Twelve-year old twins Jackaran and Jaidith Shield are complete opposites. Jack has dark eyes and hair, Jaide has light. Jack can run faster than his sister, but Jaide can jump higher. They do, however, have one thing in common—they’re both troubletwisters. In this first book in a new series by Garth Nix and Sean Williams, Jack and Jaide are sent to live with their grandmother after their house explodes under some very strange circumstances. And they are about to find out just how strange things can get.

As soon as Jack and Jaide arrive at Grandma X’s house, nothing seems right. Weather vanes point in the wrong direction, and doors and signs disappear from around the house without warning. Perhaps strangest of all, Grandma X’s cats start talking to the twins. However, it is not until they see Grandma X creating whirlwinds inside the house and controlling thousands of white-eyed rats that they begin to realize that things are not just strange, but possibly dangerous. Will Grandma X help them, or is she behind the Evil that is threatening to steal Jack and Jaide away?

Troubletwisters is an exciting beginning to what promises to be a fast-paced series. Although this book is very different from Nix’s The Seventh Tower and The Keys to the Kingdom series, fans of those books will enjoy the action, magic and suspense that Nix and Williams both write so well. This is a perfect book for both boys and girls who enjoy fantasy set in the “real” world. For all their differences, Jack and Jaide are equally strong characters, and they work together to create a story that can be enjoyed by anyone.

“The Penderwick Family was being torn apart,” begins this third entry in Jeanne Birdsall’s always delightful Penderwick series (the first having won the National Book Award). For three of the four energetic Penderwick sisters, this means spending two weeks with their Aunt Claire at Point Mouette, Maine, while their father and his new wife are honeymooning in England. The oldest daughter, Rosalind, will be separated from her sisters for the first time as she heads to the New Jersey shore with a classmate.

Skye is worried that she doesn’t have what it takes to be OAP (Oldest Available Penderwick). Her OAP-dom is indeed tested when five-year-old Batty needs constant supervision and Aunt Claire sprains her ankle, requiring help from Alec, the musician next door. Meanwhile, Jane, usually content to pen Sabrina Starr tales, falls in love for the first time and experiences writer’s block, causing no-nonsense, budding astrophysicist Skye to muse, “Killer asteroids, a frozen Earth, the end to humanity—all this was much easier to handle than a besotted sister.” Yet perhaps the biggest surprise in this summer of adventures is when some of the Penderwicks begin to notice that their musically talented friend Jeffrey, who has never known his biological father, resembles Alec.

Amid the beauty of New England, where a moose and her twin babies make appearances, time seems to slow down, with only a brief mention of a cell phone to remind readers that The Penderwicks at Point Mouette takes place in the present day. With exquisite descriptions, charms reminiscent of a bygone era and the Penderwicks’ endearing loyalty, Birdsall’s gentle stories—destined to become classics—continue to get better. Readers can only hope that her best one yet isn’t her last.

Ever wanted a pet so badly you’d promise to do anything to get one? Anna and her brother, Tom, have been pestering their mom seemingly forever, to no avail. They already have New Cat (Old Cat was run over), but they desperately want a hamster. They’ve tried everything—begging, praying in church and even asking their sick Nana to lobby for them. But it isn’t until Nana dies that Mom comes around.

Even though Mom has an unfortunate history with rascally rodents, she finally agrees to let the kids have Russian Dwarf hamsters. In an unexpected turn of events, she agrees to buy not one, but two(!)—insisting, of course, that both pets be the same gender.

Fate has a way of intervening, however, and when Number One and Number Two reproduce, Anna and Tom are elated . . . until they wake up to find the hideous and disturbing “great hamster massacre.” With Number One missing a leg and Number Two just missing, the siblings and their next-door neighbor Suzanne launch a full-scale investigation of the monstrosity. Who are the likely suspects? Will they ever be brought to justice? And what will become of the empty cage and silent hamster wheel?
This debut novel by British author Katie Davies is a flippy, fun and extremely fast-paced journey into the world of a very likable brother and sister—and their amusing family and friends. Intermittent silly pencil sketches fill the pages diary-style, creating a whimsical mood and adding comic relief.

Hilarious happenings, surreptitious outings, secret passwords and a lighthearted mystery liven up The Great Hamster Massacre. Giggles are frequent among the kids in this book, and they will infect readers as well.

