mystery – Page 8 – Mom Read It

Adventure, Fiction, Middle Grade, Tween Reads

STEM Siblings: Nick and Tesla are back!

Posted on May 18, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Nick and Tesla’s Solar-Powered Showdown, by “Science Bob” Pflugfelder and Steve Hocksmith/Illustrated by Scott Garrett (May 2016, Quirk Books), $12.95, ISBN: 978-1-59474-866-0

Recommended for ages 8-12

Super smart siblings Nick (short for Nicolas) and Tesla are back, and so is Uncle Newt, plus friends Silas, and DeMarco! Nick and Tesla are having a heck of a summer: their parents are still missing, and all signs point to them being kidnapped, possibly by an evil mastermind. This latest installment in the popular middle grade mystery series has brother and sister working together to create all sorts of solar-powered gadgets that will get the attention of their government contact, distract the bad guys, and save the day. Let’s hope it’s enough!

This is such a fun series for middle graders, because it puts the power in their hands. Nick and Tesla are competent, smart kids that aren’t middle school pariahs; they have fun, wacky friends, and they have a strong, supportive – if eccentric – family. They can MacGuyver a solution to seemingly every problem: from getting a secret agent’s attention, to cooking hot dogs using a Pringles container and solar power. The best part? The kids can recreate the experiments! As with the other books in the Nick and Tesla series, Solar-Powered Showdown features five projects readers can make along with the twins: a a hot dog cooker, listening device, nighttime LED signal cannon, range rover, and alarm bell. All solar-powered, and all easy to make (with adult supervision).

You don’t need to be intimately familiar with the series to pick this one up – this is the first book I’ve read in the series; it’s been on my “to get to” list for a while – because the text will fill you in, usually via humorous footnotes, on what’s happened in the previous books. A note at the beginning of the book lets parents and kids alike know that project instructions should be reviewed by an adult, and that adults should supervise and assist on each project. The instructions are detailed, numbered, and illustrated, really encouraging kids to go for it and create exciting, sustainable things!

The Nick and Tesla website has videos, educator guides, book excerpts, and downloadable shopping lists, by book, for each of the projects featured in the novels. You can submit your own work for them to check out, too.

I’m working on a lot of STEM/STEAM ideas for Summer Reading, so this series will be on display, along with Gene Luen Yang’s Secret Coders and HowToons graphic novels (the second Secret Coders book is due out in August!), and Jon Sciezska’s Frank Einstein series of novels. Get kids thinking and creating this summer!

Need more ideas? Science Bob has tons of them on his own website, and his Instagram has some very cool science facts and videos, like Tesla coils at work and BB8 droids under construction.

Fantasy, Fiction, Fiction, Intermediate, Middle Grade, Tween Reads

Science, Mystery, and Magic: The Peculiar Haunting of Thelma Bee

Posted on May 10, 2016May 10, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Peculiar Haunting of Thelma Bee, by Erin Petti/Illustrated by Kris Aro McLeod, (Sept. 2016, Mighty Media), $16.99, ISBN: 9781938063725

Recommended for ages 9-13

Eleven year-old Thelma Bee is always doing something. She’s reading, she’s working on science experiments, she’s hanging out with her best friend – a guy! – Alexander. Her father runs an antique shop in town and her mother is always off on some kind of adventure, exploring and searching for different animals, so she’s got adventuring and imagination in her blood. When a dour woman shows up at her father’s shop with a small box, things start going very, very wrong: her father is kidnapped by a ghost that very night, and it’s up to Thelma, Alexander, and a local group of ghost hunters to get him back safely. It’s a scary mission, but one Thelma has to undertake – and she’ll learn a lot about herself in the process.

The Peculiar Haunting of Thelma Bee is so much fun! Middle graders are going to love the smart, spunky middle grader that doesn’t care about the mean girls and their dopey fashion choices – she has better things to do. When her dad is kidnapped by a ghost, right in front of her, she charges into action, amassing the facts she knows and researching what she needs to fill in the gaps of her knowledge and save her dad. She’s a great heroine for middle graders, girls and boys alike, because she shows that science, facts, and a clear path of reasoning will get you through some tough times.

The book is fast-paced, leading us into action pretty quickly, and not letting any lag set in. I’ll be booktalking this one hard, and pairing her with Hermione (Harry Potter) and Annabeth (Percy Jackson) for my fantasy-loving readers. Put this one right next to Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, Sally Gardner’s Wings & Co. series, and Karen Foxlee’s Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy to create a solid girl-power reading display.

