FEATURED BOOKS AND AUTHORS

Currently Featured Books and Author:

Featured Book:   Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows  by JK Rowling     ★★★★★

This was the great end to the Harry Potter Series. Anyone who has not read them should. they are filled with excitement and danger. For anyone who doesn't know they are about Harry Potter, a boy wizard who is fighting against evil to save the wizarding world.

Featured Author:   Robert Muchamore

Robert Muchamore writes books for older kids about a boy spy who works for a division of MI5. This is a great series. 

Past selections:

Featured Book:    The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall        ★★★★

The Penderwicks is about a family of girls who go one summer to a vacation house called Arundal Cottage.  They meet a boy named Jeffrey and they have many adventures and get into some trouble but ultimately help[ him figure out how to deal with some differences he is having with his mom.  This book is fun and very funny.     

Featured Author:    Philip Pullman

Phillip Pullman is best known for his book The Golden Compass and its sequels, The Subtle Knifeand The Amber Spyglass.  Recently, he wrote The Boy and His Scarecrow for younger kids.  His books are exciting and entertaining.

Featured Book:    Uglies   by Scott Westerfeld            ★★★★★

Uglies is about people who live in a world where when you turn 16 you have an operation that makes you beautiful.  But the main character Tally meets Shay who decides to run away before her 16th birthday to a place called the smoke where only Uglies live.  This book is about the real meaning of beauty and it has two great sequels, Pretties and Specials.     

Featured Author:    Ridley Pierson

Ridley Pierson is an adult author who now has written some great children's books.  Some of his best books include Peter and the Starcatchers (cowritten with Dave Barry), Peter and the Shadow Thieves (also co written with Dave Barry), and The Kingdom Keepers.  The Peter books are the prequels to the Peter Pan story and The Kingdom Keepers is a book about Disneyworld and the characters there actually becoming alive and trying to take over the park.

Featured Book:    The Lightning Thief     by Rick Riordan        ★★★★★

The Lightning Thief is one of the best books I have ever read!  It is about a boy in current times who figures out that the Greek gods are still around and thriving, but if the gods are around so are the evil villains!  The boy figures out he is related to a character in Greek mythology and he has to go to Camp Halfblood, a safe place for descendents of Gods where the villains cannot go. This book was very exciting and it's sequel (The Sea of Monsters) is now out.   

Featured Author:    Wendy Mass

Wendy Mass is an amazing author who has written lots of different types of books.  One of her more famous books is A Mango Shaped Space about a girl with synethesia, a condition where she sees colors when she hears different words and sounds.  Her other books include Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, Leap Day, and the Twice Upon A Time series, which tells fairy tales from two different perspectives.

Featured Book:    The Warriors Series  by Erin Hunter        ★★★★1/2

The Warriors Series is about a house cat going to live with warrior cats who live wild out in the open.  In the books, the medicine cat tells the leader of the clan that "fire will save the forest."  The housecat's name is Firepaw, and he becomes an apprentice training to become a warrior.  The books have great detail and they are very exciting.  The books are scary at times and sad at times but very good.  There is a new series out now called Warriors:  The New Prophecy -- watch for a review of that series to come soon!  

Featured Author:    Jules Verne

Jules Verne is an amazing writer from the nineteenth century.  He wrote some very famous books, including 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Around the World in Eighty Days.  He was one of the first science fiction writers and he came up with incredible futuristic inventions in his books.  Some of his books are pretty hard but there are a lot of new books that tell his stories in an easier way.   

Featured Book:    Gideon the Cutpurse  by Linda Buckley-Archer        ★★★★

Gideon the Cutpurse is a book about two kids who are running around in one of the kids' father's laboratory chasing a dog when suddenly they straight into an anti-gravity machine.  They get transported back into time to the late 1700's.  The book tells the story of their adventures trying to get back to the right time and helping their close in the 1700's, Gideon the Cutpurse.  I learned a lot about history reading this book.

Featured Author:    Tamora Pierce

Tamora Pierce is an amazing author who has written so many very good books.  Most of her books are for older kids but there are some that younger kids can read like the Protector of the Small series.  Her books seem to be all fantasy adventure books.   

Featured Book:    Peter and the Shadow Thieves  by Dave Barry and Ridley Pierson        ★★★★

Peter and the Shadow Thieves is the sequel to Peter and the Star Catchers that came out last year.  It is a little confusing but both of these books are the prequels to the Peter Pan story -- they basically tell the story of how Peter Pan ended up on Never Land, who the Lost Boys are, and how Captain Hook lost his hand.  I loved both of these books, but Peter and the Shadow Thieves definitely seemed a lot more intense and was pretty scary in a lot of parts, so I think it is definitely for older kids.

