Giveaways

Our library giveaway is still going strong, with more books coming in every day! We can’t wait to send them along to one lucky library, and we’re so grateful to all of the authors, publishers, and our own Mixed-Up Files blog contributors who have donated books. (And we’re always ready to accept more!)

You can see the complete list of donated books here. For information on how you can donate a book to add to our collection, please visit our Great Library Donations page.

And to nominate a worthy public, school, or private library to receive the books, please go here.

Each of our spotlight posts will highlight ten or so of the books we will be giving away. Check out these terrific titles!

 Bigger than a Bread Box by Laurel Snyder

A magical breadbox that delivers whatever you wish for—as long as it fits inside? It’s too good to be true! Twelve-year-old Rebecca is struggling with her parents’ separation, as well as a sudden move to her gran’s house in another state. For a while,  the magic bread box, discovered in the attic, makes life away from home a little easier. Then suddenly it starts to make things much, much more difficult, and Rebecca is forced to decide not just where, but who she really wants to be. Laurel Snyder’s most thought-provoking book yet.

 Gustav Gloom and the People Taker by Adam-Troy Castro

Fernie What finds herself lost in the Gloom mansion after her cat appears to have been chased there by its own shadow. Fernie discovers a library full of every book that was never written, a gallery of statues that are just plain awkward, and finds herself at dinner watching her own shadow take part in the feast!

Along the way Fernie is chased by the People Taker who is determined to take her to the Shadow Country. It’s up to Fernie and Gustav to stop the People Taker before he takes Fernie’s family.

 It’s Raining Cupcakes by Lisa Schroeder

Twelve year old Isabel is dying to get out of Willow, Oregon (population 39, 257) and experience something other than her small town. It seems that everyone gets to travel except Isabel–even her best friend, Sophie. When Isabel’s mother decides to open up a cupcake shop across town, Isabel is once again stuck in Willow for the summer as she tries to help her mom get the shop up and running. But when Isabel learns of a baking contest where the finalists get an all-expense paid trip to New York City, she realizes this is her chance to finally get out of Willow.

 Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver

Liesl lives in a tiny attic bedroom, locked away by her cruel stepmother. Her only friends are the shadows and the mice—until one night a ghost named Po appears from the darkness.

That same evening, an alchemist’s apprentice named Will makes an innocent mistake that has tremendous consequences for Liesl and Po, and it draws the three of them together on an extraordinary journey.

 My Life as a Stuntboy by Janet Tashjian

Derek Fallon gets the opportunity of a lifetime—to be a stunt boy in a major movie featuring a pretty teen starlet. After accepting the job he learns that he is the star’s stunt double and must wear a wig! His friends are never going to let him live this down. If that weren’t his only problem, his parents are threatening to give away his pet monkey, and his best friend just posted an embarrassing video of him on Youtube. Can life get any worse? Still the irrepressible Derek takes it all in stride and even manages to save the day.

 Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper

Melody is not like most people. She cannot walk or talk, but she has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She is smarter than most of the adults who try to diagnose her and smarter than her classmates in her integrated classroom—the very same classmates who dismiss her as mentally challenged, because she cannot tell them otherwise. But Melody refuses to be defined by cerebral palsy. And she’s determined to let everyone know it…somehow.

 The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson #5) by Rick Riordan

All year the half-bloods have been preparing for battle against the Titans, knowing the odds are against them. Kronos is stronger than ever, and with every god and half-blood he recruits, his power only grows.

In this momentous final book in the New York Times best-selling series, the prophecy surrounding Percy’s sixteenth birthday unfolds. And as the battle for Western civilization rages on the streets of Manhattan, Percy faces a terrifying suspicion that he may be fighting against his own fate.

 Princess For Hire by Lindsey Leavitt

When Desi Bascomb gets discovered by the elite Façade Agency–royalty surrogates extraordinaire–her life goes from glamour-starved to spectacular in a blink.  As her new agent Meredith explains, Desi has a rare magical ability: when she applies the ancient formula Royal Rouge, she can temporarily transform into the exact lookalike of any princess who needs her subbing services. Dream come true, right? In this hilarious series debut, one girl’s dream of glamour transforms into something bigger: the desire to make a positive impact.

 Scumble by Ingrid Law

t’s nine years after Savvy, and Mibs’ cousin Ledge is on the verge of turning thirteen. More than anything, he wants the power to run like the wind. But when his birthday comes, he discovers that his savvy is actually making things fall apart. It starts out with small things, but then it gets worse. To top it all off, someone outside the family has witnessed his destruction. Now, in addition to trying to figure out how to control – or scumble – his savvy, he’s got to worry about how to protect the family secrets.

