by Ben Hatke  First Second 2012  Out titular (and accidental) heroine returns for continuing adventures as her fame sucks her further and further from ever returning to Earth. Bad for her is good for readers...  A robot crawls out of its recalled packaging and imprints on the first being it sees: a poster of Zita advertising her tour of various planets as savior of Scriptorious. Finding a mop

Yesterday I wrote a "review" of R.J. Palacio's Wonder wherein I was trying to work out what I was thinking on the fly, on the screen, sorting out my thoughts in public. even as I was committing the post to go public I was still left with the feeling that I hadn't really scratched the surface. I've been trying to stay as close to gut-level in my reactions while at the same time shortening my

by R.J. Palacio Knopf 2012  Can a boy with a deformed face find friends, happiness, success, and acceptance when he first goes to middle school? Only in a middle grade novel.  I'm going to lean a little heavy on this book, despite the fact that I found the writing and narrative structure compelling and well crafted. Bear with me, I'm thinking aloud. There are buses and billboards and junk

 by Ransom Riggs   Quirk Books 2011    After his grandfather dies under bizarre circumstances young Jacob goes on a journey to uncover the truth about the odd and fantastic stories he'd been told as a child... and how they weren't made-up stories at all!   Jacob cannot stand his life. At sixteen he has little to look forward to beyond working the family business and seemingly few friends he

by Adelaide Holl    pictures by Roger Duvoisin Lothrop, Lee & Shepard 1965 The barnyard is once again astir when the little red hen convinces the other animals that a puddle contains their drowned doppelgangers! Coming across a puddle a plump hen catches sight of her reflection and assumes that another bird has fallen and needs rescuing. One by one the hen convinces the cow, sheep, pig,

by Tim Carvell HarperCollins 2012 Emmy-Award winning head writer for The Daily Show! and contributor to MAD Magazine! attempts to write a middle grade book! There are five levels of humor: Hilarious – laughs so hard the belly aches, the eyes water Funny – consistent laughter, often pointed and insightful, occasionally absurd Amusing – good for the occasional laugh-out-loud (IRL not fake

The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch Scholastic 2011 I'm going to pose a seemingly nonsensical riddle worthy of the Mad Hatter: How are good dystopian novels like gangster films from the 1930s? In a future very near to us war has broken out between the US and China, where biological weapons were used to unleash virus that brought about a world-wide pandemic and plague. In a distant future,

by I. C. Springman illustrated by Brian Lies Houghton Mifflin, 2012 It's Hoarders for the picture book set! A thieving magpie collects and collects until... well, as they say, less is more. One of the oddest thing about reviewing  picture books is that it often takes more words to describe them than it does to read them. Quite simply we have the story of a bird with a propensity for

Adapted from the Latin by M. D. Usher Illustrations by T. Motley David R. Godine 2011 Ah, the good old days of Ancient Rome, where a a reckless traveler manages to turn himself into an ass – literally, a donkey – and survive to tell the unbelievable tale to his traveling companions. First, for those who know the original tale and might have some concerns, Usher's adaptation is cleaned up

by Gregory Rogers   Allen & Unwin, Austrailia 2009 Roaring Brook, US 2012 The Boy, who previously met the Bard and the Bear and battled a Midsummer Knight, takes "readers" on another adventure, this time through the world of Vermeer. The Boy, out titular hero, is kicking around when a soccer ball appears. One swift kick and the ball lands in a fountain, and the bully boys who were previously

You may be thinking that magic is an illusion, a slight of hand, a trick. That's not the kind of magic I have in mind though. I'm talking about a type of magic that you see when a face lights up. It's a magic I used to live for as a teacher and one I continue to relish as a parent. It's a magic of a moment when someone receives a gift that transcends the physical. It's the Ah-ha!, the joy of

Book One: An Epic Doodle (2011) Book Two: The Wrath of Zozimos (2012) by Christopher Ford Philomel Homer's epic tale reduced to stick figures and plenty of diversions from the classic poem, not that contemporary readers will mind (if they even notice). If you are a deep and reverent reader of The Odyssey, you should probably just leave now. This graphic novel retelling simply isn't for you.

