“The first butterfly comes the day after the funeral.” Often, the first line of a book is just that, a generic starting point for a story that has to begin somewhere. But sometimes, that first line can be magical, pulling readers into a book that they have no hope of escaping until they arrive, breathless, at the end. When the Butterflies Came is one of those stories. Its sublime first line transitions into a tale filled with intrigue, love, suspense and heartbreak.

Tara Doucet, descendent of a proud, traditional Louisiana family, has just lost her beloved Grammy Claire. Tara’s mother has withdrawn from the family, leaving Tara and her older, much grumpier sister Riley to fend for themselves. But then, the first butterfly comes—big and beautiful, right through Tara’s window—and hovers directly in front of her. This butterfly sets in motion a series of events that will transport Tara and Riley from their home and into the middle of a mystery that becomes more dangerous by the day.

When the Butterflies Came is a unique book that defies definition. It could be called a murder mystery, a coming-of-age story, an environmental tale or a fantasy. Whatever the category, it is definitely engrossing—right from the very first line.

Ever wonder what it’s like to be on a reality competition like “American Idol”? What if it were a show for child performers? What would their lives look like? Author Nan Marino brings us the story of Elvis Ruby, an 11-year-old boy who, after becoming the most popular contestant on “Tween Star,” freezes on stage during his final performance. To escape the paparazzi and have some quiet time to heal, Elvis’ father takes him to the remote town of Wares Grove, in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, where he can “hide out” with his aunt and cousin, who own a local restaurant. Marino deftly draws a character who loves music and performing but needs something more in his life.

Cecilia Wreel lives in Wares Grove and is content, mostly, with her life and where she is—except that she wants to hear a particular song that no one can find. When she figures out early on who Elvis really is, she is not especially impressed with his fame, but she recognizes that he might be able to help her find the music. Elvis must learn to trust her, and others, while he figures out what kind of person he wants to be.

Marino has written a simple but beautiful story about love and honesty, music and acceptance. She includes the legend of the Pine Barrens’ “Jersey Devil” between chapters, using it to illustrate how the negative opinions of others should not define who you are. Her prose is accessible and genuine and moves the plot along at a perfect pace. Whether they have visions of being a star, like Elvis, or think they have no talent, like Cecilia, young readers will be drawn to this sympathetic account of the struggles of being a tween.

Perfectly disguised as a sugary sweet tale set in a charming confectionary shop, The Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop is actually an action-packed spy novel. The literary equivalent of the Men in Black movies, this story is set in a world where ghosts, goblins and mermaids exist and a special MI-6 unit has the ability to erase the memories of those who see something they shouldn’t.

When the father of 11-year-old twins Oz and Lily Spoffard unexpectedly inherits his grandfather’s long defunct chocolate shop and the attached home in London, the family is blissfully unaware of the magical world that surrounds them. The day they move in, however, a talking cat and a smoking rat recruit the twins to help stop their evil great-great-uncle from selling his magic immortality chocolate recipe to foreign terrorists. But are the twins up to the task?

Oz, a quiet genius, longs to fit in with the cool kids but even he can’t deny that he will always be more adept with a violin bow than a soccer ball. And Lily’s dyslexia is a constant source of frustration that makes her question her own intelligence. Plus, how could they possibly help save the world when they don’t have a magical bone in their bodies? 

Young readers will be drawn in by the incredible (and sometimes scary) magical world that Kate Saunders creates, but they will stay for the underlying story of the powerful bond between siblings and friends. The Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop is a fun read for anyone with a sweet tooth and an ambition for espionage.

Acclaimed young adult author Josh Berk debuts a new series for younger readers with Strike Three You’re Dead, starring middle schoolers Lenny Norbeck and the two Mikes. Part baseball story and part mystery, Berk's latest is a thrilling and hilarious romp that's hard to put down.

The story starts innocently enough with what looks to be a relaxing (but boring?) summer for Lenny and his friends, Mike and Other Mike. Things are looking up when they hear about a contest to win a chance to call one inning at a Phillies game. Lenny and Mike love baseball, but neither one plays. Lenny (who narrates) says it’s because he’s the “worst player ever,” and Mike has an injury that keeps him from pitching. Lenny, however, is nicknamed “the boy with a golden voice” and dreams of being a baseball announcer.  The boys are thrilled with the prospect of winning the contest, and their computer-geek friend Other Mike is excited to make their video for the contest entry.

