The Earthly Knight by Janet McNaughton

I love reading books about the Middle Ages and this one didn't disappoint (actually, it takes place prior to the Middle Ages). It's set in Scotland in 1162, when Norman lords have been given land in Scotland by the King of England. Jennie lives with her father, a Norman lord, and sister Isabel, who was recently disgraced by a wandering knight but refuses to tell her family what happened to her when she ran away with him. Now her father turns to Jennie to make a valuable wedding match, but she falls instead for Tam Lin, a mysterious man from a once powerful family who was said to have been raised by fairies.

This book has just enough magic realism to make you believe it's true; McNaughton weaves two old folktales, the story of Tam Lin and the story of Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight, into a satisfying book. Jennie is outspoken but she still understands the roles that women must play in her society. While she is at the mercy of her father's wishes, she manages to insert her own independence into her fate.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

There was something of a controversy when this book won the 2009 Newbery Award; it's one of those books that kids probably love and adults don't understand -- or find scary or strange or downright weird. It begins with the murder of a family which in and of itself is pretty awful. A baby is the only survivor, and he manages to crawl to a nearby graveyard, when the denizens (read dead people) decide to raise him. Named Bod (for Nobody), the baby grows to a teen among the ghosts and spirts of the graveyard.

Sounds weird, right? However, it's a wonderful book. Gaiman (author of Coraline) creates a fascinating world with its own believeable rules, and the tension rises as the killer closes in on Bod in his graveyard. Read it!

Masterpiece by Elise Broach

Masterpieceis a thoroughly original novel about James, a boy who lives with his mother, stepfather, and baby brother in New York, and his unlikely friendship with a beetle who lives in his kitchen named Marvin. One night, Marvin draws a painting for James using the ink that James' father gave him as a birthday present, and this simple act leads them both into a plot to steal an Albrecht Durer masterpiece. Broach approaches this unlikely friendship with such creativity that it's amazing to see how it progresses, especially since the two can't communicate by talking. I was left guessing until the very end as to how James and Marvin would solve the theft; Broach does an impressive job of tying up the ends in a believable and touching finish.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians series

I just finished the first book in Rick Riordan's series Percy Jackson and the Olympianscalled The Lightening Thief. Percy is a kid with dyslexia and ADHD who is constantly kicked out of schools for creating problems, even though he has no control over them. It turns out that he is what is called a half-blood, a child of one of the gods of Olympus and a mortal. After "accidentally" vaporizing his math teacher, Percy is literally chased to Camp Half-Blood by the Minotaur. Camp Half-Blood is where all the other kids with one mortal parent and one parent who is a Greek god.

Percy isn't quite as brooding as Harry Potter, and he actually has a pretty dry sense of humor; the chapter headings are hilarious when you discover what they are referring to.

The premise of the book is actually a very clever one, that the gods revered by the Greeks are still among us today, just not as visible to humans as they once were. Riordan has created a believable culture around these half-mortal children, and if you know your Greek myths you'll get a kick out of how he stays true to them but also turns them a bit on their heads.

There are ultimately five books in the series; the second one is The Sea of Monsters. In this one, Percy goes on a quest with his friend Annabeth and his half-brother Tyson, who is a cyclops. They must retrieve the Golden Fleece in order to save the tree where Thalia, daughter of Zeus, is imprisoned. The third is called The Titan's Curse. In this one Percy joins the daughters of Artemis, called Hunters, to save Artemis and Annabeth from Kronos, lord of the Titans.

The next in the series is The Battle of the Labyrinth. I loved Mary Renault's books as a kid, particularly the one about Theseus and the Minotaur, so this next Percy Jackson book should be fun!

I have now finished the fourth and fifth books in this series, The Battle of the Labyrinth and The Last Olympian, and I must say that Percy Jackson is a worthy successor to Harry Pottery. As I've said, the premise of Riordan's books is very original and he has created a very realistic and believeable world. There is a lot of action, with cliffhangers at the end of every chapter, and some fascinating characters. He ties it all together at the end, but I was left with wishing I could read more about Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Chiron, Tyson, and the other characters.

