Lola Levine Drama Queen by Monica Brown. Little Brown and Company, 2016. 88 pages

Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede.Magic Carpet Books-Harcourt, 1990, 212 pages

 Two Strong Female characters- A Princess and A Dragon. High Fantasy with Fairy Tale elements. So well written it feels like an adult book-- in the vein of Rowan of Rin or Ranger's Apprentice. Loved it.

-- chosen for Bookclub-- Not sure if it is young encough!

If I Stay by Gayle Forman. Speak, 2002, 210 Pages.

Teen Age Love Story. Kill Me Now

The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl. Alfred A. Knopf, 1978, 56 pages

So Roald Dahl--my new favorite author-- if you love funny, irreverent, violent, a little scary, smart books for kids. Quirky Books for Quirky Kids. The ending, as satisfying as La Mariquita Malhumorada, is a bonus.

Princess in Black by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale. Candlewick Press, 2014, 90 pages

 Well respected authors are trying their hand at Early Chapters- and coming up with winners. Like Mo Willems and Kate DiCamillo, the Hales include quality writing and an appealing storyline with color pictures and a larger format.
-- A perfect princess constraining against the limits of the princess stereotypes by day-- a masked ninja fighting for justice (sort of) by night! Who could resist?

Sunny Side Up by Jennifer Holm.

Late 70s, summer vacation and Sunny is sent to visit her Grandfather in Florida. She has visions of traveling with her best friend and going to Disneyworld, the beach, having a vacationy fun time..Instead she finds herself alone with a nice old man who lives in a retirement community. Fun is following him around on his errands, eating dinner at a geriatric buffet at 4:30 pm, and hanging out with his lady friends who make crotcheted Barbie toilet paper covers. Sunny does make friends and has a revelation that she was sent to Florida so her parents could deal with her drug addicted older brother.

Looking for Alaska by John Green. Dutton, 2005. 221 pages.

John Green's first novel. Printz Award. My first John Green book. It is fiction, not autobiographical, but he really did live in Florida and he really did go to boarding school in Alabama and a student really did die while he was a student there. A very good book.