Hicks, Betty. Get real.Roaring Brook, 2006 [1-59643-089-3]
This is the story of two best friends who want different parents. Dez is very neat and structured and organized while her parents are more creative and messy. Dez just doesn't feel like she belongs. Her best friend, Jil is adopted and comes from a well off family. One day Jil finds a way to contact her birth mother and her adoptive parents are supportive of this contact. Unfortunately this become a struggle as to who is her real parent. What will happen with her birth parent when push comes to shove. Jil runs away and tries to get Dez to join her or help her. This 184 page book is a thought provoking book about teens trying to fit in and the meaning of friendship.

Cheshire, Simon. The Prince and the snowgirl. Delacorte, 2006 [978-0-385-73342-7]

Tom is a look-alike actor who looks like England’s Prince George. (I am not sure why they used a fake name.. maybe for legal reasons.) He goes around at various store opening and other affairs, acting as Prince George. Meanwhile at school he has fallen in love a girl on the ski team with him (hence snow girl.) Of course he is shy and does nothing about it. One day the ski team travels to a competition and stays in a hotel and just for kicks, Tom pretends he is the Prince to scam the hotel for better rooms. Well of course you can guess what happens, the real prince shows up. How will Tom get out of this situation? Will he and “the snowgirl” ever get together? This 167 page book is a fun read. For students who might be bothered by it, there are a lot of “Britishisms” in the book which some students may not understand.

Rinaldi, Ann. Come Juneteenth. Harcourt, 2007 [978-0-15-205947-7]

Luli and her family live on a plantation in Texas as the Civil War draws to the end. Like most of the other slave owners in Texas, they decide not to tell their slaves of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Ruth (or Sis Goose as she is called) is a slave who was raised like a sister to Luli. She becomes very bitter when she finds out that the family hid the fact from her (and the other slaves) that they were free for two years. Will Sis Goose ever feel like part of the family? How will the family react and survive when a small group of Union soldiers occupy the plantation after the war? This 246 page book is a great piece of historical fiction as is usually the case with Rinaldi. What I liked about this one is that it is a little less meaty and therefore more approachable to greater number of students.

Douglas, Lola. True confessions of a Hollywood starlet. RazorBill/Penguin, 2005 [159514-093-x]

This is an interesting twist on several books with similar titles. Here we have an actual starlet who has had a drinking problem and a drug overdose. She is sent to a treatment program after which her mother decides she needs a real life so her hair is dyed and she is enrolled in a Midwestern H.S. to live like a normal teenage Of course it is important that non one learns of her background. This 259 page book traces her transition from feeling aloof yet trying to fit in, to actually becoming a integral part of the school community. Can she keep her secret? What will happen when she leaves and goes back to Hollywood after a year? I enjoyed the story. It is a fun story with serious undertones.

Daneshvari, Gitty. School of fear. Little, Brown, 2009 [978-0-316-03326-8]

Four kids have strong phobias that are ruining the lives of them and their families. Their parents decide to send them off to a very exclusive school which deals with fear. Once there, they meet the strange teacher, Mrs. Wellington. They are very confused about her methods. This 333 page book is a fun read with a wild plot twist at the end (which I figured was coming.) This was an Advanced Readers copy. expected publication date, September 2009.

Pfeffer, Susan Beth. The dead & the gone. Harcourt, 2008 [978-0-15-206311-5]
This book is related to "Life as we knew it", telling of the same disaster, this time in NYC. The life of Alex and his family is suddenly changed when the asteroid hits the moon. When the flood and tsunamis come, his mom is on the subway to work and his father is visiting family in Puerto Rico. Always hoping his parents will return, Alex and his two sisters fight to survive as society crumbles in New York City. Things are terrible but every morning he goes "body shopping", searching the bodies of the deceased, finding anything of value he can trade for food. This 321 is as depressing as "Life as we knew it." These books are not for elementary students, both of them sent me into a terrible melancholy mood. The reader experiences the total collapse of society as we know it.

Every summer Hal and his family have gone to the coast. This year is different. Last year is different because last year hit her head on a rock on the beach and is in a coma. After they decide to go to the shore anyway, Hal begins getting messages in his mind from his sister, in her coma in the hospital. No one knows what happened and how she had her accident. It appears that she is trying to tell Hal what happened. This 324 page book is about a family dealing with a tragedy, not knowing what happened in the accident. It is a mystery. It is a tale of new love and the love between a brother and sister. This is a touching book, but not really for elementary students.

