Check out the selection below of cool new books...these are just a few you may want to look for in your public library or spend some of that Christmas money on...either at your local book store or online at Amazon. Let me know if you read one, I'd love to know what you think!
Stand-Alone Chapter Books
THE RISE AND FALL OF MOUNT MAJESTIC
written by Jennifer Trafton
illustrated by Brett Helquist
Dial Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780803733756
Ages 8-up
352 pages
Ten-year-old Persimmony Smudge leads (much to her chagrin) a very dull life on the Island at the Center of Everything…until the night she overhears a life-changing secret. It seems that Mount Majestic, the rising and falling mountain in the center of the island, is not a mountain at all --- it's the belly of a sleeping giant, moving as the giant breathes. Now Persimmony and her new friend Worvil the Worrier have to convince all the island's other quarreling inhabitants --- including the silly Rumblebumps, the impeccably mannered Leafeaters, and the stubborn young king --- that a giant is sleeping in their midst, and must not be woken.
THE STAR MAKER
Laurence Yep
HarperCollins Children’s Books
ISBN: 9780060253158
Ages 8-12
112 pages
If only Artie had kept his mouth shut.
But his mean cousin Petey was putting him down, so Artie started bragging.
Now he has to come up with enough money to buy firecrackers for all his cousins by the Lunar New Year.
Luckily, there's one person he can count on…Uncle Chester!
THE STORM BEFORE ATLANTA
Karen Schwabach
Random House Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780375858666
Ages 8-12
320 pages
At a time when most people have grown weary of the war between the states, two young children are desperate to find their way to the battlefields. Jeremy DeGroot wants nothing more than to join a troop as a drummer boy. For Dulcie, a runaway slave, freedom means she must head directly toward the fighting in the hopes that she'll become "contraband," that is, property of the Union troops. Both Jeremy and Dulcie find a place with the 107th New York Volunteer Regiment and even start to forge a friendship. But all that is threatened when they keep crossing paths with the mysterious Charlie, a young Confederate soldier, who may look like the enemy but feels more like a friend.
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Series Books/Sequels
Alcatraz
ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE SHATTERED LENS
Brandon Sanderson
Scholastic Press
ISBN: 9780439925570
Ages 9-12
304 pages
Alcatraz Smedry is on a mission to save the day! In his final adventure in the series by bestselling adult fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson, Alcatraz has a lot to prove and, as always, little time in which to do it.
Lunch Lady
LUNCH LADY AND THE BAKE SALE BANDIT
Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Knopf Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780375867293
Ages 7-10
96 pages
The Breakfast Bunch is excited for the upcoming bake sale --- and the best part is that it's raising money for an awesome field trip. But when all the snacks go missing, it's no laughing matter. Someone is sabotaging the bake sale. But why?
Lunch Lady and the Breakfast Bunch are hot on the trail…one brownie crumb at a time.
Spaceheadz
SPHDZ Book #2!
written by Jon Scieszka
illustrated by Shane Prigmore
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9781416979531
Ages 7-10
240 pages
The campaign is going well. The SPHDZ word is getting out. Thousands of kids have signed up to say they are SPHDZ. But things haven't gotten any easier for Michael K. The SPHDZ are still trying to blend in to our Earth culture, but not very successfully. They're still mixing up Thanksgiving, cartoon plots, holidays and commercials. This makes it especially hard for Michael K. to both hide the SPHDZ from Agent Umber and accomplish the SPHDZ Mission. He's forced to enlist the help of fellow fifth graders Venus and TJ.
When they (Michael K. and the SPHDZ) are given the assignment to write and perform the school play, Umber thinks he's closing in on the aliens...the kindergartners playing the turkeys.
Sequel to A WHOLE NOTHER STORY
ANOTHER WHOLE NOTHER STORY
Dr. Cuthbert Soup
Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books
ISBN: 9781599904368
Ages 8-12
304 pages
The plan was simple. Ethan Cheeseman, along with his three smart, polite and relatively odor-free children, would travel back in time to end an ancient family curse and save their mother. Now that the LVR (a super-secret time machine) is in working order, it should be easy peasy. Except they didn’t account for one basic rule of science: Murphy’s Law, where everything that possibly could go wrong, does. So the Cheeseman family finds themselves on another madcap adventure, this time through stormy seas and haunted castles. And though their narrator, Dr. Soup, has a ton of unsolicited advice to offer young readers, he doesn’t have much to say to help the Cheesemans, except this one thing: Good luck!
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Picture Books
A BOY NAMED FDR: How Franklin D. Roosevelt Grew Up to Change America
written by Kathleen Krull
illustrated by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher
Knopf Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780375857164
Ages 6-10
48 pages
Franklin D. Roosevelt was born into one of the wealthiest families in America, yet this ultimate rich kid grew up to do more for ordinary Americans than any other president. This appealing picture book biography shows how, from childhood on, FDR was compassionate, cheerful, determined, and enormously likable. Though he had private tutors as a young boy and later attended an elite boys' school, he played pranks and had down-to-earth fun just like any boy today.
I’M NOT.
written by Pam Smallcomb
illustrated by Robert Weinstock
Schwartz & Wade/Random House Children’s Books
ISBN: 9780375861154
Ages 4-8
32 pages
Our shy narrator lists all the things that her best friend, Evelyn, is good at --- from jumping on the bed to roller skating really fast. Luckily, Evelyn points out what makes her so special: she's a one-of-a-kind true blue best friend. Robert Weinstock's hilarious illustrations wonderfully complement Pam Smallcomb's simple text, perfect for young children. This sweet depiction of friendship shows --- in a completely fresh, original way --- that everyone is special.
ODETTA: THE QUEEN OF FOLK
written and illustrated by Stephen Alcorn
Scholastic Press
ISBN: 9780439928182
Ages 4-8
40 pages
She was a beautiful girl who plunged head-first into the world with a song to sing. Born in Birmingham, this child soon learned to make a whole heap of noise on her auntie's piano. Then she discovered her own instrument --- a voice full of brass and thunder! And, oh, did she have a song to sing --- spirituals, gospels, work songs. She sang joy. She sang sorrow and struggle. She sang triumph. Her songs told stories of America's history. And, with the help of Baby, her guitar, Odetta blazed a musical trail that served as the roadmap for many folksingers who followed in her footsteps.
List made available from Kidsreads.com
