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Juvenile Fiction | Page 133 | LitPick Book Reviews
Juvenile Fiction
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library
Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library
Chris Grabenstein
Amazon Best Books of the Month, June 2013: Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library is part Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, part A Night in the Museum, and a whole lot of fun. When the eccentric inventor of video and board games returns to his hometown to build a library the likes of which has never been seen, he brings with him the most spectacular puzzler of them all. Seventh grader Kyle Keeley wants, more than anything, to be the winner of Mr. Lemoncello’s latest challenge but it will take skill, wit, and ultimately teamwork to come out on top. With a delightful cast of characters and the homey feel of family game night, Chris Grabenstein’s novel mimics elements of two beloved classics but stands on its own merit as a sure fire winner with young readers. --Seira Wilson

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Numbed!
Numbed!
David Lubar
When a robot at the math museum zaps their math skills, sixth-grader Logan and his mischievous friend, Benedict, must pass a series of math challenges to retrieve their knowledge.

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Glimpse (The Dean Curse Chronicles) (Volume 1)
Glimpse (The Dean Curse Chronicles)
Steven B Whibley
"Save them, Dean. Save them all...." Dean Curse avoids attention the way his best friend Colin avoids common sense. Which is why he isn't happy about being Abbotsford's latest local hero - having saved the life of a stranger, he is now front page news. Dean's reason for avoiding the limelight? Ever since his heroic act, he's been having terrifying visions of people dying and they're freaking him out so badly his psychologist father just might have him committed. Dean wants nothing more than to lay low and let life get back to normal. But when Dean's visions start to come true, and people really start dying, he has to race against the clock - literally - to figure out what's happening. Is this power of premonition a curse? Or is Dean gifted with the ability to save people from horrible fates? The answer will be the difference between life and death. Get your copy to day and experience this edge-of-your-seat adventure series that's perfect for fans of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series, the Ranger's Apprentice, and Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series. More by Steven WhibleyThe Cambridge Files: Book 1: DisruptionBook 2: Abduction (pre-order coming soon) The Dean Curse Chronicles: Book 1: GlimpseBook 2: RelicBook 3: Impact6th Grade Revengers: Book 1: Cat Crimes and WannabesBook 2: The Substitute CriminalBook 3: A Game of ThornsBook 4: Cinephiles and Hamster HuntersBook 5: Super TrooperBook 6: Secrets and Spies (Coming soon)

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Neverworld
Neverworld
E. Racine
Sixteen-year-old Samantha Beckett and her friend, Charley Neilson, are walking home from school when they find themselves being chased by two strange looking boys in a white van. Racing through backyards and under hedges, they finally shake their pursuers, only to run into Captain Bartholomew Jones, a man who claims he was sent to deliver Samantha to her mother, the woman who abandoned Samantha at birth. Obsessed with the idea of finding her mother, Samantha agrees to go along with Jones, so long as Charley can accompany them. Trudging through the woods near her home, Jones leads them into a ring of mushrooms and thrusts a silver spoon into the ground. When the bright lights fade, Samantha finds herself in a land unlike any she has ever known, a harsh world of swordfights and sailing ships, a world without electricity or running water and filled with people who seem intent on killing her. To find her mother and discover the reason for her abandonment, she and Charley will have to escape kidnappers, race typhoons and battle monsters. As they both soon learn, only the quick and the strong survive long on the other side of the map, in a place called Neverworld.

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Girl Z: My Life As A Teenage Zombie
Girl Z: My life as a teenage zombie
C.A. Verstraete
Sixteen-year-old Rebecca Herrera Hayes faces every teenager's biggest nightmares: bad skin, bad hair, and worse . . . turning into one of the living dead. Becca's life changes forever when her cousin Spence comes back to their small Wisconsin town carrying a deadly secret— he's becoming a zombie, a fate he shares with her through an accidental scratch. Now she must cope with weird physical changes and habits no girl wants to be noticed for. Then she meets Gabe, a good-looking part-Z like her and she fears she may be falling for him. But how can he, who shows hardly any Z symptoms, be interested in someone like her? Time is running out . . . and Becca needs his help as she and her cousin Carm search for their missing mothers and fight off hungry Zs. Most of all, she needs to find something, anything, to stop this deadly transformation before it is too late.

