Suzy’s summer begins with an emergency: Mrs. Harden, her neighbor and honorary grandmother, suddenly collapses. Thanks to the quick thinking of Suzy's little brother, Parker, who calls 911, Mrs. Harden is whisked to the hospital and is soon on her way to a full recovery.

But while all ends well for Mrs. Harden, the incident is just the beginning of Suzy’s troubles. First, there’s the neverending onslaught of attention Parker receives as the town's littlest hero. Parker is featured in the newspaper, receives balloons and stuffed animals, and is invited to ride with the mayor in the 4th of July parade. And then Parker tops off his stint as the most obnoxious younger brother on the planet by managing to get himself lost on the very day Suzy and her dad have baseball tickets to celebrate her 12th birthday.

The only good thing about Suzy’s summer, she decides, is choosing Emily Dickinson as her character in the Tween Time library program. As it turns out, impersonating the reclusive poet becomes the perfect way to express her dissatisfaction with the world. As Emily, Suzy wears white dresses, rarely leaves the house, hides from her best friend Alison, and avoids a conversation with her friend Gilbert. But Emily Dickinson is also the poet who wrote, “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers— / That perches in the soul.” And before summer’s end, Suzy finds a way to soar.

Written in easy-to-read, accessible free verse, Eileen Spinelli’s story of a rollercoaster summer is perfect for young readers who may find, like Suzy, that trying on other roles is one way to feel better about being yourself.

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

By age 6, Kara Westfall has seen and suffered unimaginable loss: Her mother was convicted of witchcraft, and Kara was accused as well. By 12 she’s developed a dark sense of humor, but she’s a dutiful sister to younger brother Taff and tries to care for her grieving father. Their village hates and fears her, so when a strange bird appears in her path and leads her into the Thickety, the oppressive forest that surrounds them, she’s frightened but curious. What she finds there will reshape her destiny.

Author J.A. White packs The Thickety: A Path Begins with genuinely scary scenes, many of which revolve less around magic than simple human cruelty. Kara’s nemesis Grace is a Bad Seed / Crucible mashup, solicitous to all adults while torturing and enslaving her playmates in the pursuit of ultimate power. Kara’s helplessness to allay her father’s grief, and her anger when she has to mother him and shoulder his share of the work, speak to the adult pressures many kids face daily. It’s no wonder that a taste of power turns her own head, and threatens to sink her entirely.

The story ends with a blindsiding twist, after which nothing is certain and everyone’s potentially in peril. Fortunately the subtitle A Path Begins promises more to come, because readers who enter The Thickety will want to return.

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

If you are—or ever were—a kid who couldn’t wait for school to start in September, get ready to meet Magnolia Jane Mayfield. It’s 1988, and Maggie’s starting sixth grade. She’s thrilled to have a lunch table all to herself, because she can spread out her books better that way. Her mother has a new and glamorous (or at any rate, glamorous-sounding) job; her father tells jokes even while his limbs get increasingly “sleepy”; and a boy named Clyde is beginning to make her understand her older sisters’ interest in lip gloss. But her career aspirations come first: After all, she plans to be president of the United States someday.

Maggie’s fear and confusion as she learns more about her father’s illness are direct and authentic. A contemporary tween would go online for information, not chase after a missing encyclopedia volume as Maggie does, but the retro feel only adds to the charm. The Meaning of Maggie does for middle-grade fiction what John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars did for teen literature: Both portray coping with serious illness as one aspect of a complex character, not as the single issue that defines them. Details of life with multiple sclerosis are spot-on, but what ultimately stands out is the way Maggie describes her world, including her footnoted observations about everything from butterscotch to the unbreakable Law of Mom. Funny, sweet, smart and poignant, this is a book not to miss.

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

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

From the best-selling author of Airborn and This Dark Endeavor comes another cinematic adventure. In this historical steampunk folktale, young William Everett is traveling across Canada on the maiden voyage of The Boundless. With seven miles of cars, including enough freight cars to form a circus “town,” The Boundless is the longest train in the world. When Will witnesses a murder related to the railway’s golden spike, hidden in the former railway president’s funeral car, he finds himself the next murder target. Hiding from a villainous brakeman and his accomplices is no easy feat, especially on a moving train that winds along perilous curves, through pitch-black tunnels and lands inhabited by menacing creatures.

