Getting Air by Dan Gutman is about 13 year old Jimmy, his younger sister and his two best friends, flying across the country to California to see the X Games. The boys, who created their own skateboarding club, the Woodpushers, are convinced they'll get sponsored if they attend the event. Unfortunately, some extremist terrorists had other plans. Jimmy, his friends, an old lady on her way to a knitting convention, and one young flight attendant are all that survived after their fight to regain control of the plane after the terrorists disabled it. This group of very different people must stick together and survive in the Canadian wilderness! Thankfully, Jimmy's sister Julia knows a lot about survival from her experiences in Girl Scouts. They are able to build a shelter using part of the plane, they find food, start a fire, and are surviving reasonably well. This takes its toll on the group however, and there is noticeable tension... until Jimmy decides to build a 1/2 pipe out of the airplane!
The Gardener by S. A. Bodeen is about Mason, a teen who lives with his single mom. In Mason's town, just about everything is run by TroDyn, a company that does biological research. Mason has been offered a chance for an internship with TroDyn, which would pay for his schooling in return for his promise to work for them after college. His mother is opposed to anything that has to do with TroDyn, but Mason doesn't know why. One evening when Mason's mom is at work, he looks through her drawers and finds a secret she's been keeping about his father and her own involvement with TroDyn in the past. Mason goes to the nursing home where she works to confront her, but finds something unexpected - she cares for teens who are in a catatonic state. While waiting for his mother, Mason pops in a video tape of his father reading a story. This causes one of the teens to awaken, terrified! Not knowing what else to do, Mason helps her escape to his friend's cabin in the woods. This starts a search that Mason could never have predicted. They are on the run, seeking help from the most unlikely places, including an author who used to work for TroDyn! It turns out that his new friend is actually an experiment! The biological engineers at TroDyn have altered her DNA so that she can produce her own food from the sun! The only problem is, she needs to be returned to TroDyn because she has a symbiotic relationship with the rest of the kids who were experimented on. Mason is reluctant to do this, but with help, is able to save her. In the process, Mason learns more about TroDyn's experiments, and his absent father, who is more involved in the TroDyn experiments than he could have imagined!
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo is about a self-centered china rabbit named Edward Tulane and the unexpected adventures that teach him to love people other than himself. Edward is first owned by Adilene, a young girl who's family can afford to dress Edward in the finest clothing. He sits in a special chair during the day, waiting for Adilene to return from school, he sits at the table during meal times, and he has his own special bed. Adilene loves Edward with all her heart, but Edward only loves himself. That all begins to change, however, the day Edward is lost at sea during a vacation Adilene's family takes. After being on the bottom of the ocean floor for years, Edward is caught in a fisherman's net and dragged to the surface. He is cleaned up and given new clothes, and even a new name (Susanna) by the fisherman's wife. Edward is still treated like a member of the family here, but in a much different way. This begins his miraculous journey. From here, he ends up with a homeless man and his dog, used as a scarecrow in an old lady's garden, loved by a dying girl and her brother, and eventually makes it full circle back into the arms of an adult Adilene and her daughter.
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan is the first book in his new Heroes of Olympus series. Jason wakes up on a school bus traveling to a field trip with his class, and holding his girlfriend's hand. The only problem is, he doesn't remember getting there, doesn't remember the school, his girlfriend Piper, his friend Leo... anything! After being attacked by storm spirits at Niagara Falls, Jason, Leo and Piper find out they are half-bloods (one of their parents is a Greek god and one is a mortal) and are whisked away to Camp Half-Blood, a safe haven for demigods. While there, they find out that one of the camp's heroes, Percy Jackson, is missing and their savior Annabeth is searching for him. The trio also learns that their entire world is threatened by the rise of Gaea (mother earth) and her titan children, having kidnapped Hera. Hera has been visiting the demigods through their dreams, trying to lead them to her in hopes they'll free her before the worst titan rises on the eve of the summer solstice. Jason, Piper, and Leo go off on their first quest, to free Hera and save the world. Unfortunately, all three have their own ulterior motives - Piper is desperate to save her father from the clutches of an evil giant even though she knows her friends will be hurt if they go with her. Jason just wants to find out who he is and where he came from. And Leo, terrified that his ability to produce fire will hurt or kill another person he loves, just wants to belong somewhere. They meet many different characters along the way, including Midas who turns anything he touches into gold, Medea one of Ancient Greece's most evil mortals, Coach Hedge a crazy satyr bent on protecting them, and even some interesting gods/goddesses. And of course, they are plagued by mystery and danger the whole way. Will the succeed in holding off another war between gods and titans? Will Gaea rise and take back the world?
