The Danger Gang and the Pirates of Borneo!

Bramucci, Stephen. The Danger Gang and the Pirates of Borneo! 2017. 378p. ISBN 978-1-61963-692-7. Available at FIC BRA on the library shelves.

Eleven-year-old Ronald Zupan’s parents are adventurers who have travelled the world in search of artefacts and other precious items. On their long trips away, they entrust Ronald’s wellbeing to Thomas Halladay, their butler, whom Ronald calls Jeeves because all good butlers should bear that name. They have always promised to be back for his birthday, however, no matter where in the world or how busy they are. But today, on his twelfth birthday, Ronald discovers with stupefaction that his parents are, in fact, not here. Something bad must have befallen them.

When the doorbell rings and men from the FIB, the Foreign Item Battalion, begin securing the premises, Ronald knows something bad has happened for sure, for the FIB works for the Liars’ Club, the most cutthroat and outlandish group of villains ever to exist. Led by Zeetan Z, the worst of the worst, this group must be involved with his parents’ disappearance.

Escaping the Zupan mansion with Jeeves and with Charlie, his pet king cobra, who is fond of biting Jeeves, Ronald makes his way to the only ally he can think of recruiting for a daring-do adventure of rescuing his parents at the last scene where they were spotted, Borneo. He goes to Julianne Sato’s house. She is the sword fighter who defeated him at the last sword tournament, preventing him from acquiring his third annual trophy in a row. She readily agrees to help him rescue his parents, though with the condition that she is a full partner in this adventure and not a sidekick like Jeeves and Charlie.

The four of them soon find themselves on a Zupan plane heading to Borneo, where they will face untold adventures, all with the hope that Ronald’s parents are still alive. Can this merry band manage to evade the obstacles and enemies in their path before it is too late?

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 327p. 665 mins. Available both at FIC TWA the library shelves as an eBook and an audiobook from Overdrive.

Huckleberry Finn enjoys experiencing adventures with Tom Sawyer, because he never knows what to expect. That’s also true of his father, the town drunk who is always looking for easy money. In their prior adventure together, Huck and Tom had earned the significant sum of $6,000 each. Huck’s money has been entrusted with the local judge, and he himself has been placed in the custody of the widow Douglas for the purpose of civilizing him.

Sprung from this dreary existence of Church and learning by Tom, Huck joins his merry gang and spends some time before being captured by his alcoholic father. Taken to a remote cabin until he gets the money for his dad, Huck manages to escape and fakes his own death. He lands on an island in the Mississippi River, only to stumble upon Jim, old slave to widow Douglas. As a runaway slave, Jim can expect punishment or death if he’s caught.

Huck and Jim soon engineer a plan. They will go down the river until the Ohio, then travel northeast until Jim reaches a free state. That morning, though, Huck and Jim notice a boat on the river using dynamite. They are looking for his body! Huck and Jim head down the river, and thus begins a series of adventures that will sorely try Huck and Jim, including escaping hustlers, springing Jim free from prison, bad weather, and memorable encounters as they head down the river.

A classic of American literature, Huck Finn remains controversial for its language use but reflects the era in which it was written. It also proves that despite more than 150 years between the time the book takes place and today, boys will continue to be boys!

Nathan

Ouriou, Susan. Nathan. 2017. 151p. ISBN 978-0-88995-547-9. Available at FIC OUR on the library shelves.

Nathan’s life is changing. Grampa lost his wife last year to a heart attack, and his Alzheimer’s has progressed enough that he can’t live on his own anymore. Adam, the local bully, keeps on trying to hurt Nathan, and even steals his basketball. And, at ten, Nathan is once again heading back to school in the fall without a friend.

Despite his Alzheimer’s, Grampa brings to Nathan a connection to a heritage he didn’t know he had: Grampa’s mother was a member of the First Nations, but as an orphan she was placed in the Canadian residential school system where her culture and language were systematically eliminated. Kids’ heads were shaved, they couldn’t speak their language, and they were transported hundreds of miles away from home so they could never see their families. Nathan didn’t know any of this, and is happy to begin discovering where he came from.

Nathan also makes a new friend, who has just moved in the neighborhood. Max and Nathan have many things in common, one of which is being bullied by Adam who immediately begins chasing Max the first time he sees him. Max is also Jewish, and his people experienced the Holocaust. In a sense, both Nathan and Max’s ancestors suffered at the hands of people bent on exterminating them.

