Starclimber by Kenneth Oppel

Released March 2009

This is the third book in the series by Kenneth Oppel that started with Airborn and Skybreaker. I loved Airborn when I first read it. It was like a high seas pirate adventure but in the sky on an airship. It had adventure, suspense, action, and a little romance. Skybreaker was good but I didn’t like it as much as Airborn, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from Starclimber. However it only took me a couple of pages and I was off and running into the unique world that Oppel has created with this series. The book hooked me right away and I didn’t quit reading until the end. Starclimber reunites us with Matt Cruse, the former cabin boy who’s now attending the Airship Academy, and Kate de Vries, the fiesty and brilliant girl who’s more interested in discovering new lifeforms than living her family’s wealthy lifestyle. Matt and Kate are going on a new airborn adventure this time around – they’re traveling in the first attempt at reaching outer space. (Oppel’s series is set in a kind of alternate reality – it feels like it’s in the past, but it is also very futuristic. A time and place where space travel hasn’t happened yet, but it’s completely normal to travel in giant airships.) Going to outer space isn’t so strange, but the way they are getting there is. And you can be sure there are several exciting and action-filled sequences and daring circumstances along the way. If you haven’t read any of Oppel’s books, I’d start with Airborn, then keep reading in this fun adventure series.  –Becky Fermanich, Youth Services Librarian

The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World’s Largest Unsolved Art Theft by Ulrich Boser

Boser’s approach to telling the story of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist is just right. He sets the scene of the night of the crime with all the known details in place and adding in all the clues the experts have. This gives the reader the feeling of an insider, getting our interest piqued and developing our attachment to the artwork.

Released February 24, 2009

Boser’s approach to telling the story of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist is just right. He sets the scene of the night of the crime with all the known details in place and adding in all the clues the experts have. This gives the reader the feeling of an insider, getting our interest piqued and developing our attachment to the artwork.

He weaves in the museum background, a brief history of the world of art theft and museum security standards and glimpses of the adventures of artwork once it’s on the lam. Boser manages to make it both educational and exciting – all the background provided makes the details of the Gardner heist more interesting.

Toward the end of the book, Boser makes the ludicrous decision to solve the crime on his own.  His attempt, which mostly consisted of talking to untrustworthy “connections” and scoping out Irish bars for Whitey Bulger, came off as a childish foray into art crime superhero-ism. Still, it demonstrated how wrapped up an author can get in the story being researched.

If you are an art lover, if you enjoy a real-life unsolved mysteries, you are definitely going to enjoy this book.   — Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian

Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart

Released May 2008

Recommended for ages 10-14

Trenton Lee Stewart’s second novel about Reynie, Sticky, Kate, and Constance, the four young pals of the Mysterious Benedict Society, was just as fun, exciting, and fast-paced as the first one. Starting “Perilous Journey” was like getting together with old friends; the first book set up the characters so well you felt like you knew them, so it was great fun jumping back into their lives again. Also, having learned Constance’s big secret in the first book, I seemed to love and appreciate her even more this time around. As in the first book, this story takes the Benedict Society on a dangerous adventure, where they follow clues and solve riddles. This time they have to save Mr. Benedict and Number Two from the evil Mr. Curtain. Any reader who loved “The Mysterious Benedict Society” will certainly eat this one up, and those who haven’t read the first novel should rush out and get it before reading this one – this series is not to be missed. There’s a third installment coming this fall.  – Becky Fermanich, Youth Services Librarian

The Lost City of Z by David Grann

Release date: February 24, 2009

Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett was a classic Victorian gentleman explorer. He was built to explore the Amazon – proving immune to malaria and the various other tropical fevers the plague Westerners there. He takes small parties carrying limited equipment, he makes friends with the Indians and he can live off the land. He never says die. He’s awesome.

He’s also, well, a little nuts. Not so much in the beginning, but after WWI, he starts to feel his age a little more, it’s harder to get funding and a millionaire rival begins exploring roughly the same region of the jungle as Fawcett. He becomes more reliant on spiritualism and more obsessed with the idea of proving his theory of Z, an El Dorado-like city deep in the Amazon.