Everything goes as planned until the night of the game. When a young pitching star dies suddenly on the mound in the first inning, Lenny loses his chance to announce a game but finds himself too embroiled in the mystery to really care. Lenny is sure that the pitcher was murdered and is determined to figure out who did it. With the help of Mike, Other Mike and a girl named Maria, Lenny finds himself getting closer to the truth but also deeper in danger.

Berk writes a genuinely humorous story that deftly weaves in action and adventure. Although the book is not heavy with emotional or psychological depth, Lenny does make some discoveries about himself and how he sees people that are a pleasant surprise to us all. With any luck, Berk will continue to bring us stories about Lenny and the Mikes, because I miss reading about them already.

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

How do you keep a diary if you can’t read or write? In The Matchbox Diary, a little girl discovers the answer when she asks her great-grandfather to tell her the story of the cigar box she finds in his shop. Inside are many matchboxes, and many stories for her great-grandfather to tell her.

The matchboxes hold objects such as an olive pit, which the great-grandfather used to suck on in Italy when he was hungry; sunflower seeds, which marked the days his family spent on the boat to America; and a ticket from a baseball game he attended with his father after arriving. Through these objects we, and his great-granddaughter, learn about his experience of immigration and how he rose from poverty and illiteracy to become an educated business owner.

Written by award-winning children’s author Paul Fleischman (author of the Dunderheads picture books, among many others), The Matchbox Diary tells its tale through a conversation between man and child. The conversational approach draws the reader directly into the scene as the great-grandfather recounts his life story without self-pity or dramatization. The illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline, well known for his work on such books as The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, show the present in warm-colored acrylic, while pictures illustrating the past are in black and white or sepia, giving them the appearance of old photographs.

For young readers, The Matchbox Diary is an introduction to the immigrant experience. It also serves as a lesson in the privilege of education and the joy of holding onto memories through diary-keeping or collecting. The last page shows the little girl, who has just started kindergarten, beginning her own object diary in a candy box. Children may be inspired to start their own diaries too, or perhaps become curious about the diaries of their parents and grandparents and the stories they may hold.

Best known as the creator of beloved picture book characters Yoko, McDuff and Max and Ruby, author-illustrator Rosemary Wells has targeted an older age group in much of her recent work, writing five middle-grade titles in the last four years. In each of these books (Following Grandfather, On the Blue Comet, My Havana and Lincoln and His Boys) Wells demonstrates a keen appreciation for her middle-grade audience and a deceptively simple approach to storytelling.

Both hold true once again in her latest book, Ivy Takes Care, the quietly touching story of a girl who has a sense of compassion beyond her years and a goal for the future that transcends her upbringing. It's 1949, and Ivy is the daughter of the stable manager at a Nevada dude ranch, where she has learned a thing or two about animals and the value of hard work.

When her well-to-do best friend departs for an East Coast camp, Ivy launches a summer business caring for animals while her neighbors are away on vacation. Whether she’s tending to a pony, an injured fox, a German shepherd or a retired racehorse, Ivy demonstrates a level of resourcefulness and moxie that’s impressive without being annoying. Ivy is no saint (she can’t stand the ranch owner’s pesky young son, for example) but she’s a model of industrious behavior who learns something valuable in each of her pet-sitting assignments. When the local veterinarian points out that she has a way with animals, Ivy begins saving her silver dollars for college and vet school.

Wells, who says the book’s setting was inspired by her own horseback riding adventures in the Nevada mountains in the 1950s, effortlessly unwinds Ivy’s story, building toward a suspenseful conclusion that involves a ball of rattlesnakes and a late-night horse rescue. Not surprisingly, Ivy proves herself cool in a crisis.

In this warm-hearted novel, Wells offers a sympathetic but realistic portrait of human nature and a convincing message about the value of compassion and a job well-done. Illustrations in pencil by noted artist Jim LaMarche capture Ivy’s can-do spirit and the book’s scenic Western backdrop.

Though Wells long ago proved herself as the author-illustrator of adorable picture books, her foray into middle grade fiction and nonfiction continues to delight, adding another chapter to her impressive career.

Emily Elizabeth Davis (who was named in honor of Emily Dickinson) has been told her whole life that she will be a poet, but she hates poetry. She’s been told that she will meet her father when the time is right, but she needs her father right now. When Emily loses the book containing her life story and the secret to her father’s identity, she must decide which of two paths she will follow.

Does destiny control Emily’s fate, as her mother has always told her, or does God direct her life, as her religion teacher says? Does Emily have any say in the matter? Tired of waiting, she decides to find the book herself and adventure ensues.

