abigail proved she was brave and stouthearted when she didn't even whimper the six hours she was placed in the stocks for racing against a boy, something the townspeople strongly disapprove of in their religious village. But that is nothing compared to the tribulation she faces now in the year 1692 in Andover. In nearby Salem Village, young girls are accusing their neighbors of witchcraft, a serious crime that carries a death sentence. When two Salem girls come to Andover to uncover witches, they accuse neighbors Abigail and her family have known for years. Goody Osgoode a witch? Abby had spent several hours with the kindly Mistress Osgoode learning to stitch. Then Abby's Aunt Elizabeth is accused and sent to the deplorable jails in Salem town. Soon Abby herself and her older sister Dorothy are accused of practicing witchcraft by a former maid and are thrown into a jail with no light, no heat, little food and infested with bugs and rats. They learn from the other accused that no one is ever proved innocent. The only path for freedom is to accuse someone else. What will Abby do?
 * The Sacrifice by Kathleen Benner Duble**

Imagine turning 13 and having supernatural abilities? Mibs Beaumont is approaching her 13th birthday That day is when each of her family members have discovered their "savvy"—their unique magical power. Her brother Fish can cause hurricanes and her brother Rocket can create electricity. But just before Mibs big day, her father is in a terrible accident and now lies in a coma in the hospital. Will she get her savvy in time to save him.? Will Mibs be able to move mountains or produce time traveling sneezes like other members of her family? Join Mibs and her traveling companions as they take an unusual journey to discover her abilities and try to save her father.
 * Savvy by Ingrid Law**

When Grams returns from a visit to her daughter and she tells Sammy that she was treated badly, the girl is determined to set things straight between the grandmother with whom she lives and her mother, an aspiring actress. She hops a bus with her best friend Marissa and heads to Hollywood, letting Grams in on the situation while on the Greyhound. They arrive to find Sammy’s mother living in a ritzy neighborhood, and none to happy to see them. Lana is using the name Dominque and is claiming to be 25 years old, making it very unlikely that she would have a 13-year old daughter so Sammy has to pretend to be her niece. Sammy finds that her mother’s living situation is a bit unusual. She has a curfew and follows a strict regiment in exchange for a place to stay while Max, the owner of the house, tries to turn her into a big star. He also wants to make Sammy’s mother his wife although Lana doesn’t love him. But that goes on the back burner when one of the other housemates LeBrandi is found dead in Lana’s bedroom. She looks just like Lana too. When it’s discovered that LiBrandi was murdered, Sammy goes into overdrive to find the killer especially since she thinks the murderer got the wrong target.
 * Sammy Keyes and the Hollywood Mummy by Wendelin Van Draanen**

**Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief by Wendelin Van Draanen** Sammy secretly lives with her grandmother in a ‘seniors only’ apartment complex. She’s not allowed to make much noise, so she passes the time spying on her neighbors with binoculars. One morning she is looking into the windows of the hotel across the street, when she spots a thief burgling one of the rooms. Instead of calling the police, Sammy watches until the thief catches her staring. They both stare at each other until Sammy breaks the spell by waving at him. Later, a threatening note is slipped under their neighbor’s door. Sammy realizes that unless she helps the police figure out who the thief is, she and her grandmother will be in danger. The only problem is that the police do not want her help. Sammy, however, won’t let that deter her.

**Sammy Keyes and the Skeleton Man by Wendelin Van Draanen** On Halloween, Sammy convinces her best friend Marissa and new friend Dot to knock on the door of the scary Bush House, named so because of the tangle of unkept bushes. On the way, they bump into a man dressed in a skeleton costume carrying a sack. Sammy thinks nothing of it until she goes to knock on the Bush House door, finds it open and sees a small fire in one of the rooms. Without thinking, Sammy rushes in to put out the fire and sees the owner tied up with a Frankenstein mask over his head. Marissa and Dot get the police while Sammy interviews the owner, learning that he has been robbed of his wallet and some candlesticks. Sammy wonders why someone would go through so much trouble over items of such little value? What was the thief really after and who could it possibly be?


 * Scat by Carl Hiaasen **

Bunny Starch, the most feared biology teacher ever, is missing. She disappeared after a school field trip to Black Vine Swamp. And, to be honest, the kids in her class are relieved. But when the principal tries to tell the students that Mrs. Starch has been called away on a "family emergency," Nick and Marta just don't buy it. No, they figure the class delinquent, Smoke, has something to do with her disappearance. And he does! But not in the way they think.

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

It's Hotsy Totsy Monday at Harvey N. Trouble Elementary and the bus driver Mr. Stuckinaditch has gotten the school bus stuck in a ditch making Ron Faster and his classmates late for school again. This fact doesn't seem to bother Miss Ingashoe, the principal, who appears to be wandering the parking lot because she is missing something. Things get more chaotic when Oopsie Spiller brings her kindergarten teacher Mr. Hugh Da Mann a glass of orange juice and suddently the cup flies out of her hand, prompting Janitor Iquit and Assistant Janitor Quitoo to quit immediately. Finally Ron Faster makes it up the 23 stairs to Mrs. Petzgalore's classroom only to find his teacher out with a pet emergency and substitute Mr. Norman Don't-Know teaching in her place. Can Mr. Don't-Know continue on with the lesson on the Roman Empire. "I don't know about the Roman Empire," he says. What about fractions? He doesn't know about adding fractions or anything about vowels or when Mrs. Petzgalore is coming back. It's just the start of a troublesome week at Harvey N. Trouble Elementary, a week where Mrs. Doremi Fasollatido loses her orange wig and cat, the janitors announce they quit daily and the lunch ladies walk out when the kids refuse to eat Beanie weenies.

**Secret Identity (Shredderman Vol 1) by Wendelin Van Draanen** Bubba Bixby was born big and mean, full of teeth and ready to bite. He bullies everyone at school, but he’s sly about. He’s able to get away with flipping over lunch trays, stealing from other students and shaking kids down for their lunch money without teachers seeing. Nolan Byrd tries to avoid Bubba even though he’s stolen Nolan’s favorite comic book and has designated him with the nickname Nerd. When their fifth grade teacher Mr. Green assigns the monthly project, Nolan sees an opportunity. Mr. Green wants the students to take on the role of reporters, and Nolan sees it as his chance to expose Bubba for all his cruelty and injustice. In order to keep his face from being pounded in, Nolan takes on a secret identity—Shredderman and launches his own Web site where he documents Bubba in the act. Now to just let the other kids know about it without exposing himself.

