FINISHED: 
Kinney, Jeff. (2018). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown. New York: Amulet/Abrams.

[.]

STARTED:
Tagame, Gengoroh. (2018). My Brother's Husband: Volume 2. New York: Pantheon/Penguin Random House.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Harris, Chris. (2017). I'm Just No Good at Rhyming and Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups. New York: Little, Brown/Hachette.

[.]

STARTED:
Tamani, Liara. (2017). Calling My Name. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Kinney, Jeff. (2015). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School. New York: Amulet/Abrams.

[Actually, this one was kind of funny.  Definitely funnier than the last couple.]

STARTED:
Springstubb, Tricia. (2010). What Happened on Fox Street. New York: Balzer + Bray.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
McAlpine, Gordon. (2013). The tell-tale start: The misadventures of Edgar & Allan Poe (Book 1).  New York: Viking.


[.]


STARTED:
Balliett, Blue. (2013). Hold fast. New York: Scholastic.


[LOVE HER.]

*

FINISHED: 
Gale, Eric Kahn. (2012). The Bully Book. New York: HarperCollins.


[.]


STARTED:
Hunter, Erin. (2012). The melting sea (Seekers: Return to the wild #2). New York: HarperCollins.


[I'm reviewing #3 in the series for ACL, so I need to get caught up...]


*

FINISHED:
Fairlie, Emily. (2012). The lost treasure of Tuckernuck. New York: Katherine Tegan/HarperCollins.


[Sixth-grader Laurie is mortified to have to do her middle school years at her parents’ alma mater, Tuckernuck Hall, a private school with a clucking chicken for a mascot, while the rest of her friends get to stay together at the local public school.  The school year gets interesting, though, when Laurie is named “gerbil monitor” in her classroom, and she embarks on a mission to solve the unsolvable hidden treasure puzzle in the school created by Maria Tutweiler, eccentric school founder and principal, 80 years earlier.  This serviceable mystery has a bit of humor, mostly revolving around the gerbils that Laurie, and her co-gerbil keeper and treasure seeker classmate Bud, are tasked with keeping watch over, as well as some poignancy involving Bud and his demanding father who are mourning the loss of Bud’s mother.  Unfortunately, the characters are fairly one-dimensional, there’s the familiar “our school is being torn down so we need to find the treasure ASAP” plotline, and the clues leading to the titular treasure are specific to places, objects and people around the school, thus shutting out the reader who may hope to help solve the mysteries along with our protagonists.  As such, the sleuthing gets a bit tedious as Laurie and Bud continually run around to different parts of the school dodging staff members and nosy students.  The only thing that really makes the text stand out amongst the crowd of other treasure-hunting mystery stories is the liberal scattering throughout of notes, lists, emails, and letters created by the book’s characters – though these don’t always serve to move the plot forward, they are still a fun diversion and help to break up the somewhat lengthy chapters.]

STARTED:
Phillips, Helen. (2012). Here where the sunbeams are green. New York: Delacorte/Random House.

[Reviewing for ACL...]

*

FINISHED:
Spratt, R.A. (2012). Nanny Piggins and the Wicked Plan. New York: Little, Brown.


[.]

STARTED:
Lin, Grace. (2012). Starry river of the sky. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Jones, Allan, and Chalk, Gary. (2010). The Six Crowns: Trundle's quest. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Ness, Patrick. (2011). A monster calls. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Skye, Obert. (2011). Wonkenstein: the creature from my closet. New York: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt.

[This one has gotten some decent reviews, but I found it to be quite lacking...

When Robert Burnside finally got his own room, its closet was without a door so his father installed one that he found at a garage sale. There might be something wrong with it, though: the door handle has a creepy face on it (did it just wink??), and, one evening, a small creature pops out of the closet looking like a hybrid of Frankenstein’s monster and… Willy Wonka (Robert once used the closet as a “laboratory”, and has since begun to throw books in there). Jumping on the Wimpy Kid (Amulet, 2007-2011) bandwagon, Skye’s protagonist shares more than a passing likeness to Greg Heffley: he’s a bumbling, twelve year-old outsider who continually stumbles into awkward situations, and even has a precocious little brother and a typical, aloof, teen older sibling. In addition, it is written in journal style and littered with drawings – and, though this one has drawings that look like a kid might have actually drawn them, they are much less appealing and humorous than those in the Wimpy Kid series. Adding in the fantasy/science fiction element of the creature attempts to set this title apart from Kinney’s series, but the “plot” often wanders away from Wonkenstein and just focuses on the goofy and embarrassing things that Robert does (collecting thumbtacks with faces, trying not to burp in class, accidentally signing up to recite a poem at a school assembly), mostly in front of the prettiest girl at school. Though young readers who just can’t get enough of the Wimpy Kid and/or Big Nate (HarperCollins 2010-2011) books will likely eat this up in similar fashion, it definitely feels like a pale copy. A sequel featuring a hybrid Harry Potter/Chewbacca (Star Wars) creature is teased/promised.]

STARTED:
Smith, Cynthia Leitich. (2011). Tantalize: Kieren's story. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[Reviewing this new graphic novel for ACL...]

