For those of you with older readers, I'm going to highlight a series that is popular with my sixth grade students: Cirque du Freak. Set in a traveling sideshow populated by an assortment of odd characters and led by a spider-wrangling vampire, the series is told in first person by Darren Shan. Darren is an ordinary kid who gets more than he bargained for when he becomes half-vampire and is drawn into the adventure of a lifetime. There are twelve books in the series so there is plenty of material to explore.

Here is the answer to Friday's Famous Firsts:

1. "Roy would not have noticed the strange boy if it weren't for Dana Matherson, because Roy ordinarily didn't look out the window of the school bus." Hoot by Carl Hiaasen.