Into the Gauntlet by Margaret Peterson Haddix is the final book in the 39 Clues Series. In this novel, Amy and Dan find themselves following leads to Shakespeare's final resting place. All of the other family members are hot on their trail and have actually resorted to following them to find the clues! It turns out that all of the 5 family branches (Tomas, Janus, Ekaterina, Lucian, and Madrigal, named after the 5 children of Olivia and Gideon Cahill) have 38 of the clues between them - if they would just get along and share, they could easily solve the entire mystery together. Unfortunately, the majority of the Cahills are cut-throat, greedy, and uninterested in "bonding". Amy and Dan have been asked to do just that - reunite the descendants of Gideon and Olivia Cahill. They a
re convinced that finding the last clue will give them enough power to convince the other teams to unite, but they'll have to survive The Gauntlet and their competition first!
The Crossbones by Patrick Carman is the third book in The Skeleton Creek Series. The story is told through Ryan McCray's journal and Sarah Fincher's videos, just like the first two books in the series. After finding the hidden gold in the floorboards of the old gold dredge in their small town, Sarah and her family moved to Boston while Ryan's family stayed in Skeleton Creek and opened a fly fishing shop/guide operation. But, Ryan has held onto a secret since the night of their discovery: he found a mysterious envelope in the pocket of the man who had embodied Old Joe Bush's ghost and terrorized them. Henry ran off before the police arrived, but the note was left behind. The note was a set of encrypted directions to four different haunted places all over the United Stated. He and Sarah hatched a plan to visit these places, find the clues the note described, and solve yet another mystery involving the strange group, the Crossbones. Their timing was perfect because Sarah was scheduled to attend film school in California. As she drove across the country on her way to film school, she stopped by all of the locations in the message, finding video after video of The Apostle, a known member of The Crossbones. All four clues led to an amazing find right back in Skeleton Creek - this time, it was Ryan's turn to investigate. At every turn, both kids are plagued by the three remaining members of the original Crossbones group: The Raven, the ghost, and the Apostle, and the danger is getting more and more real!
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins is the third book in the Hunger Games Trilogy. In this last installment, Katniss, after having won the Hunger Games with Peeta and escaped the arena during the Quarter Quell, is living in District 13 with the other rebels. Narrowly escaping the destruction in their home district, 12, Katniss's mother and sister, Prim, and also long-time friend, Gale, have made it to District 13 as well. Coin, the leader of the rebels and her council ask Katniss to agree to be the mockingjay - the "face" of the rebellion. She agrees, but only after making a few demands of her own, including immunity for the other former Hunger Games Tributes. Soon after, Katniss finds out that Peeta, who was captured when she was retrieved from the Quarter Quell, is being held and tortured in the Capitol. Desperate to save Peeta and to kill President Snow to whom she attributes all of the country's suffering, Katniss begins training with the rebel army and taking her role as mockingjay more seriously. Eventually, Peeta is rescued, but has been tortured so much he doesn't know what's real and what isn't. His memories of Katniss were distorted and instead of loving her, he wants to kill her! This just fuels Katniss's fire even more, leading her on a televised raid on the Capitol which ends in more trauma than even Katniss could have imagined. Is the Capitol all bad and the rebels all good? Who can be trusted? Will Katniss ever live a normal life or will being the mockingjay eventually consume her?
Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom by Eric Wight is the story of Frankie and his quest to never clean again. Frankie is an incredibly creative boy who turns just about everything he does into an awesome adventure. So, while he has every intention of cleaning his room so he can go hang out with his friend Kenny, he ends up on an exciting quest to save the world from a gigantic robot. That's when he decides (and his mother actually agrees!) that he will not clean his room ever again... it just gets messy again anyway, so what's the point? Everything goes downhill from there, especially when Frankie decides to stop cleaning himself, too! His clothes are stinky, he's stinky, his room even becomes somewhat dangerous! The night Frankie decides to do something about the growing disaster is the night he and his faithful sidekick Argyle (his dog) enter the Closet of Doom for one of the biggest adventures of his life!
The Miles Between by Mary E. Pearson is about seventeen year old Destiny Faraday. She's been shuffled around from boarding school to boarding school since she was seven, when her parents abandoned her in favor of her baby brother. All Des wants is one fair day, where everything works out right. She had no idea what kind of chain of events would ensue after stating her wish aloud for a visiting professor who finds her ditching class one October morning. One bizarre coincidence after the other finds Des ands three classmates on the road trip of a lifetime, ending in a strange, but perfect twist of fate.
Storm Warning by Linda Sue Park is about Amy and Dan Cahill's continued search for the 39 clues, leading to power and fortune. In the installment, Amy, Dan, and their au pair Nellie end up in Jamaica searching for something famed pirate Anne Bonny may have possessed. Things Are never simple for Amy and Dan, however, with the other powerful branches of the Cahill family trying to stop them at any cost (even death). In this story, Amy and Dan discover that Nellie isn't who she says she is and that she may have been hired to betray them all along. They also discover the truth a out the Madrigals, the Cahill branch to which they belong, and the real reason the Madrigals exist and behave the ways they do.