*

FINISHED:
Scieszka, Jon [ed.]. (2011). Guys read: Thriller. New York: Walden Pond/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Skye, Obert. (2011). Wonkenstein: the creature from my closet. New York: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt.

[Reviewing for ACL...]

*

FINISHED:
Norriss, Andrew. (2012). I don't believe it, Archie. New York: David Fickling/Random House.

[A week in the incredible life of Archie, the boy who seems to court strange happenings, and the girl whom he meets that wants to be around Archie to see for herself just how crazy things can get for him. Each day, Archie’s mother sends him on an errand from which he always gets sidetracked, with Archie eventually returning home, the errand undone, and his mother exclaiming, “I don’t believe it, Archie!” Monday’s adventures involve a runaway piano and a car that gets covered in gravel; Tuesday revolves around getting accused of killing a dog, though he actually ends up accidentally saving the dog’s life; on Wednesday, Archie helps to save his local library from being bulldozed and turned into a car park when he gets super-glued to the front door; Thursday involves being mistaken for a kidnapped child, etc. This is a mildly humorous, yet unnecessary, episodic Younger Reading title that is frequently maddening – most of the situations in which Archie finds himself could be stopped short if only the adults involved would shut up and let Archie talk. The many British-isms (post [mail], mum, lorry, etc.) may throw some younger readers for a loop, though each double-page spread has at least one pen and ink illustration to help make the text less intimidating. Kind of funny, bizarre, and definitely slight.]

STARTED:
Auxier, Jonathan. (2011). Peter Nimble and his fantastic eyes. New York: Amulet/Abrams.

[.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:
Kinney, Jeff. (2011). Cabin fever. New York: Amulet.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Barrows, Annie. (2011). Ivy + Bean: No news is good news. San Francisco: Chronicle.

[.]

STARTED:
Smelcer, John. (2006). The trap. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

[.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:
Clements, Andrew. (2011). Troublemaker. New York: Atheneum.

[.]

STARTED:
Newbery, Linda. (2010). Lucy and the Green Man. New York: David Fickling/Random House.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Clements, Andrew. (2011). Fear itself [Benjamin Pratt & the Keepers of the School #2]. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Henkes, Kevin. (2011). Junonia. New York: HarperCollins.

[Who doesn't love Kevin Henkes?]

*

FINISHED:
Jenkins, Emily. (2011). Invisible Inkling. New York: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Lester, Julius. (2005). Day of tears: a novel in dialogue. New York: Hyperion.

[Recommended.]

*

FINISHED:
O'Connor, Barbara. (2010). The fantastic secret of Owen Jester. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux.

[Owen is out playing one evening with Tooley, the bullfrog he's captured from a nearby pond, when he hears something fall off of a train that is passing by. After a lengthy search, all the while trying to ditch the nosey neighbor girl, Viola, Owen discovers that what has fallen off the train is a two-person submarine. Now, Owen and his friends are on a mission to get the submarine into the local pond, and might just need the assistance of Viola after all...]

STARTED (FINISHING UP):
Archer, E. (2011). Geek fantasy novel. New York: Scholastic.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Gantos, Jack. (1998). Joey Pigza swallowed the key. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Mull, Brandon. (2011). Beyonders: A world without heroes. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Service, Pamela F. (2011). Alien envoy. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner.

[Zack is an alien from the planet Izbor who was physically altered and sent to Earth as an Alien Agent for the Galactic Patrol. On Halloween night, Zack, the Alien Envoy to Earth, is picked up by fellow agents and whisked away in their spacecraft to meet with the Galactic Council who are deciding whether or not to invite Earth to join the Galactic Union. Unfortunately, it’s not an easy trip as the Kiapa Kapa Syndicate, who seem to have uncovered Zack’s true identity and are bent on making sure that he doesn’t make it in front of the Council, seem to be hot on their heels. Service has crafted a brisk, rollicking adventure with just the right amount of action and a healthy dose of hilarious description (“Zythis cleared his several throats.”), and even manages to slip in social messages about race relations (“When our people learned how to change the face of living things, we made it so that everyone was born a different color. That way there could be no groups of one color hating people of another color. Everyone was different.”) and commentary on how we treat our planet (“These people of Earth have not only endangered their own world; they could threaten the peace of the entire galaxy! A study of their history shows them to be a hopelessly reckless, warlike people.”). Gorman’s modern-cartoon illustrations appear in just the right amount – not too often or too sparse – and add the right zing, giving face to some of the more bizarrely described alien beings. This sixth installment in the Alien Agent series (Carolrhoda, 2008) works perfectly well on its own as a brief outerspace adventure that reluctant readers should find particularly appealing.]

STARTED:Potter, Ellen. (2010). The kneebone boy. New York: Feiwel & Friends.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Kinney, Jeff. (2010). Diary of a wimpy kid: the ugly truth. New York: Amulet Books.

[.]

STARTED:
Sherry, Maureen. (2010). Walls within walls. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[Read an article about this one some time ago and have been intrigued.]

*