Fans of the resilient and spirited young heroine in Katherine Hannigan’s 2004 debut Ida B will welcome the equally irrepressible and unforgettable Delaware “Delly” Pattison in Hannigan’s new novel, True (. . . sort of). With a tremendous sense of adventure and a fiery temper to boot, the fifth grader is tired of getting in trouble and not knowing why. She’s given one more chance to control herself or else she’ll be shipped off to reform school. Her younger brother, RB, suggests counting to cool her fire, but Delly tires of the nonstop numbers and gives up on finding the good inside herself.

All that changes when a new student arrives. Ferris Boyd may not talk or want to be touched, but she plays basketball better than anyone in her class and accepts Delly as she is. Though Delly is usually better at chasing people away than making friends, she begins to follow Ferris home from school every afternoon. She learns to pause and listen to what is said in a quiet way, instead of reacting without thinking. Knowing that she shouldn’t be unsupervised at Ferris’ house, Delly pretends to be working on an after-school project. Soon the whole world seems like a doughnut: “Sweet, beautiful, and delicious. And she was the floppy cream filling.” Then she notices the fear in Ferris when her father arrives early one day—and she realizes that sometimes the truth is just too awful to keep quiet.

This novel’s real truth is revealed in Hannigan’s poignant storytelling. Once again the author proves her ability to get inside her characters and bring out their strengths. Readers witness not only Delly’s tender transformation but her influence on other characters, such as Danny Novello, who only knows how to show his feelings for Delly by picking a fight. And her “liver and onions” relationship with her older sister, Galveston (“it was always bad, but it was part of being a Pattison”), even begins to sweeten. Especially endearing, though, is Delly’s unique lingo, which warrants her own dictionary, from Ferris’ secret tree house or “hideawayis” to her “bawlgrammit” nocuss words. Her story is perfexcellent!

The Luck of the Buttons is a marvelous romp through the town of Goodhue, Iowa, in 1929, led by a plucky heroine named Tugs Esther Button. The Button family has long been known for their bad luck, but Tugs is determined to break that losing streak.

This is a fun, exciting story that readers will tear through, written by award-winning author Anne Ylvisaker (pronounced ILL-vi-soccer). She explains the Buttons' lack of good fortune this way:

“While other parents sent their children off to school with a kiss and told them to do their best, the Buttons just said, ‘Don't get hit by the tater truck.’ Which would be nonsense to any other family, but Leonard Button, one of the Swisher Buttons, had indeed looked the wrong way when crossing Main Street some years ago. While he had survived, he hadn't eaten a potato, mashed or otherwise, since.”

Happily, Tugs' luck seems to be rapidly changing. A wealthy, kind girl named Aggie befriends her, and the girls win the July 4th three-legged race. What's more, Tugs wins an essay contest and also a raffle for a brand new Brownie camera. How's that for defying the tater truck?

Ylvisaker throws in a bit of intrigue in the form of a stranger named Harvey Moore, who claims he's going to revive the defunct local newspaper, the Goodhue Gazette. Tugs feels there's something sneaky about this smooth-talking fellow, and her natural curiosity leads her to unravel his conniving plan.

The Luck of the Buttons is a fast-paced novel about a slower, but endlessly fascinating era. Tugs may be "old fashioned," but she's got a modern sensibility, and through her own intelligence and determination, this young woman finds herself and turns her luck around.

Camping out with his mother over Labor Day weekend in Maine’s Acadia National Park is supposed to be the best three days of 11-year-old Jack Martel’s summer vacation. But when he awakes after their first night and discovers that his presumably bipolar mother has driven off and disappeared, Jack deduces that she must be “spinning.” Jennifer Richard Jacobson’s nuanced and heart-wrenching middle grade novel, Small as an Elephant, gives a quiet force to one resilient boy and his mentally ill mother.

Afraid that Social Services will take him away from his dysfunctional home (but his home nonetheless), his mother will go to jail, he’ll have to change schools and a host of other worries, Jack begins a 248-mile walk home to Massachusetts. Finding strength in his obsession with elephants, based on one of his first and strongest memories with his mother, he figures out how to forage for food, spend the night after hours at an LL Bean store and evade police when he learns that he’s the “Missing Boy” on the news. Hoping to make his long trek meaningful, Jack changes course, detouring to York’s Wild Kingdom to see Lydia, Maine’s only elephant.

