Past Perfect

Past Perfect by Lelia Sales follows Chelsea who is spending the summer, like every summer before working at a colonial historical village.  Chelsea has spent the past several months getting over a breakup and is not happy when her Ex Boyfriend is at orientation.  To make things more complicated Chelsea has been elected second in command of the War between her colonial village and the Confederate one across the street and when she's kidnapped she falls for Dan who is one of the enemy.

I LOVED this book.  It was hysterical.  I couldn't get enough of the historical village and the prank filled war between the two battling sides.  The details in the small characters were great and made the book from the dorky boy with a big crush to her father the history buff and her best friend who is joining her in becoming an ice cream connoisseur.  The romance is a very small part of the book with a larger part being Chelsea getting over her ex-boyfriend and realizing that perhaps things were not as perfect as she remembered.  I loved this book, it was laugh out loud funny.

 Appropriateness:  There are some drunken party scenes in the book although Chelsea does not get drunk.  The romance is limited to kissing (although they are hot kisses) and the kids pull a lot of pranks that ride the line in their legality.  I would recommend this book to readers 12+ who are fans of romantic comedy and chic lit.

If you liked this book and the reenactment village setting then be sure to pre-order Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink by Stephanie Kate Strohm which comes out in May it has a similar feel to this book.

Just One Wish

 Just One Wish by Janette Rallison follows Annika as she goes on a delightfully fun adventure to get the actor that plays Teen Robin Hood for her brother before his cancer surgery  Annika uses her imagination, her persuasive skills and her archery skills to get herself into (and out of) many sticky situations.

This is a delightful romantic comedy with heart.  Annika is a three dimensional heroine who isn't afraid to go above and beyond to make her brother happy.  The novel is funny and romantic, sweet and sad.  I stayed up late finishing the book because I was so engrossed in the story.

Appropriateness:  Annika lies to her parents and commits some mayhem while working to fufill her brothers dream.  She's a strong and confident girl who doesn't need a man to fight her battles for her.  I'd recommend this book to 10-15 year old lovers of contemporary comedic romance.

Boys that Bite

Boys that Bite the first novel in the Blood Coven Vampires series by Mari Mancusi is a great book for teen vampire lovers.  The book follows Sunny who gets turned into a vampire mistakenly (the vampire meant to turn her twin sister Rayne).  Magnus, the sexy vampire that bit her pledges to help her turn back.  While waiting for answers Sunny deals with the symptoms of turning into a vampire (vampire attraction and her hunger for blood) and gets to know Magnus better.

This is a great book that doesn't take itself seriously.  It takes jabs at everything from Buffy The Vampire Slayer to Indiana Jones.  It has a nice romance and is a really quick read. 

Appropriateness:  This is a novel that's appropriate for the entire young adult audience (although it would appeal to the middle school audience more).  There is no sex or drugs or violence..  Sunny drinks "wine" (although it's really blood) and she lies to her mother and sneaks out of the country.  There is quite a bit of kissing which might turn off very young readers.  The lexile for this book is 740 putting it at a mid fourth grade level. 

Zombiekins

Zombiekins by Kevin Bolger follows Stanley who finds a zombie stuffed animal.  When Stanley takes Zombiekins to school and it bites the school bully and a bunch of kindergartners are bitten Stanley and his friends have to figure out how to save the school.

My daughter loved this book so much that she drew pictures of Zombiekins for weeks.  She was excited to tell me what happened next and thought it was hysterical.  The pictures are funny and well drawn and make the book perfect for kids who are reluctant readers or for younger advanced readers. It's much more funny than scary and is great for young readers who want to read "scary" books like their older brothers or sisters.

Zombiekins is written on a middle-fifth grade reading level (but has plenty of pictures to make it accessible).  I sent it to my cousin who hates to read and he was so excited that he jumped up and down.  This is a great book for reluctant readers and for younger advanced readers.  I can't stress how wonderful this book is or how much your kids will love it.

The Worst Witch

The Worst Witch series is a funny Harry Potter light for the beginning reader.  They tell the tale of Mildred, a student at Miss Cackles Academy for witches faces many blunders in her experiences at school.  She's not a very good witch and her spells often go wrong, but do not worry.  The book has the terrific feel good ending that young readers love.

These books are on a 3/4th grade level (guided reading level P) and they are thin (the first one is 110 pages) so they're a quick read and good for intermediate readers.  There were some UK words that my daughter had trouble with and she reported that it was just a little hard but she says that it was worth it because of the "scary and funny parts."  This book would work well as a read aloud for the younger set and is fantastic for the advanced younger reader as well as readers that are ready for beginning chapter books.  There was a TV series years ago based on the books (which I was able to get at the library) that is a good reward for when your child finishes the book, there was a movie also which is fantastically bad).

While this is a girl book (taking place in a girls school with female teachers) I think the story is funny enough that boys would like it also.