Read a YA Book Series this Summer
You’ve seen them on library and book store shelves—a book series. They are actually a book sequence having certain elements in common including characters, setting, and timeline. Some works in a series can be read in any order, like the Koolura Series. In a “Stand Alone” series each book makes few references to previous books in the series and the characters rarely change. Think the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. In a “Sequence” series, like Harry Potter, the books must be read in order for full enjoyment and comprehension.
Below you’ll find 3-4 different book series Pop highly recommends for your reading enjoyment this summer.
Cedar Creek Mystery Series. 
Author: Anne Loader McGee
Type of Series: Stand Alone
Age: 9-14
Publisher: Vendera Publishing
Book 1: The Mystery at Marlatt Manor
Mallory Gilmartin, uprooted by divorce from her Philadelphia home, is transplanted to rural Virginia. Cedar Creek is a complete bore and its middle school doesn’t even have a girls’ baseball team. Everything changes fast when a sports car forces the thirteen-year-old cyclist off the road and into a ditch as it speeds away from the spooky house on the hill.
Soon after, Mallory’s mom tells her about Violet Marlatt, a missing teen who disappeared 50 years ago from Marlatt Manor during a party, and was never seen again. That night, Mallory sees a flickering light in the deserted house followed by the silhouette of a girl. Could that be Violet’s ghost?
Book 2: The Mystery of the Missing Ming
Teen sleuth Mallory Gilmartin is back in a new adventure. Last time we heard from her in The Mystery at Marlatt Manor, Malory was unraveling a devious plot regarding a deserted mansion. In her new Cedar Creek Mystery, someone stole librarian Edna May Florentine’s valuable Ming vase from her home. To make matters worse, a mysterious interloper is accusing the elderly librarian of stealing that same vase from his house 30 years ago; so the local heat takes Edna May away in handcuffs.
Anne Loader McGee brings us book two of the Cedar Creek Mystery series, The Mystery of the Missing Ming. With her signature crisp sentences and humorous dialogue, McGee keeps readers engaged in a fun-filled adventure that unfolds during the 1970s in Cedar Creek, Virginia.
The cast of characters include Aggie Hobbs, Mallory’s 60 something grandma, who expects her grand children to call her Aggie, OR ELSE! Sidekick, Kyle, reluctantly gets involved in Mallory and Aggie’s schemes that too often get him into trouble with his dad and or the law. Added to the mix is Mallory’s gift of communicating with the dearly departed. McGee swirls this around with her magical wand creating a thoroughly enchanting novel that readers won’t be able to put down.
Red City Review says: Koolura Akopyan just graduated from the sixth grade, and, for the most part, she seems like any other “tween.” She likes popular music, movies, gossiping with her friends, and spending time with cute boys. But there’s much more to this young Armenian gal than meets the eye–and, when you find out her secrets, you’ll be shocked, surprised, and thoroughly entertained.
Author Penny Estelle says: I’ve read all of the Koolura stories and as usual, Mr. Thal does not disappoint with the third book in the series. Once again, twelve year old Koolura, and her friend, Leila, are up to their necks in hot water.
While visiting Mexico the two girls, through special powers, pop into an ancient pyramid. Nosing around Leila stumbles across something that terrifies Koolura. It’s a…..No – I don’t do spoilers! They are blipped back to an ancient Mayan Village that is in big trouble. Steps are in motion that could change civilization as we know it. If things are changed, present day earth could be doomed. Can two young girls fix things and more to the point – how do they get back?
Michael Thal is such a wonderful storyteller! This is a great story for the tween in your life (or any age). Highly recommended!
Sons of Neptune SeriesShane and Sam are brothers. Shane is in college and Sam is about to finish high school. Each summer the boys escape for a few weeks into the wilderness outside of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania to hunt and evade the hustle and bustle of the real world. This year, when the boys return from the mountains to their jeep they find a suicide victim with a note in his hand, “If anyone finds this, I saved another bullet in my pocket for you.”
