Who can turn down free pancakes? Bindi’s mom and aunt—proud owners of The Dancing Pancake diner—hope no one can. After all, they need a gimmick to jump-start their new business, and 11-year-old Bindi Winkler refuses to dress up like a pancake and dance around on the sidewalk. That would just be too humiliating—and besides, isn’t her life already full of enough drama?

With her father’s recent mysterious move to a new city, Bindi wonders what will become of her family. But that hope-tinged wonder is dashed when her mother announces that she and Bindi’s father are separating. On top of that, school is stressful—why doesn’t that cute boy, Noah, ever notice me?—friends are fickle and Bindi’s young cousin, Jackson, is an all-around pain.

Growing up is a full-time job, Bindi learns, laden with lots of ups, downs, milkshakes and pancake costumes. But at least she’s got her mom and Aunt Darnell—along with a cheerful teenager, a kindly homeless woman and regular customer Mrs. Otis, a perpetual complainer. They’re a motley crew, to be sure, but combined, they all offer Bindi valuable insights to help her navigate the sidewalks of adolescence.

Spinelli’s lyrical blank verse is the perfect form for story. Each short form poem is like watching a clip from Bindi’s life in progress. The text is fast-paced and easy to read, yet still provides enough detail to elucidate and endear the characters to readers.

Surprises tend to pop up along the way—and not just a fake spider in the pancakes. Some have a weightier impact on Bindi, changing the way she views both people and situations.

While the book’s rather lighthearted ending seems to arrive a bit abruptly—I was left wanting a bit more resolution about Bindi’s life going forward—it seemed to follow Spinelli’s pacing for the book. Maybe all Bindi’s loose ends aren’t tied up. . . but then again, that’s an important life lesson too.

Freelance writer and former children’s librarian Sharon Verbeten lives in Green Bay, Wis., where she loves both dancing and pancakes.

It's the second week of July, and there's something much worse than a fuel shortage going on. (“Short-age would mean there wasn’t enough. Instead, there wasn’t any.”) The lack of fuel isn't affecting only small-town Rocky Shores, where 14-year-old Dewey Marriss lives. Fuel is short all across the country; it’s a crunch. Since his mother and his truck driver father are away celebrating their anniversary—stuck near the Canadian border without any diesel—it’s up to Dewey and his older sister to be the “embodiment of responsibility” for three younger siblings on their small farm.

At first Dewey relishes managing his father’s side business, the Marriss Bike Barn, until the greater demand for bicycles and repairs becomes more than he can keep up with. Although he hasn’t been meticulous about recording inventory, he’s certain that someone has been pilfering bike parts. He doesn’t want to suspect his next-door neighbor, who’s already in the habit of helping himself to eggs and berries, or Robert, the out-of-work, recent college grad, who likes to help out in the bike shop, but times are now strange and anyone could be to blame.

As the highways clear, leaving quiet walkers and bikers traveling down the once busy lanes, a new value system emerges in which bikes are stolen, prices skyrocket, shoppers hoard what little remains on the shelves, businesses aren’t hiring and holders of precious gas ration cards are assaulted and robbed. Amid the tough times, Dewey also observes how the crunch has brought out the best in neighbors and small business owners, as they rally together to help the community.

The clever teen applies his dad’s “list of the Eight Rules That Apply to Fixing Almost Anything” to running the bike shop, and also to encouraging the camaraderie of his family, friends and neighbors. The Mariss family's teamwork and quirky lifestyle make readers want to join along as they play, laugh and dine on clam chowder after a busy yet rewarding day on the farm.

Leslie Connor's delightful mystery and commentary on possible global crises will inspire children to hop on their bikes and find ways to save the planet.

Angela Leeper wishes she could ride her bike to her job at the University of Richmond.

The author of the wildly popular Percy Jackson series introduces a new set of heroes to his legions of fans in Book One of the Kane Chronicles series. Siblings Carter and Sadie Kane have been raised on opposite sides of the globe—Sadie with her grandparents in London and Carter with his father, who travels the world studying Egyptian artifacts. Once a year, the Kane siblings get together, and this time the visit starts with a bang—the Rosetta Stone explodes and their father is taken away in a magical coffin.

And that’s just in the first few pages! Part Men in Black, part Avatar, this nonstop thriller reads like a movie. Sadie and Carter, who barely know each other, are thrust into confusing situations where nothing is quite what it seems to be. They soon learn that animals, people and everyday objects in the modern world have links to Egyptian magic and religion. Indeed, the Kane family is part of a lineage that leads all the way back to the first Egyptians.

