Into the Dark

intoAbrahams, Peter. Into the Dark.

Thirteen-year-old Sherlock Holmes aficionado Ingrid Levin-Hill tries to clear her grandfather’s name when he is accused of murdering an environmental activist found dead on his farm.

20 comments  Tagged:  September 26, 2009

11 Planets

11 planetsAguilar, David. 11 Planets.

Brilliant photorealistic illustrations and fascinating facts straight from the latest astronomy news bring a comprehensive look at our solar system as we’ve never seen it before.

14 comments  Tagged:  September 26, 2009

The Calder Game

calderBalliett, Blue.  The Calder Game.

When seventh grader Calder Pillay disappears from a remote English village–along with an Alexander Calder sculpture to which he has felt strangely drawn–his friends Petra and Tommy fly from Chicago to help his father find him.

22 comments  Tagged:  , September 26, 2009

Shift

shiftBradbury, Jennifer. Shift.

When best friends Chris and Win go on a cross country bicycle trek the summer after graduating from high school and only one returns, the FBI wants to know what happened.

19 comments  Tagged:  , September 26, 2009

Masterpiece

masterBroach, Elise.  Masterpiece.

After Marvin, a beetle, makes a miniature drawing as an eleventh birthday gift for James, a human with whom he shares a house, the two new friends work together to help recover an Albrecht Dürer drawing stolen from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

18 comments  Tagged:  , , September 26, 2009

The Hunger Games

hungerCollins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games.

In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem conduct an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss’s skills are put to the test when she volunteers to take her younger sister’s place.

47 comments  Tagged:  , September 26, 2009

Rat Trap

ratDaley, Michael. Rat Trap.

Bioengineered Rat and her twelve-year-old human companion, Jeff, stand together when Dr. Vivexian, who considers Rat his masterpiece, arrives at the space station to capture her.

17 comments  Tagged:  , , September 26, 2009

Shooting the Moon

shootingthemoonDowell, Frances O’Roark. Shooting the Moon.

When her brother is sent to fight in Vietnam, twelve-year-old Jamie begins to reconsider the army world in which she has grown up.

19 comments  Tagged:  , September 26, 2009

Emperors of the Ice

iceFarr, Richard. Emperors of the Ice.

Apsley “Cherry” Cherry-Garrard shares his adventures as the youngest member of Robert Scott’s expedition to Antarctica in 1910, during which he and Edward Wilson try to learn the evolutionary history of emperor penguins, nearly dying in the attempt.

5 comments  Tagged:  , September 26, 2009

The Gollywhopper Games

gollyFeldman, Jody. The Gollywhopper Games.
Twelve-year-old Gil Goodson competes against thousands of other children at extraordinary puzzles, stunts, and more in hopes of a fresh start for his family, which has been ostracized since his father was falsely accused of embezzling from Golly Toy and Game Company.

20 comments  Tagged:  September 26, 2009

Diamond Willow

diamondFrost, Helen. Diamond Willow.

In a remote area of Alaska, twelve-year-old Willow helps her father with their sled dogs when she is not at school, all the while unaware that the animals surrounding her carry the spirits of ancestors and friends who care for her.

26 comments  Tagged:  , , September 26, 2009

The Graveyard Book

graveyardGaiman, Neil. The Graveyard Book.

Nobody Owens is a normal boy, except that he has been raised by ghosts and other denizens of the graveyard.

26 comments  Tagged:  September 26, 2009

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow

sunGeorge, Jessica Day. Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow.
A girl travels east of the sun and west of the moon to free her beloved prince from a magic spell.

12 comments  Tagged:  September 26, 2009

The Other Side of the Island

othersideGoodman, Allegra. The Other Side of the Island.

Born in the eighteenth year of Enclosure, ten-year-old Honor lives in a highly regulated colony with her defiant parents, but when they have an illegal second child and are taken away, it is up to Honor and her friend Helix, another “unpredictable,” to uncover a terrible secret about their island and the corporation that runs everything.

23 comments  Tagged:  September 26, 2009

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

ChristoGreenberg, Jan & Sandra Jordan.Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

This biography of contemporary artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude is a
story of the power of collaboration and vision, and of the creation of the spectacular Gates in New York’s Central Park and other incredible installation artworks.

11 comments  Tagged:  , September 26, 2009

Found

foundHaddix, Margaret Peterson. Found.

When thirteen-yearolds Jonah and Chip, who are both adopted, learn they were discovered on a plane that appeared out of nowhere, full of babies with no adults on board, they realize that they have uncovered a mystery involving time travel and two opposing forces, each trying to repair the fabric of time.

