"Half-Moon Investigations" by Eoin Colfer

ISBN #978-0-7862-9362-9

Fletcher Moon is a private detective and he has the badge to prove it. He may only be 12 years old, but he has already taken an online detective class and scored the highest points ever!

So he's seen a lot; homework counterfeiters, thieves who steal candy from babies...he's an experienced man. But he has a problem...he has yet to make money off this detective business. Being a 12 year old detective means he's often paid with candy, and while he loves candy, he needs real money. Fletcher, though, is not only 12 years old, he's also one of the smallest kids in the school, so everyone calls him Half-Moon. But just how good is Fletcher? Good enough that he solved his first crime when he was only 3 years old! At that time one of his day care workers was missing a ring...after watching them desperately searching everywhere, Fletcher offers his assistance:

"Mary Ann took the ring," I told them.

Monique tried to be professional through her hysteria. "Now Fletcher, we've talked about this. No making up stories."

"Mary Ann took the ring," I insisted, scowling through the cracker crumbs around my lips.

Mary Ann picked up a building block and hefted it at my head. It made a solid contact, felling me like a tree trunk. Once the bleeding had stopped, I made a second attempt to break the case.

"Mary Ann took the ring," I said again. "Come see."

I dragged Monique over to the sink.

"Look, " I said, pointing to a red smear on the stainless steel, near where the ring had been. "Jam." Mary Ann had jam."
Monique's expression changed from patient to interested.

"That's true, I suppose, but other people had jam."

I had more evidence. "Look. On the floor. Marks."

Monique checked the floors. Wet tracks led across the tiles and onto the Disney rug. Four tracks. A walker.

"Mary Ann has wheels," I said.

It was the clincher. Only Mary Ann had jam and a walker."

(from pages 59-61)

Now Half-Moon knows alot, and he stays on top of things by keeping informants. Among his best is Doobie Doyle, and one day Doobie tells Moon that Herod Sharkey needs his help, and Herod was bad news. The Sharkey family are responsible for much of the crime in the town...so what can Half-Moon do? What would you do? Half-Moon decides to help, but he ends up getting Herod in trouble, and Herod's big brother, Red, doesn't like it and takes Fletcher's badge...but what else has he taken?

The next day, he is hired by a girl named April to find the person responsible for stealing something very important from her...and she suspects it was Red who took her item. What's going on here? Is Red a one man crime spree? Fletcher finds out that there's been a whole lot of crimes committed in town...crimes that nobody can solve because nobody thinks they're related, but he does. And why are so many trouble making boys being kicked out of school for crimes they claim they are innocent of? Is someone setting them up? And what happens when Half-Mooon himself is accused of crimes he has not committed? Something is fishy...but Half-Moon has to go undercover to find out what's going on, because not only do they think he burned down a girl's clubhouse...he escaped from the police. And who is his only ally as he attempts to prove his innocence and solve the crime? Red Sharkey.

Will Half-Moon clear his name? Will he and Red solve the mystery of this crime spree? Does Red give him back his badge? To find out, read the book!

"Toad Rage" by Morris Gleitzman

ISBN: 0-375-82762-5

Limpy is a cane toad, and he has one question he wants his family to answer: "Why do humans hate us?"

The cane toad is huge, ugly, and has caused havoc on the natural ecology of Australia...besides this, they are highly poisonous. Limpy, however, does not understand any of this, nor does he understand why humans have to squish toads on the roads! You see, the Australian cane toad likes to eat bugs…and they need flying bugs in order to get all of their essential nutrients. The problem is that the flying buys all hang out on the highway…which means that getting a well balanced diet often means a toad or two gets squished! Sometimes, humans actually seem to AIM THEIR CARS at the toads!

Limpy has a cousin named Goliath; Goliath is the biggest, strongest, handsomest cane toad in the area, but he’s definitely not the smartest.

One day, Limpy, Goliath, and Limpy’s sister Charm are on the highway. When a truck approaches, Goliath picks up a stick ‘cause he’s decided he’s going to stop the truck and beat the living daylights out of the murdering human! Unfortunately, Goliath ends up being squished! Well Limpy decides that enough is enough! So he begins a quest; he will find the human cities and bring peace between humankind and toadkind!

Will he be able to do it? What challenges will he face? To find out, read the book!

"The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1" by PJ Haarsma

ISBN: 978-0-7636-2709-6

The seed ship "Renaissance" has been traveling through deep space for a very long time, so long that Johnny Turnbull and all the other children on the ship were actually born and raised on the ship. Their parents, you see, had entered into a contract to come and work on planet Orbis; in exchange for their virtual slave status, they would be rewarded with citizenship when their contracts expired.

Unfortunately there was a problem on the ship and all of the parents died. The contract had prevented them from bringing children to the planet, but they had decided to smuggle their frozen embryos on the ship. As soon as they died, the onboard computer decided to unfreeze the embryos! So the children have been raised by the computer, whom they named Mother; Mother teaches them everything they need to know…she prepares synthetic foods for them, she tells them about their parents, about earth, and about the planet they are going to.

*****

The planet Orbis is occupied by the Keepers and the people of the Trading Council, who thousands of years ago fought a war for control of the planet…and ended up with a truce that allowed the Keepers to rule the planet while the Trading Council controls its riches. In this war, the Keepers were allied to a race of warriors called Space Jumpers. These fearsome warriors could travel through space at will…but only if called by another Space Jumper. The Trading Council is so afraid of the Space Jumpers that as part of the peace agreement, the Space Jumpers are banished form Orbis.

*****

When the Renaissance and its ship full of children arrive, the aliens are upset. They expected full grown humans! They decide to separate the children and give them as slaves to the Trading Council to make up for the money they lost when the parents died on the Renaissance. But Johnny had a special gift. He could talk to Mother without being on a computer…he used his mind. When the aliens take the children and are getting ready to put an implant on them so they can communicate with them…one of the aliens stops Johnny from getting it. He wonders why…if he does not download the software he can't talk with the aliens. Then, through a translation box, one of the aliens tells him to download the software with his mind! And he does. Johhny is the first human softwire…and now the aliens all want him…until the computer that runs the entire planet starts to experience problems…and Johnny is blamed!

What will happen? Read the book to find out!