The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

I read this book in a book club and there was one big thing I noticed.  Usually, people either really like this book or they loathe it (nobody in our group of girls ages 12-14 loved it).  The book follows the adventures of an 8 year old princess named Irene and a 12 year old miner boy named Curdie who both live on an imaginary mountain.  The mountain happens to also house goblins, in hollowed out caves inside of it.  While the princess and her nurse Lootie are out walking, they encounter one of the odd creatures and are saved by Curdie.  I can't tell you anymore without ruining the plot, but it involves goblins, stone clogs, an invisible thread, and Irene's grandmother.  From this description, one might wonder why not love the book, well, the plot isn't the whole picture.  You see Irene and Curdie, particularity Irene, aren't very believable characters.  Both of them are often too polite.  I have no objections to being polite, but Nobody is this polite.  Their politeness often gets annoying.  Also Irene, when not acting polite, often acts snotty and spoiled towards her nurse Lottie, who obviously loves her very much.  She also constantly cries.  That does get annoying.  But, if you can get over that, you will probably like this book.  I recommended The Princess and the Goblin for girls ages 6-12.  It is 262 pages long.  Happy Reading, NNY'er

Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster

The title of the book makes it sound like a book about bugs. DLL is not a book about bugs. The plot actually follow orphan Jeshua 'Judy' Abbot as she attends college. However, she's there by strange circumstances. When she graduated high school, Judy thought she was doomed to be sent off to a low paying, dead end job. Instead, a wealthy trustee of the orphanage in which she grew up agrees to send her through collage on two conditions.
1. She does not know his name
2. She sends him monthly letters
Judy readily agrees and soon gets caught up is college life; we learn about it through the letters she sends to the man she calls 'Daddy Long Legs', because although she doesn't know much about him, she knows he is tall. I personally loved getting caught of in Judy's world and I think many others would to. As learned when I bought the book, it is a classic, so a wide range of people would enjoy it, but I recommend it to girls 10+. Happy Reading, NNY'er

Countdown by Deborah Wiles

This book was probably not very well thought through. There were two big problems, but first I'll have to give you some background. There are many things I've noticed as a reader, the two you need to know now are these:
1. Kids often like to read about kids who are the same age or (more often) older then themselves
2. If you're younger then 10 you probably won't be reading very big (300+ Pgs.) books.
This book is about a young girl who is beginning 5th grade, who lived during The Cuban Missile Crisis. It is 400 pages long. As someone older than Franny, the protagonist, I found the story a bit young. But I know my younger sister (who is 10) would have been bored by it and probably never have finished the book. So really, unless you really, really like historical fiction, I can't recommend this book to anyone. Happy Reading anyway, NNY'er!

Cold Case by Julia Platt Leonard

Oz Keiller doesn't like having to go in early to take stock. But what Oz finds next sends bad morning into the 'worst morning ever' category. Oz finds a dead body. When his older brother is accused of murder, the day gets worse. The police aren't even looking for other suspects, so it's up to Oz and his friend Rusty to find the true killer. However, the path leads him to secrets about his dead father he never expected to find. I would recommend this book to kids ages 12-14. If you liked it you should read the Hardy Boys series by Franklin W. Dixon (boys) or the Nancy Drew series by Caroline Keene (girls). Happy Reading, NNYer!

The Year Money Grew on Trees by Aaron Hawkins

The Year Money Grew on Trees is an interesting book. It follows a boy named Jackson Jones. When his widowed neighbor convinces herself she has cancer, she becomes determined to find the 'true heir' to the apple orchard her husband once tended. Jackson signs a contract saying if he can earn over $8,000 he will own the orchard. Even with the help of his cousins, he doesn't realize that with 300 trees, $8,000 is nearly impossible. Because his neighbor gets the first $8,000 he earns, in order to pay his cousins he needs to make a lot. But can 6 apple novices pull it off? I recommend this book for kids 10-12 who are interested in farming. Otherwise, it might be dull. It was 293 pages long. Happy Reading, NNY'er!