A Season of Gifts

How would you like to meet your new neighbor while tied up hanging in her outhouse with nothing on?!? I listened to the audio book version, and the story was so engaging. It takes place in the 1950s as you can see from the old car on the cover of the book. The narrator is the fourteen year old son of a preacher whose family has just moved to a small town.  And their new neighbor happens to be Grandma Dowdel. You may know her from Peck's other novels. She is a hilarious, gritty, salt of the earth, independent older character who befriends the narrator's younger sister. I kept reading this book to see what she was going to do next! The book had a great message about gifts but I was so wrapped up in this story I didn't even notice until the end of the book.

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling

This creative, outrageous and old time book written by Maryrose Wood may remind you of a Lemony Snicket book or maybe Anne of Green Gables. Miss Penelope Lumley, the governess of the Incorrigibles is not an ordinary woman. Discovered in the forest of Ashton Place, the Incorrigibles are no ordinary children: Alexander keeps his siblings in line with gentle nips; Cassiopeia has a bark that is worse than her bite; and Beowulf is alarmingly adept at chasing squirrels. Each child is unique and a very fast learner for the fifteen year-old Penelope. This is the first book to The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series, and we are introduced to the characters and the mysterious children raised by wolves, captured by a wealthy unloving couple and being civilized by the adorable Miss Lumley. I look forward to the next book in the series because the story isn't finished. 

Bloodwater Mysteries

The Bloodwater Mystery book series is a good book series if you are into intense mysteries. The books are about a girl named Roni and another person named Brian that live in a town called Bloodwater in Minnesota. The kids get into trouble trying to find a lost girl, discovering a pile of bones in a cave and finding a boy that looks just like Brian that was lost (or kidnapped) 10 years ago. They're great books.   Review by Susan gr 6

The first two books written by Pete Hautman are in our library. Snatched is the first one and then Skullduggery. Doppelganger completes the series. I would say these books are for grade six and up.

One-Handed Catch by MJ Auch

What would it be like to be in sixth grade and have only one hand? Norm tells his own story in this book and we learn a lot about his frustrations and perseverance. Norm also shows us what life is like growing up in 1946. World War ll has ended and no longer is meat or sugar rationed but they still collect the fat to render. Rendering fat? Yikes! There are stories of Scouts Jamborees and trick-or-treating and choosing teams for baseball. Throughout the book we experience Norm's deep desire to play baseball despite his handicap and his best friend's negativism. Even though this story is set in the 1940s, I think there is a lot you can relate to in Norm's life because taking out the garbage and getting all your homework done is still garbage and homework no matter what time in history.  You might even get some hints for a Halloween costume!

The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy

The Adventures of Ordinary Boy is about the town of Superopolis and everybody has power—but one. Ordinary boy has no powers. But powers don't always help when you need to find your identity. Read the book found in the library.
--Jacob S. gr 5
This book by William Boniface is the first one in a three book series. This one is titled The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy, Book 1: The Hero Revealed. The next one is The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy, Book 2: The Return of Meteor Boy? and third in the series is The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy, Book 3: The Great Powers Outage.

Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn

Do you like mysteries? Then this book is for you. The main character in the book is spending the summer with her aunt taking care of her little niece while her aunt works on her art. But they are visited by a mysterious child who Emma thinks is her friend. Not my idea of a friend though. Who is she? And where does she live?

A Crooked Kind of Perfect

Linda Urban tells this tale in the voice of ten-year-old Zoe who would just LOVE a piano but her father bought her an organ. Despite that let-down, she does practice the organ and is even going to compete in a weekend organ competition. Many unusual circumstances add to the funny predicaments in her life, such as a father who doesn't like to go out in public and a mother who works too much. And how would you like it, if a boy who picked on you in school started coming over to your house after school?

Coastwatcher by Elise Weston

This historical fiction takes place in South Carolina during World War ll. Eleven year-old Hugh and his family and cousin Tom are staying on the coast to be far-away from an epidemic of polio going around their town. As the title and cover suggest, Hugh spends his time watching the coast and he actually sees what he thinks is a periscope of a German submarine. His dad must leave for awhile doing a Civil Defense job and tells Hugh to keep a log of what he observes and finds washed up on the shore. Hugh's vacation home is near a Navel Base and the family sees German Prisoners of War taking a swim. The book has factual information about the war and information about what life was like during that time period.

How To Save Your Tail

Bob is a rat after my own heart. Bob is a Book Rat. While immersed in a book, he gets caught by the castle cats. Preferring not to get eaten, he distracts the cats with his stories. You will be amazed how he can whip up a tale and you will have fun figuring out which tale is which.

