The indefatigable Mary Pope Osborne returns with a new title in her popular Magic Tree House series. Set in occupied France during World War II, Danger in the Darkest Hour, the first Magic Tree House Super Edition, provides the same reading level as the Merlin Missions (books 29 through 52) but with a longer story and more complex plot.

In their new adventure, Jack and Annie travel through time to June 4, 1944, just days before the Allies’ invasion of Normandy. Merlin has sent their friends, the young enchanters Teddy and Kathleen, to London to bolster the hopes of British leaders during the dark days of the war. Teddy and Kathleen have become secret agents in the SOE, the Special Operations Executive. (Known as “Churchill’s Secret Army,” the real SOE sabotaged and fought the Nazis throughout occupied Europe.) But now Teddy desperately needs Jack and Annie’s help. Kathleen has disappeared while on a mission to France, so Jack and Annie must parachute into Normandy to find her.

Complete with maps and an overview of WWII, Danger in the Darkest Hour introduces sophisticated themes in an accessible and exciting package appropriate for young readers. Clearly, Osborne still has the magic touch.

Deborah Hopkinson lives near Portland, Oregon. Her most recent book for young readers is The Great Trouble.

This article was originally published in the January 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Grumpy Cat’s got nothing on Hissy Fitz, the eponymous feline of Patrick Jenning’s latest middle grade novel. Hissy lives with the Fitz family, and he loves his owner, young Georgie; she’s his favorite, and she treats Hissy just like a sibling. Unfortunately, Georgie’s actual sibling, young Zeb, lives to annoy Hissy. Zeb is noisy, rambunctious and does what little boys do.

But all Hissy wants to do is sleep. And, unfortunately, that’s about the gist of the book: Hissy gets annoyed; Hissy can’t sleep—endless loop.

Beginning readers will find the playful tug-of-war between Hissy and Zeb interesting (and the battle between Hissy and a neighborhood raccoon bandit). But the grumpier the insomniac cat gets, the more bored readers may become. There’s not much development past that thin plot line—with one exception, when all the neighborhood cats team up to play soccer in an effort to take Hissy’s mind off his insomnia and chaotic family life. It’s an odd diversion, one that makes little sense in the scheme of the book. Thin character development and a repetitive plot will have readers wishing for the Bad Kitty series.

Sharon Verbeten is a freelance writer and children’s librarian in De Pere, Wisconsin.

Carrie Ryan, who is best known for the young adult apocalyptic zombie series, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, finds her kindler, gentler (but no less thrilling) side as she teams up with her husband, John Parke Davis, for the first in a projected four-part middle grade adventure series.

Marrill is disappointed to learn that she is going to be living in Phoenix for the foreseeable future while her mother undergoes treatment for a serious illness. She wishes her family could return to their itinerant, adventure-seeking lifestyle from before her mom got sick. So when she encounters a mysterious ship floating on what appears to be an abandoned parking lot, she is more than a little intrigued.

Meanwhile, in another world full of monsters and wizards, Fin possess the magical blessing or curse of being utterly forgettable—even the woman who rescued him from the orphanage and raised him has completely forgotten his existence. So when he receives a cryptic letter from someone who not only recognizes him but acknowledges his powers of thievery, he knows he needs to follow the clues.

When Merrill and Fin meet each other, it’s the start of a powerful friendship—and the kickoff of an adventure that readers will devour. The authors cleverly balance witty wordplay, action, suspense and emotional impact for a novel that is a lively introduction to a great new series—and a quest that kids will want to embark upon.

Truly Lovejoy, or Drooly as her brother calls her, tries to stay under the radar. But she’s nearly six feet tall and sporting size 10.5 shoes, so being overlooked is impossible.

