Kingdom Keepers by Ridley Pearson

Having just returned from Disney World and just hosting Ridley Pearson at my school, I can't help but be excited about The Kingdom Keepers series. Five middle schoolers who get modeled for hologram characters at the Magic Kingdom find themselves waking up at night in the park in the form of holograms. An old man named Wayne tells them that the evil witches and villains in the park are trying to take control and the only way to stop them is to solve Walt Disney's old puzzle called the Stonecutter's Quill. The action takes the kids into Disney rides at night where Small World dolls swim after them, audio animatronic pirates chase them, and the witch Maleficent is on their trail. Don't look to this book for in-depth characterization—that's not the point. But the action and the inside scoop on Disney rides and tunnels and behind the scenes secrets make it irresistible to Disney fans. And Ridley Pearson is a fascinating speaker with great stories and advice about becoming a writer.

Crocodile Tears by Anthony Horowitz

I love that Anthony Horowitz can take Alex Rider and put him in situation after situation in which he must save the world and eight times I have come back to read the next story. He keeps coming up with new villains and new plots that only our favorite teenage spy can overcome. This time Alex finds out that a wealthy philanthropist is using genetically modified wheat to release a poison that will kill thousands, maybe millions of people in Kenya. His motive is to collect millions of dollars in donations then disappear with the money. Alex survives near-death disasters at least four times in the course of this book while MI6 and other authorities bumble around and his guardian anxiously awaits his return. Crocodile Tears doesn't break any new ground but it is every bit as fun as the other Alex Rider books. And now there is just one more book to go in this series guaranteed to captivate middle school boys.

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Nailer is a teenager trying to survive in a cruel future world. He lives on the Gulf Coast in the wake of environmental destruction. Beached oil tankers just offshore provide a living for desperate children who scavenge them for wires and copper and anything else they can sell. Just when Nailer thinks he has made a lucky strike by finding a newly beached luxury ship he finds a half dead girl on board. His choice to keep her alive leads him toward the possibility of new opportunities but also great danger. This dystopian adventure moves at a fast pace and navigates the reader through a depressing and dark future—one in which the divide between rich and poor seems insurmountable. The theme of loyalty shapes Nailer and those around him. I did not connect with this book as much as I did with Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeiffer or Unwind by Neal Shusterman but it has gotten a lot of acclaim and certainly is entertaining and thought provoking. Fans of dystopian novels will definitely want to read this.