Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

This is another fairy tale to treasure from Shannon Hale. It has many similar themes to her other books. Like The Goose Girl, it is about a girl who must overcome great odds while living a difficult peasant life, and like The Princess Academy, there is a somewhat magical way of communicating by singing. And like both books, the protagonist is a smart, determined girl who you come to know and love as you read about her struggles. The story is loosely based on a Brothers Grimm tale, but is set in ancient Mongolia. A noble girl is sealed in a tower for seven years for refusing to marry her father's desired suitor. Dashti, a mucker girl from the steppes, agrees to be sealed up with the Lady Saren to serve as her maid. The Book of a Thousand Days is Dashti's diary of the following years. Lady Saren is quite a mess, and the only reason she survives, escapes, and makes it to another kingdom is Dashti's determination and her ability to sing the healing songs that her mucker mother taught her. There is romance with a Khan, battle against the evil Khan of another realm, friendship, and a fascinating world made up of eight realms and dominated by an intriguing group of Gods and Ancestors. Readers who love Shannon Hale will also love Dashti's story.

The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

I know, I am probably the last person in the school to read this book, but I finally did. And I liked it! In a way it wasn't what I had expected—I thought it was set in Victorian times in England or somewhere in Europe, but I guess the spirit of the book was what I anticipated. The orphans are clever and good-hearted, Count Olaf is evil (evil enough to dangle a baby from a tower, threaten to kill her, and to marry a 14-year-old girl for her money), and all the other adults are pretty much clueless. My favorite part of the book was how the narrator is always defining words for the reader, even if they are easy words like faked ("a word which in this case means feigned"). Of course, the ending left me hanging, and now I am wondering if in the final book of the series Count Olaf triumphs over the Baudelaire orphans. After all, he has promised to get their fortune and to kill them. I'm guessing that no matter how evil Lemony Snicket makes him out to be, there won't be any dead orphans in The End. But now I have to read 12 more books!

Final Shot by John Feinstein

I am glad this is a Maud Hart Lovelace nominee for 2007-2008 because I think a lot of basketball fans will love it. It's a mystery set at the Final Four and the detectives are 8th graders Stevie and Carol Ann, who won a writing contest and are there as full-fledged journalists. Early on they overhear a star basketball player being threatened to throw the final game against Duke, but they don't know who is threatening Chip Graber and why. Carol Ann is a minister's daughter, but she can lie and be sneaky like a pro, and she and Stevie figure out how to talk to Chip Graber. When they hear his story they realize they are up against a serious blackmailing and gambling scheme. This book has lots of detective work and even more inside scoop on the personalities and quirks of NCAA basketball. For kids who follow basketball it is a dream come true. Other readers will enjoy the mystery and the action. A fun book for middle schoolers, either guys or girls.

Robot Dreams by Sara Varon

This is another one of those sneak previews I picked up at BookExpo. I don't think it comes out until Fall 2007. It's a wordless graphic novel about a friendship between a robot and a dog who become separated but long for each other. I love the artwork—it's cute without being childish, and so expressive...I could just feel the regret of the good-hearted dog who had to leave his rusted robot friend behind. And the poor robot resounds with hopefulness in spite of being buried under the snow. It's amazing how much the artist can convey, especially in the small, single frames that begin and end the chapters. I would recommend this one for all ages, but its bittersweet ending will be most appreciated by older readers (especially teens and adults!).

The Secret of Priest's Grotto: A Holocaust Survival Story by Peter Lane Taylor with Christos Nicola

The premise of this book is amazing—during the Holocaust a group of Ukranian Jews survived by living in deep underground caves for 344 days (the longest known time for humans to remain in a cave). Nicola, a cave explorer, found evidence of human activity in the Priest's Grotto cave network, and set out to investigate. Eventually he found some of the survivors alive and living in Canada. The book is a combination of their memories and the modern-day discovery of their hiding place. While it is an amazing story and comes with attractive photographs and maps, I couldn't help thinking it could have been more clearly told if it did not alternate between the past and the present. The story of the 38 survivors is amazing and inspiring, and deserves to be known. The heroic actions of the men who would sneak out of the cave for supplies are well documented, but I was left wondering more about the life of those who never left the darkness for 344 days. What was it like for the women and teens and the 1-year-old? How did they pass the time? Did they fight? Did they have light other than fire? Did anyone get sick or get pregnant or go crazy? The isolation they endured is unimaginable. A fascinating Holocaust story with a happy outcome.

