The Mystery of the Fire Dragon, by Carolyne Keene

I haven't read a Nancy Drew Mystery in years, and this was just as fun as I remember...allowing for a lot of shuddering over the total non-PC-ness of the story. Nancy Drew goes to New York City, takes Chinatown by storm, flies to Hong Kong and solves a mystery for the police and, presumably, US Customs. Fun, and really silly.

Walking on Earth and Touching the Sky: Poetry and Prose by Lakota Youth at Red Cloud Indian School, by Timothy P. McLaughlin

Earnest kids' poetry and short essays about what it means to be Lakota Sioux. Clearly project work, but some lovely imagery. Kids are pretty amazing, and while this is uneven, it's a good snapshot of what they think about life on the rez.

Finished in less than 45 minutes.

The Wild Things, by Dave Eggers

Pretty good reinterpretation of the classic picture book. Not overly heavy-handed, and not my reading of it, but interesting. Eggers certainly can catch the way a young boy sees the world very well.

The Last Synapsid, by Timothy Mason

This is a kids' book that is set in a mountain area VERY similar to Ouray, Colorado: one of my favorite places on Earth. It's a time-travel, historic fiction, "green" fantasy that somehow works. Basically, a fore-runner of all mammals has gotten lost in time and decided he likes our time better than his own. If he doesn't go back to his own, all mammalian life on Earth will never happen. Another 'synapsid' (these dinosaur-like critters) has also started to time-travel in order to make the other one come back and do its job to evolve into humans.

Not a bad story, for the average 10-year-old. ;-)

The House of Power, by Patrick Carman

The first in a kids' series called Atherton, about a future world created to rescue human beings from Earth by creating a world on a man-made satellite. Mad scientists, cliff-climbing, rabbits-sheep-and-figs, and planned communities. Pretty fun.

Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I'm well into the double digits on reading this book.

I love it.

Next up, the rest of the series. It's time. I read it about every 3 or 4 years.