Book picks similar to
Explosive Adventures by Alexander McCall Smith


children
first-reads
audio_wanted
books-that-i-have

Doctor Who Mad Libs


Mad Libs - 2014
    Who! This Mad Libs is 48 pages with 21 original stories.

Pillage


Obert Skye - 2008
    Upon his mother's death, fifteen-year-old Beck Phillips is sent to live with an eccentric uncle he had never met in a remote manor house, where he learns that his family suffers from a curse that allows him to make plants grow on command and dragon eggs hatch.

Stephen King 6: The Bachman Books/Thinner/The Tommyknockers


Stephen King - 1990
    

The Silver Guitar: A Julie Mystery


Kathryn Reiss - 2011
    But then she learns her friend T.J. is in trouble. In the process of uncovering the clues that may prove T.J.'s innocence, she begins to wonder whether the people involved with the auction may be keeping some awful secrets.

Traitor in the Shipyard: A Caroline Mystery


Kathleen Ernst - 2013
    Then, a long lost friend of Papa's shows up in town. Papa is delighted to give him a job at Abbott's Shipyard, but soon, strange things start going wrong. Caroline is sure a spy is making trouble at the yard--but is it one of Abbott's trusted workers, whom she has known all her life, or could it be Papa's dear friend? An illustrated "Looking Back" section discusses the role of spies in the War of 1812.

InvestiGators


John Patrick Green - 2020
    MANGO and BRASH are the INVESTIGATORS:sewer-loving agents of S.U.I.T.* and scourge of supervillains everywhere!With their Very Exciting Spy Technology and their tried-and-true, toilet-based travel techniques, the InvestiGators are undercover and on the case! And on their first mission together, they have not one but two mysteries to solve! Can Mango and Brash uncover the clues, crack their cases, and corral the crooks—or will the criminals wriggle out of their grasp?*Special Undercover Investigation Teams

Mez's Magic


Eliot Schrefer - 2018
    Nightwalker panthers, like young Mez and her sister, have always feared daywalkers as creatures of myth and legend.Then Mez discovers that she can enter the daylight world, and she rushes to discover what it means to cross the Veil—and the extent of her newly uncovered magical powers—before a reawakened evil threatens everything she’s ever known.Now, with an unlikely group of animal friends—including a courageous bat, a scholarly tree frog, and an anxious monkey—Mez must unravel an ancient mystery and face her greatest fears, if they are to have any hope of saving their endangered rainforest home.

Susannah's Garden / Back on Blossom Street / Twenty Wishes: CD Collection


Debbie Macomber - 2009
    She said goodbye to her boyfriend, Jake—and never saw him again. Now, at fifty, she finds herself regretting the paths not taken. Especially the chance to be with Jake.… In returning to her hometown of Colville, Washington, to her parents’ house, her girlhood friends and the garden she’s always loved, she also returns to the past—and the choices she made back then.Back on Blossom Street:There’s a new shop on Seattle’s Blossom Street—a flower store called Susannah’s Garden, right next door to A Good Yarn. Susannah Nelson, the owner, has just hired a young widow named Colette Blake. A couple of months earlier, Colette had abruptly quit her previous job—after a brief affair with her boss. To her dismay, he’s suddenly begun placing weekly orders for flower arrangements!Twenty Wishes:Anne Marie Roche wants to find happiness again. At thirty-eight, her life’s not what she’d expected—she’s childless, a recent widow, alone. She owns a successful bookstore on Seattle’s Blossom Street, but despite her accomplishments, there’s a feeling of emptiness. On Valentine’s Day, Anne Marie and several other widows get together to celebrate…what? Hope, possibility, the future. They each begin a list of twenty wishes, things they always wanted to do but never did. Anne Marie begins to act on her wishes, and when she volunteers at a local school, an eight-year-old girl named Ellen enters her life.

