Dragon’s Egg by Sarah L. Thompson

"Thief! Where have you taken it?"

This.......this thing that towered as tall as the highest oak and talked like a mountain speaking-this thing was a dragon. Not a "common dragon" which is small and tame and raised for its eggs. This was a "true dragon," the enormous, fearsome, speaking cousins that had once terrorized the kingdom.

The long nostrils quivered with rage.

The dragon's head, larger than a horse's, swooped down close to Mella's face. She squeezed her eyes closed so that she wouldn't have to look at its white teeth, each longer than her finger, the snaky tongue, and the deep red throat.

"I found it. I didn't steal it," Mella insisted. "I'll get the Egg for you. I'll get it and bring it back."

But when Mella returned with the Egg, she discovered that the dragon had been injured by the knight defender whose job it is to keep the kingdom safe from "true dragons." Mella promised the dying creature that she would deliver the warm and glowing Egg to its herd living at the Hatching Ground in the distant Dragontooth Mountains.

Join Mella and  Roger, the knight's page, as they embark on this dangerous quest. Can they keep the egg hot and safe? Can they keep themselves alive?

Do you believe in true dragons? Explore the links in Fact Monster's Menacing Monster Guide. 

http://www.factmonster.com/spot/monsters1.html

Cozy up with a Komodo Dragon and don't miss the video at http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/komodo-dragon.html

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

This realistic fiction, often mystery is a definite page turner. Roy is the new kid in his middle school in South Florida. He finds two off-beat friends, Beatrice (with “major attitude”), and her runaway brother, Mullet Fingers (you’ll find out about the name on your own). The three of them unite when they discover that a major pancake restaurant chain is going to build its newest store on land that is home to a protected species of owls. There’s a big cover up going on, and what can three kids do in a world of grown-ups? You’ll be surprised, and delighted, and very gratified at the imagination with which Roy, Beatrice and Mullet Fingers manage their…sabotage. This book, which inspired a movie in 2006, is perfect if you care about animals, the environment, and making a difference.

Check out the author's web site:

http://www.carlhiaasen.com/young.html

Carl Hiaasen’s web site for young readers. Take a look at some of his latest books.

The Boggart by Susan Cooper

Twelve year old Emily and her brother Jess manage to be regular kids, even after their family has inherited a real, old, damp, drafty Scottish castle. They visit it during the summer to tend to details, like caregivers and fix-up work, and they bring some souvenirs home to Canada. Including, unknown to them, a mysterious…something. Ice cream and peanut butter start to disappear, and things that never went bump in the night are doing it now. What was in that desk that Emily brought home from Scotland? Whatever it is, it’s discovering electricity for the first time, as it tries to communicate and play jokes on Emily and Jess through their computer, the lights in a theater, and worst of all, traffic lights… This supernatural tale combines science and legend with humor and very believable consequences.

Author's web site:

http://www.thelostland.com/bogg.htm

The Lost Land is Susan Cooper’s web page. It has lots of information about her other books, including the Dark is Rising Series.

There's a Dead Person Following My Sister Around by Vivian Vande Velde

What do you do when your annoying little sister has imaginary friends? You ignore her, of course. But Ted becomes less annoyed and more intrigued when his sister Vicki’s imaginary friends take a very scary turn. When the two ghostly visitors gets into Ted’s dreams and start to do some real haunting, Ted needs to dig into the history of his house to find out what they want, and how to stop them from hurting anyone in order to get it. When Ted finds a journal belonging to an ancestor, he begins to untangle the mystery and works toward helping these ghosts find their rest after so many years. A spooky ghost story, and extremely satisfying as a problem-solving mystery.

Cool web site:

http://www.vivianvandevelde.com/books.cfm

Go to Vivian Van Velde’s web site. Click on the Books for Teens, or the Books for 8 to 14 year olds. There are so many great titles! She does fantasy, fairy tales turned on their ears, and cyber fiction. Check it out!

Out from Boneville by Jeff Smith

We meet the Bone threesome in Book#1 under very trying circumstances. Due to one of Phone Bone's financial swindles, the three Bone cousins have been exiled from Boneville and they are lost and disheartened. Fone, the goodhearted hero, tries to lead the group on to find water and whatever else can be had, while looking out for his cousins. Turns out, the valley is populated by bugs, rats, a dragon, and even humans! Thorn and her Cow Racing Gran'ma take Fone Bone under their wings. We soon get the idea that something is not quite right as Gran'ma gets the "gitchy" feeling that's an omen of bad things to come....

