City of Orphans by Avi 350 pages

Newbery winner Avi, has crafted another gripping historical fiction novel. Young readers are probably not very familiar with life in 1898 New York City. Maks is not an orphan. He has a warm family trying to keep their heads above water. 13 year old Maks is employed as a newsboy. He meets Willa, an orphan living in an alley and brings her home. There is a lot of tension building. Bruno, leader of the Plug Ugly street gang, is after Maks. His older sister who works in the swank Waldorf Hotel has been thrown in jail on a trumped up robbery charge. Maks contacts an eccentric lawyer to free his sister. Donck, the lawyer inserts Maks into the Waldorf as an apprentice detective. Readers will learn about life as new immigrants and the perils of life on the streets for homeless waifs.

The Genius Files: Mission Unstoppable:by Dan Gutman 285 pages

Dan Gutman has written a number of kid pleasing series: Baseball Card Adventures, Million Dollar sports series, My Weird School. This is the first of a new series that promises lots of adventures for middle school readers. Twins Coke and Pepsi, their parents have a snarky sense of humor in an anti-establishment way, turn out to be members of a secret government project called The Genius Files. Unfortunately, they learn this just as they told that they are marked for assassination by weird assassins. (The villains are mock humorous like the bad guy in Unfortunate Events). Their clueless parents take them on a cross country vacation. While they had been dreading the trip, they agree that it might keep them alive. Offbeat and funny.

Umbrella Summer by Lisa Graff 235 pages

Annie is having difficulty recovering from her brother's accidental death. Her reaction is to become overly cautious worrying about anything that could cause her to become ill or hurt. She steals a medical book from a neighbor with the hope of learning about all diseases which she fears she may contract. Her parents are having their own problems coping and she tries to shut out her best friend and the guy who kind of has a crush on her. It takes a new neighbor who is trying to handle her own grief from her husband's death. Yeah, while this all sounds like a downer, it is rather uplifting. Annie is well worth meeting.

A Wrinkle in Time/Madeleine L'Engle

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle; young adult, science fiction; 280 pages (about 5 1/2 hours on audio)

I revisited this classic because 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of its publication. I first read this in second grade, and made it a regular reread throughout my childhood, but I hadn't picked it up again in about 10 years. Thankfully, the story holds up well, and I found myself enjoying it every bit as much as I used to. I listened to the audio book, which is read by the author; on the one hand, L'Engle adds some inflections to the dialogue that I had never considered, which I liked; on the other hand, her strong New England accent could sometimes get distracting. If you haven't read this in a while, now is a good time to pick it back up!

Bloody Horowitz by Anthony Horowitz 330 pages

Successful author of the Alex Rider series and the Diamond Brothers mysteries, crafts twisted horror stories. They are a bit tongue-in-cheek (especially the story of the murder of rival teen author Darren Shan). Some humor, some gore perhaps a step up from Goosebumps, R.L. Stine. I did enjoy the last "note from the President of Penguin Young Readers Group" about his distaste for the manuscript. It actually sounded to be like Alfred Hitchcock rising from the grave to give his wrap up at the end of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Mordant chuckles.

Prisoners of the Palace by Michaela MacColl 367

Intriguing historical fiction set in London about a recently orphaned young lady who finds herself suddenly the lady's maid of the future Queen Victoria. The author paints a bleak picture of the lives of the working class during this time. In a blink of the eye or rather the sudden horse cart accident killing both parents, Liza's formerly carefree life changes. She was about to be presented to society, instead she is trying to avoid debtor's prison. Victoria's early life also seems rather sad. Her widowed mother and probably lover are scheming to win control of the throne. The princess is kept a virtual prisoner of the house with only a faithful Duchess in her corner. Even her future husband, Albert seems less than interested in her. This is like a richly textured palace wall hanging. The book's subtitle: A Novel of Intrigue and Romance says it all.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins 372

Anna's newly wealthy father, the successful author of sob story novels, decides that she needs to spend her senior year abroad at a posh American school in Paris. She immediately clicks with a group of friends and reluctantly falls in love with handsome Etienne St Claire. Unfortunately, Etienne has a girl friend who is attending another school. Anna doesn't know if she should stay faithful to a guy she kissed once back at home or pursue the popular St Claire. This is unabashedly fluff, but hey, a little bit of fluff never seriously hurts a reader.

The NIGHTMARYS by Dan Poblocki 325 pages

You can tell be the title that the author hopes to scare the pants off of you. Two seventh graders, Timothy and Abigail unite to try to break an ancient family curse involving a powerful stolen, jawbone and an old children's mystery book. When they take a class field trip to a museum strange stuff happens. Both Timothy and Abigail are haunted by their greatest fears. Luckily, Abigail's grandmother is a big help at fighting their foes. I didn't find this to be a quick read -- rather mildly suspenseful.

Divergent by Veronica Roth 487 pages

Alert to fans of Hunger Games: This first novel by Veronica Roth is pretty impressive. Set in a futuristic Chicago (!!), society is divided into five factions that embody a virtue: honesty, selflessness, peaceful, intelligence and bravery. The year one reaches 16, he or she chooses which faction to pledge to. Beatrice, reluctantly turns her back on her parent's factionAbnegation (selflessness), and chooses Dauntless (brave) when she learns that she is Divergent (a rare breed that has strengths in more than one faction. Her brother surprises her and their parents by choosing Erudite (intelligence). She must survive a rigorous training / testing phase to be accepted. She survives a lot of hits during training and afterwards. She is attracted to one of the two trainers, Four. My intro does not do this book justice. It has the quick dramatic action, tests of courage and strong characters as The Hunger Game. I sure hope that a sequel is in the works.

Back of Beyond by C J Box 9780312385745

Cody Hoyt is a recovering alcoholic and a good detective. When his mentor and AA sponsor, Hank is killed Cody refuses to accept the accidental death verdict. Especially since it would mean that Hank had fallen off the wagon and died drunk. As he digs further, he suspects that the murderer has joined a back to nature horseback riding vacation group. A group that includes his estranged son and his ex-wife's fiancee. There are several likely suspects in the group. Even the camp leader seems highly suspicious. There are several "hits" in this book and a likable young heroine. I have not read many Western mysteries, but this is one I'm buying for my Western lovin' dad. I listened to the audio version, read by Holter Graham and it was mighty entertaining. 4 spur rating