For German shepherd fans!

There are a lot of different, interesting aspects to How I, Nicky Flynn, Finally Get a Life (and a Dog) by Art Corriveau.  Nicky's parents have divorced; he and his mom have moved to a not-real-great (or big) apartment.  Nicky's mom surprises him by bringing home Reggie, a German shepherd and former guide dog for the blind.  Initially kind of mad, Nicky ends up bonding with Reggie and trying to figure out why the dog was returned to the pound.  At the same time he's learning about guide dogs in general and Reggie in particular, Nicky is dealing with school bullies, a girl who's trying to be his friend, a mom who isn't dealing well with the divorce, and a dad who's ignoring him.  Told in Nicky's voice, the story is authentic; parts are a little funny, but when characters mess up...it still seems real.

Three lives weaving together

The main characters in The Clockwork Three by Matthew J. Kirby definitely need to work together if they're each going to get their wish.  Giuseppe is an orphan who scrounges a living by playing the violin; he wants to escape his wicked master and go back to Italy.  Frederick is an apprentice clockmaker; if he can figure out how to complete the project he's secretly working on, he'll be able to be employed on his own. And Hannah, a lowly maid in a glamorous hotel, wants to find a hidden treasure so she can support her family.  Although I wasn't crazy about the ending - there's a fantasy element thrown in that I wish weren't there - I enjoyed the characters, and the author's description of the sights, sounds, and smells of the various settings really pulled me into the story.

A dump site, a key, and a mystery

Lots to think about in Trash by Andy Mulligan. Raphael, Gardo, and Rat are three boys who live in a dump site. Not near, but IN.  All day, they (and hundreds... thousands?) of other kids sort through the endless mountains of trash, trying to find something to sell, trying to survive.  One day they find a leather bag that contains a key, some money, and a wallet.  They decide to keep it, even though the police are offering a reward, and soon they're trying to solve a mystery involving a murder, a strange code, a graveyard, and a corrupt politician.  The story is told in alternating voices of the three boys and occasionally a couple of other characters.  The description of their lives is haunting, because it seems like it could be so real and relentless (being nabbed by the police would be terrifying), and the plot is fast-paced and intriguing.  You'll be thinking of the boys and their situation long after you finish the book.

Delightfully creepy

It's difficult to describe The Wikkeling by Steven Arntson, but it's awesome!  Henrietta lives in a dystopian city called the Addition.  It's way over-protective of its children (the school bus has mandatory lap belts, shoulder belts, and head belts), car horns blare out Honk Ads ("EDIBLE CLEANTASTE CORN SOAP!!"), and almost all the houses are identical, with a patch of green plastic grass out front.  But Henrietta lives in an old house, with a steep roof and an attic.  She discovers a wounded cat up there, and while caring for it, notices windows which  have never been visible from the street.  And when she looks out the windows, she sees the past!  Henrietta takes her two friends up there, and together they try to figure out many things: why does time seem to stand still when they're in the attic?  What is the cause of the headaches only those three get?  How are they linked to the scary yellow figure that only they can see?  I wouldn't call this book scary, but it's definitely creepy in a really, really good way.

Not your typical 11-year-old

The main character in Fiendish Deeds by P. J. Bracegirdle is definitely a little different!  Joy is 11 and she lives with her family in Spooking, "the terrible town on the hideous hill."  Think of words like dark, creepy, abandoned, overgrown...you get the idea.  But Joy loves it.  She and her brother Byron ride the school bus with the few other "Spooky" kids to Darlington, a town of perfect lawns, plenty of plastic, and boring, matching houses.  A contest to bring more people into the area results in a plan to build a water park (with a mermaid theme, much to Joy's horror) over the Spooking bog.  Joy is convinced that there's an endangered species living in the bog; she's determined to stop the project, but someone is determined to stop her.  Perfect for fans of scary stories who don't mind a bit of black humor, the story continues with Unearthly Asylum and Sinister Scenes.

Are you as clever as Sherlock?

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created the well-known Sherlock Holmes as an adult character.  What would Sherlock have been  like as a teenager?  You'll get an idea in Death Cloud by Andrew Lane.  Sherlock is 14 and he's stuck on the estate of his aunt and uncle for a boring summer.  Well...it starts OFF being boring, but soon Sherlock is entrenched in a murder mystery when he and his tutor stumble upon a dead body covered in bizarre red welts.  Add in another similar death, kidnappings, a pretty girl, and an evil plot to bring down the British Empire, and you've got a page-turning adventure! If you like the book, there's another one in the series: Rebel Fire is scheduled to be released in April 2012.

