Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman - illustrated by Brett Helquist (2009) HarperCollins 

The story of a boy in the days of the Vikings whose father is away on a raid.  He tries to go to the woods with his father’s axe and cut down a tree.  But the axe is too big for him and when the tree is felled, he cannot get out of the way fast enough and his leg is shattered, rendering him not useful to his neighbors.  His mother is from Scotland and was taken by his father in a raid because she was so beautiful.  He did not even approach her about marriage until he taught her enough of his own language to ask her.  But he died on a later raid, saving a packhorse who had swept overboard.  When he returned, the cold and wet had gone into his lungs and he died.

His mother married another man who did not like his new stepson.  So one day, Odd took a salmon and set out to find his father’s wood cutting hut.  He has to use a staff as a crutch because of his leg, but he makes it to the hut, or just in front of it, where he sees a fox who clearly wants him to follow.  So he does and comes upon a scene with an eagle sitting on top of a tree and a bear stuck between two trees with it’s arm buried in a honeycomb.  Odd takes his axe and cuts down the tree behind the bear to free him, hoping the bear won’t eat him.  Instead, the bear, the fox and the eagle follow him home.

In the night he hears voices in a discussion and gets up and accuses the animals of talking.  They finally let him know that they are really Odin, Thor and Loki and have been banished from Asgard by a Frost Giant.  Odd agrees to go with them to get rid of the Giant.

The Fall of Five by Pittacus Lore (2013) HarperCollins

The fourth book the Lorien Legacy series in which we get a traitor in the midst of the children of Lorien.  We start with Sam being reunited with his father as they break out of a Mogodorian prison with the help of a young Mogodorian named Adam.

The others notice that number five is moving from Jamaica to Florida and burns a huge crop circle in the swamp.  It hits the news and the group go to rescue the new guy before the Mogodorians find him.  He’s smaller than the others and stockier and quieter.  But as soon as they find him, the Mogodorians attack.  They fight their way out of the bind with a last second shot from Malcom, Sam’s father.

Everyone returns to Chicago and they try to figure out a next move.  It is decided that they should return to the Florida swamp because Five left his chest there with its artifacts.  But Ella, number ten, has a screaming nightmare and when John, four, touches her to try healing her, he also is trapped in her nightmare.  The others decide to go to Florida anyway.

Once they get there, it turns out that five is a traitor and in an attempt to kill nine, he accidentally kills eight.  But the anger that causes seven brings on a new aspect of the chill she experiences when healing and she freezes the water around them and drive an icicle into fives foot and another one into his eye.

In the meantime, John sees Ella in the nightmare sitting on a throne next to Setracus Ra, calling for the death of six.  The Mogodorians choose to attack the penthouse at this point with only humans, Malcom, Sam and John’s girlfriend, Sarah, to defend the place and the two sleeping Loriens.  John wakes up, but cannot keep the Mogodorians from taking Ella.=

Ella wakes in an unknown bed and finds herself on the Mogodorian mother ship.  She tries to escape, but no one stops her.  There is nowhere to go.  Setrakus Ra finds her and calls her his granddaughter.

Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs (2014) Ace

Charles, the Marrock’s son and enforcer, and his new mate, Anna are sent to a meeting of werewolves from around the world to deal with the Marrock’s decision to out the werewolves to the public.  With the Marrock only in charge of the werewolves in the U.S., his announcement will also affect those in other places and not all are enthused with the idea.  His biggest ally is Arthur, someone he doesn’t really like, the Alpha from England who insists that he is the Arthur of legend reincarnated.  His biggest foe, Chastain, is the Alpha from France, who controls, but does not administer, Europe mainland.  He is a beast that kills without rules.  To keep the peace, the Marrock hired a fea, a Grey Lord, one who was the Grand Belled Sans Merci. 

Then, vampires try to kidnap Anna.  Followed by vampires kidnapping and killing Arthur’s mate.  There is a hunt in a controlled environment going on when it happens.  Chastain, in wolf form, having found one of the prizes, presents it to Anna, who wants nothing to do with it or him.  Chastain snaps his jaws close to her neck and Charles reverting to wolf form almost instantly, blindsides him, then grabs his nose, shutting off his air supply and making him pass-out.  The fea announces that Charles drew first blood and has broken the rules.  He runs to pick his own fighting ground, expecting the other wolves to give chase.  But Anna, notes that the hunt was over and she was threatened and therefore Charles is clear.  Once they have reunited, they go to their hotel to rest.  Then Anna wakes-up in the vampire’s van.