The Capture by Kathryn Lasky is about Soren, a young barn owl who was stolen from his family at only 20 days old by St. Aegolius patrols. Soren, terrified and not sure how he ended up out of the safety of his family's nest, meets Gylfi, a young elf owl who found herself in a similar situation at St. Aegolius. Neither owl understand the bizarre rituals their captors force them to do - marching around during the full moon saying their "old names" over and over (all of the owlets at St. Aggies are given numbers instead of names). They also don't understand why the other owls there behave like zombies. Despite getting into a lot of trouble together, Soren and Gelfie are determined to find out exactly what is going on at St. Aggies, why owlets and eggs are being snatched from all of the Owl Kingdoms, and what the flecks in the owl pellets are being harvested for. What they find out scares them into action - first escape, then to find their long lost families. Their ultimate goal? To find the Ga'Hoole tree and the owls of legend from the tales of yore and stop the villains at St. Aggies for good.
Night of the Howling Dogs by Graham Salisbury is based on the true story of the Boy Scout Troop that was hammered by a 7.2 earthquake and subsequent tsunami on the island of Hawaii in 1975. In this story, Dylan's Scout troop hikes out to Halape, Hawaii to camp on a deserted but beautiful beach at the base of the volcano. Dylan is plagued the whole way by Louie, an older boy who has had it in for Dylan since they first met. Louie doesn't even seem to want to be there, and the other scouts aren't sure why Mr. Bellows, their leader, insisted upon Louie joining. They set up camp after a grueling hike, and everything seems fine, the first night, except that Dylan is awakened in the middle of the night by howling dogs - the same dogs he's sure he saw one their hike in. The next day the troop meets Masa and his friends, fishermen who have ridden their horses in and are camping nearby. They share some information about the dogs that seems like myth, but has Dylan on edge. Masa believes they are signs from the ancient Pele, that tell of something to come - possibly the volcano erupting! In the dead of night, it seems like Pele has spoken, because a massive earthquake hits, destroying everything. It knocks much of the shore of the island into the water, causing an enormous tsunami. Surprisingly, it's Dylan and Louie who have to work together to make sure everyone gets out alive.
Into the Volcano by Don Wood is about the Pugg brothers, Duffy and Sumo, and their wild and crazy trip to Kocalaha Island. The boys' cousin, Come-and-Go, shows up at their school unexpectedly to take them on a 10 day vacation while their mother finishes her research in Borneo. Little did the boys know that their vacation was going to be a nightmare! Soon after they arrive at their auntie's place, the boys leave on an expedition with Come-and-Go and his partners – straight into the heart of an active volcano! After some very dangerous experiences, the boys begin to realize they may be in serious trouble and that their “guides” may not be on their side. Duffy and Sumo escape even deeper into the volcano, and that's when disaster strikes. Duffy, the strong adventurous brother falls into a crevice and sustains serious injuries. Sumo isn't sure he's strong enough, or strong-willed enough, to save him. He eventually finds his way to Duffy, and what the two discover even deeper into the volcano both shocked and amazed them. It's then that they realize they've been used as “bait” in a deadly race against greed and the forces of nature.
Saraswati's Way by Monika Schroder is about Akash, a twelve year old boy living in a small rural village in India. His family is deeply in debt and struggling to earn money through farming their small plot of land. Unfortunately, even their crops are in danger due to a drought which hasn't brought rain for many months. When Akash's father suddenly dies of the yearly fever, their family is thrown into turmoil. Left without a strong man to tend the crops and earn money, Akash's grandmother sends him with Kumar, the man to whom they owe rent, to work in the rock quarry to pay off their family's debt. Akash has been working hard to learn math skills, hoping to score well on his final exams so that he can earn a scholarship to attend a middle school in the city the following year. Once he sees how unfairly Kumar runs his busniess, Akash realizes that he will never be able to pay off his family's debt. So, he runs away and begins a life of his own, living on the streets in Delhi, India. Akash's only goal is to earn enough money to pay a tutor to help him in math so he can do well on his test. He meets Rohit, another boy living on the streets, and with him, tries various ways of earning money, including scavenging trash from trains and even selling drugs. Akash's hope of hiring a tutor and going to school begins to wane as he loses most of his money and Rohit goes back to his own village to care for his sick mother. Akash even begins to think the gods (Saraswati, goddess of wisdom and knowledge, and Ganesha, god of good luck and remover of obstacles) may not be willing to help him. However, Akash's unfailing integrity help him do the right thing when Ramesh, the newspaper stand owner he's been working for, gets hurt and needs immediate medical attention. Akash's quick decisions ultimately lead to securing a safe place to live, a generous benefactor, two honest well-paying jobs, and hope for his future."It's like going to different places without leaving where you are."
