Woof - by Spencer Quinn

This deep-south mystery has all the elements of a great, suspenseful novel:  A brave kid main character, an unknown but evil bad guy, nasty people, helpful hints, a unique and clearly-described setting, and dog biscuits.  Well, here's the thing:  The whole story is told by a dog!

Yep, Bowser the mutt is not only the narrator of our story, but one of its heroes.  Along with his new girl (owner) Birdie, they need to solve a robbery and save the swamps near their home.  By the way, this takes place in the gator-infested swampland of rural Louisiana.  As long as Bowser gets his treats and a chance to pee on the tree in front of their house, it's all good.

Not only is it creative and interesting to have the dog tell the humans' tale in his own words, but it works far better than you would expect.  It's hilarious, too, as the author gives us a true dog's-eye-view, from sniffing butts to getting totally distracted by squirrels.  Bowser's love for Birdie shows through too, and this is a winner for dog-lovers and mystery fans alike.

Firstborn - by Tor Seidler

This is the fictional story of a pack of wolves in Yellowstone National Park, featuring a huge pack leader named Blue Boy.  It is realistic and fascinating, but it is also a ripping good tale that will have you turning pages with enthusiasm.  Surprisingly, the whole book is narrated by a bird!  Maggie the Magpie (she doesn't like the name either) is our fearless narrator, and is as much a part of the story as any other character, though it's essentially a book about wolves.  This interesting choice of narrator works exceptionally well.

This book looks and reads a little like a wilderness book by the author's friend, Elizabeth Craighead George, author of Julie of the Wolves, and one of my favorites.  That is because it was on her urging that Mr. Seidler began studying and writing about wolves.

This is a carefully and intelligently-written story, and will appeal to animal-lovers, but also anyone who loves a good story, well-told.  There's even a little wolf romance, for those who like that kind of thing.  If you want to learn more about wolves, this is definitely the book for you.

Shark Wars - by E.J. Altbacker

I had seen these books on the shelves, but had resisted picking up the shiny-covered series because it looked kind of ridiculous. Now that I've read the first book, though, I am hooked!

This is the story of the world's oceans - from under the water!  It turns out that shark rule the seas, through groups known as "shivers".  Each shiver has a leader, who is supported by a "line," the next five strongest sharks in the shiver.  You won't be surprised to learn that the sharks in the story behave like you would expect: Sneaky and violent.  Not all of them, though...

Meet Gray, a reef shark who, with his best friend dogfish, leaves his shiver to go off and explore the big blue.  Before long, they are swept up in one new shiver, then another, and their world is turned on its head.  These peace-loving but sharp-toothed fish want nothing more than a good meal and an adventure, but they find themselves in the middle of a battle for control of all the world's oceans.  As you might have expected, Gray turns out to be a pretty important shark.

This is not only a great adventure story, but it is a strong and touching tale of friendship and loyalty.  I loved looking at the world from a shark's point-of-view, and the characters, good and bad, were portrayed so clearly that I felt like swimming along at their side.  This is one excellent story for sailors and landlubbers alike.

The White Giraffe - by Lauren St. John

This story takes us to South Africa along with Martine, poor thing. You see, Martine is a young teen from England whose parents died in a fire that she managed to escape from.  Before long, she was trundled away to her grandmother's home in South Africa, on the grounds of a wild animal reserve.  This was not the outcome that anyone wanted, and when Martine arrived, she could tell right away that her grandmother wanted nothing to do with her. Welcome to Africa.

However, there is quite a twist to this story.  Martine isn't your ordinary girl, and has a rare gift that ends up making all the difference.  As she navigates life in her new home, she makes a number of discoveries about the reserve, her family, the animals, and herself.

Why "The White Giraffe?"  There is a legend on the reserve that an exceedingly rare white giraffe lives nearby, sacred to the native people and hunted by greedy poachers.  This mysterious creature will prove central to Martine's sotry in ways nobody had expected.

This is a touching but exciting story about a girl's quest to survive in a world that is full of twists and turns, and is a testament to the beauty of South Africa and to the importance of family and friends.  It is the first in a series of promising novels.

