KEEPER by Kathi Appelt

A.R. Book Level: 5.0
A.R. Points: 8.0
Pages: 399

No one writes a pretty-sounding book quite like Kathi Appelt.  The words that she chooses and the way that she writes them make the story sound almost like a poem.  Keeper tells the tale of ten-year-old Keeper, who sets off in a little rowboat to find her mermaid mother in the Gulf of Mexico for some advice after she completely messes up the lives of everyone she loves.  However, when she gets out into the deep sea and the waters get rough, she starts to doubt her perfect plan to fix everything.  Appelt tells this tale from the perspective of several different characters, and I loved them all.  Just like in another book of hers, The Underneath, this author blends the realistic and the magical beautifully.

GIANTS BEWARE! by Jorge Aguirre

A.R. Book Level:  2.3
A.R. Points:  1.0
Pages:  202

What a great graphic novel!  Giants Beware is funny and a lot of fun to read.  When an old man tells the story of the ruthless Baby Feet Eating giant that supposedly lives on a nearby mountain, three village children set out on an adventure to kill it.  Claudette is a tomboy who wants to be known for her bravery.  Marie is a girly-girl who wants to become a princess.  Gaston is a scaredy-cat who wants to become a famous sword-maker AND a pastry chef.  With nothing in common but friendship, the three set out on a dangerous adventure—and the adults who try to rescue them have an adventure of their own!  Fans of graphic novels, castle tales, and adventure stories should give this one a try.

THE EMERALD ATLAS by John Stephens

A.R. Book Level:  4.9
A.R. Points:  15.0
Pages:  417

Wow!  I just loved this.  It has all the ingredients of a perfect fantasy casserole: dwarves, an underground city, a wizard, a witch, an enchanted book, evil undead soldiers, a cursed town, horrible monsters, and three plucky orphans—at the center of it all—trying to save the town and, ultimately, the world.  The Emerald Atlas is skillfully written.  The three main characters are all lovable, and their personalities are believable.  Reading this reminded me so much of reading The Lord of the Rings, I couldn’t believe it!  Readers who love Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven, Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians, or J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit simply must read this.

TUESDAYS AT THE CASTLE by Jessica Day George

A.R. Book Level: 5.8
A.R. Points: 8.0
Pages: 228

I like a good princess story where the princess is smart and brave and fights her own battles.  ("Oh no, I am trapped in a tower; guess I should just grow my hair"? No thanks.)  In this great story, Princess Celie and her older brother and sister are left on their own in their family's castle when their parents disappear and are presumed dead.  The kids are in danger when someone tries to take over their kingdom, but they have a not-so-secret weapon: a living castle that can change its shape and floor plan depending on its moods.  While the castle tries to protect them, they must also try to protect their beloved castle AND learn the truth about their parents.  

Readers who appreciate a down-to-earth princess--like Miri in Shannon Hale's Princess Academy--or who liked the political intrigue and scheming in Jennifer Nielsen's The False Prince will really enjoy this book.  I couldn't put it down.

EMMY AND THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING RAT by Lynne Jonell

A.R. Book Level: 4.7
A.R. Points: 9.0
Pages: 346

I loved this fun fantasy.  It's not what I would call a scary-creepy book, but there's definitely something weird and a little dark about it... maybe the fact that one of the main characters is a dirty, rude, bite-happy talking rat?  Then there's Emmy, a well-behaved little girl, who is barely noticed by anybody until the day the class pet bites her, and then her adventure begins!  Readers who like the odd, off-beat nature of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events or Tom Llewellyn's The Tilting House will eat this up, but really, anyone who likes a good animal adventure or fantasy should give it a try.  It's both a cool story to read and a big A.R. jackpot (NINE points!).

SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT by Derek Landy

A.R. Book Level: 4.9
A.R. Points: 10.0
Pages: 392

This book is hard to describe.  Maybe Alex Rider meets A Series of Unfortunate Events meets Fablehaven? It’s just really good—how about that?  Stephanie is surprised when her uncle, a successful author, unexpectedly dies and leaves his house to her.  During her first night in her new mansion, though, she is attacked by evil men and rescued by Skulduggery Pleasant, the undead skeleton of a wizard.  Stephanie is drawn into Skulduggery’s world of magic, fireballs, secrets, and a raging battle between good and evil.  This comedy/horror/fantasy hybrid is funny, clever, and fun to read.

