INCOMING

• Chris Grabenstein, The Crossroads.  YA thriller/horror.  "Meet Zack Jennings.  Average kid.  He has a hardworking father.  A new Stepmother.  A new house.  Even a new dog, Zipper.  Things are looking up for Zack.  EXCEPT THERE IS THIS GHOST.  This is a really nasty ghost.  A ghost who kills people.  And Zack is on his list."  This one, Grabenstein's first YA, won both the Agatha (the first of four that he has won...so far) and the Anthony Awards
• Ruth Plumly Thompson, The Hungry Tiger of Oz.  The twentieth Oz book and the sixth by Thompson, following the death of L. Frank Baum, The Royal Historian of Oz.  "[T]he winsome Hungry Tiger is whisked away to the Kingdom of Rash in an attempt to satisfy his appetite.  Little Betsy Bobbin and the perky Vegetable Man join him and young Prince Reddy in a search for the three magic Rash Rubies.  They travel through the Gnome Kingdom, whereupon the Tiger is captured by the Giant Big Wigs.  Meanwhile Princess Ozma herself is kidnapped from Emerald City by Atmos Fere the Airman.  Will the Rash Rubies be magic enough to rescue our friends, defeat the wicked Pasha, and return Reddy to his throne as the Rightful Ruler of Rash?"  Dunno.  Guess I'll have to read it to find out.