With Adam lurking and with Grampa getting worse, can Nathan learn enough about himself to develop the courage to stand up and be his own person?

The Magnificent Flying Baron Estate

Bower, Eric. The Magnificent Flying Baron Estate. 2017. 230p. ISBN 978-1-944995-13-3. Available at FIC BOW on the library shelves.

In 1891, every day is a surprise when your parents are inventors, and today is not any different for Waldo Baron, also known as W.B. Plagued with recurring dreams of his father inhabiting the body of a squirrel following a horrific experiment, W.B. discovers that his parents, McLaron, or P, and Sharon, or M, have transformed their residence, the Baron Estate, into a flying contraption capable of traveling cross-country. M and P are really excited and reveal that they plan on entering Hortense’s Tooth Power’s race, a flying competition across the country where participants will travel to exotic locales to gather specific items. The winner will earn $500, and P and M plan on using these funds to hire an assistant.

Poor W.B., all he wanted to do today was attend Sheriff Hoyt Graham and his deputy’s show of stunts and tricks in Pitchfork, but of course they’re no longer in Pitchfork as the house is already flying to Chicago, where the contest will start. Sheriff Graham is the best sheriff of the Arizona territory, and W.B. has read all of his books, and especially loves the tale about how Graham captured the notorious bandit Benedict Blackwood. Not only will he miss Sheriff Graham, but now he’s stuck on the Baron Estate along with Aunt Dorcas, who positively does not like flying!

In Chicago W.B. explores the city and meets Shorty, a no-nonsense girl who provides him with lunch. Upon returning to the Estate, he discovers that there’s a new passenger: Rose Blackwood, sister of Benedict. Rose is kidnapping P, M, and W.B. along with the Baron Estate. She plans on winning the race, then using the proceeds to free her notorious brother from jail. Unlike the rest of the Blackwood family, however, Rose turns out not to be as bloodthirsty nor ruthless.

As the kidnapper and her victims travel around the country pursued by other inventors also intent on winning, W.B. finds himself slowly falling in love with Rose, but continues to question her motives. Can W.B. help Rose accomplish her goal of truly being a member of a family?

Filled with steampunk inventions and laugh out loud humor, W.B.’s adventures and a cast of incredible characters will most assuredly entertain the reader. For a look at a girl’s adventure in the steampunk universe, consider Etiquette & Espionage. For a more serious look at steampunk war, take a look at Leviathan.

Jake the Fake Keeps it Real

Robinson, Craig and Adam Mansbach. Jake the Fake Keeps it Real. 2017. 135p. 107 mins. ISBN 978-0-553-52351-5. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Jake is thrilled to have been accepted into the Music and Art Academy for the gifted and talented, a magnet middle and high school in his district that attracts the best and brightest musicians, artists, and creative students in the area. For his audition, he relentlessly practiced “Song for my Father” and performed it flawlessly. The only problem? Jake can’t play anything else. He can’t improvise on the piano. He can’t even read the notes. In fact, Jake is a complete fraud. He doesn’t belong in this school, since he believes he has no talent whatsoever. His sister, Lisa, is now a senior at the Music and Art Academy, and Jake plans on getting rides from Pierre, Lisa’s boyfriend. Lisa is the perfect daughter, perfect girlfriend, and perfect person. Like a unicorn, she’s one of a kind and it’s hard for Jake to follow in her footsteps.

Now that he’s in, however, Jake has a few weeks to figure out what his talent is before the school’s talent show exposes him as the untalented person he thinks he is. With his new friends Azure and the other students in Mr. Allen’s homeroom, Jake plans on re-inventing himself and figuring out what to do before the show. Should he perform the only song he knows again, or will Jake be able to joke his way out of this predicament?

Hilariously written with funny illustrations to boot, this short book will be appreciated by fans of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

Night Wings

Bruchac, Joseph. Night Wings. 2009. 194p. ISBN 978-0-06-112318-4. Available at FIC BRU on the library shelves.

When thirteen-year-old Paul’s mother, a U.S. army soldier, ships out to Iraq to join her military husband, Paul has to go live with his Abenaki grandfather, Peter. Once a Marine himself, Peter is steeped in the ways of the Abenaki and knows the White Mountains of New Hampshire like the back of his hands. A man of few words, grandpa Peter has taught Paul how to respect and survive the forest, and how to live the ways his ancestors did.

