Cool New Books for October

Everyone seems to be talking about THE END, and for good reason. This thirteenth and final installment in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events answers such burning questions as: Will Count Olaf prevail? Will the Baudelaires survive? Will the series end happily? October's roundup of Cool New Books also includes PETER PAN IN SCARLET by Geraldine McCaughrean, the first-ever authorized sequel to J. M. Barrie's classic tale; MIRACLE ON 49th STREET, a sports and holiday novel from Mike Lupica about a basketball superstar who finally may have met his match; GEMINI SUMMER, Iain Lawrence's poignant story of a boy who won't allow anyone to separate him from his very special dog; and ELOISE IN HOLLYWOOD, which marks the rawther extraordinary return of the precocious six-year-old who lives with her nanny at the Plaza Hotel.

Stand-Alone Chapter Books/Middle Grade Novels

DESPERATE JOURNEY
Jim Murphy
Scholastic Press
ISBN-10: 0439078067
ISBN-13: 9780439078061
Ages 9-12
288 pages

• Click here to buy from Amazon.com

When Maggie's father loses next year's salary and two of their best mules in a bet with Long-Fingered John, the family is left desperate for money. They have only a few days to get the heavy cargo in their mule-drawn barge to Buffalo in order to make a much-needed bonus. But when Papa and Uncle Hen are arrested on an alleged assault charge, 12-year-old Maggie, her younger brother and their pregnant mother must overcome much adversity in order to save their boat, their mules and their life savings.

GEMINI SUMMER
Iain Lawrence
Delacorte Press
ISBN-10: 0385730896
ISBN-13: 9780385730891
Ages 8-12
272 pages

• Read a Review
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com

In the quiet of Hog's Hollow, each member of the River family pursues a dream. But everything changes in the spring of 1965 when a tragedy befalls the Rivers. Danny does get the dog he's always wanted, but he comes to believe that this mixed-breed stray embodies the spirit of someone he loves dearly. He won't allow anyone to separate him from the dog, not even after it bites the neighborhood bully and the police are sent to take it away. Together Danny and his canine buddy run off, heading toward Cape Canaveral, where the Gemini missions blast off from and where dreams come true.

THE JADE DRAGON
Carolyn Marsden and
Virginia Shin-Mui Loh
Candlewick Press
ISBN-10: 0763630128
ISBN-13: 9780763630126
Ages 7-10
176 pages

• Click here to buy from Amazon.com

Ginny is sure the new girl in her second-grade class will be her best friend. How could she not? They're both Chinese. But Ginny soon discovers some puzzling things about Stephanie: she doesn't like Chinese food, she hates her straight black hair --- and her parents aren't even Chinese! At Ginny's house, her mom cooks delicious Chinese dishes as the family prepares for their big holiday party and Stephanie eyes Ginny's most prized possession --- a hand-carved jade dragon --- and asks to take it home. As much as Ginny wants a best friend, is it worth the risk of losing her special keepsake and angering Mama?

MIRACLE ON 49th STREET
Mike Lupica
Philomel Books
ISBN-10: 0399244883
ISBN-13: 9780399244889
Ages 10-up
256 pages

• Click here to buy from Amazon.com

Josh Cameron has a World Championship ring with the Boston Celtics, an MVP award, a clean-cut image and millions of fans. What he doesn't have is family. Until the day 12-year-old smart aleck Molly Parker confronts him in a parking lot and claims to be his daughter --- the only daughter of Jen Parker, Josh's college sweetheart and the only girl he's ever loved. Sadly Jen died the previous year, and now Molly has tracked down the father she never knew, the one her mother never wanted her to know about.

PETER PAN IN SCARLET: The Official Sequel
Geraldine McCaughrean
Margaret A. McElderry Books/
Simon & Schuster
ISBN-10: 1416918086
ISBN-13: 9781416918080
Ages 9-14
320 pages

• Read a Review, Excerpt & Author Interview
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com

In August 2004 the Special Trustees of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, who hold the copyright for PETER PAN, launched a worldwide search for a writer to create a sequel to J. M. Barrie's timeless masterpiece. Renowned and multi-award-winning English author Geraldine McCaughrean won the honor to write this official sequel. Illustrated by Scott M. Fischer and set in the 1930s, PETER PAN IN SCARLET takes readers flying back to Neverland in an adventure filled with tension, danger and swashbuckling derring-do!

THE ROAD TO PARIS
Nikki Grimes
G. P. Putnam's Sons
ISBN-10: 0399245375
ISBN-13: 9780399245374
Ages 8-12
160 pages

• Read a Review
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com

Nine-year-old Paris (who's half black) has just moved in with the Lincoln family, and isn't thrilled to be in yet another foster home. She has a tough time trusting people and misses her brother, who's been sent to a boys' home. No matter how hard she tries to fit in, she can't ignore the feeling that she never will, especially in a town that's mostly white. It isn't long before Paris has a big decision to make about where she truly belongs.