When her father loses an arm to an IED in Afghanistan, the family is yanked from their first home in Austin and plunked into tiny, duller-​than-dull Pumpkin Falls, New Hampshire. The move is supposed to be good for her dad, but Truly struggles with being displaced. A bright spot is getting to know her colorful and perky Aunt True, who begins to work with Truly’s dad to make over the 100-year-old family bookstore. The whole town soon comes together to turn the bookstore into something wonderful. While working in the store, Truly finds a cryptic message stuck inside a copy of Charlotte’s Web. Soon she finds that chasing clues is more intriguing than dwelling on being “stuck” in Pumpkin Falls.

Absolutely Truly is a series opener by Heather Vogel Frederick, award-winning author of the Mother-Daughter Book Club series. Middle grade readers will enjoy the cozy town, engaging characters and easily relatable family situations.

This article was originally published in the November 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

It’s 1861, and the men of Keokuk, Iowa, have finally been called to war. Unfortunately for 11-year-old Ike Button, he’ll have to stay behind with the women while his older brothers, father and uncles all serve in the Union Army. Ike doesn’t want to care for his baby cousins when he could be off fighting like the men. Determined to forge his own destiny, Ike conjures up a scheme to go to Missouri and slip into the regiment. But before those ill-conceived plans come to fruition, Ike discovers that the war is happening in Keokuk, too, and he doesn’t need to be a soldier to fight for the cause.

The Curse of the Buttons is the third installment in the delightful Button family saga, though readers do not need to have read the other books to enjoy this one. Anne Ylvisaker wastes no words; her narrative is charming in its simplicity and entrances the reader by fully immersing them in the time and place. Even as the Button family faces challenges, they prevail with kindness and spirit.

This article was originally published in the November 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

BookPage Children's Top Pick, November 2014

First there was Wilbur the pig. Then there was Ivan the shopping mall gorilla. Now there’s Audrey the cow.

Farmer Glenn might think Audrey is a food cow, but according to Audrey, she’s a poet cow, a white Charolais who can appreciate the finer things in life, like landscapes to admire and flowers to eat. More than two dozen distinct voices, including cows, dogs, sheep, pigs, deer and humans, take turns relating what happens as Audrey draws on her dead mother’s tales—and her farmyard friends’ resourcefulness—to plan a daring escape.

Like Katherine Applegate in her Newbery Medal-winning The One and Only Ivan, author Dan Bar-el starts with a true story and expands on it, granting voices and agency to his animal characters. Also like Ivan, occasional black-and-white drawings (here by Tatjana Mai-Wyss) add visual interest and help emerging readers relate to the unusual narrators.

Elementary school readers can cheer for Audrey’s quest while an older audience can giggle at the clever wordplay: The French-derived word for slaughterhouse, abattoir, is misheard by the animals as “Abbot’s War,” and gossip literally comes from the horse’s mouth. Don’t stop to question who exactly these voices are talking to—or why people seem to have cell phones at some opportune moments but not others—because doing so would spoil the fun of this gentle tale. Instead, focus on the postmodern storytelling, the perfect combination of humor and pathos and the determination of a cow who isn’t willing to give up.

This article was originally published in the November 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Everyone has thought about what three wishes they would make if they ever found a genie in a bottle. But what if you couldn’t think of three? Or, worse, what if the genie had lost his powers and couldn’t grant them anyway? This is what happens to young Emma in Cornelia Funke’s new book for young people, Emma and the Blue Genie.

Being the only girl with four younger brothers, Emma likes to escape the noise by sitting on the beach near her home and listening to the waves. One night she finds a stoppered bottle and releases a sad, blue genie named Karim who needs her help more than she needs his. Karim promises to grant her wishes after he has taken back his stolen magic nose ring from an evil yellow genie. Emma decides that going with him on this adventure, along with her dog Tristan, sounds better than waiting at home.

Flying away on a magic carpet, Karim and Emma (and Tristan) go to a strange, distant land where they must use all their bravery and cleverness to best the yellow genie. Written in prose that is easily accessible to elementary students, this tale will delight boys and girls alike. Beautiful color illustrations by Kerstin Meyer make a wonderful accompaniment. This book was tested on a second-grade boy and given two thumbs up!