Mr. Melville is a strict and difficult teacher what with his floating midterm and all, which he can announce at any time with little notice. But what his students love are his special projects. He has just assigned another one--solve a mystery from your life. Bethesda Fieldin has the perfect one. She is going to uncover the secret life of her mousy, unremarkable music teacher Ms. Finkleman. Ms. Finkleman is not a popular teacher nor is she unpopular, she's just not thought of, which is exactly how she likes it. When Bethesda uncovers that Ms. Finkleman was the lead singer in a punk rock band called Little Miss Mystery and the Red Herrings, she unwittingly sets forward a course of events that will change her music teacher's life forever.
 * The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman by Ben H. Winters**


 * The Secret of the Painted House by Marion Dane Bauer**
 * Emily and her family have just moved from Chicago to the country, and Emily is miserable. No other children for miles unless she counted her little brother, which Emily didn't. Emily explores the woods and comes upon an abandoned playhouse. When she peers inside, she sees the walls are covered in paintings of trees that look identical to the trees outside and a white playhouse that looks identical to the one Emily found. Emily learns from a neighbor that the playhouse was built for a little girl named Pin who died in a fire. Pin's mother had painted the mural on the wall just before she abandoned her family. Emily visits the playhouse again and accidentally breaks a window. She goes inside and sees the tiny figure of the girl painted in the wall. Emily asks "Are you Pin" then feels foolish for talking to a painting. As she turns to leave, she hears a voice that says "Emily, wait!" **

Alan and Leah wake up in the middle of a forest, wondering how they got so far from home. A stone frog appears, telling the siblings to follow the path if they want to go home. But they quickly veer off the trail when Alan spots a house and, thinking of his hungry stomach, wonders if the occupants have cookies. Soon Leah and Alan are being chased by a an army of bees commandeered by the big-headed Bee Lady. They search frantically for the stone frog and the way home.
 * The Secret of the Stone Frog by David Nytra**

Julian Calendar has a plan to avoid being a friendless nerd at his new school: Play dumb and pretend to love sports. But his plan goes wrong when he goes on and on about propellers during class. Now he’s the class brainiac again, only this time his smarts attract a coded message. Julian comes to find that Ben, the school jock, and Greta, the school trouble-maker, are actually secret inventors, and they want Julian to join their secret inventors’ club. Thus the secret science alliance is born. The trio keep their inventions in a secret notebook, and must soon turn into detectives when their notebook is stolen and a local scientist begins to claim credit for their inventions.
 * Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook by Eleanor Davis**

Minty Mortimer is practicing her roller derby moves when she sees a strange flash coming from the woods. She decides to investigate even though there are rumors that a 7 foot tall man bat lives in the woods. What she uncovers instead leads her to question all those around her. Minty has found a hollowed out tree, in which people place their deepest secret. The tree almost hums to her. She pulls out a slip of paper that reads “No one loves me except my goldfish.” That is the first of many secrets to come. Someone else is “betraying my best friend in a terrible way.” Another has “put a curse on my enemy and it’s working.” With the help of Raymond, a new boy who seems to have no parents and lives in an abandoned model home, the two set to solve the puzzle of the secret tree. And Minty must deal with a secret of her own.
 * The Secret Tree by Natalie Standiford**

The time is 1872. The place is NYC. Horace Carpetine has been to believe in science and logic. So as apprentice to Enoch Middleditch, a society photographer, he thinks of his trade as a scientific art. But when wealthy society matron Mrs. Frederick Von Macht orders a photographic portrait, strange things begin to happen. Mrs. Von Macht wants a portrait of herself to place on her dead daughter’s grave. Enoch devises a plan to superimpose an image of Eleanora, the daughter, onto the photograph. But the secret picture he instructs Horace to take of Eleanora’s portrait does not match the image in photograph. In fact the image of Eleanora looks angry...very angry.
 * Seer of Shadows by Avi**

When Ms. McMartin died, there were no relatives to collect an inheritance or dig through her treasures. Her yowling cats were the only items to be removed although a neighbor is convinced she saw a trio of gigantic cats make a break for it. It wasn’t long before the Dunwoodys heard about the place. The mathematician couple bought it for cheap and moved in with their 11-year-old daughter Olive. Olive begins to suspect something is not quite right about the place. The walls are covered with strange antique paintings. Olive peers at a forest scene and can swear she sees something else within the painting. The painting outside her room is particularly bothersome. The houses in it looked scared to her as if they knew something bad was coming.
 * The Shadows: Book of Elsewhere #1 by Jacqueline West**

Marty Preston loves walking the hills in his home of West Virginia. One afternoon, he spots a beagle watching him. When he tries to pet it, the dog cringes, a sign Marty recognizes, that the dog is used to being hit. The dog follows him all day and ends up tagging after Marty when he heads home. The dog sticks around even though Marty's parents tell him to ignore it and forbid him from feeding it--there is barely enough food for their big family as it is. Marty ends up calling him Shiloh even though he knows he'll never be allowed to have the dog since the family is poor. The dog's someone else's anyway and Marty's dad suspects it's neighbor Judd Traver's new hunting dog. Marty does not like Judd. He's seen him cheat the neighborhood grocer and knows he kills deer out of season. When they arrive at Judd's trailer with the dog, Shiloh begins trembling violently, and Marty can barely contain his anger when Judd kicks Shiloh for running away. Marty would never treat a dog like that. When Shiloh shows up at Marty's house again, Marty decides that he will never let Judd get his hands on the beagle again. He must figure out how to hide the dog from everyone.
 * Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor**

Joe Stoshack or Stosh can't believe the umpire calls him out when he is clearly safe. Now instead of winning the Little League championship, his team has tied and will have to play again. His team's sponsor Flip Valentini says he knows Stosh was safe, but life isn't always fair. Flip shares the story of Shoeless Joe Jackson. Shoeless Joe has the third highest batting average of all time, but his career and reputation were ruined when it was uncovered that the eight members of the White Sox threw the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnatti Reds. Although Joe played great through the series, he was banned for life and has never been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Stosh decides that maybe he can help Joe Jackson by traveling back into time before the World Series and talk him out of participating in the scheme, and change the course of history. That should be easy right?
 * Shoeless Joe & Me by Dan Gutman**

