This 12th book in the Just Grace series has Grace trying to find a friend for the new crossing guard, Marie, enjoying their substitute teacher, and helping her best friend, Mimi, prepare for a craft fair.  As  usual, Grace includes humorous illustrations, lists, graphs, and side information with their own mini-titles.  Third grader Grace is energetic, frank, witty, and full of fun observations about school, family, and friends.  Although there are many books in the series, they do not need to be read in order to be enjoyed.  This series is great for those readers easing out of picture books looking for more of a story but not comfortable with the continuous text found in most chapter books.

Lizzie lives in the 19th century London slums with her drunk and abusive father.  A traveling circus comes to town and Lizzie escapes to find work there.  At the same time, a mysterious phantom thief has been robbing various homes in London.  Lizzie finds work assisting the fortune teller and begins to make friends and find acceptance.  As she works alongside the phony fortune teller, Lizzie discovers she has a true psychic gift.  She discovers clues that may uncover the phantom.  The action is fast, the characters and setting are realistic, and one is drawn in to the action and life of Victorian London.  This is book one in the series.  Readers will eagerly look forward to the sequels.

Abby and her brother, Jonah, have a magic mirror which allows them to enter fairy tales when the knock on it three times.  In this sixth adventure, Abby and Jonah follow their dog, Prince, through the mirror in the tale of the Snow Queen.  Many readers may unfamiliar with this fairy tale, but Abby relates details of the story as well as sharing the tidbit that it was the basis for the film, “Frozen”.  Prince has been frozen by the Snow Queen.  In order to rescue Prince, Abby and Jonah befriend characters from the tale and eventually confront the Snow Queen.  This is another entertaining, fractured fairy tale for “Whatever After” fans.

Fernie What lives across the street from the mysterious Gloom estate.  Gustav’s house is black and odd events take place there.  Fernie and Gustav are best friends.  In earlier books, Fernie’s mother is off filming adventure stories and her father and sister, Pearlie, were in Gustav’s home when they fell into a bottomless black pit leading to the Dark Country.  Gustav’s dad is also missing.  It is now up to Gustav and Fernie to find and rescue them from evil Lord Obsidian.  They discover a magical carousel in the basement which transports them to amazing, yet curious places.  They encounter strange beings that they must outwit in order to repair the carousel and continue on their quest.  Illustrations are all in shade of gray, after all, it is Shadowland!  This is the fourth adventure of Gustav and Fernie.  A quirky, yet interesting story line and strangely captivating.  Sure to attract fans of fantasy adventures.

Jules is a child star in a TV sitcom.  She is starting 3rd grade, has a new teacher, and is trying to figure out just how she fits into things.  School has lots of homework, friendships shift on her, and she is having difficulty with her TV character,  Jules’s personality is buoyant even when events start to drag her down.  The various obstacles she encounters with friends, family and school are realistic and her point of view is common to many third graders.  Chapters are labeled as “takes” and the black and white illustrations are humorous.  Jules includes many lists (similar to those in the Just Grace series) and the text is large and easy to read.

Written in journal form, ten year old Celie discloses her worries and opinions about friends and family.  She is confused about issues with her ex-best friend, her grandmother is exhibiting Alzheimer symptoms, and her older sister’s new friend is mean and snobbish.  Celie’s illustrations, entries, and taped-in notes and e-mails give readers the feeling they are actually reading a real diary.  Celie’s views and frustrations are realistic and will have wide appeal among grade school aged girls.  This is book 1 in a series.  Readers will be looking forward to more of Celie’s diaries.

Fans of Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants series will also enjoy his Ricky Ricotta books.  Ricky is a mouse whose best friend is a huge, flying robot.  In this adventure, a Martian named Major Monkey plans to conquer Earth with his own gigantic mechanical monkeys.  Ricky and his robot are able to outwit Major Monkey and overcome the mecha-monkeys.  Also included are the “Flip-O-Rama” actions found in the Captain Underpants books.  Dan Santat illustrates this edition with large, colorful artwork.  This book was originally published in 2002, illustrated in black and white by Dav Pilkey.

