New Children's Fiction
The Artsy Smartsy Club by Daniel Manus Pinkwater.
After three Hoboken children and their giant chicken Henrietta begin to appreciate beautiful sidewalk art, they venture into art class and visits to Manhattan.
Bella Baxter Inn Trouble by Jane B. Mason.
Plaster! Paint! Wallpaper! A skunk!
A skunk?! Bella Baxter can't believe her nose. Her parents new dream inn is a disaster! The place is a wreck, her mom and dad are losing their minds, and guests are arriving in a week!
But Bella is one smart cookie -- she knows just where to go for help. When she gets there, she finds more than she imagined. But it's going to take brains, luck, and lots of elbow grease to get the stinky Sea Inn smelling like a rose in time.
Charlie Bone and the castle of mirrors by Jenny Nimmo.
Charlie and his magically gifted friends and relatives work together to rescue Billy Raven, a young orphan, from a mysterious and dangerous couple who have adopted him.
Chasing the falconers by Gordon Korman.
Aidan and Meg Falconer are their parents' only hope. The Falconers are facing life in prison -- unless Aidan and Meg can follow a trail of clues to prove their innocence. The problem? Right now they're trapped in a juvenile detention center. Until they escape one night -- and find themselves on the run, both from the authorities and from a sinister attacker t who has his own reason to stop them. The Falconers must use their wits to make it across the country ... with plenty of tests along the way. Gordon Korman takes readers into FUGITIVE territory -- with thrilling results.
Deliver us from Normal by Kate Klise.
With a mother who buys Christmas cards in August and a younger brother who describes the Trinity as a toasted marshmallow on a graham cracker, life for eleven-year-old Charles Harrisong is anything but normal in Normal, Illinois.
Roughing by Lorna Schultz Nicholson.
In this sequel to Interference, Josh Watson is off to an elite hockey camp for the summer, where he shares a room with Peter Kuiksak, a talented young player from the Northwest Territories. Peter is skilled enough to give Kevin, the star junior player, some serious competition, which causes trouble on and off the ice. Meanwhile, Josh is having difficulty controlling his Type 1 diabetes. When Josh learns that Kevin and his friends are planning to pull a dangerous prank on Peter, he must decide once and for all where his loyalty lies. Book jacket.
Sea surprise by Leo Landry.
Poor Eel. Kate and Dave want to help their friend get his zap back. All they need is a plan-one that doesn't involve biting things, even though Dave's shark teeth are itching to chomp something.
With lots of help from the other sea creatures, the friends come up with the perfect way to jolt Eel's zap back into him. A surprise party is sure to do the trick! But the party starts off with a shock that no one expected.
Taking wing by Nancy Price Graff.
Gus never imagined himself a parent at thirteen. But in the war-fraught summer of 1942, while living on his grandparents' Vermont farm, he adopts a clutch of orphaned duck eggs. Gus can relate to the foundlings, as he is apart from, and yearns for, his own family.
One day Gus finds a young stranger standing over the incubating eggs. Gus doesn't know what to make of her, with her tattered clothing and strange accent, but soon the girl is helping to care for the newly hatched ducklings, and she and Gus become fast friends. Not everyone shares Gus's high opinion of Louise, whose poverty-stricken French-Canadian family is shunned by the townspeople. His attempt to help his friend and her family has some embarrassing consequences and he must make retribution if he is to keep Louise's friendship.
Nancy Price Graff's fluid narrative and exceptional eye for detail follow Gus during a time of food rationing, Victory gardens, watching for enemy planes—and keeping his ducks
from harm.