After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson - In the New York City borough of Queens in 1996, three girls bond over their shared love of Tupac Shakur's music, as together they try to make sense of the unpredictable world in which they live.

All Shook Up by Shelley Pearsall - When Josh goes to stay with his father in Chicago for a few months, he discovers, to his horror, that his dad has become an Elvis impersonator.

Bird Lake Moon by Kevin Henkes - While spending the summer with his grandparents at Bird Lake after his parents' separation, Mitch befriends Spencer, who has returned with his family to the lake where his little brother drowned years earlier.

The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti - In October, 1942, seventeen-year-old Helmuth Hubener, imprisoned for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, recalls his past life and how he came to dedicate himself to bring the truth about Hitler and the war to the German people.

Brooklyn Bridge by Karen Hesse - In 1903 Brooklyn, Joseph Michtom's life changes for the worse when his parents invent the teddy bear and turn their apartment into a factory.

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson - After being sold to a cruel couple in New York City, a slave named Isabel must decide whether to support and spy for the rebels or the British, who promise freedom to slaves, during the Revolutionary War.

Cicada Summer by Andrea Beaty - Lily has quit speaking  since the accident that killed her brother, leaving everyone to think that she is brain-damaged, but in her silence she sees everything, and when sly newcomer Tinny comes to town, Lily suddenly has a lot to talk about--if only she can make herself speak the words.

Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman - In India, in 1941, when her father becomes brain-damaged in a non-violent protest march, fifteen-year-old Vidya and her family are forced to move in with her father's extended family and become accustomed to a totally different way of life.

Diamond Willow by Helen Frost - In a remote area of Alaska, Willow helps her father with their sled dogs when she is not at school, wishing she were more popular, all the while unaware that the animals surrounding her carry the spirits of dead ancestors and friends who care for her.

Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass - Ally, Bree, and Jack meet at the one place the Great Eclipse can be seen in totality, each carrying the burden of different personal problems, which become dim when compared to the task they embark upon and the friendship they find.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - The orphan Bod, short for Nobody, is taken in by the inhabitants of a graveyard as a child of eighteen months and raised lovingly and carefully to the age of eighteen years by the community of ghosts and otherworldly creatures.

The Great Wide Sea by M. H. Herlong - Still mourning the death of their mother, three brothers go with their father on an extended sailing trip off the Florida Keys and have a harrowing adventure at sea.

Greetings From Nowhere by Barbara O’Connor - In the Great Smoky Mountains, a troubled boy and his mother, a happy family seeking adventure, a man and his lonely daughter, and the widow who must sell the run-down motel that has been her home for decades, meet and are transformed by their shared experiences.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - In a future North America, control is maintained through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.

Jimmy’s Stars by Mary Ann Rodman - Eleven-year-old Ellie refuses to give up hope that her brother, Jimmy, will return from the war.

The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas - Conn's life is forever changed when he tries to pick the pocket of the wizard Nevery, who then takes Conn under his wing, teaches him magic, and enlists his help in finding the person responsible for stealing the city's dwindling magic supply.

My One Hundred Adventures by Polly Horvath - Jane has an eventful summer accompanying her pastor on Bible deliveries, meeting former boyfriends of her mother's, and being coerced into babysitting for a family of ill-mannered children.

A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg - In 1963, seventh grader Addie joins the other African-American residents of a small town in Mississippi as they begin their struggle for racial justice.

Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock - Princess Benevolence discovers an enchanted room while locked in the castle's highest tower by the conniving Queen Sophia and begins learning the magical arts, which may help her save her kingdom from a mortal threat.

Savvy by Ingrid Law - Mibs Beaumont, whose thirteenth birthday has revealed her "savvy"--a magical power unique to each member of her family -- hopes that her talent will help her father who was injured in a terrible accident.

Shooting the Moon by Frances O’Roark Dowell - When her brother is sent to fight in Vietnam, twelve-year-old Jamie begins to reconsider the army world that she has grown up in.

Tennyson by Lesley M. M. Blume - After their mother abandons them during the Great Depression, eleven-year-old Tennyson Fontaine and her little sister Hattie are sent to live with their eccentric Aunt Henrietta in a decaying plantation house outside of New Orleans.

The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West
by Sid Fleischman - An account of the childhood and youth of nineteenth-century writer Mark Twain, an American icon.

The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry - The four Willoughby children set out to become "deserving orphans" after their neglectful parents embark on a treacherous around-the-world adventure, leaving them in the care of an odious nanny.

Waiting For Normal by Leslie Connor - Twelve-year-old Addie tries to cope with her mother's erratic behavior and being separated from her beloved stepfather and half-sisters when she and her mother go to live in a small trailer by the railroad tracks on the outskirts of Schenectady, New York.