Mystery Friendship

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.

Children’s classics for decades, Donald J. Sobol’s Encyclopedia Brown stories have garnered a Young Readers’ Choice Award and a Special Edgar Award. In this installment, the 10-year-old detective’s probing questions continue to trip up thieves, frauds, and others scoundrels—from a watch-scamming bully to a wigged-out FBI’s most wanted.

Pay close attention, and you might solve this. On Monday afternoon five students at Bayview High walk into detention. Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app. Only Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead.

Harriet, Jack, and Toby are treasure hunters, searching the Minecraft world for its most valuable hidden secrets. In an abandoned mineshaft, they discovered the first of three lost journals that once belonged to William, a legendary explorer who has gone missing. The journals have taken them on a daring adventure to a secret temple deep within a desert biome, then into the perilous depths of the Nether. Now the treasure hunters are facing their greatest challenge yet.

A ton of copycat gossip apps have popped up since Simon died, but in the year since the Bayview four were cleared of his shocking death, no one's been able to fill the gossip void quite like he could. The problem is no one has the facts. Until now. This time it's not an app, though - it's a game. Truth or Dare. Phoebe's the first target. If you choose not to play, it's a truth. And hers is dark. Then comes Maeve, and she should know better - always choose the dare. But by the time Knox is about to be tagged, things have gotten dangerous.

Four years ago, Brynn left Saint Ambrose School following the shocking murder of her favorite teacher—a story that made headlines after the teacher’s body was found by three Saint Ambrose students in the woods behind their school. The case was never solved. Now that Brynn is moving home and starting her dream internship at a true-crime show, she’s determined to find out what really happened.

They never considered how his wife might react, or that by the end of the summer a man would be dead. But Blakely always got her way, and the others followed her lead—even when they knew it was dead wrong. The girls had been friends from day one at Camp Pendleton, a haven for gifted children. But their senior summer was different. When Mr. Crosby, the handsome tennis coach, wound up murdered after a reckless lie, Blakely, Grace, Meg, and Thera swore themselves to secrecy. And never spoke to each other again.

Ava Wong has always played it safe. As a strait-laced, rule-abiding Chinese American lawyer with a successful surgeon as a husband, a young son, and a beautiful home—she’s built the perfect life. But beneath this façade, Ava’s world is crumbling: her marriage is falling apart, her expensive law degree hasn’t been used in years, and her toddler’s tantrums are pushing her to the breaking point. Enter Winnie Fang, Ava’s enigmatic college roommate from Mainland China, who abruptly dropped out under mysterious circumstances.

Autumn and Finn used to be inseparable. But then something changed. Or they changed. Now, they do their best to ignore each other. Autumn has her boyfriend, Jamie, and her close-knit group of friends. And Finn has become that boy at school, the one everyone wants to be around. That still doesn't stop the way Autumn feels every time she and Finn cross paths, and the growing, nagging thought that maybe things could have been different. Maybe they should be together. But come August, things will change forever.

After a scourge of griefer attacks and a change in headmasters, Minecrafters Academy is once again at peace, and Lucy is working hard to keep up in all her classes. Meanwhile, the school is gearing up for an end-of-the-year talent show where everyone will showcase their greatest skills, from master building and clever potion making to strategic fighting. But when a hoard of skeletons and hostile mobs attacks the campus one night, an all-too-familiar struggle begins.

After trapping Mr. Anarchy, the evil master griefer who's been tormenting them, Lily, Simon, and Michael can finally concentrate on trying to escape the Overworld and getting to know their new friends on the server. So when one of their friends invites them along on a treasure hunt, they couldn't be more thrilled! But when the gang's absence from Lisimi Village gives Mr. Anarchy a chance to escape, their hunt for treasure is cut short and Lily, Simon, and Michael must make a hard decision.

Gameknight999, a real-life Minecraft user trapped inside the game he loves to play, and his friend Crafter have transported to a new server. Malacoda is the King of the Nether, a terrible ghast that wants to destroy all of Minecraft with his massive army of blazes, magma cubes, zombie pigmen, and wither skeletons. Knowing the lives of all those within Minecraft - as well as those in the physical world - are depending on them, Gameknight and Crafter will need to search the land to recruit an NPC army.

Big Little Lies meets The Witches of Eastwick—a gloriously entertaining and knife-sharp revenge fantasy about three women whose midlife crisis brings unexpected new powers—putting them on a collision course with the evil that lurks in their wealthy beach town.

Peace has been restored to the Overworld after an epic griefer battle. Lily, Simon, and Michael are glad to have a break from fighting, and even from their attempts to escape the game and return to their normal lives. But then two new players are zapped onto the server, and no one's sure who's responsible for trapping them. With Mr. Anarchy and the other griefers in prison, anyone could be a suspect, and tempers flare as the townspeople's suspicions turn inward.

Having garnered both Young Readers’ Choice and Special Edgar Awards, Donald J. Sobol’s Encyclopedia Brown stories have been children’s classics for decades. In this installment, the 10-year-old detective uses his vast knowledge and probing questions to expose a muscle-bound scam, a crooked protection racket, a circus frame-up, and other baffling mysteries.

The Mysterious Benedict Society is up against a new mission, significantly closer to home. After reuniting for a celebratory scavenger hunt, Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance are forced to go on an unexpected search—a search to find Mr. Benedict. It seems that while he was preparing the kids' adventure, he stepped right into a trap orchestrated by his evil twin Mr. Curtain. With only one week to find a captured Mr. Benedict, the gifted foursome faces their greatest challenge of all.

Morrigan Crow is cursed. Having been born on Eventide, the unluckiest day for any child to be born, she's blamed for all local misfortunes, from hailstorms to heart attacks - and, worst of all, the curse means that Morrigan is doomed to die at midnight on her 11th birthday. But as Morrigan awaits her fate, a strange and remarkable man named Jupiter North appears. Chased by black-smoke hounds and shadowy hunters on horseback, he whisks her away into the safety of a secret, magical city called Nevermoor.

Thirteen-year-old Ben Ripley has had a lot of field success despite only just beginning his second year at Spy School, something graduates rarely experience. But he'd never have survived without the help from experienced agents and his friends. Now he's been called in on a solo mission - and the fate of the United States of America is on his shoulders alone. The mission: Prevent a presidential assassination by infiltrating the White House and locating the enemy operative.

Lucy and her friends' time at Minecrafters Academy is coming to an end, and the entire school is preparing for graduation. But when an explosion shakes the campus and Lucy's old friend Steve appears with bad news from his village, all plans to celebrate come to a halt. The school is no longer under attack - it's being destroyed. And it's time for the students to use their training outside the safety of the Academy. Lucy, Jane, and Phoebe must use the skills they've honed in school to battle the evil force.

Writer Carrie Colts hopes a move to Montauk will be a rejuvenating change of pace for her family. The last thing she expects to see is her former college roommate on her doorstep. Newly widowed, and with a daughter of her own, Maya would love to reconnect. As a gesture to an old friend in mourning, Carrie extends an invitation to stay. Just for a few days. After all, there are reasons that Carrie and Maya are estranged.