ALMOND, David. The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas. illus. by Oliver Jeffers. Candlewick. 2013. ISBN 9780763661694. JLG Level: A : Intermediate Readers (Grades 3–5).

Stanley’s uncle Ernie becomes obsessed with canning fish. After a shocking demise to twelve of his pet goldfish, Stanley takes the last surviving one and goes for a walk that leads him to run away with the fair. His new family comes with an encouraging father-figure and an angry young girl. Putting his good heart to use, the orphan finds a way to protect the fish at his Hook-a-Duck booth, quiet the heart of his companion, and accept his dangerous destiny. Not every child could be a boy who swims with piranhas. Add a prejudiced policeman, a madcap group of “DAFT envistigators,” with a loving couple who miss their precious nephew and you have a charming novel about a boy who blossoms while changing everyone around him.

FLEMING, David. The Saturday Boy. Viking. 2013. ISBN 9780670785513. JLG Level: B+ : Upper Elementary & Junior High (Grades 5–7).

Life without your dad is difficult for Derek, a fifth grade boy, whose father is stationed in Afghanistan. He has letters and comic books for support, but those things don’t prevent him from getting in trouble at school. His former friend Budgie bullies him, and he’s frequently caught when his anger gets the best of him. Getting a part in a school play gives Derek a creative outlet. Being the “bigger person,” as his mom advises, is so hard. When his mom withdraws into grief, he doesn’t understand why, and his cool aunt moves in to help out. Derek accidentally learns the source of his mother’s depression. Sending letters to his dad won’t help him this time. Fleming’s first novel keeps readers tense with anticipation, while drawing them close to a boy who just can’t seem to get a break.

VAWTER, Vince. Paperboy. Delacorte. 2013. ISBN9780375990588. JLG Level:  C+ : Advanced Readers (Grades 6–9).

In the late 1950s, a stuttering eleven-year-old boy has life-changing experiences while substituting on a paper route for his best friend. Mam, his nanny, warns him to stay away from Ara T, the neighborhood junkman, but he gives him his knife to sharpen anyway. He’ll need it to cut the string on the paper bundle. Collecting subscription money will also be a problem when Little Man will have to say words that he finds difficult to say, even if he uses his therapist’s speaking tricks. Miss Worthington’s beauty makes him want to try. The Boy Who Sits in Front of the TV just makes him angry. Mr. Spiro is one of two adults who speak to him like a grown-up. Little Man could learn a great deal from him and his books. A month of delivering papers gives him an opportunity to think beyond his problems and try to find ways to help these new people, even if it’s outside of his comfort zone. Vawter’s unforgettable first novel is more memoir than fiction, illustrating that though you may not be able to cure a stutter, you can certainly overcome it.

For audio/video versions of these booktalks, please visit JLG’s Shelf Life Blog.

Junior Library Guild is a collection development service that helps school and public libraries acquire the best new children’s and young adult books. Season after season, year after year, Junior Library Guild book selections go on to win awards, collect starred or favorable reviews, and earn industry honors. Visit us at www.JuniorLibraryGuild.com.

And if we are talking “underground” books, we have to mention Criminal by Terra Elan McVoy; it is the best book I’ve seen and read this year. The stark black cover with a bullet blazing through the title draws the reader into this clean, tightly written, and explosive story. Short sentences and realistic dialogue pack a punch and create a visceral and immediate understanding of the characters and their world.  Nikki—the daughter of a drug addict mother, with her stepdad in jail—is living at Bird’s. As much as Bird and her daughter Jamelee mean to Nikki, fellow teen Dee has her heart and soul. She finds purpose in being the one who understands him. He needs her to be there for him, and she is, until she puts everyone, including herself, in irreversible danger. One-, two-, and three-page chapters with nice sized type, filled with action and insight, make reading effortless. McVoy is able to distill the complex lives of at-risk girls in general, and in particular, addresses Nikki’s love/sex addiction and low self-esteem issues. This is a book teens won’t want to put down.