Featured Author:    Mary Pope Osborne

Mary Pope Osborne is best known for her Magic Tree House series of books.  But she has written a lot of other great books as well.  My favorites are her books retelling the story of the Odyssey, an ancient Greek story about a man named Odysseus and his part in the war at Troy and then his attempt to get back home after the war.  There are 6 books in this series, which is called Tales from the Odyssey. 

Featured Book:    Goose Chase  by Patrice Kindl        ★★★★

Goose Chase is about a "goose girl," a girl who herds geese.  One day, she lets an old lady have some water and bread.  In gratitude, the old lady then tells the goose girl that whenever she cries her tears will turn into diamonds and whenever she combs her hair, gold dust will fall out.  She also makes the goose girl very beautiful.  After she is given these gifts, a king and a prince fight for her hand in marriage and they lock her in a tower until she chooses who will she marry.  This book was an exciting story about a girl who becomes a queen.

Featured Author:    Gary Paulsen

Gary Paulsen has written so many great books, including the Hatchet series and the Tucket West series.  His books often involve nature and are always very exciting and keep your heart racing.   The end of Gary Paulsen's chapters are usually cliff hangers, so you never want to stop reading his books!

Featured Book:    The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathon Stroud            ★★★★★

The Amulet of Samarkand is probably the best book I have read so far this summer.  It is about a boy named Nathaniel who becomes a magician's apprentice, but everyone thinks he is too lazy and dumb to become a good magician.  People don't know, however, that he studies by himself in his room and learns spells way beyond his years.  Finally, he summons a djinni named Bartimaeus who he commands to steal the amulet of Samarkand because he is mad at the amulet's owner.  This book is great.

Featured Author:    Lloyd Alexander

Lloyd Alexander has written so many books.  He has a series called The Chronicles of Prydain series, and lots of books including my favorites Time Cat and The Rope Trick.  His books are usually fantasy adventures.  He is a great author and you'll probably love all of his books.

Featured Book:    Maximum Ride by James Patterson            ★★★★★

Maximum Ride is the first kids' book written by James Patterson, a very successful adult author.  It is about six kids who grew up in a lab as part of an experiment.  They are 98% human but also 2% bird!  They have wings and are able to fly and some have other magic powers.  In the book, they have escaped from the lab and are living peacefully by themselves.  Erasers, part human and part wolf creatures, are chasing them and trying to capture them and bring them back to the lab.  This book is an amazing read -- it is incredibly exciting in parts, but also super touching in other parts.

Featured Author:    Avi

Avi has written so many children's books and they are all so different and wonderful!  Some of his books, such as Ragweed, are told from the point of view of animals and those books are often light and quick reads.  Other books by Avi are serious such as Nothing But the Truth, which is about a boy who refuses to stand up to sing the national anthem.  And Avi also writes fantasy or historical fiction books like The Book With No Words.  If you haven't yet read any Avi books, go try one out today!

Featured Book:    Eldest    by Christopher Paolini        ★★★★★

Eldest is the sequel to Eragon and describes Eragon's continuing adventures.  In this book, Eragon goes to the Elves capitol and learns many more skills and then Eragon and the varden, a collection of people opposed to the Empire, finally goes to war against the Empire.  In the midst of battle, a new rider appears.  This book is really cool because it has lots of new made up languages -- the magic language, dwarvish, and elvish.  I liked this book probably even more than Eragon.

Featured Author:    Anthony Horowitz

Anthony Horowitz has written two different series of mysteries: The Alex Rider Adventures and The Diamond Brothers Mysteries.  His books are wonderful mystery novels filled with incredibly exciting adventure.  The Alex Rider Adventures are definitely for older kids because there is more violence in them.  The Diamond Brothers Mysteries are about two boys -- one of which is a private detective but not very smart and the other is not a detective but he is very smart -- who solve mysteries together.  The Alex Rider Adventures are about a boy who becomes part of MI6, the British spy force and solves amazing international mysteries.

Featured Book:    The Kite Rider  by Geraldine McCaughrean        ★★★★★

The Kite Rider is about a boy who lives in ancient China after Kublai Khan has just taken over.  One day, the boy's father dies in a boating accident and the family loses all of their money.  The boy decides to make kites, but their house burns down and all of his kites are destroyed.  So then the boy is forced to become a kite rider in a circus and this book tells the story of the boy's adventures riding kites in the circus.  I really loved this book.