 The Classroom by Robin Mellom

Trevor Jones has been preparing for the start of seventh grade his entire summer. Everything changes, though, when he meets mysterious new student Molly. Trevor starts to think that going to the school dance maybe wouldn’t be the worst thing ever. But with detention-wielding teachers, school gossips, and, worst of all, eighth gradersconspiring against him, Trevor will have to do the one thing he wasn’t prepared to do: be epic.

*All descriptions from IndieBound or Amazon

We’re not even two weeks into our library giveaway, and the books are piling up! This makes us very happy! We are thankful for the generous authors, publishers, and our own Mixed-Up Files blog contributors who have sent in books. Keep ’em coming! You can see the complete list of donated books here. For information on how you can donate a book to add to our collection, please visit our Great Library Donations page.

And to nominate a worthy public, school, or private library to receive the books, please go here.

Each of our spotlight posts will highlight ten or so of the books we will be giving away. Check out these terrific titles!

After Eli by Rebecca Rupp
Description: Some people die heroically, others accidentally. When Daniel Anderson’s older brother dies, he wonders which category Eli’s death falls into. In an attempt to understand, Danny creates a Book of the Dead — an old binder that he fills with details about dead people, how they died, and, most important, for what purpose. Time passes, and eventually Daniel is prompted to look up from his notebook of death and questions to make new friends and be swept into their imaginings.

Fake Mustache by Tom Angleberger
Description: Regular kid Lenny Flem Jr. is the only one standing between his evil-genius best friend—Casper, a master of disguise and hypnosis—and world domination. It all begins when Casper spends money from his granny on a spectacularly convincing fake mustache, the Heidelberg Handlebar #7. With it he’s able rob banks, amass a vast fortune, and run for president. Is Lenny the only one who can see through his disguise? And will he be able to stop Casper from taking over the world?

Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Description: One night a plane appeared out of nowhere, the only passengers aboard: thirty-six babies. As soon as they were taken off the plane, it vanished. Now, thirteen years later, two of those children are receiving sinister messages, and they begin to investigate their past. Their quest to discover where they really came from leads them to a conspiracy that reaches from the far past to the distant future—and will take them hurtling through time.

Hound Dog True by Linda Urban

Description: Do not let a mop sit overnight in water. Fix things before they get too big for fixing. Custodial wisdom: Mattie Breen writes it all down. She has just one week to convince Uncle Potluck to take her on as his custodial apprentice at Mitchell P. Anderson Elementary School. One week until school starts and she has to be the new girl again. But if she can be Uncle Potluck’s apprentice, she’ll have important work to do during lunch and recess. Work that will keep her safely away from the other fifth graders. But when her custodial wisdom goes all wrong, Mattie’s plan comes crashing down. And only then does she begin to see how one small, brave act can lead to a friend who is hound dog true.

Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead

Description: Seventh grader Georges moves into a Brooklyn apartment building and meets Safer, a twelve-year-old self-appointed spy. Georges becomes Safer’s first spy recruit. His assignment? Tracking the mysterious Mr. X, who lives in the apartment upstairs. But as Safer becomes more demanding, Georges starts to wonder: what is a lie, and what is a game? How far is too far to go for your only friend? Like the dazzling When You Reach Me, Liar & Spy will keep readers guessing until the end.

My Mixed-Up, Berry Blue Summer by Jennifer Gennari

Description: June has a lot on her plate in this middle-grade novel debut: bullying, backlash to her lesbian mom’s gay marriage, and a baking competition are all served up for our brave heroine. Does June have what it takes to turn her mixed-up berry blue summer into something as sweet as wild berry pie?

Nowhere Girl by A.J. Paquette

Description: Luchi Ann only knows a few things about herself: she was born in a prison in Thailand. Her American mother was an inmate there. And now that her mother has died, Luchi must leave the only place she’s ever known and set out into the world. Neither at home as a Thai, because of her fair skin and blond hair, nor as a foreigner, because of her knowledge of Thai life and traditions, Luchi feels as though she belongs nowhere. But as she embarks on an amazing adventure-a journey spanning continents and customs, harrowing danger and exhilarating experiences-she will find the family, and the home, she’s always dreamed of.