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Bluffton: My Summers with Buster Keaton
Bluffton: My Summers with Buster Keaton
Top Choice
Matt Phelan, graphic novelist extraordinaire, presents a rollicking tribute to vaudeville, small-town dreams, and Buster Keaton as a boy.In the summer of 1908, in Muskegon, Michigan, a visiting troupe of vaudeville performers is about the most exciting thing since baseball. They’re summering in nearby Bluffton, so Henry has a few months to ogle the elephant and the zebra, the tightrope walkers and — lo and behold — a slapstick actor his own age named Buster Keaton. The show folk say Buster is indestructible; his father throws him around as part of the act and the audience roars, while Buster never cracks a smile. Henry longs to learn to take a fall like Buster, “the human mop,” but Buster just wants to play ball with Henry and his friends. With signature nostalgia, Scott O’Dell Award–winning graphic novelist Matt Phelan visualizes a bygone era with lustrous color, dynamic lines, and flawless dramatic pacing.

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Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures
Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures
K.G. Campbell, Kate DiCamillo
Top Choice
Winner of the 2014 Newbery Medal Holy unanticipated occurrences! A cynic meets an unlikely superhero in a genre-breaking new novel by master storyteller Kate DiCamillo.It begins, as the best superhero stories do, with a tragic accident that has unexpected consequences. The squirrel never saw the vacuum cleaner coming, but self-described cynic Flora Belle Buckman, who has read every issue of the comic book Terrible Things Can Happen to You!, is just the right person to step in and save him. What neither can predict is that Ulysses (the squirrel) has been born anew, with powers of strength, flight, and misspelled poetry — and that Flora will be changed too, as she discovers the possibility of hope and the promise of a capacious heart. From #1 New York Times best-selling author Kate DiCamillo comes a laugh-out-loud story filled with eccentric, endearing characters and featuring an exciting new format — a novel interspersed with comic-style graphic sequences and full-page illustrations, all rendered in black-and-white by up-and-coming artist K. G. Campbell.

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Macadoo: Horses of the Maury River Stables
Macadoo of the Maury River
A sequel to Chancey of the Maury River, this heart-tugging story focuses on Macadoo — the gentle giant of the Maury River Stables.When Macadoo is just a colt, he challenges his father — a huge Belgian stallion — in order to protect his dam. From that moment on, Mac knows that his purpose in life is to help others. From surviving a kill auction to learning how to be a vaulting horse to giving therapeutic riding lessons, Mac is always patient and never loses hope in his mission to serve others — and he finds the courage to “walk on” through even the most difficult circumstances. Told with insight and compassion from Macadoo’s point of view, this is a story that all horse lovers will cherish.

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From the Publisher

The Music of Zombies: The Fifth Tale from the Five Kingdoms (Tales from the Five Kingdoms)
The Music of Zombies: The Fifth Tale from the Five Kingdoms
Ross Collins, Vivian French
The web of power looks smooth and peaceful — until a new threat looms — in the fifth tale from the Five Kingdoms.Prince Albion expects a unique occasion when he starts planning Cockenzie Rood Day to celebrate his kingdom — and himself. What he doesn’t expect is boppings on the head and kidnapping, all because a zombie wants to play his fiddle in the talent contest. With a misbehaving path, a romantic bat, and a greedy butler to set them on their way, Gracie Gillypot and Prince Marcus are off on their fifth adventure. It’s up to a Trueheart, a resourceful prince, and Gubble the troll to stop the zombie before he does some giant damage to the Five Kingdoms.

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Mouse Bird Snake Wolf
Mouse Bird Snake Wolf
Dave McKean, David Almond
The imagination of three children takes on unexpected life in a creation tale from the dream team of David Almond and Dave McKean.The gods have created a world that is safe and calm and rather wonderful. They have built mountains, forests, and seas and filled the world with animals, people, and unnamed beasts. Now their days are fat with long naps in the clouds, mutual admiration, and tea and cake. But their world has gaps in it filled with emptiness, gaps that intrigue Harry, Sue, and little Ben until they begin to see what might fill them. One by one the children conjure, from twigs and leaves and stones, a mousy thing, a chirpy thing, and a twisty legless thing. But as the children’s ideas grow bolder, the power of their visions proves greater and more dangerous than they, or the gods, could ever have imagined. Is it possible to unmake what’s been made?

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