Treggiari, Jo. The curious misadventures of Feltus Ovalton. Lobster Press, 2006 [978-897073-43-8 // 1-897073-43-7]

Feltus is a loner. He has no friends and his parents ignore him. Everything changes for him one day when he discovers mysterious creatures under the kitchen table and a previously unknown aunt shows up at the door. Suddenly Feltus is selected at the one to save a world in another dimension. He teams up with his quirky aunt to deal with this magical and wild situation. This 334 page book is a fun fantasy that reminded me a little of Ibbotson.

Strasser, Todd. Boot camp. Simon & Schuster, 2007 [978-1-4169-0848-7 // 1-4169-0848-X]

After continually dating his teacher, Garret is sent to a “boot camp” to learn to obey his parents. The campers are isolated from their family and the rest of the world and given extremely harsh treatment. They are beaten, put in isolation, and treated incredibly harsh. This 238 book makes “Holes” look like a walk in the park. It shows the terrible reality of these types of training camps that actually exist today. There is a bibliography at the end of the book. I do not recommend this book for elementary students. What made it especially scary to me was that it is based on how some of these camps are actually run.

Van Draanen, Wendelin. Runaway. Knopf, 2006 [0-375-83522-9]
Holly is in foster care and has run away before. This time when she runs away, she takes a journal with her and begins to write of her adventure, addressing it all like a letter to the teacher who gave her the journal. This 250 page book depicts the harsh way of life for a runaway and homeless people in our country. It is not a happy run away book, but rather on a lone teen trying to survive in the real world all alone by not trusting anyone. The only thing that concerned me about the book was the journal thing. Would someone with so many troubles take the time to keep up with the journal? Who knows? Maybe this would not bother student readers.

Lawrence. Iain. Gemini summer. Delacorte, 2006 [0-385-90111-9 // 978-0385-90111-6]

It was the summer of 1965 when Danny and Beau’s father began digging in the front yard. Beau was crazy about space travel and rockets. One day there is a terrible accident when Beau falls in the ditch and dies. Was it an accident? The death is difficult for the whole family but Danny takes his brother’s death especially hard and only starts to recover when he adopts a stray dog in which he starts to see his brother. Danny takes the dog and runs off to see a Gemini launch in Florida. This 258 page book is a touching story about brotherly love and recovering from a tragedy. I enjoyed the story except that I felt the writer wanted the reader to begin to believe Beau was really in the dog. This changed the very nature of the book. Maybe Danny is just imaging things, but there are an awful lot coincidences.

<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Napoli, Donna Jo. The king of Mulberry Street. Wendy Lamb/Random House, 2005 [0-385-75653-9]<?xml:namespace prefix = o />

It is 1892 and things are bad in Ireland so Dom’s mother smuggles him on a ship to America and tells him to make his way to Mulberry Street and to always listen.. learn by listening. After making his way through Ellis Island, he finds the hard life of an immigrant. One day he hears that people up-town will pay good money for a sandwich at lunch time so he starts a little empire in the street sandwich business. This 245 page book shows the harsh realities of being an immigrant in New York at the turn of the century.

Sheldon, Dyan. Confessions of a Hollywood star. Candlewick Press, 2006 [978-0-7636-3075-1]
In this follow-up to “Confessions of a teenage drama queen”, Lola has now graduated from High School, happy to finally be away from her competition in HS, Carla. A movie is going to be filmed in town and Carla will do anything to get into it. To top off everything, Carla is going to Europe for the summer (well at least until she hears about the movie.) This 202 page book is a collection of fun adventures as Lola and her friend try to get into the movie and outdo Carla. It reminded me a lot of the Lucy show on television (I know I am showing my age.) It is a fun read.

Peck, Richard. On the wings of heroes. Dial, 2007 [978-0-8037-3081-6]
World War II engulfs the life and town in which Davy lives in Illinois. He brother joins the air force and his father served in the previous war. Everything is getting rationed. Richard Peck has once again written a pleasant narrative with his usual clever and funny anecdotes threaded throughout serious overlay of the war affecting a family and community. This 148 page book allows the reader to experience life during World War II rather than experience a complex plot.

