With our last shipment came a book I ordered for myself called The Queen’s Awards, 1948, a collection of award-winning stories from Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. I wanted this particular book from that particular year for one particular story, Robert Arthur’s “The Adventure of the Single Footprint.”

I had been looking for it ever since I read up on Robert Arthur recently from various websites. I knew him from my elementary days when I started reading the detective series Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators. With all due respect, after discovering The Three Investigators, I had to stop reading Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys (but, of course, I never stopped being a fan). It almost felt like taking the training wheels off of your bicycle. Jupiter, Pete, and Bob were more interesting characters and their mysteries more engaging and, if I may say, more mysterious. I thought back then, These were real detectives! They had their own business cards at the very least. Alfred Hitchcock himself introduced every book! (Many of the “Alfred Hitchcock presents…” books were actually ghostwritten by Robert Arthur.)

Robert Arthur created The Three Investigators and wrote the first how many books. I bought and borrowed every one I could find. Unfortunately, the books are out of print. They were brought back a few years ago, but Alfred Hitchcock wasn’t part of the story anymore. I hear though that the books are still big in Germany and new stories are still being written and released there. I hear also that a The Three Investigators movie is coming out next year but I do not think it is going to be released here.

For fans who are reading this. These are some of the sites I visited:
http://www.threeinvestigators.net/
http://www.threeinvestigatorsbooks.com/RobertArthurQuotes.html
http://www.elizabetharthur.org/bio/rarthur.html
(The photo of Robert Arthur above was taken from his daughter’s website, elizabetharthur.org)

Also, if you like mysteries and are interested in reading award-winning stories from Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine from some sixty years ago, let me know. I would be glad to share. By the way, according to the introduction to his award-winning story, Robert Arthur was born on Corregidor Island, Philippines in 1909. Imagine that.

Remember the book videos we featured a few months ago? Last month, a new set of videos won for the Teen Edition of the Book Video Awards. Here are the winning videos and the books they were based on. Please note that the videos are in MPEG4 format and may take a while to load.

These are some of the best young adult fiction for the year 2006. All three have garnered numerous awards and praises. All are currently available at Booktopia Libis.

The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak

Description:
It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

Read an excerpt
View the video or download for your iPod
About writing The Book Thief

A Great and Terrible Beauty
by Libba Bray

Description:
It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to?

Read an excerpt
View the video or download for your iPod

How I Live Now
by Meg Rosoff

Description:
“Every war has turning points and every person too.”

Fifteen-year-old Daisy is sent from Manhattan to England to visit her aunt and cousins she’s never met: three boys near her age, and their little sister. Her aunt goes away on business soon after Daisy arrives. The next day bombs go off as London is attacked and occupied by an unnamed enemy.

As power fails, and systems fail, the farm becomes more isolated. Despite the war, it’s a kind of Eden, with no adults in charge and no rules, a place where Daisy’s uncanny bond with her cousins grows into something rare and extraordinary. But the war is everywhere, and Daisy and her cousins must lead each other into a world that is unknown in the scariest, most elemental way.

A riveting and astonishing story.

Read an excerpt
View the video or download for your iPod

Based on the Steven Spielberg animated movie.  Includes 3-D poster and glasses.

Attack of the Monster House in 3-D!
by Lara Bergen

Description:
In order to destroy the Monster House, DJ and his friends need some questions answered. So, they set off to talk to an expert on ghosts, demons, and the paranormal, the wisest pizza-delivery guy on earth, known to all as Skull. The wise Skull tells them that the only way to kill the Monster House is to strike it at the source of life: its heart.

But can the kids strike the beast’s heart and still manage to get out of the house alive? Find out in this spooky 3-D story with 3-D poster and glasses!

Children and adults who like to read Harry Potter, Eragon, Cornelia Funke books…will enjoy this book.

The Water Mirror
by Kai Meyer

Kai Meyer is the author of many highly acclaimed and popular books for adults and young adults in his native Germany. The Water Mirror, which was nominated for the German Book Prize and was on many bestseller lists in Germany, has been translated into fourteen languages. Kai Meyer lives in Germany.

Description:
In Venice, magic is not unusual. Merle is apprenticed to a magic mirror maker, and Serafin — a boy who was once a master thief — works for a weaver of magic cloth. Merle and Serafin are used to the mermaids who live in the canals of the city and to the guards who patrol the streets on living stone lions. Merle herself possesses something magical: a mirror whose surface is water. She can reach her whole arm into it and never get wet.