by Josh Schnieder   Clarion Books 2011   Five short tales for beginning readers utilizing reverse psychology. This might backfire for some kids. Like me.   Know a picky eater? Sure you do. And when it comes to getting them to eat the things we want them to sometimes a little creativity is called for. When James decides that broccoli is disgusting (without even trying it?) he asks for

by Bibi Dumon Tak spot illustrations by Philip Hopman translated from the Dutch by Laura Watkinson Eerdmans Books edition 2011 A cgarette-eating, beer-drinking, ammunition-carrying bear? Only warfare could create a story so improbable. During World War II as Russia and Germany fight to claim Poland for their own the citizens caught in the middle are taken as prisoners in their own

by Ben Hatke   First Second  2011    Sucked into a portal through another dimension, Zita must rescue her friend and find a way home before the world she is on is destroyed. Oh, but it's so much more fun then all that!  Winner of this year's Cybil Award for Best Middle Grade Graphic Novel. While playing one day Zita and her friend Joseph discover a small crater with a small device at

by Patrick McDonnell   Little Brown  2011   A picture book biography that's more picture book than biography. And that's not a bad thing.   A little girl named Jane is given a stuffed chimpanzee which she names Jubilee. She treasure Jubilee and takes him with her wherever her boundless curiosity leads. Together they climb trees and observe chickens and take a full interest in all the natural

by John Rocco   Disney / Hyperion 2011 On a hot summer night New York City encounters a blackout, bringing out the best in people. A far cry from the blackouts a few decades back!   All the little girl (or long-haired boy) wants to do is play a board game with her family. His/her sister is too busy talking on the phone. His/her dad is up to his elbows in oven mitts in the kitchen. His/her

by Paul B. Janeczko   Candlewick 2004   A circus tent. A catastrophic fire. The voices of those who were there, victim and witness, their stories in verse.   On the afternoon of July 6, 1944 a fire broke out at the Ringling Brother's Circus while in performance in Hartford, Connecticut. The tent canvas had been waterproofed with paraffin and gasoline, a combination that turned the entire

by Susan Vaught   Bloomsbury 2011 Three years after a school incident turns him into a felon, can Del find love and a life outside the graveyard where he works?   Yeah, I said graveyard. Del is seventeen, and digging graves isn't just the only job he can find that doesn't do background checks, but it gives him plenty of time to think about how he got here. With a parole officer checking to

by Anna Perera Albert Whitman   2011 On a family vacation to Pakistan sis months after 9/11 a teen boy is picked up as an enemy combatant and taken to Guantanamo Bay where he is tortured, all the while wondering how he got there... This is one of those stories you want to like, want to be able to recommend, have a hard time not putting too many eggs into your basket of hope, because it's a

by Harlan Coben A Mickey Bolitar Novel Putnam  2011 When his girlfriend goes missing, and no one else seems to notice or care, Mickey begins to dig around and finds himself caught up in a web of... human sex trafficking! His dad is dead, his mom is in rehab, his girlfriend of three weeks has gone missing, and the neighborhood crazy lady has scared the pants off Mickey... all in the first

by Chris Priestley Bloomsbury 2011 The creature walks the streets of London, with the Artful Dodger, hunting down the mad doctor!  No, Boris Karloff does not make an appearance. The scene is London, 1918, and there in the darkened, fog-damp streets is Billy, pickpocket and petty thief. Billy starts off in a spot of trouble with the local thugs when is hide is saved by an enormous monster

Story and drawings by Mervyn Peake  Originally published in Country Life magazine 1939 Macmillian 1967 reprinted by Candlewick 2001 The Captain and his oddball crew settle in on an uncharted island where they encounter a creature the color of butter and then... do nothing?   The good Captain is a bruiser who has run through his share of crew. His ship, The Black Tiger, has lost many a men to

edited by Chris Duffy introduction by Leonard S. Marcus First Second  2011 Fifty timeless rhymes! From fifty celebrated cartoonists! At least forty-nine excellent classic nursery rhymes in a cartoon format! There are a number of ways to approach nursery rhymes. You can either take them at their most surface story level. You can interpret them literally or figuratively or historically. You

by Matt Phelan Candlewick  2011 Three remarkable journeys made by a trio of intrepid adventurers – Thomas Stevens, Nellie Bly, and Joshua Slocum – on the eve of the 20th century, rendered in graphic novel format.   As a prologue, we begin with the wager that sets up Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. It seems an impossible (and almost arbitrary) goal to set, but fantastical enough