Hiaasen, Carl. Scat. Knopf, 2009 [978-0-375-837486-8]
Nick and his friend Marta go on a field trip to the swamp with the dreaded science teacher, Ms. Starch who disappears during a wildfire in the swamp on the trip. The school receives a notes saying that Ms. Starch has to attend to a family emergency and will be absent for a while. This starts a big adventure for Nick and Marta as the try to figure out what happened to their science teacher. They cross paths with an interesting cast of characters while trying to figure out what is going on. This 371 page book is a fun Florida ecology based mystery, similar to Hiaasen’s other books. This one involves the Florida panther.. and tracking it through it’s droppings (or scat.) I am sure this book will be as popular as he other ones.

Starmer, Aaron. DWEEB. Random House, 2009 [978-0-385-73705-0] Advanced reader’s copy
Denton, Wendell, Eddie, Elijah,and Bijay, all nerds, have noticed strange things happening at their Junior HS – everyone’s personality is changing. Besides these unusual happenings, the whole school is tense in expectation of the coming Idaho tests. One day the Vice Principal frames these kids and locks them in the basement of the school making them promise to study and get high scores on the test. This “team” begins to realize something strange is happening… and it has something to do with burgers. Will they solve the mystery? Who can they trust. This 229 page book is a silly adventure in an implausible situation. There are definitely some funny spots in the book but overall, I did not enjoy the book. I am sure kids will pick it up because of the title but the nerdy kids who are the heroes of the may not be the for audience for which the book is aimed. It will be interesting to hear the comments of the kids who read it. This is an advanced reader’s copy with an expected release in October 2009.

Yohalem, Eve. Escape under the forever sky. Chronicle Books, 2009 [978-8118-6653-8] Advanced reader’s copy
This book takes place in Ethiopia. Lucy’s mom has been appointed US Abassador to Ethiopia and is very involved in her job. Lucy is annoyed about how restrictive her mom is regarding, saying it is for her own good. Well… Lucy gets kidnapped and taken out into the wilds of Ethiopia. Lucy eventually escapes and has to use her experience and knowledge from reading of Ethopia to help her survive and hopefully get back to her family. This 220 page book is a great survival story in an unusual setting also involving an struggling relationship between a mom and her daughter. It was a good read. This was an advance reader’s copy, not yet published.

Poblocki, Dan. The stone child. Random House, 2009 [978-0-375-84254-2] Advanced reader's copy
Eddie’s family moves to the town of his favorite author. The town is dark, strange and creepy with an evil presence and the author appears to be missing. The people in the town hold the author responsible for the strange things happening in town. Eddie and his friends investigate. After his mother gives him a journal written in code by the author, he realizes that this journal might hold the clues to save the town from the evil. Eddie and his friends try to break the code and get more and more involved in the evil enwrapping the town. This 274 page book is a great suspense book dealing with evil. It reminded me a great deal of John Bellair’s early books, although it is a little more evil. There are large blocks of text written in a handwritten font which I found VERY difficult to read. This was a advanced reader's book so hopefully they will have changed that for the final edition. Expected publication date is August 2009.

Wells, Rosemary. Red moon at Sharpsburg. Viking, 20097 [978-0-670-03638-7]
It is at the start of the Civil War and India’s school closes. Because she is a smart girl, her family gets her a tutor. Eventually her father turns up missing so India goes to find him. She eventually finds herself in the midst of the Battle of Antietam. This book is very descriptive in telling about the horrors the Civil war, the medical practices and how it divides the people. It is not for the light-hearted. This 236 page book is great historical fiction for middle school. It includes a bibliography and author notes at the end.

Pfeffer, Susan Beth. Life as we knew it. Harcourt, 2006 [0-15-205826-5 // 978-0-15-205826-5]
WOW! This is by far the most powerful book I have read in a LONG time. I got so wrapped up in the story, I went into a kind of depression. Miranda and her family live in western Pennsylvania on May 19th when the asteroid hit the moon. It moved the moon on a closer orbit to the Earth causing tsunamis around the world, earthquakes and floods. Most coastal cities in the world are destroyed. Miranda's mother had the foresight to hit the food stores and other stores the next morning to purchase non-perishable food, clothing, batteries and other supplies. What happens next is that all of society starts to quickly collapse. Electricity stops, there is very little oil or gas because all the tanker ships and refineries on the coast were destroyed. Eventually the stronger pull of the Moon's gravity causes old extinct volcanoes to start erupting. Grey clouds cover the skies as the summer ends and it starts to get cold..colder...and colder. This this 337 page book tells the story of survival when there is no hope for rescue. It is the tale of death, cold, starvation, friendship, and love. I will not say how the book ends.. but it is appropriate. All I can say.. for upper middle school to through High School.... don't miss this one!

