What do you think are the best recently released kids books

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What do you think are the best recently released kids books ? I am looking for something new and preferably not to do with vampires for the 9 - 12 age range or early teens. Any suggestions. Everything seems to be smothered in vampires and depressed looking girls at the moment.

Fantastic i have a great new list of books. Has anyone read Guantanamo Boy ? What do you think of it ?

Guantanamo Boy was good, but it did feel like I was being taught iyswim. That said, I learnt a lot from reading it!

Might be too young for 9 - 12s but the Mr Gum books are hilariously funny (for little boys anyway)

thanks feralgirl I will read it first.

love Mr Gum

all three of the books by david walliams
Mr Stink
Billionaire boy
boy in a red dress

they are good for boys or girls this age

This is my fav at the moment www.amazon.co.uk/When-You-Reach-Rebecca-Stead/dp/1849392129/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1306689009&sr=1-1 Especially if you liked A Wrinkle in Time

My sisters a vampire is a favourite of my 11 yr old girl but it is funny not depressing and there are several in the series to follow. My girls also loved Mallory Towers - not very PC but hey ho. Also, Mallory Blackman noughts and crosses trilogy. They also have enjoyed classics which are worth re-visiting like Golden Compass and walkabout.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is good. I think there are about 15 of them, my dd1 really enjoyed them

"Frozen in Time" by Ali Sparkes is very good.
The "Tom Trueheart" books by Ian Beck are great for the younger end of the age range.

I second (or third) the Skullduggery Pleasant stories. Yes they have Vampires and Zombies but not in an angsty an intense way. They also have amazing, strong, kick ass female characters.

DS loved the Wimpy Kid books.

Also Jiggy McCue. Really funny, down to earth stuff.

If your dd is on the mature side then another good trilogy is Uglies/Pretties/Specials trio by scott westerfield.

The basic story is of a dystopian future society where at the age of 16 everybody gets "prettified", turning them
Into a plastic surgeried party obsessive (and thus stopping them from harbouring desires to actually run stuff/revolt). There's no sex in it, though a few kisses in the my-first-boyfriend vein. The protagonist starts off "ugly" and runs away from the operation... Sort of...

Well worth a look if you think they can cope with the subject matter.

Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines series is brilliant

He's now writing a prequel series which is just as good

It's a fantastically well-realised world which is beautifully written - the kind of book which can be enjoyed by adults as well as older children/teens

Ingo series by Helen Dunmore (four books) Dd is reading it and thoroughly enjoying it.