The Poet’s DogBy Patricia MacLachlan Siblings Flora and Nickel are lost in a snowstorm.  As the blizzard envelops them, someone comes to the rescue.  But Teddy is not your usual someone – he is a dog. Teddy takes the two children to his cabin.  The poet who used to take care of Teddy is gone, […]

Constable & ToopBy Gareth P. Jones Sam Toop is just a kid, but he’s the son of an undertaker and has been around death all his life.  Sam can also see ghosts, and London in the mid-1800s is filled with them.  Sam’s a Talker, and ghosts come to him for help with their unfinished business. […]

The World’s Greatest DetectiveBy Caroline Carlson Eleven-year-old Toby Montrose is an orphan who is continuously being shuffled around to the homes of his aunts and uncles.  Eventually, all of them send Toby away.  He has finally landed at the home of his Uncle Gabriel.  Toby knows that if Uncle Gabriel rejects him, he’s off to […]

The Lotterys Plus One By Emma Donoghue I loved reading this book! The Lotterys are a very unusual family that leads a utopian family life.  They have two moms and two dads and seven children, some of whom are biological children, some of whom are adopted.  This very lucky family won the lottery and as […]

York: The Shadow Cipher By Laura Ruby The first thing that will strike you about this book is its cover.  It’s the city of New York but in an astounding alternate universe where machines transform themselves and seem almost alive; where the subway (called the Underway) goes both above and below ground and zings riders […]

GenesisBy Helen Dennis When a boy washes up on the shore of the Thames – alive, but barely – Londoners want to know who he is and what he was doing in the river.  But the boy has no memory of anything and doesn’t even know his own name.  No one comes forward to claim […]