The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore (2012) HarperCollins 

The Loric chronicles continue with the introduction of number nine.  He was raised in Chicago in a penthouse taking up two top floors in the John Hancock tower.  He is arrogant, brash and everything number four is not.  But he is also extremely well trained in his legacies.  Number four is still torn over his girlfriend, Sarah, having turned him into the FBI and the Mogodorians and the loss or capture of his friend, Sam.  Number six left to go find the Garde member in Spain and finds two other Garde: numbers seven and ten.  Seven turns out to be able to breathe under water, to be able to see in the dark, and most importantly, to heal the wounded.  Ten is a surprise in more than one way: she escaped Lorian on a second ship, with several chimera, though none are with her, and she can change age.  She can also communicate with some of the others telepathically.  Perhaps the biggest surprise was number eight.  He was in India and he can teleport and morph into animals or anything else he can imagine.  The locals think he is a reincarnation of Vishnu.

The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore (2011) HarperCollins

The saga of the Loric Garde continues.  Those who came to Earth with their Cepans (guardians) in a desperate attempt to develop their Legacy powers, learn to use the tools in their chest (which only opens the hands of both the Garde and their Cepan, unless the Cepan is dead), train and take back their planet – while evading the Mogadorians who have come to Earth to find and kill them.

A ‘charm’ had been in place to keep the Mogadorians from just killing their targets in any order.  They have to find each successive numbered Garde or the attempt will backfire and kill the killer.  But now, Number Six has found Number Four and the charm will no longer work, putting all the Garde in danger.  Number Six and her Cepan were captured by the Mogadorians and held prisoner.  While there, her Cepan is killed in front of her.  Back in her cell, she develops a Legacy power of invisibility and uses that to confuse her guards who rush into her cell and she escapes.  The Mogadorians still have her chest, but she develops additional powers, including the ability to control the elements.  Between them, and Number Four’s friend, Sam, they begin to defeat the Mogadorians each time the catch up to them.  Clues lead them to understand that Sam’s dad was an ally and hid something at their property under a sundial.  This takes them so close to Number Four’s girlfriend

But they are not all-powerful.

Hello Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly (2017) Greenwillow Books

About a group of young people.  There is Virgil, referred to by his family as Turtle, which he hates, the Tanaka sisters; Kaori and Gen, Kaori working as a psychic with only two customers; Virgil and Valencia, who is deaf, but wears hearing aids.  Her family doesn’t get her either.  And then there is Bull, who is a bully and thinks he knows everything, and none of it is necessarily good.

Virgil is in a special education class with Valencia, whom he has a crush on, and Bull calls him retard and calls Valencia deafo.

School is out for the summer, but Virgil feels he has failed – at least at what he wanted to do before he wouldn’t see Valencia for the next three months.  So he sets an appointment with Kaori who tells him to bring five special stones and he sets out across the woods.

Valencia has seen Karoi’s card on the bulletin board at the store and calls and sets her own appointment.

While Virgil is crossing the woods, Bull comes upon him and steals his backpack and throws it down a well – the backpack contains Virgil’s pet guinea pig, Gulliver.  Virgil sees a ladder and tries to climb down to rescue Gulliver but falls from the last rung and cannot reach it to climb out.

Virgil’s lateness worries Kaori and when Valencia gets there, she and her sister figure out that Valencia is who Virgil was wanting to say hello to.  They all go in search of the missing Virgil.

Well written and deserving of the Newbery Medal.

I Am Number 4 by Pitticus Lore (2010) HarperCollins

This book follows an alien teenager and his guardian as they try to stay one step ahead of their mortal enemies, the vicious Mogodorians, who destroyed their planet of Lorien.  Now, they’re tracking the nine surviving kids - Garde who are just now are coming into their legacies to Earth, and the Mogardorians intend to kill them.  But they have to kill them in order.  As they manage to do that, each of the other kids get a scar on their left ankle.  Three of them have been killed.  The narrator of the story is number four.  His Cepan, or guardian.

(James Frey and Jobie Hughes collaborate as Pitticus Lore)

M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman (2007) Subterranean Press (3/4)

a collection of short stories including:

- The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds in which Jack Horner is approached by Jill Dumpty to look into the murder of her brother Humpty.

- Troll Bridge in which we finally get to understand how the troll came to live under the bridge.