If it’s possible to have a best Bluford book (they are all good), Promises to Keep by Paul Langan might be it. No one likes Tyray Hobbs, including himself. He is a bully. Once outwardly respected, he recently lost his fear factor, and is now a complete outcast after a beat down in the school where he was ridiculed. Things are not good at home, with a strict father who lectures him and a brother in jail. On the streets, it’s not much better—Londell’s crew is stealing from him and threatening him. But he still has Lark. She’s not the cutest girl in the class, but she seems to like him, and even sticks up for him after everything he’s done. He feels guilty for how he lied to her and stole her money—can he make anything right? Langan has created a book from the bully’s perspective that is compassionate, insightful, and educational, along with being action-packed, realistic, and emotionally and psychologically accurate. There’s not a false note in the title.

April Henry has it down with her taut mysteries, and The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die is as good as her other works. Suspense and tension build from the first page—in which men are taking Cady out to kill her—to the last, as she uncovers the secrets in this eco-thriller.

If I was a designer, I would have created a much better cover and interior for Chloe Shantz-Hilkes’ Hooked:  When Addiction Hits Home.  It has a challenging opening for reluctant readers—an introduction and foreword that don’t make for kid-friendly reading. Many won’t get through those first pages, or know that they can skip the opening materials (stick that stuff in the back, editors!). Still, this title won me over and is being quietly checked out.

Ten young people are profiled in the book, all of whom have parents dealing—or not dealing—with some form of addiction: alcohol, sex, work, crack, gambling, etc. Jermaine kicks his crack-addicted dad out of the house. Nicola’s brother becomes a drug addict like their dad. Carmella shares her mom’s struggle with bulimia, but is able to recover. Section titles like “My Reaction,” “Looking Back,” “How I Coped,” and “A Code of Silence” provide signposts of how the disease impacts these young people and their families. There are pull-out quotes that give a general overview of the issue, and help move readers along. It’s free from any dogma—no 12-step sayings like “Let Go and Let God.” The title is clearly focused on key events and the experience from these events. No overt mention of race or class makes this book a great equalizer for all teens dealing with addiction in their families.

Always looking for a rare find, I was hoping Clare Griffin’s Nowhere to Run might be it, in spite of the dull cover. Calvin is a track star, so when he goes to confront hustler Norris, he’s not afraid because he knows he can outrun him. He didn’t think about Norris having a baseball bat as well as his buddies with him, which seems improbable. Deej, Calvin’s best friend and Norris’ cousin, intervenes and Calvin gets a temporary pass. Life gets good. Calvin and Deej hang out, Calvin starts going out with a “hard to get” good girl, and he gets a job. But as Deej gets more deeply involved with Norris and his crew, Calvin struggles with issues of loyalty. He has some tough decisions: should he stand up for Deej like he stood up for him? Even when his friend is doing something illegal and it might jeopardize Calvin’s job?  Besides the slow moving plot with spurts of action, the book also suffers from too light type face and not enough gutter space. I wanted to like this book, I really did. It will be good for some kids—but Matt de la Peña’s titles would make for better reads.

B.A. Binns’ first book, Pull, was on the 2012 YALSA Quick Picks list. Westside Books has since gone out of business, and as a result, inner city school teacher and author Binns turned to self-publishing for Being God. Seventeen-year-old Malik is determined to be the worst of the worst. Biracial, he’s the son of a Catholic mother and Jewish father. Assigned to community service, he gets paired with an angry ten-year-old who hates the world. His crush, Barney, watched her father murder her mother. The story holds promise. However, the face on the book cover looks too young. The language and voice is inconsistent and the story is extremely slow going, very much in need of those editors at Westside.

Ed Hardy’s recounting of his life becoming an iconic tattoo artist in Wear Your Dreams: My Life in Tattoos is nicely designed—great art, lots of space, big type. The writing is totally scattered, but who cares? There’s a history of tattooing, lots of name dropping, travels throughout the underbellies of Japan and American cities, passion for art and individuality, entrepreneurship, and getting sober—there’s nothing too dicey and it will work in any teen section, even censored lockdowns.

