The Friendship Doll, by Kirby Larson

Miss Kanagawa is not just any doll, she was crafted by hand in Japan and delivered after the first World War to America as a sign of friendship. Larson tells the story of several individuals connection to these historical dolls. While this is a book of fiction, there is a great deal of the story that is based on facts. 

Bunny is the daughter of a prestigious New York family and is disappointed when she is not given the opportunity to deliver a speech during the exchange of the dolls in 1927. Belle Wayatt Rooselvelt, granddaughter of Teddy, is given the chance. However, Miss Kanagawa, one of 58 friendship dolls gives Bunny the strength to move beyond this bump in the road and tell her own story throughout life.

Lois has the opportunity to see Miss Kanagawa in the midst of the depression when she makes an appearance at the World's Fair of 1933 in Chicago. Lois feels extremely lucky to have the chance to attend, thanks to her Aunt, and is sure to remember every sight to relay everything to her family and friends. 

Willie May is in search of any way to help her family get back. Without a Father, a sick Mother and young brother, and an older brother already working away with the WPA, Willie May jumps at the opportunity to help make ends meat by living with an older woman and doing nothing more than reading to her. In addition to her tremendous rock and book collection Mrs. Weldon has also come to possess Miss Kanagawa after buying her in an auction. 

Lucy has an equally trying life, as she makes her way from Oklahoma to California and finally to Oregon with her Father in search of work. After the death of Lucy Mother and the dust storm, her Father makes the decision to move elsewhere to work for the WPA and CCC. After finally settling in a camp, Lucy is able to attend school again and is introduced to the friendship doll on a class trip to a museum. 

In the end, Mason, a young boy from Seattle happens upon Miss Kanagawa when she is retrieved after being hidden away by the museum director for years after he was asked to remove all Japanese pieces following the second World War. 

This enchanting story is endearing and educational, though, the cover (plain silhouettes of girls  in red and black) may detract some taking a peak inside, there is no don't that many more pages will turn if one can look past the cover and turn that first one. 

Phobiapedia: All Things We Fear the Most!, by Joel Levy

When or where a fear began can sometimes be pinpointed to a specific event or thing, while others seem like they are as much a part of us as the color of our skin. Though, the source of a fear may vary, what is certain is that fear is a very real thing and can be crippling to some. Phobiapedia: All Things We Fear the Most, by Joel Levy, gives us a closer look at the various types of phobias.

You can quickly find the phobia of your desire by way of the Contents or Quick Guide at the beginning or the Index at the back of the book. However, if you're more in the mood for browsing this is a great book to flip through with large colored pictures accompanies by twisting font and easy to follow definitions. I was surprised to find how many fears have been officially identified as phobias, like Autophobia: fear of being alone or Nyctophobia: fear of the dark.

Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf, written by Jennifer L. Holm, illustrated by Elicia Castaldi

Ginny is determined to make the seventh grade a great year. She even has a checklist:
1. Get a Dad
2. Get the role of the sugarplum fairy in the Nutcracker
3. Look good in the school photo for once!!!
4. Do something with hair to make nose look smaller. Color?? Perm??
5. Win something. Anything.
6. Try to be friends with Mary Catherine Kelly
7. Get pink sweater back!!
8. Convice mom to let me go see Grampa Joe over Easter break
9. Get Henry to chill out
10. Ignore horoscopes whenever possible

Of course, some of the items on list work out while others fail monumentally and a few are re-worked. Despite Ginny's older brother having some run ins with authority, her Mom marrying Bob, a let-down in ballet and unexpected success at art, Ginny makes it through seventh grade and her thirteenth birthday having learned some lessons, willing to take some new risks, and ready to find out if eighth grade is all they say it's cracked up to be.

Holm's unconventional approach of using notes, magazine clippings, receipts, instant messages and bank statements to tell the story of Ginny's seventh grade year is enticing, inventive and makes for a quick and fun read.

The London Eye Mystery, by Siobhan Dowd

What goes up must come down. However, in The London Eye Mystery, by Siobhan Dowd, when Ted's cousin, Salim, goes up in the London Eye, a monstrous farris wheel of sorts, he doesn't come back down. Since Salim  and his mother, Ted's Aunt Glo, were only visiting for a couple of days before moving from London to New York, Ted and his sister, Kat, feel extremely responsible for the dissapearance of Salim since they were the ones that let him go on the thirty minute spin alone in the first place.

Ted's natural tendency is to pay attention to the most minor of details, which comes in handy as the two pour over photos taken from the day, visit the scene of the disappearance, unravel word puzzles and track down potential suspects; filling in the blanks where the police came up short. The characters that surround this mystery are what really make it a great ride: Aunt Glo with her smoking and high strung tendencies, Kat with her effortless beauty and understanding, and Ted with his quirky obsessiveness and gradual acceptance of who he is. 

The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman

Nobody would ever want to live in a graveyard, but Nobody, Nobody Owens, in fact did just that. When he fell out of his crib as a babe and crawled his way to the graveyard and away from his house, where his family had recently met a terrible end, most would make the bet that he would soon cross over to the other side as well. But he was received by the cold, yet warm, arms of the souls that inhabited the graveyard and brought up as normally as one can expect to be in a graveyard. 

Without a name, the boy is given the name Nobody, Bod for short, by the leader of the deceased, Silas, a powerful figure that has the ability to move between the living and the dead. Not long after Bod's arrival, Silas deems the Owens as his parents. Around the age of five Bod happens upon a girl, Scarlet, who is visiting the graveyard that had been renamed as a nature preserve. The two are fast friends and fast to find trouble. One day they stumbled upon a grave that is hundreds of years old and in the velvet dark are shocked by the unforgettable words of the indigo man. Scarlet moves away soon after, but the two never forget their adventures or one another. 

As Bod continues to grow, his experiences with the dead, ghouls and dreams mount along with his desire to connect with the living and find the man that had killed his family. At fourteen, Scarlet moves back to the town and enters into Bod's life again, through an odd set of circumstances and a particularly odd historian who spends almost as much time in the graveyard as those who have it as their final resting place. As the duo delves deeper into the events of the past, they find that people are not who they seem and though some try to bury the past, it has a way of coming back to life. 

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick, by Chris Van Allsburg

Harris Burdick could be anyone, the same as the story behind the drawings he dropped off with Peter Wenders  twenty-five years ago could be anything. In the years following the discovery of these entrancing pictures, children have woven their own stories around Burdick's art. Now, fourteen esteemed children authors, including the likes of Sherman Alexie, Walter Dean Myers, Lois Lowry and Kate DiCamillo, have put their own spin on these timeless strokes of genius.

There is no specific theme, length or voice to tie all of the tales together, simply the pictures. You will be captivated by a possessed shirt, dumbfounded by a dust demon, and pulled in by a struggling children's book illustrator. There is some apprehensiveness about allowing children to read the stories that children literature greats have written to accompany Burdick's masterpieces since they may feel that their own stories could never compare. However, I think these stories are a point of inspiration rather than the source of defeat. Children are now able to see how a story can develop from anything: a ball, a friend, a trip, or a drawing. This realization will make way for them to let their own stories unfold. 

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: the Mysterious Howling, by Maryrose Wood

"You act like you were raised by wolves" is a saying often used by caretakers to let kids know that their behavior is unacceptable. In Maryrose Wood's The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: the Mysterious Howling, the children, Alexander, Cassiopeia, and Beowulf, have an excuse. They were raised by wolves.

The odd crew is discovered by the owner of the expansive Ashton Place manor while out on a hunting trip. After closely escaping being mistaken for a trophy animal, the children are taken back to the mansion and Miss Penelope Lumley, fresh from Swanburne Academy, is hired as their governess.

Though, the job requirements did state that a love of animals was a necessity, Miss Lumley was not expecting to find three naked barking children housed in a barn upon her arrival. However, as a Swanburne graduate, she is determined to have them speaking Latin and playing the piano. First, she has to get them to stop barking and biting.

In addition to these difficult tasks, the stakes are raised when the lady of the house, Lady Constance, decides to host a Christmas ball, with the expectation that the children will act like, well, children, rather than wolves. More questions rather than answers pop up as well, like the odd behavior of the coachman and how the children came to live out the woods.

All mysteries and canine tendencies are not resolved by the end of this introductory novel, but the reader will be sure to crack the spine of the second book quickly to discover the answer to these questions and the fate of Miss Lumley and the Incorrigibles.