Here is a story dealing with the complexities of friendship. Two friends both sign up for the BIG RACE. They both want to win. How wiill Sox honestly help his friend Tab improve Tab’s running time when the outcome could cause Sox to loose the race. At the story’s beginning Sox is the faster runner.

As it turns out, friend helps friend to be his best. First, Sox helps Tab train for the race.  Then, Tab helps Sox make it to the finish line after Sox is injured in a fall during the race.

Includes discussion questions and an activity.

Young Scooby-Doo fans will enjoy solving this mystery by studying Duendes del Sur’s illustrations. They will also enjoy seeing Velma, Fred, Daphne, Shaggy, & Scooby-Doo, plus 15+ other words in rebus form during the reading of the story.

The gang is out in the field helping Velma’s Uncle Ted find dinosaur bones for the museum when the previously discovered bones disappear. Scooby-Doo to the rescue!

Lost in the River of Grass, the story of a two teenagers lost in the Everglades, is an absolute nail-biting, breath holding page-turner.

Written by a native Floridian, Ginny Rorby, this young adult novel appears on the Truman Award final nominee list for 2013-14.

The adventure story of how a local boy, and an urban girl ostracized by her field-trip classmates, survive four days in the Everglades with nothing but a knife, a can of Spam, and half a bottle of Gatorade, while wading neck high in swamp water and fending off alligators, wild boars, fire ants, cottonmouth, water moccasin and rattlesnakes, will keep the reader’s heart racing. An excerpt from chapter 13 provides a example of the suspense:

I raise my head to look at the gator, estimating the distance between us to be only about ten yards. It has closed its eyes, but there is something else moving through the grasses near the trail…Whatever it is slides slowly beneath the flattened grasses…”There’s another, Andy!” I grab his arm. My cry startles the gator, but it’s too late. Like a flash of lightning, a giant snake strikes the side of the gator’s face. “Holy Christ.” Andy jumps up and jerks me to my feet. I bite my fist to keep from screaming. Blood whooshes in my ears. Minutes ago, Andy and I walked right past that snake.

Issues of class, bullying, and race make this more than just an adventure story. However, this book is so suspenseful that the reader will be tempted to read the entire 255 pages in one sitting to discover whether the teens (and the orphaned ducking the girl rescues) will make it out unscathed.

Thirty four action filled baseball stories by authors including Zane Grey, James Thurber and Garrison Keillor, make up this expanded edition of Baseball’s Best Short Stories. Featured stories begin with the famous baseball poem from 1888, Ernest Thayer’s ‘Casey at the Bat’ and continuing with stories from the early 1900’s, into the 1920’s, through the 1940’s and 50’s, and into modern times with Brendan DuBois’ 2001 ‘A Family Game.’  This collection reflects the best stories of American’s favorite past time and will be enjoyed by any baseball fan.

Chasing Evil is book two in this Beast Quest series, and as such, it does not stand alone; it is necessary to read book one in order to understand what drives Tanner and how Gwen came to the story.  The legend has it that whomever wears the Death Mask will control the five magical beasts of Avantia and, therefore, control Avantia.  After the death of the last Death Mask wearer, the mask was broken in four pieces and hidden throughout Avantia.  An evil army is now on the march to retrieve all the pieces of the Death Mask and thus rule Avantia.  Apparently the evil tyrant who last wore the Death Mask has a trace of mortality left and needs the Death Mask to become whole again.  Similar to Voldemort not being all there in the first few Harry Potter novels.  Tanner is revealed as the first ‘chosen rider’ to have a magic beast and is on a quest to find the other pieces.  The last words of his dying grandmother send him to a mapmaker of a nearby village who will help him.  There he meets Gwen, the second ‘chosen rider’ whose beast is a wolf.  Gwen’s jealous, competitive twin brother turns traitor and gives the evil General Gor the locations of the mask pieces.  This is all in book one.  Then, in book two, the one reviewed here, much of the beginning goes about explaining in a not so exciting way, the story from book one.  Here, Tanner and a disbelieving Gwen, go to rescue her twin brother, Geffen.  As they come to another village which has been destroyed by General Gor, they meet Castor, the third ‘chosen rider,’ who beast is a lion.  The three of them team up to go on the hunt for Geffen and the mask pieces.  Where they find him and events surrounding his rescue are exciting, there isn’t really quite enough in this book to give the reader a reason to keep going onto books three and four.  I am curious as to how the beasts play a part in Avantia, but it sure is taking a long time to get to the point.  Many, many battles with unkillable army leaders.

Author, Bridget Heos, sets to hook her readers by comparing and contrasting real spider silk with that in the Spider Man movies. She follows this by going down to the cellular level of spider silk for comparison. While spider silk is extremely strong the practicality of trying to collect it is not easy.

In steps the genetic research scientists to isolate the spider silk gene and implant it into goat embryos, alfalfa, bacteria,  and silkworms. Next they must extract the spider silk milk and be able to turn it into actual silk.

Heos introduces the reader to the scientists and their lives when not engaged in the laboratory work. For example, they raise the goats, playing with them, and giving them a normal goats’ life outside of the testing. Photographer, Andy Comins, gives us a close up of a spider named Piggy Two on page 45. The sidebar reads- ” Piggy Two is taped down so that silk can be extracted. It will make her tired but will not hurt her. She is given a sip of water and a cricket before the process begins.”

