(4) K-3 Watts creates a Hansel and Gretel who truly look touched by hardship, with big eyes and muted clothing against backgrounds saturated with color. Snow White focuses more intently on scenery, using intricate lines to create abundant texture for everything from wildflowers to textiles. The texts of these classic tales is in the spirit of the Grimms' originals; however, some transitions are choppy. Review covers these titles: Hansel and Gretel and Snow White.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(4) K-3 Watts creates a Hansel and Gretel who truly look touched by hardship, with big eyes and muted clothing against backgrounds saturated with color. Snow White focuses more intently on scenery, using intricate lines to create abundant texture for everything from wildflowers to textiles. The texts of these classic tales is in the spirit of the Grimms' originals; however, some transitions are choppy. Review covers these titles: Hansel and Gretel and Snow White.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(3) 4-6 Denis has been dead five years, but his family still can't move on. Although it's painful to try to remember the details of his kidnapping and death, Denis tears himself away from Port Haven (the afterlife) to help his twin brother, Matt, solve the mystery. This inventive and tautly written ghost story holds as much danger for the dead as it does for the living.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Kevin Cornell. It's summer in Yawnee Valley, and Miles and Niles (The Terrible Two; The Terrible Two Get Worse) intend to enjoy every minute of it in their secret hideout. But bully Josh Barkin doesn't think it's funny when Miles and Niles steal his summer camp flag, and a comic battle ensues. Underneath the hilarity of the exaggerated characters and cartoon drawings is a sweet message about friendship.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(3) 4-6 This companion to The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart focuses on dragon-turned-human chocolatier Aventurine's (human) friend Silke. Silke catches the attention of the princess, who assigns Silke spy duty over devious elves visiting the palace. But Silke has her own agenda: the elves took her parents years ago, and she's determined to find out what happened. Plucky Silke's first-person narrative reflects her strong, independent spirit.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(3) 4-6 Twelve-year-old Lily helps to evacuate her granny from a nursing home during Hurricane Sandy and, in the chaos, loses Granny's old Montblanc pen. Lily's search for the pen in post-storm New York alternates with flashbacks to Granny's activities in the French Resistance during WWII. Carelli provides an interesting juxtaposition of different types of danger and valor across the decades.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(3) 4-6 Pandava series. Twelve-year-old Aru knew she shouldn't light the Lamp of Bharata just to show off to her schoolmates, but she never expected to rouse a demon bent on awakening the God of Destruction. Now she must save her museum-curator mother and, well, everyone else. Witty humor and quick pacing carry readers through the Kingdom of Death in this series-starting fantasy rooted in Hindu mythology. Glos.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Jaime Zollars. Nix, an impish woodland fairy, is left behind when the other fairies go to the Summer Country. He's lonely, but still he's outraged when "a people" (read: a person) moves into a cottage in the forest. Nix soon finds out that he has more in common with this "man-people" than he had suspected. Fanciful, detailed black-and-white illustrations complement the mysterious tone of the text.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(3) YA Despite being up to his neck in responsibility--taking care of his two sisters and fending off an abusive stepfather--Josh instantly falls for mysterious newcomer Chatham Claiborne. Chatham's past is murky, and she may have a connection to a local kidnapping twelve years ago. The immediate threat from Josh's stepfather keeps tension running high as readers try to untangle the twisted clues to the central mystery.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(4) YA On his eighteenth birthday, Patrick receives a letter from his long-dead mother. Only she's not dead--his dad's been lying to him for years. As "Pack" unravels the mystery, he loses his supportive girlfriend and his whole life turns upside-down. Though readers may not feel satisfied by the hurried resolution to the mystery, Pack is an interesting character and his complicated relationship with food and exercise adds dimension.