Nancy Clancy: Super Sleuth by Jan O'Connor J Oco

 Nancy Clancy: Super Sleuth

By: Jane O'Connor

Reading Level: 3.3/ 1pt. 128pgs

The girl you know as "Fancy Nancy" is growing up and moving on to bigger adventures in her first chapter novel. Nancy has decided to become a detective, just like her favorite crime solving fictional character Nancy Drew. But, it turns out she isn't the only one looking for a crime to solve, her best friend Bree has become a detective too! Together, with their matching trench coats, spy glass, disguise gear, and what they've learned from Nancy Drew novels, they are an unstoppable team! Or, at least they would be if the could find any crimes to solve. They sneak, spy, and snoop, but no mysteries are to be found.

Finally, one day Nancy and Bree overhear the twins, Wanda and Rhonda arguing over something that has to do with Nancy, but what? Nancy and Bree are thrilled to have at least something of a mystery to investigate. But all too soon this mystery is shadowed by and even bigger mystery: On Family Day everyone brought a special memento to share with the group, but the next day their teacher's special blue marble he brought to share is missing. All signs point to thief, and Nancy and Bree are on the case!

This is a more grown up version of "Fancy Nancy" young readers will love. She's spunky, fun, and still fancy as ever. This is a perfect book for readers who are transitioning to chapter books... whether you read chapter books or have them read to you!

Kepler's Dream by Juliet Bell

Sometimes there is nothing in a book's title that would make a person want to choose the book when they see it on a shelf.. I think Kepler's Dream is one of those books. I chose to read it because I had read the reviews and it sounded pretty good. And it is a good book. It's a very good book and I think everyone who picks it up will enjoy the story. It's about eleven-year-old Ella, whose mother will be undergoing extreme treatment for leukemia. Ella's father hasn't really been a "dad" and is very busy as a guide for fishing expeditions. One grandma is dead, and the other one, Ella's father's mother, is a stranger. Ella has never met her. Yet that's where Ella is sent to spend the summer (she calls it Broken Family Camp) while her mother prepares for and undergoes a stem cell transplant.
Kepler refers to a mathematician/astronomer who lived in the late 1500s and early 1600s. Dream is the title of one of his books, considered to be the first science fiction book ever written. So how are the two connected? Ella's grandmother, Violet Von Stern, owns one of the few existing copies of Kepler's Dream (along with thousands of other rare books she has acquired. So many that she built a separate building on her land for a library!) One night, in the middle of the night, the book disappears.
But this book isn't just about finding a lost book. It's about Ella and her grandmother getting to know each other; making new friends, understanding things about her father and his family that she has never known, and figuring out her place in her somewhat unsettled world. I especially liked seeing the relationship between Ella and her grandmother evolve.
They say you can't judge a book by its cover, and sometimes you shouldn't judge a book by its title. Give this book a try. I think you'll like it.

AR Level 5.1
AR Points 9

Kindred Souls by Patricia MacLachlan

Kindred Souls. That's what Billy says he and his grandson Jake are. Jake's mom seems to think so, too. "When I see the two of you together," she tells Jake, "Sometimes I think you were born for him."
Billy's job during summer vacation from school is to be with Billy. Since Billy likes "predictable," they take the same walk every morning, always ending up at the top of a rise on the farm where the old sod house used to stand -- the house where Billy was born. And predictable Billy always ends their conversation there by saying, "I miss that sod house."
One day Jake asks how a person cut a sod brick. Billy's eyes light up. "You could do it," he tells Jake. And before he realizes it, Jake has been given the task of building a sod house for his grandfather. Then there's the stray dog, whom Billy instantly names Lucy, and who plays a huge part in making Billy well after he get pneumonia.
Enough said about the story. This is a quick book, with strong characters, a bit of magical mystery and such a comfortable, down-to-earth story that I just felt all warm and happy after reading it. In a way, Billy and Jake remind me of my father-in-law and his only grandson in the kind of close relationship they shared. As Billy shows us, sometimes you something for someone, whether you want to or not, just because they ask you to.

AR Level 3.0
AR Points 1