The book trailer is below, and you can visit Mighty Media’s Thelma Bee page here. Erin Petti’s author page is here.

If you’re going to be at BEA/Book Con this week, I am SO envious! Have a great time, and visit Mighty Media at Booth 2170 when you get a chance! They’ll be at BookCon from 10am-6pm, and Erin Petti will be signing ARC’s of The Peculiar Haunting of Thelma Bee at 1PM, with a bookstore event to follow at 5pm at (Uncharted Books).

Animal Fiction, Fiction, Intermediate

The Great Mouse Detective returns!

Posted on May 7, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Basil of Baker Street (The Great Mouse Detective), by Eve Titus/Illustrated by Paul Galdone, (May 2016, Aladdin), $5.95, ISBN: 9781481464017

Recommended for ages 6-9

When I was growing up, I loved The Great Mouse Detective. He was a gateway to Sherlock Holmes, I later realized, and I’m sure other people in my age group (Generation X, can I get a holler?) agree. I am thrilled that Aladdin is bringing The Great Mouse Detective series back and introducing Basil and Dawkins to a new audience of readers!

Basil of Baker Street is a mouse detective, and Dr. David Q. Dawson is his faithful sidekick and chronicler. Living in late 19th-century London, Basil is the Sherlock Holmes of the Mouseworld and Dawson is his Watson. Together, the duo learn at the feet of the great Sherlock Holmes, as he recounts his adventures, further fueling Basil’s desire to be the greatest mouse detective ever. In Basil of Baker Street, the two have helped establish the community of Holmestead, a small mouse village located comfortably in the basement of 221B Baker Street – they live in Sherlock Holmes’s basement. One night, as Basil and Dawkins are leaving Holmes’ apartments upstairs, their mousekeeper, Mrs. Judson (yes!! Mrs. Judson!), comes to them in distress: the Proudfoot mouse twin sisters have been mousenapped! Basil and Dawkins are on the case, and every turn of the page is a delight.

I read this on my lunch hour and had a huge smile on my face the entire time. Grownups, re-read this book. Read this book to your kids, your nieces and nephews, your students, your friends’ kids – just read it and read it to kids. It’s such a great little adventure, with adorable, well-written, smart characters and a fun whodunit that ends safely for all. This is a great read for first and second graders who are ready to take the leap from beginner chapter books like Scholastic’ Branches series, and it’s a book so many parents and grandparents (the book was first published in 1958). Paul Galdone’s black and white illustrations will bring you back and keep your little one’s attention: Galdone’s illustrated fairy tales are still being published, so show your kids those books and ask them if the art looks familiar!

When you’re done enjoying the book together, pull up the movie (1986) and curl up together. It’s available on Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, iTunes, and GooglePlay. Seriously, it’s a classic: Basil Rathbone, the Sherlock Holmes I grew up with, voices Sherlock Holmes and Vincent Price voices the evil Professor Ratigan. And then enjoy this BuzzFeed article, because they’re big fans, too.

Fiction, Middle Grade, Middle School, Tween Reads

Framed! Gives us a new tween sleuth, Florian Bates

Posted on May 1, 2016February 22, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Framed! A Florian Bates Mystery, by James Ponti (Aug. 2016, Aladdin), $16.99, ISBN: 9781481436304

Recommended for ages 8-12

Florian Bates is a 12 year-old seventh grader in Washington DC. He’s the new kid in school, he likes pizza and egg rolls, he’s in the Scrabble Club, and he’s on the FBI’s speed dial. Florian is like a young Sherlock Holmes: he notices all the small details that people often overlook. He’s even got a cool acronym for it: TOAST, short for Theory of All Small Things. His dad designs security systems for museums and his mother restores paintings, so he’s developed an eye for the details. When he teaches his TOAST theory to his new friend, Margaret, they foil an art theft that saves the National Gallery millions of dollars, Florian finds himself on the FBI’s speed dial – and possibly on a crime syndicate’s hit list!

Framed! is a fun whodunit for tweens. Florian is Sherlock Holmes without the intimidating presence, and Margaret is a sidekick with the promise of becoming more involved in future books. I love the TOAST theory and the detail with which Ponti describes and illustrates various ways to apply it; it’s a great talent to hone and a smart and fun way to communicate it to readers. As the mother of a tween who can stare into a refrigerator and tell me there’s no milk, simply because the container isn’t dancing and jumping into his arms when he opens the door, I thoroughly support teaching kids the importance of noticing the details.