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

Rural North Carolina in the 1920s is modernizing at its own pace. Arie Mae loves her hometown and family, but dearly wants a friend to call her own. When Tom comes from the city to study the old ways of living, she’s sure she has found him, but nothing is ever that easy. Anybody Shining illuminates friendship, family, faith and all the things that can be left behind for the sake of progress.

Author Frances O'Roark Dowell (The Secret Language of Girls) tells the story through a series of letters from Arie Mae to a distant cousin. The joy of a barn dance and the scary fun of hunting for “haints” (ghosts)—and sometimes finding them—interweave with the community’s patronizing mistreatment by well-intended outsiders. For the locals’ part, they’re mystified as to why someone would want to learn weaving when you can finally buy ready-made cloth from the Sears catalog. Arie Mae tries to balance her view with respect for everyone involved: “Mostly we have got the stomping kind of dances here, and I wouldn’t mind to see a new step or two. But this ain’t something I would say to Daddy, as he’s partial to our ways.”

Anybody Shining has rich atmosphere, and the friendship between Arie Mae and Tom is sweet and inspiring. History teachers will love the references to the post-Civil War South, the eerie way Indians went from living nearby to becoming the stuff of legend, and the “songcatchers” who traveled out to find traditional roots music. (One refuses to listen to a contemporary fiddler for fear of being “inauthentic.”) Grab some molasses candy and dig in; Anybody Shining is a pleasure.

Heather Seggel reads too much and writes all about it in Northern California.

Twins Johnny and Will and their friend Rad are back for more adventures in the third installment of Allen Johnson Jr.’s Blackwater Novels, set in 1940s Alabama and Georgia. When Linc, the African-American man who became a hero to the boys in previous books, helps foil a developer’s search for oil in the local swamp, the frustrated oil man sends the Ku Klux Klan to terrify Linc and his supporters. Now it’s up to the local sheriff—with the help of the boys—to come up with a clever way to show the Klan they aren’t welcome in tolerant Blackwater County. In between run-ins with the KKK, the boys help catch a team of burglars, cause mischief at school, camp out on their favorite island and enjoy fishing, reading comics and playing catch with their beloved dogs.

Allen Johnson Jr, grandson of the founder of Coca-Cola Bottling Company United, writes in a voice that’s authentic to his own boyhood experiences in the deep South. Linc and other African-American characters speak in strong dialect, and villains frequently invoke the n-word, while Sheriff Clyde actively condemns its use. Descriptions of long-distance train rides, Southern cooking and popular radio shows of the time round out this tale. Kids whose fathers and grandfathers read Tom Swift and the Hardy Boys will find much familiar territory in this new generation of stories.

Jill Ratzan reviews for School Library Journal and works as a school librarian at a small independent school in New Jersey.

Milo was ready to enjoy a quiet Christmas vacation at his parents' hotel, Greenglass House, in the fictional harbor town of Nagspeake. Usually inhabited by local smugglers, the hotel receives not one but five unexpected visitors on the same snowy night. After Milo finds a map (with possible ties to Greenglass House) that was dropped by one of the hotel guests, it’s clear that they’re all looking for something—but not necessarily the same thing. Figuring out why the visitors have arrived and what each wants becomes Milo’s mission.

In this atmospheric, multilayered mystery—filled with gorgeous (and of course, green) stained-glass windows, an attic begging to be explored and a quirky cast of squabbling characters—the cook’s daughter, Meddy, suggests to Milo a role-playing game called Odd Trails. Their new traits give the children the confidence they need to sort through the ambiguous facts, lies and clues, especially when objects start disappearing and the hotel guests take turns telling tales around the fireplace. His alternate role also allows adopted Milo to explore his Chinese ancestry and wonder about his birth parents.

