It’s safe to say most folks like a good mystery. There’s something about the gradual unraveling of riddles and puzzles that excites curiosity. Albert Einstein said, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science,” including the art of young adult fiction. Veteran young adult author Joan Lowery Nixon’s final book, Laugh Till You Cry (Knopf Delacorte Dell, $15.95), is a sweet and low-key moral tale about 13-year-old Cody and his troubles with Texas – namely that since moving there from California he has become friendless, his grandma’s illness has worsened and his cousin’s mean behavior has become unbearable. Usually he’d turn to his mom for some TLC, but lately she’s had a hard time listening, preferring instead to say what she thinks she knows. Nixon creatively mixes in elements of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” with Cody’s plight, showing his growth both emotionally and in deciphering literature. There’s a unique missing persons case in Alyssa Brugman’s Finding Grace (Delacorte Press, $15.95). The location of the titular Grace is not in question, but rather what her life was like prior to an accident that has left her unable to speak or do much physical activity on her own. Rachel, her 18-year-old newly assigned caretaker, becomes interested in discovering Grace’s life story after she finds a letter that shows Grace’s strong emotions and fierce character, especially where men are concerned. Bit by bit, Rachel learns the truth behind Grace’s love’s labors and debilitating accident. With Rachel, Brugman has created a clever, fallible protagonist who is forgetful and rude as well as caring and funny. Brugman’s side characters are equally flawed and thereby interesting. Patrick Carman’s The Dark Hills Divide (Orchard Books, $11.95) is like The Lord of the Rings in its detailed depiction of a fictitious land (The Land of Elyon), and like Harry Potter in that its protagonist is a precocious person at an age and mind-set where talking animals are easily accepted. Since moving to Bridewell with her father, 12-year-old Alexa Daley spends most of her days reading in the library. This changes one day after she finds a secret passage that leads beyond the city’s formidable walls, setting in motion a chain of events that has waited years to transpire. Still, Alexa’s journey has moments of exhilaration and fear, and enough well-paced moments of “aha!” to keep readers churning through the book’s brisk chapters. Would-be writers take note: The book, the first of a planned trilogy, was originally self-pub- lished by Carman as a weekly serial for his two daughters. Scholastic Books caught wind of the book and decided to publish it themselves.There is much to like in Marcus Zusak’s I Am the Messenger (Knopf Delacorte Dell, $15.95). Zusak takes a cue from the whiz-bang style of Hollywood in detailing the exploits of 19-year-old “taxi-driving prodigy” Ed Kennedy, self-described as “just another stupid human.” After helping to foil a bank robber, Kennedy begins to receive strange messages that direct him to addresses in his hometown. He soon comes to find out that the people at these addresses are in need of help, and he’s been anonymously assigned to be their helper. Zusak’s style is colloquial and fast. In spite of its occasional sentimentality and gimmickry, the book succeeds in being both serious and funny, touching and exciting, thanks to strong central characterization and heart-warming lessons. The best bits are when Ed hangs out with his mates, playing cards and arguing, and wondering if Audrey will ever be more than a friend. Ultimately, the book reaffirms what was always suspected: “It’s good to be alive.”

Claire RosserFirst released as a self-published book, written by a father for his daughters, this fantasy, the first in a trilogy, has enjoyed popularity in the Northwest and has now been picked up by a major publisher for national distribution. It will have wide appeal to younger YAs who enjoy strong heroines who are courageous and highly intelligent. Alexa lives in a society carefully explained by Carman, who includes a map that helps the reader. The major features of her land are high walls around the cities and even along the roads that connect cities and the claustrophobic nature of these walls.Alexa’s curiosity drives her outside the walls, where she encounters a strange pulsating stone that enables her to speak to animals, who tell her of the threat to her people. She must return home, try to determine the spy in her community, and somehow save her culture from catastrophe. The most endearing parts of the story are the relationships Alexa forms with animals who help her: Murphy the squirrel, Darius the wolf, Ander the grizzly. The vocabulary is challenging, the puzzles intriguing, and Alexa is an admirable character.(The Land of Elyon, Book 1).KLIATT Codes: Jr. Recommended for junior high school students. 2005, Scholastic, Orchard, 251p. map., Ages 12 to 15.

In his debut fantasy, the launch of the Land of Elyon series, Carman crafts an intriguingly insular world, and introduces a plucky, convincingly curious heroine who yearns to see what lies outside of it.Alexa Daley, 12 years old, lives within the walled kingdom of Elyon with her father, the mayor of Lathbury, and his influential friends. As the story opens, readers learn through a flashback that Alexa was taking a walk with Warvold, the kingdom’s architect, when he inexplicably died; she takes a key from the locket he wears, and returns home.While the adults grapple with the population problem within this confined space, Alexa follows her passion-to find “a way outside the wall”-and escapes, thanks to Warvold’s key. Once outside, a two-foot-high man greets her and leads her on a quest through a seemingly enchanted land with talking animals. From them she learns that Warvold had selected her as “the chosen one,” to complete a task he left unfinshed. The author slowly reveals how Warvold’s internalized fears prompted him to build the wall, with all sorts of unforeseen ramifications. (“The monster is the wall itself,” one animal tells her.) Carman dabbles in social commentary with his intimations of the perils of isolationism, but even more effectively plumbs the psychological reverberations of playing out one’s fears. Readers of all ages will gain much from this tale and eagerly anticipate the next two planned volumes. Ages 8-13. (Feb.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Thomas Warvold, founder of the land of Elyon, constructed walls around its four towns, ensuring, so he thought, his people’s safety from the dangers in the surrounding countryside. Even before his sudden, mysterious death, Warvold chose 12-year-old Alexa Daley to succeed him. Driven by her curiosity about the world outside, Alexa finds a tunnel that leads her to the woodlands. There, with the help of the forest-dwellers, she passes three trials and garners information and allies to save her country. After a slow introduction, the plot takes off, and the book becomes a real page-turner. Alexa, with her brains, courage and grit, proves to be an appealingly strong female hero and the story, enriched by folkloric traditions and a solid mystery, is sure to engage reader interest. The resolution provides a satisfactory ending, but there are plenty of loose ends to be tied up in the second and third volumes of the trilogy. Here’s a good high fantasy for the girls. Bravo! (Fiction. 10-12)

First released as a self-published book, written by a father for his daughters, this fantasy, the first in a trilogy, has enjoyed popularity in the Northwest and has now been picked up by a major publisher for national distribution. It will have wide appeal to younger YAs who enjoy strong heroines who are courageous and highly intelligent. Alexa lives in a society carefully explained by Carman, who includes a map that helps the reader. The major features of her land are high walls around the cities and even along the roads that connect cities-and the claustrophobic nature of these walls. Alexa’s curiosity drives her outside the walls, where she encounters a strange pulsating stone that enables her to speak to animals, who tell her of the threat to her people. She must return home, try to determine the spy in her community, and somehow save her culture from catastrophe. The most endearing parts of the story are the relationships Alexa forms with animals who help her: Murphy the squirrel, Darius the wolf, Ander the grizzly. The vocabulary is challenging, the puzzles intriguing, and Alexa is an admirable character. (The Land of Elyon, Book 1). KLIATT Codes: J-Recommended for junior high school students. 2005, Scholastic, Orchard, 251p. map., Ages 12 to 15.