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Nov 11, 2016

What We're Reading



From Ms Kelly:
Hey, parents!  Looking for a series for your middle-schooler now that they’ve finished Harry Potter? Try Holly Black and Cassandra Clare’s new series, Magisterium.  Like the Harry Potter series, Black and Clare create a world in which magic exists in this coming-of-age story set in the modern U.S.
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In the first book of the series, The Iron Trial, we meet our protagonist Callum Hunt.  Call’s father has spent his whole life telling Call magic is dangerous, and to avoid it at all cost.  Now that he’s twelve years old, Call fears his upcoming entrance test to the Magisterium, a school of magic that tests all the young mages, but only accepts the best. Although most young mages in the world would love to go to the Magisterium, Call knows of its dark reputation, and with the help of his father, plans to fail the test and live an ordinary life.  Will Call be able to keep his magic hidden, or will he be forced to leave his father and embrace his magical future at the Magisterium?
AR Level: 5.6
AR Points: 13
Magisterium series by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare:
1.The Iron Trial
2. The Copper Gauntlet
3.The Bronze Key

If you like The Iron Trial, you’ll also enjoy these Readalikes:

 
The Novice by Taran Matharu
Misfit guys find themselves enrolled at magical schools where they must uncover deadly secrets.

AR Level: 6.5

AR Points: 16

The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co.) by Jonathan Stroud
Lucy Carlyle teams up with Anthony Lockwood to investigate London’s ghostly epidemic.

AR Level:5.1

AR Points: 14



From Ms. Kim
Click Here to Start by Denis Markell
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When Ted's great-uncle dies, he leaves the entire contents of his apartment, including any treasures found within, to Ted.  Little does Ted know that he, along with two friends, will end up becoming a part of a real-life escape-the-room type computer game.  The 12-year-old just happens to be an expert at these games but soon realizes that there might be some real life danger involved as he works through the puzzle.

If you like Click Here to Start, you’ll also enjoy these Readalikes:

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein
Twelve-year-old Kyle gets to stay overnight in the new town library, designed by his hero (the famous gamemaker, Luigi Lemoncello), with other students but finds that come morning he must work with friends to solve puzzles in order to escape
AR Level: 4.5

AR Points: 7

Greenglass House by Kate Milford
At Greenglass House, a smuggler's inn, twelve-year-old Milo, the innkeepers' adopted son, plans to spend his winter holidays relaxing but soon guests are arriving with strange stories about the house sending Milo and Meddy, the cook's daughter, on an adventure.
AR Level: 5.4
AR Points: 15
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
After passing a series of mind-bending tests, four children are selected for a secret mission that requires them to go undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, where the only rule is that there are no rules.
AR Level: 5.6
AR Points: 18

From Ms. Abby
The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle by Janet Fox

Something is not right at Rookskill Castle, a rundown Scottish manor shrouded in mystery. The castle is a temporary boarding school for children escaping the Blitz, but soon it’s clear there is something terribly wrong. There are clues hinting that a spy is in the house, and there are undeniable signs of a sinister magic. When the children in the castle’s temporary boarding school begin disappearing one by one, it’s a race against the clock for twelve-year-old Kat Bateson, her two younger siblings, and their new best friend. 
AR Level: 5
AR Points: 12

If you liked The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle try these readlikes:
The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker
Set in an alternative 16th-century England, Elizabeth Grey is the only girl in the king's elite group of witch hunters. When she's framed for being a witch herself, Elizabeth finds freedom at the hands of the world's most wanted wizard and her loyalties are tested
AR Level: 4.2
AR Points: 13
Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
When boarding-school student Oscar Drai meets Marina, she promises him a mystery and takes him to a secret graveyard deep in Barcelona, where they witness a woman dressed in black lay a single rose atop a gravestone etched with a black butterfly. Their curiosity leads them down a dangerous path, and they discover a decades-old conspiracy that puts their lives in the hands of forces more sinister and mystical than they could have believed possible.
Not an AR reader.