FINISHED:
Ruby, Laura. (2017). The Shadow Cipher [York: Book 1]. New York: Walden Pond/HarperCollins.

[Seventh grade, white twins Tess and Theo live in the eccentric Morningstarr Tower with its zig-zagging elevators in a modern - though “alternate” - New York City, the building having been constructed over 150 years ago by the Morningstarr family who helped to develop the city with steampunk-y technologies.  When a real estate magnate buys their building with the intention of knocking it down to redevelop, the twins, along with their Latino neighbor Jaime, spurred on by a mysterious letter, hatch a plan to solve the 160-year-old Old York Cipher created by the Morningstarr family, hoping that in doing so their building will be deemed too important to destroy.  The alternate-New York setting, with its vaguely steampunk feel, keeps the reader on their toes, going along in a familiar world until mention of someone with a gene-spliced raccoon or big cat for a pet, some mechanical spiders in a woman’s purse, solar-powered cars, and a robot servant who brings breakfast.  Chapters alternate being told from the perspective of each of the three main kids, with a break-neck pace that has them running around New York following obscure clues found in cleverly obscure places such as etched on the underside of a heating stove, behind paint in a gallery painting, and one puzzle that is solved by noting the locations of tokens scattered around the apartments in their building.  Though this puzzle-driven book doesn’t allow the reader to try to solve along with the protagonists, this first book in a new series – with a doozy of a cliffhanger – is briskly paced with thoroughly vivid settings to draw one right into the action.]

STARTED:
Springstubb, Tricia. (2017). Cody and the Rules of Life. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[.]

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FINISHED:
Delaney, Rachelle. (2017). The Bonaventure Adventures. New York: Penguin Random House.

[Clumsy and untalented twelve year-old Sebastian (Seb), worried that he will never be a circus performer and, thus, is a disappointment to his father who is ringmaster of the Konstantinov Family Circus (currently traveling around Eastern Europe), enrolls in the Bonaventure Circus School in Montreal in an effort to learn to modernize the circus and help to save it from financial ruin.  As classes begin, Seb struggles to fit in without having any acrobatic acuity, but finds kinship in two other students (Frankie, a girl from Italy who is into parkour; and Banjo, a boy who is constantly late to class because he has no sense of direction) who have been labeled Bêtes Noires by the headmistress, and discovers a talent for writing stories.  Most of the humor comes from Seb having to keep up appearances by doing anything that he can to get out of having to do any acrobatics at school, ultimately telling everyone that his is a fire breather, knowing that no one will ask him to prove it, and stringing the headmistress along who admitted Seb to the ailing school because she assumes that Seb must be talented and wealthy because he’s a Konstantinov.  Beyond the reassuring message that everyone has their talent(s) and that you just have to put some work toward finding out what that may be, this is a pretty standard tale that is light on world building and character development, skipping forward in time at whim, with an abrupt ending where Seb and the other Bêtes Noires predictably end up saving the day.]

STARTED:
Ruby, Laura. (2017). The Shadow Cipher [York: Book 1]. New York: Walden Pond/HarperCollins.

[.]

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FINISHED:
Saenz, Benjamin Alire. (2017). The Inexplicable Logic of My Life. New York: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[.]

STARTED:
Delaney, Rachelle. (2017). The Bonaventure Adventures. New York: Penguin Random House.

[.]

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FINISHED:
Pullman, Philip. (2017). The Adventures of John Blake:  Mystery of the Ghost Ship. New York: Graphix/Scholastic.

[.]

STARTED:
Saenz, Benjamin Alire. (2017). The Inexplicable Logic of My Life. New York: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[.]

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FINISHED:
Hale, Shannon. (2017). Real Friends. New York: First Second.

[.]

STARTED:
Pullman, Philip. (2017). The Adventures of John Blake:  Mystery of the Ghost Ship. New York: Graphix/Scholastic.

[.]

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FINISHED: 
Anderson, John David. (2017). Posted. New York: Walden Pond/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Hale, Shannon. (2017). Real Friends. New York: First Second.

[.]

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FINISHED:
Donoghue, Emma. (2017). The Lotterys Plus One. New York: Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic.

[The Lotterys are far from your typical family, formed when a gay male couple and a lesbian couple won the lottery, bought a giant house in Toronto, and adopted seven multiracial kids together.  Domestic (often chaotic) bliss is disrupted, however, when one of the dad’s estranged fathers comes to live with the Lotterys after recovering from a fire that he accidentally set as a symptom of developing dementia.  Best known for Room (Little Brown, 2010), Donoghue’s first novel for children is written largely from the point of view of 9-year-old Sumac, who has to vacate the room that she’s had since birth to accommodate her grandfather’s stay, directly reflecting the experiences and emotions of the primary reading audience who may relate to feeling put out and ignored themselves.  Her voice and role in the large family, as well as her transition from finding a way to get rid of their grandfather to being the one to convince him to stick around, are center stage here.  Spot art throughout, including a much appreciated – and necessary – labeled family portrait at the front of the book, helps to keep everyone and all of their varied experiences clear.  Filled with rapid-fire dialogue and tons of wordplay (the children are all named after types of trees, the taller mother is nicknamed MaxiMum, and many other family in-jokes) those who have worked their way through the Penderwicks series (Knopf, 2005) will find kinship here and look forward to more adventures with the Lotterys to come.]

STARTED:
Anderson, John David. (2017). Posted. New York: Walden Pond/HarperCollins.

[.]

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