Mousenet - by Prudence Breitrose

Mice on the Internet? That's just the start of it.  When you read this book, you'll never look at mice the same way again.

This excellent book tells the tale of Megan, a nice but lonely 10-year-old girl who is thrust into the world of mice when her uncle invents a tiny computer and gives it to her.  Megan has a little trouble fitting in at her new school, perhaps because for the last two years it's been just her and her mom, studying sheep on a remote island and focusing more on their science than on keeping up with fashion or pop culture.  Her social problems are the perfect opportunity for the mice to befriend her, because wouldn't you know it, the mouse world had been waiting for an opportunity just like this.

Mice.  Seriously, wait until you read what these mice have been up to!  Not only does this book do a brilliant job of creating an whole sub-world full of thoughtful and sophisticated (but still very mouse-like) mice, but it digs deep into the human  characters as well.  It's one of those books that seems a little silly, but ends up being pretty deep without overdoing it.  This is one that will appeal to boys and girls, and adults and children.  It's not a super action-packed adventure, but will keep your mind racing and your fingers turning the pages.

Warriors: Into the Wild - by Erin Hunter (Guest Review)

Shadow clan wants more hunting ground, there is not enough prey in the forest.What will happen to the four clans of the forest?

In this thrilling book, Rusty a house cat stumbles upon Thunder clan, one of the four cat clans of the forest, and is given the choice to join. During his first few days in Thunder Clan, the clan starts growing weaker, and Wind Clan gets chased out of their territory. Will Wind Clan return? will Thunder Clan grow strong again? Find out in this amazing book! 

This is the first book in an action-packed series of seven that I would recommend to someone who likes fantasy books that are full of action.

(This review was written by sixth-grader Isaac R. Thanks, bud!)

The High-Skies Adventures of Blue Jay the Pirate - by Scott Nash

Have you ever found yourself wishing for a rollicking old-fashioned pirate story... in which the characters are all BIRDS?  Probably not, but this story may change your mind.

Blue Jay is a demanding captain of a flying pirate ship in a land which seems to be filled with all birds.  When his crew captures a giant egg, they think it is pure treasure... until it turns out to be a goose.  Luckily, geese are considered near-gods in the bird world (Birdlandia), but unfortunately, this particular gosling quickly outgrows Blue Jay's ship, but cannot yet fly. However, when the pirates find themselves at the sword-point of a nasty gang of crows, their goose may not be cooked after all.

With interesting characters, including a star-nosed mole and a number of feisty little warrior birds, a unique story line and incredible drawings by the author, this is definitely an interesting and unusual adventure and an enjoyable book.  The problem is the target audience: The language may be a little advanced for the kiddos who may be most likely to pick up this book, and the ideal audience of middle-grade readers may think bird pirates are too silly, or may recognize the author as a regular on the picture-book circuit for younger readers.  It's a story worth anyone's time, though, as long as that reader has a sense of adventure!

Flora and Ulysses - by Kate DiCamillo

This is by far, and without any argument, the BEST book I've ever read about a pessimistic girl and her super-hero squirrel.  More than that, it is just a delightful story, full of hope and wonder, ridiculous and laughable characters, and a really obnoxious lamp.  Who would have thought that a squirrel could do such things?  Or that a mother would be capable of such wickedness?  Or that a father would introduce himself quite so often?

Like much of Ms. DiCamillo's work (Tiger Rising, The Tale of Despereaux, or Because of Winn-Dixie, to name a few of her firsts and my favorites), this story is about more than it seems at first.  It is ostensibly the tale of a girl whose parents have split up, leaving her in the uncomfortable middle.  When she meets a special squirrel, it begins a chain of events that change her life forever, bringing several new people and great adventure (relatively speaking) into her life.  Behind the scenes, it's really about family, and what it really means to be a family.  It's about love, beauty, and poetry.  It's about time someone wrote a book like this, and this was the right person for the job.

I should note, the book does have a number of clever illustrations, and the reader gets a good feel for the characters through these drawings. I like the subtitle, "The Illuminated Adventures," as it reminds me of those beautiful hand-colored illuminated bibles of long ago.  The drawings, though wonderful and humorous, are not overpowering, and it is definitely NOT a graphic novel.  It is, however, a book for the ages.