Susan Nussbaum’s Good Kings, Bad Kings is getting great press and for good reasons. The book highlights, through multiple perspectives, the ups and downs, abuses, and kind moments between multicultural teens and staff at a home (institution/dumping ground) for physically and mentally disabled teens. It’s a fast and intense ride with characters that stay with you and make you wonder what they are doing long after you close the book. I wish the cover reflected the characters—maybe we’ll just have to wait until the movie (that should be made) comes out!

BINNS, B.A. Being God. All the Colors of Love. 2013. 222p. pap. $ 9.95. ISBN 9780988182110.

HARDY, Ed and Selvin, Joel. Wear Your Dreams: My Life In Tattoos. St. Martin’s/Thomas Dunne. June 2013. 304p. Tr $26.99. ISBN 9781250008824.

HENRY, April. The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die. Holt. June 2013. 224p. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9780805095418.

GRIFFIN, Clare. Nowhere to Run. Namelos. 2013. 110p. pap. $9.95. ISBN 9781-608981458.

LANGAN, Paul. Promises to Keep. Townsend Pr. 2013. 151p. pap. $5.95. ISBN 9781591943037.

McVOY, Terra Elan. Criminal. S & S/Simon Pulse. 2013. 288p. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978144242622.

NUSSBAUM, Susan. Good Kings, Bad Kings. Algonquin Bks. 2013. 304p. Tr $23.95. ISBN 9781616202637.

SHANTZ- HILKES, Chloe. Hooked: When Addiction Hits Home. Annick Press. 2013. 120 p. pap. $12.95. ISBN 9781554514748.

Do you rely on tried-and-true series entries to lure less-willing readers into informational texts? Scholastic’s “You Wouldn’t Want to…” and the Gareth Stevens “Top 10 Worst…” books are excellent choices for this group, and  the “National Geographic Kids Chapters” are essential to have on hand. But there are also superior stand-alone titles with gripping or entertaining texts and high-quality art that will keep readers turning the pages. Listed here are a handful of recent books you won’t want to miss. The titles are in approximate Dewey Decimal order, just because we’re librarians.

The events and phenomena associated with UFOs and aliens are well-trodden territory for high-interest nonfiction, but Kelly Milner Halls puts them into clear perspective in Alien Investigation: Searching for the Truth about UFOs and Aliens (Lerner, 2012; Gr 3-6). Halls interviews experts and eyewitnesses, scouts old newspaper accounts, and reads formerly suppressed government documents. Her balanced presentation of multiple resources and theories invites kids to explore further before coming to their own conclusions.

If your idea of a book for reluctant readers involves glossy paper and sharp photographs, then Hélène Rajcak and Damien Laverdunt’s Small and Tall Tales of Extinct Animals  (Gecko, 2012; Gr 3-9) with its wry illustrations and classy binding, might not be an obvious choice. But the format of this oversize book—each spread features a funky comic on one page and a large, captioned drawing with a paragraph of description and history on the other—pulls readers into stories of the dodo, Steller’s sea cow, and the impractical-looking Irish elk.

Liven up your science collection with stories of nature’s undead. Rebecca L. Johnson’s Zombie Makers (Lerner, 2012; Gr 3-6) is well-researched, profusely illustrated, and undeniably unsettling. Luckily, most of the instances of fungal colonization, larval infestation, viral invasion, and parasitical worms involve invertebrates such as flies and caterpillars, but the guinea worm in the human leg is a photo you won’t soon forget. Kids will read this book to ribbons.

Are You “Normal”? More Than 100 Questions That Will Test Your Weirdness (National Geographic, 2011; Gr 3-6) by Mark Schulman satisfies one of the most basic and pressing needs of tweens and near-tweens: to minutely assess how they compare to others. Just take Greg Heffley, for example, who starts out the whole “Wimpy Kid” oeuvre by stating that he is the “52nd most popular kid” in school. So whether readers like pepperoni on your pizza or not, bite their fingernails or toenails, or prefer smooth peanut butter to chunky, there’s something in here everyone can say “yes” to. Curriculum bonus: exposure to graphing methods.

