MS+Reader's+Choice

|| The author's web site: [|http://www.peterabrahams.com/index.html] An interview with the author: [|http://www.harpercollins.com/author/authorExtra.aspx?authorID=27752&isbn13=9780060737016&displayType=bookinterview] || The author's web site: [|http://www.elisacarbone.com/] || The author's web site: [|http://www.kira-kira.us/] More about the author: [|http://www.bookpage.com/0702bp/cynthia_kadohata.html] || The author's web site: [|http://www.mikelupicabooks.com/faq.html] || This woman is cool! Here is her myspace page: [|http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=72222457] And here is her web site. Check out the pictures of her with other authors! [|http://www.wendymass.com/] More about Wendy Mass - I can't get enough! [|http://www.teensreadtoo.com/InterviewMass.html] || Shortly after moving with his mother from Harlem to Ireland, teen cancer survivor Jamie O'Neill discovers a portal in a lighthouse that brings him to a distant planet, where he helps a community of aliens fight against invading warriors. This guy has a blog: [|http://adrianmckinty.blogspot.com/] || Graham Salisbury's web site. Check it out. He will be at YSU in the spring: [|http://www.grahamsalisbury.com/home.html] || While traveling to visit the mother she has not heard from in almost a year, Erin and another teenage girl become lost in the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains and must struggle for six days to survive. || An interview :[|http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2005/12/author-interview-jordan-sonnenblick-on.html] Now this is awesome - a youtube video created by the author! [|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d73jFTEQpRY] || An interview: [|http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1576205597&channel=452507256] A review: [|http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_stahlerjr_truesight.html] || The author's website: [|http://www.suzannefisherstaples.com/] || A website about the author: [|http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/features/mysteriousbenedict/content/author.asp] || A link to links about the author and So B. It: [|http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001932.shtml] Her website: [|http://www.sarahweeks.com/] ||
 * Middle School Reader's Choice Selections
 * || //**Down the Rabbit Hole : an Echo Falls Mystery**// by Peter Abrahams
 * Horn Book (Fall 2005)** Like her favorite detective Sherlock Holmes, thirteen-year-old Ingrid is keenly observant and stubbornly persistent. But when she learns she may have spotted a murderer, Ingrid feels as topsy-turvy as Alice in Wonderland (whom she happens to be portraying in a local theater production). Ingrid is a well-drawn character, and the Holmes and Alice comparisons are never overdone in this breezy mystery.
 * || //**Blood on the River : James Town 1607**// by Elisa Lynn Carbone
 * Library Media Connection (January 2007)** Samuel Collier, an orphan and a page to Captain John Smith, narrates this intriguing story set in 1607 Jamestown. Told from the youth's point of view, this historical novel shows not only what the journey to the New World was like and how the colony functioned, but also the different perspectives of the new settlers and native peoples. Primary sources are integrated into the beginning of each chapter, giving the people and events in the book an unusually authentic feel. The attention to historical details will engage those who truly enjoy historical fiction but may slow down other readers who are simply looking for an adventure story. The real Jamestown is the heart of this story, which is well researched with extensive historic notes at the end of the book.
 * || //**Deep and Dark and Dangerous**// by Mary Downing Hahn
 * Kirkus Review (May 1, 2007)** Twelve-year-old Ali is excited by the prospect of spending the summer at Sycamore Lake, babysitting her four-year-old cousin Emma while her Aunt Dulcie paints at the newly renovated, long-deserted family cottage. But who is the neighbor girl "Sissy," who wedges herself like a thorn between the two girls? Who is "Teresa," the girl torn out of a family photograph, and who all the town seems to know about? Why does Ali's mother refuse to come to the cabin, and why do Dulcie's paintings suddenly take a dark and watery tone? Signature spooky Hahn sends appropriate shivers up the reader's spine. If Ali's insights into Sissy's psychological problems are surprisingly mature, they're necessary to render the reader's delightful fright into a satisfyingly chilly but calm resolution. Not terribly surprising, but it does the trick. ||
 * || //**Cracker! --the Best Dog in Vietnam**// by Cynthia Kadohata
 * Horn Book starred (September, 2007)** German shepherd Cracker trains with Rick, who's going to Vietnam. Cracker learns to sniff out tripwires, and Rick learns to trust his sometimes rebellious dog. After some simplistic passages from Cracker's point of view, Kadohata digs into Rick's Vietnam experience. Without asking too much of her middle-grade readers, Kadohata creates tension and pathos around the bonds between humans and dogs in wartime.
