Gr. 6-9. ***Starred Review*** Fourteen-year-old Sofia Wolfe moves through life smiling with friends and hiding the sorrow of having lost her Spanish mother almost a year earlier. The only people she has to talk to are her abuelo in Spain, and—regarding girl things—“Dear Kate,” a teen-advice columnist with whom she can anonymously discuss personal matters….
The Girl with the Ghost Machine by Lauren DeStefano
Gr. 3-6. For the past two years, 12-year-old Emmaline Beaumont’s father has been working day and night in the basement on a ghost machine intended to bring his wife back from the dead. Emmy feels abandoned, until one night, in anger, she flings her cup of tea into the machine’s mouth, and before she knows…
Worthy by Donna Cooner
Gr. 7-10. Linden Wilson’s life is looking up. She’s involved with prom, she plans to enter a writing contest for a scholarship, and she just started dating Alex Rivera, the cute catcher for the school’s baseball team. Meanwhile, Worthy, a new polling app that ranks couples based on the worthiness of the girl, becomes a…
Love and Vandalism by Laurie Boyle Crompton
Gr. 9-12. When Rory’s dad forbids her from being an artist, because he believes art destroyed her mother, Rory surreptitiously creates graffiti all over town, leaving angry, aggressive lions in her wake. The thrill of her covert hobby is threatened, however, when hot, out-of-towner Hayes discovers her secret. Hayes puts forth a simple bargain: if…
How to Make a Wish by Ashley Herring Blake
Gr. 9-12. Grace wants nothing more than to spend her summer at home in Cape Katherine, focusing on her upcoming audition for the Manhattan School of Music and working alongside her best friend at LuMac’s Diner. However, when Grace returns from a piano workshop in Boston, she finds that her unpredictable and needy mother, Maggie,…
Magic in the City by Heather Dyer
Gr. 2-4. Moving with their mother from Canada to their relatives’ home in England isn’t something brothers Jake, 11, and Simon, 6, want to do, but their father is in prison, and their house has been repossessed. The boys’ spirits change, however, when they encounter a magician who is retiring and gives them a stopwatch,…
Bubble by Stewart Foster
Gr. 4-7. ***Starred Review*** Eleven-year-old Joe Grant has no recollection of being outside of his specially monitored hospital room. A rare genetic disorder, severe combined immunodeficiency, keeps him within the same four walls because the smallest thing can kill him. Joe’s world revolves around monitor beeps and daily bruise checks in the shower, and the…
Ultimatum by K. M. Walton
Gr. 9-12 The only things brothers Oscar and Vance have in common are a mother, who died in a car crash three years earlier, and an alcoholic father, who is dying of liver failure. Vance, a high-school senior, loves to hang and drink with his dad, and thinks Oscar is a drag. Oscar, a year…
The Heartbeats of Wing Jones by Katherine Webber
Gr. 7-10. Fifteen-year-old Wing Jones lives in a house of strong women—her Chinese mother and her Chinese and Ghanaian grandmothers—and in the shadow of her brother Marcus, the congenial football star destined for greatness. But when Marcus drinks and drives, killing two people and ending up in a coma himself, Wing’s life becomes a nightmare:…
Between Two Skies by Joanne O’Sullivan
Gr. 7-12. ***Starred Review*** Sixteen-year-old Evangeline Riley has a rich and contented life. Tiny Bayou Perdu, a shrimping and fishing town in Louisiana, offers all she needs: best friends, family, salt air, gumbo, and pure peace when she’s on the water. During a local festival, she meets Tru, a Vietnamese boy she can’t get out…
When My Sister Started Kissing by Helen Frost
Gr. 5-8. Eleven-year-old Claire and thirteen-year-old Abigail have lived alone with their father since their mother died when Claire was a baby. The three have spent a month at the lake every summer, but things are different this year. Their new (pregnant) stepmom is coming, while their mom’s belongings have been packed away as if…
One Woman’s Quest to Erase Poverty in India by Jeanne E. Fredriksen
One Woman’s Quest to Erase Poverty in India India was the farthest thing from Katrell Christie’s mind in 2007 when the former roller derby competitor and art buyer purchased a tea shop in her hometown of Atlanta. She christened the shop Dr. Bombay’s Underwater Tea Party simply because she liked the whimsical sound of it….
