Tween Literature Roundup - Grandparents.com

Stories about how smart kids finish first, even when the entire world is against them.

When your grandchild is a smart kid who leans toward being a little eccentric (what some people might call a “nerd”), he or she may feel powerless in everyday life. Fortunately, many of the last generation of nerds grew up to be writers — and now we have an entire subgenre of young-adult novels devoted to associating “smart” with “awesome.” In this trio of novels, kids with all sorts of smarts use their natural gifts to solve problems and save the day.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Scholastic Press, 2007)
By Brian Selznick

Though reluctant readers might scoff at the sheer size of the 531-page book, they’ll be sold when they hear that 284 of those are taken up by drawings. We’re told to follow the narrator into the inner passages of a Paris train station, where we meet a sad but curious boy named Hugo Cabret. Hugo’s job is to wind each of the huge clocks in the train station — a job he took over after his uncle died and Hugo had no place to go. Like his father (who died mysteriously in a fire), Hugo has a talent for fixing and manipulating the mechanical. Any kid who has ever tried to avoid adults will find him or herself rooting for Hugo as he desperately tries to solve the mystery of the automaton, the remaining piece of his father’s work.

Price: $15.63
For ages: 9-12
Available at: Amazon.com

The Mysterious Benedict Society (Little, Brown Young Readers, 2007)
By Trenton Lee Stewart

Each of the four members of the Mysterious Benedict Society took the same test — but none of them answered the questions the same way. Reynie, Sticky, Kate, and Constance were all chosen for Mr. Benedict’s important mission because of their unique talents. Reynie for his reasoning and leadership tendencies, Sticky for his photographic memory, Kate for her MacGyver-like abilities to get out of any situation, and Constance for her extreme stubbornness (which comes in surprisingly handy). This foursome infiltrates the education complex of an evil man set to take over the world through mind control, and only the wisest of young minds can put a stop to it. This nail-biter gives the reader four characters who, despite their talents, display all the natural emotions of tweens in crisis.

Price: $11.55
For ages: 9-12
Available at: Amazon.com

The Calder Game (Scholastic Press, 2008)
By Blue Balliett

Not only does this book, like the previous two, extol the virtues of having a knack for math or a penchant for words, it also celebrates two free-thinking artists. The Calder Game begins with a visit to the The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, where the largest collection of Calder mobile art is on display. Three friends, Calder (a math and symbols genius, but named after the artist), Tommy (an expert collector), and Petra (a constant writer), fall in love with the work, and particularly with the Calder Game, the part of the exhibit where you get to design your own real or conceptual five-armed mobile. A week later, on vacation with his father in Woodstock, England, Calder finds himself among those with an entirely different feeling about Calder artwork. This tidy old English town became home to a large piece of Calder sculpture donated by a mysterious American benefactor. But when both the sculpture and the boy go missing, Tommy and Petra are called in to solve the mystery and bring Calder back to safety.