Bestselling YA author Ally Condie’s debut middle grade novel transports readers to a small desert town called Iron Creek, in the first summer following an automobile accident that changed 12-year-old Cedar’s life. Cedar’s father and younger brother Ben, a boy with special needs, were killed by a drunk driver, leaving Cedar, her mother and youngest brother Miles to try to pick up the pieces of their lives.

Buying a house in the town where she grew up is Cedar’s mother’s idea, and Cedar does her best to be supportive, though it’s hard to drum up much enthusiasm. It’s not until Cedar spies a boy named Leo speeding by on his bicycle that she begins to take an interest in making new connections. Through Leo, Cedar gets a job selling concessions at the Summerlost Festival, a Shakespearean festival held on the town’s college campus each year.

As Cedar forges a friendship with Leo, she realizes they both often feel different. She has been teased in the past on Ben’s account, and a group of local boys makes fun of her Chinese-American features and Leo’s theater costume. Cedar also gets drawn into the mystique surrounding the town’s most famous resident, a Hollywood actress who got her start on stage at Summerlost and later died in town. That’s not the only mystery plaguing Cedar: Someone is leaving odd gifts on her windowsill at night. Is it Leo, the strange birds in the tree or her brother’s ghost trying to make contact?

Summerlost is a sensitive look at the power of family and friendship in the grieving process, with humor and mystery that will draw in boy and girl readers alike.

Deborah Hopkinson lives near Portland, Oregon. Her most recent book for young readers is A Bandit's Tale.

Sophie Quire is just an ordinary 12-year-old girl: She works as a bookmender in her father’s bookstore, reads until all hours of the night and is pursued through her village by a boy wearing a blindfold while attempting to steal books that are going to be burned to prevent the spread of nonsense. Well, maybe she’s not completely ordinary. In fact, in Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard, written by Jonathan Auxier, Sophie finds out very quickly that her very ordinary life is about to change in a very big way.

Sophie first meets Peter Nimble when he rescues her from arrest after she steals a forbidden children’s book. Soon after, she is asked to repair a very old, and very damaged, book. Sophie is able to repair it, but when she wonders out loud who created the book, the book answers back. Sophie soon finds herself on the run, protecting the Book of Who and trying to find the Books of Where, What and When before the increasingly evil Inquisitor Prig finds them first.

Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard takes place two years after we first meet Peter Nimble in Auxier’s debut novel, Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes. Auxier manages to conjure the magic and adventure once again, while introducing us to a strong, brave and unwavering new hero. Thrust into adventure from the first pages and surrounded by an increasing assortment of fantastical characters, Sophie Quire proves why she is chosen to be the Last Storyguard.

In The Somewhat True Adventures of Sammy Shine, by author and prolific illustrator Henry Cole, Sammy the pet mouse is mouse-napped by his owner’s older brother and put inside a remote-controlled airplane. When the brother accidentally steps on the control device, rendering it useless, Sammy becomes a most reluctant pilot. He struggles with the onboard controls as the plane does loop-de-loops, finally coming to a crash landing at the edge of the big woods.

Although woozy from the crash, Sammy realizes he is somewhere quite different from his shoebox home containing peanuts and sawdust. He’s somewhere rather special, surrounded by flowers and plants of all kinds. After Sammy is rescued by a mouse colony, he sets off on a journey to find his airplane and then to find Goggles the raccoon, the only creature who can help him fix the plane. He knows his trek to find Goggles is dangerous; there is a trouble-making weasel who is also on the hunt for the plane. Sammy and crew have scary adventures while looking for the plane, but they also find true friendship, which is the real treasure that shines throughout the story. 

Cole’s intimate line sketches in shades of grey depict realistic yet whimsically drawn flora and fauna. Illustrations of each character, whether the crow, newt, shrew or mouse that Sammy befriends, exudes a wealth of personality. Delightful hidden numbers may be spied in the artwork found at the beginning of each chapter.

Troubled times stir up magic during the London Blitz in Janet Fox’s haunting middle-grade debut.