Jack’s endless repertoire of elephant facts and stories, as well as the elephant information and quotes that begin each chapter, show that elephants and humans share many qualities. Both want to be accepted and loved. With a makeshift herd that helps him throughout his journey—supplying food, transportation, friendship and encouragement when he needs it—Jack accepts the truth about his mother and finds forgiveness and a new sense of home. Perhaps, like the elephants, it takes a herd to raise a child. 

Inside Out and Back Again, an autobiographical novel written in verse, captures one year in the life of 10-year-old Kim Hà. Her unforgettable story begins and ends with Tét, the first day of the Vietnamese lunar calendar. It’s February 1975 and Saigon is about to fall.

Hà flees Vietnam with her mother and two brothers, boarding a ship in a nearby port. One poignant poem lists some of what they must leave behind: “Ten gold-rimmed glasses . . . Brother Quant’s report cards . . . Vines of jasmine.” After weeks at sea and a stay in a refugee camp on Guam, Hà’s family ends up in Alabama, where a sponsor is found.

Holding tight to the 10-year-old point of view, first-time author Thanhha Lai draws on memories of her own childhood, when her family fled Vietnam after the war and moved to Alabama. The reader will smell the incense, long for the taste of fresh papaya and feel the rocking of the ship. The difficulty of learning English, coupled with Hà’s desire for perfection, makes assimilation nearly impossible, especially when some of the kids in her class cruelly tease her about her hair, her accent and the flatness of her face. She grows up, tries to learn the art of making do from her mother, and leans on her brothers and her tutor, Mrs. Washington. And she learns to fly-kick like Bruce Lee.

Lai’s spare poetry, full of emotion and infused with humor, is accessible to young children and adults alike. This moving and beautifully told story is a must-read for anyone who works with children new to the country. 

Acclaimed author Lois Lowry contributes the second new volume to the recently relaunched Dear America series of diary-style historical fiction with Like the Willow Tree: The Diary of Lydia Amelia Pierce, Portland, Maine, 1918.

The story opens on Friday, October 4, 1918. Lydia Amelia Pierce is turning 11, but along with her birthday the Spanish influenza has arrived in Portland, Maine. Schools and churches have been closed, public gatherings are forbidden, and Lydia and her older brother Daniel must stay at home.

Mr. Pierce thinks Mayor Clarke is a fool for shutting down the town, but 12 days later, Lydia’s father, mother and baby sister Lucy are dead, and she and Daniel find themselves at Uncle Henry’s farm. But Uncle Henry has a house full of children and not enough food or room for two more, so he takes them to Sabbathday Lake, a Shaker community with the spiritual name Chosen Land.

Lydia and Daniel have left the world, as the Shakers call the outside world, and have come to a place where everyone lives according to the Shaker saying, “Hands to work and hearts to God.” Boys and girls lead separate lives, living quarters are clean and orderly, but austere, and girls do not ornament themselves, so Lydia must give up her grandmother’s ring, her mother’s birthday gift to her. It’s not a way of life Lydia knew about or would have chosen, but gradually, as she learns the work of the community and finds friends among the sisters, she realizes she has found a good place in the world.

Fans of Lowry’s The Giver, Gathering Blue and Messenger know she is an expert at creating worlds. Jonas’ world in The Giver was dystopian, a world so controlled that people had a non-life but didn’t realize it. He escapes toward life Elsewhere, in the outside world, hoping to save the community in the process. Lydia, on the other hand, is brought from the outside world to a community that saves her.

Like all of the books in the Dear America series, Like the Willow Tree includes an epilogue finishing Lydia’s story, an author’s note, period photographs and a map. With this volume, Lowry joins a long list of excellent writers who have made this an outstanding and popular series.

“There are things that happen. Little things that make a difference.” For sixth grader Ella, who lives outside Las Vegas, the little things are everything. Her best girlfriend Millie has abandoned the long-standing threesome of Ella, Zachary (known as Z) and Millie, and now Ella’s life is off balance. Someone has to watch out for Z, whose imaginary life is becoming odder and odder, and that someone is Ella. She and Z spend all their time together—at school, at the library or around the neighborhood—and they are often lost in an elaborate fantasy life filled with knights and ladies.

