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.

Life on this island isn't quite what you'd imagine

I didn't know what to expect when I saw the title of this book, Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko.  Al Capone the gangster and laundry?? Well, yes.  The year is 1935, and Moose and his family have just moved to Alcatraz Island, where Al Capone is serving time.  Moose's dad took a job there so they could be close to San Francisco and a special school for Moose's sister Natalie, who's autistic.  Moose ends up meeting several other kids who live on the island, including Piper, the warden's cute but very scheming daughter (and the source of the Al Capone and laundry connection).  As Moose gets used to his unusual living arrangements, the story includes interesting facts about Alcatraz, Piper's crazy ideas for making money, and Moose's devotion to his sister.  It may sound like an odd combination of ideas, but it works!  A funny, touching, and fascinating story.

Who exactly IS Lemony Snicket?

I don't typically pick up biographies, but I couldn't resist when I saw Lemony Snicket (David Handler) by Dennis Abrams. Many of you probably know that Lemony Snicket is the author of A Series of Unfortunate Events, 13 novels about the sad, amazingly funny and awful lives of the three Baudelaire orphans. But you may not know that the author's real name is David Handler. Not too surprisingly, he's a pretty interesting guy, with interests ranging from humor to poetry to playing the accordion. That said, I had a hard time getting into the book. It felt like the author was trying to write like Lemony Snicket, whose style is so unique that imitation of it just doesn't work. I also thought there was a pretty weak connection between the text and the pictures. But maybe I'm not a good judge, since I don't read many biographies. What do YOU think?

A wonderful smile...FINALLY

I didn't know until I was finished that Smile by Raina Telgemeier is based on something that really happened to the author. Poor Raina had an accident as a 12-year-old that caused her to lose her two front teeth. She goes through years of surgery, braces, false teeth, and pain on her way to a beautiful smile. Doesn't quite sound like the basis of a graphic novel, does it? But it works! The story is told with humor, even as Raina is going through typical middle school situations of crushes, betrayal of frenemies, and changing family dynamics. The characters are simply drawn, but the emotions are definitely there, and you'll cheer for Raina as she finds a new group of friends. A great story that shows readers no matter how tough your situation, it will eventually get better....just maybe not in the way you think.

Have you ever wished you could fly?

If so, Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson will definitely get your attention. Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel are six kids living on their own. Why? They started out living in cages in an evil laboratory called the School. They're part of an experiment - they're 98% human and 2% bird! So yes, they have wings and can fly. Sounds pretty cool, except for the fact that the nasty scientists want them back and are chasing them down with the Erasers, wicked mutants of humans and wolves. The adventure starts when the Erasers manage to kidnap Angel and the rest of the gang has to figure out how to get her back. And Max was told she has to save the world - no biggie, right? And what's up with the violent, bizarre headaches and the Voice in her head? There is SO much going on this book...no surprise that it's the first in the Maximum Ride series.

"How do you stand up for truth?"

If you like getting to the bottom of a story and finding out the truth, check out Peeled by Joan Bauer. Hildy reports for The Core, her high school newspaper. Creepy stuff is happening around the old Ludlow house, but Hildy and her friends suspect that the town's local newspaper is really blowing things out of proportion to spook the residents of her small apple-growing community. It seems like there's no way to get the truth out of the mayor and the local paper's editor, but with a lot of hard work and help from the school newpaper advisor and a local cafe owner, Hildy and her classmates discover the real story, which could damage many of the townspeople's livelihoods and turn the town into a tacky tourist trap. Excellent pace, great characters, and for you budding journalists - terrific reporting advice.

The movie is here!!

I just HAD to re-read The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, since the movie is coming out today. Hugo is an orphan living in a Paris train station in the 1930s. His late father had discovered an automaton: a human-like figure that looks like it's ready to write something. Now Hugo has the automaton, and he's trying to repair it with parts that he steals from a toymaker's booth. He meets the toymaker's god-daughter, who has a special key that fits the automaton...but why? What can the connection possibly be? The illustrations in this book make the reading of it a very different experience, as though the reader is being drawn into an old-fashioned movie. And of course, that's part of the plot, when we discover that the toymaker is actually a famous man from the filmmaking industry. The book was the Caldecott Medal winner in 2008, and it truly is a wonderful book to read...and re-read.

For the Huckleberry Finn in you

Yep, you might think of Mark Twain when you read The Glorious Adventures of the Sunshine Queen by Geraldine McCaughrean. It's the 1890s, and Cissy is living in tiny, boring Olive Town, Oklahoma. In order to avoid the diphtheria outbreak, she and two of her friends, Kookie and Tibbie, leave town with the school teacher. They meet up with the Bright Lights Theater Company, an oddball assortment of characters living aboard a rundown paddle wheel boat, the Sunshine Queen. The troupe puts on shows as it travels down the Missouri River, and they usually have great success...and then some kind of trouble, so they have to skedaddle down the river again. Villains, heroes, gamblers, actors, and swindlers are all part of the over-the-top adventures. After a slow start, the story moves at a good pace, but have a dictionary handy: the writing is quite clever, but some of the words (panache, hoicked) might be confusing.

I dare you NOT to read this

Hopefully you'll get the irony in Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading by Tommy Greenwald. What lengths would you go to NOT to read all the way through middle school? (I guess that's a trick question, since you're reading this, right?) Charlie Joe thought he had it figured out: he could pay one of his buddies with ice cream sandwiches to read Charlie Joe's assignments and then give him a quickie summary. And it worked!...for a while, and then he got caught. But now the big "Position Paper" is coming up, so Charlie Joe has to come up with a new plan. He'll let you in on his ideas, the school cliques and crushes, and typical middle school thinking; sprinkled throughout the book are Charlie Joe's Tips, such as "It's easy to convince others that you do in fact read, even if do in fact don't. (Use the word therefore a lot.)" I dare you NOT to read this, and I double dare you NOT to laugh. :)

What does "family" mean?

Many of the older girls in the middle school have read Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen, so I decided to check it out. Ruby is 17, and after her alcoholic mother deserts her, she's sent to live with her sister Cora, whom she hasn't seen in ten years. Ruby's life was poor and rough, and she has a hard time getting used to the nice home and fancy school that she's moving to. She's also been so self-reliant for so long that she's determined not to have to depend on anyone. The characters in the story are great: Nate, the way cute neighbor boy with dark secrets of his own; Jamie, Cora's likable husband and founder of a popular social networking site (think Facebook); Harriet, the hyper owner of a jewelry store at the mall who hires Ruby to help out. The author's books tend to be formulaic, but sometimes that's alright. If you like to read about a strong girl making her way through a tough situation - and it's okay for a little romance to be thrown in - you should check this one out, too.