The Clue at Black Creek Farm by Carolyn Keene

It is funny that Nancy Drew was born (i.e. her first book was published) in 1930, the same year my father was born.  Unlike him, however, Nancy Drew has stayed a teenager all these years, never aging, solving one perilous mystery after another. In this latest in the Nancy Drew Diaries series Nancy is introduced to organic farming.  Her new friend, Sam, has left a lucrative law practice to start his own organic farm, but someone doesn't want him to succeed.  At first his crops are contaminated with e-coli and then his farm is victimized by vandalism.  As Nancy gets closer to solving the mystery, she also gets deeper into danger.  Nancy, as always, is flanked by faithful friends, Bess and George, and ever loyal boyfriend, Ned, and all of them are true millennials, using emails, texts and an electron bug to solve the mystery.  It is not great writing, but a good solid little mystery for a new generation (or 3rd or 4th generation) of Nancy Drew fans. (171 p.)

The Rat with the Human Face by Tom Angleberger

This is the second adventure of the QwikPick Papers series. After their thrilling adventure to see the Poop Fountain Lyle, Dave and Marilla have been hunting for a new adventure.  They come across what seems to be the perfect quest when they hear a electrician talk about seeing a rat with a human face at a college nature lab near a nearby mountain resort.  The three are determined to get to the resort and see the rat for themselves. The road to the lab is a bumpy one that strains the friendship of the three adventurers, and threatens to destroy the QwikPickadventure club for good. This book was not quite as entertaining as the first.  For one thing, the idea that the kids would actually believe there was a rat with a human face, was just too far out of probability for me. Still the interaction between the three kids is really fun, and the little romantic crush triangle is cute. Angleberger has a good grasp of tween mentality.  Plus, compared to the other one I was reading at the same time (the Sword of Summer), it was a nice quick read. (146 p)

The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan

Here is the first book in the new Magnus Chase series by Rick Riordan.  Magnus is a homeless teen.  He never knew his father, and his mother was killed in a disturbing and mysterious incident involving wolves some years before.  One day he is reunited with his uncles and cousin (Annabeth Chase) which sets off a series of events that leads to him fighting a fire giant from Norse Mythology.  Magnus discovers that his father was actually one of the Norse Gods and is soon on a quest to help prevent the release of the mythical wolf who is the harbinger of Ragnarok. 

Does this sound like a Norse version of the Percy Jackson story?  It is.  It is a little different, in that Magnus is a little older than Percy was when he came to Camp Halfblood, and is a little edgier.  There is a a small amount of swearing in the book, as one would expect from a street kid, and Magnus doesn't have the squeaky clean character of someone like Jason Grace.  It has the same fast-paced, episodic fantasy action as the Percy Jackson books, with a lot of scenes where Magnus or Sam (his female sidekick) are either fighting or outsmarting the monsters.  There is also a lot of pithy humor, sometimes at the expense of the Percy Jackson books.  For example, when Magnus gets his magical weapon, his mentor asks him how he would like to carry it.  He suggests it could be a pen and he could carry it in is pocket.  Magnus replies that the thought of a magic sword disguised as a pen is pretty lame, and he decides to wear it as an amulet instead. If you accept the book for what it is, it is a fun read.  I think I liked it better than the first book in the Kane Chronicles.  It is supposed to be a trilogy like that series, and I will probably read them all. (497 p)

First Born by Tor Seidler

Maggie is a magpie who was born on a farm in Montana.  She makes friends with a young wolf, Blue Boy, who has wandered out of Yellowstone Park.  She follows Blue Boy as he finds and joins a small pack and eventually becomes its leader. Together, Maggie and Blue Boy lead their pack back to the safety of Yellowstone Park, where they brave the wrath of other established packs to make a home for themselves. 