His expeditions, his disappearance and the multitude of failed investigations and missions to find him make for great storytelling. Author Grann does a fine job of combing through his history, connecting with his relatives and parceling out the interesting details throughout the book. I found Grann’s own trip into the Amazon a little unsatisfying – it also attempts to tie up the mystery of Z a little too neatly.

Neat and tidy as it may be, I do like the explanation of Z and the archeological evidence and expertise behind it. It means Fawcett wasn’t going entirely mad when he pored over old legends of El Dorado, but I think it does mean that he never, never would have been able to identify what was left as what he was looking for, either. — Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian

Heroes of the Valley by Jonathan Stroud

Released January 2009

“Stroud turns from an alternative future London to a more traditional hero quest in this epic fantasy. Halli Sveinsson, short, squat, and dark-haired, has never truly felt a part of his tall, handsome family. He excels at harmless pranks, but when one of them sickens the arrogant son of visiting dignitaries from the house of Hakonsson, he unwittingly sets in motion events that will prompt him to leave home to avenge the murder of his uncle at the hands of Olaf Hakonsson. His revenge is achieved almost by chance, and Halli is forced to return home a fugitive. With the assistance of a girl named Aud, who shelters him on his homeward journey and whose skills he wildly underestimates, Halli must become a leader and rally his people. In his quest, he learns the truth behind the tales of heroic exploits perfomed by his ancestor Sven Sveinsson, who defeated flesh-eating creatures called Trows and set up a barrier protecting his people from their threat. Tales of Sveinsson’s exploits frame each chapter and serve to point out how Halli is also creating his own legend, one that will surely be retold and embellished over the course of time. Stroud shows that the trope of the hero’s journey is as sturdy as ever in this compelling novel. Fans of his ‘Bartimaeus’ trilogy will, like the hungry Trows of valley legend, devour this book whole.”  –School Library Journal

The Gecko & Sticky: Villain’s Lair by Wendelin Van Draanen

Released February 2009

“A wittily offbeat and action-packed adventure. Readers are immediately plunked into the action as Dave and his talking gecko, Sticky, make their way to Damien Black’s creepy mansion through a bat-infested, oozing cave. They are after the magical ingots, which, paired with a wristband already in their possession, give the wearer various amazing powers. Black is an old-fashioned villain, with a ‘Bwaa-ha-ha-ha-ha!’ sense of devilishness, and things get hairy when Dave and Sticky—a reformed (?) thief formerly in Black’s employ—are trapped in Black’s Pit of Doom. The two narrowly escape with one ingot, the one that provides wall-walking abilities, with Black and his bumbling cohorts in pursuit—all in the first half. The second half is less of a romp, as the villains look for Dave and mistake another boy for him. By tale’s end Sticky and Dave learn to trust each other, and, of course, the power of good prevails over evil. A dastardly good read that benefits from its quirky drawings and may well become a can’t-wait-for-the-next-one series.”  –Kirkus Reviews

The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson

Released Sept. 2008

“The addition of the invented country of Bergania (think The Mouse That Roared) to the otherwise recognizable landscape of Europe on the brink of WWII provides the setting for this adventure. Tally, a student at a progressive school in England, becomes enamored with the mountain kingdom via a newsreel and persuades the authorities to send a school group there to participate in an international dance exhibition. Once there, Tally, an unsinkable heroine, helps rescue Karil, the young crown prince, from a corrupt government and then from the Nazis and finally from his oppressive guardians. Each member of the supporting cast of this deftly constructed tale is a gem, from the mysterious, charismatic biology teacher to Tally’s father, a dedicated and idealistic doctor; from Julia, abandoned by her movie-star mother, to the plumber-turned-hired-assassin who murders Karil’s father, the king. The plottings, near escapes, secret identities revealed, and ethical dilemmas are decorated with the particular wry, confident humor that is Ibbotson’s trademark. “At school they say Nazi spies are going to come down on parachutes disguised as nuns. Well, I know nuns; I wouldn’t be fooled — you can tell by their shoes.” This is a fat book that needs to be, requiring each of its 377 pages to work out all the politics and personal relationships that finally slot together in a neat, satisfying, romantic ending.”  –Horn Book