Weird? Maybe. But Shane and Sam are about to encounter a new world dominated by fierce man-eating reptiles and huge spiders. Where are the people? That’s the boys’ first question that eventually gets answered. And what caused the apocalypse?
As the boys go into survival mode they meet other humans looking for answers. Eventually a small tribe is formed as the group, led by Shane and Sam, take refuge in a mountain resort.
The young humans uncover two nearby bands of survivalists. The first is led by an evil genius scientist named Dexter who hates George, the leader of the less scary group of scientists searching for the reasons why lizards mutated from Earth’s human population. Dexter will stop at nothing to retrieve a mysterious box that George refuses to turn over to him.
Author Rod Little has developed a well thought out apocalypse scenario that is plausible and scary. Little does a superb job of writing an exciting plot, well- developed characters with scenes readers can easily visualize.
In book 2 the boys take refuge at the vacant Peak Castle Lodge, a ski resort in the mountains of Northern Pennsylvania. They actively pursue other refugees to join them to fight the Sayans, a species of human-like people living inside Triton, a moon of Neptune. These invaders have decided to relocate their civilization to a more hospitable environment than their icy lunar home, but they are ruthless and will use chemical weapons of mass destruction without a second thought.
One of the characters the boys meet is Dexter, a sadistic scientist who may have the answer in assisting them in their fight—an alien warship. The only problem, the UFO is stuck in ice in the Artic Circle.
The Peak Castle Lodge refugees have a strange ally, intelligent spiders mutated by the Sayan weapons. They communicate with the humans through an Earthman, Bohai, who has the rare ability of communicating telepathically with animals.
Revenge’s action never stops, the plot is rich in ideas, the characters are fleshed out nicely, and the gorgeous settings are described perfectly keeping readers focused.
Book 3: The Last Star Base
The Last Starbaseis book 3 in the Sons of Neptune series. Shane, Sam, and company discover an ancient starship, the Praihawk, buried in the Artic and plan to use it to get help from their ancestors of long ago.
The Peak, a refugee stronghold established by Shane and Sam, is attracting survivors of the alien invasion. But, are all of these people really human and is there a spy in their midst working for Lusus, the alien rebel Commander?
Sam and Bohai, the boy who can communicate with animals, take the Praihawk and push the button that will return it to its home base. After weeks in space, they encounter an amazing starbase at the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy. But there’s one problem—the base is deserted except for an android and a very lonely old man.
Rod Little continues with his writing excellence in this third installment of the Sons of Neptune series. His environmental descriptions keep readers grounded, his character depictions continue readers’ investment in their trials, and his plot is padded with pages of exciting reading.
Book 4: The Boneyards of the Nebula
The Boneyards of Nebula (Sons of Neptune Book 4) is the last installment of Rod Little’s captivating Sons of Neptune series. Tucked away safely on Starbase 21, the men and women of Earth receive a distress signal from a dark anomaly in space; a starship graveyard known as the Boneyards of Nebula.
Not one to turn down a good rescue, Sam, the boy with the spark, and Bohai, the boy who can communicate with animals, team up with George, an American soldier, and Dexter, a Sayan scientist to take the starship Praihawk into the Nebula’s Boneyards, a graveyard of derelict spacecraft; remnants of a centuries old war between Sayans and Earthians. It is a place contaminated with radiation and biological pollutants. No one in their right mind would go there and few who have, return.
While the Praihawk is exploring the Boneyards, creatures with the ability to live in the vacuum of space invade Starbase 21 and begin devouring human prey.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, the rebel Sayan leader, Commander Lucus, now controls most of the planet except for Australia and Sri Lanka, still in the hands of Earthlings and the spider army. He has a secret weapon of mass destruction he has no problem unleashing on his enemies.
Rod Little continues writing a non-stop action novel with fascinating characters, exciting plot twists, and colorful descriptions that make readers feel they are on the scene witnessing the story as it unravels before their eyes.
The Young Adult (YA) book market targets teens from 12-18, but most of the books have an adult following. No matter what your age, the books mentioned above will hold the fascination of readers of any age. Plunge into a YA series and have yourself a great summer read.
I highly recommend the The Koolura Series .