Reminiscent of The Westing Game, Greenglass House offers smart storytelling and plenty of secrets, sabotage and twists. For fans who want to know more about this unusual hotel and its history, author Kate Milford refers them to an invented tourism site for the town of Nagspeake. On their own snowy, homebound days, readers will have trouble finding a more charming story.

Set in a small village separated from a once-powerful kingdom by a mystical, moving forest, The Witch’s Boy is a fable filled with unlikely friendships, creatures and humans dealing with loss, rulers struggling for power and the world’s last remaining bit of real magic.

Ned and Tam, the inseparable twin sons of the woman known only as Sister Witch and her woodsman husband, live on the edge of their small—and small-minded—village. One fateful day, the boys decide to build a raft and float down the nearby Great River to the sea. But when their raft crumbles in the river’s rapids, their father only has enough time to save Ned from the deathly currents. Sister Witch tries to revive her son, but she knows this is a lost cause and is unwilling to bear losing both her children. Instead, she uses her magic to bind Tam’s soul to the fading Ned. But the magic is dangerous and not without consequences.

Elsewhere in the woods, the fire-haired Bandit King longs to reclaim the world’s lost magic and use it for his own gain. When he discovers that Sister Witch possesses the last bit of it, he attempts to take it by force. But when Ned tries to stop him by binding the magic to his own body, he gets swept up in an adventure that has him crossing paths with the smart and self-sufficient Áine of the woods and a young wolf that seems to understand much more than it should.

In The Witch’s Boy, Parents’ Choice Gold Award winner Kelly Barnhill sucks the reader into a moving and expansive story she started crafting accidentally on a walk in the woods with her young son. As her fable unfolds, we learn from her cast of characters that the magic and powers we all possess can manifest in any number of unexpected ways.

Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.

A nest is a haven—a place of safety and repose. But for 11-year-old Naomi Orenstein, her safe haven is turned upside down after mounting family tragedy.

Naomi, known as “Chirp” for her ornithological interests, lives with her older sister, psychiatrist father and dancer mother in 1970s Cape Cod. But after being diagnosed with MS, Chirp's mother sinks into depression that brings about more tragedy.

This could be more than most tweens can absorb or understand, but Chirp is strong, to a point. Her love of nature comforts her, and Joey, the boy down the street, takes her on adventures designed to make her forget the stress of losing a parent—and help Joey forget the stress of living with an abusive one.

Ultimately, it boils down to what Chirp believes, “You can’t make grown-ups not do what they’re going to do.” So the two set out to make sense of their lives by escaping their troubles.

In this debut novel by Esther Ehrlich, Chirp’s voice rings true, both in her dealings at school and with her family in disarray. It is a sad story but overwhelmingly powerful in the way families and their trajectories are presented—and in showing how family members react in various ways.

Chirp’s nest will never be the same, but when she returns from her adventures with Joey, she realizes that no matter what has happened, she is home.

Sharon Verbeten is a freelance writer and children’s librarian in De Pere, Wisconsin.

“I’m a risk taker.” With that short sentence, readers are introduced to Arcady, a goal-scoring, wisecracking soccer star. However, very few people know just how good Arcady is at soccer. Arcady is a resident of an orphanage in Soviet Russia intended for children of enemies of the Soviet state. Instead of fame and fortune, Arcady plays for stolen rations and survival.

This all looks to change when a group of inspectors comes to the orphanage. Bribed by the director of the orphanage, Arcady participates in a series of soccer competitions against larger and stronger boys, with the intention of entertaining the inspectors. But a few days later, one of the inspectors returns to adopt Arcady. Although Arcady is freed from the confines of the orphanage, this does not mean his life will be easier.

Arcady’s Goal, the latest novel by Newbery Honor-winning author Eugene Yelchin, is a sparse book that carries great weight. A companion to Breaking Stalin’s Nose, it brings to light many of the struggles faced by children who did nothing wrong but were punished solely because of what their parents believed. Both haunting and laugh-out-loud funny, Arcady’s Goal will score big with readers.

This article was originally published in the October 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.