The White Gates by Bonnie Ramthun

Here's a great book for kids who like snowboarding, adventure and a mystery!

Twelve-year old Torin Sinclair has just moved to Snow Park, Colorado. All of his life he's been pretty much a surfer boy living with his dad and step-mom, but now he's come to live with his mom who is the new town doctor. His first big goal is to learn to snowboard!

But the kids in school aren't too friendly and he begins to hear about the curse that seems to follow whoever is the town doctor. Fortunately he makes a couple of friends - Raine Douglas, whose father owns the snowboard shop, and Drake Wexler, whose father is a famous snowboarder. Raine's family is of Ute Indian heritage and she eventually tells him about the sacred mountain her family seeks to protect and the origins of the mysterious Ute curse.

Is there really a curse? Is someone out to develop the protected mountain land? And what is with the kids who keep threatening Torin on the slopes?

And what are the White Gates? Well - they are a dangerous avalanche run. Plenty of snowboard action ahead!

Nick of Time by Ted Bell

Pirates, time travel, spies, a Nazi submarine, sword fights, sailing ships - Nick of Time is non-stop adventure and action!

Nick McIver is the hero of our adventure and a hero is just what Nick wants to be. The year is 1939, and war with Germany is coming closer. Nick lives with is parents, the lighthouse keepers, on Greybeard Island in the Channel Islands between England and France. Nick is a marvelous sailor and longs for the days of his ancestor Captain Nicolas McIver and his idol Lord Nelson. Things are becoming dangerous for Nick himself as he gets caught up in his father's secret work as a spy against the Nazis.

Things really spin our of control when he discovers a time travel device sent to him from his ancestor Captain McIver, who desperately needs Nick's help in the past. He also meets Captain Blood, a time traveling pirate. Then a Nazi submarine surfaces off the island and Nick finds himself needed in two places as once. Author Ted Bell also introduces us to his adult fiction character Alex Hawke, who is a British spy.

When he was a boy, author Ted Bell loved books like Treasure Island and Kidnapped. His character Nick McIver seems to spring right out of books like these old-fashioned adventures.

This is the first adventure in the Nick McIver series. Nick of Time is followed by The Time Pirates.

Click here to read the first three chapters of Nick of Time.

Crunch by Leslie Connor

Fourteen year-old Dewey is in a crunch. Actually his whole family is in a crunch - all because of another crunch - a fuel crunch.

Crunch, the book, is a great read! It is a mystery - who is stealing bike parts from the family bicycle shop? Can Dewey catch the thief? It is a what if story - what if a fuel crisis stranded your parents several hundred miles away from home and left you and your siblings to take care of both themselves and the bicycle shop? And it is realistic fiction - older sister Lil is eighteen, but it is a lot of responsibility for her and Dewey to take care of the family farm, the bicycle shop, and their younger siblings.

Things do start to get a little scary as well. The fuel crisis is causing food and other necessities to disappear from store shelves. Cars stop going up and down the highway next to their home. The highways are filed with people walking and bicycling. Suddenly lots of people need their bikes fixed just to get around. Dewey and his slightly younger brother Vince are swamped with bike repairs. And someone is breaking into their shop and stealing not only valuable bike parts but also the money they make for their work. This is not turning out to be the summer vacation anyone planned on.

I really enjoyed the family story in Crunch as well. Everybody is trying but they are still kids and they are under a lot of pressure. And I really like their small family farm as well - a big garden, fruit trees, chickens, goats and sheep. Hmm - I wonder whose farm that sounds like? Click here to find out!

Leslie Connor is a very good writer of realistic fiction. Waiting for Normal won lots of awards for children's literature and I predict Crunch will as well. Click here to read an interview with Leslie Connor and find out just where some of her ideas for Crunch came from. Meanwhile, I'm going to make sure my bicycle is in good working order. You never know when you might really need it . . .

Spaceheadz by Jon Scieszka

I've worried about the subject of this book for a LONG time. If there are aliens out there somewhere, we have been sending all our television signals out to space and the ALIENS HAVE BEEN WATCHING! I'm glad that Jon Sciezka, who is a very funny and very good author, also started worrying about this too. If you are wondering about all the CAPITAL letters, you haven't read Spaceheadz yet.

As we all know, good science fiction starts with the question - what if? So, what if the only thing aliens know about us came from our commercials? If you are thinking OH NO right now, you are right! When the aliens send their representatives to Earth, they make contact with Michael K. - yes, there is more than one Michael in the room. All kids know that instantly, but grownups may have forgotten the secret code that reveals that fact.