Owen McGuire has just left his home in Buffalo and moved two hours away to the boonies right at the beginning of the summer. He knows no one and his workaholic father is never around, and when he is they rarely talk. His mother died a year and a half ago, and her death seemed to open up a cavernous void between the two. So Owen spends his time with his dog Josie running along the nature trails. He figures he can use all his time to get ready for soccer next year. One day, while running, Josie brings Owen a piece of cloth stained with blood. Then she finds another, and soon Owen and Josie are following a trail left by the person who is bleeding." The trail leads them to a deserted house in the cornfield. Owen just knows the bloody guy is somewhere in the corn, but is hiding, which freaks Owen out and he scurries back to his bike and heads home. The next day, curiosity leads Owen back to the deserted house. This time, he ignores his fear and enters. Josie bounds ahead upstairs and starts barking at something--or someone--in a bedroom. The bloody guy is actually is a girl about the same age as Owen. She has a bandaged around her head and cuts all over her arms, legs and face. She introduces herself as Campion and tells Owen a story that couldn't possibly be true. She needs his help to create a signal, a signal that will show her parents where to land their spaceship so they can take her back home to their planet.
 * Signal by Cynthia DeFelice**

**Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman** There was a moment when Ryan thought: This is it, I’m dead. It was the night he and his best friend Sarah went to the abandoned dredge in the deepest part of the dark woods. The dredge was meant to mine gold, but basically dug a giant trench ripping up much of the surrounding woods and anything else in its path. The two became interested in the dredge when they heard about the suspicious death of worker Joe Bush who was pulled through the dredge and spit out into the trench never to resurface. It was at the dredge Ryan had his accident, causing him to be housebound and his parents to lay down the law that he can never see Sarah again. But the two still communicate through email and video clips. Sarah continues the investigation into a dredge that no one in town wants to talk about, sharing her discoveries via video with Ryan. She and Ryan are close to digging up the truth...

Molly remembers the Mohawk legend of a man so hungry, he ate himself and everyone in his village except for one brave girl. Her father told her these stories all the times, before he and her mother disappeared. Before they vanished. Gone like that. Social services want to place her in the care of a great uncle. This strike Molly as odd seeing how her mom is an orphan and all of her dad’s relatives are dead, and neither have ever spoken of this great uncle...an uncle with fingers like talons. But he has pictures of her father so Molly leaves with him to an eerie old house where he locks her in her bedroom at night, does strange things in a shed she’s forbidden to visit, and urges her to eat more and more. Molly begins to wonder if the legend of the Skeleton Man is more than just a legend.
 * Skeleton Man by Joseph Bruchac**

Once upon a time, way back in second grade, Charlie Eggleston got in trouble for telling the truth. That was the Great Toad Fiasco, and since then Charlie has told nothing but lies. He can’t see that it has made much of a difference. Now somehow--was it by accident? fate? something more mysterious?--Charlie has stolen the skull of truth from a magic shop that appears in the swamp where no shop of any kind has ever been before. To Charlie’s horror, the Skull compels him to speak nothing but the truth; it’s a dreadful fate for someone so accustomed to lying.
 * The Skull of Truth by Bruce Coville**

Owen Birnbaum is a bully magnet, likely the result of him being the fattest kid at the Martha Doxie School in New York City. Owen is also smart, and an inventor. He has just devised a contraption that will ensnare the person stealing his Oreos (his one bright spot in an otherwise lousy existence) out of his lunch sack. He thinks he knows the culprit--Mason Ragg, a scar-faced thug who is rumored to have a switchblade hidden in his sock. Owen is also working on Nemesis, a TV that will show images from the past. He needs the TV to show him who was responsible for the events that have left Owen and his sister Caitlin, or Jeremy as she likes to be called, in their current predicament. If he can just find the person who killed his parents two years ago, Owen feels he can finally find some peace.
 * Slob by Ellen Potter**

Down Girl and neighboring dog Sit believe they know how to protect their masters from the dangers in the neighborhood. See birds and squirrels steal almost everything so it is up to Down Girl to chase them up a tree. Down Girl then devises a brilliant plan to rid the yard of squirrels and birds once and for all. She decides to eat everything in sight.
 * Smarter than Squirrels by Lucy Nolan**

This book features three tales of Riot brothers, Orville and Wilbur, who manage to make even their daily chores a fun adventure. The games they create have names like Snarf Attack, Underfoodle, the Naked Mole-Rat Game, and the Frying Pan Game. The objective of Snarf Attack is to make an opponent laugh so hard at dinner that milk comes out of his or her nose. The objective of Underfoodle is to get as many pairs of underwear as possible on your head in thirty seconds.
 * Snarf Attack, Underfoodle and the Secret of Life: The Riot Brothers Tell All by Mary Amato**

Kenny Huldorf has moved with his family to an old house built in 1789. For his bedroom, Kenny’s parents give him the private spacious room in the attic. For the first time since the move, Kenny feels like smiling. At the far end of the attic, Kenny notices two doors. He opens one and sees a dark stain on the floor and immediately begins to feel uneasy. The unease strengthens later that night when he hears scraping sounds coming from the closet. Kenny goes to investigate and see two hands rise from the dark stain, followed by a head and the rest of the body. The ghost introduces himself as a young slave named Caleb who needs Kenny to go back in time with him and change the course of history. Caleb tells Kenny he has been murdered and Kenny needs to find out by whom so Caleb’s fate can change.
 * Something Upstairs by Avi**

Barry O’Neill is journeying to New York on the Titanic’s fateful maiden voyage. He’s homesick and worried about the Flynn boys traveling in steerage who have threatened to throw him overboard. Little does Barry know that a struggle with the Flynns is the least of the dangers that await him.
 * SOS Titanic by Eve Bunting**

It's bad enough that Michael K. is a new kid starting out a new school for fifth grade, but now he's been put in the slow reading group with the other two new kids who are stranger than strange. Bob speaks in advertising slogans and Jennifer has just eaten Michael's pencil. Bob then tells Michael that he and Jennifer are Spacheadz from another planet. Michael does not want to be stuck with them, since they are obviously crazy, but being in the same reading group means the same lunch and computer groups. Although Michael doesn't believe they're aliens, they sure act like aliens. They don't understand basic social interaction or traffic laws, and they insist that Michael become a Spaceheadz so that Earth can be saved. They need exactly 3.14 million and one people to become Spaceheadz or else Earth will be turned off. Michael K. is the only one who can help them and also keep the AAA, an anti-alien agency, from catching them. Oh and they take their orders from the mission leader, which happens to be the class hamster. Looks like it's going to be a long school year.
 * Spaceheadz by Jon Scieszka**

