Fun
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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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Welcome to Bits & Bobs
Welcome to our Wednesday column known as “Bits & Bobs.” “Bits & Bobs” is an informal expression that refers to various small, miscellaneous objects or things. The expression is believed to have originated in Britain in the mid-20th century. And now that we’re in the early 21st century, a new expression has burst onto the scene that has everybody excited—AI, short for Artificial Intelligence.
People either love AI. Or they are scared to death of it.
The people who embrace AI think it’s wonderful. It can write their entire school report for them. People who are afraid of it, fear that it is going to replace them and the work they do. Especially many adults. But kids are more adventurous. Plus, they don’t have to worry about losing their job that they need to support their family. So, there are good reasons to listen to both sides of the AI argument that is currently going on around you.
Yes, there is that yet unproven danger of AI replacing people whose jobs depend upon them writing anything as part of their job. Yet, at the same time, because AI currently appears to be so new to us, we have to realize that we have been using AI for a long time. It is just that it has been “behind the scenes” until now. But now the technical experts have made some major breakthroughs in AI development—AI can now think for itself, just like we can.
Because AI can think for itself, many people are afraid it is going to take over the world. And that is a valid fear. But we humans created AI. So, we have to teach it how to behave. Just as parents teach children as they grow up.
AI is a very powerful tool, and we have to be smart about how we deal with it. The more you know about AI, the better you can use it to produce positive results for yourself and those around you.
To prove our point, we came up with the idea of working with AI to produce an interesting column every week for you to read. We (humans) came up with a list of topics that we thought you would find interesting. Then we asked AI to produce just one paragraph on each individual topic. From that paragraph, we are going to write an entire article for your enjoyment. By working together, we can show how AI is, indeed, a very useful tool.
Plus, we have decided to sign these AI inspired articles AIME—AI and Me!
So, welcome to our experiment and we will see you next week with an interesting new article for you to read.
Your Friends at Bookwhiskers
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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.
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The Greatest Spy Who Never Was (Hugo Dare Book 1)
Meet Hugo Dare. Schoolboy turned super spy. Both stupidly dangerous and dangerously stupid.
Thirteen-year-old Hugo’s life is turned upside down when his weekend job at secret organization, SICK, is unexpectedly upgraded eight levels to that of a spy. His first mission – to go deep undercover with Agent One and assist him in any way he can.
Sounds simple, right? Wrong. Very wrong.
A robbery at the Bottle Bank. Diamond smuggling at the Pearly Gates Cemetery. The theft of priceless artifact, Coocamba’s Idol. Hugo is there on each and every occasion, but then so too is someone else.
Wrinkles, the town of Crooked Elbow’s oldest criminal mastermind.
In a battle of good versus evil, young versus old, ugly versus even uglier, there can only be one winner … and it better be Hugo otherwise we’re all in trouble!
From author David Codd for Readers 9-14.
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Chase: The Boy Who Hid – The Hide & Seek Chronicles
A kid inventor. A billion-dollar game of hide-and-seek. One chance to save his family.
His engineer grandfather was the only one who really understood fourteen-year-old Chase. When the old man goes missing, Chase discovers his inheritance: futuristic shapeshifting technology beyond his wildest dreams.
Now he must fly, hide, and spy his way into the government’s classified game of high-tech hide-and-seek, the last place anyone saw Grandad. Given the chance, he’ll do anything to reunite his family, even risk disappearing himself.
From author Z. Jefferies for Readers 11-15.
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Bad Hair Days: A mystery
For Mallow, every day is a Bad Hair Day.
Wearing a wig means Mallow can hide her hair loss. But now someone’s sending her creepy messages. It’s a race to stop them before everyone discovers her secret. Losing her hair was hard enough – but will she lose the people she cares about too?
A touching mystery about family, friendships and being different, from J M Forster, the award-winning author of Shadow Jumper, for Readers 10-14.
