Space Case / Stuart Gibbs / 337 p

This awesome Mark Twain nominee should be the winner.  It is a mystery. It is adventure.  It is psychological.  and it has an alien.   In all, it kept my attention to just go on and find out what happens next. 
  It is set on a moon base in the future.  Everything is going boringly well until the death of the base doctor.  Dash is convinced that it was murder.  No one else is, but almost everyone looks like a suspect. It does get somewhat unbelievable near the end when adults tell him things that they would never actually tell a kid, but it didn't ruin the story. 
  There is a sequel!

The Great Trouble / Deborah Hopkinson / 249 pages

     This Mark Twain nominee is about a cholera epidemic in 1854 London.  The hero is Eel, a poor thirteen year old orphan who makes a living working in several jobs.  He has a secret - a brother that he is supporting and hiding.  Eel becomes involved when a man in the neighborhood dies of cholera.  He meets the famous Dr. Snow and helps him investigate the cause of the cholera which is the contaminated water rather than "bad air" or miasma.
     It is an interesting book and kids will learn history and science at the same time.  It is quite a bit of an extra to hear on cd with the various British accents.

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library / Chris Grabenstein / 291 pages

     This new Mark Twain nominee is all about the library, or rather escaping from it.
Kyle finds a way to get into a lock-in at the new library.  He is a game-crazy boy which is advantageous in that the lock-in is a giant game.  He and eleven others are chosen for this opening event game where they will be locked in and the object of the game is to use library resources to escape.  
     This library is a library of fantasy in that they have state of the art everything with a donated $500,000,000 million building.  Yes, like I said; fantasy.  The kids are pretty smart kids and they solve puzzles and take quizzes as they look for the answers.  How will the game end?  Read it and see.  Very engaging book.

Chomp/Carl Hiaasen/ 290 pages

     This Mark Twain nominee does not disappoint.  It is written in Hiaasen classic style minus the raunchy parts as edited for children, but all the wackiness is there.  He puts the fun back in dysfunctional.  The characters are an interesting assortment.  The main character is Wahoo (named for a wrestler).  He is 13, has had a thumb bitten off by a gator and lives on an exotic animal farm in Florida.  His father had a head injury from being hit by a falling iguana and is in charge of this almost bankrupt enterprise.  Enter Derek Badger - ace TV animal adventure guy. He is an arrogant, incompetent actor who really doesn't have a clue about anything in the outdoors or wild.  His entire show is a sham and now he wants to work on an episode that will involve Wahoo and his father.  The rest is crazy fun reading.
You will have to read this or listen to the cd to find out. 

Out of my mind / Sharon M. Draper / 295 pages

This Mark Twain winning book is a book most everyone should read.
Sharon Draper writes the story of a girl on the "special bus", a girl with cerebral palsy who is locked inside her uncooperative body.  Melody's mind is perfect - more than perfect in that she has a photographic memory.  It is the story of understanding that appearances can be deceiving.  What Melody really wants is to fit in with her classmates.  Fifth grade is a difficult year.  Girls, especially are transitioning to young teens and are extremely socially conscious which makes it even more difficult to fit in and make friends.  
In this story, Melody gets a speaking keyboard which gives her communication for the first time.  It turns out to be a gift with a price when she enters a whiz kid competition.  Will the discovery that she is smart make her accepted by her classmates?  (spoiler: Ha! but you knew that was coming)
Beyond that are the questions of where Melody fits in her family and what are the important things to remember.  It was an awesome book.

Barn Boot Blues / Catherine Friend / 142 pages

This Mark Twain nominee is fairly interesting.  Taylor is from the big city of Minneapolis and an only child.  Her parents have moved her out to a farm in the middle of nowhere.  Now she must go to a new middle school and make friends as well as adjust to farm life.  oh, did I mention- her parents didn't get any satellite so there is also no tv  or internet.  "Erk!" as Taylor says. 
She, of course, hates the farm.  She has unfortunate mishaps that do not help her adapt.  Her parents are always busy so she is really on her own.  The plot is how she can get them to move back to the city and what happens that changes her entire view of farm life.
Good book.

