Wing Nut
MJ Auch

Since his father died, 12-year-old Grady and his mom, Lila, have lived in a lot of dead-end places, none of them worth being called "home." But maybe Charlie Fernwald's Pennsylvania farm, where Lila has been hired to cook for the 85-year-old farmer, mechanic, and purple martin enthusiast, will be different. Maybe. But Grady makes a terrible mistake. Auch's story of the slowly developing friendship between a lonely boy and an elderly man whose passion for birds has sustained him through the death of his wife is engaging, though a tad predictable. What will attract readers like martins to a gourd nest is the author's careful integration of bird lore and the unusual challenges of creating and maintaining a purple martin colony. A good book for reluctant boy readers.

The Misadventures of Maude March
Audrey Couloumbis

Sallie March, 11, devotee of dime novels, narrates this rollicking Wild West adventure. The irrepressible tomboy and her ladylike older sister, Maude, have been living in Cedar Rapids with their stern Aunt Ruthie since their parents died. When she is shot dead by a random bullet, Reverend Peasley takes the girls in, but works them like servants. Then grandfatherly Mr. Wilburn proposes to Maude, and it's the last straw. The sisters take two horses and head to Independence, MO, in hopes of finding their uncle. They disguise themselves as boys and begin to live as dime-novel heroes, hooking up with Marion Hardly, aka Joe Harden (the Joe Harden, of the dimer series?), who is also their aunt's killer. Although the girls' intentions are never bad, they end up in the midst of a bank robbery and committing murder. The newspapers are full of news of Mad Maude March, gone crazy with grief. All ends well as they make it to Missouri, where everyone has a reputation anyway. Sallie's narration is delightful, with understatements that are laugh-out-loud hilarious. While this novel at first seems a departure for Couloumbis, there are many similarities to Getting Near to Baby (1999) and Say Yes (2002, both Putnam). Her strong females are memorable, largely due to her perfect pitch in conveying their unique voices. Hard to put down, and a fun read-aloud.

Into the Wild
Sarah Beth Durst

Long ago, fairy-tale characters escaped their stories and entered the real world. Twelve-year-old Julie, Rapunzel's daughter, lives—literally—with the consequences: the enchanted forest they fled, known as the Wild, is currently stored under Julie's bed. It's Rapunzel's job to keep the sentient, hungry forest weak enough to control. Then the Wild is wished free. It subsumes Julie's town, trapping original characters in their old roles and imprisoning new people in the roles best suited for them. To free the others, Julie will have to survive wicked witches, poisoned apples, and marriageable princes to reach the heart of the Wild. The story is peppered with sly allusions, and Julie is an appealingly reluctant heroine, one whose goodness and bravery come with plenty of wry, contemporary sarcasm. Although the logic of the Wild doesn't bear close scrutiny, the concept behind the story is sufficiently clever that many readers will forgive its inconsistencies. Those who enjoy this spin of the fractured-fairy-tale wheel may wish to turn next to Lisa Papdemetriou's similarly playful The Dragon, the Witch, and Two Girls from Jersey (2006).

The Entertainer and the Dybbuk
Sid Fleischman

Motivated, as he explains in his afterword, to create a personal remembrance of the 1.5 million Jewish children killed in the Holocaust, Fleischman pairs Freddie, a struggling, ex-GI ventriloquist, with Avron, the ghost of one such victim, in a short, provocative tale that leavens the tears with laughter. Freddie's career isn't exactly taking off as he wanders postwar Europe—until he opens a closet and discovers smart-mouthed Avron, who offers to put a better line of patter into Freddie's mouth in exchange for help finding a certain murderous SS officer. Countering Freddie's understandable reluctance with both gags and gut-wrenching war stories, Avron moves in, and Freddie begins to display stunning vocal tricks to ever-larger audiences. Avron then cajoles his host into keeping kosher, and even undergoing an ersatz (or is it?) bar mitzvah. Ultimately, the search takes the two to America, where in a satisfying (if credulity-straining) climax, they find their quarry standing trial for a new crime, and Avron exacts a triumphant revenge for the old ones. The narrative voice here sounds adult, but the talented Fleischman is still both entertaining and thoughtful. Avron's wisecracking will counterbalance matter-of-fact accounts of Nazi cruelty for young readers, but it's likely to be older ones who will best appreciate the novel's eloquent "inner voice" of conscience, which takes on a definite symbolic cast, and the way in which Freddie's public and private identities shift as the story progresses.