The story is light and fun, and kids will appreciate that, FBI consultant or not, Florian’s parents aren’t letting him solve any mysteries until he gets his homework done. This is a good selection for libraries (personal, school, or public) where kids need a good mystery and are ready to move on from A to Z Mysteries.

James Ponti is the author of the Dead City series, a middle grade series that follows the adventures of Molly, a tween zombie hunter, in New York City.

Animal Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Humor, Intermediate, Middle Grade

The Nocturnals: The Mysterious Abductions introduces a new bunch of woodland friends

Posted on April 18, 2016April 19, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Nocturnals: The Mysterious Abductions, by Tracey Hecht/Illustrated by Kate Liebman (April 2016, Fabled Films), $15.99, ISBN: 9781944020002

Recommended for ages 7-12

Animal fiction fans, get ready: there’s a new group in town, and they only go on adventures at night. The Nocturnals, or as they refer to themselves, the Brigade, are Dawn, a smart and serious fox; Tobin, a very sweet pangolin, and Bismark, a loud, well-meaning but self-centered sugar glider. (Don’t call him a squirrel or a bat!) Shortly after the three meet, they find themselves investigating a mystery: animals are disappearing! As the Nocturnals search for answers, they meet other animals along the way that will help them – but can they avoid being kidnapped by the mysterious culprit?

The Nocturnals is a fun, packed with humor and a little shot of adventure for intermediate and middle grade readers. Color artwork by Kate Liebman adds interest and kicks off each chapter, and she captures the various personalities created by author Tracey Hecht. Bismark is almost hilariously over the top, slipping into different languages, professing his love for Dawn, the fox, and making sure everyone within earshot knows he’s the star of the show, if only in his imagination. Dawn is observant, often serious, and quick to figure things out (she is a fox, after all), and Tobin is the kind peacemaker who finds his self-esteem on this first outing. Book 2, The Ominous Eye, is due out in September.

I like the positive messages in the book – teamwork and keeping promises among them – and I like the use of animals we don’t normally discover on adventures: sugar gliders, wombats, and tobins! The book provides a great opportunity to introduce these animals to children’s vocabulary, and indeed, The Nocturnals website has some excellent educator resources available, including printable animal fact cards, book club questions, coloring sheets, and resources for ELA and Science education. I was excited to see a book club script suggestion, so I can get my readers busy acting the parts out (since book discussions don’t work with my kids, this is an interesting and fun project to approach them with). The Nocturnals website also offers to send a free cape for your stuffed animal if you join their Brigade!

Animal fiction is great for intermediate and middle graders – The Nocturnals should be a good fit with collections. Booktalk and display this with your Erin Hunter books (Warriors/Seekers/Survivors), the Spirit Animals series, and Kathryn Lasky’s Guardians of Ga’Hoole and Horses of the Dawn series.

Take a look at the book trailer for The Mysterious Abductions.

Fantasy, Science Fiction, Steampunk, Teen, Young Adult/New Adult

A Curse of Ash & Iron – YA with a little steampunk, a little fairy tale

Posted on December 5, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

A Curse of Ash & Iron, by Christine Norris (May 2015, Curiosity Quills Press), $16.99, ISBN: 978-1620078853

Recommended for ages 13+

Eleanor lost her mother when she was a child, and has been living under her evil stepmother’s thumb ever since. She’s a stranger to her beloved father; indeed, to everyone she once knew – her stepmother has managed to bewitch her so that no one will recognize her. Living as a servant in her own home and forced to wear a stranger’s face in public, Ellie is in for a bleak future until her childhood best friend, Ben Grimm, sees through the spell and recognizes her. Together, guided by a mysterious benefactor, Ellie may have a chance to regaining her life after all.

Heavily influenced by Cinderella, this steampunk fairy tale is great YA reading for girls who like a little steam power in their romance. Ellie isn’t a simpering, fainting Victorian heroine; she’s a smart, determined young woman who is darned angry about the way her life has gone, and she’s going to fight to get it all back. The evil stepmother is truly an awful human being – you’ll be waiting the entire book for a giant anvil to fall out of the sky and bean her, I promise you – and Ben, as the long-lost childhood friend, has his own subplot about his personal quest for independence that will put you firmly in his corner.

