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If You Like Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events Try these tales of intrepid* children. *a word which here means brave and daring
	(J Bode) The Anybodies by N. E . Bode When misfit Fern Drudger meets her real father, The Bone, she discovers the reason she has never enjoyed the family she’s been living with. She was switched at birth. Her father is an "Anybody" – he can change into anybody or anything else. However, he's not very good at it. He must find an instruction book before his enemy does, and Fern’s got to help him.	(Y Colfer) Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. When a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and demanding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly nasty troll. Sequels: The Arctic Incident; The Eternity Code
	(J Findlay) The Blue Roan Child by Jamieson Findlay Eleven year old Syeira has grown up in royal stables and developed a talent for working with horses. She especially admires a blue roan mare and her two foals. When the evil lord of a neighboring kingdom takes the foals, Syeira frees the mare and joins her quest to find her young.	(J Carey) The Big Bazoohley by Peter Carey A book about guts and glory. When nine-year-old Sam Kellow slips out of his family’s hotel room in search of the Big Bazoohley, the grand prize that his gambler father keeps promising will come along, he is kidnapped by a very strange couple whose own son is in bed with chicken pox. They want to groom Sam as an emergency substitute in the Perfecto Kiddo contest.
	(J Pullman) Count Karlstein by Philip Pullman In the mountains of Switzerland the wicked Count Karlstein plots to abandon his two orphaned nieces in a hunting lodge as prey for the Demon Huntsman and his ghostly hounds.	(Y Avi) Crispin: the Cross of Lead by Avi When 13-year-old Crispin is falsely accused of theft and murder because he found out something bad about the most powerful man in town, he runs away. Life on the run in the Middle Ages is one dangerous adventure after another.
	(J Horvath) Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath Eleven-year-old Primrose's parents are lost at sea and she's the only one who believes they're still alive. While she waits for them to come home, she's cared for by the eccentric residents of her home town.	(J Wallace) Ghosts in the Gallery by Barbara Wallace Orphaned Jenny arrives at her grandfather Graymark’s house after a long journey only to be told that it is not her ancestral home. Her dying mother’s letter never arrived and Jenny has no proof her father was a Graymark. In despair, Jenny stays to work as a scullery maid. See others by this author
	(J Doyle) The Giggler Treatment by Roddy Doyle A talking dog, the Mack children, and the small elf-like Gigglers themselves must try to stop the prank that the Gigglers have mistakenly set in motion to punish Mr. Mack for being mean to his children.	(J Collins) Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins When Gregor and his two-year-old sister, Boots, fall through a grate, they hurtle into the dark Underland, a place of huge, intelligent spiders, cockroaches, bats, and rats. The humans of Underland believe Gregor is the hero foretold in prophecy. Gregor resists at first but when he realizes his missing father might be a prisoner of the rats, he sets off on a dangerous rescue mission –- with his baby sister by his side.
	(Y Sachar) Holes by Louis Sachar After being convicted of stealing sneakers (which actually fell out of the sky on his head) Stanley Yelnats is sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention center with no greenery, no lake, and a warden with poison fingernails.	(J Ibbotson) Island of the Aunts by Eva Ibbotson When the kindly old aunts decide that they need help caring for the creatures on their hidden island, they know that adults can't be trusted. What they need are a few special children who can keep a really big secret. And what better way to get children who can keep really big secrets, than to kidnap them! See others by this author.
	(J Dahl) Matilda by Roald Dahl Matilda is sent to a school with a child-hating headmistress, Miss Trunchbull. She discovers she has unusual mental powers and decides to use them to rid the schoolchildren of their tormentor. See also James and the Giant Peach and others by this author.	(J Waugh) The Mennyms by Sylvia Waugh An eccentric family of life-sized, living rag dolls deal with the impending visit of their mysterious landlord who thinks that they are human.
	(J Nimmo) Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo Charlie Bone lives with his widowed mother, two grandmothers (one good, one evil) and a mysterious uncle. He is sent to a scary school for the “endowed” when he discovers that he can hear people in photographs talking.	(J Ives) Monsieur Eek by David Ives On a dark and stormy night, the great coastal city of MacOongafoondsen (population 21) discovers an unexpected visitor by way of a beached ship. He’s a chimpanzee but the town leaders promptly decide he’s a Frenchman, a thief, and a spy. Young Emmaline and her friend Flurp the Town Fool are flung into adventure as they conspire to save the chimp, Monsieur Eek, from hanging.
	(J Gliori) Pure Dead Magic by Debi Gliori When their father is kidnapped and danger looms, the Strega-Borgia children, their mysterious new nanny, and a giant tarantula use magic and actual trips through the Internet to bring peace to their Scottish castle. Sequels: Pure Dead Wicked; Pure Dead Brilliant	(J MacGuire) Seven Spiders Spinning by Gregory MacGuire Seven prehistoric spiders that have been trapped in ice for thousands of years invade a small town and unite two rival elementary school gangs.
	(J Sachar) Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar This author knows how to make kids laugh. You'll find children being turned into apples, dead rats wearing raincoats and little girls who try to sell their toes.	(J DiTerli) The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi When the Grace children go to stay at their Great Aunt Lucinda's worn Victorian house, they discover a field guide to fairies and other creatures and begin to have some unusual experiences.
	(J Funke) The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke Welcome to the magical underworld of Venice, Italy, where hidden canals and crumbling rooftops shelter runaways and children with incredible secrets	(J Sciesczk) Time Warp Trio Series by Jon Scieszka The Time Warp Trio have a Book that sends them to other times and places. Whether the gang's fighting off the Black Knight in the middle of Camelot, practicing magic tricks on Blackbeard and his pirates, stampeding cattle in the Old West, or running from a woolly mammoth, they always find something funny to say.
	(J Langris) Troll Fell by Katherine Langrish Peer Ulfsson has to be brave when his beloved father dies and his hideous uncles take him to live with them in their dilapidated mill near Troll Fell. He has to be clever when he discovers their wicked plot to sell him and his new friend, Hilde, into servitude to the dreadful Troll King. And he has to be resourceful to outwit not only his uncles but also the trolls, in their own lair.	(J Fleisch) The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman Jemmy, the royal whipping boy, is forced to run away with Prince Brat, the spoiled heir to the throne. Jemmy is intelligent, street smart, and poor. Prince Brat is ignorant, spoiled, and heir to the kingdom. The two are soon taken hostage by hilarious villains who think the prince is the whipping boy and the whipping boy is the prince!
	(J Aiken) The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken Cousins Sylvia and Bonnie are maltreated by their new governess Miss Slighcarp and sent away to a school run by her evil sister. See others by this author.