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The Batboy by Mike Lupica

Brian is living every baseball kid's dream: he is a batboy for his hometown Major League team. Brian believes that it's the perfect thing to bring him and his big-leaguer dad closer together. And if that weren't enough, this is the season that Hank Bishop, Brian's baseball hero, returns to the Tigers for the comeback of a lifetime. The summer couldn't get much better! Until Hank Bishop starts to show his true colors, and Brian learns that sometimes life throws you a curveball.

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The Big Field by Mike Lupica

Playing shortstop is a way of life for Hutch --- not only is his hero, Derek Jeter, a shortstop, but so was his father, a former local legend turned pro. Which is why having to play second base feels like demotion to second team. Yet that's where Hutch ends up after Darryl "D-Will" Williams, the best shortstop prospect since A-Rod, joins the team. But Hutch is nothing if not a team player, and he's cool with playing in D-Will's shadow --- until, that is, the two shortstops in Hutch's life betray him in a way he never could have imagined.

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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .

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Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett

When a book of unexplainable occurences brings Petra and Calder together, strange things start to happen: Seemingly unrelated events connect; an eccentric old woman seeks their company; an invaluable Vermeer painting disappears. Before they know it, the two find themselves at the center of an international art scandal, where no one is spared from suspicion. As Petra and Calder are drawn clue by clue into a mysterious labyrinth, they must draw on their powers of intuition, their problem solving skills, and their knowledge of Vermeer.

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The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett

Spring semester at the Lab School in Hyde Park finds Petra and Calder drawn into another mystery when unexplainable accidents and ghostly happenings throw a spotlight on Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, and it's up to the two junior sleuths to piece together the clues. Stir in the return of Calder's friend Tommy (which creates a tense triangle), H.G. Wells's The Invisible Man, 3-D pentominoes, and the hunt for a coded message left behind by Wright, and the kids become tangled in a dangerous web in which life and art intermingle with death, deception, and surprise.

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The Calder Game by Blue Balliett

When Calder Pillay travels with his father to a remote village in England, he finds a mix of mazes and mystery . . . including an unexpected Alexander Calder sculpture in the town square. Calder is strangely drawn to the sculpture, while other people have less-than-friendly feelings towards it. Both the boy and the sculpture seem to be out of place . . . and then, on the same night, they disappear! Calder's friends Petra and Tommy must fly out to help his father find him. But this mystery has more twists and turns than a Calder mobile . . .

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The Akhenaten Adventure: Children of the Lamp, Book 1 by P. B. Kerr

Meet John and Philippa Gaunt, twelve-year-old twins who one day discover themselves to be descended from a long line of djinn. All of a sudden, they have the power to grant wishes, travel to extraordinary places (and not necessarily on public transportation), and make people and objects disappear. Luckily (and luck does have something to do with it), the twins are introduced to their eccentric djinn-Uncle Nimrod, who will teach them how to harness their newly found power. And not a moment too soon!

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The Blue Djinn of Babylon: Children of the Lamp, Book 2 by P. B. Kerr

John and Philippa Gaunt, twelve-year-old twins who have recently discovered themselves to be descended from a long line of djinn and in possession of magical powers, continue on their extraordinary adventures in this sequel to THE AKHENATEN ADVENTURE. When a powerful book of djinn magic goes missing, John and Philippa are called upon to retrieve it. Only, the book isn't really missing. The trap was set and Philippa is abducted by the Blue Djinn. In this latest installment of the twins' magical adventures, John and his uncle Nimrod must find Philippa before it's too late.

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The Cobra King of Kathmandu: Children of the Lamp, Book 3 by P. B. Kerr

In the third book of the bestselling Children of the Lamp series, djinn twins, John and Philippa Gaunt, are on the trail of another magical mystery. As they travel from New York to London to Nepal and India on a whirlwind adventure, the twins try to help their friend and fellow djinn, Buck, find out who murdered his friend using the venomous snakebite of the king cobra. All too soon, John and Philippa find themselves caught up in the lethal world of the Cult of the Nine Cobras, only to discover that they themselves are a target of the creepy cobra cult.

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The Day of the Djinn Warriors: Children of the Lamp, Book 4 by P. B. Kerr

Djinn twins John and Philippa are off on another whirlwind adventure that takes them around the globe and into unknown worlds. And it's a race against time as they attempt to rescue their mother from her fate as the Blue Djinn of Babylon. An aging curse has been placed on their father, and if the twins are gone too long, he'll rapidly become an old man. Meanwhile, museums all over the world are reporting robberies of valuable jade from their collections, as well as bizarre hauntings.

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