 * || **//Heat//** by Mike Lupica
 * Kirkus Review (March 1, 2006)** Michael Arroyo's left arm is "a gift from the gods." His Papi would say, "Someday, you will make it to the World Series." Michael has grown up the object of his father's dreams, but what he loved most was just playing catch with his father in Cuba and, now, playing pickup games with his friends in the shadow of Yankee Stadium. Lurking behind the scenes is the issue of Michael's real age and whether he's really eligible to play in the Little League World Series, if his team makes it that far. Lupica follows his bestselling Travel Team (2004) with another winner. He has the veteran sportswriter's gift of dialogue and muscular prose, employed well in creating believable characters and well-developed action scenes. The story culminates in a tear-jerking scene with Michael on the mound in Yankee Stadium, making this work an irresistible treat for sports fans.
 * || **//Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life//** by Wendy Mass
 * Booklist (December 15, 2006 (Vol. 103, No. 8))** The summer he turns 13, Jeremy receives a mysterious box with the engraved words "the meaning of life: for Jeremy Fink on his thirteenth birthday."The box was left by his father, who has been dead for five years. It has four locks, but Jeremy finds no keys to open them. As Jeremy and his best friend, Lizzy, embark on a quest to find the keys, they travel across Manhattan from flea markets to fancy office buildings and museums, searching, as it turns out, not only for keys but also insights into science, religion, art, friendship, and family. The overlong plot lurches from one contrivance to another, and the end is a total setup, but readers will be hooked by the kids'fast, funny urban adventure, as well as by the quest and the "existential crisis."The many open-ended questions make this fun for group discussion: "Why are we here? Is that even the correct question?"
 * || **//The Lighthouse Land//** by Adrian McKinty
 * || **//House of the Red Fish//** by Graham Salisbury
 * Publishers Weekly (August 21, 2006)** House of the Red Fish by Graham Salisbury continues the story of 13-year-old Tomi Nagaki, the son of Japanese immigrants living in Hawaii, begun in Under the Blood-Red Sun. The narrative picks up more than a year after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and the arrest of Tomi's father and grandfather. Here the teen grapples with anti-Japanese-American attitudes as he attempts to rescue his father's fishing boat, sunk in the canal by the army's attack.
 * || **//Death Mountain//** by Sherry Shahan.
 * || **//Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie//** by Jordan Sonnenblick.
 * Horn Book starred (Spring 2006)** This striking portrayal of a little boy's diagnosis of leukemia follows his family through hospital drama and daily life, depicting the painful process of adjustment with delicately balanced compassion and humor. Five-year-old Jeffrey is mischievous and endearing, but it is his older brother Steven, a convincing maelstrom of love, fear, and resentment, who will break readers' hearts.
 * || **//Truesight//** by David Stahler Jr
 * Publishers Weekly (December 20, 2004)** In the far future, Harmony is populated by the blind-by-choice, and for generations people there have been born blind. But 12-year-old Jacob inexplicably begins to develop sight. "This powerful debut novel is two parts science-fiction thriller and one part cautionary fable about the dangers of fundamentalism," said PW.
 * || **//Under the Persimmon Tree//** by Suzanne Fisher Staples
 * Horn Book starred (September, 2007)** Orphan Reynie Muldoon becomes a member of a crack team tasked to infiltrate the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened. Their job: to discover the purpose behind subliminal messages emitted from the school. The children face danger and discovery, puzzles and plots, and their own mortal weaknesses. With its lively style, fresh character portrayals, and well-timed revelations, this story flies along.
 * || **//The Mysterious Benedict Society//** by Trent Lee Stewart
 * Horn Book starred (September, 2007)** Orphan Reynie Muldoon becomes a member of a crack team tasked to infiltrate the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened. Their job: to discover the purpose behind subliminal messages emitted from the school. The children face danger and discovery, puzzles and plots, and their own mortal weaknesses. With its lively style, fresh character portrayals, and well-timed revelations, this story flies along.
 * || **//So B. It : a Novel//** by Sarah Weeks.
 * Horn Book starred (Fall 2004)** Twelve-year-old Heidi It and her severely mentally disabled mother survive through a combination of good luck and their next-door neighbor's loving attention. An undeveloped roll of old film leads Heidi to embark alone on a risky cross-country quest to answer questions about Mama's past. Narrator Heidi's realistic voice lends authenticity to her unusual circumstances.