The One and Only Ivan - by Katherine Applegate

What's so great about the great apes, anyway?  Reading this book, you'll figure it out.  Ivan is a gorilla, and this is his story.  You don't get to read many books told from a gorilla's perspective, so don't pass this one up.

It's a sad, but hopeful tale of Ivan and his animal friends, all part of a small curiosity zoo at a random interstate shopping center.  The author drops us right into the middle of the story, where we find plenty of struggle.  The zoo owner struggles to make ends meet, the animals struggle to keep their spirits up, the kind custodian struggles with his conscience as he sees things slipping downhill, but there will be no struggle for this book to hold your attention.  The chapters are very short, and we are truly transported into the mind of a gorilla, for better or worse.

This is a fantastic book, and I highly recommend it.  There's not much action, but plenty of drama.  If you love art, wild animals, friendly mutts, custodians' daughters, or stories that break your heart before they stitch them back together with magic, this is for you.

Wildwood - by Colin Meloy

If you're in the mood for a rollicking mystical animal adventure fantasy written by a famous musician about a lost forest paradise near Portland, Oregon, I think we've found the perfect book for you.  This long, well-written story tells of young Prue McKeel, whose life is pretty darn boring until the day her baby brother is carried away by crows.  When she sets out to find him along with her nerdy classmate Curtis, things really get interesting.  They follow the crows to an overgrown woodsy area on the outskirts of town, where they discover talking animals, hidden cities, and all sorts of surprises you would not expect outside of an adventure fantasy novel.

The animals and people in the Wildwood are at war, and as sides form and armies gather, Prue and Curtis must choose their paths and dig deep to find their courage.  Their choices are hard, but the stakes are tremendous.  Will Prue find her brother?  Can the children ever go back home?  Will the Dowager Princess and her coyote minions release the Ivy? (Okay, getting a little ahead of ourselves there...)  There are a lot of interesting plot twists, and the book builds to an exciting and powerful conclusion.

The book is charmingly old-fashioned, from the delightful illustrations (she also illustrated my favorite book, The Mysterious Benedict Society) to the characters' use of old-timey technologies. It's a fun book, and worth checking out! Note: The second book, Under Wildwood, is also available.

A Boy and a Bear in a Boat - by Dave Shelton

This story is about what the title says, and not much more.  Well, there's a little more.  There's a very old (and scary) sandwich.  There is a ukulele.  There is also an old comic book in a foreign language.  All of these are important to the story, which is kind of a bad sign.  You see, this story begins with the boy climbing into a small boat and asking the Captain, a bear, to take him to the other side.  Before you know it, they are lost (though the bear will never admit this), and boredom and adventures ensue.  The story really has no beginning or end, it is simply a tale of these two seafaring partners and the ups and downs of their relationship.  Though it's not much of a story, it's really quite a fun tale.

My favorite parts include everything to do with The Last Sandwich, the sea monster bits, and the ukulele.  You will come to love both the bear and the boy, though at times you will want to strangle both.  If you are in the mood for an odd, fun little read that will leave you smiling, but scratching your head, you could do much worse than this.

Pie - by Sarah Weeks

Yum.  Yum, yum, yummy.  You have no idea how many times I wanted to just set this book down and go make a pie.  That's the type of book it is: Inspiring.  Mouth-watering.  Yummy.

The story is about Alice, a nice girl whose aunt was the town's award-winning pie maker, and possibly the nicest lady ever.  When her aunt dies, Alice has to deal with that loss, but also the craziness that takes over her town as everyone tries to fill the pie-making gap left by her absence.  While all the ladies in town tried to out-do one another with their baking, somebody broke into Aunt Polly's house to steal her top-secret pie crust recipe.  Strangely enough, Polly had left the recipe to her cat in her will, and she left that cat to Alice.  Like it or not, Alice was in for a whirlwind of adventure as the mysteries begin to unfold!