SAVVY by Ingrid Law

A.R. Book Level: 6.0
A.R. Points: 9.0
Pages: 342

This long book is definitely worth the effort—it’s a great fantasy!  In Mibs Beaumont’s family, the 13^th birthday is a really important one.  As each family member turns 13, his or her “savvy,” or magical power, appears.  Just before Mibs’ birthday, her father is badly hurt in a terrible accident, and Mibs is desperate for a healing savvy.  But when the big day rolls around, she doesn’t seem to get much of a savvy at all.  She and her siblings and a few new friends set out on a journey to try to help her father anyway, and their adventure is frightening, funny, and sweet.  As a bonus, readers who love this book can go on to read its companion novel, Scumble by Ingrid Law.  

FABLEHAVEN by Brandon Mull

A.R. Book Level: 4.8
A.R. Points: 11.0
Pages: 368

I liked this book and loved the series it kicks off.  Kendra and Seth are a brother and sister sent to spend the summer with their grandparents.  Something seems “off” about the large manor until they learn that their grandparents are caretakers of a sanctuary for mythical and magical creatures and that forces of evil magic are trying to rise up against them.  Some parts of the book were frustrating to read; the author uses the pattern “adults warn children, children ignore warning, disaster ensues” way too often in the plot.  But for readers who love a good fantasy, this is the start of an excellent series.  Beware—once you get started, you may not be able to stop until you’ve read all five 350- to 550-page books!

THE SON OF NEPTUNE by Rick Riordan

A.R. Book Level: 4.7
A.R. Points: 17.0
Pages: 521

I pretty much love anything Rick Riordan writes--especially anything with Percy Jackson in it.  So I knew I would love this book, and I did!  The second book in the "Heroes of Olympus" series, this finds Percy Jackson, with a bad case of amnesia, at a camp for Roman (not Greek) demigods.  He doesn't know where he came from, but he knows that he has power over water, that trouble is brewing, and that his new Roman friends need his help.  He sets out on a fate-of-the-world kind of quest with a group of underdogs and meets plenty of mythological beings along the way; basically, it's your standard Rick Riordan stuff.  But like your standard Rick Riordan stuff, it's SO much fun to read.  One warning: this book has a lot of references to little details in past books.  Readers who really want to "get" everything should have already read Riordan's entire Percy Jackson and the Olympians series as well as The Lost Hero (which are all terrific, by the way).

THE LIGHTNING THIEF, novel by Rick Riordan, graphic novel by Robert Venditti

NOVEL:
A.R. Book Level: 4.7
A.R. Points: 13.0
Pages: 377

GRAPHIC NOVEL:
A.R. Book Level: 3.1
A.R. Points: 1.0

I just LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the entire series that starts with this story!  Percy Jackson is a middle school kid who always seems to be getting into trouble and out of schools (as in “kicked out”).  Things finally start to make sense when he ends up at a training camp for demigods (half-human, half-gods), but things start to get dangerous when he’s accused of stealing from a god—a crime he didn’t commit!  Readers who are up for tackling 377 pages of fantasy adventure need to pick up Rick Riordan’s novel.  Readers who want a quicker, more reasonable read should try Robert Venditti’s graphic novel version.  It’s actually a really good rendition of the original story.

THE HOBBIT by J.R.R. Tolkien

A.R. Book Level: 6.6
A.R. Points: 16.0
Pages: 317

This is an old favorite of mine and one of the very best fantasies for kids, in my opinion.  Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit, joins Gandalf the wizard and a group of dwarves in their quest to get back a stolen treasure.  Along the way, he fights trolls, goblins, and giant spiders, and he picks up a certain ring that will be very important in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings series (*hint, hint, wink, wink*).  Did I mention I’m CRAZY about Tolkien? Did I? Another bonus: this book can earn you monster AR points.  The graphic novel version by Chuck Dixon is a really good rendition, too.

THE TILTING HOUSE by Tom Llewellyn

A.R. Book Level: 4.5
A.R. Points: 5.0
Pages: 150

In this story, brothers Josh and Aaron move with their parents and grandfather into the Tilting House—a big, creepy old house where all the floors are literally tilted 3 degrees and where it looks like a madman scratched insane scientific formulas all over the walls.  Their creepy adventures involve meeting a talking rat (who is also hungry for revenge), thwarting the plans of evil funeral directors, and digging for a body in their crawlspace as they solve some of the mysteries of this weird house.  This book was more episodic in nature, meaning that it told the characters’ adventures almost separately, whereas in most kids’ books the characters are working towards some goal or quest or personal growth.  These kids are more or less just having adventures… but they’re entertaining adventures!  It’s a quick, fun read that will appeal to fans of Lynne Jonell’s  Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat, Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, and Adam Gidwitz’s A Tale Dark and Grimm.

