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As a sixth grader, Cole Randolph knows he's too old for dressing up and trick-or-treating.  But checking out a creepy haunted house created by a special effects guy with Hollywood experience?  He's all in.  Especially when Jenna Hunt agrees to tag along with him and his best friend, Dalton.  Even if the spook house is totally lame, it will be worth it to hang out with the prettiest girl in school.

What Cole is expecting to be a mildly exciting Halloween night soon turns into the greatest, most terrifying adventure of his life.  Alien slave traders lurk in the recesses of the house's basement, kidnapping kids and forcing them through a sinister-looking manhole.  Although Cole manages to elude capture, Jenna and Dalton do not.  Cole knows he has to go after his friends.  He may, in fact, be their only hope.  

Through the manhole, Cole discovers a strange, mysterious land called the Outskirts.  It's a weird, in-between place full of odd, impossible things.  In this hostile place, it's only a matter of time before Cole is caught.  Sold away to a band of sky raiders, Cole is separated from the other kidnapped children.  While he performs his dangerous new duties as a scout for the aerial pirates, who pillage floating castles for anything worth salvaging, Cole searches for a way to escape.  The death toll among scouts being extremely high, he knows he doesn't have much time to rescue himself and his friends.  But how will he get to them?  And how will they all get back to their own world?  Is it even possible?  Or will they be forever trapped, forever slaves, forever imprisoned in a place which no one else knows exists?  

When it comes to creating exciting, imaginative middle grade fiction, Brandon Mull knows what he's doing.  Sky Raiders, the first book in his Five Kingdoms series, is an excellent case in point.  The book starts with a bang and sprints onward from there.  With death-defying challenges around every corner (cloud?), its hero is constantly put to the test.  Surviving them requires courage, cunning, and lots of quick maneuvering.  Cole's exploits make for just the kind of page-turning action/adventure middle graders crave.  The fact that they take place in a unique and vivid setting make them all the more compelling.  Young (and not so young) readers who dare to follow Cole down the manhole will be swept away by the epic and fantastical adventure that awaits them in the Outskirts.  I certainly was.   

(Readalikes:  Hm, I can't think of anything.  Can you?)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

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Ever since the day Rose knocked herself out in a childhood bicycling accident, she's dreamed of a magical island.  Each night when she falls asleep, she's transported to this wonderland, where exciting adventures wait behind every palm tree.  She's never alone in these dreams.  Hugo, a brave, handsome hero, is always by her side.  Over years of countless nocturnal exploits, Rose has watched him grow from an exuberant child into a fearless, capable adult.  He's her best friend, literally the man of her dreams.  If only he actually existed outside of her vivid, slumbering imagination.  

In reality, Rose spends her days tending to her nice suburban home, her three small children, and her surgeon husband.  With Josh constantly at the hospital, the bulk of the work falls to her.  Overwhelmed and bored with the mundane life she leads in her waking hours, Rose longs to feel as alive as she does in her dreams.  To be the beautiful, bold woman she is when she's with Hugo.  

As she grows increasingly discontent, Rose makes an incredible discovery—Hugo is real.  The man she sees at a local fast food restaurant may not look exactly the way he does in Rose's dreams, but it is him.  She's sure of it.  When her curiosity about this real-life Hugo turns into an all-consuming obsession, Rose risks everything she holds dear to connect with a man she's met only in her dreams.  Is he really Hugo?  Does he share her mysterious island dreams?  With him in her life, can she finally rise above her humdrum existence to embrace her real self, the one she inhabits in her island dreamworld?

Hugo & Rose, a debut novel by screenwriter Bridget Foley, tells an intriguing story about one woman's quest for fulfillment—not just in her dreams, but in her normal, everyday life.  It's about the lengths to which one might go to make fantasy match reality and the disparities that often exist between the two.  Ultimately, Hugo & Rose is about what is truly real, truly important, truly worth fighting for.  The book's unique premise, as well as its relatable characters, make it both haunting and memorable.  This one might not be blow-you-away amazing, but it's definitely the kind of novel that you'll keep thinking about long after you finish it.  

(Readalikes:  Hm, I can't really think of anything.  You?)

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As a Watcher, 16-year-old Parker Chipp has the ability to walk through other people's dreams, unnoticed by the dreamer.  It's not a pick-and-choose kind of thing—he haunts the dreams of the last person he made eye contact with before he fell asleep.  Roaming through the night visions of strangers and friends—experiencing their fears, frustrations and unexpressed desires—might sound like a cool super power, but it's not.  Not really.  Parker hasn't enjoyed a decent sleep in four years and it's killing him.  Literally.  

Then, he meets Mia Greene, a foster kid who's staying with a local family.  Parker's stunned by what he finds in her dreams.  Inside her unconscious mind, he finds only peace and calm.  The sensations are so unfamiliar, so soothing, that he's able to sleep deeply for the first time in years.  Parker craves more rest, needs more to live.  The only problem?  He can't get it without Mia—and she thinks he's a crazy stalker.  

When Mia begins receiving threatening emails, her suspicion naturally falls on Parker.  The thing is, she may be right.  He's so desperate for more of the peace only she can give him that he'll do anything to get it.  Anything.  But is he the one scaring Mia?  Would he really do her harm?  As Parker's need for Mia becomes more desperate and all-consuming, he realizes he doesn't know himself at all.  How can he keep Mia safe—especially if he's the one from whom she needs to be protected?  

