Operation Redwood

Can an email message save a forest? "Sibley Carter is a Moron and a World Class Jerk." The email was sent from a girl living on the edge of a forest, which one of the richest people in the world owns. He wants to cut it down. And it is up to Julian, Carter's nephew, his friend, Danny, and Robin to stop him. However, it is hard--but they are going to do it. From staying in a tree house days on end to sending hate mail to stealing from the people who mark the trees for clear cutting, these kids are dedicated to saving this forest. However, it will be hard...especially when Sibley Carter is the only owner of the forest...or so they thought.
FastFacts:
Foul Language: None
Main Character in danger: None
Violence: None
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Coraline

Coraline, by Neil Gaiman.
Some doors should not be opened... Coraline's family just moved into the old mansion that is so big that no one could ever own the entire house at once. Coraline often gets bored in the old house, and so, one day, she walked through an old black door. Once she gets to the other side, she finds everything exactly as she left it--with a few differences; one, everyone has button eyes, and two, everyone is evil. The Other mother, as Coraline decides to call her, wants her to stay. So, she captures Coraline's parents, and with a few other people who she locked behind a mirror, she plays and evil game. She hides the 6 souls in little marbles, and hides them all over the house. Coraline has to find them...or she stays with the Other Mother forever.
FastFacts:
Foul Language: None
Main Character in danger: Medium High
Violence: Mild
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When you reach me

When you reach me, by Rebecca Stead (Newbery Medal 2010) was one of those books that, when you are done, you stop and say, "Wait a second..." Your brain overloads, because, if you get it, the chain reaction of understanding of the plot is immediate. If you like a good mystery, this is the book for you. It is in the second person--unusual, I know. It is in the form of a letter, to whom is not revealed until the end. Miranda's mom is running for a 10,000 dollar pyramid. She recently had a problem with a friend of hers, and when she, Colin, and Annamarie, start working at a sandwich shop, she finds mysterious notes, telling her to mention where her house key is, and weird things like that. A second note asks her not to mention it to her mother--something is going on. And not for the last time.
FastFacts:
Foul Language: None
Main Character in danger: None
Violence: None
Great Mystery Award! This book has been awarded a great mystery by the reviewer.
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The Lightning Thief

The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan (also author of the Red Pyramid and the Lost Hero) was written in the first person. Percy Jackson has been getting kicked out of boarding schools for as long as he can remember. However, his mysterious "accidents" seem to become clear when he discovers that he is the son of the Greek sea god, Posidon. He has to go on a quest to find his uncle Zeus's master bolt. Zeus is the king of the gods, and threatens to start a titan war all over again if he doesn't get his master bolt back by a certain deadline. Percy, Anabeth, and Grover must find the bolt--or face a world war like no other. In this exciting book, meet Ares, the god of war, Chiron, ferryman across the river Styx, the river of death, and Hades, the god of the underworld.
FastFacts:
Foul Language: Mild
Main Character in danger: High
Violence: Medium High
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You can also buy the box set of Percy Jackson and the Olympians:

The Lost Hero

The Lost Hero, by Rick Riordan, is a very interesting book. Series #2, the original being the bestselling Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Jason has a big problem: He woke up one day on a school bus and didn't know who he was, what he was doing, and didn't remember anything at all. Leo, who apparently is his best friend, has a way with tools, and Piper can convince anyone to do anything she wants. They make an interesting trio...but when they go to camp half blood and find out that they are really the sons and daughter of the Greek gods and goddesses. Jason is the son of Jupiter, (thats what he calls it; everyone else says Zeus) Leo, the son of Hephaestus, and Piper, the daughter of Aphrodite. They are sent on a quest, in which they meet a not-so-friendly cyclops, a witch whose potions could blow up a content, and wants to, and the legendary King Midas, who is not exactly friendly either, and many more unpleasant people and, well... other things.
FastFacts:
Foul Language: Mild
Main Character in danger: High
Violence: Medium
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The Red Pyramid

Sadie and Carter Kane have been pulled into a world where the Egyptian myths have come to life. Well, no, really, they have always been alive. But, Sadie and Carter Kane have to stop Set, the evil god of Chaos, from putting the capstone on his red pyramid. Because, that would unleash chaos all over the world, and, fiction or not, Set would become king. But how are to untrained teenagers going to stop the evil god of chaos, especially when he is at his most powerful moment? Sadie and Carter Kane must stop Set. If it is possible to do so...
FastFacts:
Foul Language: None
Main Character in danger: High
Violence: Medium Low
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Skeleton Key: Book 3 of the Alex Rider Adventures

Alex Rider is back, except this time as a prisoner of a desperate man. One who wants to blow up nuclear missiles stored in submarines, off the cost of Russia. Alex tries several times to stop him, and finally it is time. They board a jet, and land in Russia. Alex tries desperately to warn the security services, but he is only 14 and the guard doesn't believe him. As Alex tries one last time, he sees Sarov's gun. The last words he hears from Sarov were, "Goodbye, Alex."...
FastFacts:
Foul Language: Mild
Main Character in danger: Extremely High
Violence: Very High
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Point Blank: Book Two of the Alex Rider series