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(3) YA Ellory's closest relationships--especially with bestie Ret--have broken apart, leaving her a "burned-out wasteland of a girl." Now Ellory's back for her senior year, at first strenuously avoiding and then facing her former friends and ex-boyfriend. Frick feeds the reader tiny crumbs of information as Ellory's first-person narrative, alternating between then and now, leads to the jolting revelation of what really happened.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(3) 4-6 Moon colonist Dash (Space Case; Spaced Out) just wants to enjoy his thirteenth birthday when he's caught up investigating who tried to poison trillionaire Lars Sjoberg. Soon the Moonies are faced with an even bigger problem when their air recycling unit begins to fail. Realistic details of lunar living play nicely against Dash's lively sleuthing in this third Moon Base Alpha mystery.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(3) 4-6 Spy-in-training Ben is sent to Mexico to find the evil organization SPYDER's temporary headquarters. But best-laid plans are blown up along with the plane Ben flies in on. The junior agents turn a Mexican resort upside-down, using everything from spear guns to parasailing gear to thwart SPYDER. This sixth Spy School installment navigates both espionage action and a middle-school love triangle with humor.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(3) 4-6 Twins Colm and Mal are less than thrilled when their mom moves them from Dallas to Chicago. Things get interesting, however, after they discover they can visit a ghostly parallel dimension via their new apartment building. The ghosts' personalities and the crackly atmosphere they inhabit are well drawn, and Colm and Mal's race to break a curse lends urgency to the plot.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(4) 4-6 Ari and Kaylan (11 Before 12) return for seventh grade with twelve new goals before their thirteenth birthdays. But Ari struggles to balance her new summer-camp friends and BFF Kaylan, and Ari's parents are having financial trouble. This installment isn't the freshest, but Ari's bat mitzvah preparations allow for authentic reflection on her place in her Jewish community and in the larger world.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(4) 4-6 Soren Skaar never thought he'd retire from being the best prankster in Camelot, Minnesota--until his best friend/partner-in-crime moved away. Now, Soren is stuck spending sixth grade with his well-behaved, green tea–drinking hipster cousin, Flynn, who's visiting from Brooklyn for the year. An irrepressible little brother and an irascible rooster play into this lively comedy about a prankster learning to take life a little more seriously.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(3) 4-6 Enduring Mysteries series. Karst explores mysteries that linger prominently in our culture. Have humans been abducted by extraterrestrials? What happens after death? These books present balanced discussions that include modern-day scientific inquiry while still leaving room for kids to use their imaginations. The accessible texts are well punctuated with glossy photos and illustrations. Websites. Bib., glos., ind. Review covers these Enduring Mysteries titles: Alien Abductions, Near-Death Experiences, and Sea Monsters.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(3) 4-6 Enduring Mysteries series. Karst explores mysteries that linger prominently in our culture. Have humans been abducted by extraterrestrials? What happens after death? These books present balanced discussions that include modern-day scientific inquiry while still leaving room for kids to use their imaginations. The accessible texts are well punctuated with glossy photos and illustrations. Websites. Bib., glos., ind. Review covers these Enduring Mysteries titles: Alien Abductions, Near-Death Experiences, and Sea Monsters.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(3) 4-6 Enduring Mysteries series. Karst explores mysteries that linger prominently in our culture. Have humans been abducted by extraterrestrials? What happens after death? These books present balanced discussions that include modern-day scientific inquiry while still leaving room for kids to use their imaginations. The accessible texts are well punctuated with glossy photos and illustrations. Websites. Bib., glos., ind. Review covers these Enduring Mysteries titles: Alien Abductions, Near-Death Experiences, and Sea Monsters.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(3) PS Illustrated by Teagan White. One sister greets a snow day with exuberance ("Snow!"), another with some trepidation ("Snow."). As the day progresses, the first sister grows tired and comes inside, while the second sister's curiosity builds until she heads outside; they happily reunite at book's end in a cozy blanket fort. Spare text and quaint gouache and watercolor art illustrate the value of independence and solitude for the youngest picture-book readers.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay