Saint Louis Armstrong Beach

Author	Sheela Chari
ISBN	1423131630

Eleven-year-old Neela dreams of being a famous musician, performing for admiring crowds on her traditional Indian stringed instrument. Her particular instrument was a gift from her grandmother-intricately carved with a mysterious-looking dragon.

When this special family heirloom...

Author	Kathryn Fitzmaurice
ISBN	0670012920

For Tetsu, baseball is so much more than just a game

On December 6, 1941, Tetsu is a twelve-year-old California boy who loves baseball. On December 7, 1941, everything changes. The bombing of Pearl Harbor means Tetsu's Japanese-American family will be relocated to an internment camp.

...

Author	Wendy Wan-Long Shang
ISBN	0545162157

Lucy Wu, aspiring basketball star and interior designer, is on the verge of having the best year of her life. She's ready to rule the school as a sixth grader and take over the bedroom she has always shared with her sister. In an instant, though, her plans are shattered when she finds out that Yi Po, her beloved...

Author	Allan Stratton
ISBN	0061976083

Hans doesn't know who he is or where he came from. When he was a baby, he washed ashore in a wooden box and was adopted by the conniving grave robber Knobbe the Bent. Now fate has thrown him together with Angela von Schwanenberg, a young countess fleeing for her life from the evil Archduke Arnulf and his dreaded...

Author

Jenny Lee

In the tradition of funny and heartwarming bestsellers like Wonder and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, this is the story of a sickly boy whose life is turned upside down when he gets a therapy dog…who can talk!

Benji Wendell Barnsworth is a small ten-year-old boy with a big personality. Born...

Author	Kate Klise
ISBN	1250008425

Benny's parents are splitting up. His mom leaves home after a fight about a mysterious splinter that is rumored to be part of an important relic. Benny's dad has always liked clutter, but now, he begins hoarding everything from pizza boxes to old motorcycle parts.

As his house grows more cluttered...

Author	Matthew Baker
ISBN	0316240087

Mixing mystery and adventure in the tradition of Louis Sachar, Avi, and E.L. Konigsburg, If You Find This is the story of unlikely friendships, unexpected bravery and eleven-year-old Nicholas Funes's quest to prove his grandfather's treasure is real.

Nicholas is a math and music genius...

Author	Clay Carmichael
ISBN	1590786270

Stubborn, self-reliant eleven-year-old Zoe, recently orphaned, is forced to move to the country to live with her strange and bad-tempered uncle. Zoe could care less that he's a famous doctor and sculptor. All she knows is that he is impossible to understand. The only interesting thing on the farm is...

Author	Natasha Farrant
ISBN	0803739826

An unforgettable middle-grade debut that will steal your heart

Blue Gadsby’s twin sister, Iris, died three years ago and her family has never been the same. Her histrionic older sister, Flora, changes her hair color daily; her younger siblings, Jasmine and Twig, are completely obsessed...

Author	Ann M. Martin
ISBN	0545359422

Four generations. Four girls. One family.
An amazing new four-book series from Ann M. Martin.


In 1930, Abby Nichols is eight, and can't imagine what her future holds. The best things today would be having a dime for the fair, keeping her Pops from being angry, and saving up eighty-seven...

Author	Michael D. Beil
ISBN	0375867422

With their father en route to Africa for Doctors Without Borders, city-kids Nicholas and younger twin sisters Haley and Hetty are off to spend the summer with their Great-Uncle Nick at his house on Forsaken Lake. Despite some initial doubts, Nicholas is right at home in the country: he learns to sail,...

Author	Maribeth Boelts
ISBN	0547342497

Russell and Shawn call themselves the PS Brothers: P is for poop, S is for scoop, and Brothers is because they’re best friends. Scooping poop is the fastest way to earn money to buy a puppy. These two are crazy about dogs. And they’re sure that once their puppy grows into a tough dog, no one will ever pick...

Author	Katy Grant
ISBN	1561455423

Fourteen-year-old Chase lives with his mother, stepfather, and two siblings in the high country of Arizona, where they rent cabins and run a convenience store—both tourist-driven business that aren't doing very well. The family is considering a move back to Phoenix, where Chase's father lives...

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	Danette Vigilante
ISBN	0147515505

Ever since her brother's death, Dellie's life has been quiet and sad. Her mother cries all the time, and Dellie lives with the horrible guilt that the accident that killed her brother may have been all her fault.

But Dellie's world begins to change when new neighbors move into her housing project...

Author	Crystal Allen
ISBN	0061992720

Thirteen-year-old Lamar Washington is the maddest, baddest, most spectacular bowler at Striker's Bowling Paradise. But while Lamar's a whiz at rolling strikes, he always strikes out with girls. And his brother, Xavier the Basketball Savior, is no help. Xavier earns trophy after trophy on the basketball...

Author	Enrique Flores-Galbis
ISBN	1596431687

When Julian's parents make the heartbreaking decision to send him and his two brothers away from Cuba to Miami via the Pedro Pan operation, the boys are thrust into a new world where bullies run rampant and it's not always clear how best to protect themselves.

90 Miles to Havana is a 2011 Pura Belpre...

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	Catherine Friend
ISBN	0761458271

Meet Taylor McNamara: She’s twelve. She’s a city girl. But her parents have just moved her to a sheep farm in the middle of nowhere. Meet the farm animals: 40 chickens, 20 sheep, 10 ducks, and 4 goats, one of which can pee on his own head. Meet the principal and kids in Taylor’s new school: Kids tease...

Author	Deborah Ellis
ISBN	1554981344

Even though Valli spends her days picking coal and fighting with her cousins, life in the coal town of Jharia, India, is the only life she knows. The only sight that fills her with terror is the monsters who live on the other side of the train tracks — the lepers. When Valli discovers that that her “aunt”...

Author	Andrea Davis Pinkney
ISBN	0316074039

Otis, Willie, and Hibernia are three children with a lot in common: they've all lost a loved one, they each have secret dreams, and they won't stop fighting for what they want. And they're also a lot like their hero, famed boxer Joe Louis. Throughout this moving novel, their lives gradually converge to...

Author	Frank Cottrell Boyce
ISBN	1406333859

I really liked the format of this book: how it was printed on "notebook paper" and included the different Polaroid pictures that Chingis took in his many different journeys. It had a nice sense of mysteriousness about it as the author fumbles her way through learning about Chingis and Yergui and tries...

Author	Meg Wolitzer
ISBN	0525423044

At first glance, Duncan Dorfman, April Blunt, and Nate Saviano don't seem to have much in common. Duncan is trying to look after his single mom and adjust to life in a new town while managing his newfound Scrabble superpower - he can feel words and pictures beneath his fingers and tell what they are without...