For you puzzle lovers!

If you don't like deciphering codes, The Code Busters Club: The Secret of the Skeleton Key by Penny Warner will probably make you nuts.  But if you DO like codes, you might enjoy it!  Cody and her friends (Quinn, Luke, and M. E.) are seventh graders who love communicating in unusual ways: Morse code, Braille, American Sign Language, and all sorts of secret codes. One day Cody and Quinn see two odd people visiting their reclusive neighbor, who's drawing strange signs on his window; soon after, the house burns down and the neighbor is taken to a hospital.  Convinced that the two people have something to do with the fire, the Code Busters Club is determined to find out the connection.  Secret messages are used constantly, but don't worry - the codes (and answers) are given in the back of the book.  There were too many of these messages for me, but maybe it's the right amount for you!  If solving puzzles is your thing, be sure to check out http://www.codebustersclub.com/. 

If dolls were alive...

I couldn't help but think of the movie Toy Story when I read The Doll People by Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin. Remember how Buzz and Woody appeared to be lifeless around humans but led quite busy lives once the people were gone?  Same thing for Annabelle Doll and the rest of her family, who all live in a wonderful, old dollhouse in Kate's room.  When Kate's younger sister gets a dollhouse of her own, the Funcraft family moves in, and soon Annabelle and Tiffany Funcraft are BFFs.  When Annabelle discovers the journal of her Auntie Sarah, who disappeared 45 years ago, the two friends decide to go on a risky mission to try to find her.   This is an enchanting, lighthearted fantasy, and the illustrations by Brian Selznick (author and illustrator of The Invention of Hugo Cabret) add a fun touch.

An unlikely (but pretty cool) friendship

If you've enjoyed books like Chasing Vermeer (by Blue Balliett), you're also going to like Masterpiece by Elise Broach. James lives in a New York apartment, which is also inhabited by Marvin - a beetle - and his family. James is pretty much ignored by his parents, but Marvin takes a liking to him. When James gets a pen-and-ink set for his 11th birthday, Marvin decides to use it to create a teeny drawing as a birthday present. James loves it, and of course, all the humans think he did it. After a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the little drawing is compared to those of Albrecht Durer, and soon James and Marvin are involved in solving an art heist of some of Durer's works. The mystery's a good one, the life of the beetle family is fun to read, and the way the friendship and communication between the two develop is well written. The pen-and-ink illustrations add a great touch - can you find Marvin?

Superheroes - and Daniel - to the rescue!

Powerless by Matthew Cody is a pretty cool blend of genres - a mystery with a supernatural twist.  Daniel is twelve, and his family has just moved to Noble's Green. He soon meets his neighbor Mollie and finds out that she, as well as her friends, all have a variety of superpowers. But for some unknown reason, when each of them turns 13, he or she not only looses the power, but also the memory of ever even having it. Mollie is convinced that Daniel, a regular kid who likes being a detective, can save the rest of them. So how do some old comic books, a meteor strike, an orphanage fire from long ago, and a nearby quarry fit into the puzzle? And who - or what - is The Shroud? Well, dear readers, you're going to have to read this book to discover who the villian really is and whether or not Daniel can save the day!

Brain cramp

Okay, I kept thinking, "Um....what?" as I read Brain Camp, a graphic novel by Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan.  Definitely different.  Underachievers Lucas and Jenna are sent to Camp Fielding, which claims to "prepare any child for the SATs and beyond."  It doesn't take long for them to discover a lot of weird stuff is going on, such as campers disappearing, counselors coming into the cabins at night with hypodermic needles, and kids acting like zombies.  Lucas and Jenna, besides starting to fall for each other, find out the truth (it involves a giant alien bird!), but can they get help before they get transformed themselves?  While the illustrations are appropriate for older middle schoolers, some are not for the squeamish. The pace of the story felt jumpy and rushed to me, but I know an eighth-grader who read this and really liked it.  If you're into graphic novels, check it out.

Vanished into thin air

A snow day from school?  What a great time to curl up with a blanket and a good book like The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd.  The story is told by Ted, a 12-year-old who is very bright and probably autistic, or as he describes it, "having a...brain that runs on a different operating system."  Ted and his sister Kate take their cousin Salim to ride the London Eye, an enormous Ferris wheel.  They watch Salim get into one of the pods, but he doesn't get off.  He's vanished!  Ted has a special way of looking at things, and it takes his special brain and hard work to figure out what happened.  Not only is this a good mystery (looking back, I noticed some of the clues), but the realistic insight into how Ted thinks - very literally and logically - was equally fascinating.

