Bridge of Time

Bridge of Time
By Lewis Buzbee

This is a fun time travel story, mostly because it's set right here in San Francisco!
Middle schoolers Lee Jones and Joan Lee are best friends, and both have just heard that their parents are planning to divorce...the next morning, while on a boring school field trip to Fort Point, they are suddenly transported back in time to 1864. And who do they run into? Mark Twain (who introduces himself as Sam Clemens).
They have many crazy adventures while learning some unpleasant history lessons, especially with regard to how Chinese immigrants were first treated in San Francisco. And they travel to some other time periods in the City, too, including the future.

Wonder

Wonder
By R.J. Palacio

Now this is truly a fabulous book. An important book, too, about a 5th grade boy (just starting middle school) with a severe facial deformity who steps into a brand-new school...Auggie is a perfectly normal kid, except for his face, but most of his classmates--not to mention the rest of the world--treat him as if he's a freak.
Wonder is a story told by different people; Auggie himself, his older sister Olivia, her boyfriend Justin, and Auggie's two friends Summer and Jack. Each of them offers their own perspective of what it is like to live as or near someone who is often stared at, ignored, and bullied.
Luckily, Auggie has a loving and understanding family, and with their support he is brave enough to make it through his first year of middle school.
I laughed, I cried...I think this book is absolutely wonderful.

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: 14 Amazing Authors Tell the Tales
By Chris Van Allsburg
AND Lemony Snicket, Tabitha King, Jon Scieszka, Sherman Alexie, Gregory Maguire, Cory Doctorow, Jules Feiffer, Linda Sue Park, Walter Dean Myers, Lois Lowry, Kate DiCamillo, M.T. Anderson, and Louis Sachar

 An "esteemed collection of highly decorated authors" have written short stories to accompany Chris Van Allsburg's intriguing and bizarre pictures from the original Mysteries of Harris Burdick...and the stories are just as intriguing and bizarre!
If you were ever inspired by Harris Burdick to think of your own stories to accompany those black-and-white drawings, you will probably enjoy this collection. The stories range from strange to funny to creepy, and beyond...

The Humming Room

The Humming Room
A Novel Inspired by The Secret Garden
By Ellen Potter

Since The Secret Garden was one of my favorite books when I was growing up, I was curious about this book by Ellen Potter.
In The Humming Room, 12-year-old Roo Fanshaw is sent to a foster home after her father dies in a drug-related shooting...but an estranged, very rich uncle agrees to take her in to his desolate children's-hospital-turned-mansion on a tiny island (Cough Rock) in the St. Lawrence River.
There is indeed an almost-dead, haunted secret garden in the house, which Roo revives along with some mysterious new friends.
This is a shorter, modern version of Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic novel.

Queen of the Falls

Queen of the Falls
By Chris Van Allsburg

I'm a big fan of all of Chris Van Allsburg's books. I love his detailed illustrations--sometimes creepy, sometimes haunting--and the unusual stories that accompany these pictures. Queen of the Falls is the biography of an unusual and little-known woman who, at age 62, climbed into a wooden barrel and plummeted over Niagara Falls in an attempt at fame and fortune! She survived, but didn't make a lot of money for her efforts, even though it was a very daring feat. That was in 1901! Annie Taylor remains the only woman to have ever gone over the falls alone (and only one of nine who have survived the trip at all).

Savvy

Savvy
By Ingrid Law

This is a rollicking adventure--a bunch of kids, including a few siblings from a family with special superpowers ("savvies"), stowaway on a big old pink bus delivering bibles to small-town churches in Kansas and Nebraska. Along the way, surprising friendships are made, trouble is gotten into, and even a little romance blooms, making the journey quite memorable!

Harry Potter

 

Harry Potter series

By J.K. Rowling

What a wonderful summer project! I savored each and every book, one right after the other, whenever I could snatch some time for myself. And I loved them more than I thought I would. Humor, wit, problem-solving, magic, friendship, love, danger, horror...it's all there. Now I just have to find time to see all the movies!