Back of Book:
Finn McAllister was a normal middle school nerd—now he’s a ghost with a big mystery to solve.
One minute, Finn was biking home from school, and the next, he was run off the road by a maniac in a big van. Now, he's a ghost. He can do lots of fun things, like try every ice cream flavor in the store, sneak up on people, and play as many video games as he wants. Finn even has a new ghost friend, Isabella, to show him the ropes. But he also has a lot of BIG questions, like: who wanted him dead? And can he stop the maniac from striking again?
Packed with hilarious moments, epic friendships, and fun art, Best Nerds Forever celebrates the nerd in each of us and the joy of living life to its fullest.
Book Number: Stand Alone
Genre: Middle Grade | Mystery | Paranormal
Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Back of Book:
While camping near Indian Creek, Matt and his best friend, Parker, get up early to see if they can spot a blue heron. Instead, they find the body of a dead man floating in the clear water.
Parker is sure that George Evans, the smooth-talking local antiques dealer, must somehow be connected to the dead man. Matt isn’t so sure—but then, on Halloween night, while snooping around Evans’s antique shop, the boys make another shocking discovery that puts their own lives in danger.
There are murderous grownups that would do anything to keep what the boys found in the shop a secret, and now they’re after Parker and Matt. Are the boys clever enough to get away? Or will they, too, end up like the dead man in Indian Creek?
Book Number: Stand Alone
Genre: Middle Grade | Mystery
Review: 🌟🌟🌟
Back of Book:
Fletcher Moon has never been like other kids. For one thing, he has had to suffer the humiliating nickname "Half Moon" because of his short stature. But the real reason Fletcher is different is that ever since he was a baby, he's had a nose for sniffing out mysteries. And after graduating at the top of his Internet class, he is officially certified as the youngest detective in the world. He even has a silver-plated detective's badge to prove it. Everything is going along fine until two things happen: a classmate hires him to solve a crime, and his prized badge is stolen. All signs point to the town's most notorious crime family, the Sharkeys.
As Fletcher follows the clues, evidence of a conspiracy begins to emerge. But before he can crack the case, Fletcher finds himself framed for a serious crime. To clear his name, he will have to pair up with the unlikeliest of allies and go on the run from the authorities. Fletcher has twelve hours to find the guilty party—or he is the guilty party.
Book Number: Stand Alone
Genre: Middle Grade | Mystery
Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Back of Book:
Debut novelist Lisa Lewis Tyre vibrantly brings a small town and its outspoken characters to life, as she explores race and other community issues from both the Civil War and the present day.
Lou might be only twelve, but she’s never been one to take things sitting down. So when her Civil War-era house is about to be condemned, she’s determined to save it—either by getting it deemed a historic landmark or by finding the stash of gold rumored to be hidden nearby during the war. As Lou digs into the past, her eyes are opened when she finds that her ancestors ran the gamut of slave owners, renegades, thieves and abolitionists. Meanwhile, some incidents in her town show her that many Civil War era prejudices still survive and that the past can keep repeating itself if we let it. Digging into her past shows Lou that it’s never too late to fight injustice, and she starts to see the real value of understanding and exploring her roots.
Book Number: Stand Alone
Genre: Middle Grade | Mystery
Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Back of Book:
A story about long-buried secrets, the power of memory, and the bond between a girl and her gram.
All Lulu Carter wants is to be seen. But her parents are lost in their own worlds, and Lulu has learned the hard way that having something as rare as HSAM—the ability to remember almost every single moment in her life—won’t make you popular in school.
At least Lulu has Gram, who knows the truth about Lulu’s memory and loves her all the more for it. But Gram has started becoming absentminded, and the more lost she gets, the more she depends on Lulu…until Lulu realizes her memory holds the very key to fixing Gram’s forgetfulness. Once Lulu learns that trauma can cause amnesia, all she needs to do to cure Gram is hunt down that one painful moment in Gram’s life.
With her friends Olivia and Max, Lulu digs into Gram’s mysterious past. But they soon realize some secrets should stay buried, and Lulu wonders if she ever knew Gram at all. It’s up to Lulu to uncover the truth before the only person who truly sees her slips away.
Book Number: Stand Alone
Genre: Middle Grade | Mystery
Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Back of Book:
The day Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, four thirteen-year-olds converge at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where an eccentric curator is seeking four uncommonly brave souls to track down the hidden pages of the Kelmsbury Manuscript, an ancient book of Arthurian legends that lies scattered within the museum's collection, and that holds the key to preventing a second attack on American soil.
When Madge, Joe, Kiku, and Walt agree to help, they have no idea that the Kelmsbury is already working its magic on them. But they begin to develop extraordinary powers and experience the feelings of King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, Morgan le Fay, and Lancelot: courage, friendship, love... and betrayal. Are they playing out a legend that's already been lived, over and over, across the ages? Or can the Metropolitans forge their own story?
Book Number: Stand Alone
Genre: Middle Grade | Mystery | Fantasy
Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Back of Book:
Keenan has lived all over the world but nowhere quite as strange as Centerlight Island, which is split between the United States and Canada. The only thing weirder than Centerlight itself is his neighbor Zarabeth, aka ZeeBee.
ZeeBee is obsessed with the island’s history as a Prohibition-era smuggling route. She’s also convinced that her beloved dog, Barney, was murdered—something Keenan finds pretty hard to believe.
Just about everyone on Centerlight is a suspect, because everyone hated Barney, a huge dog—part mastiff, part rottweiler—notorious for terrorizing the community. Accompanied by a mild-mannered new dog who is practically Barney’s opposite, ZeeBee enlists Keenan’s help to solve the mystery.