If you like Lemony Snicket...

...I bet you would like The Kneebone Boy by Ellen Potter.  Otto (who never speaks and refuses to take off his scarf), Lucia, and Max are the Hardscrabble siblings.  Their mom mysteriously disappeared five years ago, and their father goes on faraway trips to paint portraits of royalty who...aren't quite so royal any more.  The kids are on a quest to find their mother, and they end up at Snoring-by-the-Sea, with a pretty cool great-aunt who's staying at a "castle folly" - a life-size children's castle full of mystery and secret passages.  A few British terms may be unfamiliar ("torch" = flashlight; "trainers" = gym shoes), but the reader will still enjoy plenty of cleverness, humor, and adventure.  The ending is definitely not Lemony Snicket-y; instead, it was unexpected and bittersweet, but still quite satisfying.

A Chicago mystery

It's fun (for me, anyway) to read a story based in Chicago, like Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett.  Vermeer was a painter in the 1600s, and Petra and Calder are friends who are trying to solve the mystery of a Vermeer painting that disappeared on its way to the Art Institute.  Several random events are described, as well as a cast of interesting characters, and it's hard to figure out how in the world they'll all fit together (but they do in the end). The book includes chapter illustrations containing a puzzle that relates to the mystery, too.  Some of the clues and patterns the kids discover are pretty cool, but some seem too coincidental.  Even though I wasn't crazy about the ending (kind of weak), I enjoyed going to the computer a few times throughout the book to see more details of the Vermeer paintings described.

Spooky!

You've heard, "Never judge a book by its cover," right?  So true.  I only picked up this book because it had been recommended to me, but I thought that it looked dated and....sort of lame.  Shame on me - this was good!  The story begins with 11-year-old Allie stuck on the side of a cliff after fossil hunting.  Then a voice - from where? - calmly gives advice on how to get down.  After seeing a young girl's grave in a nearby cemetery and doing some research with her friend Dub, Allie is convinced that the voice belonged to the ghost of Lucy Stiles, who died four years ago but whose body was never found.  Now Allie is trying to solve the mystery of Lucy's death so that Lucy's spirit can finally rest in peace.  This is a well-paced book that's hard to put down, so look past the cover and check it out.

Suddenly, awesomely, stinkingly rich

As you might guess from the title, The Billionaire's Curse by Richard Newsome is a classic example of good news/bad news. When teenager Gerald goes with his parents to London for the funeral of his great-aunt Geraldine, he (and everyone else) is stunned to learn that he inherited a billion pounds!  BUT (you knew this was coming) while his goofball parents take off on a vacation, Gerald is left behind to solve a mystery: Geraldine left him a note saying she knows she was murdered, and it's up to Gerald to find the killer...before the killer finds him.  Most of the story zooms around a stolen diamond, a snooty gentlemen's club, suspects galore, and a pair of twins who befriend Gerald and offer to help figure out what's going on.  There were a bit too many coincidences for my taste, and I thought the end of story was mighty Indiana Jones-ish, but it was still a fun read.

Know a good lawyer?

Author John Grisham is internationally know for the legal thrillers he's written for adults. I'd love to know what students think of his first book for middle schoolers, Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer. Theodore is 13, and his parents are both lawyers. He loves everything about the legal world and knows a heck of a lot about it, too. He's fascinated by a local murder trial - it seems like the accused man is guilty but will get away with his crime. The dilemma arises when Theo learns of an eyewitness, an illegal immigrant, who can probably get the guy convicted. However, the young man is afraid that if he comes forward he'll be deported. What should Theo do? It's a great premise for a book, but some of the story and dialogue didn't seem authentic to me, and too much was unresolved at the end. There's a fun Theodore Boone web site, but I think Grisham should stick to writing adult books.

History and mystery...

I liked this book for so many reasons that I'm not sure where to start! The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler takes place in 18th-century Japan. Seikei is a tea merchant's son, but he dreams of becoming a samurai. When a priceless ruby is stolen, Seikei is the only person to have seen the thief, and the famous samurai magistrate Judge Ooka asks for Seikei's help in solving the mystery. The description of the Japanese culture of the times is outstanding; the contrast between Judge Ooka's slow, methodical approach to the crime and Seikei's urge to just nab the criminal (you'll have a good idea who it is) was fun to follow; and the ending was both exciting and unexpected. Fans of both adventure and mystery will enjoy the action in this story of a boy who shows the courage and honor of a samurai.