When Jared, Simon and Mallory Grace move into a ramshackle old Victorian home with their mother, they begin to hear strange noises between the walls. Curious to find out if these noises are from a squirrel or something stranger, they send Jared in by dumbwaiter to the upper floor to investigate. Traveling upward between the walls, Jared locates a small library where a yellowed handwritten poem lies on the table. He shows the poem about the secret hidden “in a man’s torso” to his siblings and convinces them that mysterious forces are stirring up mischief in their home. They start to believe him when Mallory wakes up to find her hair tied to her bed frame.
 * The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Field Guide by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizz**i

Squish is your average single-cell amoeba. He enjoys reading comics, eating twinkies and spending time with his friends Pod and Peggy. What he doesn’t enjoy are encounters with Lynwood, the school bully who has a bad habit of eating paramecia, the kind of amoeba Peggy happens to be. Peggy, a very sweet but very naive paramecia, talks to Lynwood that afternoon when the three friends report for detention for being late to school. She doesn’t even seem to be aware that Lynwood is eating her while she invites him to meet her new pet slime mold. Squish knows he has to do something so offers Lynwood a sandwich instead. Lynwood would rather copy Squish’s answers on all science tests from now on. This is not a request. In fact Squish has to do it or Lynwood will eat Peggy for sure.
 * Squish: Super Amoeba by Jennifer L. Holm**

The year is 1932. Stella lives in Bumblebee, N.C., a segregated community, with her mom, dad and brother Jo Jo. She knows what stores she can enter and what stores to avoid. She sometimes feels prickles of resentment when she sees the perfect brick building that only white children can attend while she has to make do with very little at the black school. Stella sees that being different can lead to more than separate spheres, it can be dangerous. Late at night, Stella and Jo Jo see a group of men in white hoods setting fire to a cross right near their neighborhood. The Klu Klux Klan, which had been dormant, is suddenly back. Stella even thinks she recognizes the saddle of one of the men--the white doctor who refuses to treat people like Stella. Parents in the neighborhood warn their children to stay out of the woods and stick together. Trouble is brewing.
 * Stella by Starlight by Sharon Draper**

Sticky is an outcast in his own village, persecuted for not being prickly enough. He enjoys painting and playing music rather than chasing squirrels like the other burrs. His difference bothers village bully Scurvy Burr so much, Scurvy drives Sticky from the village where Sticky ends up having an amazing adventure with is his dragonfly friend Draffle. After meeting some surprise visitors and exploring the mysterious Maze Tree, Sticky returns to his village to find it overrun with wild dogs. Will Sticky be able to save his village?
 * Sticky Burr: Adventures in Burrwood Forest by John Lechner**

A fun new boy has just moved in next door to Grace's best friend, Mimi. When Grace has to go away on a family trip during school, she is terrified that when she comes back Mimi will be best friends with Max instead! It seems her fears have come true on her return when she sees Mimi hanging out with Max and is even friends with the disgusting Sammy Stringer. That’s not the only problem...Grace missed signing up with a group for the class project and is stuck joining a group with Grace W. and Grace F., otherwise known as Big Meanie.
 * Still Just Grace by Charise Mericle Harper**

Stinky loves smelly days. He loves pickled onions. He loves the mushy, mucky mud of his swamp and his smelly toad Warthog. One thing he doesn’t like is the town right by his swamp. Or the kids that live there. Kids take baths and do not love stinky smelly things. When one of these kids wanders into his swamp, Stinky comes up with a plan to drive him out.
 * Stinky by Eleanor Davis**

Eddie’s not too thrilled to be moving to a new town until he learns it’s the home of his favorite author Nathaniel Olmstead. Olmstead wrote the best scary stories--that is until he mysteriously disappeared 13 years ago. You would think the town of Gatesweed would celebrate having such an author, but most in the town want to forget him. They grumble about the Olmstead Curse, a local legend that claims the monsters Olmstead wrote about are real. Eddie doesn’t quite believe it, but while unpacking his mom hands him a book that appears to be an unpublished Olmstead manuscript that his parents picked up in antique store. It’s stamped with a strange symbol and is impossible to read because all the writing is in some kind of code. Eddie thinks that if he can crack the code, he can finally discover what happened to Olmstead and whether the Olmstead curse is actually real
 * The Stone Child by Dan Poblocki **

Is Origami Yoda real or the product of the always-odd Dwight? Tommy and his friends are keeping a journal of their interactions with Dwight's finger puppet, but only Harvey seems certain the whole thing's a crock. The weird thing is the puppet gives very un-Dwight-like advice, in other words, very good, spot-on advice that is helping Tommy and many other sixth graders at the school. It can't be Dwight? Dwight never does anything right. He's always getting into trouble, picking his nose, barfing after eating 13 servings of canned peaches, and he doesn't even follow Origami Yoda's advice to his detriment. Can that crumpled piece of paper be real?
 * The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger **

Andy Whiffler was born with a humungous honker. When he was 2, he caught the smell of warm chocolate chip cookies baked two miles away. An MRI proved Andy’s sense of smell is 100,000 times more powerful than a human’s. Now at 11, Andy’s family has moved to a new place, which means a new school and a new nickname. A group of bullies have chosen Schnoz—short for Schnozberries and question what items have gotten lost up Andy’s nose. Not only does Andy have a big nose, he also has a big brain and has been put in his school’s gifted and talented program—along with one of the bullies named T.J. It doesn’t take long for Andy’s nose to earn respect like when he’s able to sniff out the principal before he arrives, block teacher’s line of vision if a friend wants to sleep in class and sneeze so hard he can set off the fire alarm. One day, horrible odor fills the entire school, causing an immediate evacuation. An environmental company is called in and says the school will have to be closed for months. Andy overhears a secret conversation where it appears the company wants to do more than clean up the school, they want to dig for a valuable resource underneath it. Can Schnoz stop their evil plan?
 * Super Schnoz and the Gates of Smell by Gary Urey **

You’ve never met anyone like 12-year-old Sarah Nelson. Unless of course you’ve met someone who survived her mother trying to drown her and now lives with an alcoholic father. Sarah was only two when her mother Jane Nelson committed the crime. Her mother succeeded with Sarah’s twin brother Simon, and after two trials spends her days in a mental health institution, sending a birthday card every year. Every so often her mother’s case appears in the news whenever a parent does something awful to a child, and Sarah’s father moves them to a new town. Sarah’s hoping they move from their current residence in Garland before the seventh grade Family Tree project when it will become obvious Sarah’s family is far from normal. Sarah also keeps tabs on herself to see if she shows any signs of crazy since all she craves is normalcy.
 * Sure Signs of Crazy by Karen Harrington **

