Planet Tad by Tim Carvelle

If your kids like Wimpy Kid or Fly Guy books, they'll like this one too.

Illustrations pepper the text, which is broken down into diary-like entries like they'd be posted on Tad's new blog. Sometimes it's a log of events in Tad's life, sometimes they're just the random thoughts and ponders of a 12-year-old boy. But in a word: hilarious.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Completely engrossing from the start, this twisting, tangled story takes the reader through a maze where you're never sure of what the end prize will be: a body? the truth? or something else?

The story gives two sides of a marriage in trouble - through the "now" viewpoint of Nick, whose wife is missing, and through Amy's diary entries. From the start, everybody (including the reader) has to wonder just what's up with Amy's disappearance. Was she abducted? Or did Nick do something to her?

Each new page and piece of information changes the story. I can't say much without giving something away, so I'll just say that all the hype about this book is true: pick it up, and you won't put it down. I read it in two sittings!

Cold Cereal by Adam Rex

In this book full of people with crazy names, a bunch of unpopular kids band together to thwart world domination by a mean fairy queen. Through breakfast cereal. Seriously!


It's hilarious, and totally preposterous: There's a secret society, experimentation on unsuspecting kids, more magic than you can shake a stick at, and a rabbit-headed man. You really can't go wrong with an Adam Rex book!

The fantastic flying books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

by William Joyce

This title should be required reading for every library employee, everywhere.  It encompasses the myriad feelings we experience on a daily basis when surrounded by stories.  I love the idea that books get mixed up because they are tired of their own stories and want to be around a different type.  The metaphor for life is exceptionally well done.  The story was previously done as a short film that won an Academy Award in 2012.  The story behind the book is as extraordinary as the one upon the pages.

The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel

Ten years post-high school, Gavin's falling apart. And while a series of unfortunate events threw him off-kilter, ultimately it's the news he may have fathered a child in high school that truly unhinges his life.

In the stories of Gavin's high school friends, this novel presents a multi-faceted tale of failure and disappointment and happenstance. While the characters lost touch with one another as young adults, each is tied and connected to the others by an unseen chain of people and events.

The drama - and a sort of mystery - is revealed gradually through the book. Back and forth through time and across the five main character's lives, the reader gathers clues right up until the end. What happened back then? And what is happening now? Even the last page had me rewinding a bit.