Great characters, steam and brass, and a familiar fairy tale feel to comfort you on days when you just want to be a kid again. A Curse of Ash & Iron is the book for your burgeoning steampunk collection. If your readers aren’t quite ready for Gail Carriger’s Finishing School assassins, they’ll love Ellie and her friends. Historical notes at the novel’s end will appeal to history buffs!

Author Christine Norris offers printable goodies on her website, along with some extra content geared toward librarians. Give her some love, she’s one of our tribe!

Fiction, Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Tween Reads

Playing Juliet is perfect for middle grade drama fans!

Posted on November 27, 2015November 27, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Playing Juliet, by JoAnne Stewart Wetzel (Nov. 2015, Sky Pony Press), $15.99, ISBN: 9781634501835

Recommended for ages 9-14

Twelve year-old Beth wants nothing more than to be an actress. She participates in her local children’s theatre productions and gets great reactions, but her parents think this is just “kid stuff” and push her toward being a lawyer, just like her dad. When the announcement that the children’s theatre is going to close, though, Beth and her best friend, Zandy, are crushed. The theatre director announces that the last play the company will put on will be the first play that opened the theatre 50 years ago – Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet – and Beth is beside herself. She’s desperately wanted to play Juliet, but she’s grounded and can’t even audition. How is she going to be part of this production? Even more important, how can she make her parents understand that acting, not law, is her true passion?

Playing Juliet is loaded with theatre fan terms and inside secrets. Every chapter begins with a quote from Shakespeare, and the text itself is full of superstition (did you know that wearing real jewels or the color blue can be considered bad luck?) and behind-the-scenes action. Beth is a likable heroine with a likable best friend and strong support group around her. She’s also got the relatable frustration of having her parents choose her career path for her (my dad always told me I was going to be a doctor), and the dual dread of disappointing them or having them trivialize her desire to be an actress. Her parents aren’t the bad guys here, either – they just want what’s best for their daughter, and are supportive of her in every other way, including fair discipline, as you’ll see in the story.

Tweens – particularly girls – are going to enjoy this book for the strong female characters and the bravery they display in fighting for what they believe in. It’s a solid story about friendship, family, taking chances, and pursuing your goals. Author’s notes about the theatre and quotes from Shakespeare round out this novel. Pair this with Raina Telgemeier’s Drama for middle schoolers!

Fantasy, Fiction, Teen, Uncategorized, Young Adult/New Adult

Blog Tour: Poet Anderson … Of Nightmares – and a Giveaway!

Posted on November 8, 2015November 8, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Jonas Anderson is a teenager who’s had a recent run of hard luck. His parents are dead, recently killed in a plane crash, and his older brother, Alan, is in a coma after a car crash. Jonas is no ordinary teen, though – he’s also Poet Anderson, a Lucid Dreamer – someone who can walk around in dreams and interact with other dreamers – who’s on the run from REM, an evil being who lives in the Dreamscape. Poets like Jonas are special dreamers; they can guide lost dreamers who accidentally find themselves in the Dreamscape. And REM wants to use Jonas to gain entry into the Waking World, where he can spread his terror net even wider, controlling everyone’s dreams and trapping them in a world of nightmares.

Poet Anderson …Of Nightmares is the first book in a new YA/New Adult series by musician Tom DeLonge, who you may remember from Blink 182, and New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Young. Conceived of by DeLonge as a multimedia experience, there’s also a soundtrack, a comic book series, and an prequel animated film, Poet Anderson: The Dream Walker, which won Best Animation at the Toronto International Short Film Festival last year. And the animation is truly gorgeous, just take a look:

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Poet Anderson …Of Nightmares is kind of like The Matrix, but with dreams. We live in two separate realms, but a handful of people can move between the Dreamscape and the Waking World, fighting evil and protecting the rest of us regular dreamers here in the Waking World. Jonas, despite having a brutal run of it recently, deals with his grief, knuckles down to stay in school and hold down a job while learning more about his talents. Jarabec, a Dream Walker who becomes Jonas’ mentor in the Dreamscape, helps keep him safe while educating him and training him for battles to come. Jonas is a likable character who you want to root for; you want this poor kid to catch a break for once.

The characters surrounding Jonas are also vivid, coming off the page and taking up space in your imagination. Jarabec is a gritty, curmudgeonly mentor that you respect and ultimately love. The Dream Walkers – the foot soldiers in this battle – will both irritate and impress, like the antiheroes they kind of are. Night Terrors will make you think about all the crazy times you thought of the monsters in your closet or under your bed and wonder whether you were maybe just a little right after all.