As Keenan and ZeeBee start to unravel the clues, they uncover a shocking conspiracy that dates back to Centerlight’s gangster past. The good news is that Keenan may have found the best friend he’s ever had. The bad news is that the stakes are sky-high.
And now someone is after them...
Book Number: Stand Alone
Genre: Middle Grade | Mystery
Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Back of Book:
The letter waits in a book, in a box, in an attic, in an old house in Lambert, South Carolina. It's waiting for Candice Miller.
When Candice finds the letter, she isn't sure she should read it. It's addressed to her grandmother, after all, who left Lambert in a cloud of shame. But the letter describes a young woman named Siobhan Washington. An injustice that happened decades ago. A mystery enfolding the letter-writer. And the fortune that awaits the person who solves the puzzle. Grandma tried and failed. But now Candice has another chance.
So with the help of Brandon Jones, the quiet boy across the street, she begins to decipher the clues in the letter. The challenge will lead them deep into Lambert's history, full of ugly deeds, forgotten heroes, and one great love; and deeper into their own families, with their own unspoken secrets. Can they find the fortune and fulfill the letter's promise before the summer ends?
Book Number: Stand Alone
Genre: Middle Grade | Mystery | Contemporary | Historical
Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Back of Book:
Who would leave a world-famous pie recipe to a car?
When Alice's Aunt Polly, the Pie Queen of Ipswitch, passes away, she takes with her the secret to her world-famous pie-crust recipe. Or does she? In her will, Polly leaves the recipe to her extraordinarily fat, remarkably disagreeable cat, Lardo... and then leaves Lardo in the care of Alice.
Suddenly, the whole town is wondering how you leave a recipe to a cat. Everyone wants to be the next big pie-contest winner, and it's making them pie-crazy. It's up to Alice and her friend Charlie to put the pieces together and discover the not-so-secret recipe for happiness: Friendship. Family. And the pleasure of doing something for the right reason.
With Pie, acclaimed author Sarah Weeks has baked up a sweet and satisfying delight, as inviting as warm pie on a cold day. You'll enjoy every last bite.
Book Number: Stand Alone
Genre: Middle Grade | Mystery
Review: 🌟🌟🌟
Back of Book:
There's a murderer on the loose—but that doesn't stop the girls of St. Etheldreda's from attempting to hide the death of their headmistress in this rollicking farce.
The students of St. Etheldreda's School for Girls face a bothersome dilemma. Their irascible headmistress, Mrs. Plackett, and her surly brother, Mr. Godding, have been most inconveniently poisoned at Sunday dinner. Now the school will almost certainly be closed and the girls sent home—unless these seven very proper young ladies can hide the murders and convince their neighbors that nothing is wrong.
Julie Berry's The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place is a smart, hilarious Victorian romp, full of outrageous plot twists, mistaken identities, and mysterious happenings.
Book Number: Stand Alone
Genre: Middle Grade | Mystery
Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Back of Book:
A bizarre chain of events begins when sixteen unlikely people gather for the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will. And though no one knows why the eccentric, game-loving millionaire has chosen a virtual stranger—and a possible murderer—to inherit his vast fortune, one thing's for sure: Sam Westing may be dead... but that won't stop him from playing one last game!
Book Number: Stand Alone
Genre: Middle Grade | Mystery
Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Back of Book:
By sixth grade, Miranda and her best friend, Sal, know how to navigate their New York City neighborhood. They know where it's safe to go, like the local grocery store, and they know who to avoid. Like the crazy guy on the corner.
But things start to unravel. Sal gets punched by a kid on the street for what seems like no reason, and he shuts Miranda out of his life. The apartment key that Miranda's mom keeps hidden for emergencies is stolen. And then a mysterious note arrives, scrawled on a tiny slip of paper:
I am coming to save your friend's life, and my own. I ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter.
The notes keep coming, and Miranda slowly realizes that whoever is leaving them knows things no one should know. Each message brings her closer to believing that only she can prevent a tragic death. Until the final note makes her think she's too late.
This remarkable novel takes place in the real world but holds a fantastic puzzle at its heart. When You Reach Me is an original, and a brilliant and profound delight.
Book Number: Stand Alone
Genre: Middle Grade | Mystery
Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Back of Book:
A boy must outsmart a tormenting turkey and solve the mystery surrounding some missing jewelry in this feel-good middle grade novel from the Newbery Award–winning author of the Shiloh series.
Zack has a problem. A turkey problem. A TOM turkey to be exact. Every weekend Zack goes to his grandparents’ farm with his father. As soon as he and his dad pull up in the truck, that ol’ Tom turkey’s right there, waiting, ready to peck, peck, peck at Zack’s legs. Now, Zack isn’t usually a scaredy-cat but this is different. The bird is flat out mean, and has clearly got it out for Zack. His best friend Matthew thinks he’s exaggerating, so one weekend Zack brings him along and sure enough the turkey is laying in wait…this time for them both! The boys realize they need something to turn the tables, so they decide to build—in Rube Goldberg style—a giant LOUD contraption to scare the turkey away for good.
What the boys don’t count on is the seemingly know-it-all neighbor Josie’s news that there’s a mysterious robber prowling around the neighborhood. Bracelets, necklaces, and coins have gone missing, and the odd thing is that the robber leaves V-shaped footprints...
Book Number: Stand Alone
Genre: Middle Grade | Mystery
Review: 🌟🌟