Unwilling Witch

THE UNWILLING WITCH by David Lubar. Tor Starscape, 2013.

Hurrying to meet her friend Jan at the mall, Angie stops to assist an old woman who looks in distress. As it turns out, the woman instead is a witch who is ready to transfer her power to Angie. But being a new witch is very dangerous. Angie has no understanding of what her powers are and can do. She needs to figure that out, though, before the one who would take that power from her dispatches her. Lubar's new series MONSTERRIFIC TALES, is sure to be popular with middle grade readers with its skillful combination of humor and danger.

Adventure? No thanks!

Oliver and Celia Navel should love a good adventure. Their parents are famed explorers. They live with their Dad at the Exclusive Explorer's Club. Their mother disappeared while searching for the lost library of Alexandria. These two should be primed for action, right? Not so. In WE ARE NOT EATEN BY YAKS by C. Alexander London (Philomel 2011), readers will meet the 11 year old twins who would rather sit and stare at the TV and enjoy reality TV than set foot outside of their residence. But events conspire to send them into the mountains of Tibet in search of their mother. Of course, they manage somehow to survive and even partly solve a mystery about the lost library and other artifacts explorers desire to find. <437>

The adventure, reluctant as it is in the eyes of our protagonists, has elements of Snicket and Dahl which makes for some funny moments, some tall tale telling, and some snide villains to say the least. Short chapters make this appealing to reluctant readers and also make it excellent for short read aloud bursts daily. An open ending promises more adventures to come for Celia and Oliver.

in a pickle about Frankie

During the August #titletalk, a monthly Twitter chat hosted by @Donalynbooks and @MrPaulWHankins, guest "speaker" @MrSchuReads mentioned the Frankie Pickle series. I immediately pulled one from the newly arrived box of books from Somon and Schuster to bring home to read. During the triple digit afternoon, I read Frankie (and a few other books). I LOVE FRANKIE PICKLE. In FRANKIE PICKLE AND THE MATHEMATICAL MENACE by Eric Wright (Simon and Schuster 2011), Frankie fails a math quiz. He spends time doodling monsters from the numbers and not solving the problems. His teacher, bless her, offers to let Frankie retake the test Monday. He has the weekend to study. Time flies and Frankie does not get in the studying he had intended. Instead he has helped his Dad cook and done other activities that, lo and behold, are hekping him "get" math. Great read aloud for math teachers, here. <368>