Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.
Audience: Grades 7 and up

My Rating: 5* of 5

Summary: Witnessing the horrific death of his adored Grandfather sets sixteen-year-old Jacob to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and the reality of his Grandfather's once unbelievable tales.
Comments: An interesting, exciting, often chilling story of unlikely superheroes known here as "peculiars." A compelling protagonist takes us through fun twists, peppered with many effective holocaust metaphors, and the supernatural elements are easy to swallow. Found vintage photographs throughout the book are often creepier than the writing.
Read-alikes: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness; Bruiser by Neal Shusterman

Zombiekins by Bolger

Zombiekins by Kevin Bolger, Razorbill 2010.
My Rating: 5 *s out of 5!!!

Drop everything and read Zombiekins! Oh, baby, is this a gem. Be prepared to laugh hysterically and uncontrollably so chose your reading locations accordingly. Bolger writes with pitch perfect pacing and razor sharp wit; in this case he deftly spoofs every zombie movie you've ever seen and wraps it in a cute (though slightly macabre), fluffy package.

Give this book to every 4th, 5th, or 6th grader who walks in the door! Especially fans of Franny K. Stein or Bunnicula. Pure, dark, genius!!!

"Don't worry, this isn't a real zombie. It's just a stuffy with a sort of macabre, half-dead appearance."

"Zombiekins started to cross the room, walking stiffly and with a limp--one leg swiveling on its teddy-bear joint, the other dragging like a dead limb...Stump!--scri-i-i-i-i-itch..."

"In Ms. Mellow's kindergarten the classroom was bustling with non-gender-specific role-playing activites...In the Playhouse, one boy was pretending to be the kind of daddy who liked to wear an apron and bake mud pies, while the girl he was playing with was pretending to be the kind of mommy who liked to throw dishes and yell at you to get a job."

The Graveyard Book (audio)

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. 2008.
Audience: 5th or 6th Grade and up; 10 and up
My Rating: 3.5*s of 5
Summary: The orphan Bod, short for Nobody, is taken in by the inhabitants of a graveyard as a child of eighteen months and raised lovingly and carefully to the age of eighteen years by the community of ghosts and otherworldly creatures.

Comments: I first picked up this book right after it's release in Sept. of 2008 being a big Gaiman fan and eager to read his newest. About the time I got to the ghoul scene, I lost interest and put it down. Now, since Gaiman himself narrates, I made it through the entire audio book much more easily (though I still found the ghoul scene boring and somewhat pointless). This is not my favorite of his books (I much preferred Anansi Boys) and is often too reminiscent of Coraline. However, it carries Gaiman's usual charming voice; the "Dance the Macabre" chapter is enchantingly well written. The beginning is quite scary, especially in print with the dark illustrations. The setting and characters are certainly original for a younger, coming of age story and I appreciate the overall message of the value of life as well as the cost of living in fear.
Awards: Newbery Medal winner, 2009!
Read-alikes: Coraline