In Kathryn Fitzmaurice’s engaging third novel, Destiny, Rewritten, Emily enlists the help of her eccentric younger cousin Mortie and her super-smart best friend Wavey to skip school—just for one day. She gets involved with tree huggers, makes a new friend and joins a club for romance novelists, a genre she likes much better than poetry.

In the process, she begins to change into an empowered young lady, one who has the courage to tell her mother who she really wants to be: a romance novelist and not a poet. It seems that Emily is well on her way to controlling her own fate.

When Emily discovers her father’s identity, destiny may intervene before she or her mother has a chance to meet him. But Emily has changed too much to let fate ruin her plans and take away the romance novel ending she’s always longed for.

For children who feel trapped into being someone they don’t want to be, Destiny, Rewritten teaches that everyone has a choice to take actions that can lead to a better place. Fitzmaurice’s thoughtful treatment of her subject offers a lesson that young readers can appreciate and a story they won’t soon forget.

Imagine having the coolest pets in town. The absolute coolest pets. Then imagine not being able to tell anyone about them. This is what Zoe Kahn has to go through every day. In The Menagerie, the first book in a new series by sisters Tui and Kari Sutherland, Zoe and her family are the latest in a centuries-old line who secretly protect a collection of mythical creatures—dragons, kelpies, mermaids, woolly mammoths and more. When six baby griffins escape, though, the safety of the Menagerie is suddenly in jeopardy.

Logan Wilde is new in town, having moved to Xanadu, Wyoming, with his dad after his mom sent a postcard letting them know she was never coming back home. He knows the names of a few kids in his class, but none of them bother to talk to him. One day, after noticing that Zoe was worried about a missing pet, Logan goes home, and finds something hiding under his bed. After attempting to return the animal, Logan quickly realizes that he has a much larger role to play in the survival of the Menagerie.

Perfect for fans of Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven series, The Menagerie is a promising start to what looks to be an exciting new series. It features strong male and female characters, an engrossing plot and a maddeningly wonderful cliffhanger ending. Told with humor, compassion, tension and honesty, The Menagerie immerses readers in Zoe and Logan’s world and will make them wish there was a zoo of mythical creatures hidden in their town as well.

Is it destiny when 12-year-old Ruby is named the Bunning Day Essay Girl and chosen to deliver a rousing speech at her New Hampshire hometown parade? In Linda Urban’s thoughtful novel, The Center of Everything, Ruby keeps looking for signs like these that her wish will come true and she’ll be able to go back in time and be with her grandmother Gigi on the day she died. Maybe then she will understand the final word Gigi uttered that day.

Despite the weighty topic of Ruby’s mourning, this story also produces plenty of smiles as a delightful narrator gives the history of the fictional town of Bunning. During a fierce storm in 1847, Captain Cornelius Bunning rammed his donuts onto the spokes of the ship’s wheel, thus creating the first donut holes. He later used the beams of his ship to build a schoolhouse in the town. “Hole”-some puns and legends abound in Bunning’s honor.

Dealing with her grandmother’s death is not the only big adjustment in Ruby’s life. When classmate Nero DeNiro (who’s as outlandish as his name) takes an interest in Ruby, she must reconcile her relationship with her longtime best friend and her feelings of first love. In a bittersweet ending, Ruby discovers that her grandmother’s death has given her a new appreciation of the world around her. The only holes in this charming story are the ones served up in this donut-obsessed town.

Early Pearl is very much her father’s daughter, an 11-year-old fascinated with words and puzzles. That interest might help her unravel the mystery of her father’s disappearance and reunite their family of four.

Early’s father, Dash, worked in the Chicago Public Library. Hoping to provide a better home for his family, he began working after hours, cataloguing books for resale. It all seemed innocent, but things aren’t always what they seem. After Dash vanishes from a wintry Chicago steet, people break into the family’s apartment, stealing everything they have left: every book, every dollar, every feeling of safety. With no place to go, mom Summer takes Early and her brother Jubie to a shelter.

Living in a shelter is scary at first; there’s no privacy and there are lines for everything from brushing your teeth to using the telephone. Jubie gets sick, Early has to go to a new school where she is singled out as a shelter kid, and her father is still missing. Things are looking bleak until Early sets her mind to figuring out what happened to Dash by deciphering the clues in his notebook.

Using text from Langston Hughes’ The Book of Rhythms, best-selling author Blue Balliett orchestrates a captivating mystery. Woven into the story are bits of history and philosophy, mathematical puzzles and most importantly, compassion for others.

Dash taught his family to hold fast to dreams; Balliett shows readers that shelters are full of people who need a dream to hold fast to, just like the rest of us.