Missing on Superstition Mountain / Elise Broach / 262 pages

This 2013 Mark Twain nominee is a pretty interesting book.  Three brothers who have recently moved from Illinois to Superstition, Arizona become involved in a mystery on the mountain.  Of course, they are not supposed to go up the mountain, but their parents' and the police warnings do not deter them.  I do not really like books where the children are portrayed doing dangerous things that they have lied to their parents about.  I would not like children readers to think that anything they do will turn out as successfully in real life as it usually does in books.  These kids go into the mountains and onto cliffs and ravines.  From having been in that sort of terrain, I know that getting lost could be quite easy as it all starts to look the same.  At least the girl in the story falls and gets injured. One brother has to go get the parents and help.  The other redeeming point is that the middle brother, Henry, at least has guilty thoughts and feelings that it isn't a good idea.  He, however, isn't strong enough to overcome the pressure of his brother.  Of course, without the adventure there would be no book.

Belly Up/Stuart Gibbs/294 pages

2012-2013 Mark Twain Nominee

I had high hopes for this book, the description and first few pages made it sound over the top hilarious.  However, after the first chapter it settled into a basic children's mystery story, never again to become laugh out loud funny.  All in all, though, it was a quite acceptable read.  Worthy of being nominated for the Mark Twain, but I agree with the children of Missouri that is was not a winner.  I love the cover and the map of FunJungle on the endpapers.  It was enough to get me to read the whole book.

Teddy's parents work for FunJungle, a zoo based on the concept of theme parks rather than the average zoo.  While this sounds like fun and the dream of every kid his age, he's actually very bored because he is the only kid there.  FunJungle is 30 miles on the middle of the Texas Hill Country with only the residents of the zoo living in the vicinity.  This leads to Teddy getting into mischief.  He also stumbles upon a mystery where it seems all the adults around don't seem too worried.  Henry the Hippo, FunJungle's mascot has died.  While Teddy was not overly fond of Henry, no one was a particular fan of Henry's, he still thinks that someone should have to pay for murdering the hippo. With the help of Summer, the daughter of the owner of FunJungle, Henry sets about discovering who and why they are covering up Henry's murder.

The Unwanteds/Lisa McMann/390p/2013-14 Mark Twain Nominee

Kirkus Reviews called this book "The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter," which is of course why I HAD to  read it, although I wasn't really expecting it to live up to such an auspicious tag line. I think what I got was more The City of Ember stands behind Harry Potter in line at the grocery store--which is pretty high praise, as I quite liked the City of Ember. This is a really fun picture of what might happen if one of those horrid future dystopian worlds and a, yes, slightly Hogwarts-ian fantasy world existed in the same place and time. I would recommend this to fans of the above alluded books, as well as Lois Lowry's dystopian novels (The Giver, et. al.). It's a 2013-14 Mark Twain Nominee, so expect everyone to be looking for the second book "Island of Silence" after they've finished this one. I'll be reading that one next!
-Julie

Pie/Sarah Weeks/183 p/2013-14 Mark Twain Nominee

Don't read this on an empty stomach, unless you have a slice of pie nearby! This is a delightful '50s era "mystery" with Aunt Patty's pie recipes at the beginning of each chapter...just in case the delicious descriptions inspire you to try baking pies yourself. Great for young (and old!) fans of 20th century historical fiction and small-town humor. If you like Richard Peck's Grandma Dowdel books, you'll love "Pie." Would be great for a Mother-Daughter Book Club, and it's a 2013-14 Mark Twain Nominee to boot!

Faith, Hope, & Ivy June/ Phyllis Reynolds Naylor/ 280 pgs.

This story about a student exchange program between an upper middle class student and a student from Appalachia seemed really contrived. I'm sure it was to make the points that everyone is different yet everyone is the same. The story is ok. The girls and their surroundings are well portrayed. Each girl has a family crisis in which a life is at risk and they
come to support each other. It was ok, but not believable to me. The girls seemed quite mature for their age. It's a Mark Twain.

Captain Nobody / Dean Pitchford / 195 pgs.

This Mark Twain Nominee is a really imaginative book. I didn't think I would like it because it was a "guy" book, but it was quite interesting. Newt is a 10 year old boy who's brother is in a coma from a football injury. With the help of his two politically correct friends (a Black boy and a hispanic girl), he dresses like his alter-ego, Captain Nobody. He performs four acts of heroism, each more improbable than the last, but the story is so engaging that the improbability of it is easy to overlook.


More disturbing is the fact that his parents really have no time for their children as they are so wrapped up in their careers. I hope it is not really that bad in America. His name; Captain Nobody really describes who Newt felt like. Luckily, the book has a really happy ending.