Alex is a 14 year old spy for Military Intelligence 6, and he has been sent to Point Blanc, a French academy for "bad kids" to spy on them. He finds out that it is not really an academy, but really a place where the headmaster clones everyone and sends them back. He is making a fortune, but Alex has to stop him. Dr. Grief is an evil man, though--and greedy. He is willing to do a lot to stop Alex from gaining proof of his crime...
FastFacts:
Foul Language: None
Main Character in danger: Very High
Violence: Very High
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Stormbreaker

Alex Rider is an orphan. His parents supposedly died in a plane crash, and he has been living with his uncle ever since. However, when the police arrive at his uncle's home at 1:30 am, he knows that his uncle has died. However, the question is how? The police say it was a car accident, that he hadn't been wearing a seat belt, but Alex knew that wasn't true, and the bullet holes in his uncle's car prove it. However, Alex is getting more than he bargained for when MI6, Military Intelligence, recruits him. He is sent on a dangerous mission...to find out who and what Herod Sayle is doing giving the government thousands of computers, Stormbreakers, his own design. Alex finds out something about a virus, but when he discovers what it really is, he knows he has to warn MI6 immediately. However, it is hard to do it when your sitting handcuffed to a chair without any mode of transportation...
FastFacts:
Foul Language: Mild
Main Character in danger: Very High
Violence: Very High
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The Wizard Heir

Seph McCauley is in a school called Havens. He is a wizard, and the Headmaster wants him to join his evil gang of wizards and help him defeat the Wizard Council. When Seph refuses, the Headmaster, Leicester, tries to torture him into it. Will Seph be able to get out of the school before he goes insane?
He has the help of his friends, and finally sends an email to his guardians. Seph is almost immediately called to the headmaster's office, and tortured even more. Seph is in danger. And the book is not even close to the end.
FastFacts:
Foul Language: Medium
Main Character in danger: High
Violence: High
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The Underneath

"There is nothing lonelier than a cat that has been loved, at least for a while, and then abandoned on the side of the road." So begins the National Book Awarded the Underneath, by Kathi Appelt
A calico cat, about to have kittens, hears the lonely howl of a chained-up hound deep in the backwaters of the bayou. She dares to find him in the forest, and the hound named Ranger dares to be friends with the cat because his owner Gar face is very mean. He goes hunting at night and returns at dawn usually with a animal. The calico cat gives birth to two kittens, one boy and one girl. The boy was named puck and the girl was named Sabine. Grandmother mocisan is a snake 1,000 years old, and she misses her Daughter Night Song. She hates humans because once she transformed in to a human and loved a man but the man betrayed her and she transformed in to a snake again she new she could not go back in to a human skin.
What else will happen in the underneath?
Review by Simon, age 8
FastFacts:
Foul Language: None
Main Character in Danger: High
Violence: High
Reader Alert! This book has been voted very depressing by the reviewer. Read with caution, and at your own risk!
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Holes

Holes, by Louis Sachar (Newberry of 1998)
Stanley Yelnats the third was convicted for shoes falling off a car onto his head. He knows it isn't fair, but he ends up getting sent to Camp Green Lake, a hot and sandy desert. Every day, he and other camp convicts get up at four o'clock in the morning to dig a hole fife feet wide, fife feet deep. It supposedly builds character. But when the Warden, the evil owner of Camp Green Lake, goes crazy when Stanley finds a bit of a lipstick tube, he knows they aren't just building character: they're searching for something...
FastFacts
Foul Language: None
Main character in danger: Med
Violence: Mild
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I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I want to be a class president

This book was a gift; however when I saw the cover I knew that I would have a full weekend. It is the kind of title that immediately catches your eye. First Person, in the eyes of Oliver Watson. He is a child millionaire genius, and he has everything from buzzing electric wands to personalized secret school bus seats with seat warmers and air conditioning. He has only one problem: he wants to impress his dad, to get his dad to be proud of him. It doesn't work just to sign up for the student council, and his dad doesn't say he has "won" when he has his agents force the other candidates out of the election. No, he has to put someone back in the election and win against him the old-fashioned way. His campaign studio is located in his garage, signs are up all over the school, but will that be enough? Find out in this funny, extraordinary, book.
FastFacts:
Foul Language: Mild
Main Character in Danger: None
Violence: Mild
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Flush/Carl Hiaasen

Flush, by Carl Hiaasen, was a classic book. In genres, I would classify it as a "Kids saving the world book" which is a book that I know a lot of kids like, because it is about kids saving things. Kids often fantasize about saving the world, or even small little things, or somehow making a difference. This book would be the perfect book for that kind of kid.
Noah, and his sister, Abbey, have a problem: their dad suspects a local gambling boat to have been dumping it's sewage into the ocean--which is highly illegal. So, their dad sank the gambling boat--and now he's in jail. It's up to Abbey and Noah to make sure word gets out. However, it is hard to prove. Enlisting the help of an old teenager, Shelley, they buy 34 bottles of fuchsia food coloring, they sneak on to the Coral Queen and flush the entire 34 bottles of food coloring down into the holding tank. If he flushes over the side, then the dye will turn the ocean purple. However, when they motor away to shore, the engine of their dingy stalls. They get floated farther and farther away from shore---until their dad, recently out of jail, comes after them and saves them.
FastFacts:
Foul Language: None
Main Character in danger: High
Violence: High
WARNING: Grossness factor: High
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The Burning Bridge/Ranger's Apprentice Book 2