Pie by Sarah Weeks

Description:  When Alice’s Aunt Polly passes away, she takes with her the secret to her world-famous pie-crust recipe.  Or does she?  In her will, Polly leaves the recipe to her extraordinarily surly cat Lardo . . . and then leaves Lardo in the care of Alice. Suddenly Alice is thrust into the center of a piestorm, with everyone in town trying to be the next pie-contest winner…including Alice’s mother and some of Alice’s friends. The whole community is going pie-crazy…and it’s up to Alice to discover the ingredients that really matter. Like family. And friendship.  And enjoying what you do.

Spunky Tells All by Ann Cameron

Description: Spunky the dog would be happy to share all of his secrets, if only his human family spoke his language. But no matter how hard he tries to talk, it’s all “yerf!” to them. Through a series of unfortunate miscommunications, his family decides that Spunky wants a friend–specifically, a cat. Spunky can’t imagine anything worse than having to share his family, especially Huey and Julian, with the snobby  Balinese Fiona. But when headstrong Fiona keeps getting into trouble and it’s up to Spunky to save her, he is astonished to find that being her protector has given his life new purpose and meaning.

The Map of Me by Tami Lewis Brown
Description: The note Momma left on the fridge says only: “I HAVE TO GO.” But go where? Twelve-year-old Margie is convinced that Momma’s gone to the Rooster Romp at the International Poultry Hall of Fame, in search of additions to her precious flock of chicken memorabilia. And it’s up to Margie to bring her home. So she commandeers her daddy’s Faithful Ford, kidnaps her nine-year-old sister, Peep, and takes to the open road. As she navigates the back roads of Kentucky with smarty-pants Peep criticizing her every move, Margie also travels along the highways and byways of her heart, mapping a course to help understand Momma—and herself.

We are a full week into our Great Library Giveaway.  Only three weeks left to nominate a worthy library!  Click here and follow the instructions if you have a library that you’d like to see receive our collection of middle-grade books.

We’d like to thank authors and publishers who have donated books, as well as our blog members.  Thanks to all of you.  If you’ d like to donate a title, please see our Donations page for more information.

Ten titles that have been donated are:

Vanished by Sheela Chari

Description: Eleven-year-old Neela dreams of being a famous musician, performing for admiring crowds on her traditional Indian stringed instrument. Her particular instrument was a gift from her grandmother—intricately carved with a mysterious-looking dragon.

When this special family heirloom vanishes from a local church, strange clues surface: a tea kettle ornamented with a familiar pointy-faced dragon, a threatening note, a connection to a famous dead musician, and even a legendary curse. The clues point all the way to India, where it seems that Neela’s instrument has a long history of vanishing and reappearing. Even if Neela does track it down, will she be able to stop it from disappearing again?

Hannah West on Millionaire’s Row by Linda Johns

Description: Hannah West is back in an all-new mystery?and this time she?s living in the lap of luxury in a mansion on Millionaire?s Row in Seattle?s Capitol Hill neighborhood. When someone starts breaking into homes and doing feng shui, Hannah is immediately intrigued. It all seems innocent at first. But when some small but valuable objects start to disappear from the neighbors? houses, Hannah can?t help wondering if there?s a connection. Could it have anything to do with the Antiques Caravan that?s in town to tape an episode of their television show?

Road Block by Yolanda Ridge

Description from Barnes and Noble: In this sequel to Trouble in the Trees, it’s the end of grade six and Bree plans to spend the summer hanging around her townhouse complex in Vancouver, climbing trees with her friends. But her parents have other plans for her; she is going to Ontario to stay with her grandma who lives on a farm “in the middle of nowhere.” A farm that is about to be destroyed by a superhighway unless Bree can stop it. Convinced that saving the land will end her grandma’s unhappiness, Bree tries to rally cousins and neighbors, but instead of finding help, Bree uncovers some shocking things about her relatives. The more Bree gets to know about her extended family and their farm, the more complicated everything becomes. If she isn’t able to save the farm, can she at least manage to save her family?

Deadweather and Sunrise (The Chronicles of Egg, Book 1) by Geoff Rodkey

Description: It’s tough to be thirteen, especially when somebody’s trying to kill you.

Not that Egg’s life was ever easy, growing up on sweaty, pirate-infested Deadweather Island with no company except an incompetent tutor and a pair of unusually violent siblings who hate his guts.

But when Egg’s father hustles their family off on a mysterious errand to fabulously wealthy Sunrise Island, then disappears with the siblings in a freak accident, Egg finds himself a long-term guest at the mansion of the glamorous Pembroke family and their beautiful, sharp-tongued daughter Millicent. Finally, life seems perfect.

