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Cool New Books for April
April’s roundup of Cool New Books includes THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY AND THE PERILOUS JOURNEY, the highly anticipated sequel to Trenton Lee Stewart’s bestseller about four children who are brought together to go on secret missions that only the most intelligent and inventive youngsters can complete; THE PENDERWICKS ON GARDAM STREET, a feel-good follow-up to the National Book Award-winning THE PENDERICKS by Jeanne Birdsall; THE CALDER GAME, Blue Balliett’s third art-centered mystery featuring University of Chicago Lab School students Calder, Petra and Tommy; QUESTE, the fourth installment in Angie Sage’s Septimus Heap series, in which the protagonist continues his journey of Magykal self-discovery; and picture books that mark the returns of Fancy Nancy (who is determined to enhance her readers’ vocabulary) and Curious George (who offers words of encouragement to those entering a new phase in their lives).
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Stand-Alone Chapter Books/Middle Grade Novels
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BIRD LAKE MOON
Kevin Henkes
Greenwillow Books
ISBN: 9780061470769
Ages 10-14
192 pages
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
Spencer thought the house might be haunted.
Mitch knew it wasn't. And he knew why.
The whole time Spencer and Mitch hung out together at Bird Lake that summer, there were secrets keeping them apart.
And maybe a secret knowledge keeping them together, too --- together like members of the same tribe. Like friends.
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DON’T TALK TO ME ABOUT THE WAR
David A. Adler
Viking Juvenile
ISBN: 9780670063079
Ages 8-12
216 pages
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
Thirteen-year-old Tommy Duncan just wants to root for the Brooklyn Dodgers and listen to the radio. But it’s 1940 and the world is changing. All his friend Beth wants to do is talk about the war in Europe. That’s an ocean away, though, and Tommy has more immediate concerns --- like Beth looking pretty and his mother’s declining health. The stories of a Jewish friend at school, however, begin to make the war more real to him.
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GODS OF MANHATTAN
Scott Mebus
Dutton Juvenile
ISBN: 9780525479550
Ages 8-12
272 pages
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
Look. What do you see? Sidewalks, skyscrapers, pigeons? But there’s more. More that only 12-year-old Rory Hennessey can see. More that only Rory can reveal to others.
So, look again. What do you see? Layered on our own New York is a spirit city inhabited by warrior cockroaches, malevolent subway trains, kung fu rodents, hungry gargoyles and children made entirely of papier-mache. Built by history and legend, it’s ruled by the Gods of Manhattan, lions of New York like Peter Stuyvesant and Babe Ruth.
Now everyone is racing to find Rory. The boy who can see. The boy who can change the destiny of New York.
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THE POSTCARD
Tony Abbott
Little, Brown for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780316011723
Ages 8-12
368 pages
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
When Jason's grandmother dies, he is sent down to her home in Florida to help his father clean out her things. At first he gripes about spending his summer miles away from his best friend, doing chores and sweating in the Florida heat. But he soon discovers a mystery surrounding his grandmother's murky past.
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PUDDLEJUMPERS
Mark Jean and Christopher C. Carlson
Hyperion Books for Children
ISBN: 9781423107590
Ages 10-up
336 pages
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
Ernie Banks, named for the legendary Chicago Cub shortstop, is a troubled, 13-year-old juvenile delinquent. Abandoned on the doorstep of the Lakeside Home for Boys when he was three years old, he’s now considered a “lifer,” a permanent ward of the state. As a last reprieve before being sent to a juvenile detention facility, Ernie is allowed to spend three weeks on a working farm. When he arrives at the home of Russ Frazier, he learns that the widower’s baby was kidnapped years before. The single piece of evidence was a red quilt found in a puddle in the nearby woods. Fascinated by the town’s famous “Quilt Baby” kidnapping, Ernie is determined to solve the case.
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SMILES TO GO
Jerry Spinelli
Joanna Cotler Books/HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780060281335
Ages 10-up
256 pages
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
What is stargazer, skateboarder, chess champ, pepperoni pizza eater, older brother, sister hater, best friend, first kisser, science geek, control freak Will Tuppence so afraid of in this great big universe?
Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli knows.