- Don’t Ask Jack in which we learn just why Jack in the Box is so scary to kids.

- How to Sell the Ponti Bridge where we learn how someone can sell the already owned to the owners.

- October in the Chair where the months take turns in the chair, deciding who can tell their stories.

- Chivalry in which a Mrs. Whittaker buys the Holy Grail from a thrift store and is bothered by Sir Galaad, on a quest for the goblet.

- The Price that a cat pays to keep its benefactors safe from something worse than their nightmares.

- How to Talk to Girls at Parties in which two young men barge into a party, one slick with the girls, the other very bashful.  Only these girls are from around here, meaning Earth.

- Sunbird in which extreme epicureans depart to Egypt to eat the one and only sunbird, which is at once exhilarating and deadly and can be done only once every hundred years.

- The Witch’s Gravestone the precursor to the Graveyard Book – in which Bod, a live boy, is being watched over and educated by the denizens of a graveyard.  He meet the spirit of a witch who was buried in unconsecrated ground (for being a witch) and learns she does not have a gravestone.  He resolves to get her one.

 The Forbidden Door by Dean Koontz (2018) Bantam

Another episode in the Jane Hawk saga.  Jane is now the most wanted fugitive in America and false news is put out there claiming an autopsy shows her husband was murdered, implying Jane did it.  But he was cremated, so an autopsy cannot be performed.  Her in-laws escape their ranch just before the Arcadians can kidnap and enslave them.  In the meantime, Jane is pursued and fights her way to freedom.  She sets in motion a plan to retrieve her son with the help of friends.  Her pursuers must deal with enslaved minions who are going out of control.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (2009) Doubleday

Another in the series of Professor Langdon’s thrillers related to symbology.  In this episode, Langdon is invited to a presentation by one of his former students at the Bilbao museum in Spain.  But before the man can do the final reveal, he is killed by a sniper.  Langdon and the host museum’s leader, who is also the fiancé of the Spanish prince, pursue releasing the information anyway, which the assassin was sent to prevent, so he turns his eye on Langdon and pursues him into a cathedral.

The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill (2011) Little Brown Books

A juvenile urban fantasy novel about a boy whose parents are getting divorced and while his brother gets to spend the in-between time until their parents get their new places to live, he has to go stay with an Aunt and Uncle he barely knows.  His mother and father forget him too easily.  He’s not in any family pictures, his mother doesn’t even always remember who he is when she’s talking to him.

As he leaves, his brother surprises him with a gift of his old skateboard, which Jack hides, because he doesn’t want his mother to say he can’t take it with him.

At his eccentric Aunt and Uncle’s home, he finds almost all walls are covered with books.  He makes a friend, a first for him, a girl whose twin brother was taken when he was younger and who came back with horrible scars on one side of his face.  She’s the terror of the bully who is the son of the richest and most powerful man in town – Mr. Avery.

But Mr. Avery wants Jack dead so he can control the magic that lives under the town.

Vanished by James Ponti (2017) Aladdin

A juvenile mystery – in which our hero, Florian Bates and his friend Margaret are assigned by the FBI to be exchange students at another Washington D.C. middle school to find out who is pulling pranks – especially since the President’s daughter attends there.  Someone put glue in the locks of three students including the first daughter, someone set off the fire alarm and someone crashed the schools’ chat server.

There are mysterious organizations, there is a foreign exchange student who is a prodigy, there are stuck-up cliques and there is the first daughter herself.  All of this combined with the Theory Of All Small Things, makes Florian and Margaret the ideal agents to solve the mystery and save the day.

Framed by James Ponti (2016) Aladdin

Florian Bates is your average 13 year-old, except he is very smart and has developed a method of solving puzzles he calls the Theory of All Small Things, or TOAST.  He teaches this method to his new best friend, Margaret.  His parents are a security expert and an art expert who both work at the local art museum.  While practicing toast at the museum, Florian and Margaret notice something suspicious.  A few days later, while visiting again, there is an art heist.  Florian helps find the three paintings before they even leave the premises.  Even though everyone is convinced that the Romanian Mafia is behind the theft.  This results in Florian being hired as a covert asset for the FBI.

Florian gets FBI training in self-defense and hostage survival.  He even gets some gadgets; a free for life metro card, which helps the FBI track his movements, and a pair of glasses that record video and even a panic button in the form of an asthma inhaler.

