Uma Krishnaswami has created a true summer delight: The Grand Plan to Fix Everything. Dini and Maddie are best friends who love the fabulous Bollywood movies, especially the 'filmis' featuring the beautiful singer/actress Dolly Singh. The BFFs are all excited about attending a summer Bollywood dance camp together when Dini's physician-mother bursts their dream bubble: she finally got the grant to open a clinic and they are moving to India for two years in two weeks! After the shock has passed, the girls console themselves with the hope that Dini might be able to meet Dolly and find out what seems to be troubling her.

The Memory Bank by Carolyn Coman and Rob Shepperson is an enjoyable, but puzzling story. Soft black&white pictures tell some of the story, as with Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret. It has the dark, mysterious aura of Gaiman's Coraline. Parental figures are rather horrific, as one might find in Roald Dahl's creations. Hope Scroggins becomes entangled in the WWMB (World Wide Memory Bank) and a dream realm in a desperate search for her younger sister whom her parents told her to forget about after dumping Honey out of the car for misbehavior. But the whole book has a very surrealistic quality to it and I am wondering what is real, what is dreamed, what is the intent of the authors. As Keats might say, "Gone is the vision. Do I wake, or do I sleep?" So I am asking all readers to please post your thoughts/feelings/reactions to this awesome, but mysterious story.

Ready for another fantastic fantasy series? The Books of Beginning is here, beginning with The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens. Meet Kate, Michael, and Emma — siblings who have been ousted from many orphanages ever since the disappearance of their parents 10 years ago. They finally wind up in a very strange home in Cambridge Falls run by a Dr. Pym that has no other children at all. While exploring this run-down mansion, they happen upon a mysterious emerald atlas that has the power to transport them in time. From this point on their lives are filled with fast-paced magical adventures in that age-old struggle between good and evil.