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Series Books/Sequels
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Sequel to CHASING VERMEER and THE WRIGHT 3
THE CALDER GAME
written by Blue Balliett
illustrated by Brett Helquist
Scholastic Press
ISBN: 9780439852074
Ages 9-12
400 pages
• Read a Review
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
When Calder Pillay travels with his father to a remote village in England, he finds a mix of mazes and mystery, including an unexpected Alexander Calder sculpture in the town square. Calder is strangely drawn to the sculpture, while other people have less-than-friendly feelings towards it. Both the boy and the sculpture seem to be out of place…and then, on the same night, they disappear! Calder's friends Petra and Tommy must fly out to help his father find him. But this mystery has more twists and turns than a Calder mobile --- with more at stake than first meets the eye.
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Sequel to THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY
THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY AND THE PERILOUS JOURNEY
Trenton Lee Stewart
Little, Brown for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780316057806
Ages 8-12
448 pages
• Read a Review & Excerpt
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
The fabulous foursome readers embraced as The Mysterious Benedict Society is back with a new mission, significantly closer to home. After reuniting for a celebratory scavenger hunt, Reynie, Kate, Sticky and Constance are forced to go on an unexpected search --- a search to find Mr. Benedict. It seems that while he was preparing the kids' adventure, he stepped right into a trap orchestrated by his evil twin Mr. Curtain.
With only one week to find a captured Mr. Benedict, the gifted foursome faces their greatest challenge of all --- a challenge that will reinforce the reasons they were brought together in the first place and will require them to fight for the very namesake that united them.
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Sequel to THE PENDERWICKS
THE PENDERWICKS ON GARDAM STREET
Jeanne Birdsall
Knopf Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780375840906
Ages 9-12
320 pages
• Read a Review & Excerpt
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
The Penderwick sisters are home on Gardam Street and ready for an adventure! But the adventure they get isn’t quite what they had in mind. Mr. Penderwick’s sister has decided it’s time for him to start dating --- and the girls know that can only mean one thing: disaster. Enter the Save-Daddy Plan --- a plot so brilliant, so bold, so funny, that only the Penderwick girls could have come up with it. It’s high jinks, big laughs and loads of family warmth as the Penderwicks triumphantly return.
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Amelia Bedelia
AMELIA BEDELIA AND THE CAT
written by Herman Parish
illustrated by Lynn Sweat
Greenwillow Books
ISBN: 9780060843496
Ages 6-up
48 pages
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
Leave it to Amelia Bedelia to find a real cat on a day it's "raining cats and dogs." She names him Tiger, and in no time, the two are inseparable and as happy as clams. But then Tiger gets into trouble. Will Amelia Bedelia go out on a limb to save him? The cat's out of the bag --- this is an irresistible Amelia Bedelia adventure!
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Clementine
CLEMENTINE’S LETTER
written by Sara Pennypacker
illustrated by Marla Frazee
Hyperion Books for Children
ISBN: 9780786838844
Ages 7-10
160 pages
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
Clementine can’t believe her ears --- her beloved teacher, Mr. D’Matz, might be leaving them for the rest of the year to go on a research trip to Egypt! No other teacher has ever understood her impulsiveness, her itch to draw constantly, or her need to play “Beat the Clock” when the day feels too long. And in his place, he has left a substitute with a whole new set of rules that Clementine just can’t figure out. The only solution, she decides, is to hatch a plan to get Mr. D’Matz back.
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Elliot’s Park
SAVING MISTER NIBBLES!: Elliot’s Park, Book 1
Patrick Carman
Orchard Books/Scholastic
ISBN: 9780545019309
Ages 7-10
80 pages
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
Mister Nibbles has been captured and taken to the yellow house across the street from Elliot’s park! Squirrels aren't meant to live indoors (not even stuffed ones like Mister Nibbles), so Elliot and his friends come up with a plan to rescue their new friend. It’s going to take a lot of teamwork. Can Elliot, Crash, Chip and Twitch save Mister Nibbles before it’s too late?
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The Missing
FOUND: Book One of The Missing
Margaret Peterson Haddix
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9781416954170
Ages 8-12
320 pages
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
Thirteen-year-old Jonah has always known that he was adopted, and he's never thought it was any big deal. Then he and a new friend, Chip, who's also adoped, begin receiving mysterious letters. The first one says, "You are one of the missing." The second one says, "Beware! They're coming back to get you." Jonah, Chip, and Jonah's sister, Katherine, are plunged into a mystery that involves the FBI, a vast smuggling operation, an airplane that appeared out of nowhere --- and people who seem to appear and disappear at will.