The Red Pyramid takes place in a magical world with its own rules and history; the numerous mentions of Egyptian gods had me running to reference guides and making lists of names to keep up.

Sadie and Carter spend most of their time fighting monsters and one another and just a bit of time really getting to know each other. No doubt future volumes in this action-packed adventure series will flesh out this sister-and-brother team a little more thoroughly.

Caitlin Smith’s unusual world has suddenly become even more confusing. Her older brother has been killed, and she is left to figure out how to go on, helped by her bereft father and a school counselor. The whole community is trying to make sense of the tragedy, but closure, so elusive for everyone, is especially hard for a girl with Asperger’s syndrome.

Caitlin is not good at feelings. She does not want to have friends, mostly because it’s too hard. She’s working to master the concepts that are so important in the real world, words like finesse, closure and empathy. Her brother Devon had always been there to help her decipher the mysteries of normal behavior, like making eye contact. Only Devon could help Caitlin comprehend their mother’s death from cancer. To Kill a Mockingbird was Devon’s favorite movie; he was her Jem and she was his Scout. But, alas, all that is left of Devon after the funeral is the chest he was building for his Eagle Scout project.

Author Kathryn Erskine allows the reader into Caitlin’s highly organized, literal world and captures the overwhelming grief that comes over a town when a child is killed in a school shooting. It takes Caitlin—with her newfound power of empathy and the lessons she learned from Devon—to help her father and her community come to terms with the tragedy and to heal.

This is a gentle book, gripping and poignant, but not manipulative. While middle schoolers are the book’s target audience, folks of all ages will find much to admire in Mockingbird, a story that stayed with this reader long after the final triumphant page.

When Andrew Hope’s grandfather dies, the young college professor receives an expected inheritance—the house and lands of Melstone, an ancient English estate. But Andrew also discovers an unexpected inheritance—his grandfather’s mystical “field of care.” Old Jocelyn Brandon was more than just an eccentric country gentleman; he was a magician, a wizard. The realm of Melstone was both his property and his magical responsibility, to protect from those who would sap its powers for their own ends. Now that task has fallen on Andrew.

Though trained in magic by his grandfather, Andrew never learned the true secret of Melstone, or the nature of a mysterious parchment with a black seal, which Andrew has only seen in a vision. As a result, the new magician takes over his duties with no idea of either their importance or the ancient danger rising in his realm. The danger only increases when a young teen named Aidan shows up on his doorstep, seeking refuge from shadowy beings that are hunting the boy for reasons neither he nor Andrew can fathom.

Just like her classic Howl’s Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones’ Enchanted Glass is filled with rich description and wonderful, inventive characters infused with personality and depth. Jones is also a master at combining gentle storytelling with a strong undercurrent of suspense, which truly comes through in her newest work. Her language is equally beautiful, and filled with touches of humor that round out the reality of Andrew’s world.

The title comes from a mysterious stained glass window in Melstone House, but also from Andrew and Aidan’s habit of removing their own glasses in order to see the underlying magic of the world. The latter action is the key theme of the novel—that if you look at the world differently, you can see the magic. As such, Enchanted Glass is less about how Andrew and Aidan resolve the threats against them than about their growing understanding of their magical world. The final solution falls into place almost without their action, but the reader doesn’t much mind. The magic of Enchanted Glass is in the discovery.

What do you do when you’re a princess and none of your suitors suits you? Princess Patricia Priscilla is turning 16 and she’s bored, bored, bored and not at all looking forward to her birthday ball, where she’ll have to select a suitor. There’s not a Prince Charming in the bunch. Duke Desmond of Dyspepsia has a face like a warthog, an odd tuft of copper-colored hair and huge, crooked brown teeth. Prince Percival of Pustula has serious dandruff and hair slicked with foul-smelling oil. And Colin and Cuthbert the Conjoint are attached together, so do they count as one suitor or two?

In a tale that plays on Cinderella and The Prince and the Pauper, the princess finds a fine way to relieve the boredom of her pampered existence—trade clothes with her chambermaid, become a peasant and go to school in the village. She loves school and her handsome young schoolmaster, who, not knowing her true identity, tells her she ought to train to become a schoolteacher herself. The princess learns the ways of the commoners and eventually involves them all in her big day, with hilarious results.

Readers with a princess in their lives will enjoy this high-spirited and charming tale of trading places, mistaken identities and long-lost siblings. Add to the mix a hard-of-hearing queen; an 80-year-old serving boy; and identical triplet kitchen maids who sing in three-part harmony—that is, until they meet Colin and Cuthbert and sing with them in five-part harmony—and you have another winner from Lowry, the two-time Newbery Medal winner who will deliver the 2011 Arbuthnot Honor Lecture.

