Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
by J. K. Rowling
Listed under Harry Potter Books
 

The English Roses by Madonna, Jeffrey Fulvimari Book Description: The English Roses is a story of rivalry and friendship among schoolgirls in contemporary London. Four little girls-Nicole, Amy, Charlotte, and Grace-are eleven years old and the very best of friends. They have sleepovers, picnics and ice-skating parties that exclude Binah, a beautiful girl whose seemingly perfect life makes them "green with envy." However, when a feisty, pumpernickel-loving fairy godmother takes them on a magical journey, they learn to their great surprise that Binah's life is not nearly as enviable as it had seemed. The English Roses is an inspiring story about the importance of compassion and the rewards of friendship.  Hardcover from Callaway Editions

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (Boxed Set)
by J. R. R. Tolkien
Listed under Lord of the Rings

Holes
by Louis Sachar
"If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy." Such is the reigning philosophy at Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention facility where there is no lake, and there are no happy campers. In place of what used to be "the largest lake in Texas" is now a dry, flat, sunburned wasteland, pocked with countless identical holes dug by boys improving their character. Stanley Yelnats, of palindromic name and ill-fated pedigree, has landed at Camp Green Lake because it seemed a better option than jail. No matter that his conviction was all a case of mistaken identity, the Yelnats family has become accustomed to a long history of bad luck, thanks to their "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!" Despite his innocence, Stanley is quickly enmeshed in the Camp Green Lake routine: rising before dawn to dig a hole five feet deep and five feet in diameter; learning how to get along with the Lord of the Flies-styled pack of boys in Group D; and fearing the warden, who paints her fingernails with rattlesnake venom. But when Stanley realizes that the boys may not just be digging to build character--that in fact the warden is seeking something specific--the plot gets as thick as the irony. 

It's a strange story, but strangely compelling and lovely too. Louis Sachar uses poker-faced understatement to create a bizarre but believable landscape--a place where Major Major Major Major of Catch-22 would feel right at home. But while there is humor and absurdity here, there is also a deep understanding of friendship and a searing compassion for society's underdogs. As Stanley unknowingly begins to fulfill his destiny--the dual plots coming together to reveal that fate has big plans in store--we can't help but cheer for the good guys, and all the Yelnats everywhere. --Brangien Davis - Amazon.com
Reading level: Ages 10 and older.
Paperback: 233 pages
Yearling Books; ISBN: 0440414806; Reprint edition (May 9, )

Good Morning, Gorillas (Magic Tree House, 26)
by Mary Pope Osborne, Sal Murdocca (Illustrator)
Listed under Magic Tree House Books

Coraline
by Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean (Illustrator)
(Hardcover -- July 2, )
 

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, Anthea Bell Meggie’s father, Mo, has a wonderful and sometimes terrible ability. When he reads aloud from books, he brings the characters to life--literally. Mo discovered his power when Maggie was just a baby. He read so lyrically from the the book Inkheart, that several of the book’s wicked characters ended up blinking and cursing on his cottage floor. Then Mo discovered something even worse--when he read Capricorn and his henchmen out of Inkheart, he accidentally read Meggie’s mother in.  Meggie, now a young lady, knows nothing of her father's bizarre and powerful talent, only that Mo still refuses to read to her. Capricorn, a being so evil he would "feed a bird to a cat on purpose, just to watch it being torn apart," has searched for Meggie's father for years, wanting to twist Mo's powerful talent to his own dark means. Finally, Capricorn realizes that the best way to lure Mo to his remote mountain hideaway is to use his beloved, oblivious daughter Meggie as bait!  Cornelia Funke's imaginative ode to books and book lovers is sure to be enjoyed by fans of her breakout debut, The Thief Lord, and young readers who enjoyed the similarly themed The Great Good Thing by Roderick Townley. (Ages 10 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert - Amazon.com Hardcover from Chicken House

A Wrinkle in Time
by Madeleine L'Engle
Paperback: 211 pages
Yearling Books; ISBN: 0440498058; Reissue edition (April 1, 1973)

The Little Prince
by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry first published The Little Prince in 1943, only a year before his Lockheed P-38 vanished over the Mediterranean during a reconnaissance mission. More than a half century later, this fable of love and loneliness has lost none of its power. The narrator is a downed pilot in the Sahara Desert, frantically trying to repair his wrecked plane. His efforts are interrupted one day by the apparition of a little, well, prince, who asks him to draw a sheep. "In the face of an overpowering mystery, you don't dare disobey," the narrator recalls. "Absurd as it seemed, a thousand miles from all inhabited regions and in danger of death, I took a scrap of paper and a pen out of my pocket." And so begins their dialogue, which stretches the narrator's imagination in all sorts of surprising, childlike directions. 