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Ottoline
OTTOLINE AND THE YELLOW CAT
written and illustrated by Chris Riddell
HarperCollins Children’s Books
ISBN: 9780061448799
Ages 8-12
176 pages
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
Meet one-of-a-kind Ottoline Brown, Mistress of Disguise, Collector of Odd Objects and true-blue friend. She lives in a stylish apartment in Big City with her best friend, a small, hairy creature named Mr. Munroe. Together they splash in puddles, look after the Brown family’s eclectic collections, and dabble in a bit of detective work. No puzzle is too tricky for them to solve. So when a string of high-society dognappings and jewel thefts hits Big City, Ottoline and Mr. Munroe go undercover and expose a furry feline, the Yellow Cat.
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Septimus Heap
QUESTE: Septimus Heap, Book Four
Angie Sage
Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780060882075
Ages 9-up
608 pages
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
There's trouble at the Castle, and it's all because Merrin Meredith has returned with Darke plans for Septimus. More trouble awaits Septimus and Jenna in the form of Tertius Fume, the ghost of the very first Chief Hermetic Scribe, who is determined to send Septimus on a deadly Queste. But Septimus and Jenna have other plans --- they are headed for the mysterious House of Foryx, a place where all Time meets and the place where they fervently hope they will be able to find Nicko and Snorri, who were trapped back in time in physik. But how will Septimus escape the Queste?
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Picture Books
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CURIOUS YOU: ON YOUR WAY!
illustrated by H. A. Rey
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
ISBN: 9780618919758
Ages 4-8
32 pages
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
CURIOUS YOU: ON YOUR WAY! is a perfect sendoff for children of all ages entering a new phase of their lives. Follow along with George in classic scenes from many of his original books as he provides words of congratulations and encouragement to anyone who has accomplished much but still has many things to see, to do and to dream! The ideal gift book for a graduation, a promotion or any occasion, CURIOUS YOU: ON YOUR WAY! helps to celebrate all of the milestones of our lives.
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THE DANGEROUS ALPHABET
written by Neil Gaiman
illustrated by Gris Grimly
HarperCollins Children’s Books
ISBN: 9780060783334
Ages 5-up
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
Two children, treasure map in hand, and their pet gazelle sneak past their father, out of their house and into a world beneath the city, where monsters and pirates roam.
Will they find the treasure? Will they make it out alive? THE DANGEROUS ALPHABET is a tale of adventure, piracy, danger and heroism told in 26 alphabetical lines --- although even the alphabet is not to be relied upon here.
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FANCY NANCY’S FAVORITE FANCY WORDS: From Accessories to Zany
written by Jane O’Connor
illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser
HarperCollins Children’s Books
ISBN: 9780061549236
Ages 4-7
32 pages
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
From everyone's favorite fancy girl comes an alphabetical guide to enhancing vocabulary. Why say beautiful when there are fancy words like gorgeous and glamorous? Instead of hello, try bonjour, which is French and so much fancier. An umbrella will keep you dry, but a parasol will make you feel like a Hollywood movie star. With this helpful A-to-Z guide, Fancy Nancy shows that making plain words into fancy ones is not only educational, it's fun!
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MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMP
written by Jack Lechner
illustrated by Bob Staake
Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books
ISBN: 9781599901695
Ages 3-8
32 pages
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
Updating the classic rhyme with “appliance humor” gives this book a hilarious twist and a great new take on the “beloved transitional object” story. Mary has a little lamp that she takes everywhere: to school, the movies, the circus, the zoo, even a wedding. One day Mary heads off to summer camp without her bendy-necked lamp and discovers that life without a lamp isn’t so bad!
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TRAINSTOP
written and illustrated by Barbara Lehman
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
ISBN: 9780618756407
Ages 4-8
32 pages
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com
A ride on the train is exciting. There's always something new to see, even if you've been there before. But some train rides are better than others. What if a train took you somewhere else entirely? What if the doors opened in a strange, new place? This is one train stop you won't want to miss!
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--- Compiled and written by Tom Donadio
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