My Dad's a Birdman by David Almond

Another book by David Almond, author of Skellig. This one was a bit stranger. My Dad's A Birdman is about Lizzie and her dad, who are trying to get on since her mother died. The dad is obviously not handling it very well, as he decides to become a bird in order to enter the Great Human Bird Competition. He stays at home, builds a nest, creates wings for himself, and eats worms and bugs.

Once Lizzie decides to join her father in his madness, the story takes a little bit of a sweet turn, and the finale of the Great Human Bird Competition is quite fun. You get the feeling at the end that perhaps Lizzie and her dad will be ok.

2007, MA: Candlewick Press

The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander

The Chronicles of Prydain were written by one of my favorite children's authors, Lloyd Alexander, in the 1960's. The first is The Book of Three, and the final one, The High King, won the Newbery in 1968. The books follow the story of Taran, an Assistant Pig-Keeper, the magical pig Hen Wen, and Taran's friends Gurgi, the bard Fllewddur Fllam, and the princess Eilonwy, as they battle to defeat the evil Arawn. It's your basic hero's quest, complete with comic relief, a princess who can take care of herself, and a very scary bad guy. Lloyd based the series on ancient Welsh legends. This series is similar to the Hobbit stories, but as a child I enjoyed these more because they were written for children. These would make great read-aloud books for kids as well.

Also try Alexander's Time Cat: The Remarkable Journeys of Jason and Gareth about a boy who time travels with a cat through various time periods when cats were worshipped or feared, and Westmark, his series that features a female hero.

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster

Probably my most favorite book of all time, I still remember reading this book for the first time as a kid. I absolutely love all the puns and play on words that Juster uses. The ideas just keep coming -- from a marketplace that sells letters to a conductor who conducts the colors of the dawn, from the Amazing DYNN that makes a lot of noise to the Princesses of Rhyme and Reason. Tock is an endearing dog -- sort of like the scarecrow in Oz -- and I love how Milo realizes that there are just too many interesting things to see and do in this world to waste time wasting time.

The Phantom Tollbooth

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

I've read the Mysterious Benedict Society (2007) and the sequel, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (2008). I see there is a third one coming soon: TMBS and the Prisoner's Dilemma. The MBS consists of four children -- Reynie Muldoon, Kate, Sticky, and Constance -- who are specifically selected by a stranger, Mr. Benedict, to foil a heinous plot by the sinister Mr. Curtain, who is planning to take over the world. Each child has special abilities -- Reynie is able to think through problems logically; Kate is physically fit and has a bucket full of contraptions that would make McGyver drool; Sticky can remember everything he ever read or heard (information sticks to him) and Constance -- well, Constance is good at being grumpy -- which helps to save the day in the end.

Stewart does a great job with Reynie -- he is an orphan who really appreciates being part of this small, quirky family -- but as with all families sometimes you get a little tired of your siblings. Reynie is a very realistic character -- he displays a great ability to think things through, but he is also very conscious of his role of leader of the little group. I really like Kate, too -- she is the swashbuckling type who always has a way for getting out of trouble.

I think boys in particular would like this series, as the books move along at a great pace, there is a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter, and Reynie is a very likeable hero.

NY: Little, Brown and Company

Coraline the graphic novel

I found this copy in our campus library; it's the graphic novel version. This is actually the first graphic novel I've read. The story itself is pretty creepy -- just thinking about the parents with black buttons for eyes is spooky, but seeing it on the page is downright gross. I'm not sure if reading it as a graphic novel is good or not, as you don't get to let your imagination make it scarier and grosser than the pictures in the novel. Now I want to read the "regular" version.

Coraline, adapted and illustrated by P. Craig Russell, 2008, NY: Harper Collins