I've always found dreams fascinating, so I'm drawn to tales with premises like the one that drives Insomnia by J.R. Johansson.  Having read novels similar to this one, I was happy to discover some fresh elements in this debut novel.  As much as I appreciated these novelties, however, they didn't do enough to save this story from being confusing, unfocused, and melodramatic.  Poor character development and a flimsy plot just made things worse.  In the end, I liked the idea of this novel a whole lot more than the novel itself.  Bummer.

(Readalikes:  Reminded me of the Wake trilogy [Wake; Fade; Gone] by Lisa McMann)  

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After reading her late mentor's files, 18-year-old Janie Hanagan knows the truth about her unique dream-catching abilities. She knows what her future will look like if she keeps using her "talent" to help the police track down criminals - she'll be a blind cripple before she reaches her 30th birthday. She'll be useless, a lifelong burden to anyone stupid enough to love her. Janie might be able to handle that fate, but she can't doom Cabel Strumheller to a life like that. He deserves someone normal. The best thing to do, the kindest thing, is to break up with him now, freeing him to go off to college and find himself a normal girlfriend.

Janie's still mulling it all over when she gets a frantic phone call from her best friend, urging her to get to the hospital as fast as she can. It's not Janie's alcoholic mother who's been admitted - not this time - but her father. Henry Feingold's a stranger to Janie and, now that he's in a coma, she may never get a chance to know him. Not that she wants to chitchat with the man who abandoned her as a baby. Still, his bizarre dreams beckon to her. In spite of herself, she's drawn into them. As she walks through Henry's injured mind, Janie becomes obsessed with making sense of the man who helped give her life. But when she discovers the shocking truth about her father, Janie's already bleak future begins to look downright dismal. She can't subject Cabel to that. Heck, she's not sure she can subject herself to that. As Janie tries to make peace with it all, she'll have to make some gut-wrenching decisions - about her future, about Cable, about herself.

Although nothing in Gone, the final book in Lisa McMann's Wake trilogy, really surprised me, it still kept me entertained. McMann, I've realized, is a master at pulling readers into her books, seducing them with quick action and snappy chapters that beg to be whipped through as fast as possible. It helps that she writes well, creating sympathetic characters who grapple with problems that are realistic, yet unique enough to be interesting. And then there's the paranormal twist, which gives this story an added intrigue. Still, as much as I liked the first book in the series, I wasn't impressed with the second. As for Gone, even though I found it predictable, I still thought it a satisfying end to Janie's story. Maybe I didn't love, love, love it, but I liked it well enough.

(Readalikes: Wake and Fade by Lisa McMann)

Grade: B-

If this were a movie, it would be rated: R for strong language, sexual content and depictions of underrage drinking

To the FTC, with love: Another library fine find

Of what, exactly, are dreams made? Memories? Fantasies? Hopes? Fears? Regrets? Desires? A little of each? Seventeen-year-old Janie Hannagan has seen every kind. She's not sure exactly where this special talent came from - the one that lets her roam through other people's dreams - but she's sick to death of it. She's encountered enough monsters, enough lust, enough falling, enough secret wishes to last her ten lifetimes. All she wants is to be normal for once. But with an alcoholic mother, an absent father, and her crazy little secret, Janie's life is about as mundane as a Tim Burton film.

Then, a chance encounter takes her into the terrifying nightmares of a classmate. The violent images in his head shake her to the core. Even more horrifying is the fact that sexy Cabel Strumheller sees her in his dream. And remembers seeing her. That never, ever happens. Janie's terrified of the monster in Cabel's head, but even more frightened that he'll realize what a freak she is. She can't let anyone know the truth. Cabel doesn't seem to be the secret-spiller type - after all, he's hiding some big ones of his own - but she can't be sure. As her dreamwalking intensifies, endangering Janie's job, schooling, life and future, she searches desperately for answers. How can she stop herself from entering the dreamworld? Why does it happen in the first place? And why her, of all people? An offhand experiment will give her clues and show her the real power she possesses. The only question left is: What will she do with it?

I've always been interested in dreams and their meanings, so the premise of Wake by Lisa McMann caught my attention immediately. I loved the whole idea behind the story. I'm not sure what I expected to find inside its pages, but I was taken aback by the book's rawness. Although Janie's a vulnerable, sympathetic character, she's got very sharp edges. Especially in the beginning, Wake is dark, erotic and bleak - so much so that I almost put it down. But, it had that premise. That fascinating, hypnotizing premise. Coupled with interesting characters, a heart-pounding storyline and McMann's compelling writing style - well, let's just say, I kept reading. As Janie learns more about herself, the tone of the novel brightens, until it climaxes with a somewhat predictable, almost cheesy, conclusion. It ends on a hopeful note, something that's weirdly incongruent with the first half of the book. I didn't love the ending, but the rest of the story had me whipping through pages fast enough to cause injury.

(Readalikes: I can't think of any. Can you?)

Grade: B

If this were a movie, it would be rated: R for language, violence and sexual images

To the FTC, with love: Another library fine find