As Will notices his world becoming larger and stranger, his daring escape becomes an opportunity to reinvent himself and discover his artistic talents. With real-life historical figures, literary allusions, astonishing gadgets and scary beasts, this atmospheric pageturner is indeed boundless with nonstop action.

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

For the first time ever, it will just be Adam, his mom and his aging grandmother at their cabin on Three Bird Lake. His parents have recently divorced, and although it will be a different kind of summer, 12-year-old Adam looks forward to escaping the routine of school, sitting on the dock by himself and watching the loons. But his grandmother has other ideas and decides he should learn to canoe around the lake by himself. After disappointing her with his inept efforts, he finds a curious note in her handwriting that sends his summer in a new direction.

There has been talk of a cute new girl in the neighborhood, and Adam resists his family’s expectation that they’ll become boyfriend and girlfriend. But when Adam and Alice take a daylong canoe trip, she turns out to be much better friend material than he’d expected. The two end up spending every day of the summer together, canoeing, swimming and tackling a mystery set in place years ago when his grandmother was young and in love with someone else—not Adam’s grandfather.

Three Bird Summer will charm readers with its tale of a summer that is very different indeed.

Billie B. Little is the Founding Director of Discovery Center at Murfree Spring, a hands-on museum in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

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

Twelve-year-old Kester Jaynes is locked up in a “school” for troubled children that is more like a jail with solitary lock-up and nothing but goop to eat. He’s been there for six years, living in drudgery, until one night when a flock of pigeons and a gathering of cockroaches insist he break out to save the last bit of wild. These creatures are the first Kester has encountered in years, since it seemed all the animals on Earth had died of the Red-Eye virus. They’re certainly the first he has communicated with. Kester can’t speak, but as he has just discovered, he can speak telepathically with critters.

The pigeons were sent to bring Kester to a place where, hidden from everything, animals somehow survive. The head of the group, the Wildness, needs Kester’s help; there has to be a cure, a dream told him so.

Bigger than even the virus, there is a darkness controlled by a corporation. All of the world’s crops have been torn out, all of the farm animals are gone, and all that is left to eat is a formula produced by Facto, the company in charge of everything.

This dystopian world is full of adventure for Kester, who meets a girl who guards her cat with a gun, rides on the back of a magnificent stag and faces the threat of danger in every chapter. Kester is a likable character, full of longing, self-doubt and, eventually, inner growth. Readers will root for him to face his challenges and to make a difference in the world.

Author Piers Torday reveals through the eyes of animals just how cruel humans are to the wild. Reminiscent of Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984, this tale is not light-hearted, but it has heart-touching moments, plenty of action, a powerful story and a white pigeon of whimsy.

Separating fact from fantasy is no small order in The Riverman, Aaron Starmer’s first installment in a planned trilogy. And discerning what is real is a challenge for the reader as well as for 12-year-old Alistair Cleary, the well-meaning protagonist of this dark and multilayered novel set in a small town in the 1980s.

Odd girl-next-door Fiona Loomis has a proposal for Alistair: listen to her ramblings and write down her story. Sounds innocent enough, but Alistair soon learns that Fiona’s story is far from typical or even believable. She weaves a tale of traveling the magical, unknown world of Aquavania (via a portal in her basement). There, she creates her own reality and meets unusual characters along the way who tell her about the nefarious Riverman, who allegedly steals children’s souls.

In Fiona’s stories, time shifts; children disappear; and she struggles to live both in Aquavania and in what she calls the Solid World. But as confused and concerned as Alistair is, he finds himself strangely drawn to Fiona and begins to wonder if her stories are a cover for something dangerous or abusive happening in her family.