But Venice is under siege by the Egyptian Empire; its terrifying mummy warriors are waiting to strike. All that protects the Venetians is the Flowing Queen. Nobody knows who or what she is — only that her power flows through the canals and keeps the Egyptians at bay.

When Merle and Serafin overhear a plot to capture the Flowing Queen, they are catapulted into desperate danger. They must do everything they can to rescue the Queen and save the city — even if it means getting help from the Ancient Traitor himself.

Ages: 12 and up
Grades: 7 and up

Awards:
New York Public Library “Books for the Teen Age”
School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

Timekeepers
by Catherine Webb

Description:
With the aid of the Pandora Spirits, the elder Gods have taken a giant step toward freeing the dread Lord Cronus. It seems that Earth’s only hope rests with Sam Linnifer and the power of the Light bestowed upon him by Time. But unleashing the Light would have deadly consequences for Sam. For to do so, he must touch the mind of every human on Earth. And to save their souls, he may have to destroy himself… The stunning sequel to Waywalkers.

Waywalkers
by Catherine Webb

Description:
Sam Linnifer works part-time at a London university as a translator of obscure ancient texts. He’s a quiet fellow with a few friends and an affection for cats. He’s also immortal and the Son of Time. You might know him better as Lucifer, the Devourer of Souls, or the Devil. And with all the gods in Heaven about to go to war over the ownership of Earth, you’re going to be extremely glad he’s not exactly who legend makes him out to be.

Mirror Wakes (Wizard Laenan Kite Books)
by Catherine Webb

Description:
Deadly spells are igniting across Haven, and the Queen of Dreams is in mortal danger. The court is pointing accusing fingers at Lord Rylam. One thing is clear—Haven needs Laenan Kite. He’s the most powerful magician in all of Dreams, the bane of Nightkeep, the protector of Earth’s sleeping souls. Queen Lisana wants him on the case fast, because if Rylam isn’t the enemy, then the Realm of Dreams is in deep trouble… The spellbinding sequel to Mirror Dreams.

Mirror Dreams (Wizard Laenan Kite Books)
by Catherine Webb

Description:
Every dream you’ve ever had, and every dream yet to come, exists in the Kingdoms of the Void. Every nightmare, too. Because there has to be balance–it’s the rules. But the Lords of Nightkeep aren’t big on rules–only Conquest, Fear, and Eternal Darkness for All. It takes a powerful wizard like Laenan Kite to keep them in check. But Kite has other worries, and Nightkeep is growing strong. Its Lords hunger for power. And they’ve turned their gaze towards earth…

The Obsidian Dagger, Being the Further Extraordinary Adventures of Horatio Lyle
by Catherine Webb

Description:
There seem to be some odd things going on in the city of London, lately. Take the murders, for instance; quite peculiar. And those missing statues - what’s going on there? And shouldn’t St Paul’s have a roof? Odd…

Horatio Lyle, of course, is no stranger to… well, strangeness. In fact, he finds the lure of the unknown quite invigorating. But having just survived the most frightening episode in his life, the last thing he wants is that pompous Lord Lincoln sticking his nose in again and demanding that he take on another case the police are too thick to solve. Of course, His Lordship can be painfully persuasive at times, so it should come as no surprise that Lyle, along with his young protégés Tess (the thief) and Thomas (the toff), and his faithful hound Tate (the smart one) is soon up to his cravat in events of a singularly unscientific nature.

Actually, it would probably be terribly exciting… if only they weren’t trying to kill him.

The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle
by Catherine Webb

Description:
In Victorian London at the height of the industrial revolution, Horatio Lyle is a former Special Constable with a passion for science and adventure. He’s also an occasional, but reluctant, sleuth. The truth is, he’d rather be in his lab tinkering with dangerous chemicals and odd machinery than running around the cobbled streets of London trying to track down stolen goods. But when Her Majesty’s Government calls, Horatio swaps his microscope for a magnifying glass, fills his pockets with things that explode and sallies forth to unravel a mystery of singularly extraordinary nature.

Thrown together with a reformed (i.e. ‘caught’) pickpocket called Tess, and a rebellious (within reason) young gentleman called Thomas, Lyle and his faithful hound, Tate, find themselves pursuing an ancient Chinese plate, a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of polite society and a dangerous enemy who may not even be human.

Solving the crime will be hard enough - surviving would be a bonus…