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"How to Train Your Dragon", Cressida Cowell (Young Adult Fiction)

"How to Train Your Dragon" is a fun read and excellent for reluctant readers.  This book has humorous pencil drawings and ink stains scattered throughout the book.  It tells the tale of an unlikely hero and his dragon who save the village, including his larger than life viking father.  Interestingly enough, this book doesn't have much in common with the movie that opened yesterday, with the exception of the cast of characters.  Still, I recommend it for grades 3-6.

"The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin", Josh Berk (Young Adult Fiction)

"The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin" is a combination of realistic fiction and mystery.  The protagonist of the story is a deaf high school student struggling with attending mainstream school for the first time.  He has to deal with his deaf friends' disapproval, parental worries and making friends when you can't hear.  Not to mention teachers who don't understand how to teach hearing impaired students so they turn away when he's trying to lip read, students with pranks on their minds and solving a murder mystery.

This book was written well and covered a lot of ground, however, given a few references to sex, I would recommend this for high school rather than middle school.

"Diary of a Wimpy Kid", Jeff Kinney (Young Adult Fiction)

"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" is a very quick read and enjoyable.  I can see why this book is so popular with reluctant readers.  It has an interesting facet by adding cartoons throughout the book while detailing the life, friendships and family of a middle school student, as he struggles with honesty and popularity (or lack thereof). 

I would recommend this book for grades 3-6, as well as reluctant readers or students with reading challenges.

"Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians", Brandon Sanderson

"Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians" was a hysterical romp through an interesting mind!  The hero, Alcatraz, is an orphan who receives a gift from his long dead parents on his 13th birthday...a bag of sand.  Little does he know, this sand can be used to create lenses with magical properties.  Swiftly, we are introduced to Alcatraz's unknown grandfather and a cast of characters with unique traits.  Alcatraz, himself, possesses the ability to break things.  He opens a car door and the handle falls off, he touches a gun and it falls to pieces, etc.  His grandfather's ability is to arrive late to things, so when he is attacked, nothing happens to him as he arrived late to his injuries, and so forth.  In this world, the horde of evil librarians are trying to assimilate other lands into the Hushlands.  They do so by controlling information to the populace.  For example, there are really 10 continents, but they hid 3 of them from the world!

There were several times where I literally burst into laughter reading this novel.  Such as when we learned that authors don't write books because they need to express their imaginations, but because they love to torture people.  This certainly explains all of those cliffhangers!  Recommended for middle/high school students or adults, but most certainly for librarians everywhere!  This is the first book in a 3 book series and readers must have a sense of humor to appreciate the nuances.

"The Last Knight", Hilari Bell (YA Fantasy)

"The Last Knight" is about a fourth son who sets out to be a knight errant in a time when such things are past, although not so much in the past that it seems out of the realm of possibility.  The knight acquires a squire, who sees the absurdity in his knight.  The gullible knight goes on a quest to free a maiden who was abducted.  However, after freeing said maiden, the knight and squire are arrested as it seems she was no maiden.  The lady in question was in prison for murdering her husband!  Now the knight and squire are forced to find and return her for her punishment.  As they roam the countryside looking for her, you can imagine the mischief they get into! 

This book is interesting in that each chapter changes perspective from the knight to the squire and back again.  It's a little difficult to get into as a result, but humorous nonetheless.  Recommended for middle school students.

"The Otherworldlies" by Jennifer Anne Kogler (YA Fiction)

"The Otherworldlies" started out with promise, which it quickly destroyed.  At first glance you think you're reading an interesting tale about a girl who exhibits strange powers and may have a supernatural gene or two.  However, the author can't seem to make up her mind about the source or the mythology, which can be very confusing.  First, these power seem to come from Greek mythology, but then they come from vampires.  But wait!  Vampires are actually descended from Greek gods!  Really?!?!?  All in all, the story is well written and the characters and sub-plots were interesting, but that Greek god as vampire bit was too much for me to swallow.  There book is acceptable for middle school students, and there wasn't any romance or descriptive violence.  In fact, most, if not all, of the violence was aborted before it ever occurred.  Threats were made, but that's it.

"Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment", James Patterson (young adult, fantasy)

"The Angel Experiment" is the first volume in the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson.  In this edition, we are introduced to the flock and get the basic background and set up for the rest of the series.  This storyline revolves around a group of children who have undergone genetic manipulation by a secret government or wealthy private medical group (the specifics are unclear).  These doctors/scientists have spliced animal DNA with human DNA and created a variety of experiments, similar to what happened in "Dark Angel", if you're familiar with that TV show, or inspired by H.G. Well's Dr. Moreau even.  There are mentions of several experiments, but the main focus is on a wolf/human hybrid group and a human/avian group.  There are 6 members of the avian flock, ranging in ages 6-14, who are trying to live on their own and outwit the wolf packs sent to find and retrieve them.  At one point the youngest gets caught and the rest try to rescue her but get caught in the process.  Find out what happens after they break out, as well as who their parents are, what Max's mysterious destiny is and where they go from here...

"Fantasy in Death", JD Robb (adult, mystery, fantasy)

"Fantasy in Death" is the latest chapter in the Eve Dallas "in death" series about a futuristic homicide detective.  JD Robb is Nora Roberts, however, unlike her fluffy romances, the Eve Dallas stories are focused around a homicide that Eve and her entourage try to solve.  The connecting storylines and characters make these books more interesting and really should be read in order to preserve the continuity.  This particular edition has an interesting twist in that the cause of the murders stump even Eve for most of the novel.  If you're familiar with suspension of disbelief, you'll probably solve it in the first few chapters as I did.  However, as they find more information and try to come up with alternate versions of 'what happened', you may begin to doubt yourself...again, as I did.  LOL  Given a couple scenes, this book is recommended for adults only.