Jack Semple has a reputation. He has been kicked out of every public school in Rhode Island (it's rumored that he actually burned one of them down). He's now been kicked out of Traybridge Middle School after moving to North Carolina to live with his grandfather since his parents have no idea what to do with him. The only place left to take him is the Creative Academy, a home-school run by a creative extended family known as the Applewhites. It seems this is Jake's last stop before juvenile detention. Jake's addition to the school does not sit well with Edie Applewhite, the only organized non-creative member of the family who has actually taken the time to develop her own curriculum and is not particularly psyched about sharing it with a troublemaker. Jake soon discovers that it takes a lot to shock the Applewhites. They barely acknowledge his swearing (the pet parrot knows more naughty words than Jake), snatch cigarettes quickly from his mouth, and openly encourage the chaos around them. Will Jake actually be able to make something of a home at Wit's End?
 * Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan**

Think you know the story of Hansel and Gretel? How their parents left them in the woods and they found a witch's house made out of candy and all the rest? Well sure, that story is somewhat creepy, I mean, the witch tries to cook them and all. But did you know the real Grimm story of Hansel and Gretel is, well, much more gruesome, much more creepy and positively filled with blood? Well it is. This book is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. Read on if you think you can handle the real story of Hansel and Gretel.
 * A Tale Dark & Grimm by Adam Gidwitz**

Nikki has a lot to contend with in middle school. Mackenzie, also known as the most popular girl in school, hates her and talks behind her back constantly, and Nikki continually makes a fool of herself in front of her crush Brandon, which makes her hope of him asking her to the Halloween Dance even more foolish. Her BFFs, Chloe and Zoe convince Nikki to sign up for the dance's clean-up crew and pretend the band members are their boyfriends. That plan backfires when Mackenzie, the head party planner, abruptly resigns from the committee, taking all the other members with her except the clean-up crew. Now Nikki's in charge of a dance that likely will never happen, causing mass disappointment among the school and further cementing her position as a dork. Will things ever go Nikki's way?
 * Tales from a Not-So Popular Party Girl by Rachel Renee Russell**

The old woman who lived by the goose pond was called a witch, but Howard never thought she actually was one. He just liked to mess with her and the geese that lived in her pond. One day, he takes a prank too far and drops the goose eggs he had been stealing. Seeing what he's done, the old woman chants some words and suddenly Howard's feet become webbed, his clothes turn into feathers and he can only seem to say the word "Honk!" The old woman tells Howard he can return to his human state once he's completed three good deeds. But this proves easier said than done. With his family unable to recognize him, Howard must find ways to help others while adjusting to his new life in a goose body.
 * Three Good Deeds by Vivian Vande Velde **

Drew is not excited about being left at an old spooky house for the summer while his parents go on an archealogical dig in France. While he adores his great-aunt Blythe, he is weirded out by his great-grandfather who seems to hate him on sight. Drew doesn’t want to appear scared, nervous and insecure, but he’s sure he’s been seeing things and hearing sounds in rooms where there are no people. Aunt Blythe takes Drew on a tour of the house, which includes an attic crammed with his ancestors’ furniture. It’s there Drew discovers he looks just like Andrew, a boy who died of diptheria. Drew also uncovers a box filled with marbles and warning from Andrew that “If you take them, you’ll be sorry.” Drew is horrified when Aunt Blythe does just that. That night, Andrew comes down from the attic steps. But he’s no ghost, he’s a real boy, a very sick boy. He begs Drew to take his place in the early 1900s so he won’t die. Drew reluctantly agrees. The only problem--Andrew refuses to switch back.
 * Time for Andrew: A ghost story by Mary Downing Hahn**

Hugo’s Traveling Circus has arrived in the royal city of Kingsbridge. Right when the roll in the gates, the juggler Toppler lets Dessa, the acrobat, in on his plan. He’s going to rob the queen’s tower of treasure to prove he’s the greatest thief of all time. Toppler just happens to have a map of the castle that he bought from a cook who worked in the kitchen. Dessa doesn’t think Toppler can pull it off even with the help of giant Fisk. She has other problems on her mind anyway. The emblem on the guards’ coats look similar to the one worn by the man who snatched her twin brother long ago and burned down her house, making Dessa an orphan. But soon Dessa finds herself an unwilling party to the crime when the show gets ruined and Dessa has to either find money or food for the traveling company or be banished.
 * Tower of Treasure, Book 1 Three Thieves by Scott Chantler**

David has just moved to a new town and is miserable. Things look up a bit when the family’s car passes by an enormous drainpipe. David thinks it would be perfect for skateboarding. Then he sees a pair of legs sticking out of the mouth of the pipe. Could it be a skateboarder? A possible new friend in a town where David knows no one? David decides to give the drain pipe a test run. Just as he’s about to go in, three boys warn him away from it. Last year there was an accident and the cops don’t want kids skateboarding in the pipe anymore one of the boys tells David. The boys leave and David is about to head home himself when he hears the sound of skateboard deep inside the pipe. Someone else is inside the tunnel, in the darkness, where no living person should be.
 * Trapped by James Moloney**

Danny Walker makes up for his small size by being one of the quickest on the basketball court. He knows how to throw the perfect pass. Walker's talent and love for the game should have earned him a spot on this year's 7th grade travel team. When his dad Rich was Danny's age, he had led his travel team to victory during the championship game that aired on ESPN. It turned Rich into a local basketball legend, and after college ball, Rich went on to play in the NBA--before his career was cut short by a car accident that gave Rich a life-long limp. But the coach Jeffrey Ross, a former rival of his dad's, declares Danny too short for the team, and cuts him. Rich is convinced Jeffrey is getting back at him for being a superstar by denying his son the opportunity to play. Rich decides to form his own 7th grade travel team that he thinks can make it all the way to the finals. Now if only they can get enough players who can actually play basketball. ..
 * Travel Team by Mike Lupica**

When the art teacher said the class could draw whatever it wanted, Clay Hensley decided on a portrait of Principal Kelling as a donkey. He made sure the art teacher caught him. Made sure the whole class saw it, and made sure to take his time on his way to the principal’s office. Clay wanted to make sure he had an amazing story to tell his older brother Mitch. But Clay doesn’t get the reaction he expected from his brother. Mitch, newly released from jail, demands Clay promise to act responsibly--no more pranks, no more trips to the principal’s office, no more acting like a goof-off. But Clay finds being good isn’t easy, especially when everyone expects you to screw up. Will Clay ever been seen as more than a troublemaker?
 * Troublemaker by Andrew Clements**