His friend Margaret wants him to use his unique talents to find her birth parents.  Florian is not sure she should get this information, but she’s his best friend and they set out to find what they can.  They visit the fire station where she was left as an infant and the captain remembers.  Only he never met her parents.

The head of the Romanian mafia in the U.S. is seen where Florian is watching his friend play and win the city championship soccer game.  The FBI take no chances and grab Florian and take him home.  And tell him he’s off the case.  But that doesn’t stop Florian and he and Margaret go to an open-to-the public reception at the Romanian embassy to spy of the mafia king-pin.  Only he sees them and they have to be rescued again.

While confined to his house, Florian figures-out that another painting was stolen and tells the FBI.  His mother secrets a chip of paint from the suspect picture and when the FBI analyze the chip, they know it’s a forgery.

But before they can figure out where the real painting is, Florian is kidnapped – by the kingpin.

Violets are Blue by James Patterson (2001) little Brown & Company

Alex Cross's partner is found brutally murdered in her own bed.  But he responds to his friend and handler at the FBI, Kyle Craig, telling him about a violent murder of two military personnel in San Francisco while they were out for a run.  They appear to have been attacked by a large animal and then hung, naked, by their heels.  Their blood has been drained, but too little of it is on the ground.

Alex meets a detective, Jamila Hughes, who is sure this is not the first such murder.  The coroner has called in an animal bite specialist who identifies the bites as being from a tiger.  Only tigers devour their prey, they don’t back off after a few bites.

Further investigation in San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles and San Diego leave the detectives with the impression that there are people living lives as though they were vampires – even to the extent of having their incisors lengthened.\

A boy, who has killed his parents and is hiding on a ranch with other kids, bites Alex when he is captured.  The bite makes Alex very sick and while confined to home, his finds a pattern on the east coast and possible suspects.  A pair of magicians.

But as they close-in on the pair of killers, they are killed themselves.  The act takes them back to the west coast and they finally track-down the new killers.  This turns out to have been a war to see who would be known as the ‘Sire’ of the vampires.

When Alex gets home, he is attacked by his nemesis, the Mastermind.  But Alex manages to get the upper hand and discovers it is his friend and handler, Kyle Craig.

Wilderness by Dean Koontz (2013) Bantam

A pre-cursor story of a new character.  We never get to see Addison directly, only through the reactions of other people.  When he was born, the midwife wanted to strangle him as a mercy to his mother.  But his mother held a gun on the woman and made her promise to never tell what she saw.  His own mother can only stand him for so long, before she has to insist that he go outside where she won’t see him.

A hunter accidentally comes upon him hiding in a cave and only sees his eye, then pursues him, trying to kill him, until a hiker surprises the man, entering a dilapidated cottage where Addison is hiding under the floorboards.\

Yet not everything fears the sight of him.  Wolves seem to like him and are willing to follow him, warn him of danger, and even play in front of him.

Where will Dean take us on this journey?

The Bat by Jo Nesbo (2014) Thorndike Press

The Bat refers to an Australian Aboriginal depiction of death.  A Norwegian police detective, Harry Holë, pronounced ‘Holy’,  is dispatched to Australia to investigate the murder of a starlet from his country.  This is his first visit down under and he meets new people, including an aboriginal policeman and a bartender from Sweden.  He’s attracted to her and it leads to the romantic interest in the story.  But people tend to have secrets.  His friend the policeman used to be a boxer, and he knows things he won’t tell other people.  His main suspect is a drug dealer, who won’t tell anyone anything useful.  Even the locals are keeping secrets.

Harry has his own secrets that threaten to take him off the rails.  But the real question is whether Harry will find the killer before the killer finds and kills Harry.

The Witch’s Boy, by Kelly Barnhill (2014) Algonquin Young Readers

Twin boys, Tam and Ned, sons of a woodsman, the only man in the village brave enough to go into the forest, and a witch, who has real magic that she guards and only uses for good, have an idea to go to the sea.  So they build a raft and push it into the river.  Only it sinks and they end-up fighting the river for their lives.  No one goes into the river, but their father wades out and manages to grab one boy, but the other, the stronger one, Tam, is swept down the river.  The one who is saved is near death and the body of the one who was swept away is found at a bend.  He is brought back to his mother.  She keeps him on a cot next to his twin and when the sun goes down, when souls finally are released by the dead, she traps his soul and sews it with magic to his twin to save his life.  She knows she shouldn’t do such a selfish thing with the magic, but she cannot stand to lose both her boys.

