Vanderbeekers: Lost and Found

I rarely read more than one book in a series.  I can get the feel for it in the first, and I have to read so many books, that I feel it is gratuitous to continue a series.  This is the exception.  Karina Van Glasser can write 100 of these and I will read every one and purchase them for my libraries.  This is the fourth in the realistic-fiction series centered around a beautiful, loving family sharing a brownstone with adoring neighbors.  I want them to adopt me.  Each story surrounds me with love and joy and heartache.  I ugly-cried in this one, about a friend who is struggling with homelessness.  (FIC GLA)

Refugee

Alan Gratz is publishing some wonderful historical fiction stories of late.  I recently finished Allies, on the Great Stone Face list this year.  I LISTENED to this one on Overdrive.  This story had the same format as Allies - a tale told from three different perspectives.  This one, however, obviously deals with the topic of refugees.  Josef, Isabel, and Mahmud are three children from three different periods in history, all forced from their home countries for different reasons.  Josef is a Jewish boy, escaping Germany before WWII and the Holocaust.  Isabel is fleeing Communist Cuba in the 1990s.  Mahmoud is leaving war-torn Syria in 2015.  Each story is terrifying and heart-wrenching and shines a light on the plight of refugees and the need of nations to assist those in such dire need.   Although the children obviously never meet, their stories connect in a beautiful way, illustrating that a kind deed leaves ripples.

Terrible Two Get Worse

 

In this sequel to the Terrible Two, Miles and Niles face an even better goat than their original principal... his father!  But is it a prank if the goat doesn't react?????  How can their pranking reputation be saved if the entire year passes and they haven't gotten the reaction they so need?  I really enjoy these quick, light, funny stories by Mac Barnett.  (FIC BAR)

We Will Rock our Classmates

Ryan Higgins brings back Penelope, the lovable T-Rex, in this sequel to We Don't Eat Our Classmates.  Penelope wants to rock out in the talent show at school, but she is a T-Rex, not a rock star.  Can she be both?  This is a sweet and funny picture book about how we can do whatever makes up happy, and share our talents, whatever they may be.  (PIC HIG)

Stick Dog Meets His Match

I found this quick, heavily-illustrated novel very witty.  The main character is the leader of a stray pack of dogs. The others are not as bright as he is, but he is always patient and kind.  Their ideas, although, nonsensical are really funny and I love StickDog's understanding and patience with them as he steers them to the logical choice of action.  Int his one in the series, he meets a German Shephard who helps them get some food.  (FIC WAT)

Katie Woo Flower Girl

This series is a sweet, early reader series.  In this installment, Katie is asked to be a flower girl for her aunt's wedding.  Even though she gets encouragement from all her friends, she is nervous until her best friend does it with her!  (E MAN)

Terrible Two

This was such a funny and refreshing book.  I should not have expected anything less from Mac Barnett.  He has written some amazing children's books, including Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, a picture book.  He has also written early readers in the Jack series, and now these for middle grade.  I loved this!  Miles was a prankster at his old school.  He was all excited to establish himself in that role in his new school.  But his best prank ever was foiled by the prankster already there!  Now it's game on.  This is the first in the series.  (FIC BAR)

Ranger in Time - Rescue on the Oregon Trail

This is the first book in a time-travel series by Kate Messner.  The main character is Ranger, the dog.  He was trained to be a search and rescue dog, but he never passed the test because he gets too distracted.  One day, he finds an old first aid kit buried in the yard.  Its magic transports him back to 1850 in America to a launching spot for those traveling West on the Oregon Trail.  There he helps a boy named Sam and sets off on the dangerous trail with Sam's family.  Readers who love the Magic Treehouse books will enjoy these historical fiction stories.  They are a bit higher level than those, although not by too much.  They are on the same level as the I Survived stories, which are similar, although they don't have the time travel component.  (FIC MES)

Meet Addy

 

Meet Addy is from the American Girl series.   In all of the American Girl books, we meet a fictitious girl who lived during a real period of American history.  Through that story, we can learn about our nation's past.  In this story, we meet Addy.  Addy is a slave.  Her family lives on a plantation in North Carolina.  Her father wants to run away to freedom before the family is broken up and sold off.  Before they can do that however, the father's predictions come true.  Addy's mom decides that they should run away anyway.  This is an exciting and of course, sad story that offers its readers an important view into a troubled, embarrassing, and tragic period of our history.  (FIC AME)

Eight Keys

 

I love this author, Suzanne LaFleur.  In this realistic fiction/mystery story, we meet Elise, the main character.  She has lived with her aunt and uncle since she was three, since both her parents have died.  She receives a letter every year from her dad, written as he was battling cancer.  She finds out this will be his last letter, which of course saddens her.  She needs them now more than ever.  Middle Shool is hard.  She is being bullied and it is causing her to pull away from her one true friend.  When she receives the last letter, it leads her to a series of eight doors in the barn that have been locked her whole life.  Eight keys will open eight doors.  Each room holds a gift from her father.  (FIC LAF)

The Mysterious Benedict Society

 

This fantasy/adventure/mystery story was a fun, action-packed read.  Four children, all with special talents answer an ad put in the paper by an eccentric man, Mr. Benedict.  They pass the test and are hired to be spies, taxed with finding out the source of an evil plan to brainwash the world.  With a cast of unique characters, one of whom is a brilliant 2-yr-old, and a bunch of riddles that need to be solved, it is engaging and entertaining.  (FIC STE)

The Next Great Paulie Fink

 I loved this book by Ali Benjamin, author of The Thing About Jellyfish.  It was unique and refreshing and thought-provoking.  Caitlyn moves to this VERY rural VT town where the school is in a house and there are only 10 kids in her class.  There was a legendary kid in their class named Paulie Fink, but he has disappeared this year and didn't tell anyone that he would not be returning to 7th grade.  She immediately starts to compare this place to her old school where she needed to worry about cliques, and what is cool, and what is not.  They decided to have a reality-show-style competition to see who can be the NEXT great Paulie Fink.  As the story unfolds, you learn that Caitlyn may dislike this new place, but its special nature is softening the hardness in her...the place that made her a mean girl at her old school.  You grapple with questions like, what do we know about people?  What do they let us see and why?  What will your story be?   I love stories for kids that get them thinking about their place, their school, their role in what goes on around them.  This would make a superb real-aloud and lead to some meaningful discussions.  (FIC BEN)