The Midnight Children

Dan Gemeinhart has yet to write a book that I don't adore!  His Coyote Sunrise is one of my all-time favorite reads.  His use of language is magical.  His latest, The Midnight Children, did not disappoint.  It was just glorious.  Ravani is an extremely lonely child with no friends. He witnesses a group of children being droppped off at the abandoned house next door.  "Sometimes when two souls find each other in the darkness, the darkness goes away."  The children, though, are being sought by a man who calls himself The Hunter.  Can Ravani help them and not lose his new friend?  "There is a powerful difference between feeling apart and feeling a part.  There is a world in that space."  You have to read this.  Don't say you'll read this someday. "Someday is already here."  (FIC GEM)

Wild River

 

Rodman Philbrick writes great survival stories and this one is no excpetion.  5 kids are forced to survive in the wilderness after a dam broke on their white-water-rafting trip and killed their guides.  As expected, they disagree over who should be in charge and how they should stay alive and those disagreements put them in even more danger.  (FIC PHI)

Stay Alive

Students will adore this historical fiction survival story set during the pioneer days on the Oregon trail.  Douglas Deeds, an orphan, joined an ill-fated group of travelers to head to California - the Donner Party.  They took faith in a man who knew nothing of the trail and in heeding his bad advice, took a passage that left them stranded in the mountains during winter.  They endured horrific events in order to survive.  (FIC PHI)

The In-Between

This was a great, spooky story on the Great Stone Face list for 22-23.  Cooper is dealing with his parents' divorce and his father's absence.  There is a creepy new girl next door who just stares at him all the time.  When Cooper's sister, Jess, uncovers a century-old train derailment mystery online, she pulls Cooper into solving it.  Their only clue is the fact that the boy who survived the accident had the same crest on his jacket as the creepy girl next door.  When they approach her to ask her questions about the crest, they are pulled into an impossible world of ghosts and the world in between life and death.  (FIC ANS)