Twelve-year-old Talia 
just lost her mother to cancer, and as if that wasn’t hard enough to cope with, now her father is about to bring her to the Arctic for her whole summer vacation and leave her with a mysterious Inuit woman that she’s never even met. While Talia’s dad is out researching whales on the dangerous tundra, will she somehow find hope and friendship in this barren place or will she be left alone, wishing for impossible things?
by Kate DiCamillo.
Rescuing a squirrel after an accident involving a vacuum cleaner, comic-reading cynic Flora Belle Buckman is amazed when the squirrel, Ulysses, demonstrates astonishing powers of strength and flight after being revived.
by David Fleming.
Every school day seems to bring more trouble to eleven-year-old Derek, whose former best friend bullies him, while at home he deals with the long absence of his father, a Blackhawk helicopter pilot, and his mother’s sudden moodiness.
by Karen Harrington.
Twelve-year-old Sarah writes letters to her hero, To Kill a Mockingbird’s Atticus Finch, for help understanding her mentally ill mother, her first real crush, and life in her small Texas town, all in one summer.
by Josanne LaValley.
Life has been hard for fourteen-year-old Mehrigul, a member of the Uyghur tribal group scorned by the Chinese communist regime, so when an American offers to buy all the baskets she can make in three weeks, Mehrigul strives for a better future for herself and her family despite her father’s opposition.
by Leah Pileggi.
In 1885, ten-year-old Jake is sent to prison for killing a man who threatened his father, and struggles to survive the harsh realities of prison life in the Idaho Territory. Based on a true story.