The jackalope is said to be a hybrid of the pygmy-deer and a species of “killer rabbit”. Reportedly, jackalopes are extremely shy unless approached. It has also been said that the jackalope can convincingly imitate any sound, including the human voice. It uses this ability to elude pursuers, chiefly by using phrases such as “There he goes! That way!” During days of the Old West, when cowboys gathered by the campfires singing at night, jackalopes could often be heard mimicking their voices. It is said that a jackalope may be caught by putting a flask of whiskey out at night. The jackalope will drink its fill of whiskey and its intoxication will make it easier to hunt. However, legend has it that they are dangerous if approached.

My source for such informative data on the elusive jackalope is, of course, the ever-trusted and trustworthy Wikipedia. The narrator of Project Jacklope, Jeremy, who is a “basic junior high type”, and his next-door neighbor Professor Twitchett, who is “kind of a wack job”, both make liberal use of the same source. So I’m in good company when it comes to finding out about jackalopes and other so-called mythical creatures.

I say “so-called” because after you finish reading Project Jackalope, you may or may not believe that jackalopes actually exist. I’m a skeptic, but then it takes a lot to convince me of anything outlandish. And Project Jackalope is an outlandish tale in which a crazy zoo employee leaves a science experiment in Jeremy’s bedroom along with a note telling him to “keep it safe, keep it secret.” Jeremy ends up on the run, with the jackalope (or animal hybrid) in a Dora the Explorer suitcase. Jeremy’s only friend, and accomplice, is another neighbor, Agatha, Miss Know-it-all, Science Fair Champion, and Accomplished Anathematizer.

Yeah, we are not treated to any examples of the actual words Agatha uses, but at several critical moments in the story, Agatha cusses up a bluestorm, as my mother would say. And Jeremy’s language while not profane, is definitely on a continuum from cheeky to downright rude. Typical junior high. If that’s likely to annoy, don’t read. Otherwise, Project Jackalope is funny and entertaining.

Author Emily Ecton is a writer and producer for NPR’s Wait, Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me, and I think some of the snarky humor of that show rubbed off on her or got into her book or something. Junior high is a snarky time of life, so the shoe fits. Maybe a few examples, chosen, nearly at random, would give a more accurate picture of the tone of this middle grade comedy adventure:

“I rolled my eyes. How corny can you get? You’re going to see the boss. But I had a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach, like I was getting an ulcer or was going to puke or something. Agatha stopped cussing and got a stricken look on her face.”

“Agatha turned around in her seat and stared at me. Somebody needed a whack with the cluestick.”

“If you didn’t count the problem of the freaking mutant sitting in the middle of the floor, we were all clear.”

“I think I handled the situation well. I immediately slammed the door in his face and locked it. It was an impulse and I went with it. So sue me.”

It may say something about the general level of humor around this house that I read straight through Project Jackalope, laughed frequently, and generally didn’t mind the (unspecified) cussing and the snark. And I’m inconsistent because I just wrote about another Cybils nominee that it was too junior high sarcastic for me to enjoy. It just wasn’t funny anymore after a few chapters, but this book was.

So sue me.

“You know all those stories that claim fairies cry sparkle tears and elves travel by rainbow? They’re lies. All lies. No one tells you the truth until it’s too late. And then all you can do is run like crazy while a herd of unicorns tries to kill you.”

Jenny has become somewhat disillusioned with her new life as an Adventurer who helps magical creatures in other worlds solve their problems and get out of predicaments. She’s had enough of dangerous situations in which her only “weapons” are the cheesy sayings that pop into her head at crisis moments, such as “Why can’t we all just get along?” or “There’s no I in team!” And Jenny’s magical guide Anthony the gnome isn’t much help: he’s more interested in the snack selection than he is in rescuing Jenny from danger. Jenny just wants to have normal friends and a normal life again. She wants to quit being an adventurer.

But the job is not so easy to walk away from. When the kingdom of Speak needs her help to free them from the terrible clown sorcerer Klarr and his silence spell, Jenny must find a way to face her fears and make things right, especially when the spell affects Jenny herself.

This one is just for fun. Although the narrator, Jenny, is twelve years old, the book would probably appeal to seven to ten year olds and be a little too silly for most older middle grade readers. After all, Jenny becomes mouthless (yes, she actually ends up without a mouth) a few chapters in, and that’s a weird and silly picture to envision. Recommend it to any young readers looking for a light, funny, fairy tale-ish read that won’t require a lot of emotional or intellectual investment.

