Moxie and Max

Kimmel, Elizabeth Cody. The Reinvention of Moxie Roosevelt.

A slam-dunk for Kimmel! What is the main concern of middle school students? Who ARE they. Moxie is given a chance to change her quiet, piano playing persona when she transfers to a boarding school because she would have to travel so far from her rural Maine home to attend high school. She has several ideas for the kind of person she wants to be-- unfortunately she doesn't settle on just one, leading to some confusion and bad feelings when her stories are brought to light. While the ending was a little pat, I loved all the characters, I loved Moxie's approach, and the comic timing and pacing was great. Fans of Kimmel's Lily B. will like this new character, and I hope we see more of her.

Adam, Paul. Max Cassidy: Escape From Shadow Island.
You think you have problems? Max's father, a famous escape artist, was killed in Santo Domingo after performing at a ritzy resort... and Max's mother was arrested and sentenced to jail for his murder. His father's assistant, Consuela, is raising him, and Max earns his living performing his own escape act. When a man comes and tells him that his father is still alive, and this man is later found murdered, Max and Consuela travel to Santo Domingo to try to solve the mystery and absolve Max's mother. Max's abilities to pick locks and free himself from handcuffs are underutilized, but he does manage to shed some light on the mystery and shut down the evil shadow island. More books are certainly on the way. The first chapter of this was fabulous; the rest of the book didn't quite live up to it, but is well worth reading for fans of adventure series.