Really great new adventure books

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I got some terrific new books this week from Netgalley-compelling, adventurous books!

The first one is called "The Okay Witch" by Emma Steinkellner.  It's a graphic novel (not my favorite) about a girl named Moth, who is 13 and struggling with all the usual middle school issues-friends, clothes, her mom, teachers.  But on Halloween, Moth discovers that she's actually a witch and her mom is a witch too.  Her mom chose to give up being a witch because her coven had been chased into hiding hundreds of years ago.  Her mom wanted to live life in the real world and not in the utopia that her own mother had created.  Moth is stunned at this revelation and has to decide if she wants to live a magical life or if she wants to live in the magic free zone her mom has created.  Complicating matters are a cute new boy in town and the evil doers that chased Moth's family into hiding in the first place.  It's a really fun, adventurous story and I liked it a lot, even if it was a graphical novel.  The pictures are simple but fun and add a lot to the story.  I think the kids are going to like this one a lot.


The second on is the start of a series about a genius named Charlie Thorne.  It's called Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation and it's by Stuart Gibbs.  Gibbs is a super popular author who's written lots of books my students love like including the Spy School series.  This one has spy connections and then also a terrific science twist.  Charlie is 12 and has amassed a fortune (I really don't want to spoil this for you!) and is attending college in Colorado so she can go snowboarding whenever she wants as well as stay away from her manipulative parents.  She's out snowboarding (in the most dangerous way possible) with some other kids when the CIA grabs her.  The CIA wants her to help them find Pandora, an equation that Einstein left hidden that would allow the person who solves it to create energy in a very efficient way.  Whoever controls this equation could use it to create electricity or a bomb that could blow up an entire country.  Charlie is not delighted by this idea, but she is intrigued as well as coerced into trying to figure it out.  She and the CIA agents end up in some wildly dangerous situations in far away places chased by some very unsavory characters.  It's a really fun, wild, exciting ride.  I think the kids are going to love this one.  



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