The day was hot and sunny when J.J. Tully, a retired search-and-rescue dog, first meets the crazy chicken. The chicken refuses to leave, and she's brought her two puffy chicks with her who enjoy playing in J.J.'s water bowl. The chicken Millicent, or Moosh as J.J. has nicknamed her, has a serious problem. Two of her chicks are missing. J.J. agrees to take the case in exchange for a cheeseburger. The case takes an interesting turn when Moosh shows him a ransom note that uses words that could only come from someone who spends his life inside. Is it the Vince the Funnel dog? J.J. can't set foot in Vince's house without Vince smelling him so J.J. has to come up with a plan fast.
 * The Trouble with Chickens by Doreen Cronin**


 * The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi**
 * "Not every 13-year-old girl is accused of murder, brought to trial, and found guilty." But for Charlotte Doyle, an American girl on board a merchant ship headed for home, that is the case. From the moment she boards the ship, she feels out of place. She's the only passenger--and only female--, her cabin's a dark hole, and the captain's name terrifies burly dock workers. The old cook Zachariah offers friendship and a knife for Charlotte to protect herself as the voyage home rapidly turns into a dangerous adventure. What happened to Charlotte on board that ship? How did refine young lady turn into a wretched murderer? **

When 12-year-old Gratuity (Tip) Tucci is assigned to write five pages on the “True Meaning of Smekday” for the National Time Capsule contest, she’s not sure where to begin. When her mom started telling everyone about the messages aliens were sending through a mole in the back of her neck? Or maybe with Christmas Eve, when huge bizarre spaceships descended on Earth and the aliens—called Boov—abducted her mother? Or when the Boov declared Earth a colony, renamed it “Smekland” (in honor of glorious Captain Smek) and forced all Americans to relocate to Florida via rocket pads? In any case, Tip’s story is much, much bigger than the assignment. It involves an unlikely friendship with a renegade Boov mechanic named J.Lo; an unsuccessful journey south to find Tip’s mother at the Happy Mouse Kingdom; a cross-country road trip in a hovercar named Slushious; and an outrageous plan to save Earth from yet another alien invasion.
 * The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex**

Hayley makes an amazing find at a yard sale, a ukulele that will help her overcome her shyness and help out her school. She doesn’t know how to play and asks her new music teacher Mr. Y for help. Maybe she might even be good enough to play a song in the talent show and take after her great-great Aunt Ruby who played ukulele in her own ragtime band. Hayley’s playing takes off and soon others want to play and learn with her. They even form a ukulele band called BUGS and land their first gig at a senior center. All their success may go down the drain when they hear of plans to cut the school’s music program. Without their music teacher and a music program in place, BUGS will be history. What can shy short Hayley do?
 * Ukulele Hayley by Judy Cox**

Football player Parker is known for telling lies. When he witnesses a hooded figure rushing out of the coach’s office carrying a camera, Parker decides to investigate. Upon entering the office, he sees the master playbook, the book that holds all team’s secret plays, held open by a paperweight. He begins to suspect the mystery figure took pictures of the playbook when the other team seems to know all of Parker’s team’s moves, but none of his teammates or the coach believe him.
 * Undercover Tailback by Matt Christopher**

Sabrina and Daphne, the two young descendants of Wilhelm Grimm, continue their family's fairy-tale detective work in the Hudson River town of Ferryport Landing. The village has more than its share of "Everafters," a group of fairy-tale characters who escaped persecution in Europe by fleeing to America over 200 years ago. Here, the sisters start attending the local elementary school where the principal just happens to be the Pied Piper of Hamelin and Snow White is a most beloved teacher. Almost instantly, Sabrina’s teachers is found dead in his classroom, tied to the ceiling in a spider web, and the young girls are attacked by a giant frog menace. Prince Charming, the mayor of the town, is counting on the Grimms to find out who’s behind these dastardly deeds.
 * The Unusual Suspects by Michael Buckley**

No one has seen Mrs. Deedee since she stuck her hands in mint-scented shaving cream while looking for a pencil in her desk. She left Bailey School Elementary and its badly behaved third grade with a scream of “I can’t stand it anymore.” The students wonder who their new teacher will be, but Eddie’s not too concerned. “I can take care of any teacher,” he brags. But it might not be so easy to take care of Mrs. Jeepers, their beautiful new teacher who has a strange accent and wears a glowing green broach that seems to hypnotize the class. She’s even moved into the old Clancy estate, which everyone knows is haunted, and some of the students swore they saw a coffin being hauled into the basement. Could Mrs. Jeepers possibly be a vampire?
 * Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots by Debbie Dadey**

Molly and Michael, like most kids, weren't thrilled when their mom remarried, especially due to their creepy new stepsister, Heather, who seems determined to blame small problems on them and start fights. Making things worse, new family has just moved to an old house (a converted church) in the country. There, Heather's oddness grow worse. Molly and Michael's possessions are destroyed and Heather begins talking to an invisible friend named "Helen." After Michael and Molly do some research, they realize that this is no ordinary invisible friend--Helen is the ghost of a long-dead girl who once lived in the house. And she seems to want Heather to be her friend, forever and ever. Unfortunately, Molly's mom and Heather's dad don't believe the ghost bit. Molly and Michael must put aside their feelings about Heather in order to do what they know is right: save her from evil.
 * Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn**

Holling Hoodhood is pretty sure Mrs. Baker hates him. And really, it is possible she might. After all, thanks to the fact that all the Catholic kids go to catechism on Wednesday afternoon, and the Jewish kids go to Hebrew School, Mrs. Baker was probably expecting to have Wednesday afternoons to herself. Unfortunately, Holling is the Protestant man out. At first Holling spends his Wednesday afternoons doing tasks like cleaning the blackboard erasers, cleaning out the cage of Mrs. Baker's terrifying pet rats, and other such menial tasks. But Holling becomes sure that Mrs. Baker hates him when she come up with the most devious task of all -- reading Shakespeare.
 * The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt**

Eleven year old Mark moves to a small town in New Hampshire. He doesn’t care about Hardy Elementary School. He knew the moment he walked through the door in February that the school was lousy. He doesn’t care about making friends. In four months, 5th grade will be over and he’ll be on his way to boarding school. Mark’s attitude immediately gets him labeled as a spoiled slacker by his science teacher Mr. Maxwell. Mr. Maxwell organizes the annual Week in the Woods trip for the entire fifth grade, a trip that most 5th graders cannot wait to take place. Slowly Mark begins to warm up to his new surroundings and to stop acting sullen and stuck up. He is even looking forward to the week-long camping trip. The first night of the trip Mark gets in trouble and is told he will have to go home. Mark runs away and Mr. Maxwell goes after him. Yet the minutes they are gone turn to hours and they both become lost.
 * A Week in the Woods by Andrew Clement**

