Recommended Reading: Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier

Book Description:

Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes is the utterly beguiling tale of a ten-year-old blind orphan who has been schooled in a life of thievery. One fateful afternoon, he steals a box from a mysterious traveling haberdasher—a box that contains three pairs of magical eyes. When he tries the first pair, he is instantly transported to a hidden island where he is presented with a special quest: to travel to the dangerous Vanished Kingdom and rescue a people in need. Along with his loyal sidekick—a knight who has been turned into an unfortunate combination of horse and cat—and the magic eyes, he embarks on an unforgettable, swashbuckling adventure to discover his true destiny.

Peter Nimble is an earlier work from the author of The Night Gardener, which we enthusiastically recommended at the beginning of the year. Peter Nimble isn't quite that good, but it's still a lot of fun. The Night Gardener is middle-grade horror, with more focused themes and more overall success as a story, while Peter Nimble is a fantasy that relies on quirky characters and worldbuilding.  

The tone is light and not-quite-realistic, hearkening back to some favorite middle-grade books like The Phantom Tollbooth, but the actual content is a little more mature with lots of character deaths and injuries. The narrator has a Lemony Snicket sort of style where not everything he says in his asides can be trusted, but the target age range for this book may not understand that -- the narrator talks about how apes can go months without drinking water and have a hump to store water in, for instance. An older child would know this is tongue-in-cheek, but a younger child who's used to those kinds of educational asides might just take it at face value. 

Either way, Peter Nimble is a fun read for middle graders. It's got wacky characters like the cat-horse-knight Sir Tode, and a huge talking dogfish named Frederick. It's got enough action and jokes to keep things moving, but is also complex enough for older kids who want more of a challenge!

Recommended Reading: Young Avengers Omnibus

Book Description:

It's not important what our parents did. It matters what we do. Someone has to save the world. You're someone. Do the math. The critically acclaimed team of Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie reinvent the teen super-hero comic for the 21st century - uniting Wiccan, Hulkling and Kate "Hawkeye" Bishop with Kid Loki, Marvel Boy and Miss America. No pressure, right? When Wiccan makes a horrible mistake that comes back to bite everyone on their communal posteriors, we cue five issues of hormonal panic. Fight scenes! Fake IDs! Plentiful feels! (a.k.a. "meaningful emotional character beats" for people who aren't on tumblr.) Young Avengers is as NOW! as the air in your lungs and twice as vital.

High-quality superhero hijinks and pitch-perfect characters. It's big, it's colorful, it's fun, and it's intense! There's a fantastic character lineup in the description, and every character gets something important to do in the plot. They combine and play off each other well, and they make a great team. They act realistically, they're young, but they're teens and 20-somethings who want to be good people and strong superheroes... They have troubles, but they don't whine. The plot is great too, with an interestingly meta villain and a good excuse for the team to be on their own. (After all, if Captain America could just swoop in and save everyone, it would've be a very interesting story!) If you've enjoyed the popular new Ms. Marvel or award-winning Hawkeye, this is a great next step!

Recommended Reading: Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

Did you or your child start the Series of Unfortunate Events, but never finish? Since Netflix has announced a new TV series based on the books, this summer is the perfect time to go back and read 'em all!

The thirteen books follow the misadventures of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire. The three children are sadly orphaned at the beginning of the series, and are put in the care of the nefarious Count Olaf, who tries to get their inheritance for himself. The children escape, and spend the rest of the series traveling between different guardians and trying to evade the Count.

That description really doesn't do the series justice, though, because it's all about the tone. Lemony Snicket -- a pseudonym of author Daniel Handler -- is one of the best narrators in fiction. He frequently stops to inject his own commentary, explain vocabulary, and foreshadow future events. It's a great opportunity to teach literary methods, but it's also just plain hilarious, and it makes the whole series unique. While others tried to imitate the books' tone in the wake of their success, no one ever quite managed it.

A few books in the middle can seem a little repetitive, as they follow the established formula of introducing a new guardian, having Count Olaf appear in disguise, and then ending with the guardian's departure (through death or other events). If you push through to the later books, though, you'll be rewarded with a fantastic ending. It may seem rambling, but by the time you get to the end you realize it's one complete, satisfying story, and well worth the effort!