Poor Michael K. is just trying to blend in since this is his first day in his fifth grade classroom, where he is the new kid. If you were the new kid, the last thing you would want is two aliens following you around. Did I mention the aliens are pretending to be students too? And then there is the alien leader, who has taken over the body of Major Fluffy, the class hamster. This is not a good first day of school for Michael K.

If you want to learn more about the SPHDZ and how you can help SAVE THE WORLD! click here:

Or watch this top secret video:

Flight of the Outcast by Brad Strickland

Space Opera is one of my favorite sub-genres of science fiction. When kids ask me to suggest a good space opera, I usually think of Star Wars or Star Trek. Now I have a new recommendation - Flight of the Outcast by Brad Strickland.

This is a first story in a new series called The Academy and I can't wait for the next book! This series has everything that makes good space opera - lots of worlds and characters set far in the future, lots of exciting action involving spaceships and martial arts, cool technology, and a good story about good versus evil.

Thirteen-year-old Asteria Locke is an orphan. Her father was a veteran of the Royal Spacefleet and a hero, but after his injuries he was given a large farm on a remote world. After raiders attack their farm and kill her father she vows to become a Spacefleet pilot herself and protect others from the raiders. She travels alone to the Academy where she learns to fly and fight and even makes a few friends, especially a boy named Dai, but she also makes some enemies. She also discovers a serious threat to the Fleet and the citizens it protects - one that involves her, the cybots that serve humans and what really happened all those years ago when her father saved his ship when it was under attack from an alien threat. She also has a piece of alien technology that seems to be giving her super-human powers.

This is a fast exciting read that I couldn't put down. In many ways it reminded me of Harry Potter with its school setting and a bad guy as slimy as Draco. And boy, can Brad Strickland write and exciting flight scenes! I especially liked the times Asteria and Dai learned to fly their one-person fighters. Woo - hang on!

Theodore Boone, Kid Lawer

Theodore Boone is thirteen-years-old and what he wants more than anything is to be a lawyer and a judge when he grows up. Both of his parents are lawyers and he hangs out either at their offices or the courthouse nearly every day after school. Theodore already knows a lot about the law and it is surprising how many kids and adults ask him for advice.

By accident Theodore discovers some very important information and evidence concerning a murder trial. He knows he needs to tell someone but he's also given his word not to endanger the source of his information.

If you enjoy watching lawyer and police shows, this is the mystery for you! John Grisham is a very famous adult author of legal mysteries and a lawyer himself. He really liked the Hardy Boys series when he was the age of Theodore Boone and this story reminds me of those books as well. He plans to write a series of books about Theodore.

Click here to read the first chapter of Theodore Boone online.

Click here to listen to the podcast of John Grisham talking about how and why he created Theodore Boone and his hopes for this new series. I especially liked the story he told about his daughter, who is a fifth grade teacher. All the fifth graders at her school received a copy of Theodore Boone three weeks before it was released!

Dark Life by Kat Falls

OK, you should not judge a book by its cover but the cover of Dark Life is amazing! You really need to pick this book up and check out its cover. I kept running my hand over it as I read it.

Fortunately, Dark Life is also a exciting and well-written science fiction story. And it is also non-stop action!

Fifteen year-old Ty was born under the sea, where his parents and other settlers live and farm on the sea floor. Global warming and over-population have made "topside" a hard place to live, with people crowded into huge multi-story apartment buildings. The Topsiders look down on those living the Dark Life, under the sea, but they need the food the settlers raise and catch on their farms.

It's dangerous under the sea but Ty, his sister Zoe, and the other kids born undersea feel right at home. There are rumors of special "gifts" the kids are developing, perhaps due to the deep water pressure. When Gemma, a girl from the Topside, arrives in search of her missing brother, she and Ty suddenly find themselves facing new and surprising dangers - not all of them native to the sea.

I really enjoyed this new world found under the sea. From the slang and technology, to the way the kids zip around on manta boards, to the wonders of ocean life - it was all believable and compelling. Besides all the action there are several surprising twists and revelations. There is also a satisfying conclusion although I hope we can return one day to more adventures of Ty, Gemma, and Zoe in the Dark Life.

Click here to watch a terrific video book trailer about Dark Life!

Click here to read the first chapter of Dark Life online!