Book Recommendations

In Coraline’s apartment are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen doors open and one only opens on to a brick wall until the day it leads to another world just like hers only different. There is another mother, another father and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go. Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight with all her wits and all the tools she can find if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself. The book is even better than the movie.

Mrs. Branyon

A group of genetically enhanced kids who can fly and have other unique talents are on the run from part-human, part-wolf predators called Erasers in this exciting thriller.  Max, 14, and her adopted family–Fang and Iggy, both 13, Nudge, 11, Gazzy, 8, and Angel, 6–were all created as experiments in a lab called the School.  Jeb, a sympathetic scientist, helped them escape and, since then, they’ve been living on their own.  The Erasers have orders to kill them so the world will never find out they exist. Max’s old childhood friend, Ari, now an Eraser leader, tracks them down, kidnaps Angel, and transports her back to the School to live like a lab rat again. The youngsters are forced to use their special talents to rescue her as they attempt to learn about their pasts and their destinies.

Mrs. Branyon

Parker and Matt decide to go camping one more time before the weather gets too cold. Matt discovers a corpse and is convinced that his mother’s boyfriend is somehow involved. While investigating the murder, a cocaine ring in which Parker’s mother and George are involved is discovered and a thug kidnaps everyone. Rescue comes when Parker’s dog corners the thug and Matt’s little sister pushes a doll carriage with a cocaine-packed doll through a Halloween parade into the police station.

Mrs. Branyon

New York City is the backdrop for this mystery novel with a message about the down-and-dirty business of inventing and marketing pop-cultural fads. Hunter Braque, 17, is part of a focus group that views advertisements for shoes. A product gets the nod if it is “skate,” but it is more important to point out what might be “uncool.” When the teen brings Jen to the next meeting, she spots uncool right away. Jen and Hunter quickly find themselves caught up in a strange turn of events when Mandy, Hunter’s boss, disappears. Their search for her begins in an abandoned building in Chinatown and leads to a wild party at the Museum of Natural History where people are viewing advertisements for a new shampoo.

Mrs. Branyon

“My name is Dovey Coe, and I reckon it don’t matter if you like me or not. I’m here to lay the record straight, to let you know them folks saying I done a terrible thing are liars…. I hated Parnell Caraway as much as the next person, but I didn’t kill him.”

Twelve-year-old Dovey has never had the slightest problem speaking her mind. But now, faced with a murder trial, she may just have to keep her mouth shut while the slick city lawyer takes care of things. It all started when the wealthy, vain, greedy Parnell takes a notion to win Dovey’s older sister, trying to convince her she’s too pretty to go off to college. But behind her back, he treats Dovey and her deaf brother Amos like dirt all summer long. Dovey gets in her jabs whenever she can–until the day she finds herself trapped in a back room with an irate, vengeful Parnell. Things don’t look too good for Dovey when she comes to and finds her enemy dead on the floor next to her.

Mrs. Branyon