* We recommend Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series - A classic fantasy series drawn from the world of Arthurian legend

                * We also recommend The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - A stand-alone, but really worth a read.

                * The Erec Rex series, by Kaza Kingsley, looks intriguing, even though the protagonist, as pictured on the cover, looks a lot like Harry Potter. Start with Dragon's Eye.

                * I've heard a middle schooler rave enthusiastically about Tunnels by Brian Williams, and its sequels, Deeper and Freefall.

                * You could also try the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan, starting with The Ruins of Gorlan.

                * In My Tree, In My Pond, and In My Nest, by Sara Gillingham and Lorena Siminovich - Cute pictures, holes in the pages (Holes! Fun!), and a felt finger puppet at the end adorn these sturdy-paged, chewable books.

                * Read what the publisher has to say about Creep! Crawl!, Flutter! Fly!, and Wiggle! March by Kaaren Pixton. (As a mother of a not-so-long-ago baby, it also occurs to me that as well as being rip proof and washable, these are THIN, so you could fit all three in the diaper bag without breaking your back.)

                * The author's coming to the Hudson Library in April! Extra credit! Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War by Tony Horwitz

                * A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America by Tony Horwitz

                * Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson

                * The movie (Rocket Boys) is good, too: October Sky by Homer Hickam

                * Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks

                * Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez

                * A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

                * The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

                * The Help by Kathryn Stockett

                * Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

                * Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay

                * The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

                * The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

                * Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

                * The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

                * Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

                * The Book of Marvels: An Explorer's Miscellany by Mark Collins Jenkins

                * Thucydides: The Reinvention of History by Donald Kagan

                * Unlikely Allies: How a Merchant, a Playwright, and a Spy Saved the American Revolution by Joel Richard Paul

                * The American Civil War: A Military History by John Keegan

                * The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert M. Edsel

                * The Great Depression: A Diary by Benjamin Roth

                * The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War by James Bradley

                * Dr. Seuss & Co. Go to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of America's Leading Comic Artists by Andre Schiffrin

                * Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 by Christopher Andrew

                * The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back by Charles Pellegrino

                * Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti

                * The Butterflies of Grand Canyon by Margaret Erhart

                * Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

                * The Wilde Women by Paula Wall

                * Last Voyage of the Valentina by Santa Montefiore

                * The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly

                * A Rather Lovely Inheritance by C. A. Belmond