Staff Pick Empanadas

It's been a little bit since the last report of our staff's favorite chapter book choices, but we've been reading some great books in the meantime! Here are some choice delicacies, old and new...


The Island of the Aunts by Eva Ibbotson
Bookseller: Bindy
Genre: fantasy, animal fiction, iconography
Suggested reading level: age 9 and up

Reminiscent of Lewis and Narnia, but set in a more contemporary and nautical place, children are coerced into inhabiting an island to help aging sisters care for mythological sea creatures. It soon becomes clear that the survival of the world depends on how they ensure the survival of these animals.

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Bookseller: Michelle
Genre: sports/school story
Suggested reading level: age 12 and up

This is my favorite book for sporty girls - because it's about more than a girl going out for her school's football team. There's rivalry and romance, a complicated family dynamic, a friend with a secret, and a dairy farm to run, too. D.J., a quietly, sarcastic tomboy, is among my all-time favorite characters.
Look for the sequel, The Off-Season, and in September, the final installment, Front and Center (I for one am excited!)


The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Bookseller: Katie
Genre: mystery with a mathematic focus
Suggested reading level: age 15 and up

The same traits that make Christopher "different" and "difficult" (like the way he relates better to animals than people, and the way he takes comfort in facts, but hates to be touched) make him the only person who can crack the case when Wellington, his neighbor's poodle, is murdered.


Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman
Bookseller: Michelle
Genre: fantasy, for fans of Alanna, Dealing with Dragons
Suggested reading level: age 12 and up

During political upheaval in the Empire, Eon, a Dragoneye apprentice-in-training, revives the long-disappeared Mirror Dragon. But his secret - Eon is really Eona, a girl - threatens everything. Full of action and intrigue, stick with this book's slow start, it will pull you along to its intense, fiery end!


The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh
Bookseller: Rachel
Genre: ghost story, mystery
Suggested reading level: age 9 and up

To Jack, New York City holds a mythical quality - it's the city where his mother lived, and where she lied eight years ago. When his father sends Jack to see a doctor there, he sees his chance to found out what happened to his mother - with a little help from Euri, a ghost he meets in Grand Central.