Jack and Annie fans, rejoice! Magic Tree House #30, Dark Day in the Deep Sea, by Mary Pope Osborne (Random House, $11.99) will be released on Tuesday March 26, 2008!  Jack and Annie are rescued from a tiny deserted island in the middle of the ocean by a ship of explorers and scientists.  But the crew isn’t looking for the secret of happiness.  They are looking for a sea monster!  And if you are interested in sea monsters, check out Sea Monsters: A Nonfiction Companion to Dark Day in the Deep Sea (MTH Research Guide #17), by Mary Pope Osborne (Random House, $4.99).

As if that isn’t exciting enough, Geronimo Stilton and the Gold Medal Mystery (#33), by Geronimo Stilton (Scholastic, $6.99) also arrives on Tuesday, March 26.  Geronimo Stilton is NOT a sports mouse – he’d rather be relaxing in an armchair.  However, with the Olympics coming up, all anyone in New Mouse City can talk about is sports.  And a reporter like Geronimo can’t help but investigate an Olympic mystery…

And for the middle school reader, The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trento Lee Stewart (Little, Brown, $6.99)  arrives in paperback.  I have it on good authority (a young “regular” at the bookstore) that this is “the best book EVER!”.  11 year old orphan Reynie Muldoon answers a newspaper ad for “special opportunities” for gifted children, and becomes a member of a crack team of orphans recruited by the genial genius, Mr. Benedict.  Fans of Roald Dahl and Blue Balliet will love this.  Look for number 2 in the series coming in May.

Adults also have some great new books coming out this week.  Finally we have a new Thomas Pitt mystery to look forward to from Anne Perry!  In Buckingham Palace (Ballantine, $26), the discovery of a prostitute’s mutilated corpse in a Buckingham Palace cupboard after a stag party presided over by the Prince of Wales could spell disaster for the monarchy (the setting is 1893).  The sensitive nature of Pitt’s assignment precludes any active involvement by Pitt’s wife Charlotte, but he’s able to place their maid Gracie Phipps on the palace staff to assist him.

Meg Wolizer (The Wife and The Position) is back with The Ten-Year Nap (Riverhead, $24.95).  Here she brings wit and compassion to the contentious divide between mothers who work and mothers who don’t.  The cast of primary characters all abandoned promising careers in favor of full-time motherhood.  The story picks up 10 years later as they examine their lives and choices.


Jonathan Kellerman returns with Compulsion (Ballantine, $27).  Detective Milo Sturgis and psychologist Alex Delaware square off against the most sadistic murderer they’ve ever encountered.

Finally, Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Free Press, $15) arrives this week in paperback. Ali is one of Europe’s most controversial political figures and a target for terrorists.  She tells her life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia to her intellectual awakening in the Netherlands to her life under armed guard in the West.  She is an unflinching advocate of women’s rights and critic of Islamic extremism.  A fascinating and timely read.

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