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BUC |
NERDS Series (age 9-12) by Michael Buckley adventure ... action ... humor ... brilliant protagonist Publisher comments: NERDS combines all the excitement of international espionage with all the awkwardness of elementary school, and the results are hilarious. A group of unpopular fifth graders run a spy network from inside their school. With the help of cutting-edge science, they transform their nerdy qualities into incredible abilities! Their enemies? An array of James Bond–style villains, each with an evil plan more diabolical and more ridiculous than the last. title: NERDS: National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society |
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FAR |
The 7 Professors of the Far North
(age 9-12) by John Fardell science fiction ... brilliant protagonist ... math/science/technology ... adventure ... action When Sam visits Zara and Ben and their great-uncle, the quirky inventor Professor Ampersand, he never expects to embark on a fantastical adventure, overflowing with suspense and intrigue. |
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YEE |
Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time
(age 9-12) by Lisa Yee humor ... friendship ... letters/journal ... brilliant protagonist Stanford Wong is having a bad summer. He flunks English and will have to trade basketball camp for summer school. Even worse, his mother has hired the world's biggest nerdball and most annoying genius, Millicent Min, to tutor him. And with family pressures mounting, how will be find a way to cope? |
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YEE |
Millicent Min, Girl Genius
(age 9-12) by Lisa Yee humor ... friendship ... letters/journal ... brilliant protagonist Millicent Min is having a bad summer. Her fellow high school students hate her for setting the curve. Her fellow 11-year-olds hate her for going to high school. And her mother has arranged for her to tutor Stanford Wong, the poster boy for Chinese geekdom. But then Millie meets Emily Ebers. Emily doesn't know Millicent's IQ score. She actually thinks Millie is cool. And if Millie can hide her awards, ignore her grandmother's advice, swear her parents to silence, blackmail Stanford, and keep all her lies straight, she just might make her first friend. What's it gong to take? Sheer genius. |
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SNY |
The Bronze Pen
(age 9-12) by Zilpha Keatley Snyder brilliant protagonist ... humor ... friendship ... magic ... family ... authorship Twelve-year-old Audrey Abbott dreams of becoming a writer, but with her father's failing health and the family's shaky finances, it seems there is no room for what her overworked mother would surely call a childish fantasy. So Audrey keeps her writing a secret. That is, until she meets a mysterious old woman who seems able to read her mind. Audrey is surprised at how readily she reveals her secret to the woman. One day the old woman gives Audrey a peculiar bronze pen and tells her to "use it wisely and to good purpose." It turns out to be just perfect for writing her stories with. But as Audrey writes, odd things start happening. Did Beowulf, her dog, just speak to her? And what is that bumping under her bed at night? It seems that whatever she writes with the pen comes true. However, things don't always happen in the way that she wants or expects. In fact, it's quite difficult to predict what writing with the pen will do. Could the pen be more of a curse than a gift? Or will Audrey be able to rewrite the future in the way that she wishes---and save her father's life? |
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ROB |
The Girl With the Silver Eyes
(age 9-12) by Willo Davis Roberts brilliant protagonist ... science fiction A 10-year-old girl, who has always looked different from other children, discovers that she not only has unusual powers but that there are others like her. |
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GUT |
The Homework Machine
(age 9-12) by Dan Gutman brilliant protagonist ... enterprise ... humor ... friendship ... school Meet the D Squad, a foursome of fifth graders at the Grand Canyon School made up of a geek, a class clown, a teacher's pet, and a slacker. They are bound together by one very big secret: the homework machine. Because the machine, code-named Belch, is doing their homework for them, they start spending a lot of time together, attracting a lot of attention. And attention is exactly what you don't want when you are keeping a secret. Before long, things start to get out of control, and Belch becomes much more powerful than they ever imagined. Now the kids are in a race against their own creation, and the loser could end up in jail...or worse! |
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KLA |
The Green Glass Sea
(age 9-12) by Ellen Klages math/science/technology ... brilliant protagonist ... friendship ... historical Publisher comments: It is 1943, and 11-year-old Dewey Kerrigan is traveling west on a train to live with her scientist father ... but no one, not her father nor the military guardians who accompany her, will tell her exactly where he is. When she reaches Los Alamos, New Mexico, she learns why: he's working on a top secret government program. Over the next few years, Dewey gets to know eminent scientists, starts tinkering with her own mechanical projects, becomes friends with a budding artist who is as much of a misfit as she is ... and, all the while, has no idea how the Manhattan Project is about to change the world. |
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COL |
Half-moon Investigations
(age 9-12) by Eoin Colfer action ... brilliant protagonist ... mystery Catalog: Twelve-year-old Fletcher Moon, the youngest qualified private detective in the world, receives a diploma and gold-plated detective's shield after completing an Internet course, and sets out to solve petty crimes at school, but he forced to go on the run when, while investigating the town's biggest crime family, his badge is stolen and he is framed for several crimes he did not commit. |
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DAH |
Fantastic Mr. Fox
(age 9-12) by Roald Dahl brilliant protagonist ... humor Fantastic Mr. Fox is on the run! The three meanest farmers around are out to get him. Fat Boggis, squat Bunce, and skinny Bean have joined forces, and they have Mr. Fox and his family surrounded. What they don't know is that they're not dealing with just any fox. Mr. Fox would never surrender. But only the most fantastic plan ever can save him now. |
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FIT |
Harriet the Spy
(age 9-12) by Louise Fitzhugh brilliant protagonist ... growing up ... realistic ... friendship Harriet M. Welsch is a spy. In her notebook, she writes down everything she knows about everyone, even her classmates and her best friends. Then Harriet loses track of her notebook, and it ends up in the wrong hands. Before she can stop them, her friends have read the always truthful, sometimes awful things she's written about each of them. Will Harriet find a way to put her life and her friendships back together? sequel: The Long Secret |
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O'B |
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
(age 9-12) by Robert C. O'Brien adventure ... brilliant protagonist Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse with four small children, must move her family to their summer quarters immediately, or face almost certain death. But her youngest son, Timothy, lies ill and must not be moved. Fortunately, she encounters the rats of NIMH, an extraordinary breed of highly intelligent creatures, who come up with a brilliant solution to her dilemma. And Mrs. Frisby in turn renders them a great service. sequel: Racso and the Rats of NIMH by Jane Leslie Conley F CON sequel: RT, Margaret, and the Rats of NIMH by Jane Leslie Conley F CON |
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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. |
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COL |
Artemis Fowl Series (age 9-12) by Eoin Colfer math/science/technology ... mystery ... adventure ... science fiction ... brilliant protagonist ... adventure ... action ... fantasy Artemis Fowl, a charming but villainous twelve-year-old, takes on the dangerous world of the Fairy People in this unforgettable story. Full of unexpected twists and turns, Artemis Fowl opens up a riveting world of fantasy and mystery where anything, literally, is possible. title: Artemis Fowl title: The Artemis Fowl Files |