Ella, the only black student in her school, is the object of teasing and taunting. Her skin tone is uneven, which earns her the cruel nickname “Camo Face.” Her unruly hair invites the boys to throw paper and other detritus at her. The fact that she spends all her time with Z only adds to her exclusion. When handsome, socially savvy black student Bailey arrives at the school, things instantly change for everyone, especially Ella. Her new friendship with Bailey is threatening to Z, and Ella feels forced to choose between her old friend and having a larger social life.

What really struck me about Camo Girl was how real this junior high school world felt. Every character, especially narrator Ella, is intensely self-aware. She notices Millie’s hair, how much Z is eating, the exact location of the mean boys, how to extricate items from her hair without being noticed and how to order the right beverage at the soda shop. She thinks long and hard about why Bailey leaves a basketball in her driveway and is always aware of Z, whether he is at school, the library or at Wal-Mart. The three main characters are all looking for the same thing—a father. And this search leads each to see the world through that gaping hole.

Writer Kekla Magoon, who debuted in 2009 with the award-winning civil rights story The Rock and The River, crafts her second novel so perfectly that the reader clings to Ella’s point of view—and, like Ella, is surprised when all the pieces fall into place.

Known for historical and realistic fiction, Newbery Honor author Gennifer Choldenko turns to fantasy in No Passengers Beyond This Point, a wonderfully imaginative adventure story. The novel features 14-year-old India, a typically insecure teenager who values her reputation over her single mother’s insight; six-year-old Mouse, “like Einstein on a sugar high,” who has an imaginary friend and constantly torments her older sister; and 12-year-old Finn, the traditional middle-child peacekeeper who incessantly worries about those around him. All still grieve the loss of their father, who died just before Mouse was born. Now they’re faced with losing their mother, too, when she announces that their house is being foreclosed on by the bank and the children must leave.

While their mother remains in California to finish out the school year, the three siblings fly to Fort Baker, near Denver, to live with their Uncle Red. Their flight takes an unusual detour, however, landing just outside Falling Bird. Picked up by Chuck, a child himself, disguised in a fake mustache and sideburns and driving a pink taxi with white feathers stuck to it, the trio immediately suspects something strange is afoot. Their apprehension gives way to delight when they arrive to a personalized welcome to the city and they are each given a dream house, complete with a mother or father who knows and meets all of their wishes. When India, Finn and Mouse realize that this city of dreams is just an illusion, it may be too late to travel back to the airport and find home.

No Passengers Beyond This Point is reminiscent of such classics as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. As the children race a clock counting down time and never know who to trust, they begin to understand their mother and her hard decisions, to act instead of worry and to work together as a family. When readers reach the surprise ending, they’ll immediately want to reread this fascinating story to look for clues missed along the way.

One day, 12-year-old Daralynn Oakland is grounded for going fishing in Doc Lake without telling her mother. Daralynn can’t help but spend the afternoon pouting, especially since being grounded means she will miss going on an airplane ride with her daddy, a pilot, her older brother, Wayne Junior, and little sister, Lilac Rose.

But as it turns out, being grounded keeps Daralynn alive: three members of her family are killed when the plane crashes. Now Daralynn and her mother, Hattie, must face the future alone in their small town of Digginsville, Missouri, population 402.

The tragedy changes life for mother and daughter in so many ways that Daralynn begins to think of her life as divided into two parts: B.C. (Before the Crash) and A.D. (After the Deaths). Before, she had been part of a family of five, and shared a bedroom with her sister. Now there are just the two of them, and she has her own room. To make things worse, her mother doesn’t “do” sad well and won’t talk about the past. So Daralynn takes to writing to her father and siblings, afraid that if she doesn’t keep them in her heart she might forget them.

Some practical things change too. Daralynn gets so many dolls after the accident (237 to be exact) that people start calling her Dolly. She doesn’t particularly like the dolls, but her grandmother, Mamaw, sure does. And Daralynn’s mom, Hattie, does such a fine job fixing Lilac Rose’s hair in her coffin that she gets hired by the local funeral parlor to do dead people’s hair ($45 a corpse).

Their income from the funeral parlor is soon put at risk when the handsome and dashing Mr. Clem Monroe arrives in town. He takes to courting Daralynn’s Aunt Josie (owner of The Summer Sunset Retirement Home for Distinguished Gentlemen). He also opens a new crematorium—directly competing with the Danielson Family Funeral Home where Hattie works.

