Reviewed by Olivia (with the help of Oscar)

Rating: High Five

Who We'd Recommend to: Fans of sweet, simple stories with beautiful messages.

Synopsis (from Amazon):
Clearie, a one-hundred-year-old schoolhouse, is fed-up. For so long, he has helped children get educated but been rewarded only by their complaints about how much they hate school. He longs to get away. His dream is to go to France, a country he has heard so much about in geography lessons over the years - but how could a schoolhouse possibly travel? Eventually he comes up with a plan and enlists the help of two students, the Buggy twins; but not everything works out as he had hoped.
With an attic full of crazy crabs, led by the fearless Lancelot, his journey is less than enjoyable and, in his absence, the school system falls apart. Will Clearie's dreams come true and the children get their wish for schooldays to end forever? Or has everyone bitten off more than they can chew?

Reviewed by Oscar

Rating: High Five

Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Archie's Alien Disguise, Geronimo Stilton, the Sword of Summer​, and the Silver Chair.

Synopsis (from Amazon):
One day, Isaac Thompson is just your average fifth grader playing the part of a porcupine in the school play. The next, he has strayed into a mysterious subterranean realm that has been lurking beneath his school Castle Elementary and launches his quest to knighthood. When Isaac's little sister Lily goes missing from their school's creepy basement, he and his best friends Max and Emma set out in search of her. Their search takes them to the Underground, where they encounter an army of spear-wielding rats, a talking human-sized bat, and a thumb-nosed prison guard. But humans who stay in the Underground too long transform into weird, unpleasant creatures and are forced to work for the horrible Elf King. Can Isaac and his crew escape the Underground before it's too late for them to ever return home?

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Five!
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Roald Dahl, Cornelia Funke, and Kate DiCamillo
Synopsis (from Amazon):
Rudger is Amanda Shuffleup's imaginary friend. Nobody else can see Rudger--until the evil Mr. Bunting arrives at Amanda's door. Mr. Bunting hunts imaginaries. Rumor has it that he even eats them. And now he's found Rudger.

Soon Rudger is alone, and running for his imaginary life. He needs to find Amanda before Mr. Bunting catches him--and before Amanda forgets him and he fades away to nothing. But how can an unreal boy stand alone in the real world?

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Five
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of anything Beatrix Potter, the War that Saved My Life, and Drowned City.
Synopsis (from Amazon):
A family—a mother, a father, and their ten-year-old son—have come all the way from Florida to the Appalachian foothills to experience the wonder of a snowy weekend. At a nearby farm, a cattle dog is working, as she does every day, driving her forty head of cattle from pasture to corral and back again. And then, suddenly, a blizzard descends. The family is trapped outside, disoriented in the whiteout. They are panicked, exhausted, freezing, and stranded in waist-deep drifts. From off in the distance, the cattle dog has heard their faint, snow-drowned cries. Her inexhaustible attention turns to saving them. This stirring tale is both a compelling story of survival and a meditation on the tremendous will of man's best friend.

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Four!
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Cornelia Funke, Rump, the Magic Thief, Magyk, and the Land of Stories.
Synopsis (from Amazon):
Serafina was living the normal life of a village girl, when she gets a mysterious letter--her first letter ever, in fact--from a great aunt she's never heard of in another village. Little does 'Fina know, her great aunt is actually a Baba Yaga, a magical witch who lives in an even more magical cottage.

Summoned to the cottage, Serafina's life takes an amazing turn as she finds herself becoming the new Baba Yaga. But leaving behind home and the boy she loves isn't easy, and as Serafina grows into her new and magical role answering the first question any stranger might ask her with the truth, she also learns about the person she's meant to be, and that telling the future doesn't always mean knowing the right answers.

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Four 1/2
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of the Humphrey books by Betty Birney, the Geronimo Stilton books, and other fun, action-packed stories!
Synopsis: Archie Morningstar's dad drives a taxi through outer space! And with the help of a talking cat named Pockets, Archie and his dad help fight crime across the universe.

​In the third book in the series, Archie, his dad, and Pockets visit a planet that resembles medieval Earth in every way but its inhabitants, who have rainbow colored hair and extra eyes. To beat the evil organization B.U.R.P., the trio must disguise themselves as aliens and rescue a princess! When Archie must act on his own, can he find the courage to save the day?

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Three
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of the MAGIC THIEF, 13 TREASURES, and THE LAND OF STORIES. 
Synopsis (from Amazon):
In a magic kingdom where your name is your destiny, 12-year-old Rump is the butt of everyone's joke. But when he finds an old spinning wheel, his luck seems to change. Rump discovers he has a gift for spinning straw into gold. His best friend, Red Riding Hood, warns him that magic is dangerous, and she’s right. With each thread he spins, he weaves himself deeper into a curse.

To break the spell, Rump must go on a perilous quest, fighting off pixies, trolls, poison apples, and a wickedly foolish queen. The odds are against him, but with courage and friendship—and a cheeky sense of humor—he just might triumph in the end.

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Five!
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of WILDWOOD and anything written by Lemony Snicket (I only read books 1 and 2 of a Series of Unfortunate Events, and my brother read All the Wrong Questions, but the writing style is definitely similar).
Favorite Quote (I can't decide, so I'm posting both):
"I just want to make sure I have this straight. You say you came across the sea for ballet, even though, thanks to croissants, you're no longer a ballerina. Is that correct?" (the customs officer to Adelaide while moving overseas from Paris to America). 

"Quite easily, monsiuer, quite easily. I have a mole on my back. That mole belongs to me, but that does not mean I want it there." (Mrs. Belmont, Adelaide's mom, after the waiter is astounded that she'll willingly give away her daughter).

Synopsis:
Archer B. Helmsley wants an adventure. No, he needs an adventure. His grandparents were famous explorers . . . until they got stuck on an iceberg. Now Archer's mother barely lets him out of the house. As if that would stop a true Helmsley. Archer enlists Adelaide—the girl who, according to rumor, lost her leg to a crocodile—and Oliver—the boy next door—to help him rescue his grandparents.

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Four 1/2
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Jerry Spinelli (especially his Hokey Pokey), the Land of Stories, and anything Cornelia Funke. (don't let the fact that this is YA fool you, it's totally age appropriate for middle grade readers, too).
Synopsis: 
Aoife Finley is bursting at the seams with creativity. No one daydreams better than her and her imagination knows no bounds. 

Mr. Peterson is old, his best days long behind him. He yearns for the past, mistrusts the present, and fears the future. But he's just figured out how to recapture his past: 

By stealing other people's imaginations. 

Armed with only her creativity, imaginary friends, and a few bickering classmates, Aoife embarks on an amazing, but dangerous journey into the otherworld that she created, a place that is slipping more and more out of her control and into Mr. Peterson’s, before the real world as she knows it—and as it could be—disappears forever. 

Reviewed by Olivia


Rating: High Three
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of the Thief Lord, Inkheart, Magyk, and other books with similar contexts. 
Synopsis:
In a city that runs on a dwindling supply of magic, a young boy is drawn into a life of wizardry and adventure. Conn should have dropped dead the day he picked Nevery's pocket and touched the wizard's locus magicalicus, a stone used to focus magic and work spells. But for some reason he did not. Nevery finds that interesting, and he takes Conn as his apprentice on the provision that the boy find a locus stone of his own. But Conn has little time to search for his stone between wizard lessons and helping Nevery discover who—or what—is stealing the city of Wellmet's magic.