Robert Irwin, son of the late “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin, is the co-creator of this series.   In The Discovery, Robert finds a dinosaur fossil in the Australian outback.  He places it in the back pocket of his shorts while updating his reports.  As he stands, he feels a sharp jab and begins to feel dizzy.  When he awakes, he is no longer in the lab but back in the cretaceous age of the dinosaurs.  He gets an up-close and personal view of creatures that lived in prehistoric Australia.  It is one thing to watch dinosaurs hunt or stampede, quite another to be the item on the menu!  A mighty roar sends Robert back to the present day with a new knowledge of life millions of years ago.  Additional notes about the Australovenator dinosaur, prehistoric Australia and the Australian Museum of Natural History are included in the back.  This is a fun, fiction series for those interested in dinosaurs and Australia!

Since this book was originally published, Minerva Louise has appeared in a bouquet of friendly picture books.  In this introduction to the character, our hen interprets the sights within a house through the lens of her normal view outdoors.  A tricycle is a tractor.  A bedspread is a field of flowers.  Stoeke effortlessly depicts a friendly way to encounter newness.  The illustrations are framed in rough rectangles on white pages, and the text is written in a large font at the bottom of each page.  All of the objects are simply drawn, with easy lines and bright colors.  A practiced provider of group storytimes will wish each picture filled more of the page (to be more easily seen across a room), but lap-sharing children will enjoy the subtlety, as they get to discover each new misunderstanding.  Minerva Louise’s story is a classic in the most deserving sense.

Jennifer Strange has found herself the caretaker for a bunch of magicians.  Strange lives in an alternate world to our own: magic is mainstream – though fading – and the last dragon’s land is in danger of development.  Fforde builds an unexpected version of a magical world.  He integrates magic into a version of modern life, and considers the logistics of magic as known quantity.  Readers will enjoy the use of language, clever turns of phrase, and winks to the sides of the narrative.  Fforde invents some particularly endearing characters, such as the Quarkbeast (for who wouldn’t love a razor-sharp doggish creature?), and imparts wisdom about greed and corporate development, and finding one’s place in the world.  This title has broad appeal, and will find a few passionately rabid fans as well.

Stone Arch Books are bringing back titles where the reader is given about 13 options to choose the plot’s direction.

Scooby-Doo fans are taken on a trip to Mexico in the ‘Mystery Machine’ to help Velma’s uncle, a world famous archaeologist. As the gang enter a pyramid, Daphne touches a stone face releasing a trap door releasing a sloping shaft which splits into 3 tunnels. The reader is given his/her first choice as to which of the three tunnels to follow.   “To follow Shaggy and Scooby into a spooky cave, turn to page 12.”

“To follow Daphne into an ancient tomb, turn to page 14.”

“To follow Fred and Velma to an underground city, turn to page 16.”  (page 11)

Once the reader makes this first choice he reads a page or two of story before the reader is asked to make another choice. The book continues this way for about 4 or 5 more twists and turns in the story before “THE END” appears.

Author, Laurie S. Sutton, includes typical Scooby-Doo sayings.  Some of the story scenarios are predictable if you’ve watched their cartoons and some endings are better than others. This is a quick fun read for intermediate grade readers, especially if they are familiar with the Scooby-Doo Show.

There are 10 full page color illustrations mixed in throughout the book. I was frustrated when I couldn’t make the correct plot choices to get to particular pictures, though.

There is a glossary.

There are, also, two pages of jokes where “YOU CHOOSE which punch line is funniest!”

Henry Holton’s dad played hockey.  So did his mom, his grandfather, his uncle, all twenty-three of his cousins, and his big sister, Sally.  Henry’s family was HOCKEY MAD.  Henry loved to skate, but he knew that he didn’t want to carry a hockey stick or body check other skaters.  Henry wanted to be an ice dancer.  This is a very sweet and entertaining book about following your dreams!