I think kids will like the book.

Love, Aubrey/ Suzanne LaFleur/ 262 p.

Mark Twain Nominee

This story is about a girl struggling to get on with life after her father and sister are killed in a car accident and her mother, who is totally depressed, abandoned her at home.

Did you guess? It's a Mark Twain book.

It is well written and really hits a lot of points about depression, grief, and how difficult it is to move on. Life doesn't always turn out the way people wish, but Aubrey learns to cope. A little too easy is a ready-made best friend living next door to grandma who is generally amazingly understanding. Other than that, the story moves along with just enough detail and scenes and doesn't get preachy.

The Potato Chip Puzzles/Eric Berlin/244 pgs.

Thanks Laura P. for this month's challenge--I can't remember the last children's book I've read. That being said, I really liked this book. I chose one involving a mystery, which this was, but had the added bonus of puzzles for the reader to solve throughout the book. The plot of the book is centered around a $50,000 prize for the team of students first to solve 6 puzzles created by Dmitri Simon (the Potato Chip tycoon). A very entertaining read.

Seer of Shadows/ Avi / 202 p. / 2010 - 2011 Mark Twain Nominee

In New York City in 1872, fourteen-year-old Horace, a photographer's apprentice, becomes entangled in a plot to create fraudulent spirit photographs, but when Horace accidentally frees the real ghost of a dead girl bent on revenge, his life takes a frightening turn.

Kids will really like the ghost story aspect, but even though I liked reading about how photographs were processed in the 1800's those parts of the story were a bit slow and tedious.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH / Robert C. O'Brien 233 p.

Mrs. Frisby, a widowed field mouse, lives with her four children in the Fitzgibbon's vegetable garden. Each year they move to their summer house just ahead of Farmer Fitzgibbon home-destroying plow. This year Mrs. Frisby is distraught. Her son Timothy has pneumonia and cannot be moved. She turns to the rats - not just ordinary rats but the Rats from NIMH - to save her house.

Mark Twain Award

Movie

Faith, Hope, and Ivy June/ by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor/ 280 pages

Set in Kentucky, this is the story of two girls from different backgrounds coming together to understand each other. Participating in an exchange program through their schools, Ivy June (from the rural mountains) and Catherine (from the city of Lexington) spend time in each other's homes, schools, and towns. They record their thoughts about each other and their experiences in private journals.

As each girl deals with both superficial worries (about clothes, school work, and jealousy), both also have to deal with immediate worry about close family members' health. They work through their different problems together, but it takes some big flexibility on each girl's part to understand how the other handles tragedy and worry.

This is another book that will appeal to upper elementary and middle school girls, especially as they can relate to the relationships and friendships of Ivy June and Catherine.

Captain Nobody/ by Dean Pitchford/ 195 pages

This book is all about 10 year old Newton and his adventures as Captain Nobody, a superhero he has invented. After dressing up as Captain Nobody for Halloween, Newt decides to keep the costume on after the holiday. He finds that he feels braver and more prone to good deeds as Captain Nobody than as himself. As he has adventures and saves other people, we come to learn that Newt's driving factor is saving his injured older brother.

This story is funny and fast-moving. It's (of course) a journey of self-discovery for Newt, who has spent most of his life in his older brother's shadow. I'd definitely recommend this one for the elementary-school boys...it has humor, adventure, and goofiness. However, its character development (between Newt and his friends and family) will keep girls invested as well.

The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z./ by Kate Messner/ 198 pages

This is one of the new Mark Twain nominees. It centers around a leaf-collecting project that Gianna, the main character, has to complete in order to raise her science grade and be allowed to compete in a track competition. Gianna, the consummate procrastinator, has lots going on in her life--track practice, a family funeral home, a pesky younger brother, busy mother, and aging grandmother. When deadlines for her science project come and go, some major family event is always keeping Gianna from finishing as she wants to.

As things progress in the story, Gianna's grandmother becomes a major source of her concern--her memory seems to be slipping, and she has episodes where she "leaves earth" as Gianna calls it.

Another uplifting story with sad undertones, this book is all about accepting oneself and one's family. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in realistic fiction for upper elementary school girls. It's appeal to boys is less obvious, but some of the zany things that happen to Gianna will keep them entertained as well.