But is Clem’s business on the up and up? Is he just after Aunt Josie’s heart, or is he really trying to steal her money?

As Daralynn tries to solve the puzzles that unfold—and possibly save her aunt from making a dreadful mistake—she also faces the mysteries of grieving. While her subject matter is serious, author Kate Klise brings humor and warmth to this heartfelt story of healing and hope.

Look, if you’re some kind of fraidy-cat, you don’t need to read this book. Really. If you’re scared to take on anything new, just forget about this one. Try something else, like that book about the boy and the puppy. What’s the title? It’s Heart of a Samurai, by Margi Preus, but seriously, you wouldn’t like it. I mean, why would you want to read about a kid thrust into a situation that would scare the pants off of most people, when you won’t even try peas?

I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you a little bit about the book, and you’ll see that only someone really brave would want to read it—stop me if it gets too scary. Heart of a Samurai is about a Japanese kid named Manjiro; he’s 14 years old, and he lives in a fishing village, which means that when he grows up, he’ll be a fisherman too. In fact, fishing is what he’s doing when the book opens, but unfortunately for Manjiro and his companions, they’re not doing it very well. They get caught in a storm and are swept ashore on a deserted island, and as the months go by, they are slowly starving to death.

Ok, I can stop now, if you want. Starving is pretty scary. Well . . . if you insist.

Where was I? Oh, yes, starving to death. That’s when the John Howland appears on the horizon; it’s a whaling boat out of Massachusetts, and Manjiro and his friends are terrified when they are rescued. You see, it’s the year 1841, and Japan is a closed society, which has no contact with the West. Manjiro has grown up hearing all sorts of horror stories about what’s out there, far from Japan. Even worse, being taken aboard the American ship means the men will face exile, for once you’re away from Japan, you can never return. Manjiro’s group will have little to do with their rescuers, but he’s a curious boy, and before long he learns a few words of English, and finds himself working alongside the whalers. When they finally put ashore at the Sandwich Islands—what we know today as Hawaii—Manjiro (or John Mung, as he is known to the sailors) is faced with a choice: Try to get back to his native land, or accompany the vessel and its kindly captain to the place known as America.

Oh and there’s one thing I didn’t tell you—even though this is a novel, the story is based on something that really happened!

What would you do? Would you be brave enough to go? Well, no matter; you probably don’t want to read this anyway, right? Way too scary. Just in case, you can pick it up at any bookstore or library—if you have the courage.

Rex Zero has faced the end of the world before, but never like this. His family is moving (again), which only makes living during the Cold War all the more difficult. This time, however, Rex is determined to fight the move. Now a seventh grader, he has finally found a tight group of friends, and he is not about to let them go so easily. Nothing will stop him this time—or will it?

Hoping against hope, Rex builds a nuclear pile of lies as he refuses to give in to change. He doesn’t want to go to his new district school when his friends are going to Hopewell, and so why should he? He saves up money so he can secretly take the public bus to Hopewell, and he stays under the radar at home, which is easy when everyone in his family is acting crazy. Rex’s mom starts smoking and being super moody, Rex’s sister Annie Oakley appears to be keeping some serious secrets of her own and Dad disappears on business and cannot help ease the tension. Rex feels the tug of guilt, but no one is around to stop him.

Despite all of Rex’s cunning, his lies explode in his face. After he gets in a fight with Spew, the school bully, Rex’s devious plot is exposed and he finds himself transferred to his district school. He no longer gets to sit in class with his buds and cute Polly, and the transfer doesn’t keep Spew off his back. Rex finds that his initial lies have much greater consequences than he thought possible, and he is soon biking for his life through the neighborhood streets of Ottawa.

Tim Wynne-Jones’ final installment in the Rex Zero trilogy caps off Rex’s adventures with a bang. Rex Zero: The Great Pretender deals with some heavy issues, as do the previous installments, but the humor of Wynne-Jones’ writing makes the tough stuff easier to deal with. Although it isn’t necessary to read the first two Rex Zero adventures to understand the final book, tweens will want to read them all after enjoying the adventure and heart of Rex’s escapades in 1963 Canada.

A story where family and friends take a front seat to the impending doom of the rest of the world, Rex Zero: The Great Pretender is a boyhood tale that will capture the hearts and imaginations of young readers and parents alike.