Hitler is making his move on England. Kat Bateson and siblings have been instructed to attend the children’s academy at Rookskill Castle in Scotland. Before leaving, great-aunt Margaret gives Kat her magical chatelaine, an odd key chain-like ornament. The Bateson children join four additional students, and soon the seven-fold contingent find that they are trapped under the firm control of the mysterious Lady Eleanor. Between creepy noises and ghostly children, most of the students believe the castle is haunted. Kat believes that the Lady is harboring a spy, and her suspicion is confirmed by the location of machinery. Yet all this pales in comparison to the steady disappearance of more and more students.

Fox’s original story is a stunning combination of espionage and dark magic set within a World War II realm. Key to Fox’s writing style is the way she builds the personas of her European and American cast by tightly entwining them within a dystopian period. Fox goes a step further by filling her third-person narrative with catchy subplots. As a result, Fox keeps her narrative flowing with a careful mix of character scenes and backstories set in the 1700s and 1800s—all filled with twists and turns and closing on a chilling note.

The Charmed Children of Rookskill is a gripping page-turner that has silver-screen potential.

Set in 1887 against the bleak backdrop of New York City tenement living, A Bandit’s Tale is the story of a plucky Italian boy and his adventures in a new world. After 11-year-old Rocco Zaccaro disgraces his impoverished family, his parents lease him to an unscrupulous man and send him to America to work as a street musician. Without any knowledge of English or how to play an instrument, Rocco is forced to earn money for his boss, the padrone. Rocco eventually gets mixed up with a pickpocketing gang and is arrested. After a daring prison escape, Rocco meets an Irish girl named Meddlin’ Mary and begins assisting the famous journalist and photographer Jacob Riis. Rocco morphs from a thief to a reformer as he tries to improve the lives of vulnerable kids like him.

Although Deborah Hopkinson acknowledges in an author’s note that the chronology and Rocco’s interactions with real-life figures Riis and Jewish reporter Max Fischel have been fictionalized, A Bandit’s Tale is historically accurate. Interspersed in the book are Riis’ photographs depicting the harsh living conditions of immigrants. Rocco’s lively narrative keeps the book from being morose, but parents may want to read along to help kids digest the history.

Kimberly Giarratano is the author of Grunge Gods and Graveyards, a young adult paranormal mystery.

This article was originally published in the April 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Caldecott Honor winner Peter Brown has parlayed his offbeat humor and dark, angular illustrations into his first chapter book. 

From the moment shiny robot Roz emerges from a crate that has washed up on the shore of a remote island, both Roz and the island’s animal inhabitants will never be the same. It’s a mysterious beginning for Roz, who wonders where she is and why she’s there. Soon, she’s worried about fitting in and surviving among the island’s animals, who fear this ominous metal creature and don’t try to hide their hostility. 

Brown’s short, well-paced chapters vary in perspective—some in Roz’s voice, some in third-person omniscient, some addressing the reader directly. The prose and dialogue offer an eager invitation for readers to discover Roz’s experiences on the island: clunking away from angry bears, saving an orphaned gosling or building a warm communal nest for the animals. Roz eventually wins over the island creatures, securing her place in the community—until a clever denouement threatens their unusual utopia. 

Without being preachy, Brown hits on many timely topics—friendship, the environment, technology, cooperation and differences—in this absorbing but very readable book. This hi-lo (high interest/low reading level) novel is especially ideal for reluctant readers.

This article was originally published in the April 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

BookPage Children's Top Pick, April 2016

Malapropism. Flummoxed. Rapprochement. Stupefy. “The average person knows about twelve thousand words. / Average president knows twice that. . . .” In Booked, the new novel-in-verse by Newbery Award winner Kwame Alexander, 12-year-old Nick knows all about words. His father is obsessed with them and makes Nick read every day from Weird and Wonderful Words, a dictionary that he wrote. Though immersed in books and language at home, Nick’s passion lies somewhere else: the soccer field.

