The Crossing

Author	M.E. Kerr
ISBN	0061139890

M. E. Kerr's first novel - hailed by the New York Times as a "timely, compelling" and "brilliantly funny" look at adolescence and friendship

It was bad enough that they had to move to Brooklyn.
Brooklyn Heights, as Tucker Woolf's dad instructs him to tell everyone after he loses his job....

Author	Janet S. Wong
ISBN	0152057080

A young girl - believing that the 4th of July is a time when people eat American foods like apple pie - tries to convince her parents that no one will be interested in the Chinese food they sell in their store. Despite her gloomy predictions - which seem, at first, to be borne out by the events of the day - they...

Author	Cynthia D. Grant
ISBN	0679867260

I'm really surprised the summary at the top of Goodreads lays it all about the sexual abuse...I'm sure the metaphoric descriptions throughout the book would be obvious to an adult, but for me, a sheltered 11 year old reading it in 1995, it was a HUGE plot twist (but not the only plot twist) when it was finally...

Author	Paul Zindel
ISBN	0435124005

I discovered Paul Zindel as a tween in the 1970s and like many kids my age, I read The Pigman and loved it.

Fast foward decades and I am now 55 and loved the above book which was written long after I was an adult and it is as wonderful as anything else I've read by him. He was a marvelous storyteller and...

Author

Alma Flor Ada

For María Isabel Salazar López, the hardest thing about being the new girl in school is that the teacher doesn't call her by her real name. "We already have two Marías in this class," says her teacher. "Why don't we call you Mary instead?"

But María Isabel has been named for her Papi's mother...

Author	Pam Conrad
ISBN	0064402061

"The prairie was like a giant plate, stretching all the way to the sky at the edges. And we were like two tiny peas left over from dinner, Lester and me."
Louisa loves the Nebraska prairie, the only home she's ever known. It's a lonely place, surrounded by miles of wild, flat grasslands, but it's the...

Author	Nicholasa Mohr
ISBN	0064471004

In a city called New York ...
In a neighborhood called El Bronx ...


The Fernandex children own a very special pet: A white hen named after their favorite Hollywood movie star.
A new girl comes to school - a gypsy child who can read palms and foretell the future.
A young boy must...

Author	Jacqueline Woodson
ISBN	0142405558

3 soft snickerdoodles.

Cover Love: No, but I saw there were several editions of this book and many other great covers.

Why I Wanted to Read This:
My library has a bunch of Jacqueline Woodson books and I keep meaning to read some of them. I saw mention of this one in an article so I went...

Author	Angela Johnson
ISBN	0590481428

Angela Johnson's Coretta Scott King Award winning novel that traces three generations of African American women as they learn one another's truths.

Three generations of African American women, each holding on to a separate truth. Their story -- encompassing racism and murder as well as...

Author	Paul Acampora
ISBN	0803730462

This is another mediocre YA novel dealing with the death of a parent. Dulcie's father died in a school janitorial accident and her mother's way to deal with this tragedy is to move across the country. Dulcie steals her late father's truck and goes back home, only to discover that there are worse fates than...

Author	Cynthia C. DeFelice
ISBN	0380713586

The name has haunted my sleep and made my awake hours uneasy for as long as I can remember. Other children whisper that he is part man and part animal -- wild and blood-thirsty. But I know Weasel is real: a man, an Indian fighter the government sent to drive off the Indians -- to "remove them." Weasel has his...

Author	Fran Leeper Buss
ISBN	0142302090

Nailed into a crate in the back of a truck, fifteen-year-old Maria, her older sister, Julia, their little brother, Oscar, and a boy named Tomas endure a terrifying and torturous journey across the U.S. border and then north to Chicago. There they struggle to find work-cleaning, sewing, washing dishes-always...

Author	Robert Lipsyte
ISBN	0439080886

No summer vacation could be less promising than Bobby Marks's.

Bobby Marks hates hot weather. It's the time when most people are happy to take off their heavy jackets and long pants. But for Bobby, who can't even button the waist of his jeans or reach over his belly to touch his toes, spending the...

Author	Ruth White
ISBN	0440421640

Belle Prater is missing. Since she inexplicably disappeared about a year ago, her son, Woodrow, has been living with his grandparents, next door to his cousin Gypsy. The two are best friends, joined by their adventurous sprits and shared love of stories and magic. One night they receive a puzzling phone...

Author	Jerry Spinelli
ISBN	0671746847

Just finished this excellent young adult story. Spinelli has done it again -- spun a story I could hardly put down and that pulled all the loose ends together without tying them too tight.

Maisie is an athletic type junior high girl. She was Athlete of the Year, playing on the basketball team,...

Author	Derrick Barnes
ISBN	0545135737

With piercing insight and humor, Derrick Barnes delivers a fresh, thoughtful look at two very different teen boys thrown together in after-school detention.


Robeson Battlefield and Pacino Clapton meet in detention, where they discover they both had scuffles with the same person,...

Author	Walter Dean Myers
ISBN	0060582944

Drew Lawson knows basketball is taking him places. It has to, because his grades certainly aren't. But lately his plan has run squarely into a pick. Coach's new offense has made another player a star, and Drew won't let anyone disrespect his game. Just as his team makes the playoffs, Drew must come up with...

Author	Mary Downing Hahn
ISBN	0380707640

Sensitive and idealistic fifteen-year-old Kelly McAllister feels at odds with everyone around her. Her best friend has suddenly turned boy crazy. Her talented mother creates greeting card designs instead of real art, andher father never talks to her about anything except working hard and getting...

Author	Alice Childress
ISBN	0698118545

Benjie can stop using heroin anytime he wants to. He just doesn't want to yet. Why would he want to give up something that makes him feel so good, so relaxed, so tuned-out? As Benjie sees it, there's nothing much to tune in for. School is a waste of time, and home life isn't much better. All Benjie wants is for...

Author	Virginia Hamilton
ISBN	0679839976

Now in Laurel-Leaf, Virginia Hamilton's powerful true account of the sensational trial of a fugitive slave.

The year is 1854, and Anthony Burns, a 20-year-old Virginia slave, has escaped to Boston. But according to the Fugitive Slave Act, a runaway can be captured in any free state, and Anthony...

Author

Ouida Sebestyen

Lena can recite the Scriptures by heart. Hoping to make her adored Papa proud of her and to make her white classmates notice her "Magic Mind," not her black skin, Lena vows to win the Bible-quoting contest. But winning does not bring Lena what she expected. Instead of honor, violence and death erupt and...

Author	Patricia Beatty
ISBN	0380732475

Crossing over the border is a dangerous business...

...But Lupita must cross from Mexico to America. After her father dies in a fishing boat accident in the seas near their small Mexican village, Lupita's family is left in poverty. Lupita and her big brother, Salvador, must smuggle themselves...

Author	Avi
ISBN	0380728761

Maura and Patrick have escaped the desperate poverty and danger of leaving home in Ireland to face even greater peril as they continue their daring voyage to the New World with their friend Laurence Kirkle. Aboard ship, they are crowded into the stench-filled pit of steerage, where they come face to...