“Viking Quest” series by Lois Walfrid Johnson

1. Raiders from the Sea
2. Mystery of the Silver Coins
3. The Invisible Friend
4. Heart of Courage
5. The Raider’s Promise

Fast-moving stories of Viking raiders and courageous captives.

Recommended age: 8 – 10; 10 – 12

In Raiders, a young Irish girl, Bree, is captured by Vikings.  Devin, her brother, comes to rescue her and falls into the Vikings’ trap.   However, Devin’s and Bree’s trials follow very different paths.

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 “Hank the Cowdog” series by John R. Erickson

Book Titles: 

1. The Original Adventures of Hank the Cowdog
2. The Further Adventures of Hank the Cowdog
3. It’s a Dog’s Life
4. Murder in the Middle Pasture
5. Faded Love
6. Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
7. The Curse of the Incredible Priceless Corncob
8. The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse
9. The Case of the Halloween Ghost
10. Every Dog Has His Day
11. Lost in the Dark Unchanted Forest
12. The Case of the Fiddle-Playing Fox
13. The Wounded Buzzard on Christmas Eve
14. Hank the Cowdog and Monkey Business
15. The Case of the Missing Cat
16. Lost in the Blinded Blizzard
17. The Case of the Car-Barkaholic Dog
18. The Case of the Hooking Bull
19. The Case of the Midnight Rustler
20. The Phantom in the Mirror
21. The Case of the Vampire Cat
22. The Case of the Double Bumblebee Sting
23. Moonlight Madness
24. The Case of the Black-Hooded Hangmans
25. The Case of the Swirling Killer Tornado
26. The Case of the Kidnapped Collie
27. The Case of the Night-Stalking Bone Monster
28. The Mopwater Files
29. The Case of the Vampire Vacuum Sweeper
30. The Case of the Haystack Kitties
31. The Case of the Vanishing Fishhook
32. The Garbage Monster from Outer Space
33. The Case of the Measled Cowboy
34. Slim’s Good-bye
35. The Case of the Saddle House Robbery
36. The Case of the Raging Rottweiler
37. The Case of the Deadly Ha-Ha Game
38. The Fling
39. The Secret Laundry Monster Files
40. The Case of the Missing Bird Dog
41.  The Case of the Shipwrecked Tree
42. The Case of the Burrowing Robot
43. The Case of the Twisted Kitty
44. The Dungeon of Doom
45. The Case of the Falling Sky
46. The Case of the Tricky Trap
47. The Case of the Tender Cheeping Chickies
48. The Case of the Monkey Burglar
49. The Case of the Booby-Trapped Pickup
50. The Case of the Most Ancient Bone
51. The Case of the Blazing Sky
52. The Quest for the Great White Quail
53. Drover’s Secret Life  
54. The Case of the Dinosaur Birds
55. The Case of the Secret Weapon
56. The Case of the Coyote Invasion
57. The Disappearance of Drover
58. The Case of the Mysterious Voice
59. The Case of the Perfect Dog
60. The Big Question
61. The Case of the Prowling Bear
62. The Ghost of Rabbits Past
63. The Return of the Charlie Monsters
64. The Case of the Three Rings
65. The Almost Last Roundup
66. The Christmas Turkey Disaster
67. Wagons West

As a whole, the series is a lot of clean, wholesome fun.   However, there are a few books which I do not recommend due to, in my opinion, spiritual aspects such as ghosts or other spiritual weirdness.  

Recommended age: 8 – 10; 10 – 12; 12 – 14

Hank and his sidekick, Drover, are cowdogs on a Texas ranch.  Hank views himself as Head of Ranch Security.   He has a rather high view of himself, but he is not as smart, good looking, strong, dangerous, brave, truthful and faithful as he thinks he is.  He blunders from one mishap to another, always getting in trouble, excusing himself, blaming others, using words that are too big for his vocabulary, and generally making an hilarious mess of the situation.   Following are brief summaries of the books that I have read.  In #1, ­Original Adventures, Hank feels unappreciated and leaves the ranch, taking up with a gang of rough Coyotes.   In # 2, Further Adventures, Hank fights a Doberman Pinscher and meets a owl witch.  In #3, Dog’s Life, Hank goes to visit his sister in town and gets her so upset that she tricks him into eating soap.  In #4, Murder, Hank outwits a gang of hoodlum dogs who are trying to take over the ranch.  In #5, Faded Love, Hank, all perfumed up by a dead skunk, goes to court Beulah.  In #6, Sleeping Dogs, Hank goes after a chicken killer on the ranch.  In #7, Corncob, Hank and Drover think that they are rich.  In #8, One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse, Hank rescues two girls from a horse bent on murder.  In #9, Halloween Ghost, Hank and Drover meet a ghost.  In #10, Every Dog Has His Day, Loper, Hank’s owner, is considering replacing Hank with a purebred Border Collie who is very good at herding cattle.  In #11, Unchanted Forest, Hank, with the help of Madame Moonshine, the witch, rescues little Alfred from a bobcat.  In #12, Fiddle-Playing Fox, Hank gets led astray by a fiddle-playing fox.  In #13, Wounded Buzzard, Hank helps rescue an old crotchety buzzard who crashed through the windshield of Slim’s truck.

