Book Reviews
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Secret Agent 6th Grader: Selfies Are Forever
The name’s Valentine, Brody Valentine, and I’m back with my fourth case. The sixth graders of Buchanan School are on a trip to the mall to watch our award winning show choir perform in the food court. Sounds like a pretty sweet gig, right? Not when there’s danger lurking in the background. Someone’s decided to use this trip to string along the last members of Glitch by forcing us on a wild selfie chase, but as it turns out, that was just the tip of the iceberg. Now, one of the best days of the school year is in danger of becoming one of the worst. If I want to keep Glitch alive, I’ve gotta try and solve this case before the show choir takes the stage, but in a case with more twists than a pretzel, things might knot work out for anyone… and they might feel a little salty… and these puns are kind of cinnamon crunchy… wait, that last one didn’t work.
From authors Marcus Emerson and Noah Child for Readers 8-12.
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Jinxed
The Golden Compass meets the digital age! When a coding star enters an elite technology academy, she discovers a world of competition, intrigue, and family secrets—plus a robotic companion that isn’t what it seems.
Lacey Chu is a girl who codes. She has always dreamed of working as an engineer for MONCHA, the biggest tech firm in the world and the company behind the “baku”—a customizable “pet” with all the capabilities of a smartphone. But when Lacey is rejected by the elite academy that promises that future, she’s crushed.
One night, Lacey comes across the broken form of a highly advanced baku. After she repairs it, the cat-shaped baku she calls Jinx opens its eyes and somehow gets her into her dream school. But Jinx is different than any other baku she’s ever seen…He seems real.
As Lacey settles into life at school, competing with the best students in a battle of the bakus that tests her abilities, she learns that Jinx is part of a dangerous secret. Can Lacey hold on to Jinx and her dreams for the future?
From author Amy McCulloch for Readers 9-12.
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Epic Kids
Jake is an average, unpopular kid at school, and is shocked when the cool new kids ask him to sit with them at lunch. They’re not what he expected – a monstrous boy named Darryl levitates a lunch tray above his head, and a mysterious girl named Amanda shoot green bolts of lightning from her fingertips.
Jake is soon on a mission to prove he’s anything but average when it’s revealed he’s from another planet and has a duty to protect Amanda. He helps his new friends as they’re hunted by a dangerous, very-much alive mechanical dinosaur. And that’s just to start with. Jake learns that he has powers of his own (that involve a hidden door with glowing light) and will do everything he can to keep his new friends safe.
From author David Blaze for Readers 9-12.
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Brainwashed: Crime Travelers Spy School Mystery & International Adventure Series Book 1
While sleeping on the roof of his father’s hotel-spy school, thirteen-year-old Lucas Benes finds a baby alone and learns that the Good Company has restarted its profitable brainwashing business. The first book in the trilogy tracks the secret urban adventures of international teenage spies. Lucas, the reluctant hero, leads a group of friends through the hotspots of Paris-from the catacombs to the Eiffel tower–in an all-out effort to sabotage a brainwashing ceremony that could potentially turn them all into “Good” kids.
From author Paul Aertker for Readers 9-12.
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The Dirt Diary
A hilarious tale about the weight of responsibility that comes from a secret-filled diary.
Rachel can’t believe she has to give up her Saturdays to scrubbing other people’s toilets. So. Gross. But she kinda, sorta stole $287.22 from her college fund that she’s got to pay back ASAP or her mom will ground her for life. Which is even worse than working for her mother’s new cleaning business. Maybe. After all, becoming a maid is definitely not going to help her already loserish reputation.
But Rachel picks up more than smelly socks on the job. As maid to some of the most popular kids in school, Rachel suddenly has all the dirt on the 8th grade in-crowd. Her formerly boring diary is now filled with juicy secrets. And when her crush offers to pay her to spy on his girlfriend, Rachel has to decide if she’s willing to get her hands dirty.
From author Anna Staniszewski for Readers 10-14.
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Shy Ninja
Young Rena suffers from a social anxiety disorder. It keeps her from engaging at school, from hanging out with her best friend in person, or participating in any sort of group activity. Pressed by her mother to find some social outlet, she enrolls in a School for Ninjas—and in an instant, her life changes. Rena’s instructor, the mysterious Dysart, tells her that her presence fulfills an ancient prophecy and that she will become the Ninja legend known as “The Ghost.” Assuming she can even get past her own anxieties, will she help Dysart return the Ninja to their former glory, or is Dysart planning to exploit Rena for his own cryptic aims?