Dragon Slippers
Jessica Day George

Creel, the heroine of Dragon Slippers is hardly a damsel-in-distress. After her aunt totes her out to the local dragon in desperation (with the hope that the local prince will rescue her from certain death and marry her), Creel refuses the haughty prince and finds friendship with the dragons, who set her on a journey to the center of the kingdom with a pretty pair of what only seem to be ordinary slippers. Along the way we discover Creel’s enormous talent at embroidery, and you can’t help but linger over the rich descriptions of her lovely tapestry-like gowns, which quickly make her the most sought-after dressmaker in the kingdom. But soon enough those mysterious slippers begin to wreak havoc, and it’s up to Creel to save the kingdom from disaster and defend the dragons from certain doom. Creel’s feisty spirit breathes fiery new life into this epic world at every turn, making this one of the most memorable and fun fantasy debuts to hit shelves since Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart.

Found (The Missing, Book 1)
Margaret Peterson Haddix

Haddix's latest science fiction series starts off with a bang in this nail-biter. A plane arrives at an airline gate unnoticed by radar and most personnel. There are no flight attendants, no pilot, in fact no adults at all, but there are 36 passengers—each seat is inhabited by an infant. Thirteen years later in Ohio, teenage adoptees Jonah and his friend Chip begin receiving ominous messages declaring that they are among "the missing" and that someone is coming to find them. Frightened yet intrigued, the boys begin a search for their real identities with the help of Jonah's younger sister. Their search leads them to a discovery that strains credulity and leads them into danger greater than they ever imagined possible. The story is driven by an exciting plot rather than extensive character development, and the teens act independently of the adults, who appear as "bad guys" or are basically useless. If used in a classroom, the revelation of the babies' identities can be used to kick off a history lesson or two. This book's exciting premise and cliff-hanger ending will leave readers on the edge of their seats and begging for more.

All The Lovely Bad Ones
Mary Downing Hahn

Hahn has mastered the art of the not-too-creepy ghost story for upper-elementary-school readers, and this latest offering combines chills, thrills, and poignant historical fiction. Twelve-year-old Travis and his younger sister, Corey, are spending the summer with their grandmother at her Vermont bed-and-breakfast. Born mischief makers, the siblings hear that the inn is rumored to be haunted and decide to manufacture some ghostly effects for the guests. Unfortunately, they arouse the real ghosts: young boys who died in the early 1800s, when the property was the county poor farm, and Miss Ada, the evil spinster who caused their deaths. The rambunctious young ghosts cause a lot of ruckus, but they are ultimately endearing beings, whereas Miss Ada is deliciously horrible. Readers will learn about the history of poor farms while reveling in the genuinely creepy hauntings Hahn describes so well. The truly scary cover may deter some readers; reassure them this title belongs to the same comfortably spooky genre as The Doll in the Garden (1986) and Wait till Helen Comes (1989).

Airball: My Life in Briefs
L.D. Hardkrader

Kirby Nickel, who secretly believes that hometown hero and basketball superstar Brett McGrew is his father, goes out for the seventh-grade team in order to meet McGrew at the end of the season. From the grandmother who raised Kirby to the hostile school board president to his inscrutable coach, everyone in his small Kansas town is mad about basketball. But when Coach distributes invisible uniforms for the team to wear at practice, Kirby and his teammates wonder what kind of madness drives the man. This fresh, first-person novel will have readers laughing at times, feeling Kirby's pain at others, and moved at the end. The revelation of Kirby's paternity will not surprise those readers who care to figure it out, but this mystery never was the point of the story. Harkrader offers an amusing, wholly affectionate portrayal of a small-town community's devotion to basketball and of a klutzy kid's success on the court in spite of himself. An entertaining first novel.

Gabriel's Horses (Racing to Freedom)(Racing to Freedom Trilogy)
Alison Hart

On a Kentucky plantation during the Civil War, slave Gabriel Alexander, 12, cares for his master's Thoroughbred racehorses and dreams of being a great jockey, just like his dad. After Pa enlists with the Yankees, the boy also yearns to be a soldier and fight for freedom. At the core of this stirring historical novel is the question of what freedom means. Runaway slaves and freemen join the Yankee army only to dig ditches and collect firewood for white soldiers. The boy's first-person, present-tense narrative brings close the thrilling horse racing––on the plantation, at the race course, and in the war––and the African American history in all its complexity. In this first entry in the planned Racing to Freedom trilogy, the cast is huge, with dozens of names on every page––family, plantation workers, horses––and it would be helpful if the next two books included a list of characters for readers' reference. Extensive historical notes and a bibliography close.

Go Big or Go Home
Will Hobbs

When a meteorite crashes through the roof of Brady’s home in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the young astrophile is excited beyond belief. He names it Fred (for “Far Roaming Earth Diver”) and calls his cousin Quinn over to check it out. The two are enamored of anything extreme or insane and deem this space rock “extremely insane” before setting out for a headlong series of bicycling, fishing, and caving adventures. When Brady starts to surpass his normal physical limitations, it becomes apparent that the meteorite might have brought along some hidden visitors with it from outer space. Hobbs captures young teen dialogue well, and the characters are all easy to like in this solid adventure. Reluctant readers who’d rather be airborne than chairbound will appreciate the two young boys’ penchant for pushing the envelope, and the postulations involving extremophile organisms is a neat twist with just a hint of science behind it, even if it leads to a few mildly preposterous situations by the end.