37 comments  Tagged:  , September 26, 2009

Rapunzel’s Revenge

revengeHale, Shannon & Dean Hale. Rapunzel’s Revenge.

In this graphic novel Old West retelling, Rapunzel uses her hair as a lasso and to take on outlaws–including Gothel, the witch.

46 comments  Tagged:  , , September 26, 2009

The Great Wide Sea

greatwideHerlong, M.H. The Great Wide Sea.

Still mourning the death of their mother, three brothers go with their father on an extended sailing trip in the Bahamas and have a harrowing adventure at sea.

11 comments  Tagged:  , September 26, 2009

Savvy

savvyLaw, Ingrid. Savvy.

Mibs Beaumont’s thirteenth birthday has revealed her “savvy”–a magical power unique to each member of her family–just as her father is injured in a terrible accident.

22 comments  Tagged:  , September 26, 2009

Mogo, the Third Warthog

mogoNapoli, Donna Jo. Mogo, the Third Warthog.

When Mogo is cast out of his burrow to make room for a new litter, he learns how to survive and find the joy of friendship and love.

10 comments  Tagged:  , September 26, 2009

The Leanin’ Dog

dogNuzum, K.A. The Leanin’ Dog.

In wintry Colorado during the 1930s, eleven-year-old Dessa Dean mourns the death of her beloved mother, but the arrival of an injured dog and the friendship they form is just what they need to change their lives forever.

13 comments  Tagged:  , , September 26, 2009

Greetings from Nowhere

greetingsO’Connor, Barbara. Greetings from Nowhere.

In North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountains, a troubled boy and his mother, a happy family seeking adventure, a man and his lonely daughter, and the widow who must sell the rundown motel that has been her home for decades, meet and are transformed by their shared experiences.

11 comments  Tagged:  September 26, 2009

Steel Trapp: The Challenge

steelPearson, Ridley. Steel Trapp: The Challenge.

On a two day train trip to enter his invention in the National Science Competition in Washington,D.C., fourteen-year-old Steven “Steel” Trapp, possessor of a remarkable photographic memory, becomes embroiled in an international plot of kidnapping and bribery that may have links to terrorists.

12 comments  Tagged:  , September 26, 2009

Beneath My Mother’s Feet

beneathQamar, Amjed. Beneath My Mother’s Feet.

When her father is injured, fourteen-year-old Nazia is pulled away from school, her friends, and her preparations for an arranged marriage, to help her mother clean houses in a wealthy part of Karachi, Pakistan, where she finally rebels against the destiny that is planned for her.

6 comments  Tagged:  September 26, 2009

The Cabinet of Wonders

newcabRutkoski, Marie. The Cabinet of Wonders.

Twelve-yearold Petra, accompanied by her magical tin spider, goes to Prague hoping to retrieve the enchanted eyes the Prince of Bohemia took from her father, and is aided in her quest by a Roma boy and his sister.

16 comments  Tagged:  September 26, 2009

Knucklehead

knuckleScieszka, Jon. Knucklehead.

How did Jon Scieszka get so funny? He grew up as one of six brothers with Catholic school, lots of comic books, lazy summers at the lake with time to kill, babysitting misadventures, TV shows, and jokes told at family dinner.

68 comments  Tagged:  , September 26, 2009

Antsy Does Time

Antsy2Shusterman, Neal. Antsy Does Time.

Fourteen-year-old Anthony “Antsy” Bonano learns about life, death, and a lot more when he tries to help a friend with a presumed terminal illness feel hopeful about the future.

11 comments  Tagged:  September 26, 2009

Jellaby

jellaby1Soo, Kean. Jellaby.

Not long after Portia Bennett and her mother move to a new town to start their lives over, Portia discovers a huge purple monster she names Jellaby and enlists the help of fellow student Jason, as the two search for a way to find their new friend’s true home–a search which may connect Portia to her
missing father.

39 comments  Tagged:  , , September 26, 2009

Keeper of the Grail

templarSpradlin, Michael P. Keeper of the Grail.

In 1191, fifteen-year-old Tristan, a youth of unknown origin raised in an English abbey, becomes a Templar Knight’s squire during the Third Crusade and soon finds himself on a mission to bring the Holy Grail to safety.

13 comments  Tagged:  , September 26, 2009

Stolen

stolenVande Velde, Vivian. Stolen.

A girl finds herself running through the forest at the edge of a village with no memory of anything, even her own name, and later learns that she might be twelve-year-old Isabelle, believed to be stolen by a witch six years before.

17 comments  Tagged:  , September 26, 2009

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9 comments November 11, 2008


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