There’s a sequel due out in March, 2013: My Epic Fairy Tale Fail.

The first book in the projected Song of the Winns series, The Secret of the Ginger Mice features mouse triplets Alex, Alice, and Alistair in an adventure that spans three mouse kingdoms but places the three mice right back where they started by the end of the story. That circularity was my only complaint about this book. The triplets and a new friend, Tibby Rose, travel all over the place, getting in and out of one predicament after another, but they really don’t seem to make much progress in distance or in increased knowledge for all their work. They don’t accomplish much of anything, and almost everything they learn could have just as easily been learned by staying home and asking a few pointed questions.

Still, if you want to go along for the ride, it’s not a bad ride. At the beginning of the book, Alistair, the ginger-colored one of the triplets, disappears in the middle of the night. Alex and Alice, of course, go off to find their beloved brother, even though they’ve been told to stay home and let the adults, their aunt and uncle, handle the missing mouse hunt. Alice and Alex are chased by a pair of evil kidnappers (or are they?), and Alistair finds himself in the kingdom of Souris where everyone hates and fears ginger-colored mice for some reason. All of the mystery and adventure and danger has something to do with the nearby kingdom of Gerander, where the triplets’ parents disappeared, believed to be dead, many years ago.

The characters, Alex, Alice, Alistair, and Tibby Rose, not to mention Uncle Ebenezer and Aunt Beezer, are rather endearing, and I can see some children falling in love with these mouse-adventurers, even naming their pets after them. I didn’t fall in love, and I felt the book went on a little too long, but as I said before it’s a decent journey. I’d recommend it to fans of Brian Jacques’ Redwall series, although this first book in this series is a little younger in focus than the Jacques series.

I found The Peculiar by debut author Stefan Bachmann hard going and rather peculiar. The Victorian atmosphere is a nice touch, and the alternate history aspect is fun, but I had a hard time figuring out the weird magic and the outlandish world it inhabits. When I was three fourths of the way through, I still didn’t know why the changelings/peculiars had to hide or why people would hang them if they saw them. I thought maybe I was supposed to wonder until the Big Reveal at the end? Or I missed something? But there was no big reveal about that particular question, anyway.

I must have a low tolerance for extreme weirdness, foreign weirdness. Mr. Bachmann began writing The Peculiar in 2010 when he was sixteen, and his youth and inexperience show. He tried to pack too many really bizarre creatures and ideas into one book, and the surrealism of whole experience overwhelmed this reader.

Your mileage may vary. If you like the cover with the clockwork bird (I didn’t), you might like the book, too. Mr. Bachmann is also a budding young composer and a student at the Zurich Conservatory in Switzerland. If you go to his website, you can listen to his Peculiar Pieces, music written by Stefan Bachmann to accompany the book. I liked the music better than I did the book.

Other voices:
Charlotte’s Library: “Perhaps it would give you some idea of the taste and texture of it if I said it reminded me at times of Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, and Jonathan Stroud, with a generous dash of Diana Wynne Jones, but you have to add steampunk-ness.”

Bewitched Bookworms: “Entertaining characters and great world building which culminate in a killer cliffhanger make this Middle Grade story a sure to please read!”

One Librarian’s Book Reviews: “So many strange and fantastical things going on, it was hard to keep track of them all. A fun foray into steampunk world colliding with not-very-nice fairies.”

Mikal, a blacksmith’s son, is chosen in The Gleaning to become a servant to the sorcerers at the Guild of Constant Working in the capital city of Oranbold. Unfortunately, the children who have been taken in The Gleaning are attacked by Night-gaunts on the way to Oranbold. Fortunately, Mikal finds that he has a special ability to evade magical spells. Unfortunately, a girl named Lyra tricks him on his first night in the guildhall. Fortunately, Lyra becomes a resourceful and loyal friend. Unfortunately, she’s also dirty, “not entirely brave, not entirely trustworthy.”

I could go on, but you get the picture. Mika survives the vicissitudes of life in a city where the wizards of the Guild are fighting each other for power and influence. He gains the friendship and help of both Lyra and of a clockwork talking head named Orrichalkon. The sequels in The Brightstone Saga are to be titled: Book II, The Fortune-Teller January, 2013) and Book III, The Battle for Brightstone (2013).

Other voices:
For Those About to Mock: “This book seems designed with reluctant readers in mind, from the conceptual level down to the simple, uncomplicated prose. And for that audience, I think it’s remarkably successful.”

Paul B. Thompson’s blog, Brightworking.