Great Escapes for kids and teens

In Summer in the City, by Marie-Louise Gay and David Homel, Charlie’s life is nothing but eventful, despite a “stay-cation” holiday. Whether he’s walking dogs, backyard camping or just picking up his repaired baseball glove, adventure finds him. For buoyant, long-suffering Charlie, even benign activities are weird, wonderful or hair-raising.

A Confusion of Princes
A Confusion of Princes
Hunted
Hunted
Silver
Silver
The Penderwicks at Point Mouette
The Penderwicks at Point Mouette
Two Crafty Criminals
Two Crafty Criminals
Summer in the City
Summer in the City

Ages 6-11

  In Summer in the City, by Marie-Louise Gay and David Homel, Charlie’s life is nothing but eventful, despite a “stay-cation” holiday. Whether he’s walking dogs, backyard camping or just picking up his repaired baseball glove, adventure finds him. For buoyant, long-suffering Charlie, even benign activities are weird, wonderful or hair-raising.

  In the tradition of Elizabeth Enright’s 1940s family stories, the Penderwicks series by Jeanne Birdsall is perfect for girls. In The Penderwicks at Point Mouette, new in paperback, the sisters holiday in Maine with their aunt. Family secrets come to the fore, Jane (almost) falls in love and Skye struggles with the responsibility of being the Oldest Available Penderwick.

  In this reissue of Philip Pullman’s spoof of Victorian boys’ adventure stories, Two Crafty Criminals! And How They Were Captured by the Daring Detectives of the New Cut Gang, set in1894, Benny (“less like a boy than a whirlpool”) and his motley gang tussle with some of the less respectable inhabitants of London, thieves and counterfeiters.

Ages 11 and up

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  Its many gadgets, escapes, duels and near-death experiences should keep even reluctant readers enthralled with Garth Nix’s new futuristic fantasy, A Confusion of Princes. Genetically and technically “remade” Prince Khemri survives multiple assassination attempts and rises through the ranks of training in service to his empire. He hopes to be the next emperor, but Nix turns the epic space adventure on its head with this winsome, thoughtful protagonist.

  In The 10 p.m. Question by Kate De Goldi, Frankie is the one in the familywho must organize things and deal with the “rodent voice” colonizing his head, making him worry about disaster. Then he meets Sydney, who says what Frankie’s family never mentions: that their mother never, never leaves the house. It’s full of wit, kindness, a family bristling with charming eccentricities, and characters whose sadness is rendered with exceptional understanding.

Ages 12 and up

  Remember R.L. Stevenson’s Treasure Island? In this sequel, Silver: Return to Treasure Island by Andrew Motion, Jim Hawkins’ son and Silver’s daughter Natty set sail, at the behest of Long John Silver, for that nightmare place, aiming to retrieve the silver abandoned there by their fathers. Motion perfectly captures the compelling, inexorable pace, sober tone and stark passions of the original.

  Hazel has terminal cancer and is a “grenade” doomed to cause emotional mayhem for anyone who loves her in John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars. Nevertheless Augustus, left with 1.4 legs after being treated for osteosarcoma, falls for her. And she for him. Acerbic teen wit, gaming, literature, illness, sexiness, suburbia and Anne Frank’s House all intertwine in plot, metaphor and themes both tragic and comic.

  Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein is a taut, captivating story of two women, spy and pilot, during World War II. Captured in Nazi-occupied France, Queenie staves off execution by divulging what she knows of the British war effort. Along with the wireless codes, she tells the story of her friendship with Maddie, a British pilot. This novel has multiple double-takes and surprises, and accrues irresistible emotional power.

  Wildlings Book One: Under My Skin, by Charles de Lint is a quick, adventure-laden read by an acclaimed Canadian fantasist. When Josh comes to after an altercation, he realizes that for a moment of fighting he became a mountain lion. He’s a “wilding,” a person who can shift between animal and human. But the government is corralling all wildings for “orientation and training,” and Josh and his ilk are in danger.

  Governmental suspicion, fear and suppression make Caitlyn’s life in Cheryl Rainfeld’s Hunted miserable. She’s Paranormal at a time when that’s illegal, so she and her mother are always on the run. At her new high school, even hyper-caution can’t keep her from the persecution of the “anti-Para” crowd.

Deirdre Baker reviews children’s books for the Star’s book pages every second Sunday.

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