Recommended Reading: Dramacon by Svetlana Chmakova

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Book Description:

When Christie settles in the Artist Alley of her first ever anime convention, she only sees it as an opportunity to promote the comic she had started with her boyfriend. But conventions are never what you expect. Soon the whirlwind of events sweeps Christie off her feet and changes her life.

This three-volume manga is a cute, funny introduction to the Japanese comic style. It's a simple story about two people meeting at a manga convention, but it manages a good pace with lots of details. The plot is just realistic enough to involve the reader but light enough to keep things fun, and unlike many other manga series, this one finishes off quickly with a satisfying ending in just a few volumes! Plus, the romance is adorable. Find all three Dramacon volumes with the rest of the manga in the YA department!

Recommended Reading: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Book Description:

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home. Yet she spares Cas's life...

This 2011 release is the perfect YA book for anyone who loves the show Supernatural. It's got the ghosts, the creepy houses, the young professional hunter... The plotting is excellent and really manages to fuse a ghost story with a full-length YA novel. Ghost stories are generally a short-story format with very basic characters, so that's no mean feat. The characters are compelling, and it's great to see a YA novel from a boy's point of view. There's some romance, but the focus is on the ghost story. 

The series is complete in two volumes, the sequel being the equally-excellent Girl of Nightmares!

Recommended Reading: "Ms. Marvel Vol. 1: No Normal" by G. Willow Wilson

Book Description: 

Marvel Comics presents the new Ms. Marvel, the groundbreaking heroine that has become an international sensation! 

Kamala Khan is an ordinary girl from Jersey City — until she's suddenly empowered with extraordinary gifts. But who truly is the new Ms. Marvel? Teenager? Muslim? Inhuman? Find out as she takes the Marvel Universe by storm! When Kamala discovers the dangers of her newfound powers, she unlocks a secret behind them, as well. Is Kamala ready to wield these immense new gifts? Or will the weight of the legacy before her be too much to bear? Kamala has no idea, either. But she's comin' for you, New York!

It's history in the making from acclaimed writer G. Willow Wilson (Air, Cairo) and beloved artist Adrian Alphona (RUNAWAYS)! Collecting MS. MARVEL (2014) #1-5 and material from ALL-NEW MARVEL NOW! POINT ONE #1. 

G. Willow Wilson's new series Ms. Marvel is one of the hottest comics of the past year, featuring a brand-new heroine in the Marvel Comics lineup. Kamala Khan, the young woman who accidentally gains the power to shapeshift and transform, begins as a relatable high-schooler. She's geeky, charming, friendly, and funny from the beginning, but as the series goes on, she also becomes surprisingly charismatic. She's creative in using her powers, she's honest with herself and others, and she always searches for the right thing to do -- not the easiest or the least-bad thing. Most intriguingly for a superhero, she also searches for ways to resolve problems without using violence.

The writing is excellent, plus it's worth taking the time to read slowly because of all the little sight gags in each panel. The plot contains several guest appearances from other Marvel characters like Wolverine and the Inhumans, but you don't need any special knowledge to enjoy this comic -- just jump right in!

Recommended Reading: "X-Men: Age of Apocalypse"

Book Description:

Charles Xavier is dead - killed twenty years in the past during a freak time-travel accident - and the world that has arisen in his absence is dark and dangerous indeed. The Darwinian conqueror Apocalypse rules with an iron fist, ruthlessly enforcing his dictum that only the strong shall survive - and in Apocalypse's long shadow, hidden among a downtrodden humankind, are a group of ragtag freedom fighters led by Xavier's oldest friend, Magneto: the Amazing X-Men! When Bishop, last survivor of the true Marvel Universe, locates the X-Men and explains how the world went wrong, these embittered mutants and their tenuous allies must risk everything - and undertake a dangerous and multi-pronged quest - to put things right!

Get ready for the next X-Men movie, X-Men: Apocalypse, with the classic four-volume graphic novel! It's a complex story, so you'll enjoy it most if you have some knowledge of the X-Men already, but there's no need to be an expert. This collection organizes a wide variety of comic issues into a coherent story that flows remarkably well, and you really get the feeling and the atmosphere of being on Apocalypse's Earth. This story showcases a compelling set of alternate characters who have remained popular in the Marvel universe ever since, including a heroic Magneto, a dark Nightcrawler, the new character Blink, and many more. A fantastic story on its own, it's also a must-read in the X-Men canon.