Heos brings up the ethical side of genetic research. All of this is done for the betterment of the world. Cruelty is not practiced. But one issue brought up is how others ( non-scientists) see this work. When working with genetically modified alfalfa, what happens when the neighboring farmer’s field is outside the testing area (say the farmer is trying to raise organic alfalfa) but the bees pollinating the field cross the fence line? Now the genetic test subjects are on both sides of the fence, whether that was the plan or not.   Three-quarters of the way through the book, there is a “Be a Part of the Discussion” section.

The ‘quest’ mentioned in the subtitle had not been reached at the time of publication, but this book is thought provoking!

As Book 3 of the Witches at War series begins, Sam has come along way from being an orphan apprenticed to an old witch, to being a gorgeously dressed, lavishly housed prisoner of Diabolica Nightshade. “On the night of the Midwinter Moon she[ Diabolica] is going to crown herself Wicked but Lovely Witch Queen of All the World. All this is very bad.” Diabolic taunts Sam about her being good and succeeds in enraging Sam. Sam decides to go NASTY even to the point of turning her best friend into a zombie-witch. Diabolica is convinced Sam is evil, after Sam offers and takes a ‘truth potion’. No one can lie after taking the truth potion, but while Sam is telling the truth, it is not the whole truth, because the right questions have not been asked of her. Diabolica’s coronation turns into a battle field with spells flying threw the air. Diabolica’s only competitor for the Witch Queen of All the World, Esmelia, is leading the battle charge against Diaboica, but it is Esmelia’a secret admirer, who leads the wizards into the fray, as the battle seems lost, that wins for the ‘better’ of two evils.

Tween girls now have a super hero group to call their own! The Ultra Violets!  The cover art by”Emmy-nominated animation character design artist, best known for his work on the hit Cartoon Network shows Dexter’s Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, and Samuri Jack… ” Chris Battle  will draw in the readers. Next, the book is published in purple ink! The Fuchsia is now – dawns the cover.

Four 2nd grade best girlfriends , whose mothers all hold PhDs,  are being baby-sat in a lab at Fascination Laboratory, or FLab, when an accident exposes them to “blue-red goo splattered all over the ninja-princess-samurai-schoolgirls… Heliotropium, the liquefied post-atomic hybrid particle capable of genetically altering any bio-organism on earth.” [Reminds me of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]  Fast forward four years, the  BFF girls are now reunited in middle school and are having a sleepover. Perhaps its puberty, the author doesn’t say, but ‘freaky talents‘  are developing in three of the four friends: purple hair & the ability to change the color of objects, the ability to solve complex math equations with ease, and the ability to out dance anyone on the planet while doing cool ninja moves. The fourth girl has always been the quiet one of the group, but not having any super powers, soon becomes a problem. Then once her super powers emerge – she is the evil one.

Author, Sophie Bell, has captured ‘tween years. Sophie talks directly to the readers at times as on page 96,  “But yes! This chapter also involves a flash of brilliance. A hint of romance. A dash of jealousy. And a lavender dog.” There are numerous take-offs on famous books, characters, etc. : orange brick road, Forever Twenty Fun, Build-a-Girl Workshop, Victoria Shush [Secret] ,Cinnaubonpain, simple is as simple does, with great responsibility, Cher- I’ve got you babes…   And let’s not forget the ‘tween style of talking with IDK  &  NBD, shortened words, and combined words [viomazing] only ‘tweens can understand.

BeauTek housed in the Mall of No Returns, run by Develon Louder [Revlon & Este Lauder] has created mutants and is running tests on animals. This the Ultra Violets have to stop!  “The fate of an entire city in the hands of three sixth-grade girls”

Watch for Book 2 in this series!

Dragonbreath’s 8th book begins with eight pages of full-size graphic novel style illustrations of Wendell Iguana’s nightmares. Danny Dragon helps his friend Wendell overcome the nightmares (which do in fact look like horses) by going into Wendell’s subconscious using a portal inside the refrigerator with a dream-eater in tow. Wendell’s scary school related dreams are defeated by the baku, dream-eater, and “They rode the Night Mares out of the dreamlands.”

Students who have read the first seven Dragonbreath books will want to read this one, too, partly for the art work which accompanies the story.

Pip escapes from an orphanage and manages to sneak a ride on a coach headed for Hangman’s Hollow, a place he’s only heard about in stories but didn’t believe existed.  Once there, he thinks he may have made a mistake in leaving the orphanage and the seafaring future which awaited him, as Hangman’s Hollow is not kid-friendly.  Sam, the owner of a pub, befriends Pip and hides him with his own son who is hidden.  Pip makes his first friend ever and learns how to survive in a world where kids are hunted.  First of all, the illustrations in this book are remarkable.  They are generously placed in the book depicting the evil-looking characters that hunt children, the forbidden forest, the deadly animals, and even the town itself.  The story moves along quickly as Pip and his new friend try to find another child whose siblings and parents have been jailed.  Lots of action and drama and cliffhangers.  Writing is a strong element in this book; I love the vocabulary and the varying sentences.  I would use this book in teaching writing to show how sentences should be mixed up, short and long, simple and complex.  It seems that many UK authors have this ability.  Mould does an excellent of this book one of a new series.  I am definitely adding this and the others to my library collection.