Shortly after his arrival in the White Mountains, Paul is surprised to receive the visit of two goons. One of them introduces himself as Darby Field the fourth, creator and spokesperson for the Forbidden Mysteries series on television. He asks Peter if he has changed his mind about leading him on an expedition in the mountains to discover Pmola’s treasure. An Abenaki legend, Pmola appears as a large black bird with eyes that resemble very bright red lights that protects the mountains. Peter replies that he in fact did not. Field departs the property, but returns in the night and kidnaps Peter.

Paul, who was under the house at the time, looking for a piece of plywood, escaped but is captured by Field and his crew of three. The party then heads deep inside the White Mountains and hide the van before beginning the long trek to Pmola’s lair. With their lives very much at risk, Paul must follow grandpa Peter’s advice learned over many years to survive a powerful enemy and prevent Field from acquiring Pmola’s treasure. Will the way of the ancients be enough to help him?

Set in New Hampshire, this book combines local legends and history with a character very much in touch with nature, himself, and his cultural heritage. A short read, fans of action will enjoy the fast-pace of Night Wings.

The Unicorn in the Barn

Ogburn, Jacqueline. The Unicorn in the Barn. 2017. 304p. ISBN 978-0-544-76112-4. Available at FIC OGB on the library shelves.

The Harper family has struggled financially since Eric’s grandmother fell ill. They had to sell her farm to a veterinarian, Dr. Brancusi, and her daughter, Allegra while grandmother moved in with Eric, his father and his brother Steve. Then grandmother became ill enough that she had to move to a nursing home for specialized care. Eric and his family visit her every weekend. Dr. Brancusi, meanwhile, has transformed the farmhouse into an animal hospital.

Eric meets Allegra when she begins posting “no trespassing signs” around their new property. When Eric points out that Allegra is herself trespassing by his treehouse and not putting signs up in the right place, she gets mad at him. Eric spends some time in his treehouse, but he falls asleep. When he awakens, it is dark. He climbs down and heads home, but then he spots a white deer in the woods, whiter than snow. Curious, he follows it around and realizes that it’s a unicorn, and she’s heading straight for the neighbors’ barn. Dr. Brancusi is caring for the unicorn, who suffers from an infected hoof. Pregnant with twins, Dr B. and Allegra are caring for it.

Despite Allegra’s misgiving, Dr. B. agrees to let Eric help with the caring for Moonpearl. Eric realizes that the animal hospital cares not only for regular animals, but for magical animals as well, such as a Cheshire cat, a goose which hatches golden eggs, and even a squonk. The unicorn possesses the ability to heal, but every time it does so it loses some vitality. With his grandmother dying, Eric is confronted with a tough choice. Should he try to save his grandmother even if it may cost the unicorn her soon-to-be born babies? Faced with this tough decision based on a secret, Eric cannot turn to anyone for help, except for Allegra. The two of them don’t get along, but maybe it’s time to end this conflict.

The Unicorn in the Barn is a well-crafted tale of caring, of love and of death. It’s not about the magic, it’s about what we do to help each other.

The Unlikely Hero of Room 13 B

Toten, Teresa. The Unlikely Hero of Room 13 B. 2013. 272p. ISBN 9780385678346. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Adam Ross has problems. Lots of them. So many of them, in fact, that he meets with a support group once a week. The other kids in the group, like him, are dealing with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and for each one it manifests in different ways. For Adam, it’s crossing thresholds, having to count series of odd numbers, and performing actions in the same way every time. Adam’s home life is also hard. His mother and father divorced years ago, and his mother also suffers from mental health issues but Adam’s not sure how to help her. His father remarried, and he and his new wife have a son, Wendel but also known as Sweetie, who has panic attacks and needs his big brother to help him. Adam’s plate is full, and just making it through one day is tough enough.