Until someone tries to throw him off a cliff.

Suddenly, Egg’s running for his life in a bewildering world of cutthroat pirates, villainous businessmen, and strange Native legends. The only people who can help him sort out the mystery of why he’s been marked for death are Millicent and a one-handed, possibly deranged cabin boy.

Horton Halfpott: Or, The Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor; or, The Loosening of M’Lady Luggertuck’s Corset by Tom Angleberger

Description: Tom Angleberger’s farcical middle-grade mystery begins when M’Lady Luggertuck loosens her corset (it has never been loosened before!), thereby setting off a chain of events in which all the strict rules of Smugwick Manor are abandoned. When, as a result of “the Loosening,” the precious family heirloom, the Luggertuck Lump (quite literally a lump), goes missing, the Luggertucks look for someone to blame. Is it Horton Halfpott, the good-natured but lowly kitchen boy who can’t tell a lie? Or one of the many colorful cast members in this romp of a mystery that combines supreme silliness with a tale of a young hero with heart.

Malcolm at Midnight by W. H. Beck

Description from www.whbeck.com: When Malcolm (a smaller than average rat) arrives as the fifth grade pet at McKenna School, he revels in the attention, the Pop-Tart crumbs, and his new Comf-E-Cube. He also meets the Midnight Academy, a secret society of classroom pets that keeps the nutters (kids) out of trouble. After all, everybody knows, “a lot happens in a school when the teachers aren’t looking.”

There’s just one problem. Have you heard? Rats have a terrible reputation! So when the Academy assumes that Malcolm is a mouse, he doesn’t exactly speak up. Then the Academy’s leader, a glasses-wearing iguana named Aggy, disappears and the Academy smells a rat . . . a dirty rat fink, to be specific. Now Malcolm must use all of his ratty persistence to prove his innocence, get Aggy back under her heat lamp—and to find out if it’s possible to be a critter of valor and merit, even if you’re a rat.

Pickle: The (Formerly) Anonymous Prank Club of Fountain Point Middle School by Kim Baker

Description: This is the story of THE LEAGUE OF PICKLEMAKERS

Ben: who began it all by sneaking in one night and filling homeroom with ball-pit balls.

Frank: who figured out that an official club, say a pickle-making club, could receive funding from the PTA.

Oliver: Who once convinced half of the class that his real parents had found him and he was going to live in a submarine.

Bean: Who wasn’t exactly invited, but her parents own a costume shop, which comes in handy if you want to dress up like a giant squirrel and try to scare people at the zoo.

TOGETHER, they are an unstoppable prank-pulling force, and Fountain Point Middle School will never be the same.

Reality Leak by Joni Sensel

Description: Come follow this trail of riddles lined with popcorn and drawn in invisible ink!

Pants that walk by themselves . . . Secret messages that pop up in the toaster . . . A mysterious factory that plants already-popped corn and makes invisible ink . . . or is it inc?

What is going on in South Wiggot? It all started when Mr. Keen arrived in the dusty little farm town–in a wooden crate. Strange things have been happening ever since, and Bryan Zilcher is determined to find out why, before things can go from strange to sinister.
This compelling adventure is like nothing else you’ve ever read. Part Saturday morning cartoon, part secret agent mystery–and all zany fun!

The Black Heart Crypt: A Haunted Mystery by Chris Grabenstein

Description: Halloween is near, the one day of the year when the ghostly plane is close enough to the human plane to allow mischief and mayhem. But the ghosts who have their eye on Zack aren’t thinking mischief, they are thinking murder.

In the fourth volume of Chris Grabenstein’s popular Haunted Mysteries series, Zack must yet again do battle with malevolent spirits. And with perseverance and pluck, and the assistance of three dotty aunts, he must save his town from a 200-year-old threat.

Trouble Don’t Last by Shelley Pearsall

Description: Eleven-year-old Samuel was born as Master Hackler’s slave, and working the Kentucky farm is the only life he’s ever known—until one dark night in 1859, that is. With no warning, cranky old Harrison, a fellow slave, pulls Samuel from his bed and, together, they run.

The journey north seems much more frightening than Master Hackler ever was, and Samuel’s not sure what freedom means aside from running, hiding, and starving. But as they move from one refuge to the next on the Underground Railroad, Samuel uncovers the secret of his own past—and future. And old Harrison begins to see past a whole lifetime of hurt to the promise of a new life—and a poignant reunion—in Canada.