Featured Author:    Sharon Creech

Sharon Creech has written many fantastic books, including Heartbeat, Love that Dog, Granny Torelli Makes Soup, Absolutely Normal Chaos, Bloomability, Chasing Redbird, and Walk Two Moons.  Her newest book is Replay which was just released.  All of her books tell meaningful stories and they just pull you in.  Some of her books make you laugh out loud and cry at the same time.  She is a great author and I recommend all of her books.

Featured Book:    Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements        ★★★★

Things Not Seen is about a teenage boy who wakes up one day and he is invisible!  He can't go to school because his parents don't want anyone to know he is invisible.  After a few weeks, people start to become suspicious.  The police come and search their house.  The family has to figure out together how he became invisible and how they can make him seen again.  While invisible, he befriends a blind girl -- the only person he can spend time with and eventually she becomes the only person he can trust with his secret.  I really loved this book.

Featured Author:    Terry Practchett

Terry Practchett has written many wonderful and funny books, both for adults and for kids.  His children's books include The Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky. These books tell the story of a girl who meets the wee free men and their adventures together.  The wee free men are hysterically funny and mischievous little gnomes and these two books are great for read aloud stories.  Terry Pratchett has also written a series called the Bromeliad trilogy, which include Truckers, Diggers, and Wings.  These books tell the story of little men who live in a small part of our world and never know there is so much more to the world around them.  They eventually discover the rest of the world when their home is destroyed.

Featured Book:    A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park        ★★★★

A Single Shard is about a homeless boy who lives under a bridge in Korea with an old man named Crane-man.  The boy, Tree-ear, loves watching a famous potter do his work.  One day, the potter catches Tree-ear watching him and the potter, who is known for his terrible temper, yells at Tree-ear.  Tree-ear makes it up by helping the potter collecting clay.  This book tells an amazing story and won the Newberry prize.

Featured Author:    Shannon Hale

Shannon Hale is a wonderful author whose books tell great stories.  Some of her books include The Goose Girl and Enna Burning, two stories about two girls who go on many adventures -- but not in the way you think!  They don't go on adventures like fighting dragons, rather their adventures deal with their day to day lives.  Her most recent book is The Princess Academy,a book about a girl who goes to a school to learn manners but instead she has an amazing adventure and learns many different things.  All of Shannon Hale's books tell fantastic stories and she is one of my favorite all time authors.  

Featured Book:    The Penultimate Peril (The Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 12) by Lemony Snicket    ★★★★

The Penultimate Peril is the 12th book in the Series of Unfortunate Events.  It is the second to last book in the series but the 13th has not yet come out.  In this book, the Baudelaire kids go to Hotel Denouement where they work as concierges.  They overhear many evil plots while helping guests at the hotel.  They try to save the hotel from disaster, but unfortunately, they do not!  This book is one of Lemony Snicket's best and is as depressing as usual.  The first book in the series is called  The Bad Beginning.

Featured Author:    Andrew Clements

Andrew Clements has written many funny and interesting books.  My favorite is Frindle, a book about a boy who decides to see whether he can make up a new word that people will start to use.  Some of his other books that I have liked include The Last Holiday Concert, A School Story, Lunch Money, The Landry News and The Report Card. 

Featured Book:    The City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau     ★★★★★

The City of Ember is about a city that has a black sky.  The city has a generator that keeps the lights on in the city.  Suddenly the lights start to flicker.  So Lina and Doon (the main characters) set out to figure out why the lights are flickering.  Lina finds a piece of paper that she thinks is important and it ends up saving everybody in the town.  I really liked this book.

Featured Author:    Suzanne Collins

Suzanne Collins wrote the Underland Chronicles series, including Gregor the Overlander, Gregor the Overlander and the Prophecy of Bane, and Gregor the Overlander and the Curse of the Warmbloods.  These books are about a boy, Gregor, who accidentally slips into another world, the Underland, with his baby sister.  They go through many adventures together because it turns out that Gregor is part of many of the Underland peoples' prophecies.  These books are incredibly exciting and interesting but in some parts they are a little scary.    

Featured Book:    A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett                    ★★★★

A Little Princess is about a girl, Sarah Crewe, who is sent by her father to Miss Minchin's boarding school in London.  Her father is very rich so Miss Minchin treats her like a little princess.  But then suddenly her father dies in India and everyone thinks he leaves no money for her.  Miss Minchin then starts treating her horribly and her life becomes miserable.  Sarah then meets someone changes her life forever.  If you haven't read this book, I would strongly recommend it -- it is a great adventure.

