Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

The Odds Get Even by Natale Ghent

Boney, Itchy and Squeak are neighbours and best friends.  All three boys are odd; Boney, whose parents disappeared when he was a baby, lives with his neurotic aunt and her long-suffering husband, Squeak, whose mother ran off to work in a travelling cabaret, views the world from behind World War I goggles fitted with lens [...]

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

With his father gone, it falls to eleven-year old Gregor to look after his two-year old sister, Boots, and keep an eye on their senile grandmother, since his mother works long hours to support the family.  On a hot July afternoon Gregor grabs the laundry, and Boots, and heads for the laundry room to get [...]

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

Roy Eberhardt has recently moved to Coconut Grove, Florida, from Montana with his parents, and is putting up with the usual nonsense that adolescent kids inflict on newcomers. He eats lunch alone in the cafeteria, except for the occasional presence of Garrett, a skateboarding air head, and is trying to navigate his way past [...]

Sunday, June 7th, 2009

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

Ten year-old Lucky Trimble lives with her guardian Brigitte in a cobbled-together trailer home on the edge of Hard Pan, California, population 43.  Perched in the Mojave Desert, on the site of an old gold mining town, Hard Pan is home to an odd collection of individuals who have known hard times.  The Captain, a [...]

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

In the spring of 1939, a nine-year old girl named Liesel Meminger comes to live with Rosa and Hans Hubermann in their tiny house in Himmel Street, in Molching, a small town near Munich.  Having recently survived the death of her younger brother, and separation from her sickly mother, Liesel is angry, defensive, and driven [...]

Monday, May 18th, 2009

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Twelve-year old Percy Jackson seems to be plagued by bad luck.  Constantly in trouble at his upper New York state boarding school, hounded by a nasty classmate named Nancy Bobofit, and struggling with both dyslexia and ADHD, it’s like he’s an accident waiting for a place to happen.  And it happens inside one of the [...]

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009

Ingo by Helen Dunmore

Sapphire and her older brother, Conor, live with their parents in a small cottage at the edge of the sea.  Together, Sapph and Conor spend their summers climbing down the cliffs to the small sandy cove near their home, where they explore the narrow caves, study the tidal pools, swim in the ocean, and eat [...]

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

Mattland by Hazel Hutchins, Gail Herbert and Dusan Petricic

When Matt’s parent move again, this time to a new house in a new subdivision, Matt finds himself with no one – and nothing – to play with.  Standing on bare ground littered with scraps of construction materials, Matt sees a stick and feels like breaking it, or hitting something with it, but when he [...]

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

Eliot Jones Midnight Superhero by Anne Cottringer and Alex Smith

By day, Eliot is a quiet boy who plays in his room, feeds cupcakes to his goldfish, and watches Mr. Smith wash his car.  But, when the clock strikes midnight, he becomes Eliot Jones, Midnight Superhero!  Armed with his amazing hypno-vision, his super strength and his super detecting skills, Eliot tackles the lions rampaging through [...]

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

Boy in Motion: Rick Hansen’s Story by Ainslie Manson and Renné Benoit

As a young boy, Rick Hansen was never still.  He took part in all kinds of sports, and loved fishing.  At fifteen, however, Rick’s life changed when he was thrown from a truck in an accident and became a paraplegic.
For a while, Rick figured he would never enjoy his favourite activities again, but his dad [...]