Schmidt Steps Back


Louis Begley - 2011
    His only hope is Alice Verplanck, the French widow of a former partner, as elusive as she is beautiful. Whether his rusty seduction skills can lure her from Paris to the Hamptons won’t be known, though, until Schmidt endures one more ordeal by fire. Hilarious, engrossing, and deeply poignant, Schmidt Steps Back is Louis Begley’s finest novel yet.

Wild Boy


Rob Lloyd Jones - 2013
    Snatched up by an unscrupulous and abusive showman, Wild Boy, covered in hair from head to toe, becomes a sideshow freak. Isolated from other children and wickedly abused by the cruel master who bought him, Wild Boy becomes an avid observer, developing Sherlock Holmes–like deductive skills. Although he is tormented and insulted, kicked and spat at, his quick mind takes in everything he sees. When a murder occurs at the fair, Wild Boy is hastily accused. Can he use his powers of deduction to save himself? And will the talented and spunky young acrobat Clarissa be with him — or against him? Readers will be swept along by the cinematic pace, immersed in the vivid historical setting, and gripped by suspense as they wait to find out if a better fate could possibly await someone so very different.

Monster of the Year


Bruce Coville - 1989
    Michael and his friend Steve decide to launch a Monster of the Year contest, setting the stage for one of the creepiest beauty pageants ever.

The Collectors


Jacqueline West - 2018
    That’s why the Collectors are always keeping watch.Van has always been an outsider. Most people don’t notice him. But he notices them. And he notices the small trinkets they drop, or lose, or throw away—that’s why his collection is full of treasures. Then one day, Van notices a girl stealing pennies from a fountain, and everything changes. He follows the girl, Pebble, and uncovers an underground world full of wishes and the people who collect them. Apparently not all wishes are good and even good wishes often have unintended consequences—and the Collectors have made it their duty to protect us. But they aren't the only ones who have their eyes on the world’s wishes—and they may not be the good guys, after all.

Night of the Purple Moon


Scott Cramer - 2012
    Her younger brother, Jordan, is having no problem fitting in and making friends.Everyone on Castine Island is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the purple moon, caused by a comet entering the Earth's atmosphere. Scientists expected this thrilling phenomenon and food companies are churning out purple-colored products in celebration of the comet’s arrival.The morning following the comet’s debut Abby and Jordan make a chilling discovery: every adult on the island is dead. The children of the island band together to withstand their new circumstances, and the older kids quickly learn a gripping truth about their own ticking clocks. It's only a matter of time before they succumb to the comet bacteria, but can they raise the next generation to survive?"Frightening and inspiring" - Kirkus Reviews. Riveting dystopian drama for all ages (13+)Alternate Cover edition for ISBN 9780615637082

The Forest of Stars


Heather Kassner - 2020
    Long ago, a powerful gust of wind swept through town, stealing him away on the wings of his untamed magic—the same magic that stirs within Louisa. As if she is made of hollow bones and too much air, her feet never quite touch the ground. But for all her sky gazing, Louisa finds her fortune on the leaf-strewn street when she spots a gleaming black-and-gold invitation—a ticket to the Carnival Beneath the Stars. If her father fits in nowhere else, maybe she’ll find him there, dazzling crowds alongside the other strange and wonderful feats. Only, soon after she arrives, a tightrope act ends disastrously—and suspiciously. As fate tugs Louisa closer to the stars, she must decide if she’s willing to slip into the injured performer’s role, despite the darkness plucking at the carnival’s magical threads.

The Wingsnatchers


Sarah Jean Horwitz - 2017
    When fate throws Carmer across the path of fiery, flightless faerie princess Grit (do not call her Grettifrida), they strike a deal. If Carmer will help Grit investigate a string of faerie disappearances, she’ll use her very real magic to give his mechanical illusions a much-needed boost against the competition. But Carmer and Grit soon discover they’re not the only duo trying to pair magic with machine – and the combination can be deadly.In this story perfect for readers of the Lockwood & Co and Wildwood series, Sarah Jean Horwitz takes readers on a thrilling journey through a magical wooded fairyland and steampunk streets where terrifying automata cats lurk in the shadows and a mad scientist’s newest mechanical invention might be more menace than miracle.