Not many people now days have read the original Bambi book.  It is very different from the Bambi movie, more harsh and raw, and this book reminded me of that one.  Even though the animals are anthropomorphized, the book doesn't gloss over the realities of "kill or be killed" in the wild.  The book was nicely written and I believe the author did quite a bit of research in Yellowstone before writing it.  The forward by the author also notes that he was inspired to write about wolves by his friendship with Jean Craighead George who wrote Julie of the Wolves. (227 p)

The Island of Dr. Libris by Chris Grabenstein

Here is the first in a series by Grabenstein who wrote Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library.  In this story Billy is spending the summer in a vacation cabin owned by the mysterious Dr. X. Libris.  Near the cabin is an island and Billy quickly discovers that when he reads books from Dr. Libris' library, they come true on the island.  With his new friend, Walter, Billy goes to the island where he meets famous character from books; some friends, and other enemies.  Can Billy and Walter keep characters like Hercules and the Three Musketeers from killing each other, while searching for a way to save Billy's parent's marriage?

This was a decent adventure fantasy/science fiction, full of familiar literary characters in funny situations.  The whole premise of an island where imagination becomes real is interesting, and Billy and Walter are endearing characters.  The mental image of Hercules wearing Robin Hood tights that were a little too small tickled my fancy. Grabenstein left the story wide open for a sequel, but I haven't heard when it might be coming out.  I will probably read it. (242)

The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Ada lives with a very abusive mother and her little brother, Jamie, in a flat in London at the beginning of WWII.  Ada was born with a club foot, and her mother refuses to let her leave the flat for fear that someone will see her.  She doesn't educate Ada, or even try to teach her to walk.  When the children are evacuated from London and sent to the country at the beginning of the war, Ada sneaks out with her little brother, and they are sent to a village in the area of Kent.  There they are taken in by a single lady who "doesn't like children." Miss Smith soon finds that caring for the neglected children fills a space in her own empty heart.

This was such a sweet book!  This isn't like Heidi, or Polyanna, where the cheerful young girl brings life to an old lonely person.  Ada arrives with a boat load of emotional issues.  She loves being somewhere where an adult treats her like a real human being, but at the same time, she knows that it is only temporary, and if she opens her mind and heart now, it will only be more painful later.  It takes a lot of patience and time for Ada and Miss Smith to come to trust each other.  Also, the historical detail about the war is interesting.  The reader really gets a sense of what the war might have been like for the British who didn't live in the big cities. I am glad it won the Newbery Honor.

The audio version of this book won the Odyssey award this year.  If you are looking for a great book to listen to alone or with your family, this is a great choice. (320 p.)

Book, My Autobiography by John Agard

There is a new trend in Children's literature to call nonfiction books, "informational" books.
We have recently made that terminology switch in my library.  This book exemplifies why that shift has become popular.  This is an informational book about the history of books.  It it written from the point of view of the book, that is, Book is personified and talking about his history in first person.  "I remember when I was a clay tablet, and scribes wrote on me with a stylus" and that kind of thing. In that respect, it is fictional (because books can't talk, etc), but it does give a lot of information. Book's story covers the whole gamut of history from earliest cave paintings to ebooks.  The narrative is interspersed with quotes and poems.

This is a decent informational book on the topic.  The facts are pretty good and the writing is more entertaining than your average text book.  The one factual over-generalization that bugged me was that they grouped cotton paper and wood pulp paper together as if they were invented at the same general time period.  It said that paper made of plant fibers, both cotton and wood, was invented in the middle ages (or something like that).  Cotton paper was invented in the middle ages, but wood pulp wasn't used for paper until the 1800's.  It was a big deal when wood pulp paper was invented because it made paper way cheaper and easier to produce, but it also caused all that acid paper problem in the 1800's and early 1900's.  This book totally missed all that.

Even with that oversight, it was a pretty good read. Book has a lot of personality and panache.  I expecially liked the conversation between Book and ebook in the last part of the book.  It was pretty funny and reflected the way a lot of old-timer librarians feel about newfangled book formats. (144 p)