Series: Young and Yang (Middle Grade Fic)

AUTHOR: Kristen Kittscher (US)
PUBLISHED: HarperCollins ; 2013.
PAGES/ILL: ~370 pages.
SERIES: Young and Yang. The Wig in the Window ; The Tiara on the Terrace.

PLOT: (Book 1: The Wig in the Window)
Best friends, 7th graders Sophie Young and Grace Yang, love mysteries and have made a game out of spying on their neighbours. When they discover a bloody scene at the home of their bizarre middle-school counsellor, they are on the case to prove she is not what she seems. Soon the girls are breaking secret codes, being followed by a strange blue car, and tailing strangers. As the case heats up, they are under pressure, which threatens their friendship.

REVIEW:
This is a really fun story for fans of The Secret Seven, The Famous Five, Encyclopaedia Brown, and Nancy Drew (and their parents would have likely liked Trixie Belden and the Hardy Boys). The age-range would target children who have long since moved on from the Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew series, but are not be ready for the full series featuring the older Nancy Drew.
The plot has little twists and more suspense than your average middle-grade mystery fiction.
Overall, I highly recommend this series. It would be an appropriate class read-aloud for Grades 4-6

For promoting it in school libraries, I would display this book (along with the others I've listed) together with articles about real-life child investigators, such as this one.

For more mystery and suspense books, check out the list from A Mighty Girl.

AGE: 9+.
GENRE: Detective and Mystery Fiction.
RATING: 4 1/2 - 5 stars.

Series: The Lunar Chronicles (YA Fic)

AUTHOR: Marissa Meyer (US)
PUBLISHED: Puffin ; 2012-2016.
PAGES/ILL: ~550 pages.
SERIES: The Lunar Chronicles - Cinder; Scarlett; Cress; Winter [and an additional prequel, Fairest].

PLOT: (third book: Cress)
Cress has been a prisoner on a satellite for the last 7 years, doing the bidding of the Lunar queen, Levana. When a rescue mission led by Cinder, along with Scarlett, Wolf, and Thorne (characters from previous books) goes awry, the five are separated. Cinder is determined to carry through with her plan to stop the wedding between the Emperor and Levana. {I don't want to give away spoilers, so this is as much plot as I'll give away}.

REVIEW:
This series uses the characters from old fairy stories. The first two books introduce us to Cinder (Cinderella) and Scarlett (Red Riding Hood), and in this third book we meet Cress (Rapunzel).

It's a coincidence that I picked this up after finishing Spinning Starlight, as they are both sci-fi fantasy based on fairy tale characters. I really enjoyed this book, too, but wish I'd started with the first book in the series. This book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, so now I have to read the next book in the series, Winter!

AGE: 15+.
GENRE: Fantasy/Science Fiction/Adventure.
RATING: 4 1/2 stars.

Series: Endgame (YA Fic)

AUTHOR: James Frey (US)
PUBLISHED: HarperCollins ; 2014.
PAGES/ILL: ~460 pages.
SERIES: Endgame. The Calling, Sky Key, (third book title TBA).
TIE-INS: Website, Game, Movie.

PLOT: (First book: The Calling)
At the beginning of civilisation on Earth, "They" descended from the sky. They needed gold and they built our earliest civilisations to mine it for them. Then They left, but they told the the 12 lines of the human race that they would be back, and when they did, a game would be played, with a teenaged Player from each line. For ten thousand years the lines have each had a Player prepared at all times. They have trained generation after generation after generation. In weapons, languages, history, tactics, disguise assassination. Together the players are everything: strong, kind, ruthless, loyal, smart, stupid, ugly, lustful, mean, fickle, beautiful, calculating, lazy, exuberant, weak.
Now the game has started. It started in death and will end in death, with only one winner. The one whose line will continue. The Players must find three Keys, in order. In the first book, The Calling, they are searching for the first, Earth Key. Some bonds will form. Some Players will die.

REVIEW:
This book is like the Hunger Games with aliens. Teenagers who like maths and geography will particularly like it. The books, together with the accompanying website, give clues so that the reader can play along with the characters to solve the puzzles. In fact, there is a competition where if you solve all the clues you can win half a million dollars! (Competition ends on or before October 7, 2016).
This is a book that would probably need librarians to promote it, especially to teens who are interested in codes and puzzles.

Overall, it's an appealing dystopia for sci-fi fans.

AGE: 14+.
GENRE: Science fiction, Dystopia, Adventure.
RATING: 4 1/2 stars.

Nuts to You (Jnr Fic)

AUTHOR: Lynne Rae Perkins (US)
PUBLISHED: Greenwillow Books ; 2015.
PAGES/ILL: 235 pages ; ill.