In the world of Lisa Graff’s new book, A Tangle of Knots—a world not all that different from our own—people are often born with a Talent. That special skill might be something as grand as being able to float on air, but mostly the Talents involve everyday activities like whistling, knitting, climbing trees or baking cakes.

Cake-baking is Cady’s Talent, and she can tell what cake is best for each person she meets. Eleven-year-old Cady has grown up in an orphanage in Poughkeepsie, New York, and while the orphanage’s owner, Miss Mallory, has a Talent for matching homeless girls with new parents, she hasn’t been able to find the right match for Cady.

That changes, however, when Miss Mallory meets Toby, the driver of a truck that veers off the road on a foggy day and lands on the orphanage’s front lawn. Toby doesn’t seem to have a Talent, but he does have a mysterious past.

Told from multiple points of view, Graff’s magical tale has so many interesting characters whose lives weave in and out and around each other that we wonder whether she will ever get them to come out right in the end. To make a long story short: She does. A former children’s book editor and author of five previous middle grade novels, including Double Dog Dare and Sophie Simon Solves Them All, Graff infuses the story with humor and rich detail.

Part mystery, part magic, part cookbook (with recipes included), A Tangle of Knots has a great deal of fun in store for young readers as they turn each page and wonder what in the world could happen next. Will the owner of the Lost Luggage Emporium ever find the suitcase he has been searching for? And what is in it? Who is the mysterious lady with no name? What happens when Marigold accidentally mails off her little brother in a package? Will Cady find a home with Toby? And what’s going to happen to Miss Mallory if she does?

Graff’s entertaining story pulls all the threads together—detangling knots, yes, but also making a tapestry as she goes.

Good news for fans of Hattie Inez Brooks, the likeable, intrepid heroine of the Newbery Honor book Hattie Big Sky: Thanks to many requests from readers, award-winning author Kirby Larson has penned a sequel to Hattie’s story, which takes her from Montana into an unexpected—and newsworthy—direction.

As the story opens, Hattie is working as a chambermaid in Great Falls, Montana, and has just finished paying off her Uncle Chester’s IOU. Her ties to homesteading are over. It’s 1919, and Hattie is free to follow her heart’s desire. The most sensible move would take her to Seattle, where her friends Karl and Perilee now live and where her true love, Charlie, has just landed a job with the Boeing Airplane Company. But before she settles down Hattie has a dream she must pursue: She wants to be a big-city newspaper reporter—in San Francisco. And while there, she hopes to solve the mystery of her Uncle Chester’s past and discover the truth about a woman named Ruby Danvers.

Hattie is bold enough to apply for a job at the San Francisco Chronicle, even if it’s just on the night cleaning staff. And as she seeks to work her way up to a real writing job, she also shares with Charlie and her Seattle friends postcards that capture the wonders of her new home.

With its engaging heroine, a text graced by reproductions of actual historical San Francisco postcards and an insightful look at women in early 20th century journalism, Hattie Ever After is sure to please Hattie’s fans—and to make her many new ones. Larson has combined impeccable research, lyrical writing and a fascinating time period to give her young heroine a most satisfying “ever after” indeed.

We all know that there is magic in the world—and it is not the spells-and-wands kind of magic you find in most fantasy books. Real magic is created by love and conjured up by need. In Kimberly Newton Fusco’s enthralling Beholding Bee, there is an abundance of real magic. And it’s a good thing, because Bee needs all the help the world can give her.

Orphaned at the age of 4 by carnival folk parents, Bee is raised by a teenager, Pauline, who helps her run the hot dog stand. The carnival’s owner decided to keep Bee because he hopes to use her as a “freak show” attraction when she gets older.

In the 1940s when this story takes place, being born with a large diamond-shaped birthmark on your face can make you an object of fear, ridicule and fascination. Bee spends most of the early parts of this story trying to keep her hair pulled down over one side of her face. Only Pauline and a strange old lady in a floppy hat—a lady only Bee can see—give her comfort. When Pauline leaves to work at another carnival, Bee is on her own and more scared than ever. With a stray dog and a piglet as her companions, Bee finds the strength to run away to the nearest town, and, miraculously, finds the house where the old lady lives.

Here the magic truly begins as Bee makes a home for herself. She follows the guidance of the ghostly lady and another “aunt” as she learns to cook and shop and go to school. As all the pieces come apart and then come together again, Bee finds her voice and the strength of self to show the world who she really is. Fusco’s lyrical prose enhances the magic of the story as we are drawn into Bee’s unconventional world and her touching transformation.