middle grade Archives - Page 191 of 366

Spark and the League of Ursus
by Robert Repino (Author)

Booktalk: Toy Story meets Stranger Things in this tale of warrior teddy bears and the children they protect.

Spark is not your average teddy bear. She’s soft and cuddly, sure, but she’s also a fierce warrior. At night she fulfills her sacred duty: to protect the household from monsters. But Spark’s owner Loretta is growing up and thinks she doesn’t need her old teddy anymore.

When a monster unlike any other descends on the quiet home, everything changes. Children are going missing, and the monster wants Loretta next. Only Spark can stop it. She must call upon the ancient League of Ursus–a secret alliance of teddy bears who are pledged to protect their human friends. Together with an Amazon-princess doll and a timid sock monkey, the bears are all that stands between our world and the one that lies beneath. It will be a heroic chapter in the history of the League . . . if the bears live to tell the tale.

Snippet: Spark rested her head on Loretta’s chest, with her paw on the girl’s rib cage as it rose and fell with each breath. Loretta’s eyelashes fluttered, tickling Spark’s fuzzy ear. Spark liked it. Teddy bears like her were meant for this. They were meant to stay with their human, their best friend, and watch over them in the darkest hours of the night. Outside, the buzzing streetlamp glowed like a phony sun. The toys on the windowsill cast shadows on the rug. And as the house settled in, as the quietest stretch of the night began, Spark saw the monster for the first time.

It began with a scratching sound, loud enough to make Spark lift her head. In the corner of the room, a blackness spread outward. The hardwood floor and painted walls rippled and sank into darkness. Then the void glowed red like the embers of a fire. The light glinted off Loretta’s movie posters. Flickering shadows extended from the bookshelf and the enormous wooden desk. On top of the shelf, the sock monkey named Zed squatted with his paws over his eyes.

. . .

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Spy School Revolution
by Stuart Gibbs (Author)

Booktalk: With SPYDER defeated, Ben Ripley is looking forward to his life getting back to normal, or as normal as possible when you’re a superspy in training. For once, everything seems to be right in Ben’s world…until someone bombs the CIA conference room next door.

To Ben’s astonishment, the attacker is none other than Erica Hale, the spy-in-training he respects more than any other. Ben refuses to believe Erica is working for the enemy…even if the rest of the CIA does.

His mission: prove Erica is not a double agent working against the US, locate the fabled colonial-era insurgent group that’s blackmailing her, figure out what their devious plot is, and thwart it.

But this time, Ben finds himself up against opponents he has never encountered before: his own friends. They’re not as ready to trust in Erica as he is, and Ben is forced to rely on his own wits and skills more than ever before. How can he succeed when he doesn’t even know who he can trust?

Snippet: “Inconvenience?” Dad echoed. “It’s bit more than that. You’re asking us to give up everything!”

“I know,” Agent Durkee said. “But I promise we are going to do everything possible to protect you from now on. That’s why we decided to have this meeting here, at CIA headquarters, rather than your home. This building is the most secure facility in America. You’re as safe as –”

The air was suddenly split by the scream of something moving very fast, after which came the sounds of an explosion extremely close by. The entire room shook. A lighting fixture fell out of the ceiling and landed on the doughnuts with such force that all of the jelly-filled ones exploded.