Featured Author:    Edith Pattou

Edith Pattou has written three chapter books, East, Hero's Song,and Fire Arrow.  East is a good book based on a picture book called East of the Sun, West of the Moon.  East is about a girl whose family suddenly turns very poor.  The girl’s sister gets sick and big white bear comes and says that he wants to take the girl with him to his castle.  The book tells the story of what happens when the girl goes off with the bear.  Hero's Song and Fire Arrow are about the adventures of two friends, Brie and Collun.  In the first book, Collun's sister Nessa goes to the main city in their area and then she disappears.  No one knows where she has gone.  Collun goes to find her and he meets Brie on the way and together they go on many adventures trying to save Nessa.  In the second book, Brie and Collun live together in a dun, a kind of house.  Brie's father has been killed and she sets out to find his murderers.  She goes to many places and learns many things.  All of Edith Pattou's books are exciting adventures.  

Featured Book:    A Blue Eyed Daisy by Cynthia Rylant        ★★★★

A Blue Eyed Daisy is about a girl whose father used to work in a coal mine but then he got hurt so he couldn't work anymore.  Now he drinks too much and his daughter feels like all the good times that they have had in their family have disappeared.  But then everything changes.  The father stops drinking, the girl makes a best friend, and life gets a little bit better, but there is no way you can have a perfectly good year -- bad things happen too.  This book is very meaningful and I loved it.

Featured Author:    Gail Carson Levine

Gail Carson Levine has written many books and all of them are great.  They include Ella Enchanted (much better than the movie!), Dave at Night, The Princess Tales, The Wish, The Two Princesses of Bamarre, and her newest book, Fairy Dust and the Search for the Egg.  All of her books are fiction but some are more true than others.  Most involve fairies or magic but not all.  Gail Carson Levine is a great author and if you haven't yet read her books, you should! 

Featured Book:    Flush by Carl Hiassen            ★★★★

Flush is about a boy named Noah whose father goes to jail because he sunk a boat that had been polluting the ocean by dumping human waste.  The boy decides to help his father's cause.  Noah and his sister Abbey becomes friends with a woman who used to work on the polluting boat.  The three of them hatch a plan to show the Coast Guard that the boat is dumping and polluting the water.  They sneak on to the boat and flush food coloring down the toilets so that the waste will be fuschia.  I thought this book was good, but not as good as Carl Hiassen's other book Hoot.

Featured Author:    Cornelia Funke

Cornelia Funke has just published her fourth children's book, Inkspell, which is the sequel to Inkheart.  Her other two book are Dragon Rider and The Thief Lord.  My personal favorite is Inkheart but they are all really good books.  Dragon Rider is about a boy and a dragon who embark on a journey to get the dragon to a place where he can safely live.  Inkheart and Inkspell are about people who can make characters in books come alive.  The Thief Lord is about a group of children who are ruled by the Thief Lord who steals things and sells them to get money.  Cornelia Funke's books are all exciting adventures.

Featured Book:    Drift House by Dale Peck        ★★★★★

Drift House is about three kids who go to their uncle's house by a bay.  When they get there they think the house looks crooked.  One night, they go to sleep and when they wake up the next morning the house is floating out on the bay!  The kids go through many adventures and many weird things happen to them while out on the water -- like meeting the time pirates who live forever.  This book was really good and taught me alot, like that you could have good friends that you never thought you would be friends with.

Featured Author:    Edward Bloor

Edward Bloor has written three books for kids that are all really popular.  He wrote Tangerine, Crusader, and his latest book Story Time.  Story Time is a great book about a girl and a boy who go to a new school.  While there, they go through an adventure to solve a mystery of whether there is a demon making people do crazy things.  Edward Bloor is a good author and I really like his works.

Featured Book:  Pure Dead Magic by Debi Gliori        ★★★★

Pure Dead Magic is a book about two kids who have lots of troubles at home.  Their dad has been kidnapped, their mom is busy with her witchcraft studies, and Pandora, the main character, has accidentally miniaturized her baby sister and her baby sister then got blown into the computer.  They have to figure out how to rescue everyone from their troubles with the help of their magical nanny.  This book is exciting!  There are four books right now in this series, so if you like this one you should also read Pure Dead Trouble, Pure Dead Brilliant, and Pure Dead Wicked.

Featured Author:  Eva Ibbotson

Eva Ibbotson has written many great books, including The Star of Kazan, The Great Ghost Rescue, and Journey to the River Sea.  Her books feature kids who are in exciting adventures.  If you haven't read any of her books before, I recommend The Secret of Platform 13 or Island of the Aunts but all of her books are great!