Watch the video where Jeff Smith takes us to the setting for

Bone #6 Old Man's Cave

http://www.scholastic.com/bone/index.htm

Skeleton Man by Joseph Bruchac

If you like scary stories, you'll love Skeleton Man. When Molly's parents mysteriously disappear, a creepy "great-uncle" she's never met before arrives and takes her to live with him. He locks her in her room at night and looks an awful lot like the "skeleton man" from the Native American tales her father told her. Molly's dreams of her Native American heritage give strength, courage, and clues to save herself and solve the mystery of her parent's disappearance as the story of the "Skeleton Man" becomes reality for Molly.

If you want more spooks from Joseph Bruchac, read The Skeleton Man Returns!

Find out more about Joseph Bruchac at his website.

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

Facing our problems and getting to the root of things is never easy. Everyone has experienced a time when they were sure they couldn't possibly face what was coming next. Was it knowing you got a poor test grade because you failed to study? Was it a punishment because you disobeyed your parents? Or was it something serious, like facing the grim reality that someone in your life will not be coming back anymore?

"During the week before we left, the sound of the wind was hurry, hurry, hurry and at night even the silent darkness whispered rush, rush, rush. I did not think we could ever leave, and yet I did not want to leave. I did not really expect to survive the trip. But I had to go and I would go...I believed that if there was any chance to bring my mother back home, it would happen on her birthday."

And so begins the mission for thirteen year old Salamanca Tree Hiddle, better known as Sal. She needs to reach Idaho before her mother's birthday. Sal knows this might be her only chance to get her to come home, so she hits the road with her grandparents, in hopes of making it to Lewiston in time. On the way, Sal starts to tell a tale of her friend Phoebe Winterbottom and what happened when Phoebe's mother disappeared. As the trip travels through state parks and monuments, Sal's story of Phoebe becomes more of her own journey towards dealing with her grief and pain. The reader begins to see that there is more than one way to lose a mother. With the help of her grandparents, Sal is able to finish the difficult task of facing her own story, one that is filled with the question of whether or not her mother will return.

Winner of the 1995 Newbery Award, Sharon Creech takes us on a journey through grief, love and acceptance for the different paths life can bring us down. The Newbery committee has called Walk Two Moons a "book packed with humor and affection and is an odyssey of unexpected twists and surprising conclusions." Read more to find out how Sal will fare by the end of her trip and what it is really like to walk two moons in someone else's moccasins.

Sharon Creech www.sharoncreech.com

The Dolphins of Laurentum by Caroline Lawrence

Teen years in the roman Empire? Sound exciting? Perhaps. Depending on whether you were free or slave, your life had exciting potential or horrific possibilities. Flavia, Jonathan, Nubia, and Lupus are four teens , all of whom share a spirit of adventure, bonds of friendship, aptitudes for sleuthing, and talents in the music of 79 CE.

The four adventurers take refuge at the Laurentum villa of Pliny the Younger. The villa is on the Mediterranean Sea and they discover that there is a sunken ship , laden with treasure, not too far from shore. While the friends are in agreement that they should plan to dive for the treasure, they have very different ideas about what they might do with their prospective fortune. Plans change dramatically when they learn that someone else is also diving for the treasure. That someone is a person from the dark days when Lupus was enslaved.

There are 20 books in the series. The web site reports that in England the television program based on the series begins in January 2009.

http://www.romanmysteries.com

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

What an exciting meeting of fantasy and mythology! Percy (Perseus) Jackson has troubles in school and troubles at home. His ADHD has tried the patience of his mother and his teachers at several different schools. Camp "Half-Blood" is a refuge for Percy and others like him. Percy finds himself and unravels the mystery of his heritage in the company of demigods. The Olympians are his true family and he is a hero among them.

This series blends modern concerns with tales of gods, satyrs, and minotaurs. Harry Potter fans will love this series!

Visit Rick Riordan's web site to see other titles in the series :

http://www.rickriordan.com/children.htm

Book Suggestion: Shredderman Series #1: Secret Identity, by Wendelin Van Draanen

If you need a step up from Diary of a Wimpy Kid, you need to check out Wendelin Van Draanen's realistic fiction Shredderman series. There's the unlikely but likeable protagonist, Nolan, his very real-life problems (bullying), and the stroke of genius which inspires his unusual solution: he creates his own super-powered cyber secret identity. Fortunately, this is the first of a series of five, and you're going to want to read each one (best in order, of course). The illustrations by Brian Biggs are hysterical.

If you're really curious, I'll save you some time with the sequels:

#2 Attack of the tagger

#3 Meet the gecko

#4 Enemy spy

#5 (stay tuned! Coming out May, 2009)

Related links:

Shredderman's own extremely fun website

http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/vandraanen/shredderman/

The author's website

http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/vandraanen/shredderman/clean/about.html