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“Robots Rule” series by C. J. Richards

Book Titles:

1. The Junkyard Bot
2. Lots of Bots

Lots of fun and action

Recommended age: 8 – 10; 10 – 12; 12 – 14

George lives in a city filled with Robots.  One day he manages to create Artificial Intelligence in Jackbot, his helper robot.   Suddenly, Jackbot disappears, and George is attacked by a robotic garbage truck.    Helped by Anne, the daughter of the owner of the robot company, Tinkertown, he fights to save himself, Anne and the town from relentlessly rampaging robots.

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Herobear and the Kid – The Inheritance by Mike Kunkel

A Graphic Novel

An interesting story about a boy and his friend, who is a hero-polar bear

Recommended age: 8 – 10; 10 – 12

Tyler’s grandfather has just died and left him a toy bear and a broken watch—nothing that excites him very much.    But then he finds out that the toy bear turns into Herobear, and the watch tells Herobear where to go to fight evil.   Along the way, Tyler finds out something very surprising about himself and about his grandfather.

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Sticky Burr by John Lechner

Graphic Novel 

Being unfriendly isn’t the only way to build a friendship.

Recommended age: 8 – 10; 10 – 12

Summary of Plot: Sticky Burr doesn’t really fit in to his village in Burrwood Forest because he doesn’t have a prickly-enough personality.   But he rescues the village from a dangerous foe and wins the hearts of most of his fellow burrs.

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 “Kickers” Series by Rich Wallace

1. The Ball Hogs
2. Fake Out
3. Benched
4. Game-Day Jitters

Fun soccer stories for younger kids.

Recommended age: 8 – 10.  

Ben plays soccer.   The book follows him as he learns both to play soccer and to cooperate with and relate properly to his friends and competitors.

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“Spy Mice” series by Heather Vogel Frederick

1. The Black Paw
2. For Your Paws Only
3. Goldwhiskers

Fun stories of Glory and the Spy Mice agency and Glory’s human friend Ozymandius.

Recommended age: 8 – 10; 10 – 12; 12 – 14

In Black Paw, Glory, a young mouse, is in trouble because she has messed up and lost the Kiss of Death to Dupont, the evil leader of the rats.   At the same time, Oz is having trouble with school bullies.   But when Glory and Oz team up, things start to happen.   In Paws, Oz and DB go to New York to compete in a contest, and Glory and Bunson go to New York to foil the plans of a gathering of the most evil rats in the world.  In Goldwhiskers, a large rat in London uses orphan mouslings, including one named “Twist” to steal jewels and other valuables.   Oz, D.B. and Glory are in London for a trip, and get involved when Oz and D.B. are implicated in one especially notorious theft by the rat and his helpers.

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“Greetings from Somewhere” series by Harper Paris

Easy Chapter Book (for 8 – 10 year olds).

• The Mystery of the Gold Coin
• The Mystery of the Mosaic
• The Mystery of the Stolen Painting
• The Mystery in the Forbidden City

Short, easy-to-read, interesting detective stories for young children.

Recommended age: 8 – 10

In Mystery of the Mosaic, Twins Ella and Ethan Briar are in Venice where they solve a mystery involving a stolen gondola.

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“The Riot Brothers” series by Mary Amato

1. Snarf Attack, Underfoodle, and the Secret of Life; The Riot Brothers Tell All
2. Drooling and Dangerous: The Riot Brothers Return!
3. Stinky and Successful: The Riot Brothers Never Stop
4. Take the Mummy and Run: The Riot Brothers are on a Roll

Very funny adventures of two elementary-aged boys.

Recommended age: 8 – 10; 10 – 12

In Snarf Attack, we are introduced to Orville and Wilbur Riot — two boys with too much energy but a lot of ideas.   They lead us through a series of escapades, teaching us how to amuse ourselves at the table, how to be annoying, how to play games when you are bored, how to catch crooks and dethrone a king.   In the second book, they throw plastic bugs at each other and do everything in reverse.  In the third book, the Riot Brothers continue their plan of a new mission every day — rescuing a damsel in distress, being mad scientists, and pulling an April Fool’s joke on their mother.   In the fourth book, they look for a lost mummy.

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