Rowling, J.K. The tales of Beedle the Bard. Scholastic, 2007 [978-0-545-12828-5 // 0-545-12828-5]
This is a collection of short stories billed as Wizard/Muggle folklore with "extensive commentary" by Albus Dumbledore. The "net proceeds" from the sale of this book goes directly to a charity which helps children. I would have rather had Ms. Rowling ask for direct contributions to the charity. Out the the several short stories, I found only one half-way enjoyable (The Wizard the and hopping pot.) To connect these stories to Harry Potter, after each short story is a long explanation of the significance and importance of each tale by Albus Dumbledore. There are even footnotes in Dumbledore's commentary as further explanation. I held off purchasing this 110 page book and I sincerely hope Ms. Rowling does not try to write more such books which try to thrive on the coattails of the Harry Potter saga. If she wants to write.. use another set of characters. I have only convinced one student to check this out and she was not pleased with it at all.

Yep, Laurence. Dragon Road. HarperCollins, 2008 [978-0-06-027521-1]
This is part of the Golden Mountain series which follows the Young family from 1849 through 1995. It is now 1939 and Cal and Barney are basketball "sharks." To make money to survive in the Depression, they pretend they can't play basketball and then scam a bet and always win the game. This keeps them alive but is not a life until they meet a guy who is setting up a traveling exhibition Asian basketball team. They travel around the country, making a name for themselves and even a little money for themselves. Will Cal ever get back to Chinatown and say what he really feels for his girl friend who has been left caring for his alcoholic father. This 290 page book is a good sports story, historical story, and a story of prejudice in 1939. I like Mr. Yep's books. NOTE: This book is loosely based on an actual Asian traveling team of the time. There is a short bibliography at the end of the book for students with further interest in the team.

Woodson, Jacqueline. After Tupac & D Foster. Putnam, 2008 [978-0-399-24654-8]
This is the story of three teenage girls in the inner city. Two girls are the best of friends and D Foster shows up (about a month before Tupac got shot the first time.) All three of them become inseparable even though the first two girls are not sure about much of the background of D Foster. The three of them grow up in the three years that D Foster was with them. This 151 page book deals with three girls, inner city life and growing up. Note that Tupac is not in the book but rather they just remember time periods around the events in Tupac's life.

Fitzgerald, Dawn. Soccer chick rules. Roaring Brook Press, 2006 [1-59643-137-7]
Soccer is everything for 13 year-old Tess and she spends her life focused on that until she finds out that the School Board has threatened to cut sports programs on school unless the school budget or levy is passed. Along with trying to do her best in the soccer season, getting involved with boys and challenging friends, Tess now gets involved in local politics. This 150 page book deals with sports, friendship, and fighting for a cause.

Pinkwater, Daniel. The Neddiad. Houghton Mifflin, 2007 [978-0-618-59444-3 // 0-618-59444-2]
WOW.. I have met several authors at conferences, dinners, etc. and would LOVE to meet Mr. Pinkwater. His middle school books are an absolute riot (although strange,) It is the 1940's and Ned's father made a fortune selling shoe laces to the army. They decide to move to LA, taking the train across the country. Ned misses getting back on the train at one stop and ends up on a wild adventure getting to meet his parents. There are many plays on words throughout the book that I am sure most kids will not catch. For example, Ned meets a famous movie star, Aaron Finn. On the trip Ned is given an ancient carved turtle by a shaman and ends up having to save the world from disaster. I LOVE his books but it is always a sell, to get a kid to read them. I have turned on a couple kids to his wacky sense of humor.. maybe because I have one also. This 307 page book is not a totally crazy as the Snarkout Boys books or Lizard music... and I think I love it the best. You go, Daniel!