FINISHED: 
Bertman, Jennifer Chambliss. (2018). The Alcatraz Escape [Book Scavenger #3]. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Johnson, Maureen. (2018). Truly Devious. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[.]

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FINISHED:
O'Reilly, Jane. (2017). The Notations of Cooper Cameron. Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda/Lerner.

[Cooper Cameron (no indication of race is conveyed) just finished 5^th grade, and is spending the summer with his mother and older sister at a house on the lake where his grandfather died 2 years earlier – an incident for which Cooper feels responsible, and which seems to have triggered in him some obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) ticks.  With a verbally abusive father out of the way for most of the summer, Cooper, who frequently jots down life lessons in a notebook, learns how to make ice cream for an elderly neighbor and is hired by a nice kid in town to tie fishing lures, which help to keep “That Boy” – his name for the OCD side of himself who causes him to do things in groups of three – at bay.  The awful behavior of his father and the things that he says about Cooper are palpably biting, and there’s a poignancy to Cooper’s continually trying to ward off “That Boy” when he begins to feel his OCD being triggered by a stressful situation.  Though a subplot involving a series of thefts in town feels hyped and then unsatisfyingly resolved, and there seem to be lapses in time throughout the novel, Cooper’s realization that not everything is his fault and sometimes there is nothing he can do to help is a powerfully learned message.]

STARTED:
Lee, Mackenzi. (2017). The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[.]

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FINISHED:
Zusak, Markus. (2005). The Book Thief. New York: Knopf.

[.]

STARTED:
Oh, Ellen [Ed.]. (2017). Flying Lessons & Other Stories. New York: Crown/Random House.

[.]

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FINISHED:
Medina, Juana. (2016). Juana & Lucas. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[.]

STARTED:
Mittlefehldt, Rafi. (2016). It Looks Like This. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[Reading for ACL to see if I deem it to be "distinguished".  When, while trying to entice someone to read it, they said it had to do with a boy in the Midwest who was dealing with coming out to his not-so-understanding family, I jumped up and said, "Sounds familiar.  I'll take it!"]

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STARTED & FINISHED:
Hanlon, Abby. (2016). Dory Fantasmagory: Dory Dory Black Sheep. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[.]

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FINISHED:
Grabenstein, Chris. (2013). Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's library. New York: Random House.


[.]


STARTED:
Crowder, Melanie. (2013). Parched. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.


[.]


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FINISHED:
Beil, Michael D. (2012). Summer at Forsaken Lake. New York: Knopf.

Twelve-year old Nicholas, and his younger twin sisters, travel from New York City to spend the summer on a lake in rural Ohio with their Uncle Nick.  Thus begins a summer of discovery and growth for Nicholas including learning to sail, restoring an old boat, discovering the joys of reading (and classic titles, to boot!), and a mystery involving an accident that occurred while Nicholas’s father was trying to make a short film (“The Seaweed Strangler”) when he was Nicholas’s age.  Nicholas makes a friend (and more?) in Charlie, a strong girl who can strikeout any boy with her amazing pitching arm, and his uncle teaches him to ride a bike by having him ride alongside a barn with one hand brushing against the side for stability.  This, and letting Nicholas take a boat out on the lake alone, go miles in building Nicholas’s confidence and teaching him to be an independent adult – especially since Nicholas rarely sees his father, as his dad travels around the world with “Doctors Without Borders”.  Michael D. Beil, author of the Red Blazer Girls series (Knopf/Random House, 2009) (LOVE them!) has written one of those “summer coming-of-age” stories with vivid characters and setting that should appeal to BOTH boys and girls.]

STARTED:
Gantos, Jack. (2011). Dead end in Norvelt. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

[ALA is coming up and I'm going to the Newbery/Caldecott banquet so I thought I ought to read last year's winner...]

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FINISHED:

Beil, Michael D. (2009). The red blazer girls. New York: HarperCollins

[.]

STARTED:
Crutcher, Chris. (2009). Angry management: Three novellas. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[Reading to review for ACL.]

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FINISHED:

Buzbee, Lewis. (2008). Steinbeck's ghost. New York: Feiwel and Friends/MacMillan.

[Travis moves to a new subdivision outside Salinas, California, where Steinbeck lived and wrote some of his early works. He finds out that the local library, named after Steinbeck, is going to be shut down due to budgetary issues, so he and a friendly librarian form a group to try to raise money get the word out about the closing. Along the way, Travis, an AVID Steinbeck reader, begins to see characters from Steinbeck's books in real life around town, as well as young Steinbeck himself writing in the upstairs window of his childhood home. Throw in an old author with a link to Steinbeck, a hilarious best friend, and parents who were cool to hang out with until they both went back to school and now have high-power jobs, and you've got a well-rounded story with wide appeal. I really enjoyed this one - it kept me interested throughout and I found myself WANTING to pick it up and read it. Certainly, it's a LIBRARIAN'S DREAM book - what with Travis rallying to keep the town library open, and professing his love for books - especially their ability to transform the reader and bring them into a shared experience with everyone else who has read the book and will ever read it. Here's a great quote - words that, as a Children's librarian, I would love to get across to all young people:

"When you read, the world really did change. He understood this now. You saw parts of the world you never knew existed. Books were in the world; the world was in books." (p. 89).

Brilliant.]

STARTED:
Jacques, Brian. (2003). Loamhedge. New York: Firebird/Penguin.

[I'm WAY overdue for another Redwall tale. This is #16 - whew! It's an amazing testament to Jacques, however, that I NEVER TIRE OF THESE THINGS...]

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