Favorite New Store Picks

The newest book in the Fablehaven series, and everyone's excited! Tina and Chris love this series, as well as all our Teen Pick reviewers. After centuries of plotting, the Sphinx—leader of the Society of the Evening Star—is after the final artifacts needed to open the great demon prison, Zzyzx. If the legendary prison is opened, a tide of evil is certain to usurp control of the world. In an effort to intercept the final artifacts, Kendra, Seth and the Knights of the Dawn race to strange and exotic preserves across the globe. The stakes have never been higher. The risks have never been more deadly. In this explosive series finale, allegiances will be confirmed and secrets revealed as the forces of light and darkness collide in a desperate, climactic battle to control the keys to the demon prison.

This is a genius concept -- the kids' equivalent of a classic guy bull session, centering on two playmates' favorite toys. So, who's better -- Shark or Train? That all depends. When trick-or-treating, Shark is the clear winner, thanks to his intimidating smile (The clown is "very" hungry, he says, as a bowl of candy is poured into his bag). But in a marshmallow-roasting contest, Train triumphs by virtue of his built-in, coal-stoked rotisserie. Just when readers will think the scenarios can't get more absurd (bowling, a burping contest), the book moves into even funnier territory: hypotheticals in which neither comes out on top (their imposing presences make them ripe targets for getting shushed in a library, and their lack of opposable thumbs means neither is very good at video games). Lichtenheld's ("Duck! Rabbit!") watercolor cartoons have a fluidity and goofy intensity that recalls "Mad" magazine, while Barton ("The Day-Glo Brothers") gives the characters snappy dialogue throughout. That counts as a strike, right? says Shark, having eaten an entire lane of bowling pins. This is why you guys have a bad reputation, retorts Train. Ages 36. "(Apr.)" Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.

Meet Vish Puri, India's most private investigator. Portly, persistent, and unmistakably Punjabi, he cuts a determined swath through modern India's swindlers, cheats, and murderers. In hot and dusty Delhi, where call centers and malls are changing the ancient fabric of Indian life, Puri's main work comes from screening prospective marriage partners, a job once the preserve of aunties and family priests. But when an honest public litigator is accused of murdering his maidservant, it takes all of Puri's resources to investigate. With his team of undercover operatives--Tubelight, Flush, and Facecream--Puri combines modern techniques with principles of detection established in India more than two thousand years ago, and reveals modern India in all its seething complexity. *Starred Review* Author of To The Elephant Graveyard (2000), a compelling nonfiction account of the hunt for a man-killing elephant in India, Hall turns to fiction with the debut of what promises to be an outstanding series. Vish Puri, a somewhat overweight (and reluctantly dieting) middle-aged man, is owner and founder of Most Private Investigations (if youre thinking Mma Ramotswe, youre right on the mark). Puri heads a large cast of employees, friends, and family members, each of whom is realistically portrayed and thoroughly distinctive, from the slow-to-start Tubelight, through undercover woman Facecream, and on to Mummy-ji, Puris obstinate but intelligent mother. Set in modern-day Delhi, the novel is dense with atmosphere, creating a delightful mix of the exotic and familiar through wildly idiomatic American English dialogue and nicely integrated references to food, customs, and clothing. Puri takes on the case of the missing servant after an old friend is accused of his servants murder. At the same time, more routine matrimonial investigations continue, with Puri working for an old army officer determined to stop his granddaughters marriage to a successful young businessman. (After Puri is shot at on his balcony, Mummy-ji takes over the investigation, using the Most Usual Suspects file.) An excellent, delightfully humorous mystery with an unforgettable cast of characters, The Case of the Missing Servant immediately joins the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency as representing the best in international cozies.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)