Jules Feiffer’s trademark cartoonish illustrations heighten the whimsy and bring the cast of eccentric and lovable characters to quirky life in lines that somehow evoke the full range of character and emotion. The Birthday Ball is a happily-ever-after tale of a princess learning to take charge of her life, and laughter and surprises are in store for lucky readers.

Ketchvar III has a job to do, and it isn’t easy; he’s an alien from the faraway planet of Sandoval who has come to Planet Earth to evaluate its inhabitants for the Galactic Federation. This isn’t some purely anthropological expedition, either. The lives of Earth’s entire human population hang in the balance, as Ketchvar’s experience will determine whether they’re worth saving—or annihilating. The outlook isn’t good, since Earth’s dominant species don’t appear to be doing a very good job as caretakers of their planet

The inhabitants of Sandoval resemble another earth creature—specifically, a snail—and the Federation’s superior technology has enabled Ketchvar to take over the body of a randomly selected human to conduct his analysis. That random selection happens to be one Tom Filber, a 14-year-old boy from an astonishingly dysfunctional family, the butt of jokes and the designated target of every bully at his junior high school.

At least that’s how Stuck on Earth, David Klass’ new novel for young readers, starts out. There are a lot of silly interactions between the befuddled Ketchvar, his hormone-infused host and the people he comes in contact with. They already think Tom is weird (his nickname is “Alien“), but they aren’t prepared when Ketchvar takes things to a new level. But then, Klass slyly takes the reader to a new level, turning this sci-fi romp on its ear by suggesting that what’s happening, however silly, is real—but not for reasons you’d expect.

Klass deftly weaves a story of growing up, environmentalism, the girl next door, human nature and all-powerful alien beings in a strikingly original way. Stuck on Earth manages to be hilarious, thoughtful and poignant, and there are plot twists you won’t anticipate; it’s got an ending that will leave you wondering, to boot. Don’t miss this entertaining novel.

James Neal Webb works with an alien species called “college students” at a university library.

I am not usually one for stories about parallel universes, but for Frances O’Roark Dowell’s new book, I must make an exception. In Falling In, sixth grader Isabelle Bean, even while dwelling in this world, lives in a world of her own. Raised by her orphaned parents, Isabelle has no relatives and no siblings. And since her father left when she was three, hers is a particularly small family. Isabelle lives in a world of intense imagination and curiosity, and her classmates find her oddly supernatural. She is a listener, observer and wonderer. Though she has no friends and does not fit in, she has not given up hope of finding her place in the world.

It’s not a big surprise to a dreamy person like Isabelle to open a closet door and find herself tumbling into a land that is nothing like the land of school and spelling tests and mean girls. She is greeted in this strange new place with wariness and suspicion by children who wonder if she could be the child-eating witch who is terrorizing their villages. Isabelle listens to their stories of camps filled with fearful children and decides to strike out on her own. Hunger and cold force her into an alliance—and then a friendship with others.

Isabelle’s story is a joy to read, complete with gentle side chats from the author to keep the pace quick. Little by little, the story unfolds of Isabelle’s traveling buddy Hen and the unusual older woman, Grete, who takes them in. The reader is an active participant in the tale, wondering who Grete really is, if she is a danger, if the girls are being lured to their death, and why Hen is not more worried about her little brothers and sisters in the woods. All these questions are mixed with Isabelle’s musings about whether she is a changeling and if Grete might be her real mother.

Dowell weaves a rich, accessible tale that works on many levels. On one hand, it’s an exciting, often humorous adventure about falling into a world of mystery and folklore. Deeper, it’s a mixture of fairy tale (is Grete really the witch from Hansel and Gretel?) and the mythology of fairies, changelings and other magical creatures. Deeper still, it’s the universal story of a girl, trying to find what she is meant to be. Never heavy, filled with humor and insight, Falling In is an enchanting story and a perfect choice for mother-daughter book clubs.

Robin Smith is a second grade teacher in Nashville.

A trip down memory lane is just the gift for readers who love children’s books. Noted authors Eileen and Jerry Spinelli weave together quotations from a wide variety of children’s books and follow each quote with explanatory information and questions to push the reader forward. Something like a page-a-day calendar, Today I Will also notes the birthdates of many authors and luminaries.