From authors Ricardo and Adara Sanchez and illustrator Arianna Florean for Readers 10-14.
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Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life
Rafe Khatchadorian has enough problems at home without throwing his first year of middle school into the mix. Luckily, he’s got an ace plan for the best year ever, if only he can pull it off: With his best friend Leonardo the Silent awarding him points, Rafe tries to break every rule in his school’s oppressive Code of Conduct. Chewing gum in class–5,000 points! Running in the hallway–10,000 points! Pulling the fire alarm–50,000 points! But when Rafe’s game starts to catch up with him, he’ll have to decide if winning is all that matters, or if he’s finally ready to face the rules, bullies, and truths he’s been avoiding.
From authors James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts, and illustrator Laura Park, for Readers 9-12.
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If I Were You
Katie’s reasons why it’s better to be Melody:
-She’s a boy magnet. I’m more like a boy repellent.
-Her parents never make her do any chores. Meanwhile, I get stuck babysitting almost every day.
-Melody’s parents are still married. Mine are, too . . . to other people.Why Melody thinks Katie has the ideal life:
-Her house is fun and lively. My house is empty and lonely.
-They have family dinners practically every single night. My dad almost never comes home.
-Everyone always talks about how pretty I am, like that’s the most important thing, like that’s all I am . . .Twelve-year-old Katie is insanely jealous of her best friend, Melody. Turns out Melody is jealous of Katie, too. When they both wish for the exact same thing at the exact same time, to redo summer as each other, their wishes come true. Katie is Melody and Melody is Katie and neither one has the experience she expected. In this be-careful-what-you-wish-for tale, two best friends learn that the grass is not always greener on the other side.
From author Leslie Margolis for Readers 10-14
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Troublemakers
“We hate school, but trust me, it doesn’t like us either”
– Carlos in “Troublemakers”There’s the athletes, the straight-A students, the computer club… and then there’s these kids. Meet Carlos, Tina, and Byron, three sixth graders who have two objectives in life: to avoid homework at all costs and to make lots of money so they can buy a sweet car and learn to drive it. Their knack for get-rich-quick schemes and clever methods of cheating are only surpassed by their failure to notice how badly most of their plans blow up in their faces.
Gregg Maxwell Parker’s first title suitable for middle grade and young adult readers will take you on a side-splitting, rude, and somehow encouraging ride through the perils of middle school with three kids who absolutely refuse to be told what to do. Whether dreaming up ways to scam classmates out of their allowances, going to incredible lengths to jump on a trampoline, trying to con their way into the smart-kid class, or navigating the ins and outs of snack-based time travel, they’ve always got something up their sleeves, even if it usually ends up getting them detention.
This book is for anyone who knows what the inside of the principal’s office looks like, who looks at the happy families on TV like your dog looks at your smartphone, and who can’t fathom why any sane person would ever want to become a teacher. Get ready: this one will be a blast for troublemakers of all ages.
From author Gregg Maxwell Parker for Readers 10-18.
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Rick Riordan Presents Aru Shah and the End of Time (A Pandava Novel Book 1)
Twelve-year-old Aru Shah has a tendency to stretch the truth in order to fit in at school. While her classmates are jetting off to family vacations in exotic locales, she’ll be spending her autumn break at home, in the Museum of Ancient Indian Art and Culture, waiting for her mom to return from her latest archeological trip. Is it any wonder that Aru makes up stories about being royalty, traveling to Paris, and having a chauffeur?
One day, three schoolmates show up at Aru’s doorstep to catch her in a lie. They don’t believe her claim that the museum’s Lamp of Bharata is cursed, and they dare Aru to prove it. Just a quick light, Aru thinks. Then she can get herself out of this mess and never ever fib again.
But lighting the lamp has dire consequences. She unwittingly frees the Sleeper, an ancient demon whose duty it is to awaken the God of Destruction. Her classmates and beloved mother are frozen in time, and it’s up to Aru to save them.
The only way to stop the demon is to find the reincarnations of the five legendary Pandava brothers, protagonists of the Hindu epic poem, the Mahabharata, and journey through the Kingdom of Death. But how is one girl in Spider-Man pajamas supposed to do all that?
From author Roshani Cholshi for Readers 9-12.
