MPIBA Book Recommendations for Kids and Teens

Scumble
Nine years after Mibs's Savvy journey, her cousin Ledge has just turned thirteen . . .

But Ledger Kale's savvy is a total dud--all he does is make little things fall apart. So his parents decide it's safe to head to Wyoming, where it's soon revealed that Ledge's savvy is much more powerful than anyone thought. Worse, his savvy disaster has an outside witness: Sarah Jane Cabot, reporter wannabe and daughter of the local banker. Just like that, Ledge's beloved normal life is over. Now he has to keep Sarah from turning family secrets into headlines, stop her father from foreclosing on Uncle Autry's ranch, and scumble his savvy into control so that, someday, he can go home.

Starring a cast both fresh and familiar, Scumble brilliantly melds Ingrid Law's signature heart and humor with the legendary Wild West.

Bad Kitty vs Uncle Murray
Kitty’s owners are taking a week off and leaving Kitty and Puppy at home. So who’s going to watch them? Good ol’ Uncle Murray, star of the Fun Facts feature of previous Kitty books—the guy you thought knew everything about cats. Think again! It isn’t long before Uncle Murray is driven to near madness by shenanigans of epic proportions.

Potato Chip Science: Book & Stuff
Pure genius, and the kind of idea that comes along once in a decade. "Potato Chip Science "is the book and kit that's an irresistible introduction to the pleasure of science for 8- to 12-year-olds. Here are 29 incredible experiments-plus one edible project-that use potato chips, potatoes, potato chip bags, tubes, and lids. Like" Pop Bottle Science" and "Bones Book and Skeleton," it's a book-with-stuff that is alive with possibilities, merging creative fun, and completely safe activities, with lessons drawn from ecology, biology, forensics, acoustics, aeronautics, optics, and more. All packaged inside a potato chip bag.

Build a balloon-powered chipmobile. Hook up a spud-powered sound system or a working digital clock. Ready and fire the pocket-size potato propulsion pipe. Make a chip can gobble like a turkey. Create a potato mummy head. Find your way with a chip lid compass. Create a detective kit. Set off the bag blaster-and when the weather's right, go fly a potato chip bag kite. The 96-page book is filled with experiments, interesting modifications, and scientific principles.
Included in the bag are a dozen items used in the book-propulsion pipe, digital clock, sound chip, electrodes, wire, biodegradable packing chips and base, googly eyes, compostable starch knife, optical stickers, and chip lids. Snack on science-make a science of snacks. What could be better? Warning: This book is high in saturated facts.

The Clockwork Three
Three ordinary children are brought together by extraordinary events. . .

Giuseppe is an orphaned street musician from Italy, who was sold by his uncle to work as a slave for an evil padrone in the U.S. But when a mysterious green violin enters his life he begins to imagine a life of freedom.

Hannah is a soft-hearted, strong-willed girl from the tenements, who supports her family as a hotel maid when tragedy strikes and her father can no longer work. She learns about a hidden treasure, which she knows will save her family -- if she can find it.

And Frederick, the talented and intense clockmaker's apprentice, seeks to learn the truth about his mother while trying to forget the nightmares of the orphanage where she left him. He is determined to build an automaton and enter the clockmakers' guild -- if only he can create a working head.

Together, the three discover they have phenomenal power when they team up as friends, and that they can overcome even the darkest of fears.

Matched
Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky MarkhamÕs face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

The Scorch Trials
Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. No more puzzles. No more variables. And no more running. Thomas was sure that escape meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back. But no one really knew what sort of life they were going back to.

In the Maze, life was easy. They had food, and shelter, and safety . . . until Teresa triggered the end. In the world outside the Maze, however, the end was triggered long ago.

Burned by sun flares and baked by a new, brutal climate, the earth is a wasteland. Government has disintegrated—and with it, order—and now Cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the Flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim . . . and meal.

The Gladers are far from finished with running. Instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with another trial. They must cross the Scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them. Thomas can only wonder—does he hold the secret of freedom somewhere in his mind? Or will he forever be at the mercy of WICKED?