[Waiting on Wednesday] December Dog (Calendar Mysteries, #12) by Ron Roy

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that Spotlights eagerly anticipated upcoming releases. The graphic above uses public domain clip art from Open Clip Art.

My choice for this week is December Dog (Calendar Mysteries, #12) by Ron Roy, which will be released September 23rd 2014 by Random House Books for Young Readers. Oddly, Goodreads has a blurb for December Dog despite lacking one for November Night. Here it is:

In the twelfth book of the Calendar Mysteries, an early chapter-book mystery series featuring the younger siblings of the A to Z Mysteries detectives, Bradley, Brian, Nate, and Lucy find a lost puppy on Christmas Eve. The poor dog was meant to be a present for someone. It has a ribbon with a tag around its neck, but the tag is ripped. Can the kids find out who bought the puppy or who was supposed to receive it?

Since I assume this is going to be the last Calendar Mysteries book, I expect that in addition to involving Christmas, it’s also going to at least mention the fact that Lucy is going to be moving back home. Or perhaps Roy will surprise me and continue the series for another twelve installments. I suppose it’s possible!

[Waiting on Wednesday] Soccer (Magic Tree House Fact Tracker #29) by Mary Pope Osborne & Natalie Pope Boyce

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that Spotlights eagerly anticipated upcoming releases. The graphic above uses public domain clip art from Open Clip Art.

As I promised last week, this Waiting on Wednesday installment is devoted to Soccer (Magic Tree House Fact Tracker, #29) by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce, which will be released May 27th 2014 by Random House Books for Young Readers. Here’s the blurb:

When Jack and Annie got back from their adventure in Magic Tree House #52: Soccer on Sunday, they had lots of questions. How did soccer get started? Who are some of its greatest players? What is the World Cup? Find out the answers to these questions and more as Jack and Annie track the facts behind one of the world’s most popular sports. Filled with up-to-date information, photos, illustrations, and fun tidbits from Jack and Annie, the Magic Tree House Fact Trackers are the perfect way for kids to find out more about the topics they discovered in their favorite Magic Tree House adventures.

I would have loved for this to come out when I was a kid, as I played soccer for a year or two in elementary school. (Unfortunately, this was before anyone in my life realized I desperately needed glasses, so I imagine I wasn’t exactly the best player on the team.) Even after quitting, I enjoyed the sport, though I never joined another team and haven’t so much as touched a ball in several years; turns out, I enjoy being lazy more than… well, most things.

Anyway, my point is that I would have devoured this as a kid, so it’s a tad bittersweet to see it being published in 2014. On the other hand, I’m excited to read it, though there are a few other Fact Trackers/Research Guides I’ll have to get out of the way first, as I’ve fallen behind on the series. (I still haven’t read Horse Heroes or Heroes for All Times, and I think there’s a non-series Houdini Magic Tree House tie-in that I want to get around to reading, as well.)

And since Osborne shows no signs of stopping the Magic Tree House series any time soon, I think it’s safe to say this isn’t the last time I’ll feature the series in Waiting on Wednesday.

[Waiting on Wednesday] Soccer on Sunday (Magic Tree House, #52) by Mary Pope Osborne

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that Spotlights eagerly anticipated upcoming releases. The graphic above uses public domain clip art from Open Clip Art.

My choice for this week is Soccer on Sunday (Magic Tree House, #52) by Mary Pope Osborne, which will be released May 27th, 2014 by Random House Books for Young Readers. Here’s the blurb:

Just in time for the 2014 Fifa World Cup, Magic Tree House #52: Soccer on Sunday will take Jack and Annie to a soccer field in Mexico where they must find the final secret of greatness for Merlin. On the field, they’ll meet a young soccer player who dreams of one day playing in the World Cup just like his hero, the great Brazilian soccer player, Pelé!

 I’m a bit behind on the Magic Tree House series; I still need to get to Hurry up, Houdini! and High Time for Heroes before I’ll tackle this one, but I’m slowly rereading the series, so hopefully I’ll pick it up some time before the end of 2014.

As usual, Soccer on Sunday has a Magic Tree House Fact Tracker nonfiction companion, but I’ll talk about that next week.

[Waiting on Wednesday] November Night (Calendar Mysteries, #11) by Ron Roy

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that Spotlights eagerly anticipated upcoming releases. The graphic above uses public domain clip art from Open Clip Art.

My choice for this week is November Night (Calendar Mysteries, #11) by Ron Roy, which will be released September 1st, 2014 by Random House. There’s no blurb yet that I can find, so I don’t know much about this one yet. I assume, however, that it’s going to be Thanksgiving themed, as the Calendar Mysteries books usually involve a holiday: Valentine’s Day for February, St. Patrick’s Day for March, Easter for April, Mother’s Day for May, Father’s Day for June, the Fourth of July for July, and Halloween for October.

I’m looking forward to seeing how Roy deals with what I assume is the swiftly-approaching end to the series. I kind of doubt it’s going to be addressed in November Night, but it’ll be a fun, quick read in any case, I’m sure.

[Waiting on Wednesday] Party Games by R.L. Stine

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that Spotlights eagerly anticipated upcoming releases. The graphic above uses public domain clip art from Open Clip Art.

I don’t believe I’ve ever participated in Waiting On Wednesday before, but since there are a few upcoming titles on my to-read lists over at Goodreads, I figured I’d give it a go!

My choice for this week is Party Games: A Fear Street Novel by R.L. Stine, which will be released September 30th, 2014 by St. Martin’s Griffin. I was totally shocked to see that this book was coming out, considering how many years it’s been since there’s been a new Fear Street book. (It’s been almost a decade, right?)

Goodreads has a “teaser premise” up, ostensibly from Stine, which reads:

It’s about girl named Rachel, who Brendan Fear invites along with a bunch of other people to the Fear’s summer house on Fear Island, in the middle of a lake. They’re 17, in high school. It’s Halloween time, and they’re reopening the summerhouse just for this party. Brendan invents games, he loves games, and one by one the guests start getting murdered—every murder is attached to a game. One girl is found all folded up and there’s a note that says, ‘Twister, anyone?’ They’re trapped on an island, and there’s a killer there who wants to kill everyone.

So we’ve got our Final Girl already, and I assume Brendan’s either the LI, the villain, or the obvious red herring (or a combination of such). It sounds vaguely reminiscent of Diane Hoh’s The Invitation, in which a group of unpopular kids is invited to the “party of the year” for a humiliating and deadly “game”, but more fun… assuming Stine can pull it off.

Now, I’m not the biggest fan of Fear Street. They’re sort of a guilty pleasure of mine, though perhaps that’s not the word for it; I certainly feel no guilt about reading them… I just don’t particularly enjoy them. They’re kind of fun in a “this is a cheap, rather tasteless donut, but I like donuts, so I’m going to eat it” sort of way.

…donut metaphors aside, I’m hesitantly looking forward to Party Games. I wouldn’t mind seeing the Fear Street series resurrected, but I don’t exactly expect the quality to be vastly improved from the 90s stuff. At the very least, though, it should be fun seeing the concept updated for a 2014 audience. Will it be full of modern pop culture references, the way the 80s books were always name-dropping 80s icons? Will there be smartphones and tablets and social networks all over the place instead of private phone lines and VHS tapes and cassettes? I kind of hope not… but I’ll be amused to find out.

So, what do you think about Fear Street‘s resurrection? Good thing? Bad thing? Non-thing? Let me know below!