This is a beautiful story of friendship, jealousy, the ties that hold families together and the problems that threaten to split them apart.  It is a charming book by a talented author, filled with real pie recipes from around the country.  It's a book to be enjoyed, hopefully with a side of pie.

Wild Girl - by Patricia Reilly Giff

There are many books out there about a girl and her horse, but none told quite like this.  When Lidie's mother died, her brother and father left their home in Brazil to try their luck in New York, raising and training horses for a rich family.  Meanwhile, Lidie stayed behind with her aunt and uncle and worked on the family farm, learning to ride and dreaming of the day she would be reunited with her family. When she is twelve, Lidie finally moves to New York to be with her father and brother, but nothing is what she expected. Not school, not speaking English, not her family.  Not even the horses.

Through alternating chapters, the reader also learns the story of the horse Wild Girl, told from the first-horse point of view.  You can tell that the author not only loves but really understands horses from this exceptional writing, and it's probably the closest any of us will ever come to seeing a horse's thoughts.  Eventually, Wild Girl and Lidie end up on the same farm, and it's only a matter of time before the two realize they were meant to be together.

This is an interestingly written, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, touching horse story.  The language is sharp, as you'd expect from this talented, award-winning author, and the emotions are strong and real, if perhaps a little overdone at times.  This is a fun book, especially if you love horses.  I'm guessing the main readers will be tween girls, as not many boys will want to carry around a book that in bright pink says "Wild Girl."

We Can't All Be Rattlesnakes - by Patrick Jennings

CRUSHER!  What a name for a snake, and perfect for a gopher snake (a non-poisonous rattler look-alike) that kills its prey by strangulation.  The only thing is, this particular snake is a girl, and the doofus who captured her and is holding her prisoner in his bedroom doesn't know the first thing about taking care of creatures.  Crusher's life is suddenly in danger, along with those of her new friends, which include a lizard, a tortoise, and a cute little white mouse, who she decides makes a better friend than snack.  Can Crusher find a way to outsmart the humans and save herself and her friends before it's too late?  It's a nail-biting battle of wits, and I'm not about to give away the surprising ending.

I didn't know what to expect from this book, but it ended up being a sweet but funny fictional memoir told from the snake's point of view.  The author told the story with warmth and humor, but did not shy away from the gruesome reality of a snake's life, making this a very interesting book to read.  The true-to-life descriptions of Gunnar, the teenage video game addict who captured Crusher and his hopeless family will make you laugh, but also cringe.  If you've ever wondered what it would be like to be a reptile, this is the closest you'll come to getting a ground-eye view of a snake's life.

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat - by Lynne Jonell

A rat who can talk, a girl whose parents seem to have forgotten she exists, a beautiful but nasty nanny with a curious cane and an unhealthy interest in health food, and a very tiny soccer player.  These elements combine with interesting illustrations and a quick and mysterious plot to create an enjoyable adventure.  If you love rats, or brave girls, or perhaps supernatural powers, you may want to read this book.  

Emmy is a lonely girl, who nobody pays much attention to.  When she becomes friends with her classroom pet, things begin to get interesting, and before long she's in a headlong race to save her friends, her family, and herself, before it's too late.  This makes a good class read-aloud, so good in fact that it inspired me to write a song, posted below.  Enjoy! (I make no claims to be a good singer or guitar player, simply a brave one.)

War Horse - by Michael Morpurgo

If horses could write, this would be the story of one brave foal who was on the front lines of World War One in Europe.  Joey was a beautiful horse, loyal to his young master Albert, and confused when he was taken away to be a war horse for the British cavalry (soldiers who fight or travel on horseback).  As the war raged on, Joey had countless adventures, surviving battle after battle, and making and losing new friends along the way.  In the end, it is the courage and determination of the horse that keep him alive, and which allow him to search one last time for his master and his friend.

The story is told first-person (or first-horse) from Joey's point-of-view, which makes it very interesting and really sucks the reader in.  Michael Morpurgo is an amazing writer, as I've noted before, and this is an incredible book.  Horse lovers will find themselves swept away, as will fans of military history, who will get an inside view of both the British cavalry and the German artillery during that long and terrible war in 1914 and beyond.