PLOT:
When Jed the squirrel get taken by a hawk, his two best friends go on an adventure to rescue him. When Jed manages to escape the hawk's talons, he falls into unfamiliar territory, meets an interesting species of squirrel, and makes a discovery which puts his home in danger. He and his friends must get back home to warn the other squirrels.

REVIEW:
This is a cute story told through an omniscient narrator, who comments and explains elements of the story through the use of end-of-chapter footnotes and interrupting inserts. Most of these work, but some don't. Some comments are unnecessary and don't add anything to the reader's engagement or enjoyment or understanding. The footnotes would have worked better at end-of-page rather than end-of-chapter - it's distracting having to flick pages to find out what is being referenced.

The author also uses a lot of sentence fragments, including those which begin with "because" (e.g. "He did look around to see if there was a wolf. Because he was irritated, but he was not stupid.") While I'll let a fair bit slide, I get annoyed with children's literature which does not model correct grammar and sentence structure.

When Jed meets the red squirrels, they speak differently (which is spelt differently). E.g. "Tell abowt the wolf" "You'll be roight b'fore y'knowit" "Be loik wooter" [Tell about the wolf / You'll be right before you know it / Be like water]. While I think this works well, some children may struggle to understand and decode this.

All-in-all, I liked this story a lot more than I thought I would, and would freely recommend it to most children aged 8-12, and read it to ages 6 and 7 (leaving out the footnotes, which generally just interrupt the story when reading aloud).

AGE: 8-12.
GENRE: Adventure.
RATING: 4 1/2 stars.

The Scavengers (Middle Grade Fic)

AUTHOR: Michael Perry (US)
PUBLISHED: Harper ; 2014.
PAGES/ILL: ~322 pages.

PLOT:
When the world started to fall apart, the government gave everyone two choices: move into the Bubble Cities...or take their chances outside. Maggie's family chose the latter, and they have been living off the land ever since. They have friends, and Maggie seems to have found her place, renaming herself Ford Falcon after the rusted out car in which she lives.
Then one day she returns from visiting their friends to find her family's house ransacked and her parents missing.
As she uncovers the secrets her father has kept from her, as well as the truth about how the government took over, she must find the strength to be true to herself and save her family at the same time.

REVIEW:
This story was a lot better than I thought it would be. It has very strong underlying political messages (such as big government, control, genetically modified foods, and the environment), so I would recommend parents or teachers reading it first so that they can discuss any questions that might come up.
This book has a strong heroine, and emphasises family and friendship. This is a middle-grade book and would be a suitable first-dystopia for children in upper primary school as an introduction to the genre. I've classed it as Middle Grade because it's below YA, but this is one where you would need to know the child and the book to make your own judgement about whether it is appropriate for a child at the younger end of Middle Grade.

AGE: 11+.
GENRE: Adventure, Soft dystopia.
RATING: 4 1/2 stars.

Series: Everest (Middle Grade Fic)

AUTHOR: Gordon Korman (Canada)
PUBLISHED: Scholastic ; 2012, c2002.
PAGES/ILL: ~130 pages.
SERIES: Everest: 1. The Contest 2. The Climb 3. The Summit.

PLOT: (Book 1: The Contest)
Teenagers from across America have the chance to be on the youngest team ever to climb Everest. After winning a sports drink promotion, they must compete in boot camp to prove they have what it takes to survive on the mountain. Dominic is the smallest and the youngest and is in danger of being cut at every turn. The competition is fierce, and some contestants will go to any lengths to make the team.

REVIEW:
This adventure will appeal particularly to boys in upper primary school. I would also recommend it to reluctant readers and it could be used as a year 5 class read aloud. Themes include survival, friendship and interpersonal relationships, being highly skilled, competition, etc.

AGE: 10+.
GENRE: Realistic fiction, Adventure
RATING: 4 1/2 stars.

Prince of Afghanistan (YA Fic)

AUTHOR: Louis Nowra (Aust)
PUBLISHED: Allen & Unwin ; 2015.
PAGES/ILL: 162 pages.

PLOT:
When a rescue mission goes horribly wrong, an Australian soldier and a dog must embark on a journey to safety. Working their way through rough terrain and enemy territory, they depend on each other to survive.

REVIEW:
Written in the first person, present tense, this is a story with strong themes of endurance and survival in war. The bond between man and dog grows stronger as their journey progresses, which touches the heart strings at times. It provides a small glimpse into one view of the war in Afghanistan. Themes include war, soldiers, dogs, survival and death as well as family relations (a mother's death) and drug use. It would be a book you could read aloud in a high school class with discussion of the themes.

AGE: 14+.
GENRE: Realistic fiction.
RATING: 4 1/2 stars.