For instance, on October 27, a quote from Theodore by Frank Keating celebrates Teddy Roosevelt’s special day: “It is always better to be an original than an imitation.” The authors follow the quote with seven sentences about being a “one-of-a-kind creation” and a resolution to do something that is “pure me.” On March 2, Dr. Seuss’ birthday, they quote from a book by Kathleen Krull about the beloved author. “Once upon a time, there lived a boy who feasted on books and was wild about animals. . . . All in all, he excelled at fooling around.” Perfect.

The Spinellis must be voracious readers and quotation collectors because the quotes are pulled from many sources. Authors include young adult icons Chris Crutcher and Laurie Halse Anderson; old favorites E.B. White, Laura Ingalls Wilder and Frances Hodgson Burnett; and poets like Naomi Shihab Nye and Helen Frost.

While inspirational, this handsome volume will be appreciated more by readers who want to remember books read long ago and be inspired to find ones missed along the way. I now have a considerable list of books I need to find, all inspired by the Spinellis’ beautiful reflections.

Robin Smith is always on the lookout for new children’s books to share with the second graders in her Nashville classroom.

The first things about the cover of The Doll Shop Downstairs that catch a reader’s eye are the delicate illustrations and sweet title. Below the old-fashioned lettering, a girl clad in a plaid dress and apron cradles a doll amid paintbrushes, spindles of cloth and a turn-of-the-century cash register. It’s not only a book cover but a window on the charming story that follows.

Anna Breittlemann, the nine-year-old narrator, loves the porcelain dolls her father and mother mend in their New York City shop. She especially loves a dark-haired beauty, despite its missing foot and cracked arm. Sharing Anna’s love of dolls are her two sisters, each of whom has her own favorite. Together, they have tea parties and cope with the economic effects of the start of World War I.

But what happens when the dolls’ owners are ready to take them back home and away from the girls? That source of anxiety for Anna is only dwarfed by her family’s money troubles, which Anna and her sisters ingeniously help their parents solve. It seems, though, that all the ingenuity in the world won’t help them keep the dolls they’ve loved for months.

Yona Zeldis McDonough gently evokes a now-lost world with her portrayal of a loving family of doll-menders in New York's Lower East Side. Young readers will enjoy vicariously living above the shop in a brownstone walk-up, sleeping overnight on a rooftop to cool off in pre-AC summer heat and paying a penny for candy at the neighborhood newsstand.

Heather Maione's period illustrations complement the text and create a nice bridge for children moving from picture to chapter books. Together with the story, which celebrates simplicity and resourcefulness, they remind the reader of the possibilities that scraps of cloth and ribbon can create.

The images of immigrant family life in a New York long since past and an industry now nearly forgotten are strengths that make The Doll Shop Downstairs a welcome addition to the shelves of yesteryear- and doll-loving youngsters alike.

Aniko Nagy is a bookseller and freelance writer in Boston.

Orphaned stray dogs Bone and his sister, Squirrel, are left to fend for themselves in the great outdoors, not knowing where their next meal will come from. These two survivors have a strong sense of family—that is, until fate separates the two and Bone is left, alone and scared, to find a new home.

Bone’s canine adventures are only one of a trio of tales that make up Ann M. Martin’s latest book for middle grade readers. In alternating chapters, we are introduced to young Henry—who wants a dog so badly that he asks for a dog, and everything for a dog, on each year’s Christmas list. And then there’s Charlie, who loses his brother and finds companionship and solace with his own dog—until tragedy strikes again.

Each well-paced story is interesting enough to propel readers into the book, wanting to know what’s next for Bone, Henry and Charlie. Chapters shift back and forth among the three—until the story takes an interesting and unexpected turn, intertwining the three main characters.

It’s hard enough to write one solid and satisfying story with well-drawn characters. It’s even harder still to write three. Toughest of all, perhaps, is weaving those three tales together seamlessly. But that’s exactly what Martin manages in a novel that explores the themes of survival, companionship, family and the importance of home.

By the end of the book, readers gain greater insights into Bone, Henry and Charlie—and how those themes impact them all and change their lives, mostly for the better. To be sure, there is plenty of harsh realism (among them, hunters, hunger and loss), but Martin’s compassion for canines is at its best here—leading to a satisfying and entirely believable ending.

Dog owner Martin is also author of the critically acclaimed A Dog’s Life, and she’s truly found her niche with animal stories that are both touching and compelling. Fellow dog lovers—and even those without a penchant for pets—are sure to share her compassion for Bone, Henry, Charlie and the entire cast.

Freelance writer and former children’s librarian Sharon Verbeten lives in De Pere, Wisconsin, where she is one of the few people in her neighborhood without a dog.