That’s when Robyn joins his group. He is as drawn to her as a moth is to a flame, and it becomes his goal in life to protect her. His OCD can’t let him enjoy this growing relationship, however, and he is completely focused on what it would feel like to kiss her. Not that a girl like that could ever fall in love with a guy like him. He can’t even imagine what a normal relationship would feel like. The group, under the leadership of their therapist, adopts a superhero persona, and suddenly Adam becomes Batman, while Robyn is, well, Robin. As Adam learns to navigate a complicated relationship along with the daily challenges that being severely OCD present, he must also deal with the threatening letters his mother is receiving and the hoarding that’s turning their house into a dump. Can Robyn truly be the anchor that helps him get better? Can Batman really save Robyn? More importantly, can Batman save himself?

The Fever Code

Dashner, James. The Fever Code. Book 0.6 of the Maze Runners series. 2016. 347p. ISBN 9780553513097. Available at FIC DAS on the library shelves.

The story told in The Kill Order set up the flares and the history behind the Maze Runner, and introduces DeeDee, who becomes Teresa. In The Fever Code, a young boy named Stephen is captured by soldiers of W.I.C.K.E.D. and taken to a facility in remote Alaska. There he is inflicted severe physical pain until he accepts his new name of Thomas. As Thomas grows up he is introduced to Theresa, a girl of about his own age. Both of them are being carefully studied by W.I.C.K.E.D. scientists who are determined to discover how the flare affects the brain and why some people, like Thomas and Teresa, are immune.

As the two grow up, they progressively become more involved in planning the Maze, a large labyrinth that will be filled with other children so that scientists can study them as well. These kids are already at the facility, and Thomas and Teresa manage to sneak away to meet Newt, Minho, Alby and Chuck. A friendship emerges, but must be concealed. A plan is devised. The group will attempt to escape from the facility, despite the odds of being captured or harmed by the Cranks outside.

When the attempt fails, Minho is severely punished. As teens get sent to the Maze, Thomas grows increasingly weary at W.I.C.K.E.D.’s attempts in solving the flares. Their methods are draconians and harsh, and as teenagers begin to die, Thomas must decide whether his loyalties lie with his friends or with the organization that captured him these many years ago.

The Vampire Prince

Shan, Darren. The Vampire Prince. Book 6 of the Cirque du Freak series. 2004. 197p. ISBN 9780316602747. Available at FIC SHA on the library shelves.

In Trials of Death, Darren barely escaped with his life down the underground river where the vampire bodies are disposed of after their death. He had witnessed the death of a good friend, betrayed by another friend. Now, washed ashore after being battered during his river ride, Darren must rest and regain his strength. Saved by the wolves he met on his way to Vampire Mountain, he is nursed back to life by a she-wolf.

The Vampaneze still dwell in the heart of Vampire Mountain, however, and soon Darren must decide what to do. Does he return to the vampires and let them know about the traitor in their midst and the threat posed by their enemy, or does he save himself? When he spots Mr. Crepsley searching for him, he is overjoyed, only to realize that the elder vampire is accompanied by the traitor and his acolytes.

Then and there Darren makes his decision. He will head back to the mountain and warn them, to the peril of his own life. Faced with certain death, will Darren conduct himself with honor?

Texas Fridays: San Antonio

Moussavi, Sam. Texas Fridays: San Antonio. 2017. 206p. ISBN 978-1-68076-496-3. Available at FIC MOU on the library shelves.

James Baker’s passion is football. He lives and dreams football, but up to his high school senior year he was more of a bench warmer than a player. He spent most of the summer getting ready for football season, disrupting his routine of taking a foreign trip with his professor father, who lives in California. Baker, as he likes to be known, worked out, exercised, and drilled constantly, much to the chagrin of his single mother, also a professor currently teaching at the University of Texas in San Antonio.

The hard work has paid off, and Baker is ready to join the team as a starter. His coaches notice his no-nonsense attitude and his work ethics, and during the last intra-squad scrimmage of the training season he is assigned the starting receiver position. During one of the plays, Baker effortlessly catches the ball but loses sight of the defending player and the two of them collide, helmet to helmet. Baker sees stars, his ears are ringing, and he feels nauseous. The medical staff determines that he does not have a concussion, but he is pulled from the game nonetheless. The next morning, Baker experiences symptoms of dizziness and nausea, but he goes back to bed, and it passes. Informed by the medical staff on the team that he needs to advocate for himself if he is hurt, he decides not to report his symptoms so as to not lose his starter position.

