Jennifer Bruer Kitchel

Award-winning author Wendy Mass takes a detour from her usual realistic fiction with her latest book, the extraterrestrial adventure Pi in the Sky. As always, however, her characters are wonderfully accessible and their self-explorations are timeless.

Thirteen-year-old Joss will tell you that all that “special” stuff about being a seventh son is just hooey—even if you are the seventh son of the Supreme Overlord of the Universe. All it means to Joss is that his brothers got all the cool jobs—creating new species, composing the music of the spheres, etc.—and he got stuck delivering pies. Yes, pies. The Powers That Be use the cosmic pies as the germination for their endeavors, and they need someone to deliver them. Joss is pretty sure it’s just a made-up job to keep him busy. Everything in The Realms where he lives can be instantly altered in appearance, so why can’t the pies be instantly delivered?

It all becomes irrelevant when an Earthling looks through a telescope one night and can see The Realms. This act places the whole universe in jeopardy—removing the Earth from Time and Joss’ best friend along with it, and depositing a human girl named Anika in the Supreme Overlord’s office. Suddenly, Joss’ job is no longer to deliver pies, but to bring back the Earth. Can Joss really do that? Or, better yet, should he? As he and Anika work together, Joss discovers secrets to the universe even he didn’t know. At the same time, young readers trying to figure who they are will relate to Joss’ discovery of the secrets about himself.

Mass has done an admirable job creating a strange world “behind the stars,” although she doesn’t take the fantasy too far into the incomprehensible. She opens each chapter with a quote about science or the universe from such real-life notables as Carl Sagan and C.S. Lewis. Her preface and author’s note at the end of the book are essential reading as she explains her inspiration and encourages her readers to further scientific exploration.

With two older sisters and three younger brothers, Sunday is often lost in the middle. She is so tired of being overlooked and forgotten, in fact, that she is determined to do something to make herself stand out. When her father moves the family to the small town of Alma to help rebuild the local library, Sunday decides this is her chance. Somehow, some way, she will make her mark while she is there.

Sunday comes up with several ideas—planning a grand opening for the library, getting the local hermit to come out—but the best idea is to discover who wrote the manuscript for a book she finds in the basement of the library. Maybe it’s a famous author! Everyone in the world would know Sunday as the girl who discovered the lost treasure. After making friends with a local boy named Jude, she enlists his help in her quest for fame.

In A Summer of Sundays, author Lindsay Eland’s portrayal of a girl in her tweens trying to find her place in the world is spot on. Her new best friend, Jude, is an only child, helping Sunday to see that the alternative to a big family is not necessarily better. Readers will figure out who the mystery author is before Sunday does, but watching her solve the puzzle is half the fun. In the end, however, she has to decide between fame and friendship, between standing out and fitting in. She’s grown up a lot while in Alma and knows who she is and what is important to her—all of which will help her make the right choice.

Charlie Joe Jackson has a reputation as a guy who doesn’t like to read—and he’s proud of it. In his first book, Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Not Reading, we watched as he put more effort into avoiding the task than he would have if he had just read the assigned book. It looked like he might have learned his lesson from that escapade, but in his second outing, Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Extra Credit, he found new ways to get out of doing work—and into trouble. As a result of that misadventure, Charlie Joe now has to spend a large part of his summer vacation at Camp Rituhbukkee (“Read-a-Bookie”).

While he dreads the many scheduled classes and quiet reading times at the camp, he has a plan to help the “nerds” become cool like him. Charlie Joe is sure he can help them loosen up, not take themselves or their studies too seriously, and enjoy the summer. What he doesn’t anticipate happening is how much he will change himself. After reading a whole book—that he enjoyed!—he figures it was a fluke and not a sign that he is any different. As his friend Katie observes, however, Charlie Joe is fascinated by smart people and most of his friends back home are smart kids, so maybe he is more like them? Charlie Joe is repelled by the idea, but by the end of the book he has to admit that it might be true. Just a little.

Author Tommy Greenwald has written another winner with this third installment of the Charlie Joe Jackson series. Greenwald’s writing style is funny and smart, just like his main character. Almost every kid in school can relate to being a reluctant student at times, but also to reveling in cool academic discoveries. The kids at my library can’t wait for this book to hit the shelves.

Jennifer Bruer Kitchel is the librarian for a pre-K through 8^th grade Catholic school in Nashville.

Like many of the books by Newbery-winning author Patricia MacLachlan, White Fur Flying is a simple tale, but with hidden depth. In a few short chapters, the young narrator Zoe will tell us all we need to know about her family and their mysterious new neighbors, and bring us happily to the book’s satisfying conclusion.

Zoe Cassidy’s younger sister Alice likes to write stories, but, according to Alice, it is Zoe who knows those stories. When the new neighbors include a boy who doesn’t speak, Zoe can see right away that fear and sadness are the cause of his silence. She is also the first one to notice that her family’s rescued Great Pyrenees dogs make the new boy, Phillip, feel safe and comfortable.

