Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Five
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Jerry Spinelli, Pam Munoz Ryan's Paint the Wind, and anything Jacqueline Woodson.
Synopsis: 
When Jack Baker’s father sends him from his home in Kansas to attend a boys’ boarding school in Maine, Jack doesn’t know what to expect. Certainly not Early Auden, the strangest of boys. Early keeps to himself, reads the number pi as a story, and refuses to accept truths others take for granted. Jack, feeling lonely and out of place, connects with Early, and the two become friends. 
 
During a break from school, the boys set out for the Appalachian Trail on a quest for a great black bear. As Jack and Early travel deeper into the mountains, they meet peculiar and dangerous characters, and they make some shocking discoveries. But their adventure is only just beginning. Will Jack’s and Early’s friendship last the journey? Can the boys make it home alive? ​
(click the Read More button below to view the whole review)

Reviewed by Oscar

Rating: High Five!
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of the Hobbit, Harry Potter, and Eragon.
Synopsis (from Amazon):
The kingdom is in danger. Renegade knight Sir Keren has succeeded in overtaking Castle Macindaw and is now conspiring with the Scotti. The fate of Araluen rests in the hands of two young adventurers: the Ranger Will and his warrior friend, Horace. Yet for Will, the stakes are even higher. For inside the castle, someone he loves is being held hostage. And now the time has come for this onetime apprentice to grow up.

reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Four!
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Rick Riordan, the Land of Stories (I can't stop thinking about what would happen if Alex from LOS and Emily from Pegasus met), and the Last Dogs series
Synopsis (from Amazon):
Emily and her winged horse, Pegasus, face an ancient challenge of Olympic proportions in this fourth book of an exciting series.

A deadly plague has struck Olympus. While the Olympians fade one by one, Emily’s heart breaks as she watches, particularly when Pegasus begins to slip away. Determined to save him, she embarks on an investigation that takes her back in time to the origins of Olympus and to the deadly battle between the Olympians and the Titans.

In the present, she must face the full force of the CRU. In the past, she must confront Cronus, the father of the gods and leader of the Titans, who is intent on destroying his offspring. When Emily encounters the full power of the flame and a discovery that could change the face of history, will she make the right decisions? And in the race against time to save Pegasus, will Olympus find its true hero?

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.

Reviewed by Olivia (but my mom just started reading it, because I got her excited about it!)


Rating: High Four 1/2 
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Elise Broach's Masterpiece; if you're an adult, the Da Vinci Code (I don't think most kids my age have read it); and page-turning, amazing, suspenseful, creative mysteries.
Synopsis (from amazon):
When a book of unexplainable occurences brings Petra and Calder together, strange things start to happen: Seemingly unrelated events connect; an eccentric old woman seeks their company; an invaluable Vermeer painting disappears. Before they know it, the two find themselves at the center of an international art scandal, where no one is spared from suspicion. As Petra and Calder are drawn clue by clue into a mysterious labyrinth, they must draw on their powers of intuition, their problem solving skills, and their knowledge of Vermeer. Can they decipher a crime that has stumped even the FBI?

Reviewed by (make a guess!) Olivia :P

Rating: High Four
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Bridge to Terabithia, Home of the Brave, and historical fiction in general.
Favorite quote: "When Uncle knocked on the door, I told him to give me a password. He said, "Open this door right this minute young lady or bear my wrath." That happened to be the password, so I let him in." 
Synopsis (from Amazon): 
kira-kira (kee ra kee ra): glittering; shining. Glittering. That's how Katie Takeshima's sister, Lynn, makes everything seem. The sky is kira-kira because its color is deep but see-through at the same time. The sea is kira-kira for the same reason. And so are people's eyes. When Katie and her family move from a Japanese community in Iowa to the Deep South of Georgia, it's Lynn who explains to her why people stop on the street to stare. And it's Lynn who, with her special way of viewing the world, teaches Katie to look beyond tomorrow. But when Lynn becomes desperately ill, and the whole family begins to fall apart, it is up to Katie to find a way to remind them all that there is always something glittering -- kira-kira -- in the future.

Reviewed by Olivia


Rating: High Four 1/2
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Divergent, the Land of Stories, and possibly Percy Jackson (I pretty much always include that recommendation)
Synopsis (from Amazon, as always :):
Cinder is back and trying to break out of prison--even though she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive if she does--in this second installment from Marissa Meyer.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother, or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana.

Reviewed by Olivia


Rating: High Five
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Erin Hunter, Percy Jackson, and Cornelia Funke
Synopsis:
One will have the power of wings of fire . . .

Sunny has always taken the Dragonet Prophecy very seriously. If Pyrrhia's dragons need her, Clay, Tsunami, Glory, and Starflight to end the war, she's ready to try. She even has some good ideas how to do it, if anyone would listen to her.

But shattering news from Morrowseer has shaken Sunny's faith in their destiny. Is it possible for anyone to end this terrible war and choose a new SandWing queen? What if everything they've been through was for nothing?

Buried secrets, deadly surprises, and an unexpected side to scavengers are all waiting for her in the shifting sands of the desert, where Sunny must decide once and for all: Is her destiny already written?

Or can five dragonets change their fate and save the world . . . the way they choose?