Two hundred million dollars. When Samuel W. Westing died, that was the amount of money left to the rightful heir of his fortune. And who is that rightful heir? That's exactly what sixteen people want to know! These individuals have all been invited to solve a mystery in order to win the inheritance. And what is that mystery? Figure out which one of them is Westing's murderer! Before long, it becomes clear that nothing in this "game" is going to come easily. In fact, things become downright dangerous.
 * The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin**

Ben finds himself in the middle of a mystery when Mr. Keane, the old school janitor, thrusts a coin into his hand, tells him to not trust the other janitor Lyman and rails against the town council decision to sell the school. Mr. Keane makes Ben promise he will help save the school--then collapses. When Ben learns later that Mr. Keane has died, he finds its his duty to carry on the promise etched into the coin--Defend it. With the help of his friend Julie, Ben tries to learn the history behind the founding of the school by eccentric sea captain Duncan Oaks in the late 1700s and whether there is a way they can stop the school from becoming an amusement park. While he investigates, Ben is certain Lyman is on hot on his trail, and will do whatever he can to stop Ben and Julie from finding the five safeguards to save the school.
 * We the Children by Andrew Clements**

On Career Day, Lily visits her dad’s work with him and discovers he works for a mad scientist named Larry who wants to rule the earth through destruction and desolation. It could have been the spray-painted sign at the entrance that read: Abandoned warehouse Stay out!! There are probably scorpions” that tipped Lily off. Are the guards surrounding the inside of the warehouse or the fact that Larry wore a grain sack over his head and occasionally doused himself in brine. Lily’s dad doesn’t think anything’s strange about the company that manufacturers stilts for whales. So it’s up to ordinary Lily and her extraordinary friends—Katie the star of her own series of horror novels based on life experiences and Jasper Dash, an amazing inventor—to save the world from the whales.
 * Whales on Stilts by M.T. Anderson**

**The White Giraffe by Lauren St. John** **Life can change in an instant. 11-year-old Martine knows that better than anyone after she barely escapes a house fire that claims the lives of her parents. With no known relatives to speak of, Martine discovers she has a grandmother who runs a wildlife preserve in South Africa who has been named as Martine's guardian. Why have her parents never told her about this? Martine arrives in a strange, hot country and meets a grandmother Gwyn who seems less than thrilled to see her and seems to be harboring a secret as well. Gwyn refuses to answer any questions about Martine's mother or let Martine into the preserve. Then one night, Martine spots a brilliant white giraffe from her bedroom window, a giraffe that is only supposed to be a legend. The giraffe disappears and Martine makes the decision to sneak out of her room and into the preserve in hopes of finding the giraffe. Her discovery puts into place events that will change her life forever. **

Hannah Price hasn't really moved. Her former house is collapsing so Hannah and her parents have taken temporary refuge at Cowleigh Lodge. Cowleigh Lodge seems in even more disrepair than the house they've left. The wall paper peels, the tiles come loose and one upstairs room has been locked up due to roof damage. Whenever the nights are particularly humid, Hannah is troubled by the same dream. She is in the woods with green ash leaves all around. She sees an expressionless face next to her and can hear a crackling fire. Hannah eventually learns the dreams belong to a girl named Maizie who onced lived in Cowleigh Lodge in the 1800s. Maizie died when she was 11--the rumor was her aunt had something to do with it. In the closet, Hannah uncovers a doll, and immediately recognizes the face as the one from her dreams. The doll is covered in stains and pinholes. Who could have done such a thing? As Hannah's dream become more and more intense, she realizes she's being sent on a mission to uncover what really happened to Maizie in that house.
 * The Whispering House by Rebecca Wade**

Amelia’s parents have gotten divorced and now Amelia and her mother live with her Aunt Tanner. This book is a series of stories about Amelia’s life. She has made friends with Reggie who dresses up as Captain Amazing and Pajamaman, who likes to wear pajamas and arch enemies with Rhonda. On her first day of school—to her horror—Amelia has discovered she has made friends with The Nerds of the school. And on her first day, she gets sent to the principal office not once but three times for being disruptive. Amelia’s convinced that her parents are crazy, her friends are crazy—pretty much everybody’s crazy. Except Amelia. She’s normal. Right?
 * The Whole World's Crazy by Jimmy Gownley**

**Wild River by P.J. Petersen** ** Twelve-year-old Ryan reluctantly agrees to accompany his older brother Tanner on a 28-hour kayaking/camping trip. Ryan is an indoors sort, preferring to act out adventures through video games rather than experience them firsthand. His video-game experience comes in handy, however, when they boys suffer a terrible crash. As the boys shoot down the rocky rapids, a jagged log slices into their kayak sending Ryan headfirst into the cold water. He finds his brother face-down in the icy water and pulls him to shallower spot, but is unable to move his unconscious brother out of the freezing water. Ryan knows that if he doesn't act quickly and smartly, his brother could die from hypothermia. He knows he must get to the kayak to get their supplies, but as video games have taught him, making the same mistake over and over again is pointless. After making several attempts, Ryan must come up with an ingenious way to get to the kayak. **

Siblings Tim, twins Barnaby A and Barnaby B, and Jane despise their parents so much they want to be orphans, and they convince their parents to go on a vacation where, the children hope, their parents will die. The feeling is mutual, and their odious parents are inspired by Hansel and Gretel to try to lose their children by going on the vacation, leaving the children behind with a nanny, and then selling the house while they are gone.
 * The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry**

Willy's in fifth grade now and it's time for a new start. He has the perfect plan to get him and his friends in the in crowd. They need to become jocks. Their first tryout is for the football team, and on their first day of practice, Biff, a talented older player tells Willy he hopes he won't be a scrub. What's a scrub? Willy asks. A lousy benchwarmer Biff says and you look like one of them. Biff's insult proves to be true and Willy stays on the bench all season. He decides not to give up and goes out for another sport in the winter. This time it's wrestling. But wrestling proves to be even harder and it turns out Willy's in the same weight class as Biff. Willy thinks his new start has officially ended.
 * Willy the Scrub by Jamie McEwan**