“Will my personality change as I get older?” “Is my voice unique?” “Does my brain stop working when I am asleep?” Older kids love learning about themselves, too, and Richard Walker’s Who Am I? The Amazing Science of Existence (Kingfisher, 2012; Gr 6-9) discusses topics ranging from emotions to metaphysics, and delivers concrete answers on questions teens might not have even considered. The author presents facts about issues related to bioethics, such as stem cell research, but avoids controversial statements. Sharp photos and snappy design add to the package.

There are abundant books that seek to tempt the young sports fan into a little reading—you can spot ‘em a mile off. What makes The Sports Illustrated Kids Big Book of Why Sports Edition (Sports Illustrated, 2012; Gr 3-6) superior to all the others? First of all, it includes facts about big-league sports and others such as gymnastics, lacrosse, and skateboarding. (There’s even a curling question.) The facts and trivia are presented in four sections, each of which is capped with a quiz. Readers are encouraged to challenge the adult sports expert in their life to take the quiz with them and compare results—making the book itself something of a game.

Strutting It! The Grit Behind the Glamour (Tundra, 2011; Gr 6-9) provides straight talk about the modeling profession from fashion insider Jeanne Beker. There are lots of quotes and anecdotes featuring a deep well of names such as Kate, Linda, and Naomi, as well as lesser-known models including Irina Lazareanu, Carmen Dell’Orefice, and Crystal Renn. More photos would not have gone astray, and the book is, unfortunately, not full-color. Still, this is a good choice for fabulous young ladies and gentlemen interested in the world of fashion modeling—either as potential participants or as avid spectators.

What’s scarier? A mountain lion’s snarling lunge or a cyber attack by a classmate? The lion’s claws may be sharp, but your “friends” have Facebook photo tagging in their arsenal. How to Survive Anything: Shark Attack, Lightning, Embarrassing Parents, Pop Quizzes, and Other Perilous Situations (National Geographic, 2011; Gr 4-9) by Rachel Buchholz, illustrated by Chris Philpot, offers practical advice for surviving both. Tween readers will also get valuable guidance on how to apologize, stay safe online, and find water on a desert island. Snappy design and hip, what-not-to-do illustrations hook readers.

Driest desert, deepest ocean trench, biggest earthquake…trust a book called Seymour Simon’s Extreme Earth Records (Chronicle, 2012; Gr 3-6) to take young readers on a tour of the most punishing places and severe geological events on the planet. Real-world comparisons (the average yearly snowfall on Mount Rainier’s south slope is about equal to the height of “a dozen children standing on each other’s shoulders”) combine with sharp (unfortunately, uncaptioned) color photos to make this a lively trip.

What would it be like to be buried under more than 2000 feet of solid rock…for more than two months? Elaine Scott’s Buried Alive!: How 33 Miners Survived 69 Days Deep Under the Chilean Desert (Clarion, 2012; Gr 3-6) weaves the remarkable human aspects of this drama—the duration of the miners’ confinement, their inspiring morale, the resources brought to bear in order to rescue them—with the economic and geographic context of the San José mine to create a readable, compelling story that will give readers insight into a lesser-known area of the world. Documentary photos of the ordeal establish credibility, and special attention is paid to the families and children of the trapped men.

Pete Athans has scaled Mt. Everest 14 times and reached the summit on seven occasions. In Tales from the Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest with Pete Athans (Lerner, 2012; Gr 3-6), his sister Sandra Athans describes the anatomy of an ascent from base camp to peak, with the mountaineer’s stories of avalanches, killer storms, and white-knuckle rescues providing drama. Stunning photographs and informative diagrams bring readers on site with this intrepid adventurer.

You don’t have to be an animal lover to be deeply moved by the stories of canine loyalty, devotion, and courage in Dogs on Duty: Soldiers’ Best Friends on the Battlefield and Beyond (Walker, 2012; Gr 2-6). Military Working Dogs have been part of the U.S. armed forces since WWI, but their use in battle goes back to ancient times. Dorothy Hinshaw Patent describes the ways in which these animals have assisted armies throughout history and follows present-day selection and training. Short, accessible sections are accompanied by sidebars on individual heroic creatures. The descriptions of the loving bonds that these animals develop with their handlers make this a title children can relate to and present a positive window into the armed services.