The Burning Bridge by John Flanagan was an interesting sequel to the Ruins of Gorlan. Will, Horace, and Evanlyn are sent to fight, once again, against the evil Morgarath. This task, however, can be pretty dangerous...Will and Evanlyn are captured by the sailors of the north, fierce Skandians. Read on in this exciting sequel to the Ruins of Gorlan
FastFacts:
Foul Language: none
Main Character in Danger: high
Violence: High
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To buy the box set, click the image below:

The Necromancer

Josh and Sophie Newman have a problem. They don't know who to trust. They are the most powerful people on this earth, and everyone wants them on their side. Josh and Sophie have been trusting the alchemyst, Nicholas Flamel, but when they discover a few things about Nicholas' past, they are wondering...John Dee is trying to get Josh over on to the side of the Dark Elders. Will he succeed? And if he does, will Sophie follow him over?
Find out in the exciting sequel to the Sorceress (click for review).
FastFacts:
Foul Language: None
Main Character in Danger: Medium
Violence: Medium
To buy this book, click the cover image below:

You can also buy the box set of the series:

The Giver

The Giver, by Lois Lowry (Newbery Medal, 1993) is a fascinating book. Jonas has been assigned the job of the Receiver, the person to bear the weight of all of the memories. All the memories of what snow is, and what it was like before Climate Control overcame it. The color red. And, most importantly, the memory of pain. Jonas wants to let everyone experience the memories them selfs, and he and the Giver arrange to have Jonas run away, therefor leaving all the memories behind. However, it happens sooner than they had planned...and without all the preparation, memories of courage, that they had been counting on to survive. Jonas, and his adopted brother Gabe, are forced to leave early...And who knows what they will find, out of the protection of climate control, color control, fun control, job control, school control? control, control, control...
FastFacts:
Foul Language: None
Main Character in Danger: Mild
Violence: None
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The Ruins of Gorlan: Rangers Apprentice, book 1.

Written in Australia, John Flanagan's story is a tale of legendary skill and power. Will, an orphan, has been chosen for a Ranger's Apprentice; a task in which you learn to shoot arrows like lightning, move without being seen, and a few other things that make up the Ranger Corps, King Ducan's personal police force, in a way. Halt, Will's teacher, is one of the most skilled rangers...but you need to be pretty skilled to fight and kill the Kalkara, monstrous beasts with magical powers that include making you freeze and stand completely still. Their only fear is fire...which makes them awfully hard to kill, especially when they want to kill you.
Read on in this fascinating story about the Rangers Apprentice.
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FastFacts:
Foul Language: None
Main Character in Danger: Medium
Violence: Medium

To buy the entire series, click the box set below:

The Sorceress

The Sorceress is the third book in the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series, in which Josh and Sophie Newman find Palamedes, who leads them to his secret fort, where they find Shakespeare, and fend off Dee, once again, who has united his allies to capture his twins. Meet Bast, the Egyptian Cat goddess, Mars, the legendary war god, Gilgamesh, the king, and many more magical creatures in the Sorceress.
FastFacts:
Foul Language: None
Main Character in Danger: high
Violence: Medium High
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You can also buy the entire set:

The Magician

 The immortal human Nicholas Flamel, Scathach, the vampire warrior, and the twins of legend, Josh and Sophie, are still on the run from the evil Dr. John Dee. Josh still has two of the pages of the legendary Book of Abraham, and Dee will do anything to get them. After hopping a ley line to Paris, Nicholas, Josh, and Sophie barely escape Niccolo Machiavelli. While staying with some allies (immortals), Josh attempts to deal with the fact that his twin sister is now incredibly powerful. Her powers have been "awakened," Sophie's new abilities make him surprisingly jealous, a fact that Dee may use. And not in a good way.
FastFacts:
Foul Language: None
Main Character in Danger: Medium
Violence: Medium
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You can also buy the box set:

The Alchemyst

I got this as a gift, but it was a great book that really led me on to a great series. Josh Newman has been working at the bookstore for a really long time. Across the street, his twin sister, Sophie has a job at the local coffee shop. However, when John Dee, an Alchemist, Necromancer, and general magician, turns up in Nick Flemings book shop, destroying everything and stealing a magic book, the twins discover really what is going on. They realize that they were employed for a reason... "Nick Fleming" (aka Nicholas Flamel) reveals his secret identety, and after a dangerous journey, they travel to a mysterious goddess' shadowrealm, who tries to awaken the twins...though it is hard when Dee, the crow goddess, and a number of other things are knocking at the door...
FastFacts:
Foul Language: None
Main Character in danger: High
Violence: Medium
To buy this book, click the cover picture below:

You can also buy the entire set: