Benjamin Franklinstein Meets Thomas Deadison, by Matthew McElligott and Larry Tuxbury

In Benjamin Franklinstein Meets Thomas Deadison, by Matthew McElligott and Larry Tuxbury, the story is told of the Modern Order of Prometheus, an elite club that stands apart from the rest. It's members are dead! Actually, the group is made up of preserved great inventors, like Benjamin Franklin and Orville and Wilbur Wright. However, there is one preserved member, Napoleon (aka the Emperor), that is out to do away with them all if Victor, Scott and Ben don't step in.

Victor knows a lot about the order, since his parents were the caretakers until they went missing. To make things even more difficult, Infinity light bulbs have been distributed for free to all of Philadelphia, but in addition to light, the bulbs give off radiation that turns people into zombies. Just what the Emperor needs to take over!

The short chapters and spattering of diagrams and illustrations throughout the book make this a fast read that incorporates a pinch of historical information and gobs of adventure and mystery.

Where Things Come Back, by John Corey Whaley

The story of life is written by the people, places and events that come and go, which is what makes the constants, however, boring they may seem at times, so important when all else seems to change. Where Things Come Back follows individuals searching for a life outside of the small town of Lily, Arkansas. Though, in the end they are all searching for a way back.

Lucas' cousin dies of an overdose and his Aunt is left to drudge through the guilt and heartbreak of losing her son. Soon after, Gabrielle, Lucas' brother, goes missing. The appearance of what was thought to be extinct woodpecker keeps the story from the headlines, but it turns Lucas' life upside down as his Mom slowly retreats to her son's room and his Father stops working to focus on finding his son.

Lucas' best friend spends most of his days and nights at Lucas' since his home is no place to call "home." Yet, his spirits are always high and the care of his girlfriend, Mena, make the future something to look forward to.

Ada Taylor is the girl that all the boys dream of, including Lucas, but all the boys she dates die. There's only been two, but the whole town is waiting for the next to go. When her boyfriend, the Quitman, is paralyzed in a car wreck, the curse seems true, but this doesn't keep Lucas from giving into Ada's coming on.

Meanwhile, in Georgia two college students, Alma Ember and Cabot Searcy, find one another during a time when their lives are in flux. Alma soon find that she is pregnant and the two marry in a flurry. However, the fast love is quick to die as Alma finds Cabot's obsession with the book of Enoch, which started with the death of his college roommate years before, too much to handle and moves back to her hometown, Lily.

Some, like Cabot, see Lily as their destiny, as he thinks, "Everything that had, in some way or another, led him to some nothing town where, as it seemed, things could come back from the dead, mistakes, could be rectified, lives could be started over" (207). Others, can only see it as a prison, but what Whaley makes clear in his seamless third-person writing from Lucas' perspective, the perfectly uncomfortable first-love feeling, and the spot-on description of the mind-numbing feeling of losing a brother, son, and friend is that life is chock-full of horrendous days and months that are made bearable by the tremendous moments that keep bringing us back for a second helping of life. 

The Magician's Elephant, by Kate DiCamillo

 

Peter Augustus Duchene is quite the name for an orphan with more questions than answers. For a person with little fortune so far in life, the appearance of a fortune teller in the street baring news of where to find his long lost sister is more than good news; it is a life changing event. And that is how life goes. Anything is possible and that is exactly what DiCamillo touches on: the impossible becoming possible. 

Meanwhile, a magician performs the best trick of his life with dire results. With the wave of his wand an elephant comes crashing through the tent ceiling, paralyzing a well-to-do woman. Also, a man and his dog find their own magic in the air, it seems, and Peter's lost sister is given mysterious signs leading her to her brother. 

Lives pass one another and at times crash unappolegetically, as DiCamillo masterfully brings all of them to a breath-taking head. There are wonderful additional resources for incorporating this classic in the making into your classroom.

This is How you Lose Her, by Junot Diaz

Love that is lost means so much more when all that one has is the void that is left. Diaz shows how love comes in many forms, is felt on various levels, and can disappear as quickly as it first tickled one's heart. Yunior, an outrageously intelligent, hard-headed with a scarred past that leads him to rationalize lies that ultimately hurt and lead to the loss of the person her holds most dear.

While Yunior's story remains at the center, the trembling hearts of others swirl around him, as his best friend reveals a love child in the Dominican Republic, a woman struggling to make a living in the US with the distance from her family still at home tugging at her heart, and a young student grappling with an unexpected pregnancy that could keep her from an education that she has built her whole life around.

Yunior's older brother, Rafa, attempts to hold onto the last ounce of who he was before cancer dwindled him down to almost nothing while Yunior finds and loses himself in the arms of Alma, Miss Lora, Magdelina, and others. They bring wisdom, comfort, spontaneity, and sometimes nothing more than a warm touch.

The False Prince, by Jennifer A. Neilson

 

Sage is just getting by as an orphan. However, his days of stealing food to supplement the meals at the orphanage and wearing clothes to the point of rags are over when he is taken by a nobleman, Connor, with the incentive to compete against three other boys for the change to pass for the lost prince. The country is erupting in war and Connor, along with many other hopefuls, are looking to deliver the prince that went missing years before to take the place of the recently deceased king and queen. 

Though, the new clothes and ample food are enticing, Sage doesn't easily bend to the wishes of those that will ultimately determine his fate and remains suspicious of his fellow competitors, who prove to be as conniving as he had suspected. 

SPOILER ALERT!!!

The twist comes when it is revealed that Sage is the actual prince that went missing years before when the ship that he was on was attacked by pirates. It turns out that Sage had actually wiggled out of the ship early and was subsequently found by his father and asked to go into hiding in order to keep the countries from going into battle. He changed his name and lived as an orphan from the age of 10-14, when he was recruited by Connor, due to his resemblance to the missing prince, to vie for the position of prince. 

The story moves at a good pace, but I felt that the ending was a bit predictable. However, there is no doubt that this would be a good read for boys especially, but girls as well who are fans of adventures like The Maze Runner or The Hunger Games.

Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schlitz

Clara Wintermute is speechless when she sees Gaspare Grisini's masterful puppetry at work. All she wants for her birthday is another puppet performance and her father, a wealthy doctor, grants her wish, not only because money is not a factor, but because Clara is his only living child, following the death of the other four due to cholera.

The big night comes at last and Clara is mesmerized not only by the act, but by the two orphans, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall, that help in the performance. When Clara goes missing the night of her birthday, the first thought is that she has run away with the children. However, there is something much darker at work than the children could ever fathom.

Grisini's  past is painstakingly shoveled to the surface along with other dark truths about Lizzie Rose and Parsefall's paths in the short time they have been on earth. The children are faced with uncertainty as they hastily leave London in search of a better life, but their destination is wrought with deception.

This book is a boiling cauldron of magical spells, deceit, and broken souls in search of something that will mend them. This book teeters between Junior and Teen Fiction, with a few choice words and higher vocabulary pushing it one way and the childish idea of puppets (though, it couldn't be further from childish) pushing it another.

"All the Wrong Questions: Who Could That Be at This Hour?," By Lemony Snicket

Who Could That Be at This Hour? is not only the title of the first book in Lemony Snicket's new series, All The Wrong Questions, but one of many questions that Snicket asks in his escapades while apprenticing as a detective. Theodora is the detective he is shadowing, even though she is far from being the best detective herself.

However, Snicket does his best to put the pieces together in a blooming mystery in the town of Stain'd by the Sea. This is not a normal town; with octopi producing ink and seaweed swaying in the wind, rather than the water. You see, Stain'd by the Sea was once underwater, but now that the water has gone, many of the sea characteristics have remained. This budding detective is also presented with an abnormal mystery. A wooden statue, known as the Bombinating Beast, has gone missing and it is not clear why so many people want it, where it has gone, and why it is so important.Snicket finds himself in a tearoom with machines churning, discovers a questionable friendship in a girl named Ellington, and finds solace from the murky mess in the library with the help of a leather clad librarian.

Lemony Snicket asks a lot of question, many that are left unanswered, but if you're asking yourself whether or not you should take the time to read this book, there is no doubt that the answer is "yes!" This book will keep you on the edge of your seat with the unknown, put a smile on your face with the the quirky friendships, and leave you wondering when the next book will come out. Hopefully, soon!