I thoroughly enjoyed this first book, and was very happy with the way DeLonge and Young left a thread for the next book hanging there, dangling, waiting for readers to take the bait.

The first book is available right now, and for more information about the graphic novels, music, and full animated video, check out Tom DeLonge’s website, To the Stars Media. To join the book club community, find out about the director’s cut of the book with rich media content, visit the Eden Hotel Book Club.

Want your own copy of Poet Anderson? There’s a giveaway! Good luck!

Just click here to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway!

Poet Anderson …Of Nightmares, by Tom DeLonge and Suzanne Young
Hardcover, 368 pages, $17.99
ISBN: 978-1-943272-00-06
Publication Date: November 1, 2015
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

Fiction, Horror, Middle Grade, Middle School, Tween Reads

Took – You’ll never look at your dolls the same way again

Posted on November 2, 2015November 1, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Took, by Mary Downing Hahn (Sept. 2015, Clarion Books), $16.99, ISBN: 9780544551534

Recommended for ages 10-14

Local legend says that Old Auntie takes a new girl every 50 years to slave for the old witch. Once she’s worn out, she lets her go and takes another. And the girl let go never lives for long after.

Daniel and his sister Erica are new to West Virginia when they hear this story. It sounds ridiculous, right? And Daniel has more on his mind than worrying about some crazy old fairy tale. His family has relocated from Connecticut to this ramshackle house with a history in West Virginia after his father’s layoff. The kids at school are awful, and Erica withdraws further into herself and her doll, Little Erica. But when Erica disappears one night, word is that she’s been “took” – especially when a girl who looks like the one who disappeared 50 years before shows up wearing Erica’s clothes. His family is falling apart, and Daniel knows it’s up to him to get his sister back and make things right.

This book wraps itself around you like a fall chill. You can feel it creeping through you, but you can’t quite get it out of your bones until you finish it. Ms. Hahn creates a tale that had me searching the Web to find out if this was an actual local legend, it’s so fleshed out and believable. She gives us solid characters with issues we can certainly understand, possibly even empathize with – unemployment, underemployment, being bullied for being the new kid at school, and watching the cracks in one family threaten to tear it apart. It’s a very human story set within a paranormal thriller, and it’s a great read for kids who have aged out of Goosebumps and are ready for a little something more.

Mary Downing Hahn is an award-winning children’s book author and former children’s librarian (whoo hoo!). You can check out her author page and see a complete list of her books and read an FAQ with Ms. Hahn.

gaming, geek, geek culture, Humor, Realistic Fiction, Teen, Young Adult/New Adult

Geek Mystery – The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss

Posted on October 29, 2015October 28, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss, by Max Wirestone (Oct. 2015, Red Hook Books), $20, ISBN: 978-0316385978

Recommended for ages 14+

Geeks finally have a Jessica Fletcher to call their own (That’s the detective from the old TV show, Murder, She Wrote – ask your parents, kids)! Meet Dahlia Moss – twenty-something geek girl who doesn’t make the best life decisions. She’s unemployed, unattached, and broke, living off her eccentric roommate for the time being. When Charice, her roommate, throws another one of her crazy parties, Dahlia finds herself being hired for private detective work by one of the guests, Jonah – it seems that someone stole a valuable artifact from him through his MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game – think World of Warcraft, for any uninitiated reading this). Dahlia has zero detecting experience, but she does speak geek, and Jonah flashes a lot of money her way, so she takes the case. The plot only thickens when Jonah turns up dead shortly after. Now, Dahlia’s determined to find the artifact, the killer, and quite possibly, a new boyfriend. Let’s hope her decision-making abilities improve!

Told in the first person from Dahlia’s point of view, this is an often hilarious, readable, fun, whodunit. We’ve got a new heroine for the geek age in Dahlia Moss, who’s self-conscious, sarcastic, and fluent in fandom. If you love a good mystery – heck, even if you don’t, but love science fiction, gaming, fantasy, or any kind of fandom, this is a great book for you. Wirestone is a librarian, and if there’s one thing I know about our people, the Geek is strong with us. She humorously captures the strange bedfellows that online gaming makes of us all, and manages to weave together a smartly layered mystery and a love of all things quirky and geek. Dahlia Moss herself is wonderfully left of center and will appeal to anyone whose square peg just won’t fit into that round hole, no matter how hard we try.

Teens and college students will get a kick out of this book and likely try to figure out how their own social groups match up to Dahlia and her friends. Here’s hoping we get some more Dahlia adventures in the future!