INVISIBLE INKLING by Emily Jenkins

A.R. Book Level: 3.6
A.R. Points: 3.0
Pages: 154

This book is a cute story, best for 3^rd or 4^th graders (or ambitious 2^nd graders).  Hank is a fourth-grader who accidentally meets Inkling, an invisible bandapat that feasts on squash.  After Hank saves Inkling from a tiny dog, Inkling vows to help Hank deal with a bully at school.  The book has a lot of great humor, but only one thing bothers me: there is a part where Hank reacts to the bully by saying something incredibly cruel, and his guilt over his cruelty lasts for the rest of the book, but he never apologizes. It's like he solves his bully problem by becoming a bully himself.  I know my students have too strong a sense of right and wrong to accept that as a good ending.  But beside that one disappointment, this is an entertaining book.    

A TALE DARK AND GRIMM by Adam Gidwitz

A.R. Book Level: 4.6
A.R. Points: 6.0
Pages: 256

Fans of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline and The Graveyard Book are really going to love this.  Before Disney movies came along and told us not-too-scary fairy tales filled with singing birds and adorable talking animals, we had the versions of the stories written by the brothers Grimm.  This book tips its hat to those scary and violent Grimm tales.  Hansel and Gretel are a prince and princess who unfortunately have their heads cut off by their father (but live!).  When they leave the castle to try to find better parents, they stumble into a handful of adventures inspired by original Grimm tales.  This book is not for the faint of heart—it may be the only one in the library where a main character cuts off her own finger!—but if you can handle all the gory details, it’s a really fun book to read. Don’t worry: there IS a happy ending.  

SMALL PERSONS WITH WINGS by Ellen Booraem

A.R. Book Level: 4.2
A.R. Points: 9.0
Pages: 302

I really enjoyed reading this book, but it’s definitely pushing the “Young Adult” age level; that doesn’t mean elementary kids can’t read it, but I would recommend it most to my 4th- and 5th-grade girls.  Mellie, a middle-schooler, has never lived down her social ruin from telling her kindergarten class that she had a real fairy (she actually did, but he vanished before she could prove it).  When Mellie and her parents move to her grandfather’s weird, fairy-filled hotel, she and a new friend must save the fairies from a secret plot to control their magic.  I love how Mellie solves her own problems and learns to be cool and confident while still believing in fairies.   

MUSEUM OF THIEVES by Lian Tanner

A.R. Book Level: 4.6
A.R. Points: 9.0
Pages: 312

I feel like the deep voice on movie previews that says “In a world…”.  


In a world where children are chained to their parents and caretakers for their own safety, twelve-year-old Goldie escapes the adults and hides out at the town’s weird museum, which stores away all things magical or threatening to the people of the city.  The caretakers of the museum, including Goldie, make sure that these “threats” don’t get out, but the drama escalates when a crooked public official tries to use the dangerous things inside the museum for his own purposes.  This reminded me of Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven series and was a lot of fun to read.

BREADCRUMBS by Anne Ursu

A.R. Book Level: 4.8
A.R. Points: 9.0
Pages: 312

I just loved this.  It’s a book about a world of magic and fairy tales hidden within the real one, but it’s also about the tricky part of growing up where childhood and adolescence start to overlap and friendships are tested.  Hazel and Jack had always been best friends, but after a bizarre accident on the playground, Jack stops being friends with Hazel and, within a few days, disappears.  When Hazel learns that Jack went off into enchanted woods, she goes in to find him, but she doesn’t know if he’ll even want to be friends when she gets to him.  This is a modern spin on Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale “The Snow Queen” and a must-read for fans of Frances O’Roark Dowell’s Falling In.

THE MOSTLY TRUE STORY OF JACK by Kelly Barnhill

A.R. Book Level: 5.0
A.R. Points: 10.0
Pages: 323

I thought the plot of this book would tie in somehow with the “Jack and the Beanstalk” story, but I was wrong.  It was, however, still a really compelling tale of magic at work in the world.  Jack has barely been noticed by anyone his whole life—his parents, his teachers, other kids at school—but when he moves to a new town to stay with his aunt and uncle, suddenly everyone can see him, everyone seems to be on edge, and even his new house seems to be almost alive when he’s there.  He and his new friends have to juggle both a nasty town bully and a creepy mystery about a magical woman who lives underground and steals away children. It’s a long read, but a good one.