This tale of alternate realities may be a tad tough to follow (and a bit mature) for younger readers, but older preteens and teens will find this contemporary twisted and tumbled take on Through the Looking-Glass (with a few similarities to Tony DiTerlizzi’s WondLa trilogy) to be a compelling mystery. Alternate worlds may be the next dystopias, and Starmer is the one to pull it off.

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

Lantern Sam is a rare male calico cat who lives aboard a train called the Lake Erie Shoreliner (New York to Chicago in under 20 hours!) in the 1940s. Ostensibly in the care of conductor Clarence Nockwood, Sam is an intelligent and independent cat who has the ability to share his thoughts with some humans. Clarence is one of them, but when 10-year-old Henry Shipley comes aboard, Sam finds he can “talk” to him, too.

It’s just as well, because when Henry’s new friend Ellis Strasbourg is kidnapped on the train, he’s going to need Sam’s help to rescue her. Together, Sam and Henry will have to figure out many clues and outwit the kidnappers before it’s too late.

As author of the Red Blazer Girls series, Michael D. Beil is no stranger to middle grade mysteries. His prose is readily accessible, and the danger is mild but bound to be exciting to most third- and fourth-grade students. The story unfolds in alternating chapters between the first-person voices of Henry and Sam. This format is initially confusing, but Beil does a wonderful job of establishing their separate personalities, and the swap soon becomes fluid and easy. Plus, Sam’s chapters are a countdown of his nine lives, which makes the reader wonder: What happens when he gets to his last one? That and many other mysterious questions will keep kids reading to the very end.

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

BookPage Children's Top Pick, April 2014

“Work smart / Live smarter / Play hard / Practice harder / Love, Dad” The Crossover is a novel-in-verse, with long flows of prose that spill out a tale of family, love, loss and basketball.

Josh and his twin brother Jordan live for the game and plan to play at rival colleges. Their mother is tough but fair with the boys, but she tries in vain to persuade their father to make healthier choices. An ex-player whose pro dreams faded after an injury, he lives through the boys’ achievements while wolfing down Krispy Kremes. One crisis leads to another, and soon the family is mourning an irreplaceable loss.

The Crossover will appeal to basketball fans, and it will likely grab reluctant readers with its quick wordplay, deft rhymes and kinetic, poetic take on the game. “The bass booms. / The crowd looms. / There’s music and mocking, / teasing nonstop, but / when the play begins / all the talk ceases.” Author Kwame Alexander has made a gift to teachers with this book: References to classical and jazz music (Josh’s dad nicknamed him “Filthy McNasty” after a Horace Silver song), probability (Jordan places bets on nearly everything) and the geometry of the game open up plenty of study topics without ever losing a step. Jordan’s fledgling romance and the strain it puts on the brothers’ relationship will draw sympathy from anyone who has ever felt deserted by a friend.

The title refers to a move made on the court, but The Crossover is destined to reach—and touch—readers who never gave basketball or poetry a second thought until now. It’s tough, muscular writing about a tender, unguarded heart.

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

Lenny and the Mikes are back! After solving a baseball-related crime in Strike Three, You’re Dead, Lenny Norbeck and his friends Mike and Other Mike find themselves once again knee-deep in mystery. This time around, however, their friendship may suffer from the solving.

Lenny was never very good at baseball, and Mike had to give up a career as a pitcher when he hurt his arm, but both of them still love the game. Other Mike is indifferent, but he tries to keep up for the sake of his friends. Lenny is thrilled when Mike earns a spot as a catcher on the Schwenkfelder Middle School team, yet he finds himself a little jealous, too. When the starting catcher and school bully, Davis Gannett, is thrown off the team for stealing a cell phone, Mike gets the chance to have his prime position.

Everything is perfect—especially after Lenny gets to call the games from the announcer’s booth—until Other Mike makes friends with Davis. Other Mike insists that Davis is innocent of the crime and convinces Lenny to take the case. But Lenny is troubled. Did Mike frame Davis? Should he confront Mike about it? What will that do to their friendship? And on top of all that, star pitcher Hunter Ashwell suddenly can’t throw a strike. Has someone stolen the catcher’s signs? Is it all tied together?

