So Pretty. I’ve seen them. I’ve wanted them. Finally, I have them. My office area now boasts rainbow bookshelves for my middlegrade collection. It’s the accumulation of years … boosted by recent forays into area thrift stores.

Have you ever arranged your books in rainbow order?

Start with Book 1. Many times when I pick up an e-book, it’s because the publisher has lowered the price of the first book in a series. Probably in the hopes that readers will be eager for more. I enjoyed all three of these series starters…

Awakening begins the Chronicles of Benjamin Dragon. Bullying and best friends. Hermits and heroics. Camp and car crashes. Mentors and menacing offers. Cooper sets up a classic conflict: with great power comes great responsibility.

The Luck Uglies is the first in a fantasy trilogy with a celtic ambiance. Rye O’Chanter and her friends run a bit wild in Village Drowning, bending rules and breaking laws. But harmless fun changes to real danger when Rye encounters a Bog Noblin.

The Colossus Rises sets up what promises to be an epic series. When Jack turns thirteen, he wakes in a hospital and learns that he’s dying. Unless he can help a secret organization locate the pieces of a relic from ancient Atlantis.