Sky Riaiders by Brandon Mull

I started Sky Raiders originally only because I like some of Brandon Mull's other books, The Beyonders, Candy Shop War, etc., and because I didn't currently have anything else to read. It is a fun story with lots of imagination and some surprises in the plot. I really enjoyed how imaginative it was and how the author really seemed to understand kids.

The story starts off with with Cole, a normal sixth grader, trick or treating with his friends. Cole is afraid that people will think that he is too old for trick or treating so he manages to get his friends to come to a haunted house with him. While at the haunted house, some people kidnap his friends, and Cole is somehow uncaptured. Though the kidnappers somehow missed him he decides to follow them to see if he can somehow help his friends out. He unknowingly follows them into an alternate dimension and is captured. He is turned into a slave and sold to a group of raiders who steal treasures that are in the floating castles that mysteriously appear from the strange foreboding cloudwall. While with these raiders he meets some new friends and discovers one of their secrets. Soonafter legionnares come to take away one of his friends and they all escape together and go on a journey to restore his friend's powers.