|
BRO |
Masterpiece
(age 9-12) by Elise Broach the arts ... mystery ... friendship Publisher comments: Marvin lives with his family under the kitchen sink in the Pompadays apartment. He is very much a beetle. James Pompaday lives with his family in New York City. He is very much an eleven-year-old boy. After James gets a pen-and-ink set for his birthday, Marvin surprises him by creating an elaborate miniature drawing. James gets all the credit for the picture and before these unlikely friends know it they are caught up in a staged art heist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that could help recover a famous drawing by Albrecht Durer. But James can't go through with the plan without Marvin's help. And thats where things get really complicated (and interesting!). |
|
BAL |
The Calder Game
(age 9-12) by Blue Balliett the arts ... mystery Publisher comments: When Calder Pillay travels with his father to a remote village in England, he finds a mix of mazes and mystery . . . including an unexpected Alexander Calder sculpture in the town square. Calder is strangely drawn to the sculpture, while other people have less-than-friendly feelings towards it. Both the boy and the sculpture seem to be out of place . . . and then, on the same night, they disappear! Calder's friends Petra and Tommy must fly out to help his father find him. But this mystery has more twists and turns than a Calder mobile . . . with more at stake than first meets the eye. |
|
URB |
A Crooked Kind of Perfect
(age 9-12) by Linda Urban enterprise ... humor ... the arts ... family Ten-year-old Zoe Elias has perfect piano dreams. She can practically feel the keys under her flying fingers; she can hear the audience's applause. All she needs is a baby grand so she can start her lessons, and then she'll be well on her way to Carnegie Hall. But when Dad ventures to the music store and ends up with a wheezy organ instead of a piano, Zoe's dreams hit a sour note. Learning the organ versions of old TV theme songs just isn't the same as mastering Beethoven on the piano. And the organ isn't the only part of Zoe's life that's off-kilter, what with Mom constantly at work, Dad afraid to leave the house, and that odd boy, Wheeler Diggs, following her home from school every day. Yet when Zoe enters the annual Perform-O-Rama organ competition, she finds that life is full of surprises, and that perfection may be even better when it's just a little off center. |
|
SEL |
The Invention of Hugo Cabret: a Novel in Words and Pictures
(age 9-12) by Brian Selznick the arts ... mystery ... math/science/technology ... historical Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo's undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo's dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery. |
|
COV |
The Ghost in the Third Row
(age 9-12) by Bruce Coville the arts ... mystery ... spooky Trying out for a part in a play is scary. But nothing compares to seeing a ghost in the audience! Nina learns that fifty years ago, an actress was murdered--on this very stage! Strange things begin to happen---scripts are ripped up, sets are knocked down, a costume is torn to pieces--and everyone thinks the ghost wants to stop the show. Everyone, except for Nina and her best friend, Chris, who do some ghost hunting. Only the Woman in White can lead them to the answer! |
|
CRE |
Replay: a New Book
(age 9-12) by Sharon Creech family ... growing up ... the arts Leo's papa stood in the doorway, gazing down at him. "Leo, you make gold from pebbles," and the way he said it, Leo could tell that this was a good thing. He may have been given a bit part in the school play ... but Leo dreams he is the biggest star on Broadway. Sure, his big, noisy family makes him feel like a sardine squashed in a tin ... but in his fantasy he gets all the attention he wants. Yes, his papa seems sad and distracted ... but Leo imagines him as a boy, tap-dancing and singing with delight. That's why they call Leo "fog boy." He's always dreaming, always replaying things in his brain. He fantasizes about who he is in order to discover who he will become. As an actor in the school play, he is poised and ready for the curtain to open. But in the play that is his life, Leo is eager to discover what part will be his. |
|
BAL |
The Wright 3
(age 9-12) by Blue Balliett math/science/technology ... the arts ... mystery Spring semester at the Lab School in Hyde Park finds Petra and Calder drawn into another mystery when unexplainable accidents and ghostly happenings throw a spotlight on Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, and it's up to the two junior sleuths to piece together the clues. Stir in the return of Calder's friend Tommy (which creates a tense triangle), H.G. Wells's The Invisible Man, 3D pentominoes, and the hunt for a coded message left behind by Wright, and the kids become tangled in a dangerous web in which life and art intermingle with death, deception, and surprise. |
|
BLA |
The Shakespeare Stealer
(age 9-12) by Gary Blackwood the arts ... adventure ... historical A young orphan named Widge is sent to the Globe Theater to steal the script of Hamlet from Shakespeare's own company of players. When he becomes friends with the actors, he must decide whether to disobey his sinister master or betray his new friends. sequel: Shakespeare's Scribe sequel: Shakespeare's Spy |
|
FEN |
Yolonda's Genius
(age 9-12) by Carol Fenner brilliant protagonist ... family ... the arts After moving from Chicago to Grand River, Michigan, fifth grader Yolonda, big and strong for her age, determines to prove that her younger brother is not a slow learner but a true musical genius. |
|
BAL |
Chasing Vermeer
(age 9-12) by Blue Balliett the arts ... mystery When a book of unexplainable occurances brings Petra Andalee and Calder Pillay together, strange things start to happen: seemingly unrelated events connect, an eccentric old woman seeks their company, and an invaluable Vermeer painting disappears. Before they know it, the two find themselves at the center of an international art scandal. As Petra and Calder are drawn clue by clue into a mysterious labyrinth they must draw on their powers of intuition, their skills at problem solving, and their knowledge of Vermeer. Can they decipher a crime that has left even the FBI baffled? |
|
KON |
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
(age 9-12) by E. L. Konigsburg realistic ... the arts ... mystery ... adventure Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away...so she decided not to run FROM somewhere, but TO somewhere. And so, after some careful planning, she and her younger brother, Jamie, escaped right into a mystery that made headlines! |
|
CUR |
Bud, Not Buddy
(age 9-12) by Christopher Curtis the arts ... identity ... voyages/journeys ... historical ... family ... brilliant protagonist Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids. |