La Linea
Ann Jaramillo

When Miguel, 15, leaves San Jacinto, Mexico, to join his parents in California, his sister, Elena, 13, secretly follows him. Together with their guides they barely survive a harrowing journey through the desert and across la linea, the border. A gripping contemporary survival adventure, this spare first novel is also a heart-wrenching family story of courage, betrayal, and love. The harsh facts of the border crossing are immediate--the horrors of dehydration, the soldiers' violence, corruption, and the migrants' terrifying, often disastrous attempts to hop the trains. Miguel's first-person narrative tells it without romanticism. The young people are brave, but they are angry at each other and at their parents, who left them seven years before. They do make it, but always there is the reality of those who do not. Jaramillo teaches migrant kids in California, and in her final notes, she says her story is fiction, but it is based on real events. Spanish is a natural part of the text; there is no glossary, and no need for one.

Schooled
Gordon Korman

Homeschooled on an isolated "alternate farm commune" that has dwindled since the 1960s to 2 members, 13-year-old Cap has always lived with his grandmother, Rain. When she is hospitalized, Cap is taken in by a social worker and sent—like a lamb to slaughter—to middle school. Smart and capable, innocent and inexperienced (he learned to drive on the farm, but he has never watched television), long-haired Cap soon becomes the butt of pranks. He reacts in unexpected ways and, in the end, elevates those around him to higher ground. From chapter to chapter, the first-person narrative shifts among certain characters: Cap, a social worker (who takes him into her home), her daughter (who resents his presence there), an A-list bully, a Z-list victim, a popular girl, the school principal, and a football player (who unintentionally decks Cap twice in one day). Korman capably manages the shifting points of view of characters who begin by scorning or resenting Cap and end up on his side. From the eye-catching jacket art to the scene in which Cap says good-bye to his 1,100 fellow students, individually and by name, this rewarding novel features an engaging main character and some memorable moments of comedy, tenderness, and reflection. Pair this with Jerry Spinelli's 2000 Stargirl (the sequel is reviewed in this issue) for a discussion of the stifling effects of conformity within school culture or just read it for the fun of it.

Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet
Sherri L. Smith

Ana Shen has what her social studies teacher calls a “marvelously biracial, multicultural family” but what Ana simply calls a Chinese American father and an African American mother. And on eighth-grade graduation day, that’s a recipe for disaster. Both sets of grandparents are in town to celebrate, and Ana’s best friend has convinced her to invite Jamie Tabata–the cutest boy in school–for a home-cooked meal. Now Ana and her family have four hours to prepare their favorite dishes for dinner, and Grandma White and Nai Nai can’t agree on anything. Ana is tired of feeling caught between her grandparents and wishes she knew whose side she was supposed to be on. But when they all sit down for their hot, sour, salty, and sweet meal, Ana comes to understand how each of these different flavors, like family, fit perfectly together.

First Light
Rebecca Stead

The father of 12-year-old Peter is a glaciologist, his mother, a genetic scientist. Peter is thrilled when his father decides to take the family on his latest excursion to Greenland to study the effects of global warming. Fourteen-year-old Thea lives in a secret society called Gracehope under the Greenland ice. After finding a map that leads her to the surface, she becomes obsessed with seeing the sun and bringing her people back above ground. Peter and Thea accidentally meet on the surface and discover, through a secret kept by Peter's mother, that their destinies are unexpectedly joined. This debut novel is slow to start, and Stead's world building isn't quite convincing. There are some gaps in Gracehope's invented mythology, and the motivations behind the creation of the underground utopia are vague and simplistic. But the icy setting and global-warming theme are well realized, and middle-school fans of Neil Shusterman's Downsiders (2000) and Jeanne DuPrau's Books of Ember will also enjoy this solid, well-meaning fantasy.

Runaway
Wendelin Van Draanen

From May until November, Holly writes in her journal, by turns fierce, angry, scared, heartbroken, defiant. Her teacher gave Holly the journal in the hopes of allowing her to work through her mother's overdose and stays in a succession of foster homes. But Holly has more immediate issues--hunger and shelter and not being cold. Running away again from an abusive foster family, she makes her way by stealth and cunning to Los Angeles. She writes poetry in her journal, too--vivid and wired poems that it seems a smart 12-year-old actually could write. She refuses to see herself as homeless, but as a gypsy, making a home where she can--libraries and schools are among her favorite places to hide. As her situation gets increasingly desperate, readers long for Holly to find a bath and a hot meal and someone to care for her. The ending of this taut, powerful story seems possible and deeply hopeful.