Here are some books you might enjoy ~

📖 The Friendship Garden series Jenny Meyerhof by begins with Green Thumbs Up.  It is a realistic fiction series with science and social activism mixed in.

Anna has moved from green upstate New York to gray Chicago.  Everything is dull, bland and lonely until a 3rd grade class project leads Anna to Shoots and Leaves, the community garden.  Anna loves gardening.  It takes some work, but she finally convinces Reed and Kaya that they should form a school gardening club.

One thing leads to another and soon Anna has many garden friends, delicious fresh food and lots to celebrate.  After all, almost everything you need to learn about science and life can be learned around a garden.

📖 The first in a still growing series,  The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands is a suspenseful fantasy adventure of friendship and intrigue set in 1665.  It is challenging time to live, but Christopher Rowe has found comfort in his life.  He has been accepted as an apothecary’s apprentice, with hope that he can one day be part of the Guild.  He is lucky to have this position because he is an orphan (who cares about orphans) AND because his master, Benedict Blackthorn, is kind and caring.

Christopher feels his luck everyday as he works beside his master to prepare medicines and salves, potions and ointments.  His best friend, Tom Bailey, is beaten and shamed everyday by his dad.  He, on the other hand, is encouraged and questioned, given books of all kinds to read and taught lessons helping him to explore new ideas.

Christopher learns it is his duty to find ways to make the world a better place.   But others challenge this notion.  A mysterious cult is in search of something they believe the apothecaries have.  They will stop at nothing to reach their goal and so, one by one, are murdering the apothecaries.

The day after Christopher’s birthday, the day after he solves the mystery of his puzzling gift, and the day after Benedict Blackthorn fall prey to the cult, Christopher receive a cryptic warning.  He must break the code and uncover the key to a terrible secret that could tear the world to apart in the wrong hands.

This story is full of exciting adventure and heart-stopping suspense.  You’ll be eagerly turning pages to the very end.  One thing is certain – nothing is as it seems.  Even when you get to the end some questions remain.  What would you do in Christopher’s place?

📖 You’ll also enjoy The Silver Jaguar Society mysteries by Kate Messner.  In the first, Capture the Flag,  Anna, Jose and Henry come together save The Star Spangled Banner (yes, the real one that flew over Fort McHenry in the War of 1812) before it is lost forever.  It’s an exciting adventure that happens in the Washington DC airport when all flights are canceled by a spring snowstorm.  The good guys and the bad guys are all trapped together which makes for some pretty tense moments and some very creative thinking.