Addie on the Inside

Author	Patricia C. McKissack
ISBN	0375843841

A 2012 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book

"Forceful and iconic," raved Publishers Weekly in a starred review. This gorgeous picture book by Newbery Honor winner Patricia C. McKissack and two-time Caldecott Medal-winning husband-and-wife team Leo and Diane Dillon is sure to become a treasured...

Author	Gina Harris
ISBN	1603703543

Joanie's got all of the problems of an almost seventeen year old girl. She's trying to get her driver's license, her mom and dad are pressuring her about going to prom, and she never can seem to make it to the bus on time. Even worse, Joanie likes girls, not boys, and all of the girls in her hometown are pretty...

Author	Guadalupe Garcia McCall
ISBN	1600604293

Lupita, a budding actor and poet in a close-knit Mexican American immigrant family, comes of age as she struggles with adult responsibilities during her mother's battle with cancer in this young adult novel in verse.

When Lupita learns Mami has cancer, she is terrified by the possibility...

Author

Holly Thompson

After a classmate commits suicide, Kana Goldberg—a half-Japanese, half-Jewish American—wonders who is responsible. She and her cliquey friends said some thoughtless things to the girl. Hoping that Kana will reflect on her behavior, her parents pack her off to her mother's ancestral home in...

Author	Ron Koertge
ISBN	0763629391

"This funny and poignant novel celebrates the power of writing to help young people make sense of their lives and unlock and confront their problems." - SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL (starred review)

When MVP Kevin Boland gets the news that he has mono and won't be seeing a baseball field for a while,...

Author	Susan Taylor Brown
ISBN	1582461805

When her mom runs away from home, Rachel is left behind with her emotionally distant father and many questions she cannot answer. Over time, she learns the truth about her mom. But it's only when she learns the truth about her dad, the rock- immoveable and always there for her to lean on-that Rachel can...

Author	Rigoberto González
ISBN	1593501064

As they embark on their final year of high school, the Fierce Foursome—Maui, Trini, Isaac, and Liberace—decide to do something big, something that will memorialize their friendships for when they all go their separate ways and begin their new “adult” lives.

Already accustomed...

Author	Lois-Ann Yamanaka
ISBN	0786814667

Had to read it for book club. Wouldn't have picked it otherwise, and probably won't read anything else by this author. Definitely would not recommend it.

Having lived in Hawaii for several years, I understood most of the pidgin/Hawaiian terms (like pau, haole, and ohana) and could even relate...

Author	Arnold Adoff
ISBN	0547235542

Through poems and poetic prose pieces, acclaimed children's author Arnold Adoff celebrates that uniquely American form of music called the blues. In his signature “shaped speech” style, he creates a narrative of moments and joyous music, from the drums of the ancestors, the red dirt of the plantations,...

Author	Tracie Vaughn Zimmer
ISBN	0618618678

JoEllen’s parents divorced when she was very young, so she was used to splitting her time between them, shuttling four blocks from one Cincinnati apartment to another. But when her dad moved to the old family farm last year, her life was suddenly divided. Now on weekdays she’s a city girl, called...

Author	Bob Raczka
ISBN	1596435410

Play with your words! A brand new poetic form that turns word puzzles into poetry.

Part anagram, part rebus, part riddle--these poems capture a scene from a child's daily life and present a puzzle to solve. Sometimes sweet and sometimes funny, but always clever, these poems are fun to read and...

Author	Jen Bryant
ISBN	0375840486

Will Lyza's 1968 summer mystery lead to . . . pirate treasure?

When Lyza helps her dad clean out her late grandfather's house, a mysterious surprise brightens the sad task. In Gramps's dusty attic, Lyza discovers three maps, carefully folded and stacked, bound by a single rubber band. On top,...

Author	Nikki Grimes
ISBN	1599902842

For twelve years, Joylin Johnson's life has been just fine, thank you very much. A game of basketball with the boys-especially her friend Jake-was all it took to put a smile on her face. Baggy jeans, T-shirt, and hair in a ponytail were easy choices. Then suddenly the world seemed to turn upside down, and...

Author	Sally Murphy
ISBN	0763648213

At school, Pearl is a group of one, and at home her beloved granny is fading. A poignant gem of a tale about independence, grief, and finding your place.

Pearl likes to write poems, but despite the insistence of her teacher, Ms. Bruff, Pearl's poems don't rhyme, and neither does she. She wishes...

Author	Helen Frost
ISBN	0374382212

When Wren Abbott and Darra Monson are eight years old, Darra's father steals a minivan. He doesn't know that Wren is hiding in the back. The hours and days that follow change the lives of both girls. Darra is left with a question that only Wren can answer. Wren has questions, too.

Years later, in...

Author	Eileen Spinelli
ISBN	0375858709

DELICIOUS PANCAKES!!
FREE!!
ALL YOU CAN EAT!!
COME TO OUR
NEW GRAND OPENING!
 
The grand opening of the Dancing Pancake isn't the only new thing in Bindi's life: new friends, a new apartment, maybe even a cute new crush? But there are other changes, like her dad's move to a new...

Author	Kathryn Erskine
ISBN	0399255052

Mike tries so hard to please his father, but the only language his dad seems to speak is calculus. And for a boy with a math learning disability, nothing could be more difficult. When his dad sends him to live with distant relatives in rural Pennsylvania for the summer to work on an engineering project,...

Author	Erica S. Perl
ISBN	0375959246

Okay, so here's what I've been puzzling over with this book-- it's a PRIME example of the sort of book that sometimes struggles to find the right readers, I think. Because it takes real risks, in quiet ways. It doesn't announce itself as "quirky" or "zany." It just is those things, because it is human, and...

Author

Betsy Rosenthal

One of 12 siblings growing up in depression-era Baltimore, Edith isn't quite sure of who she is. Between working at her father’s diner, taking care of her younger siblings, and living in the shadow of her more mature sisters, Edith feels lost in a sea of siblings. When a kind teacher encourages...

Author	Patricia Reilly Giff
ISBN	0375838899

Rachel, Cassie, and Joey live in the city with their Pop, until Pop's search for work lands the family on a run down farm. Dreamy Rachel loves to read, and doesn't know much about the country. Times are hard there, too—the school and library are closed.  When Pop gets work near Canada, he has to leave...

Author	Caitlin O'Connell
ISBN	0547053444

In the sprawling African scrub desert of Etosha National Park, they call her “the mother of all elephants.” Holding binoculars closely to her eyes, American scientist Caitlin O’Connell could not believe what she was seeing from these African elephants: as the mighty matriarch scanned the...

Author	Margarita Engle
ISBN	1481461125

In a haunting yet hopeful novel in verse, award-winning author Margarita Engle tells the story of Antonio Chuffat, a young man of African, Chinese, and Cuban descent who became a champion of civil rights.

Asia, Africa, Europe—Antonio Chuffat’s ancestors clashed and blended on the beautiful...

Author	Paul B. Janeczko
ISBN	0763647276

Paul B. Janeczko's stirring collection of poems goes inside the walls of the notorious camp to portray the indomitable spirit of those incarcerated there.

Hitler hailed Terez�n (Theresienstadt) as a haven for artistic Jews, when in reality the Czech concentration camp was little more...

Author	Sheila O'Connor
ISBN	0399254587

It's the summer before seventh grade, and twelve-year- old Raine O'Rourke's mother suddenly takes a job hours from home at mysterious Sparrow Road- a creepy, dilapidated mansion that houses an eccentric group of artists. As Raine tries to make sense of her new surroundings, she forges friendships...