Reviews written by Karen Yingling, Staff Reviewer

After their adventures in Wildfire Rescue, Jaden and Leela Jackson are off to Texas to help with a hurricane. Their parents, a famous doctor and well-known photojournalist, go to disasters in the US to help out in their well-stocked RV. Jaden and Leela both have their own emergency packs, and...

Jaden Jackson and his older sister Leela love traveling with their parents so that they can help out in areas of the US that are experiencing disasters. Their father, Lamar, is an award-winning doctor, and their mother, Jaya, is a famous journalist. The family travels in an RV with their...

Four children live in a large apartment block in the city, and one of them tells the sad story of a stray dog that keeps them company. They call the dog Elki, and she is a very good companion, eating ice cream with them, playing games, and generally hanging out...

In the early 1920s, Charlene Cuffey is living in Virginia with her parents and her Nana Kofi, whose traumatic journey to the US in 1860 is detailed in The Door of No Return. Nana frequently tells her stories of his life in Africa, and he has a suitcase packed so...

Big Bear and Little Fish are back in a new adventure! Little Fish is usually the one to suggest fun activities for the friends to do, like climbing trees, riding summer sleds to get carrot muffins, sploshing in puddles, and making a blanket fort. When Fish suggests that Bear come...

Do you love hiking? Do you want to share the joy of that experience with young children? This is the book to pick up. Following a family of four as they hit the trails, this book gives a good overview of how to prepare for hikes and to stay safe...

Brian the Pig loves to wear his jeans, even though his best friend, Nathan (a unicorn), and other people in his life question why he does. They are more suited to his lifestyle and temperate than other clothing, AND they have pockets that he can fill up with an amazing...

Ruffles is back, and this time, his five tiny kitten friends want to go out into the snow. It's rather deep, and Ruffles is absolutely not thrilled with it. He's ready to head back inside when the kittens jump down from the tree they were climbing and are stuck in...

In Mr. Todd's third grade class, Judy Moody and her friends are learning about that five w's of newspaper reporting, the parts of the newspaper, and the types of subjects that are covered in the news media. Judy notices that her father always reads the print paper that is delivered...

In this novel in verse, we meet Effie, who is Deaf and has a difficult housing situation. While her older sister Deja is supportive, her father is not. He does not know sign language, and is reluctant to take the time to write down what he wants to say, so...

In 1888, Will lives with his mother, father, and grandfather in Texas. The father and grandfather left Louisiana after enslaved people were set free when the father was about nine, and walked the entire way to Texas. There, the family work as sharecroppers, putting in long hours planting, tending, and...

Victor lives with his parents and his older sister Sarah and younger sister Genevieve. When his grandmother needs to travel out of town, the children's mother has them stay at their grandmother's house to watch her three cats. The grandmother was a world traveler, and her house is packed with...

After defeating the centipede in The Serpent and the Beast, and traveling to the past, Mr. Wolf is brought by The One (aka Rhonda, who has materialized as a Tasmanian Devil with a mullet and futuristic space suit) to the moment in time when he and Snake are celebrating in...

In this second book in the graphic novel adaptation of the 2008 Scholastic series written by a variety of middle grade authors (the first being Riordan's The Maze of Bones), Amy and Dan Cahill find themselves in Vienna, trying to solve the mystery that their aunt left. They are accompanied...

Sonnenblick always does such a fantastic job of writing young adult books that also speak to middle grade sensibilities, and is one of the few authors writing realistic, sometimes humorous fiction for adolescent males. I think that adults forget how all encompassing the desire for romantic entanglements is in high...