Thanks to Emma and her mother for the tip and the loan, and for reminding me how much I like Michael Morpurgo.  I hear this is going to be a movie!  Good choice.

The Magician's Elephant - by Kate DiCamillo

Here's another magical story by Kate DiCamillo.  Her writing is always calm, yet powerful.  Sometimes she gets a little fancy in her wording (especially in The Tale of Despereaux), but that's a small price to pay for the wonderful feeling you have as you finish one of her books.

This is the tale of many people and one elephant, whose lives all slowly come together one winter in an unnamed town.  When the magician tries to conjure a rabbit from his hat, and instead brings an elephant crashing through the ceiling, nothing will be the same.  The lives of a boy, the magician, an old woman, a police officer, and a young girl become tangled up, but in the end everyone's life is better because of the elephant.  There are many interesting characters, a bit of mystery, and a touch of magic in this book, but not much adventure.  Read this book to remind yourself about the magic that shows up out of nowhere in our lives and leaves us amazed and improved.

A Dog Called Grk - by Joshua Doder

What would you do if you found a stray dog, then discovered that its owners had left the country, all the way to Stanislavia, a small (fictional) European country?  That's what a young American boy, Tim, had to decide when he found Grk, a well-behaved dog, following him home one day.  Let's hope you wouldn't choose to do what Tim did:  Steal his dad's credit card, sneak out of the house with the dog in the middle of the night, and return the pup to his rightful owners far across the ocean.  But Tim was caught and returned safe and sound, right?    Unfortunately, Stanislavia had just been taken over by an evil dictator, who would stop at nothing to imprison and kill Grk's owners, and now Tim was on his list as well.

This wild and slightly ridiculous story takes Tim and Grk on all sorts of adventures around Stanislavia, risking life and limb to save Grk's real owners.  It's a great book, and keeps you on the edge of your seat with curiosity and excitement, and sometimes fear.  This has developed into a whole series, and will surely hold the interest of many action/adventure/mystery seeking upper elementary students.

The Golden Compass - by Phillip Pullman

I just realized that I've never written a review of one of my all-time favorite children's books, The Golden Compass!  This is the first in a darkly named trilogy called His Dark Materials, the meaning of which won't be entirely clear until you've finished the third book.  This is a series which has attracted controversy for the anti-religion overtones some read into it, and for its author's rebellion against the overly religious Chronicles of Narnia series.  Mister K, however, is able to read past those things, and enjoy books for their literary splendor.

This is the amazing story of Lyra, a young girl whose parents have left her in the care of the scholars at Oxford University in a slightly re-imagined historical England.  This curious and courageous heroine is kept constant company by her daemon, a small critter named Pan.  As she sets off on a course of action that includes saving her uncle's life, escaping the dreaded Gobblers, joining the mysterious Gyptians, and raiding a secret facility in the far Arctic north, Lyra encounters an incredible cast of characters.  There is a Texas balloon pilot, a frustrated but brave polar bear, a nasty lady with ties to Lyra's past, and many more curious and fascinating people and creatures.

This is a rollicking, imaginative adventure, one of the best I've ever read!  Mr. Pullman is simply brilliant.  If you're up for a challenge and want to experience an unforgettable read, this is one of my top recommendations.

Special Notes:  Skip the movie, know that the sequels get progressively stranger, and check out the audio recording of this book, which will help with your pronunciation of places and names, and which features a FULL CAST, something very unusual and wonderful indeed!

Scat - by Carl Hiaasen

This FABULOUS and engaging story features one of the oddest and most interesting group of characters that I have ever encountered.  The ultra-strict teacher who goes missing, the teenage delinquent who people suspect has done something terrible to his teacher, two brave kids, wild dude living in the Everglades, and then all the bad guys.  Luckily, Mr. Hiaasen is an author who believes that the bad guys should get what they deserve, so the reader will finish this book with a broad grin and a sense of justice accomplished.

Read this if you love mysteries, adventures, wilderness, saving endangered species, kids outsmarting nasty adults, Florida (especially the Everglades and other swamps), or AMAZING writing.  I've read every book the author has written for adults or children, and this was my favorite so far.