The Wig in the Window

by Kristen Kittscher

Genre: Realistic fiction/mystery
Age group:10/11+

Sophie Young and Grace Yang are—almost—spies. Well, they're trying to be. They're erring on the old-fashioned side, and use walkie-talkies rather than smartphones, and they like to sneak out in the middle of the night to spy on any of their neighbors who might still have their lights on—you never know who in your neighborhood might be a serial killer. But they're not really serious about it. It never escalates to anything more than a fun game... until they peek inside the window of Charlotte Agford, the middle school guidance counselor.
Sophie and Grace always knew there was something up about Agford. What's with the weird wig, and her posse of students who are always ready to do her bidding, S.M.I.L.E.? When they see an unsettlingly red liquid spattered all over her kitchen counter, and overhear a suspicious phone call, they know something's up. The police dismiss it after they find evidence to show that it was just beet juice, Sophie and Grace think there's more to it, especially when a mysterious blue car and a strange man with a unibrow show up. There's more to Agford than meets the eye... And it's up to Young & Yang to figure out what's going on.

This was a really great read. It was entertaining, and kept me completely on my toes (not literally). I think it's an excellent mystery book. Usually when I read mystery books, every time I get a new clue I guess who the criminal really is, and then at the end I see if any of my guesses were right. This book has so many red herrings that partway through the book I just gave up trying to figure out who was the bad guy. It's not confusing, though. It's just really, really hard to point fingers because there are multiple situations which would work. Besides the main plot, where Sophie & Grace are trying to solve the mystery of Charlotte Agford, there are also some friendship problems which makes it more relatable (and slightly more believable) for middle-grade readers. This book is intense, exciting, and sometimes even scary, and the story is not only a great idea, it's written really well. My only problem is the cover: it doesn't really fit the characters the way they're described in the book. But that's just a cover.

Ender's Game

by Orson Scott Card

Genre: Science fiction
Age group: 11-12+

It's hundreds of years into the future, and aliens, buggers, have attacked Earth multiple times... Earth's resources are running out and her army commanders are running out of options. The buggers are strong, and seem to share one mind—they communicate almost instantaneously. It will be hard for the humans to beat them. They've taken to breeding military geniuses to defeat the aliens, and are waiting for the one who will end the buggers once and for all...
And they want Ender Wiggin, a boy of only six. They want him to skip ahead to battle school and become the one they want. He's stronger than his compassionate sister Valentine and more composed than his psychopath brother Peter—the government believes he is the one. And Ender is going to try to be that.
Battle school isn't easy for Ender, but he excels in everything he does. Colonel Graff, the principal of battle school, has taken a shine to Ender, and he gets promoted and promoted. But when he faces the Simulation, a series of games to help him train and get better at fighting, he is sometimes forced to do things he doesn't want to do. As Ender is pushed further and further into this new world of competition, danger and desperation, he tries to hold the pressure... But little does he know, the worst is yet to come.

As I usually do, I really liked this book. Firstly, the end is so surprising. I was totally not expecting what happened to happen. It works so much better than if the end part was just cut off and everything was happy ever after. The end goes deeper than that. Some people might say this book is a giant cliche, what with the aliens attacking and all that. IT ISN'T. Ender's Game still focuses on saving the world, but it's also about human nature. Through the action and fight scenes, we get to see inside Ender's head and watch as he's handling the pressure in the only way he knows how. Sure, this book may not be as action-packed as other books, but that doesn't make it boring. It just means that it goes deeper than the superficial violence and romance. (There isn't really much romantic stuff in Ender's Game, though.) This could be considered a book about aliens and exploding starships—or it could be considered a book about ethics and human nature. It's really up to you.

Revolver

by Marcus Sedgwick

Genre: Historical fiction
Age group: 11+

Sig was a normal boy in Alaska... that is, until his father, Einar, drove across the frozen lake outside their house and froze to death. And to make things even more unusual, a man called Wolff came to Sig's house looking for Einar's gold... Einar's gold that Sig knows nothing about. But even though Wolff knows that Sig has no clue where this gold is, he is determined to stay until Sig's stepmother and sister return home from a trip, and maybe even past then. Wolff is dangerous, and there's nothing Sig can do about him. Except... there's a revolver in the pantry. If Sig could get that gun, he could win. He could get rid of Wolff. Can he—or will he—do it? Or will his memories of his dead pacifist mother get the better of him?

This book skipped back and forth between the present (actually the early 1900s in Alaska) and the past (before the early 1900s in Europe). The present is told from Sig's point of view and the past from his father's. Admittedly, getting both of these points of view gives you a lot of information that you otherwise wouldn't get and need to know in order to understand the story. However, it's slightly confusing the way it switches. I was reading and suddenly it switched from present to past. I was really confused and had to go back and start over, using a higher level of concentration than usual. However, I got used to it after maybe 50 pages, and then the story started to get more interesting. It's a little sparse, and Marcus Sedgwick does not waste words on beautiful description, but that works in this case because Alaska is also sparse. Not all stories are cut out for vivid imagery. This is not one of my favorite books and I did not love it, but it wasn't bad. It's an interesting type of mystery/historical fiction that makes you wonder who really is the bad guy.

Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes

by Jonathan Auxier

Genre: Fantasy
Age group: 10+

Today, there aren't many blind thieves. But there was a time when there were. Peter Nimble was the best of them all—an orphan, trained to be a thief by his cruel master who forced him to steal jewelry for him, who one day met a haberdasher and stole a box from him. He, naturally, opens the box, and finds inside three pairs of eggs that when cracked reveal—three pairs of eyes. But they aren't normal eyes. There is a pair of gold, a pair of onyx, and a pair of emerald. When he tries the gold pair, he is suddenly transported to another place in another time and finds himself floating in the ocean, next to a ship. He is lifted aboard, and meets Sir Tode, a knight who has been turned into an unfortunate mix between cat and horse. He also meets the haberdasher, who explains to him the eyes and tells him their purpose: to help Peter as he embarks on a trip to discover his one and only destiny.
This book was pretty good. The writing sounds oldish—no, that's a bad way to put it. It sounds not modern, it sounds like it was written by, for example, Merlin. YES, that's what it is. It sounds like it was written by Merlin or some other famous wizard from way-back-when. That's not a bad thing. It's the right style of writing for this book; I think any other way would ruin certain parts of it. It makes the book more whimsical. I also liked how there are so many new obstacles popping up all the time—it adds a lot of excitement. Unfortunately, the fact that so many obstacles are popping up all the time can be a bit overwhelming and feels almost naive, and at times I felt as if this book was written by my 5th grader friend. However, it's a really interesting story, and is carried off pretty well. Maybe it's not as well-written as some of the other books of this genre, but it's certainly a great and entertaining read.