Jen's widowed father inherits a castle in West Virginia; well, actually, it's an old house that looks like a castle. And it is full of antiques and treasures and strange things; including a tower in the back, with a padlocked door. Jen, 12, cannot resist the temptation to go exploring and discovers a strange glass globe. Moura, a friend of her father's, asks Jen if she's seen a glass globe -- a "witch catcher." Jen doesn't like or trust Moura and doesn't admit it's upstairs in her room. It turns out that there is something trapped in the globe; something that looks like a girl. Jen's cat, Tink, breaks the witch catcher, releasing what was trapped inside. Is Moura a friend, or foe? What about the witch -- or thing -- trapped in the globe? Who should Jen trust?
 * The Witchcatcher by Mary Downing Hahn**

When Ned was young, he and his twin brother built a raft and tried to sail to the sea. The raft sank, and one boy survived-the wrong boy, if you ask the villagers in Ned's tiny town. Alternately whispered about, teased, and outright ignored, Ned survives his brother's death with a stutter and an air of palpable sadness that seems to weigh down his weak frame. Little does he know that magic performed by his mother, the village’s Sister Witch, has left a permanent scar that does not seem to heal. Meanwhile, in the middle of a formidable forest the villagers claim used to be home to nine stone giants, a young girl named Aine lives a fractured life with her father, who leads a horde of bloodthirsty bandits. When the raiders attempt to steal the magic Ned's mother guards so faithfully, Ned and Aine end up as unlikely allies on a journey to right an ancient wrong.
 * The Witch's Boy by Kelly Barnhill**

Auggie Pullman is not an ordinary kid. Sure he does ordinary things like eat ice cream, ride his bike, play his x-box. But he’s pretty sure ordinary kids don’t make other ordinary kids run away screaming from the playground. Other ordinary kids likely don’t get stared at wherever they go. See Auggie was born with a facial deformity. He’s had 27 surgeries since he was born. His parents kept him out of school because Auggie would get sick all the time, but now he’s healthy. He’s well enough to finally go to school with other kids. And he’s petrified. It’s hard enough being a new kid with an ordinary face. What happens when you’re the new kid with an extraordinary face?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Wonder by R.J. Palacio **

Blaze doesn't believe in imaginary friends like he used to when he was younger, but he still makes them up, and when they're past their use, he buries them in woods near the house he shares with his grandmother and father. It's a way to past the time and maybe deal with the sadness of losing his mother, Reena, who died from cancer when Blaze was five. Then one day, Blaze sees the words "Reena" spelled out in stone on the hill near the woods. Who left this message and why? The next message for Blaze is "Fire" and "You're on fire" bringing back memories from the time Blaze was burned. He wonders if his father's new girlfriend is writing these messages, but then Blaze meets Joselle, a girl who is living with her grandmother nearby. Joselle becomes a real friend to a boy so used to imaginary ones until something happens to tear their friendship apart.
 * Words of Stone by Kevin Henkes**

Palmer has dreaded his 10th birthday ever since he attended his first Family Fest in August. The annual week-long event culminates with Pigeon Day where 5,000 pigeons are released into the sky to be shot at by participants who pay money. It’s up to the wringers to take care of the wounded birds that fall from the sky by wringing their necks. That job is reserved for 10-year-olds. Palmer’s dad was a wringer and he knows he will be one too, and this is why he dreads his upcoming birthday. While Palmer wants avoid Pigeon Day he also longs to be part of the neighborhood gang of hoodlum boys who relish the idea of their new responsibility. The gang has adopted Palmer as one of its own with the leader Beans giving Palmer the nickname of Snots. Palmer has never felt more accepted, but he fears his new found acceptance will be endangered by his reluctance to participate especially when Palmer makes one of the pigeons his pet.
 * Wringer by Jerry Spinelli**

So what would happen if you put on a hand puppet and found you could never take it off? Parker found the puppet at a salvage shop. It smelled like a damp basement. The bald head and crackly green skin made it look super creepy, but Parker thought he could turn it a wind-up toy or something. When he fits the thing on his left hand, it says “You will call me Drog.” And it doesn’t come off. Now Parker finds himself the prisoner of his puppet and no one understands why an 11-year-old is walking around with a puppet on his hand. Even his best friend Wren won’t believe Parker that the puppet talks. They think it’s Parker when Drog says all those outrageous things that are constantly getting Parker into trouble. Will Parker ever be free?
 * You Will Call Me Drog by Sue Cowing**

Travel back 3,000 years. Imagine you are a wealthy ancient Egyptian near death, and you want to make yourself live forever. To achieve this, you must go through the costly and difficult process of becoming a mummy. Your body will have to be cleaned, then your organs will be removed. A hook will be placed in your nose to pull out your brain. Your heart stays; you’ll need it for the weighing-of-the-heart ceremony. Hopefully it is not weighed down by all the bad deeds you might have done because then it will be eaten by a monster. So get ready, as you are about to....drop dead.
 * You Wouldn't Want to Be an Egyptian Mummy by David Stewart**

The year is 1620. Your name is Priscilla Mullins and you are about to embark on one of the most famous journeys in American history--the voyage of the Mayflower. Your headed for Virginia to a new land where you and your parents can practice your religious beliefs. To get there, you must endure some hardships--cramped conditions, winter storms, poor food. It is a journey that will eventually leave you an orphan and there are many times you wish that you had avoided sailing on the Mayflower.
 * You Wouldn't Want to Sail on the Mayflower by Peter Cook**

The year is 1907. Your name is J. Bruce Ismay and you are the managing director of the White Star Line, a shipping company. Your main rival has just launched a huge, fast passenger boat called the Lusitania. You decide to build an even bigger, faster and more luxurious boat. On April 10, 1912, the Titanic leaves England to sail on her maiden voyage. At this point you definitely want to make history with your beautiful ship. Little do you know that your ship is sailing toward disaster.
 * You Wouldn't Want to Sail on the Titanic by David Stewart**

Zita and Joseph discover a big hole in the ground that looks like it was created by a meteriod that crashed into Earth. Zita climbs into the hole and finds a red button. She decides to push it against Joseph’s protests. “This is for your own good, Joseph,” she tell him as she pushes it and watches Joseph get grabbed by tentacles and pulled into another dimension. Horrified, Zita pushes the button again to open the portal and find her friend. She lands in an alien world with robots and creatures with multiple eyes, and watches in dismay the tentacle monster throwing Joseph into a spaceship and flying away. She learns that Joseph has been captured by the Scriptorians and is planning on being sacrificed. Will she save Joseph in time?
 * Zita the Space Girl by Ben Hatke**