Author Josh Berk has come through for fans of Lenny and the Mikes with another hilarious look at life in middle school. Berk’s first-person prose keeps readers turning pages to find out what Lenny will do next. It’s not necessary to have read the first book to enjoy this one, but you will want to as soon as you have finished Say It Ain’t So.

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

Midnight Gulch, Tennessee, used to be a magical town where people caught stars in jars, called up thunderstorms with songs and even turned invisible at will. But ever since a pair of musical brothers dueled and then went their separate ways, a curse has lingered over the townsfolk, leaving them with only a tiny snicker of their previous power.

When the Pickle family arrives back in town after many years of wandering, Felicity Juniper Pickle expects their visit to be short and lonely, just like all their other road stops. But soon Felicity—who can see words flicker and zoom and dance through the air—makes an especially “spindiddly” friend, learns about her family’s history in Midnight Gulch and decides she wants to make such a “splendiferous” place her permanent home. Felicity aims to break the curse and end the town’s sadness, but first she has to overcome her fear of sharing her words in public.

Debut author Natalie Lloyd populates Midnight Gulch with vibrant people and places, including a woman who carries her family’s burdens in a traveling bag, a mysterious “Beedle” who delivers gifts and good cheer, and an ice cream factory whose signature flavor calls up both the sweetest and most bitter of memories. A wheelchair-bound boy is refreshingly characterized by his interests rather than his disability, and second chances abound for many who thought themselves long lost.

Reminiscent of Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo but with elements of magical realism, A Snicker of Magic is a celebration of new beginnings, old stories and the power of the words that surround us all.

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

BookPage Top Pick in Children's Books, March 2014

When Lucy’s family moves to an old house on a New Hampshire lake, she must adjust to new surroundings and new friends—all without her father, a professional photographer, who is gone on yet another extended business trip. While she admires her father’s talents, the tween is also eager to show him that she, too, has an eye for photography and capturing stories through the camera lens. She gets her chance when she learns her father is judging a photo contest and secretly decides to enter.

She quickly makes friends with Nate, the boy next door, and his family, including his charming Grandma Lilah. They ask her to join their “loon patrol” trips to monitor the loons on the lake. Eager to document the lake, the loons and the mountains, Lucy brings her camera—but photographs, full of dimension and truth, don’t lie. One image Lucy takes—a poignant but piercing picture of Grandma Lilah—is all too real and painful, divulging a story and a future no one wants to admit.

In Half a Chance, Newbery Honor winner Cynthia Lord (Rules) creatively weaves a touching story and tackles important issues for this age group, including isolation and the complexities of friendship. It also introduces Alzheimer’s disease in an understated and uniquely understandable way. During an unforgettable summer in New Hampshire, set against the backdrop of the photography contest, Lucy learns about the roots of family, the ties of loyalty, the power of storytelling and what it means to be a true friend.

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

It was only supposed to be a haunted house. When Cole skipped trick-or-treating on Halloween night to go with Dalton and Jenna to the new haunted house in town, they didn’t know what to expect. What happened, however, was beyond any of their wildest imaginations.

In Sky Raiders, the first book in the new Five Kingdoms series by Brandon Mull, Dalton and Jenna are kidnapped from the basement of the haunted house and taken through a mysterious tunnel. Cole pursues them and finds himself in a place like nowhere else on Earth.

In fact, Cole and his friends are no longer on Earth—they are in the Outskirts, a collection of five kingdoms that exists between reality and imagination. After a failed escape/rescue, Cole and his friends are separated. Dalton and Jenna are sent to the High King, while Cole is sold to the Sky Raiders, where new slaves have a life expectancy of two weeks. While working for the Sky Raiders, Cole meets Mira, an unusual girl with a big secret, and helps her escape. But this is only the beginning of the dangers they will face.

Like Mull’s Fablehaven and Beyonders series, Five Kingdoms: Sky Raiders is fast-paced and exciting from the first page, drawing in readers with multifaceted, strong characters and keeping them enthralled with an intricate and fascinating story. Sky Raiders will be enjoyed by Mull’s many fans, or anyone looking for imaginative worlds and nonstop action.