Found : Book One of The Missing

Imagine that you are adopted and you want to find out more about your birth parents. Thirteen year old Jonah asks his parents a few questions and because they've read every parenting book on adoption and believe in being cooperative and truthful, they start the process of inquiry. This leads to more than they bargained for. Mysterious letters come in the mail and people appear and disappear. Jonah's friend Chip finds out he too is adopted. Even Katherine, Jonah's younger sister gets involved in the puzzle, and she is successful in getting some names of other adopted children. Where did the babies come from? Each chapter deals with a new predicament and I found myself glued to the pages. I think this science fiction novel is a great choice for a Maud Hart Lovelace Nominee.

NO Talking! by Andrew Clements

Do you think your class could be quiet for a whole day? Could you be quiet for the whole day? I liked this book, not only because the class in the book is trying not to talk, but because one of the fifth graders, Dave, reads a book about Gandhi for his report on India. (Hooray!- Fifth graders at SJV learn about Gandhi too) The idea of not talking, something Gandhi did for his own spiritual development interested Dave. In a verbal fight with a classmate, Dave challenges her to keep quiet. Suddenly, a contest develops and spreads to all the fifth graders, where the contestants are the boys against the girls. I enjoyed the clever three-word exceptions that were made when teachers needed to hear from their students. Yes, this is another great Andrew Clements novel and a Maud Hart Lovelace Nominee for 2010-11.

The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies

Hot summer days. Drinking cold, refreshing lemonade. Have you ever had a lemonade stand? When I was younger we would have a Kool-Aid stand. We never took it to the level that Jessie did in The Lemonade War though. Things escalated between her and her slightly older brother Evan when they found out they'd be in the same fourth grade class next year. They both reacted differently to the news and their brother/sister friendship is turning competitive over the sale of lemonade. Reading this book will give you good ideas about selling lemonade but also insights on friendships, brothers and sisters and economics. Our library has a copy of the Maud Hart Lovelace Nominee for 2010-11.

Mudshark by Gary Paulsen

Can you think of any student in your school that the principal goes to for help? Lyle Williams, mostly known as Mudshark is the go-to-person for lots of people. Mudshark solves lots of problems and locates missing items. But as the story unfolds, his incredible ability is being out shined by a psychic parrot kept in the library. Can Mudshark gain the students' respect back? And solve the school's biggest mystery? Where are all the erasers?
This very short crazy Gary Paulsen story is not like his outdoor adventurous Hacket novels but if you want a quick-make-you-laugh book, this is it.

The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had

I hope Kristin Levine keeps writing more books! The Best Bad Luck is her first novel and the best one I've read this summer. I was so captured by this story that I almost read it all in one sitting. I didn't even think about perspective or first or third person or settings, and characters. I just enjoyed the book. Twelve year old "Dit" tells the story that takes place in 1917 in Alabama. It follows the developing of his friendship with Emma, the daughter of the Negro family from Boston that moves in across the street. While Dit's family has no problem with the fact that the family is black, many in Moundville outwardly do. Do Dit's friends tease him about about Emma because she's a girl or because she is a Negro? This book will give you a closer look at what life was like in the early 1900s in the south. What do you think kids did during their summer vacation back in 1917? Do you think your doctor would teach you how to drive a car (at age 12) so you can help him with picking up supplies? How would you react if you witnessed discrimination? This book tackles more than you can shake a stick at. Be prepared for the killing of animals, fighting, a murder and an influenza outbreak too. Pick up this book at your public library and let me know what you think.

Faith, Hope, and Ivy June

I chose this book to bring along on my recent road trip through Kentucky and Tennessee. It was fun to read a book where the action takes place in the town and state you are driving through. I should have gone to the swamps near the Florida Keyes last week! We stopped in Lexington, and while I couldn't find Thunder Creek, I saw many places that could have been the Mosley's tucked out of sight in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Shiloh) is such a good writer, I would have never believed she didn't actually live in the eastern hills of Kentucky. (Though what does a midwesterner like me know?) Catherine and Ivy June are two seventh grade students from different parts of Kentucky who are in an exchange program. Their lives are very different and they discover a lot about themselves and their stereotypes while spending time in each other's world. They are to keep a journal to help them convey the experience. The journal keeping of the two students was interspersed with the action of the story in between. I recommend this book to all of my students (4th and up), though I see girls more likely to check this one out because of the personal connections girls have with each other. This is a good, realistic novel about friendship and family.