​ A Hundred Horses
Written by Sarah Lean
Age Level:  8 – 12
Grade Level: 3 – 7

Happy Easter! Here’s a story that can be read long after Easter’s over. Sorry, no bunnies or eggs, but there are lots of horses, 99 to be precise. When Nell is forced to spend her Easter vacation with her aunt and cousins, she starts packing and discovers a carousel her father made before he left the family behind, along with a few scars.
 
When Nell arrives at her aunt’s, she meets Angel, a wild and mysterious girl with her own scars. Slowly they become friends, and their friendship helps them each heal. Best of all Angel is adopted by the owner of a farm with 99 horses. Angel saves the 100th horse, a foal with wonky legs. This story was sweet, but its two mysteries, the carousel and 100 horses, kept it from being super-sweet. I loved it!
 

 

​The Unteachables
Written by Gordon Korman
Age Level: 8 – 12
Grade Level: 3 – 7

​Sometimes those people we minimize and overlook, turn out to have the greatest potential. That’s the character twist written into this story. Mr. Kermit’s teaching career is ruined by a cheating scandal so he quits caring and becomes the worst teacher at school. He’s a year away from early retirement when he’s given the unteachables. It doesn’t matter because Mr. Kermit does the unthinkable . . .  he lets the kids vegetate. But what I really loved about this story, as a retired teacher, is that there’s more to Mr. Kermit, and more to the unteachables. Read how they work to help each other make the impossible come true, and the ending is spot on! This is a great read!

​Mothman’s Curse
Written by Christine Hayes
Illustrated by James K. Hindle
Age Level: 8 – 12
Grade Level: 3 – 4

I love fantasy, and a good mystery! Christine took the real facts of the Mothman story from 1960 newspapers. She updated it, added 2 brothers and a sister, then set the story in Athens, Ohio. I’m a Buckeye, and I love my home state!
 
The sister and oldest brother help their father with the family auction business. That’s where they discover a camera that’s linked to the mothman story. They trace back the curse (that’s the made-up part), and they must break it before Josie dies or someone takes her place. I absolutely loved this story and its mix of fantasy, mystery, and a little horror. It’s a great read!

​Shadows of Sherwood
Written by Kekla Magoon
Illustrated by Andre Ceolin
Age Level: 8 - 12
Grade Level: 4 – 6

Wow! I read this book a few years ago. It’s a version of Robin Hood that’s set in the future world, but unfortunately there’s still the age-old fight between good and evil. Twelve year old Robyn Loxley sneaks out for a little adventure. She returns to traces of blood, missing parents, and the thought that sneaking out may have saved her life. Robin must crack her father’s codes and learn moon lore to fight off the evil government. I wrote back then that I’d love to read the sequel. Now, in 2019, there are 2, and I can’t wait to read them!

​
​The Pirate Pig
Written by Cornelia Funke
Illustrated by Kerstin Meyer
Age Level: 7 - 10
Grade Level: 2 – 5

This is a great read! It’s an easy chapter book that’s also a pirate story! Poor Julie is thrown overboard by pirates, but she’s rescued by Stout Sam and Pip. They quickly discover Julie’s talent . . .  she can sniff out treasure. Really! Of course the pirates discover they threw away a treasure-finding pig, and they are off to capture Julie, by hook or by crook. Pirates and pigs, kids will love this book!
 

​

​
​Mega Bat
Written by Anna Humphrey
Illustrated by Kass Reich
Age Level: 7 - 10
Grade Level: 2 - 5

I loved this book, and I think kids will too! Poor Daniel! He has to move to a new house, and he thinks it’s haunted. And Megabat! He falls asleep on a papaya and wakes up in a foreign country with broom-swatting humans. Daniel and Megabat discover they need to help each other. They bond over important things like Star Wars, juice boxes, light sabers, and a common enemy – the mean boy next door. It’s a friendship in the making, and a great new series. 

​The Language of Spells
Written by Garret Wehr
Illustrated by Katie Harnett
Age Level: 10 - 14
Grade Level: 5 - 9

​This week’s blog was about saying goodbye to a friend, and so is this book. Its hook, the magic of being ordinary. Grisha the dragon’s super-power is seeing the ordinary, which seems so dull and unmagical. Grisha’s tested when he’s turned into a vase. He sits on a shelf and watches life pass him by first in an Austrian palace, then in a London shop during the bombing of WWII. It takes the magic of one friendship to return him to dragon-form and to Vienna.  It takes the magic of another to help Grisha solve the mystery of the missing dragons of Vienna. Read this story to discover how an ordinary girl saves them by sacrificing  the thing she loves most. This story is truly magical! 

​The Junction of Sunshine and Lucky
Written by Holly Schindler
Age Level: 8 - 12
Grade Level: 3 - 7

​I read this book 3 years ago, but I still remember it. I loved the message! The title and the cover first caught my eye, and I was curious about that junction. The main character, Auggie Jones lives in a poor neighborhood with her grandfather who’s a junk man. Her school closes, and she’s sent to a new one. That’s where she meets the school’s mean girl, Victoria. Her father is on the beautification committee, and he wants to get rid of Auggie’s neighborhood. She fights back by turning garbage into art, but Victoria and her father don’t see it. They still see junk. Read to find out how this story turns out. It has a great message about what’s trash and what’s treasure. Hint…there’s a happy ending at the junction of Sunshine and Lucky!

​Lara’s Gift
Written by Annemarie O’Brien
Age Level: 10 and up
Grade Level: 5 - 6
 
I’ve been tracking my reading since 2015. This was the 10th chapter book that I read. I’m at #99 now, but I still remember how much I loved this story. I hope you’ll check it out too.

Lara’s Gift is historical fiction, and it’s so well researched! I loved the detail that Annemarie wove into her plot. Lara is a young Russian girl who wants to become a kennel steward, but not just any steward. She wants to be the one who cares for the borzoi dogs that belong to the Russian Tsar (king). Lara has the job, until her mother has a baby boy. Nowadays that’s not a problem, but back then boys got all the great jobs. The drama increases when you discover Lara has 2 gifts…she has a special understanding for borzois, and, she has visions, something her father doesn’t understand, or approve of. Read and find out how Annemarie weaves this great story together.

PS- Annemarie got this idea from her time working in Russia. She was even given her 1st borzoi puppy. Lucky Annemarie!

PPS- I found this in my notes…I loved this book so much I had trouble stopping at the end of the chapters. I wanted to find out what was next for Lara. 

​A Dog Like Daisy
Written by Kristen O’Donnell Tubb
Age Level: 8 – 12
Grade Level: 3 - 7

I knew when I was halfway through this book that I had to review it. The hook, a dog is 2 days away from being put down when 3 people enter the pound. They’re looking for a special dog that can be trained to become a therapy dog. This is the perfect book to honor our veterans, many of whom return home with PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. After serving our country, they find themselves flashing back to the horrors of the battlefield. It makes life difficult for them, difficult for their families. Read this book to find out how Daisy passes her tests to become a therapy dog, and how she heals her new pack of humans. If you are interested in learning more about therapy dogs, read all the way to the back matter. Kristin will tell you how she got the idea for this book, and how she researched it. Daisy has become one of my favorite books, one of my favorite dogs!