This book attempts to draw in young readers by describing what is “gross” about a number of animals.  Although the pictures are vibrant and engaging, the descriptions of the animals are derogatory and often at the expense of other animals.  Nake Mole Rats, for example, have “gross genes” and look “like an old person.  It is bald and coverd with wrinkles.  The star-nosed mole “has a face only its mother can love.”  Many elementary schools battle bullying and belittling behavior; we don’t need books that describe animals in such derogatory terms.

Shark Girl is a pessimist.  Her friend Belly Button is more optimistic AND realistic.  Together, they explore their world and their friendship through a variety of encounters.  This books is fresh and original; the illustrations are gorgeous!

Fans of  One Direction, the pop music group, will be checking this book out! Each of the five members of group One Direction are given four individual pages to themselves. One of the three pages is always a total head shot of either: Harry, Niall, Louis, Zayn ( who is no longer with One Direction , as of March 2015), and Liam. Information on how each of the five lads came to be on the television show “The X Factor” is given followed by how they were then put together as a group forming One Direction.

One Direction’s (1D) world tour and  three albums are named. The fact that their tours are sold-out and all three of their albums have made it to the #1 position on the BILLBOARD CHARTS make this group phenomenal.

Reporters and fans are always eager to ask them questions and after five years of questions, you know just a few of them have already been asked once or twice.  “After awhile, being asked the same questions over and over became a bit dull. So to liven things up, Harry, Niall, Louis, Zayn, and Liam chose to have fun with the questions. Reporters got used to the boys joking around… A 1D interview soon became a laughathon!” (p. 35)

Directioners ( what One Direction fans are called) will enjoy this book. Good luck librarians getting this book back from your patrons on time for the next Directioner to check out.

Scoody-Doo and his gang are telling jokes about monsters. The jokes are categorized : blood thirsty monsters (mostly vampire jokes); phantoms, spirits, and spooks; mad scientist jokes; six-feet under (mostly skeleton jokes); Frankenstein funnies; witch is which?; prison breaks; and werewolves, aliens, and other creepy crawlies. The jokes have nothing to do with the actual Scooby-Doo characters, but their facial expressions are funny. The sames jokes would be funny without the Sccoby-Doo illustrations, similar to jokes told on television, but without using a ‘laugh-track’ to cue the audience.

Some of the jokes I tested out on a fifth grade class orally needed to have the answers ‘seen’ for my audience to understand the joke, as on page 8: “Why did Godzilla eat all the furniture in the hotel room?  He had a suite tooth!” BUT once the punch-line was seen, laughs reigned. Homophones, dual-meaning words / phrases, and words with similar but substituted sounds make this a joke book intermediate grade students will like.

After the last joke, there are two in-depth pages on “How to Tell Jokes!” in 9 steps.

And with all that said, “What did the movie director say when she had finished her mummy movie?  ‘That’s a wrap!’  “(p. 30)

Ada was born with a club foot and has been a virtual prisoner in her mam’s 3rd floor London flat for nine years.  Her younger brother Jamie gets to go to school and roam the neighborhood.  When children are sent from town to live in the country during the beginning of WWII, Mam is going to send Jamie but not Ada.  Ada leaves with Jamie but when arriving at the rural community, they are the last chosen to live with other families.  Miss Susan reluctantly takes them in, thus beginning a tentative new life of trust, love, and acceptance.  Ada is uneducated but extremely attentive.  She is both drawn to and repelled from their new life with Miss Susan.  She does not understand often and misreads cues.  Gradually she comes to trust Miss Susan’s friendship and love.  Then her abusive Mam reappears and threatens Ada’s hard-won security.  She yanks Ada and Jamie back to London.  One aches for Ada as she struggles with her own insecurities and quest for learning, her determined will to survive, and to be accepted for herself.  Many, including Ada’s Mam, have the preconceived opinion that a physical disability is accompanied with a mental defect.  As Ada eventually states, “My club foot is a long way from my head!”  This is a well told story from Ada’s voice and the authentic settings, to her courage and quest for self-respect.