Spending Sunday on campus with his mother, Baker meets Tiffany, a freshman at UT-SA and a former all-star high school basketball player. Tiffany explains to him that she got injured one too many times and abandoned basketball because her body simply could not keep up. To her, education is more important than playing a sport she most likely will never make a living at. Baker invites him to his Friday lights debut, and she eagerly accepts to join him.

With everything on the line, Baker is determined to remain a starter. Untreated concussions, however, can be dangerously lethal. What is more important for Baker, being a starting receiver for his high school team, or his health and potentially his life?

Baker is a strong character with conflicted views on his own health. His identity is completely wrapped up in being a football player, but Tiffany’s support shows him there is another way. The game itself is well described and the reader feels in the middle of the action. And unlike other sports books, Texas Fridays: San Antonio does not cover the entire season, but focuses on three specific games and the consequences of Baker’s decisions. Fans of Gutless will like this book. Consider checking out Dairy Queen and Playing with the Boys if you enjoy football stories.

Across Five Aprils

Hunt, Irene. Across Five Aprils. 2011. 224p. 347 mins. ISBN 9780792787068. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

War tends to split families, and the Civil War is no exception. Though Illinois is firmly in the Union camp, the southern tier of the state harbors Confederate sympathies. Large families often find themselves divided by the issues of state rights and slavery. The Creighton family is one such group. Farmers on what was once the frontier, the Creighton family survives with everyone contributing. But while Matt Creighton and his sons John and Tom support the Union, Bill, Jethro’s favorite, supports the South, causing tensions at home.

When war finally breaks in April 1861, Jethro is at first thrilled. But the division within the Creightons soon affects them, as John and Tom join the federal army, while Bill departs to fight for the Confederacy. Jethro, his sister Jenny, and his parents follow the war through newspaper articles, and at first the news is dire. Union forces are defeated in several engagements. Jethro’s teacher at school, Shadrach Yale, helps Jethro understands the battles and what is at stake. In love with young Jenny, Shadrach requests her hand in marriage before he leaves to join the Union, but Matt Creighton refuses, deeming his daughter too young at fourteen.

Soon John, who is married with children, begins to send letters from the front. Matt Creighton suffers a heart attack and becomes partially paralysed. Now it is up to Jethro to run the family farm. Meanwhile, Bill’s sympathies for the South have angered some of the locals, who take it out on the Creighton by burning their barn and poisoning their well. As the conflict deepens, and as brothers fight brothers, the Creighton family is torn asunder, and Jethro realizes that things will never go back to how they were before the war. When Tom is killed in combat, Jethro fears that his brother Bill could have fired the shot that killed him.

As more family members get shot, desert, or become just plain tired of the war, Jethro looks forward to a time when the war will end, for surely all wars eventually conclude. Sadly, the end of the Civil War does not bring the relief that Jethro was looking for. However, over the past five Aprils Jethro discovers that pain and sorrow, just like war, eventually end.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid #7: The Third Wheel

Kinney, Jeff. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #7: The Third Wheel. Book 7 of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. 2012. 217p. ISBN 978-1-4197-0584-7. Available at FIC KIN on the library shelves.

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, Greg Heffley is hoping to secure a date to the dance. Being in middle school, however, is tough, and it is hard to attract the ladies without a trick up your sleeve. Greg reviews his life as a child to discover insights on how he should approach this problem. His uncle Gary, who’s a dead beat, suggests that Greg should use a wingman to help him in his quest. That’s perfect. Greg can use his best friend, Rowley, to help him secure a date, and, if there is time afterwards, he can help Rowley get his own date.

When Abigail’s date, Michael, cancels on her, Greg finds the opening he’s been waiting for. He asks her out, and she agrees to go as a group with Greg and Rowley. With the big night coming, Greg has a lot of plans. They’ll go out to dinner at a fancy restaurant, and Abigail will clearly see that Greg is the man of her dreams.

Unfortunately, one night can be a long time in a middle schooler’s life, and Greg is about to discover that you can’t buy love, even if you buy an expensive meal at a restaurant.

It’s Not Me, It’s You

Strohm Stephanie Kate. It’s Not Me, It’s You. 2016. 288p. ISBN 9780545952583. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Avery Dennis is the social queen of her school. For as long as she can remember, she’s never been single. Not even in kindergarten. But with less than a week to go before prom, Avery finds herself unexpectedly single when Luke breaks up with her. This breakup takes place in public and suddenly Avery is the subject of everyone’s conversation at her small school. What will she do? It would be unthinkable to go to the prom alone.