Nick is a talented soccer player and just made the A team for his travel soccer club—but his best friend, Coby, didn’t. So now Nick plays for a rival team. If that’s not bad enough, Nick is being bullied on a regular basis, and he’s finding it harder than he hoped to talk to April, the girl of his dreams. On top of everything else, his mom is leaving Nick and his dad to pursue her dream of training racehorses. 

Filled with rich, brilliant language and sharp, staccato verse that drives the reader forward, Booked handles difficult and painful realities with the ease of a superstar on the soccer field. While eschewing the eclectic verse structures and concrete poetry in exchange for more traditional free verse (with a sprinkling of informative and very funny footnotes), Alexander recaptures the magic of The Crossover and delivers a powerful story that will leave the reader breathless, right to the very end. 

This article was originally published in the April 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

There can be something eminently satisfying about reading a really good series. Yet it can be frustrating when each book ends on a cliffhanger, and waiting a year or more for the next one can be irritating (take note, George R.R. Martin). Three cheers, then, for award-winning author Catherynne M. Valente’s Fairyland series. Every book has been an exceptional romp with a conclusive ending. Each successive book builds on the last, but doesn’t leave you feeling as if too much is left unresolved.

For those of us who started at the beginning with The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, we have followed the protagonist September from the ages of 12 to 17. We’ve watched her visit and mend Fairyland, make friends and make numerous self-discoveries. In the end, she always returns to her home in Nebraska, and we feel with her the ache to return to the magical world. However, at the end of the last book, September was left holding the crown, facing the possibility of staying to be Queen of Fairyland. The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home, as a final installment, is as full of wondrous prose as the other books—which only makes it all the more heartbreaking to think it is the last we’ll see of September.

Valente does an admirable job of catching the reader up on what’s what and who’s who for those who have not read the earlier novels, but if you start with this one, I guarantee you’ll want to go back and read the rest. By making Fairyland itself a character and its heart the object of a quest, the author has indisputably taken the fantasy story to a new level. The publisher recommends this book for readers aged 10 to 14, but I would make that 10 to 100. 

Jennifer Bruer Kitchel is the librarian for a Pre-K through 8th level Catholic school.

Linda Sue Park, Newbery Medal-winning author of A Single Shard, brings us the first book in an enchanting new fantasy trilogy, filled with apothecaries, a menagerie of animals and a grand journey into places unknown.

Raffa Santana has always had a natural instinct for the family apothecary business. So when a badly injured bat crash-lands in his yard, Raffa jumps at the chance to prove his abilities by treating the bat himself. His task leads him all across the land of Obsidia, first into the mysterious Forest of Wonders, then to the towering city of Gilden, collecting a ragtag band of friends, both human and animal, along the way. But when he and his friends begin to uncover threads of an unsettling plot in the kingdom, Raffa is forced to confront questions of loyalty and duty, and decide just where the moral limits of his craft lie.

In this novel, Park crafts a world rich in detail. The art of apothecary takes center stage and is sure to engross and captivate the imaginations of young readers. Those with a soft spot for furry friends will also be charmed by the key role they play in this story and the clever ways in which Park explores humans’ connection with the animal kingdom. Young readers—and the young at heart—will connect with Raffa’s struggle to gain confidence and find his way. The story is fast-paced and full of adventure, and builds toward a conclusion that will leave readers eager for the next installment.

The McKegway School for Clever and Gifted Children can be tough on a new student. Just ask Toby Wilcox. Newly transferred and trying to find his way, he’s distressed to find himself under the thumb of Mrs. Ravenbach each day. She keeps the children in line with strict German efficiency and little regard for anything but “the order and the discipline.” Kids have a choice: Do it Mrs. Ravenbach’s Way, or woe betide thee.

Author William M. Akers (Your Screenplay Sucks! 100 Ways to Make It Great) tells much of the story from Mrs. Ravenbach’s point of view; we see her spy on Toby and bully him until he wets his pants, so her comeuppance when it finally arrives is welcome. Toby’s hand-drawn journal entries and personal notes show us his side of things and are sometimes poignant and sometimes funny. Mrs. Ravenbach frightens the children with a legend about an errant fourth grader, but in Toby's notes, this student turns into a leather jacket-sporting bad boy hero.

