2011 Children's Choices-Advanced Readers (Grade 5-6)

Lydia and Julie are best friends with one goal: to crack the code of popularity. Lydia's the bold one: aspiring theater star, stick-fighting enthusiast, and human guinea pig. Julie's the shy one: observer and artist, accidental field hockey jock, and faithful recorder. In this notebook they write down their observations and carry out experiments to try to determine what makes the popular girls tick. But somehow, the harder Lydia and Julie try to imitate the popular girls, the farther they get from their goal—and each other. Amy Ignatow understands friendship and the fifth grade, and she knows just how to wring humor out of ordinary and extraordinary moments.

A group of unpopular fifth graders run a spy network from inside their school. With the help of cutting-edge science, they transform their nerdy qualities into incredible abilities! In the series' second installment, Duncan Dewey (code name: Gluestick) leads the team against a supervillain who used to be a member of NERDS. But has the team become too dependent on their supergadgets? It will take old-fashioned brainpower and bravery to save the world again. Publishers Weekly raved, “Buckley has a flair for exaggerated humor.”

Thatcher Hill is bored stiff of his summer job dusting the fake mermaids and shrunken heads at his uncle's seaside Museum of Curiosities. But when a mysterious girl steals an artifact from the museum, Thatcher's summer becomes an adventure that takes him from the top of the ferris wheel to the depths of the sea. Following the thief, he learns that she is a princess of the lost Atlantis. Her people have been cursed by an evil witch to drift at sea all winter and wash up on shore each summer to an even more terrible fate―working the midway games and food stands on the boardwalk. Can Thatcher help save them before he, too, succumbs to the witch's curse?

With sharp, witty writing that reads like a middle-grade Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Greg van Eekhout's first book for young readers is a wild ride packed with as many laughs as it has thrills.

Explorers are designed to stimulate readers in the early elementary grades (ages 6–8), who are beginning to exercise wider reading, research and cross-referencing skills. They can be read from page to page, or – as a fun extra element – the reader can follow special 'page links' to access information on related topics. Six fabulous artwork scenes are each followed up with photographic information spreads, which provide extra detail and background.

Explorers: Dinosaurs - by Dougal Dixon, illustrated by Peter Bull - is a time-travelling adventure, visiting these favourite prehistoric creatures – from huge, gentle vegetarians to dynamic pack-hunters and spectacular, bloodthirsty predators.