From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess

Olivia has always considered herself average:  average smart, average height, even her skin is an average brown.  The only things about her that aren't average are her ability to draw, and the fact that she's basically an orphan.  Her mother died when she was a baby, and she's never really met her father.  She's talked to him on the phone, and she writes letters all the time, but his job makes it difficult for them to meet in person.

But Olivia is not average, and the truth comes out when the school bully starts taunting her one day about being a princess.  Olivia knows it isn't true and tries to fight back, but maybe she's wrong.  The truth comes out when none other than Mia Thermopolis shows up at Olivia's middle school and explains that Olivia is actually her half sister!

This explains a lot.  Her mother wanted her to have a normal life, so her father, the crown prince of Genovia, had to keep his distance, and her aunt and uncle raised her alongside her horrible cousins.  But all her worries could be over because Olivia really is destined for an extraordinary life!

This is the first book in a new series by Meg Cabot, and all your favorite characters from The Princess Diaries are here in supporting roles.  My only complaint is this book is pretty much all set up.  I guess we have to wait for book two for Olivia's adventures to begin.

The Fourteenth Goldfish

Sixth grade isn't going so well for Ellie.  Her best friend is now obsessed with volleyball and has less time for Ellie, but Ellie has yet to find the thing she is passionate about.  She's not artistic like her divorced parents.  Her mother is a former actor turned school counselor, and her father still makes his living as a professional actor. They've tried to make Ellie into an actor, but it just isn't her thing.

Her world is in for a crazy turn when her mother comes home late one night with an odd 13 year old boy named Melvin who turns out to be her long lost grandfather.  Melvin has been working on the cure to aging his entire life, and he's finally found success with some odd consequences.  No one believes he's the real Melvin; he's just a kid.  Now that he's a kid again, the law thinks Melvin needs supervision, and all the conflict Ellie's artistic mother has had with her scientist father come home to roost.  Now Melvin is the same bossy and stubborn old man he was before but in the body of a kind of cute teenager!

As Ellie begins helping Melvin recover his formula, she discovers something about herself.  Ellie loves science, too!  Is the world ready for the cure to aging?  Read Jennifer L. Holm's new book to find out!  I really enjoyed this one--fun and thoughtful!

The Swap

Ellie is about to start 7th grade, but what should be an exciting new start is hampered by her former best friend Sassy.  Ellie and Sassy have been best friends forever, but suddenly Sassy has turned her mean girls ways on Ellie.  Ellie isn't ready to let go, but every day with Sassy is a painful examination of all her flaws.

Sassy is obsessed "The Prince" Jack Malloy who seems to have everything.  He's popular, cute, and a great athlete, but no one knows the secret anxiety Jack feels every day.  Since his mother died, his father has been less a father and more a drill sergeant.  Nothing Jack does is good enough, and any show of emotion is weakness.

Things come to a head for Ellie and Jack on the first day of school when they end up in the nurse's office together as a result of separate altercations.  There's a strange new nurse who mutters something about switching places and standing up for yourself, and the next thing you know POOF! Jack and Ellie have switched bodies!

What follows is a weekend filled with hilarious and embarrassing situations as Ellie and Jack learn to navigate each other's lives.  Jack enjoys some nurturing time with Ellie's mom, and Ellie learns she's stronger than she ever thought from Jack's crazy and supportive older brothers.  The two form an odd sort of friendship, but it's not until they learn some gumption that they will get their own lives back.

I picked up this book because it's been very popular in the library, and now that I've read it, I know why!  This book is hilarious and heartfelt.  I love the way Megan Shull allows her two protagonists to see themselves through the eyes of someone else.  I wish we could all see our problems and our strengths from a distance like Ellie and Jack.  I highly recommend this book!  Just be aware that some of the hilarity arises from gentle references to normal parts of puberty.

The Kiss of Deception

Princess Lia has no intention of marrying some fusty old prince she's never met.  She refuses to tie herself to a man who won't even meet her before the wedding in a kingdom far from everyone she knows and loves.  That's why she and her maid Pauline run away just before her wedding.

The two young women flee to a picturesque seaside village where they get jobs as maids at an inn.  Lia adapts to her new life fairly quickly and enjoys the freedom of anonymity in her new simple life.

But not everyone is happy with Princess Lia's decision.  Two men are on her trail.  One is her fiance who's come to find out just who this girl is who would defy two kingdoms.  The other is an assassin.

When two handsome strangers arrive at the inn, Lia is interested, but she has no inkling of who they really are, and neither Kaden nor Rafe recognizes the other for who he is.

In a crazy love triangle complicated by political ramifications, will Lia discover the truth in time to save herself and her kingdom?

This is Mary E. Pearson's first book in the Remnant Chronicles, and if you're a fan of fantasy love triangles, you've just met your new match!

Masterminds

Why would anyone ever leave Serenity, New Mexico?  There's no unemployment or poverty, no crime, and no one lies.  Even better, everyone has a nice house with a pool in the backyard!  Sure, it's a small town in the middle of a desert, but Eli, and everyone else, lives a peaceful and prosperous life.

When Eli and his best friend Randy decide to go on a bike ride just outside the city limits, both their lives are upset.  Once they pass the city limits, Eli is overcome with terrible stomach cramps.  Randy isn't.  This convinces Eli to dig deeper, and he recruits his friends to help.

The more they look, the more secrets they uncover.  Just what exactly is going on in Serenity, and who can Eli and his friends trust?  Read Gordon Korman's new series opener to find the truth!  This was a fun read.  My only complaint is that there is no real ending.  This really is part one of the story.  I guess I'll just have to keep reading to find out what happen next!

Nightmares!

Every time Charlie Laird goes to sleep, he has nightmares, but that's not even the worst of his problems.  Even though he is still struggling with his mother's death, his father has remarried Charlotte, and Charlie is sure she's a witch.  He's seen things he can't explain any other way.  Plus, she made the family move from the house they shared with Charlie's mother to the creepy old purple mansion her family has owned for generations.

Things get even worse when the witch who torments Charlie in his dreams comes into the waking world.  That's when he knows he has to do something.  Charlie goes into the nightmare world awake to face his worst nightmares and save all the children of his town.

Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller have created a nightmare world this both frightening and funny layered on to the real world where Charlie is still struggling with grief over his mother's death.

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom

Everyone wants to be famous, right?  Especially, if you are Prince Charming of fairy tale fame, but the princes who bear that name have a couple of complaints.  First, they did all the work rescuing princes, fighting dragons, etc, so why are the stories named after the girls?  Everyone knows Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty, but have you ever heard of Liam, Gustav, Duncan, and Frederic?  Didn't think so.

Also, the princes didn't realize when they got caught up in those famous stories that they would end up married or engaged to those girls regardless of whether they liked each other.

The princes find themselves kicked out of their homes (and sometimes kingdoms), and they stumble across each other in the forest.  They also stumble across a plot from a wicked witch named Zaubera who has kidnapped the four most famous bards in the four kingdoms.  Now Cinderella has been kidnapped, too!

Who will save her if not a band of Princes Charming?

This first book in Christopher Healy is fun and exciting though it does get bogged down a bit in the middle.  Recommended for fairy tale and humor fans.