If the tone is a bit uneven and the villain something of a caricature, Mrs. Ravenbach’s Way will still appeal to any kid who has felt bullied by a teacher and may encourage them to speak up about it. The message to think and stand up for yourself is one kids need to hear. And if the order and the discipline occasionally suffer for it? Too darn bad.

Sisters Jules and Sylvie are inseparable, until one day Sylvie disappears—a revelation that forever changes Jules.

The preteens live with their widowed father near the Slip, a river in a wooded area. Steadfast Jules loves collecting rocks and adores her one-year-older sister. The two love building snow families, including lucky snow foxes, together. Sylvie is more adventuresome, and when her free spirit decides to venture toward the Slip, Jules never sees her again and her world is shattered.

Concurrently, amid Jules’ grief and attempt to return to a life “After Sylvie,” a fox cub is born in the forest—and the term “spirit animal” soon takes on a new meaning. The cub, Senna, realizes something is very different about herself and the world around her. Something seems off, unsettled, mysterious. 

Senna learns she is a rare “Kennen”: “Some believe that the Kennen are meant to finish something that isn’t finished, to settle something that needs to be settled. Others say that a Kennen’s true purpose is to help in some way, big or small.” Elements from Jules’ and Sylvie’s lives, as well as interweaving storylines from their friends, soon intersect with that of Senna.

This book is reminiscent of the supernatural elements in Kathi Appelt’s excellent and Newbery Honor-winning The Underneath. There’s much more than meets the eye, as Jules and Senna both learn in a satisfying denouement that marries spirit animal with spirited young girl.

Ever since 12-year-old Curley Hines can remember, his grandfather has been giving him new words to learn each week. They begin with “A” in January and run through the alphabet twice during the course of a year. Papaw tells the seventh grader: “Well, Curley, words are your way out of the holler.”

Like Papaw’s words and his best friend, Jules, the holler is important to Curley. He loves his home in Wonder Gap, a coal-mining region in eastern Kentucky. But that love is tinged with pain: Coal claimed the life of Curley’s father in a mining accident, and four years later his mother and little brother were killed in a coal-related mud slide.

When the coal company changes hands, Curley and Jules are thrown together with the new owner’s son, JD, to collaborate on a science project on the eastern elk. When Curley learns that JD’s father and Tiverton Coal plan to remove the top of Red Hawk Mountain through a process called Appalachian surface coal mining, he sets out to make an Internet video to muster public opinion and garner opposition to the project. Curley uses his Papaw’s words to help guide his decisions and cope with personal challenges, and each word and its definition are featured at the end of the chapter.

Mary Knight’s heartfelt debut novel paints a vivid picture of a boy and his community, bound together by deep ties and a love of land and family. The novel is especially timely given current debates about the future of coal energy.

Deborah Hopkinson lives near Portland, Oregon. Her most recent book for young readers is Beatrix Potter and the Unfortunate Tale of a Borrowed Guinea Pig.

Twelve-year-old Carol would rather be enjoying summer vacation with her friends, not stuck on a dilapidated ranch in the parched New Mexico desert. Her family is preparing to sell the property and move her grandfather, Serge, into assisted living before his dementia advances further. But as Carol gets to know Serge, his stories open up a world that she’d never known before. 

Debut author Lindsay Eagar infuses this story with rich metaphors and real magic. Carol’s Mexican-American family tends to emphasize their American side, but life on the ranch with Serge shows Carol the value of deep roots—both figuratively and literally, as their land is in a century-long drought. Eagar’s language is poetic and lovely, and the story-within-a-story is a heartbreaker. The relationships between bees and water, and life versus living, would make for a terrific book club discussion. 

Hour of the Bees is as grand as the landscape it springs from, an ode to family and heritage but also to living fearlessly. Forget about the middle-grade designation; everyone who reads this will be touched, and quite possibly moved to re-secure their family ties. Dreamlike while also gritty and real, this is a gorgeous work of art.

This article was originally published in the March 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.