THE WHITE ELEPHANT
Sid Fleischman
Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0061131369
ISBN-13: 9780061131363
Ages 8-11
112 pages

• Click here to buy from Amazon.com

How can a beautiful white elephant be a terrible curse? Run-Run, a young elephant trainer, discovers the answer when he incurs the fury of the prince. The boy's punishment is the gift of an elephant, white as a cloud. From that moment forward, the curse reveals itself. According to tradition, so rare an elephant cannot be allowed to work for its keep. It is poor Run-Run who must feed the beast hundreds of pounds of food each day, scrub it clean, brush its tail, wash behind its ears, and, above all, keep it from doing any work.

Series Books/Sequels

A Series of Unfortunate Events

THE END: Book the Thirteenth
written by Lemony Snicket
illustrated by Brett Helquist
HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0064410161
ISBN-13: 9780064410168
Ages 10-up
368 pages

• Read a Review
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com

We want readers to be completely surprised by the very last installment of A Series of Unfortunate Events. So instead of providing a plot summary of THE END, we've decided to post a letter that Lemony Snicket has written to fans of the series that gives away nothing. Enjoy!

Dear Reader,

You are presumably looking at the back of this book, or the end of the end. The end of the end is the best place to begin the end, because if you read the end from the beginning of the beginning of the end to the end of the end of the end, you will arrive at the end of the end of your rope.

This book is the last in A Series of Unfortunate Events, and even if you braved the previous twelve volumes, you probably can't stand such unpleasantries as a fearsome storm, a suspicious beverage, a herd of wild sheep, an enormous bird cage, and a truly haunting secret about the Baudelaire parents.

It has been my solemn occupation to complete the history of the Baudelaire orphans, and at last I am finished. You likely have some other occupation, so if I were you I would drop this book at once, so the end does not finish you.

With all due respect,

Lemony Snicket

Nancy Drew: Girl Detective

GETTING BURNED: Nancy Drew: Girl Detective #20
Carolyn Keene
Aladdin Paperbacks
ISBN-10: 068987703X
ISBN-13: 9780689877032
Ages 8-12
160 pages

• Nancy Drew Series
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com

The animal shelter where Nancy volunteers burns down --- which leaves a lot of orphaned animals with no home and a big case for Nancy. She and her friends put on a concert to raise funds for rebuilding the shelter. Strange people keep joining the volunteer staff though, and someone is trying to foil their plans. Whoever it is has picked the wrong gal to mess with!

Picture Books

ELOISE IN HOLLYWOOD
Kay Thompson
based on the art of Hilary Knight
written by J. David Stem and David N. Weiss; illustrated by Ted Enik
Simon & Schuster
ISBN-10: 0689842899
ISBN-13: 9780689842894
Ages 4-8
70 pages

• Read a Review
• Eloise Series
• Click here to buy from Amazon.com

It only makes sense that Eloise, the shining star of The Plaza, would visit Hollywood. In 1957, on the set of the movie Funny Face, Kay Thompson and Hilary Knight first thought Eloise might go to La-La Land. Now, at last, after a trip to Paris, a lovely Christmas, a voyage to Moscow and a rawther bubbly bawth, Eloise will make her silver screen debut.

THE ENGLISH ROSES: Too Good To Be True
Madonna
Callaway Editions
ISBN-10: 0670061476
ISBN-13: 9780670061471
Ages 4-8
64 pages

• Click here to buy from Amazon.com

With a whirling dervish of a teacher and a sprinkle of magic fairy dust, the English Roses learn valuable lessons about friendship and surviving their first crush. Readers of all ages will delight in this much-awaited sequel to Madonna's first children's book, THE ENGLISH ROSES.

LUCIA AND THE LIGHT
written by Phyllis Root
illustrated by Mary GrandPre
Candlewick Press
ISBN-10: 0763622966
ISBN-13: 9780763622961
Ages 5-8
40 pages

• Click here to buy from Amazon.com

In a cozy cabin high in the mountains of the Far North, Lucia and her family live a happy life. But one day the wind screams fiercely and the sun doesn't rise over the mountain. Someone has stolen the sun! "Perhaps it has lost its way," says Lucia, who despite her mother's pleas sets out to find it with only a bit of bread, a tinderbox and her milk-white cat to keep her company.

ONCE UPON A BANANA
written by Jennifer Armstrong
illustrated by David Small
Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster
ISBN-10: 0689842511
ISBN-13: 9780689842511
Ages 4-8
48 pages

• Click here to buy from Amazon.com

When a street performer's pet monkey innocently throws a banana peel aside one sunny day, no one can imagine what a chaotic chain of events it will set off. First the grocer, then the painter, then the bicycle messenger...and even the baby in her carriage! It seems that an entire town is turned upside down, all by a banana peel! Will anyone be spared? When will the chain of events stop?

--- Compiled and written by Tom Donadio

Back to top.