The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex

Where to start with Smekday? Okay. The earth is invaded by a bunch of aliens called Boovs. The Boovs generously "give" Americans Florida so that they can have the rest of the country. When eleven-year-old Gratuity Tucci's mom is taken by the Boovs to be a translator, she decides that she will drive to Florida by herself with only a cat named pig for company. Along the way, they meet a Boov who calls himself J.Lo (he's been hiding out in the magazine section of a store). J. Lo is on the lam from other Boovs, although Gratuity doesn't know this at first. Eventually, when another group of aliens called Gorgs arrive, J.Lo has to admit that he accidentally sent out radio signals to the Gorg. The Gorgs are much worse than the Boov and will not only kill all humans but will completely destroy the planet. But Gratuity, with the help of J.Lo and Pig manage to save the day.

At over 400 pages, there are alot of detours into side adventures, meeting with quirky characters, and lots of humour. But Gratuity and J. Lo are always at the heart of the story, their initial fear and antagonism gradually giving way to respect and frlendship. A fine book whose story and characters will remain with the reader long after the last page is finished.

London Calling by Edward Bloor

Martin hates the private school he is attending. Henry Lowery and his gang are bullying him, but school officials won't help because Henry's family donates much-needed money to the school. When a bullying incident leads to a statue of Henry's great-grandfather, World War 2 hero General "Hollerin' Hank" Lowery, being damaged, Martin and his friends are unfairly blamed. Depressed, Martin retreats to his basement bedroom feeling that his life has no purpose, but when he inherits a 1940's radio from his grandmother his , perspective begins to change.

As he is drifting off to sleep one night, he hears the voice of a little boy over the radio, and suddenly he finds himself in London England during the blitz. Jimmy needs his help but for what?

This is a marvelous book on many. It gives young readers a gripping glimpse of a period in London's history where every moment of life to mattered because it was so precarious. It provides reflection on the nature of history - who determines how it will be seen by future generations. And it is shows a boy learning to determine his own path in life rather one that has been determined by others. Oh yes - and all written beautifully

Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix

A plane mysteriously appears on a tarmac. Inside the plane, there is no pilot, no crew, no adults. However, there are 36 babies strapped into the seats and after the last baby is removed, the plane vanishes as mysteriously as it appears.

Thirteen years later, Jonah and his new friend Chip, both of them adoptees, begin to receive odd and threatening notes in the mail. When they start to investigate, with the help of Jonah's sister, Katherine, the FBI tries to discourage them with threats such as deportation. Next, strangers offering help appear and disappear mysteriously but are friends or enemies? Jonah, Chip, and Katherine scramble to find out what is happening, and, more important, to discover the true identity of the boys.

This one pulls in readers right from the start and with a cliffhanger ending, has them looking forward to the next installment.

First in a series

The 13th Floor by Sid Fleishman
In attempting to find his sister Liz, who has disappeared, Buddy steps off the elevator onto the 13th floor of the old building and finds himself 300 years in the past on a pirate ship. And it just happens to be a ship belonging to an infamous ancestor, Captain Crackstone who according to family history was hanged for piracy. When the ship is set upon by other pirates in search of treasure, Buddy and the captain are set adrift in a small boat. Fortunately, they are washed ashore in New England, but only to face new problems. Another of Buddy's ancestors, 10-year-old Abigail, is being charged with witchcraft and Buddy's sister Liz, who happens to be a lawyer is defending her. Unfortunately, Liz is a little too modern and ends up under suspicion of witchcraft herself. Somehow, they need to save Abigail, save Captain Crackstone, and get themselves home, preferably with some of the Captain's treasure.
There's lots of action in this fast-paced story, but it's all kept pretty light-hearted with Fleishman managing to sucessfully juggle all these sub-stories and neatly wrap everything up in a little over 200 pages.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Poor Percy. He's been kicked out of six schools in six years for being a troublemaker but he doesn't begin to know the meaning of trouble until his math teacher turns into a monster and tries to kill him while on a class visit to the museum. It turns out that Percy's dad is a Greek god, Poseidon, no less, and life for the offspring of the immortals tends to be dangerous and short. Percy must head to Camp Half-Blood where along with other children of Greek gods he can learn skills that will help him to survive. But after being accused of stealing Zeus's lightning bolt he must set out on a quest to find it before all-out war breaks out between the gods with humanity as the casualty.

There is plenty of action in The Lightning Thief but it is also laced with lots of humour, much of it emanating from the modern twist Riordan gives the Greek gods. The Camp Director happens to be Dionysius, punished for some past infraction by being forced into doing good works with youth; Mount Olympus is on the 60oth floor of the Empire State Building; chapters have amusing titles such as "Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death".

Kids who are not familiar with Greek mythology may be tempted to do more background reading. Those who are, will be amused by how Riordan incorporates the ancients into a modern story.

Highly recommended for tweens.

Just finishing up The City of Ember by Jeanne Du Prau, as a read-aloud. The premise drew us into the story immediately - a city that has existed under the earth for so many years that its inhabitants no realize the existence of a world above them. This city has been stocked with all the necessities of life and draws its light from a huge generator. But now the supplies are running low and the generator is wearing out. Blackouts are more and more frequent and although unspoken, there is a fear that some day the lights will go out permanently. When young Lina finds a manuscript, she is convinced that it provides information that will lead Ember's inhabitants away from the city and to safety. Unfortunately, her little sister Poppy has eaten chunks of the manuscript but with the help of a friend, Doon they begin to decipher the message and make plans to escape from Ember.

Because Du Prau doesn't give much away in "Ember" we often paused in our reading to speculate. Who built the city? Why? Are there people above ground? Given that all copies of the next book in the series are currently out of the library, I figure that lots of kids had similar questions and were eager to find the answers.

The Recruit by Robert Muchamore
I only got about half-way through this one before handing it over to a ten- year-old who was looking for something to read. We compared notes when he got to about the same point in the book that I had reached, and it seems that our opinions were somewhat different.
First, a quick summary. 11 year old James is mathematically brilliant, but a little too quick with his fists and prone to get into trouble. When his mother, a successful fence for stolen goods, dies, James ends up in group home where he starts to run with a gang. He gets picked up by the police, but before he is charged, he is recruited by a mysterious group called Cherubs. Cherubs is a secret branch of M15 and consists of kids 11 to 17 who perform missions for this British spy agency. James undergoes a rigorous 100 day training before receiving his first assignment.
I certainly thought that The Recruit is a page turner as did my 10-year-old reviewer. However, while I thought that the training was down-right abusive, my co-reviewer thought it was all pretty cool. This is the first in a series about Cherubs. While definitely grittier than the Alex Rider spy novels, it will definitely appeal to kids who are fans of spy novels, which are currently an incredibly popular genre.
On a quick note, James Patterson has done a cross-over from adult into teen novels with his Maximum Ride series. It features a group of genetically enhanced kids who are being pursued by unknown killers. If this isn't trouble enough, they need to save the world from unspecified threat. These are real page-turners with short chapters and lots of action. While past titles in the series have been marketed to teens and tweens, apparently the next book out is going to be marketed across the board to adults, teens, and tweens. I guess the publishers want to squeeze as much out of this series as possible.

So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane
I read this book quite a few years ago and recently have been catching up with some of the other titles in the Wizard series. Premise of this first book in the series is that Nita - bookworm and science geek - takes refuge in the children's department of public library to escape a group of bullies. While there, she spots a book entitled "So You Want to Be A Wizard" and as she reads, realizes that she posesses many of the characteristics needed to train to become a wizard. So begins this series, where wizards work to slow entropy in the universe by fighting against dark forces.
Nita is a well-drawn character who over the course of the series matures, as she encounters challenges and even tragedies in both the real and fantasy world. Despite the premise of young adults training to become wizards, the series is very different from the Harry Potter Books. The magic is rooted in science, particularly physics, and the wizards must always be careful to balance their use of magic against the energy available in the universe. A strong series and highly recommended

Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams

Ingrid Levin-Hill's hero is Sherlock Holmes. For several years, the eighth grader has kept a copy of his "Complete Adventures" on her bedside table, and spends a lot of time thinking about how Holmes figures out the world around him. "The more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling..." Holmes tells Dr. Watson.

Everything in Ingrid's world seems pretty commonplace. She lives in a 1950s Cape Cod house located in small cozy town where nothing much happens. She goes to school, plays soccer, fights with her brother - all pretty mundane stuff.

But a wrong turn on the way home from soccer practice lands Ingrid on the doorstep of local eccentric Cracked Up Kate and life starts to get pretty weird. Kate is murdered later that night and Ingrid is going to be in big trouble unless she can retrieve her soccer shoes from Kate's house before the police figure out who they belong to. Next, Ingrid is forced out of her lead role in a local production of "Alice in Wonderland" after the producer is injured under suspicious cirumstances. Somewhere, there is a connection between these two events, and with years of studying the techniques of the world's greatest fictional detective, Ingrid is determined to figure it out.

Abrahams does a wonderful job in creating a three dimensional world in Down the Rabbit Hole. Adults who have read his thriller "The Tutor" will recognize some of the same characters, redrawn for a younger audience, but also in my mind, further developed and more enjoyable.

Ages 10 through 14 (and any age if you enjoy a good mystery)

Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz
14-year-old Alex Rider is orphaned when his uncle, a spy for the British government, is murdered. When the spy agency M16 gives him a choice between going to an orphanage or going undercover for them he reluctantly chooses the latter. His mission: infiltrate the organization of multibillionaire Herod Sayle who will be donating a state-of-the-art computer to each school-child in Great Britain. Is Sayle genuinely thanking his adoptive country through this fantastic gift or are does he have a different motive. Alex is sure that the sinister multibillionaire is up to no good but how to prove it with only a couple of days before the computers will be in the hands of children across the country? Since Stormbreaker is the first in a series, we know that Alex will prevail, but what a page-turning adventure! Armed with a fistful of cool gadgets and a blackbelt in karate Alex must battle the nefarious Sayle and his minions to save not only his own life but a whole generation of children.
The Alex Rider books don't need to be read in any particular order to enjoy them, although Stormbreaker does provide background to Alex's involvement in M16. However, given that these books don't spend much time on the library shelves just grab whichever title is available and enjoy!
Great for boys 10 to 14