Older readers crave you-are-there accounts of dramatic world events. Photographer Rafal Gerszak provides just that in Beyond Bullets: A Photo Journal of Afghanistan (Annick Press, 2011; Gr 6 Up), as he describes the harrowing, heartbreaking, and sometimes transcendent experiences behind his photographs of soldiers and civilians. There’s a fair amount of text here, but the stories of danger, hardship, and friendship, and the numerous images, will have readers poring over these pages. Photographs of amputees and injured children may be unsettling for some.

“Big Meeting—Ides of March—Bring Daggers!—Brutus.” Leeches, blister beetles, live burial, exploding bodies—all funny, if examined in a certain light. Georgia Bragg does just that in How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous (Walker, 2011; Gr 3-9), an excellent entrée to the study of advances in medicine and a great way to convince kids that biographies are not boring. Kevin O’Malley’s gross—and humorous—illustrations cement this book’s position on the must-purchase list.

Nathan Hale (1755-1776) was this country’s first spy, captured behind enemy lines prior to the invasion of Manhattan. One Dead Spy (Abrams, 2012; Gr 3-6), the first book in the “Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales,” begins as Hale is about to be hanged. Nathan Hale, the book’s author, (1976- ) is an acclaimed artist and history buff. His art is lively, meticulous, and clearly drawn, while his text is funny and rigorously researched. Sieges, raids, and night crossings may seem like perfect material for the graphic-novel treatment, but Hale even manages to make panels describing troop movements exciting.

Paula Willey is a librarian at Baltimore County Public Library and reviews nonfiction and graphic novels for School Library Journal. Read her opinionated reviews online at Pink Me.

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Hybrid novels–part text, part graphics–have convinced many reluctant readers that library shelves hold books that speak to them. But when these children and teens are ready to take a leap into titles with a bit more text,where do we–and they–go?

The books listed here will provide guidance. They feature clear narratives that quickly draw readers into the action and are supported by snappy dialogue that helps move the stories along. Add to that appealing protagonists, attractive covers, and layouts that feature generous print size and plenty of white space, and bingo, you have something to hand to the hard-to-please. A few series titles and sequels are included to keep them reading once they’re hooked.

Tony Abbott draws on figures from Greek and Norse mythology in the action-packed Underworlds #1: The Battle Begins (101 pp.). When fourth grader Owen Brown’s best friend, Dana, disappears in a puff of smoke, the boy sets out to rescue her, and finds himself in a battle with the immortal gods. Readers not yet ready for Rick Riordan’s books will gravitate to this series, which continues in volumes two and three as the characters take on the Egyptian and Babylonian pantheons (all Scholastic, 2012; Gr 3-6).

Tad is starting a blog, and he has a lot to say–especially about navigating seventh grade. Unfortunately, things have a tendency to go terribly wrong for the 12-year-old in Tim Carvell’s Planet Tad (HarperCollins, 2012: Gr. 5-8; 239 pp.)–his secret admirer was a case of notes put in the wrong locker and his summer job as a human hot dog  turns out to be short-lived when dehydration set in. Humor permeates this laugh-out-loud episodic story illustrated by amusing artwork and emoticons. Introduce this book to the Internet inclined with a trailer.

It wasn’t until Lindsey and Bree played Bloody Mary with an antique mirror that their wish actually came true–with horrifying results–in Annette Cascone and Gina Cascone’s The Witching Game (Starscape, 2012; Gr. 4-7; 182 pp.). The story crackles with tension created by short chapters with cliffhanger endings and a fast-moving plot. (The generous print size is a plus.) Send fans to the other titles in the “Deadtime Stories” series.

In Cecil Castellucci’s First Day On Earth (Scholastic, 2011: Gr. 7-8; 150 pp.) troubled loner Mal is convinced that he was abducted by aliens. At a support group for people who believe they have encountered extraterrestrials, he meets Hooper. Hooper claims to be an alien and asks Mal to drive him into the desert where he will be rescued by a spacecraft. Spare prose lays bare Mal’s feelings of isolation in this moving, and ultimately hopeful, first-person story. The intriguing plot line, accessible language, and short chapters will draw readers in.