The Little Prince describes his journey from planet to planet, each tiny world populated by a single adult. It's a wonderfully inventive sequence, which evokes not only the great fairy tales but also such monuments of postmodern whimsy as Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. And despite his tone of gentle bemusement, Saint-Exupéry pulls off some fine satiric touches, too. There's the king, for example, who commands the Little Prince to function as a one-man (or one-boy) judiciary: 

I have good reason to believe that there is an old rat living somewhere on my planet. I hear him at night. You could judge that old rat. From time to time you will condemn him to death. That way his life will depend on your justice. But you'll pardon him each time for economy's sake. There's only one rat.

The author pokes similar fun at a businessman, a geographer, and a lamplighter, all of whom signify some futile aspect of adult existence. Yet his tale is ultimately a tender one--a heartfelt exposition of sadness and solitude, which never turns into Peter Pan-style treacle. Such delicacy of tone can present real headaches for a translator, and in her 1943 translation, Katherine Woods sometimes wandered off the mark, giving the text a slightly wooden or didactic accent. Happily, Richard Howard (who did a fine nip-and-tuck job on Stendhal's The Charterhouse of Parma in ) has streamlined and simplified to wonderful effect. The result is a new and improved version of an indestructible classic, which also restores the original artwork to full color. "Trying to be witty," we're told at one point, "leads to lying, more or less." But Saint-Exupéry's drawings offer a handy rebuttal: they're fresh, funny, and like the book itself, rigorously truthful. --James Marcus - Amazon.com
(Paperback -- May 15, )

The Chronicles of Narnia
by C. S. Lewis, Pauline Baynes (Illustrator)
Listed under C.S. Lewis

Number the Stars
by Lois Lowry
The evacuation of Jews from Nazi-held Denmark is one of the great untold stories of World War II. On September 29, 1943, word got out in Denmark that Jews were to be detained and then sent to the death camps. Within hours the Danish resistance, population and police arranged a small flotilla to herd 7,000 Jews to Sweden. Lois Lowry fictionalizes a true-story account to bring this courageous tale to life. She brings the experience to life through the eyes of 10-year-old Annemarie Johannesen, whose family harbors her best friend, Ellen Rosen, on the eve of the round-up and helps smuggles Ellen's family out of the country. Number the Stars won the 1990 Newbery Medal. Amazon.com
Paperback: 137 pages
Laureleaf; ISBN: 0440227534; (March )

Sammy Keyes and the Search for Snake Eyes
by Wendelin Van Draanen
Not normally a mall rat, young Sammy Keyes somehow finds herself at the video arcade with her best friend one day, blowing off steam before the big junior-high softball tournament. Naturally, fans of this plucky girl detective (Sammy Keyes and the Hollywood Mummy, Sammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy, etc.) will not be at all surprised to learn that this innocent outing winds up putting Sammy in the middle of another big, messy, dangerous mystery. In spite of her best intentions, our sleuth is soon exploring the seamy underbelly of her hometown, confronting gang members, pursuing a man with "hatred for eyes, steel for a mouth," and trying to take care of an abandoned infant--all while remaining undercover at her grandmother's adults-only apartment complex. Newcomers and veterans of the Sammy Keyes mystery series will immediately take to this not-so-hard-boiled seventh-grade detective and her funny yet issue-laden adventures. (Ages 10 and older) --Emilie Coulter - Amazon.com
Hardcover: 277 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.99 x 8.60 x 5.34
Knopf; ISBN: 0375811753; (May 28, )

Maniac Magee
by Jerry Spinelli
(Paperback -- April )

Bridge to Terabithia
by Katherine Paterson, Donna Diamond (Illustrator)
(Paperback -- June 1987)

Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Listed under Captain Underpants

Tuck Everlasting
by Natalie Babbitt
(Paperback -- January 1986)
 

	Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume, Roy Doty (Illustrator) (Paperback -- April 1, 1976)

Harry Potter Schoolbooks: Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them, Quidditch Through the Ages
by J. K. Rowling
Listed under Harry Potter Books

A Box of Unfortunate Events: The Trouble Begins
by Lemony Snicket, Brett Helquist (Illustrator)
Listed under Lemony Snicket

Carnivorous Carnival (Series of Unfortunate Events, 9)
by Lemony Snicket, Brett Helquist (Illustrator)
Listed under Lemony Snicket

Minn of the Mississippi
Holling C. Holling
Reading level: Ages 9-12
The history of the Mississippi River Valley is told in text and pictures through the adventures of Minn, a snapping turtle, as she travels downstream.
School & Library Binding (March 15, 1951)
Houghton Mifflin Co (Juv); ISBN: 039517578X

 
 

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