Spy School by Stuart Gibbs

Ben Ripley is a wiz with math who has dreamed of one day becoming a CIA agent.  His wish seems to be coming true sooner than he could have believed when he is recruited to attend a Secret Spy Academy.  His romantic ideas of what it might be like to be a spy are quickly dashed as he finds himself in the middle of a plot that has nothing to do with wearing fancy tuxedos, or carrying high tech spy gadgets.  Only his interest in the beautiful and brilliant spy school student, Erica, keeps him in the game, and in the cross-hairs.

I really enjoyed Gibb's Moon Base Alpha series, but I missed reading this one when it came out in 2012 and didn't get back to it until this week.  It was a pretty fun and I will be recommending it to a lot of kids in the future I am sure.  Ben is an endearing nerd, and Erica is a super cool strong girl character. The school is cool too, with hidden panels, secret entrances, and a maze of a basement. Add in evil spy agencies and double agents and there is everything a spy story lover could want. The only weak point is that I figured out who the mystery bad guy was in about the 3rd chapter, so no surprise ending.  Still the premise and characters are entertaining enough that I will probably read more in the series. (2012, 290 p.)

The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell

Esta was born with a magical ability to manipulate time.  She was discovered and raised by a man, Professor Lockwood, to be a super thief of magical objects.  With the help of a powerful artifact, she goes back in time to try to steal the Ars Arcanum, an ancient book that is said to hold the key to destroying the Brink, a barrier that keeps all magicians imprisoned in New York City.  Once back in 1902, Esta discovers that her mission, and everything she was raised to believe about magic and magicians is much more complicated than she ever dreamed.

This is a high energy fantasy/sci-fi time travel novel for teens.  The plot and characters are equally layered, complicated and fascinating. At 512 pages, the book is a serious time commitment, but it is not hard to finish.  Instead, it is hard to put down.  It is a true YA and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone under 14, not because of any sex, but because of a kind of gritty ruthlessness that pervades the story. This is a great choice for people who liked Hunger Games. The second book is out, but didn't get as good of reviews as the the first, and is over 700 pages long, so I am not sure if I will read it or not. (2017)

Let Sleeping Dragons Lie by Garth Nix & Sean Williams

The is the second adventure of Sir Odo and Sir Eleanor, two young knights with enchanted swords. In this one they meet up with the "Old Dragon" a previous king of their country, and his faithful bodyguard, Hundred.  The Old Dragon is returning from self imposed exile because his evil sister is destroying the kingdom with legions of greedy bureaucrats.  Will Odo and Eleanor reach the capital in time to prevent the wrong king from getting crowned?

Like all of Nix's best works, these books are delightfully layered and nuanced.  This series can be read as a straight up middle grade fantasy, or as a satire of fantasy fiction.  It could also be read as a satire of current government with its layers of bureaucracy. No matter how you read it, the story is based on strong, endearing characters and is peppered with more than a little humor. (2018, 256 p.)

She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton, illustrated by Alexandra Boiger

Here is another "Strong Girl" nonficiton.  In the one, Chelsea Clinton starts with a short introduction about being a strong girl.  Following that, on each spread, Clinton gives one paragraph and a memorable quote from each of 13 well known women.  She includes crusaders like Harriet Tubman and Clara Lemlich, performers like Maria Tallchief and Ophra Winfrey, and scientists like Virginia Apgar.  The featured women are all Americans, but have varied race and are from different periods of time.  Clinton has also published a similar book about notable women around the world.  Boiger illustrates the book with watercolor and ink drawing that are accessible and child friendly.  This is a good choice for National Women's Day or anytime when a teacher wants to share a "can do" book with a girl.  (I am not sure what a boy would feel about this book.  It might make boys feel a bit under appreciated.) (2017)

Brave Girl by Michelle Markel

This is a well written picture book biography of a woman named Clara Lemlich.  She immigrated to the United States as a teen, and soon started work in a garment factory.  She was appalled by the working conditions of the girls, so she joined those trying to establish a labor union for garment factory workers. The book emphasizes the fact that Clara was young (not yet 20 but the book never gives her age), small ( just 5 feet tall) and spoke almost no English.  Despite these limitations, Clara became the voice of the factory girls rights movement.  Markel's text is simple and the can be read in 10 minutes or less. The book is illustrated with watercolor and ink pictures that do a good job of suggesting the time period and the conditions in the factories. There is quite a good video version of the book done by Dreamscape and available on Overdrive that would be great to show to a class who were studying the time period.  (2013)

The Unteachables by Gordon Korman

When Kiana moves from San Francisco to hick town, USA, her step mom leaves her to register herself in her new school.  By a twist of fate, she ends up in the class of "Unteachables" a group of 8 kids that none of the other teachers want to have to deal with.  Their teacher, Mr Kermit, is in his last year before he is eligible for early retirement, and is just as happy as the kids are to do nothing all day.  Then one day Mr. Kermit stands up for one of the students on a small matter.  The students are so surprised, they start standing up for Mr. Kermit.  As the year progresses a wonderful relationship develops between the kids and the burned out teacher, changing all their lives for the better.

Who would have guessed when Korman started writing his action thrillers 18 years ago that he would end up such a good writer of school stories.  I really liked this book, just as I liked Restart, Ungifted, and Schooled. He looks into the lives of all of his characters, adults and children, with honest insight.  He also has some really funny bits, that add entertainment, but don't overpower the deeper message.  Underlying his school novels is a basic belief in the goodness of humanity and faith that if we all get to know each other better, we can all get along. (288 p. 2019)

Wizard for Hire by Obert Skye

Ozzy's parents are both PhD scientists.  When Ozzy is seven they move abruptly from New York City to a secluded cabin in Oregon.  Then a few months later, men dressed in green come and take Ozzy's parents away.  Ozzy survives on his own for seven more years with the help of a AI raven left behind by his parents.  Finally a desire to find out what happened to his parents drives Ozzy back to civilization and to Rin, a self-proclaimed wizard.  Ozzy keeps expecting Rin to pull out a magic wand and solve all of Ozzy's problems.  That doesn't happen, but step by step Ozzy and Rin uncover clues to what happened to Ozzy's family.

I was not a fan of Skye's Leven Thumps series.  I found that too often Skye is not consistent in his plots and characterizations.  This book had the same problems.  Since Ozzy has been living on his own since he was seven, there are a lot of things about the world he doesn't or shouldn't understand.  The problem is that he conveniently understands or doesn't understand things to meet the demands of the plot.  That said, once I reconciled myself to this writing flaw I did enjoy the book with only occasional cringes. It is a fairly original story and Rin, especially, is an interesting character. I thought it had maybe one too many car chase scenes, but kids, especially boys, probably won't mind that.  It is obviously the first in a series, but I haven't decided yet whether or not I will read the next one. (2016, 410 p.)