Peak by Roland Smith

Wow! This is the new action book to recommend to middle school guys. Peak (yes, that's his name) is the 14-year-old son of two famous mountain climbers. His father, Josh, isn't part of his life. He never even answers Peak's letters because he is too busy climbing in Tibet and Nepal. The action starts when Peak is arrested for climbing a skyscraper. (It's the only thing there is to climb in New York City where he lives.) Josh sweeps in and takes Peak away to avoid jail time and lots of bad publicity. He says he's taking him to live in Thailand, but the real plan is to take Peak to the summit of Mt. Everest. It's not that Josh cares much about Peak, but he wants the credit for bringing the youngest-ever climber to the summit of the tallest mountain in the world. The rest of the book is all about the experience of trying to climb Mt. Everest. I have read several nonfiction books about this experience (Into Thin Air being the best one) and it is fascinating. It takes an incredible amount of equipment, time, determination, luck and egotism to succeed. Peak encounters a wise monk, a desperate teen from Tibet, stinking yaks, and many more characters on the mountain. It's mainly a book of action, but Peak is a better person than his father and learns valuable lessons about what is important in life. Highly recommended!

Zen and the Art of Faking It by Jordan Sonnenblick

I was lucky enough to get an advance reader's copy of this newest book by Jordan Sonnenblick, and was also lucky enough to have it autographed at BookExpo in New York City. It's Sonnenblick's third book, and since I absolutely love his other two books (Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie and Notes from the Midnight Driver), I couldn't wait to read it. This story centers around San Lee, an 8th grader who has moved from place to place and changed his persona many times. This time he is angry about his dad being in prison and looking for a way to attract a cute girl named Woody. Partly because he is Chinese and because he appears to know a lot about Buddhism, the kids at his new school decide he is a Zen Master. This seems to work with Woody and life is going pretty well for San. But he does have to hide the fact that his mother is very much not Chinese and he is definitely not a zen master. There is much humor, as it true in all of Sonnenblick's books. There's also the underlying theme of a confused but good kid growing up and learning how to be a good human being and how to have strong relationships with peers as well as parents. There's a great sub-plot dealing with San and Woody performing community service together and I love how Sonnenblick always brings in that theme. I have to admit that this one didn't blow me away like Midnight Driver (one of my favorite books of 2006), but it is still highly recommended. Students will enjoy it and definitely learn a thing or two about zen!

Alabama Moon by Watt Key

Moon's dad hates the government and wants nothing to do with modern society. The two live together in a hidden shelter in a forest in Alabama where they hunt and trap and keep out of sight. Moon knows a lot about survival for a 10-year-old kid, but he knows nothing about life in the real world. When tragedy strikes his father, Moon is left alone, and is convinced that he needs to follow his dad's instruction to get to Alaska where he will find other people who "hate the government." As you might expect, the government gets ahold of Moon (in the form of a corrupt constable) and puts him in a boy's home, but he promptly escapes and takes a few other boys out in the wilderness with him. At first I thought the story was just too unbelievable—no 10-year-old could do the things that Moon does. But I have to admit that the book grew on me. I wanted to know what happened to Moon and it was a good survival story. Recommended especially for guys who like wilderness and survival stories.

Larklight by Philip Reeve

In this crazy fantasy book you have to believe that space travel and exploration were commonplace in the 1800s, and that Great Britain "ruled the waves" of outer space as well as most of the world. Philip Reeve, himself a British author, makes this action-packed science fiction/fantasy book also a Victorian melodrama. The vocabulary is tough and I imagine kids will miss much of the Victorian humor, but some dauntless readers will be love the story of Art Mumby and his sister Myrtle who escape the giant spiders that attack their home and take off on a fantastic journey through space on a pirate ship ruled by a young pirate king and his motley band of intergalactic pirates. Recommended for smart kids who are good readers.

What the Moon Saw by Laura Resau

This book explores the mystical connection between Clara, an American girl, and her grandmother in Mexico that she has never met. Clara's father left his remote, poor village for the United States and he never returned. Twenty years later his parents invite their granddaughter Clara to spend the summer with them. Clara is restless and unhappy, and jumps at the chance for a change in her life. Although she speaks Spanish, Clara is unprepared for life in rural Mexico, and unaware of the economic and social forces that pull people away from their homes to earn money and a "good life" in the United States. Clara learns how her grandmother discovered her gift of healing, and finds out that she too has that gift. Clara also meets a local boy her age who challenges and befriends her. The writing is lyrical, especially when the grandmother tells her own life story. This book is not for everyone, but for someone interested in the culture of Mexico and the relationships that bind people together, it is a real gem. Many Spanish and Mixteco words are used, but all are defined either in the text or glossaries.

Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz

My guest blogger today is Tom, a 7th grader who read an advance copy of the newest Alex Rider book called Snakehead. The book doesn't come out until next fall, but if you're an OMS student and you want to read it, e-mail me!

Snakehead is another great Alex Rider book. This is book 7 in the series of Alex rider adventures. This starts out with the ending of the Ark Angel Project. Alex is back from space and is picked up by the Covert Action Division (CAD) of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS). He is then thrown into another mission with the Blue Royal bomb, the Snakeheads, and his godfather. The Snakeheads are worse than even SCORPIA. He has to gather intelligence, diffuse the bomb, and stay alive. Can he do it? Read Snakehead to find out!