In Tom Greenwald’s Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Extra Credit (Roaring Brook, 2012: Gr. 4-7; 264 pp.), the book-adverse middle schooler has to earn extra credit if he is to avoid a reading camp. So, what does he do? He auditions for the school play and models for his art teacher. However, nothing is ever simple for this boy who always seems to take the most difficult route. In guidebook format, he shares the disasters and occasional triumphs of his challenge. Short chapters punctuated by tips from Charlie Joe make this an entertaining title. J.P. Coovert’s black-and-white spot art completes the package in this sequel to Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Not Reading (2011).

Sports and international espionage combine to create a thriller with non-stop action and suspense. When Jake accompanies his soccer coach dad on a trip to Russia and people begin to die under suspicious circumstances, the boy begins to wonder whose side his father is on. The use of some soccer terminology won’t deter the less sporty from being swept along with Jake’s adventures in Nick Hale’s Sudden Death (Egmont, 2012: Gr. 5-8; 231 pp.), the first title in the “Striker” series.

Best friends Lydia and Julie go on a cross-country trip with Julie’s dads to visit family members and see the sights in The Rocky Road Trip of Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang. (Amulet, 2012: Gr. 3-6; 204 pp.). The complexities of family relationships challenge these smart, funny, unexpectedly wise middle school students, who share their observations with readers in a journal illustrated with appealing full-color art. Rocky Road is the fourth title in Amy Ignatow’s “The Popularity Papers” series.

Fifth-grader Cally’s mother died a year ago, but she has begun to see the woman and a gray dog everywhere in A Dog Called Homeless (HarperCollins, 2012; Gr. 3-6; 198 pp.). To her distress, the girl is unable to convince her father that her mother’s ghost is real. When he and her brother refuse to confront their own grief or hers, Cally stops talking. Through her friendship with Sam, who is blind and deaf, the girl comes to some closure about her loss. Short chapters and an accessible first-person narration make this debut novel by Sarah Lean an enticing selection. An excerpt is available online.

Zander, a student at the Da Vinci School for gifted students and a member of the Cruisers, narrates the story of his friend LaShonda who lives with her autistic brother in a group home. The girl is faced with a painful dilemma: if she accepts the scholarship she’s been offered for costume design, she’ll have to live apart from her sibling. Walter Dean Myers’s conversational writing style, his cast of likeable characters, and his protagonist’s quandary, will attract readers to A Star Is Born (Scholastic, 2012; Gr. 5-8; 160 pp.), the third title in Myers’s “Cruisers” series.

In James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts’s Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (2011), school and family problems get the better of Rafe Khatchadorian. Now in a new environment in Middle School: Get Me Out Of Here (Little, Brown, 2012; Gr. 4-7; 288 pp.), Rafe is committed to turning things around. Humorous cartoon drawings by Linda Park, strong characterizations, and a colloquial style combine to create a hard-to-resist story about a determined boy, who sets out to “get a life.” Patterson and Rafe introduce his story in a YouTube video.

May, an eleven-year-old living on the Nebraska prairie in the 1800s, is sent out as hired labor to help save her family from financial disaster. But when the homesick employer leaves for Ohio, and the woman’s husband follows her, the girl finds herself alone confronted with dwindling food supplies, voracious predators, and a blizzard. Caroline Starr Rose’s masterful, poetic novel, May B (Random, 2012; Gr. 3-6; 240 pp.), will immediately launch readers into the center of its suspenseful narrative.

After Esme’s boyfriend Kevin disappears following the death of his parents in an airplane crash, she and Kevin’s friend Luca go to Panama to search for him in Jeff Ross’s Dawn Patrol (Orca, 2012: Gr. 5-8; 146 pp.). When Luca is nearly killed while surfing, the two realize that the situation is more complicated—and dangerous—than they realized. Non-stop action and a minimum of description make for a compelling read.

For nonfiction titles for reluctant readers, see Paula Willey’s Amazing But True Tales | Nonfiction for Reluctant Readers. For a list of hybrid novels, see Sue Giffard’s “Middle-Grade Tell Alls: Wimpy Kid Read-alikes.”

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