It is no surprise that the rescued dogs end up rescuing Phillip, but MacLachlan tells the story in such a sweet and funny way that we don’t really mind the fact that we can see the ending coming from a long way away. Many younger, inexperienced readers won’t see it coming and will simply be excited and touched when Phillip finds his voice.

A master storyteller like MacLachlan can make a lot happen in a short amount of time without making the action seem rushed or forced. Young elementary students who have already read Sarah, Plain and Tall and Waiting for the Magic will be eager to read her latest book—and they will not be disappointed by this gentle, uplifting story.

Acclaimed young adult author Josh Berk debuts a new series for younger readers with Strike Three You’re Dead, starring middle schoolers Lenny Norbeck and the two Mikes. Part baseball story and part mystery, Berk's latest is a thrilling and hilarious romp that's hard to put down.

The story starts innocently enough with what looks to be a relaxing (but boring?) summer for Lenny and his friends, Mike and Other Mike. Things are looking up when they hear about a contest to win a chance to call one inning at a Phillies game. Lenny and Mike love baseball, but neither one plays. Lenny (who narrates) says it’s because he’s the “worst player ever,” and Mike has an injury that keeps him from pitching. Lenny, however, is nicknamed “the boy with a golden voice” and dreams of being a baseball announcer.  The boys are thrilled with the prospect of winning the contest, and their computer-geek friend Other Mike is excited to make their video for the contest entry.

Everything goes as planned until the night of the game. When a young pitching star dies suddenly on the mound in the first inning, Lenny loses his chance to announce a game but finds himself too embroiled in the mystery to really care. Lenny is sure that the pitcher was murdered and is determined to figure out who did it. With the help of Mike, Other Mike and a girl named Maria, Lenny finds himself getting closer to the truth but also deeper in danger.

Berk writes a genuinely humorous story that deftly weaves in action and adventure. Although the book is not heavy with emotional or psychological depth, Lenny does make some discoveries about himself and how he sees people that are a pleasant surprise to us all. With any luck, Berk will continue to bring us stories about Lenny and the Mikes, because I miss reading about them already.

Jennifer Bruer Kitchel is the librarian for a Pre-K through 8th-level Catholic school.

We all know that there is magic in the world—and it is not the spells-and-wands kind of magic you find in most fantasy books. Real magic is created by love and conjured up by need. In Kimberly Newton Fusco’s enthralling Beholding Bee, there is an abundance of real magic. And it’s a good thing, because Bee needs all the help the world can give her.

Orphaned at the age of 4 by carnival folk parents, Bee is raised by a teenager, Pauline, who helps her run the hot dog stand. The carnival’s owner decided to keep Bee because he hopes to use her as a “freak show” attraction when she gets older.

In the 1940s when this story takes place, being born with a large diamond-shaped birthmark on your face can make you an object of fear, ridicule and fascination. Bee spends most of the early parts of this story trying to keep her hair pulled down over one side of her face. Only Pauline and a strange old lady in a floppy hat—a lady only Bee can see—give her comfort. When Pauline leaves to work at another carnival, Bee is on her own and more scared than ever. With a stray dog and a piglet as her companions, Bee finds the strength to run away to the nearest town, and, miraculously, finds the house where the old lady lives.

Here the magic truly begins as Bee makes a home for herself. She follows the guidance of the ghostly lady and another “aunt” as she learns to cook and shop and go to school. As all the pieces come apart and then come together again, Bee finds her voice and the strength of self to show the world who she really is. Fusco’s lyrical prose enhances the magic of the story as we are drawn into Bee’s unconventional world and her touching transformation.

Hokey Pokey is the perfect kids’ world. There are many places to play, continuous cartoons on a big screen, wild herds of bicycles, even places for tantrums and snuggling. Only kids live here, from the time they first shed their diapers until they become Big Kids. But what happens then?

Newbery Award-winning author Jerry Spinelli explores this question with his usual grace and creativity in Hokey Pokey. His main character Jack wakes up one morning to find that his great stallion bike Scramjet has been stolen and nothing is as he expects. When he discovers that his tattoo, the one every newbie gets upon entering Hokey Pokey, is starting to fade, he knows for sure that his life is about to change forever.

It’s hard to talk about how wonderful this book is without giving away its secrets. Adults will know early on what Jack is experiencing, and tweens might guess but not fully understand. Pre-teens will identify with Jack—and his friends the Amigos and his nemesis Jubilee—in a way that will startle them. The ending is a satisfying “click” of the last puzzle piece. If readers are put off by the childish-seeming premise at the beginning, encourage them to keep going. Hokey Pokey is not just a place, but also a journey they will recognize.

This is the kind of remarkable, unique and perfect coming-of-age story that makes the reader think, “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?” And all of a sudden, there is no better way to describe childhood—or its end.