Breaker Boys: The NFL's Greatest Team and the Stolen 1925 Championship by David Fleming

Pity poor Pottsville, Pennsylvania...
A proud mining town, one of the most productive of the early 1900s, has little to offer its residents other than work in the mines and an early grave. That all changes when Doc Striegel decides to bring a professional football team to the town. At the turn of the century, college football was considered the true sport, where the pro game was a league of mercenaries and thugs who were paid to injure as many people as possible. It all changed when the Pottsville Maroons formed.
They perfected new strategies and tactics that raised the level of the game. They fielded a team of the wildest characters imaginable, including former baseball stars, monstrous brothers, and one iron-jawed stalwart named Tony Latone, who worked his way out of the mines and onto the field. Latone was dubbed the Human Howitzer, a hard running, hard hitting cannonball that left defenders crumpled in his wake.
The Maroons struggle to stay afloat financially, but put together an incredible record, suffering only two losses heir entire season. They make a few enemies along the way, chiefly in the form of other owners, bitter at Striegel for stealing some of their best players, and large cities who are trying to drum small markets out of the NFL.
At the end of the season, the Maroons are crowned champions, but after they agree to play an exhibition game against a team of Notre Dame All-Stars, a conspiracy is hatched to drum them out of the league and revoke their title. Maroons backers have been trying unsuccessfully since 1925 to have their title re-instated, but through one bad turn or another they've been denied. But for reading this book, you'd have no idea this team existed, so cleanly has the NFL expunged them from the records. This was a team of Hall-of-Famers, a group of men who elevated the game and arguably saved pro football from collapse.

After reading this book, you'll want to give them their due. You can learn how to help the cause of Pottsville Maroons at breakerboys1925.com/

Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

This book reimagines the origins of Peter Pan and Neverland. Barry and Pearson come together to create a narrative that is compelling for young and old alike. Young Peter, an orphan in London, is sent with some of his fellow children on a boat journey to a faraway island. They don't know where they are going or what will happen to them when they get there. Their ship, the Neverland, is holding a very mysterious and powerful cargo that is sought after by the dread pirate Black Stache. After a massive ship battle, Peter and Company end up on a deserted island. The learn the true nature of their cargo: it is stardust, and it gives its users powerful abilities including flight, mind control, and transformation. Peter must race to save his friends from the pirates and fierce natives while keeping the stardust away from Black Stache.
The book reads like a fantastic serial adventure form the early 1900s, always engaging, and with plenty of suspense and twists.

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

Connolly weaves an amazing tale of a young boy who has lost his mother to cancer. Set in England shortly as a World War threatens to ravage the countryside, David's father eventually remarries and David gets a new sibling. David suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, developed during his Mother's lengthy battle with cancer. After his mother's death, his mental condition worsens. He begins to experience blackouts, and stranger still...he can hear books whispering to him.
He withdraws from his family, and one night sets out from his house to examine a plane crash in a nearby garden. As he makes his way deeper into the trees, he leaves our world behind, finding himself trapped in a land of fairy tales. These aren't friendly Disney characters, these are monsters and flawed beings from the original tales of the Brothers Grimm. David travels across the land in search of a King, who he is convinced can put everything right. Along the way, he must flee from wolves, join a band of seven dwarves (who've never been given such hilarious backstories). He is shadowed by the nefarious Crooked Man, the spirit of all things evil. He must learn what it means to be brave, and to stand up for his family if he hopes to get out alive.
At the end of young David's story, Connolly adds a coda of sorts, an extremely moving tale that takes place over a scant few pages, wrapping up an amazingly told modern fairy tale. Highly recommended.