The Magic Half

You are a middle child with two sets of twins as siblings, one older set as brothers and a younger set as sisters. How would you feel?_______ So does Mira. She feels stuck and on her own.
When Miri picks up a piece of an old eye glass and peers through it.....things get wavey and are bending, the wallpaper looks different too, wait, this isn't her bedroom...or is it? Why does this girl think she is a fairy? And who is yelling at them?
Read this book if you enjoy time-travel, friendship and getting back at a big bully. I think 3rd and 4th graders would like this book by Annie Barrows, who also wrote the Ivy and Bean stories. This book is a Maud Hart Lovelace Nominee 2011-12 Division I

On the Blue Comet

The illustrations go beautifully with this hefty story. Looking at them you feel as if you are in the 1930s. My mom has a book from her childhood with pictures just like this. Oscar's simple life is tragic but pleasant as he and his dad live a child's dream in their world of Lionel trains. Then the crash, loss of a job, left to live with an aunt, etc. The story kinda drags until he ends up in California with Dutch (a famous actor.) I am glad I stuck with the story because it had a good ending. I think all the references to history and well known financial folks: Morgan, Rockefeller, Merrel and Lynch and actors such as Joan Crawford will have no significance to a ten-year-old, but it was good to give it historical footing. I would recommend this time traveling historical fiction to upper 4th and 5th graders with an explanation about train sets and perhaps a Internet search of the model trains ahead of time.