The use of magic always has a cost and this cost Ned his voice.  He cannot read and he cannot speak without stuttering badly.  So he tends to stay quiet and away from other people.  But the queen will visit his village and his mother will not let him stay behind.  In the village, the queen has taken sick and everyone wants Sister Witch to come save the queen, which she does, but also sets off events where a bandit can take advantage, not only of the village, but of the entire nation.  He lives in the forest with his daughter and is the bandit king, but also an agent of another king.

The forest is a magical place with nine magic stones, who have awakened because Ned, in order to keep the bandit king from stealing his mother’s magic, has bound it to himself and escaped into the forest.  And the chase is on, the bandit king wants the magic and to become a real king, Ned wants to keep it from falling into his hands and the stones want it released so they can finally move on.

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (2014) Mulholland Books

After solving the Lula Landry case, Cormorant Strike has gotten more clients in his detective business.  His assistant, Robin, wants to become a partner, but her fiancé is against it, thinking only of the higher paying job in Human Resources that she turned-down. 

A woman, looking obviously unable to pay, is waiting in the office as a wealthy and pushy client is demanding Cormorant’s time.   The wealthy client is told where to get off, and the evidently pro-bono client is asked to state her case – she wants her husband to be found and returned home to take care of his disabled daughter.  The husband is a writer of minor celebrity who writes in a scathing and demeaning style.

Cormorant visits the writer’s agent, a chain-smoking, hacking woman whom everyone is afraid to approach.  Then he continues to find all the people who have been in contact with the writer over his career.   Finds out that the writer and agent had a very public row in a pub where she told him his latest manuscript was unpublishable.  Cormorant gets a copy of the manuscript, starts reading it and then finds people mentioned, but not named, in the story.  One of these turns out to be the writer’s mistress, who thinks the writer’s wife has set him on her, but hates the writer, calling him bastard.

Finding out that there a house is jointly owned by the writer and a former friend, that has never been able to be sold, Cormorant insists on going there and discovers the writer has been murdered in a scene from the ending of the manuscript.

The police immediately think it is the wife and gather evidence to arrest her.  But Cormorant thinks she’s been set-up and has to prove she’s innocent and can be returned to her daughter.

With a case of everybody has a motive and an alibi, Cormorant must come-up with actual evidence to find the real killer.

Personal by Lee Child (2014) Delacorte Press

The Army Times is an excellent way for veterans to keep up with what’s going on in the service.  It’s also an excellent way to get in contact with Reacher.  That’s how an old General who won’t retire gets Reacher to call his office.  Reacher owes his primary assistant, also a General now, and makes a call.   Even though he’s on the west coast, all the contact needs to do in confirm the location of the rare pay phone that Reacher is calling from and they can pick him up, which they do.  A quick trip to a local airbase and Reacher is on his way back to the east coast, but not to Washington, to Fort Bragg.

A sniper Reacher put away sixteen years ago has been released from prison and while there, he spent his time doing yoga and keeping in shape.  Now, there’s been an attempt on the French President by a world class sniper and the only thing that saved his life was bullet-proof glass.  No one knows which of the only four snipers in the world who could have made the shot did the shooting.  One of them is Reacher’s arrestee.  Reacher found him once, the General thinks he can do it again.  Only he has an unwanted partner, a CIA operative with no field experience that reminds him of the woman he allowed to go to make as arrest who was killed by the target.

The G8 is meeting in London, making a target of eight world leaders in just a few days.  Reacher must eliminate the threat of it being the American sniper who pulls the trigger.

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall (1994) Yearling NBA

Four sisters and their father go on vacation, but the house they usually vacation in has been sold and at the last second, a house in a different place than they've gone before is available.  There, they find a mansion, but it's not what they're renting, it's the cottage in the far back of the property with a full Victorian garden in-between.  The girls, of course, though they're told not to go into the garden, are inextricably drawn when they discover a hidden tunnel in the wall.  There are other discoveries as well, the oldest girl finds herself attracted to the gardener.  The next oldest, the tomboy, finds a boy her age living in the mansion, who is under the thumb of his mother and her terrible boyfriend, who want to send the boy away to a military school, because his grandfather was a general.  The gardener has rabbits which gets the youngest, shyest girl to come every day just to feed the rabbits. Then there is the other girl, who writes stories based on what she sees and imagines around her.