At the same time, Avery is assigned an oral history project she must complete to graduate. Clever girl that she is, she decides to research her history of dating by interviewing each and every boy she dated to see how the relationship evolved and how it ended, to help her draw conclusions about why Luke dumped her. In this endeavor, she will be assisted by her best friend Coco, whom she has known since before her birth, and by Hutch, the smartest guy in her school and her lab partner for the last four years.

As Avery starts to question every boy she has ever dated, and many of the girls, an unflattering but strong portrait of the teen emerges. And as she pursues her goal of talking to everyone involved in her dating life, she begins to discover patterns and hints that the boy she should have been dating all along has been closer than she ever thought.

Told in the form of a series of interviews and interjections by Avery, the editor of the oral history project, the reader is able to explore Avery’s dating scene and the stereotypical guys and girls that surround her, from the dumb jock to the super-smart budding scientist with a few patents already to his name to the mean girl and her cronies. Absolutely hilarious, the story redeems Avery’s perceived shallowness and make her a better person in the end. Will it be enough for her to find a date just in time for prom?

King Dork

Portman, Frank. King Dork. 2006. 344p. ISBN 0-385-73291-0. Available at FIC POR on the library shelves.

Sophomore Tom Henderson refers to himself as King Dork, the dorkiest person at his school. For the last several years, Tom has had a hard life. His father, who worked for the police department, died in a hit and run years ago. His mother never recovered, and even though she remarried (to a man named Tom), she’s not very present in her children’s life. His little sister Amanda hates Tom (the new husband, nor her brother, although that is still up for debate). Tom doesn’t have many friends, and he spends most of his time with Sam Hellerman, a fellow dork. The two of them have been talking about forming a band for years, but they don’t have instruments so that’s a problem.

They are picked on at school, both by the hateful girls and the depraved jocks as well as by Mr. Teone, the assistant principal responsible for freshmen and sophomores. Tom and Sam do not have girlfriends, and are unlikely to ever find any. In brief, their lives are the stereotypical maladjusted teenager suffering from angst and a propensity for prescription medication (in Sam’s case). So, the beginning of their sophomore year is guaranteed to be terrible, with books like Siddhartha. And it is, when for the second year in a row they are assigned The Catcher in the Rye to read. Tom really hates the Catcher in the Rye, not necessarily because of the story but because all of the adults consider it a rite of passage and apparently have drunk the Holden Caulfield kool-aid.

But when Tom discovers his father’s book collection, everything changes. There are several notes, underlined passages, and secret codes that seem to indicate that his father and a character named Tit, were involved in something big. Was his father actually murdered? Did he commit suicide? Who is Tit? Tom will take steps to investigate this mystery but by doing so will find himself hopelessly entangled with the Hillmont High School community. Who knows, he might even get a girlfriend out of this terrible year.

Fans of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl will thoroughly enjoy Tom’s outlook on life and the coarse language and vulgar thoughts that populate his mind. This book doesn’t mince words but is also hilariously funny. Want to experience rock and roll, teen angst and sex, and discover a mystery at the same time? King Dork is the book for you.

Wink Poppy Midnight

Tucholke, April Genevieve. Wink Poppy Midnight. Dial Books. 2016. 256p. ISBN 978-0803740488. Available at FIC TUC on the library shelves.

Poppy was Midnight’s first love. But Poppy did not love Midnight. Not then, when they first met and not now, when their relationship has gotten to the breaking point. Poppy doesn’t love anyone. She is toxic, a beautiful girl but the biggest bully in their little town, ruling over a group of vicious boys and girls known as the Yellows. Still, Midnight loved her, despite all that. But not anymore. Now he only wants to get as far away from her as possible. But like a virulent disease, Poppy keeps coming back and messing with him.

So when Midnight and his father move to a house outside of town, he hopes that the distance will be enough to keep Poppy and her lackeys away. Across the gravel road from their new house is the Bell household, led by a single mother with so many kids it’s impossible to get an accurate count. Wink is the second eldest Bell, and she is everything Poppy is not: red head, quiet, in tune with her environment, a loner. And she seems very much interested in Midnight. Until Poppy shows up, ready to ruin this new relationship. Can Midnight stop Poppy before it’s too late?