belatedly titled.

A Mid-Semester Night's Dream, by Margaret Meacham. Bleh. Do fifth-graders really need what can only be described as a romance novel? The writing style, print size, and margins all pointed to an even younger audience. At least there were no fragments.

Dragonology: The Complete Book of Dragons, by Dugald A. Steer. This a bit long and text-heavy to get through in one go, but it is very fun. I'm quite surprised the library has a copy, and that it is still in fairly good condition-- it has several little letters to take out of pasted-in envelopes, and there are also a number of flaps and other moving bits that probably won't hold up too well in the children's department. I would like to see some source notes.

Savvy, by Ingrid Law. This goes on a list of most amazing books for children ever. The language in this juvenile novel is absolutely incredible. The author is perfectly consistent in her use of dialect which, although I've never been to the South, seems genuine and realistic to me. The descriptions are sometimes surprising but always perfect: "I had liked living down south on the edge of land, next to the pushing-pulling waves. I had liked it with a mighty kind of liking, so moving had been hard-- hard like the pavement the first time I fell off my pink two-wheeler and my palms burned life fire from all of the hurt just under the skin" (p. 1). I cannot recommend this highly enough.

Sizzle and Burn, by Jayne Ann Krentz. This is apparently part of a larger series, although, since the series is about the organization and not the characters, it worked as a stand-along book. I was disappointed to see that the later books don't include these characters, since I rather like them.