In Goodbye Stranger, three girls who’ve promised to always be friends navigate their way into seventh grade. An honest story with discomfiting moments, deftly balanced by all the reasons we keep going, even when stuff’s complicated. In The Stone Girl’s Story, in the years following their sculptor/father’s death, his statues grow more weathered, and the marks that animate them are dangerously faded. Before they go still, his final masterpiece, a stone girl named Mayka, decides to travel into the city below their mountain home to find a sculptor to recarve their stories and save their lives. In Nothing Ever Happens Here, Izzy is thrilled to land a part in her school’s upcoming production of Guys and Dolls, but the very same day she carries home the wonderful news, her dad steals the limelight by making a shocking announcement. He’s always been a she … and needs the whole family’s support while going through transition.

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Tornado is short and heartwarming. While a family huddles in their farm’s storm shelter, they beg their uncle to retell the story from his (and their father’s) childhood about a dog named Tornado. In Edgar Allan’s Official Crime Investigation Notebook, when one of the class pets is stolen, Edgar decides to take the case. Soon it’s a race between him and a copycat rival to solve the mystery. The story includes pages from Edgar Allen’s titular notebook, including interviews and speculations. At the same time, we get in on some of his homework assignments, so there’s an interesting smattering of poetry and creative writing folded in. The Ice Garden is a mostly contemporary tale with a portal fantasy twist. Jess can’t be outside during the day because she’s allergic to the sun. No school. No playgrounds. No friends. But while at the hospital for her usual checkup, she “meets” a boy in a coma. And while sneaking out of the house one night, she finds a gap in a hedge that leads into a twilight world where everything is made of ice.

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Dragon is the seventh book in the Five Ancestors series and delivers a solid finish. In Granny Torrelli Makes Soup, Rosie sometimes gets upset with her best-friend-since-always Bailey, especially when a new girl in the neighborhood takes a shine to him. No one is better at diffusing tension than Granny Torrelli, who comes over to cook and to tell stories about when she was Rosie’s age. Both the food and her grandmother’s honesty and humor do help. Tumble & Blue turned out to be a favorite read for the year. Somewhere in Blue’s family history, on the night of red crescent moon, a wish was made that twisted the fates of every generation that followed. Some have it good. Always good. Some have it bad. And Blue is one of the cursed ones. Changing his fate seems impossible, especially with everyone else in the family vying for the chance. But his new friend Tumble is willing to help.

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Mouse is the sixth book in the Five Ancestors series. Still loving my kung fu advenures. January is the first book in a (you guessed it) 12-book series set in Australia. Callum Ormond doesn’t have much to go on, but he knows he needs to get away, stay hidden, and solve the riddle his dead father left behind in the form of several drawings. Because he’s already been blamed for a crime he didn’t commit. Action-packed! And then Firelight continues the Amulet series of graphic novels.

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Eagle is the fifth book in the Five Ancestors series, which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. Escape from Lucien is another continuation, since it’s the sixth book in the Amulet series of graphic novels. But The Secret Key is a series starter, so I can talk about that one! Agatha is smart, observant, and steeped in the fiction of her namesake, Agatha Christie. In fact, Hercule Poirot is her imaginary friend. But few people appreciate her little investigations. But when a new case presents itself, Agatha knows it’s her big chance to prove herself.

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Crane is the fourth book in the Five Ancestors series and a direct continuation of the books before it. (I hate giving summaries for individual books in a series since they’ll inevitably contain spoilers for previous volumes.) Suffice to say, I like the kung fu adventure! In Finding Orion, when Grandpa Qwirk dies, he does it like he lived: in his own way. Rion and his family go back to his dad’s home town for a funeral, but find themselves on the strangest scavenger hunt that ever was. The Witch Boy is a graphic novel. Aster is at the age when he should be learning to shift into an animal form so he can join the other men as a warrior/protector. But he’s much more interested in the lessons that are only handed down from mother to daughter. Aster wants to be a witch.

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In Charlie & Frog, Charlie goes to live with his television-obsessed grandparents in a small town that’s home to a school for the deaf. His first friend, a girl called Frog, rallies him to her side in order to solve a mystery, just like the deaf heroine in her favorite mystery series. A lower middle grade series starter. Lots of lessons in sign language for readers. And the recurring motto, “Deaf Can!” Snake is the third book in the Five Ancestors series. Since it’s a direct continuation, there’s not much I can say. Except that I really liked these books. Ivy & Bean is about two very different girls become the best of friends. A lower middle grade series. Not my favorite dynamic, but I’ll give a few more books in the series a chance. I’m the type of reader who gets attached to characters.

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Monkey is the second book in the Five Ancestors series, which follows three students of the kung fu arts. This book is a direct continuation from the previous book, so there’s not much I can say without spoiling the story. Totally hooked, though. Prince of Elves is the fifth book in the graphic novel series Amulet. Because everything builds on what’s come before, I can’t say anything that wouldn’t be a spoiler. Suffice to say … it’s good! EndGames wraps up the storyline begun in Newsprints. Bit of a (discourse-heavy) rush to the finish. Would have loved it if Xu had the luxury of two more volumes to flesh out all these new characters more. (Because they’re all so intriguing!)

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Autumn’s Arrival. This time of year, when the temperatures drop into a range that’s comfy for walking outdoors, I do a whole lot more reading. Book walks are happening every morning, so I’m bringing back my book-tracking calendar this month. Let’s see what adventures are in store!

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In Will Sparrow’s Road, Will is a liar, a thief, and a runaway who only looks out for himself. But he’s beginning to understand that you can’t trust what a person promises any more than you should put stock in how a person looks. Oddities and rarities and misfits. Good and bad and belonging. The Cathedral of Fear is the fourth book in the series. A mystery that mostly takes place in war-torn Paris … and is riddled with references to streets and sites that would warm any historian’s heart. Interesting references to the famed French author Alexandre Dumas. More adventure than mystery here, since readers aren’t given many clues or enough context to solve the problem. And (alas!) English-speaking readers are left hanging by the final revelation, which hints at more, because these first four books are the only ones that have been translated from the original Italian. And Tiger kicks off a kung fu series. Five young kung fu masters are hidden away by their teacher when their temple is overrun and its one hundred fighting monks slaughtered. They must stop the one who planned this massacre, someone who they considered a brother, one of their Grandmaster’s former pupils. This book takes place from the point of view of Fu, whose name means tiger and who uses tiger-style fighting.

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