Finding Perfect
By Elly Swartz Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Pages: 304 Age Range: 8 – 12 Years ABOUT To twelve-year-old Molly Nathans, perfect is: —The number four —The tip of a newly sharpened No. 2 pencil —A crisp white pad of paper —Her neatly aligned glass animal figurines What’s not perfect is Molly’s mother leaving the family to take a faraway job with the promise to return in one year. Molly knows that promises are sometimes broken, so she hatches a plan to bring her mother home: Win the Lakeville Middle School Poetry Slam Contest. The winner is honored at a fancy banquet with white...
Read MoreLike Water on Stone
By Dana Walrath Publisher: Random House Children’s Books Pages: 368 Age Range: 14 – 17 Years ABOUT “Evocative and hopeful,” says Newbery Honor-Winner Rita Williams-Garcia of this intense survival story set during the Armenian genocide of 1915. It is 1914, and the Ottoman Empire is crumbling into violence. Beyond Anatolia, in the Armenian Highlands, Shahen Donabedian dreams of going to New York. Sosi, his twin sister, never wants to leave her home, especially now that she is in love. At first, only Papa, who counts Turks and Kurds among his closest friends, stands in...
Read MoreSkating with the Statue of Liberty
By Susan Meyer Publisher: Random House Children’s Books Pages: 320 Lexile: 710L Age Range: 8 – 12 Years ABOUT “This rich story reminds us that America can be at its best as a melting pot. A page-turner for all the right reasons.”—VINCE VAWTER, Newbery Honor-winning author of Paperboy In this gripping and poignant companion to Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner Black Radishes, Gustave faces racism and anti-Semitism in New York City during World War II, but ultimately finds friendship and hope. It is January 1942, and Gustave, a twelve-year-old Jewish boy, has made it to...
Read MoreHow Not to Be Popular
By Jennifer Ziegler Publisher: Random House Children’s Books Pages: 352 Lexile: 720L Age Range: 12 Years ABOUT Maggie Dempsey is tired of moving all over the country. Her parents are second-generation hippies who uproot her every year or so to move to a new city. When Maggie was younger, she thought it was fun and adventurous. Now that she’s a teenager, she hates it. When she moved after her freshman year, she left behind good friends, a great school, and a real feeling of belonging. When she moved her sophomore year, she left behind a boyfriend, too. Now that they’ve moved to Austin,...
Read MoreThe Mesmer Menace (Gadgets and Gears)
By Kersten Hamilton Illustrations by James Hamilton Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Pages: 160 Lexile: 770L Age Range: 7 – 10 Years ABOUT Welcome to the Amazing Automated Inn, home of twelve-year-old inventor Wally Kennewickett, his genius scientist parents, and his dashing dog, Noodles. From the lightning harvester on the roof to the labs full of experiments in the dungeon, the inn is a wonderful place for a curious boy and his loyal dog to live. That is, until President Theodore Roosevelt himself calls the elder Kennewicketts away, leaving Wally and Noodles to face the evil...
Read MoreBrothers at Bat: The True Story of an Amazing All-Brother Baseball Team
By Audrey Vernick Illustrated by Steven Salerno Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Pages: 40 Lexile: AD780L Age Range:4 – 8 Years ABOUT The Acerra family had sixteen children, including twelve ball-playing boys. It was the 1930s, and many families had lots of kids. But only one had enough to field a baseball team . . . with three on the bench! The Acerras were the longest-playing all-brother team in baseball history. They loved the game, but more important, they cared for and supported each other and stayed together as a team. Nothing life threw their way could stop them. Full of...
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