As Easy As Falling Off the Face of the Earth / Lynne Rae Perkins
A teenaged boy encounters one comedic calamity after another when his train strands him in the middle of nowhere, and everything comes down to luck.
Binny for Short / Hilary McKay
Eleven-year-old Binny struggles to cope with her father’s death and the loss of her beloved dog while she adjusts to a new home that might be haunted by her horrible Aunt Violet.
Blackbird Fly / Erin Entrada Kelly
Bullied at school, eighth-grader Apple, a Filipino American who loves the music of the Beatles, decides to change her life by learning how to play the guitar.
Breakfast Served Anytime / Sarah Combs
Spending the summer before her senior year at a camp for gifted and talented students, Gloria struggles with the recent loss of her grandmother while trying to meet friends and make the best of her new circumstances.
Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms / Katherine Rundell
Will must find her way after she’s plucked out of a wonderful life in Zimbabwe and forced to go to boarding school in England.
The Categorical Universe of Candice Phee / Barry Jonsberg
Candice is a twelve-year-old optimist, with a literal mind, the very best of intentions, and an unwavering determination to fix all the problems of her family, friends, pets, and everyone in her life.
Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie / Jordan Sonnenblick
When his younger brother is diagnosed with leukemia, thirteen-year-old Steven tries to deal with his complicated emotions, his school life, and his desire to support his family.
Finding Someplace / Denise Lewis Patrick
The weekend she turns thirteen, aspiring clothing designer Teresa “Reesie” Boone is separated from her family by Hurricane Katrina but, during the horrific storm and its aftermath, begins to find strength in herself.
The Forget-Me-Not Summer /Â Leila Howland
When their parents, a screenwriter and a film editor, go off on summer projects, Marigold, twelve, Zinnia, eleven, and Lily, five, must visit their Great Aunt Sunny in Cape Cod, where they learn much about themselves and each other and grow closer than ever.
Fort /Â Cynthia DeFelice
A middle-grade summer adventure about two boys who build an awesome fort and tangle with two older bullies.
Found Things / Marilyn Hilton
Eleven-year-old River Rose, bullied at school and missing her older brother, Theron, makes friends with a strange new classmate, Meadow Lark, and the two search for a miracle by floating wishes down the river.
Freak the Mighty / Rodman Philbrick
At the beginning of eighth grade, learning disabled Max and his new friend Freak, whose birth defect has affected his body but not his brilliant mind, find that when they combine forces they make a powerful team.
The Gospel According to Larry / Janet Tashjian
Seventeen-year-old Josh, a loner-philosopher who wants to make a difference in the world, tries to maintain his secret identity as the author of a web site that is receiving national attention.
Heaven is Paved with Oreos / Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Fourteen-year-old Sarah keeps a journal of her pilgrimage to Rome with her eccentric grandmother, Z, her evolving relationship with best friend Curtis, and daily conversations with Curtis’s sister and star athlete, D.J.
Honey Baby Sweetheart / Deb Caletti
In the summer of her junior year, sixteen-year-old Ruby McQueen and her mother, both nursing broken hearts, set out on a journey to reunite an elderly woman with her long-lost love and in the process learn many things about “the real ties that bind” people to one another.
Hope Was Here / Joan Bauer
When sixteen-year-old Hope and the aunt who has raised her move from Brooklyn to Mulhoney, Wisconsin, to work as waitress and cook in the Welcome Stairways diner, they become involved with the diner owner’s political campaign to oust the town’s corrupt mayor.
Kate Walden Directs: Night of the Zombie Chickens / Julie Mata
Budding film director Kate Walden navigates middle school girl politics and chores on her mother’s chicken farm while trying to become the next Spielberg.
Liar & Spy / Rebecca Stead
Seventh-grader Georges adjusts to moving from a house to an apartment, his father’s efforts to start a new business, his mother’s extra shifts as a nurse, being picked on at school, and Safer, a boy who wants his help spying on another resident of their building.
Lost in the Sun / Lisa Graff
As Trent Zimmerman struggles to move past a traumatic event that took place several months earlier, he befriends class outcast Fallon Little, who helps him understand that he can move on.
Peeled / Joan Bauer
In an upstate New York farming community, high school reporter Hildy Biddle investigates a series of strange occurrences at a house rumored to be haunted.
Revenge of the Flower Girls /Â Jennifer Ziegler
When their usual summer plans are upended by their big sister’s wedding, triplets Dawn, Darby, and Delaney struggle with their dislike for the groom-to-be, a sentiment that compels them to reunite their sister with her fun-loving ex.
Saving Lucas Biggs /Â Marisa de los Santos
When thirteen-year-old Margaret’s father is sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit, she knows the only way to save him is to use the forbidden family power of time travel.
The Secret Hum of a Daisy / Tracy Holczer
After 12-year-old Grace’s mother’s sudden death, Grace is forced to live with a grandmother she’s never met. Then she discovers clues in a mysterious treasure hunt–one that will help her find her true home.
Somebody on This Bus is Going to be Famous /Â J.B. Cheaney
During a torrential rainstorm, a school bus goes off the road and, with the driver unconscious, it is up to her passengers to try to rescue each other and go for help.
Sophomore Year is Greek to Me /Â Meredith Zeitlin
Fifteen-year-old Zona Lowell is finally comfortable in high school when her father tells her that they’re moving to Greece for the second half of her sophomore year, and she will be forced to meet her mother’s large extended family there against her will.
Sorry You’re Lost / Matt Blackstone
New Jersey seventh grader and class clown Denny Murphy has just lost his mother, his father is uncommunicative, he is in trouble with his teachers, and to top it all off, his best friend has a scheme to get dates for the end-of-year school dance.
Stargirl / Jerry Spinelli
In this story about the perils of popularity, the courage of nonconformity, and the thrill of first love, an eccentric student named Stargirl changes Mica High School forever.
Summer Ball / Mike Lupica
Thirteen-year-old Danny must prove himself all over again for a disapproving coach and against new rivals at a summer basketball camp.
There Will Be Bears /Â Ryan Gebhart
Sneaking his roughneck grandfather out of a nursing home so that they can share an elk-hunting trip, thirteen-year-old Tyson ventures into the Grand Tetons only to discover that his grandfather may not be healthy enough for the journey.
The Truth About Twinkie Pie / Kat Yeh
When twelve-year-old GiGi and her big sister DiDi move to Long Island from South Carolina for GiGi to attend a fancy new private school, GiGi has a new recipe for success and makes new friends, but then discovers a family secret that turns her life upside-down.
The View from Saturday / E.L Konigsburg
Four students, with their own individual stories, develop a special bond and attract the attention of their teacher, a paraplegic, who chooses them to represent their sixth-grade class in the Academic Bowl competition.
The Wednesday Wars / Gary D. Schmidt
During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker’s classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in.
When Audrey Met Alice /Â Rebecca Behrens
When the Secret Service squashes yet another chance for the president’s daughter, Audrey, to make any new friends, Audrey discovers former first daughter Alice Roosevelt’s hidden diary, which gives Audrey endless ideas for having fun–and more problems than she can handle.
When You Reach Me / Rebecca Stead
As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1980s television game show, “The $20,000 Pyramid,” a twelve-year-old New York City girl tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from an anonymous source that seems to defy the laws of time and space.
Wonder / R.J. Palacio
Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunting and fear of his classmates as he struggles to be seen as just another student.
Zane and the Hurricane /Â Rodman Philbrick
A twelve-year-old boy and his dog become trapped in New Orleans during the horrors of Hurricane Katrina.
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