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🧲 Books like this

Beyond the Bright Sea

Lauren Wolk Β· back to the book

What’s in it

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24 books with the same feel

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Anne of Green Gables

L.M. Montgomery Β· 308 pages

Anne, an eleven-year-old orphan, is sent by mistake to live with a lonely, middle-aged brother and sister on a Prince Edward Island farm and proceeds to make an indelible impression on everyone around her.

IslandAdoptionBelongingOrphans
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Orphan Train

Christina Baker Kline Β· 400 pages

Close to aging out of the foster care system, Molly Ayer takes a position helping an elderly woman named Vivian and discovers that they are more alike than different as she helps Vivian solve a mystery from her past. When 17-year-old Molly Ayer is sent to perform community service at elderly Vivian Daly's home in order to avoid juvenile hall, she discovers the two are very much alike, despite the

AdoptionBelongingOrphansFamily Secrets
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The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Elizabeth George Speare Β· 249 pages

Orphaned Kit Tyler knows, as she gazes for the first time at the cold, bleak shores of Connecticut Colony, that her new home will never be like the shimmering Caribbean island she left behind. In her relatives' stern Puritan community, she feels like a tropical bird that has flown to the wrong part of the world, a bird that is now caged and lonely. The only place where Kit feels completely free is

BelongingOrphansAtmosphericMiddle Grade
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Wide Sargasso Sea

Jean Rhys Β· 189 pages

Jean Rhys's reputation was made upon publication of this passionate and heartbreaking novel, in which she brings into the light one of citsion's most mysterious characters: the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre". A sensual and protected young woman, the narrator grows up in the lush, natural world of the Caribbean. She is sold into marriage to the cold-hearted and prideful R

BelongingIslandFamily SecretsAtmospheric
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The Language of Flowers

Vanessa Diffenbaugh Β· 322 pages

Victoria Jones spent her childhood moving from foster home to foster home. She believes she is damaged beyond hope and trusts nobody, connecting with the world through message-laden bouquets. Her messages are never understood until one day a man in a flower stall responds in kind.

BelongingAdoptionOrphansFamily Secrets
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Wonderstruck

Brian Selznick Β· 639 pages

Expanding upon the genre-breaking form he invented in his trailblazing debut novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick creates another awe-inspiring and multi-layered reading experience. Wonderstruck weaves together two compelling,independent stories, set fifty years apart. Ben's story, which takes place in 1977, is told in words; Rose's story in 1927 is told in pictures. Ever since his

BelongingOrphansMiddle GradeFamily Secrets
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Counting by 7s

Holly Goldberg Sloan Β· 380 pages

AdoptionOrphansMiddle GradeTeen Protagonist
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The Star of Kazan

Eva Ibbotson Β· 388 pages

After twelve-year-old Annika, a foundling living in late nineteenth-century Vienna, inherits a trunk of costume jewelry, a woman claiming to be her aristocratic mother arrives and takes her to live in a strangely decrepit mansion in Germany.

OrphansAdoptionMiddle GradeFamily Secrets
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Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus

Dusti Bowling Β· 288 pages

New friends and a mystery help Aden, thirteen, adjust to middle school and life at a dying western theme park in a new state, where her being born armless presents many challenges.

AdoptionBelongingMiddle GradeTeen Protagonist
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The Pearl Sister

Lucinda Riley Β· 510 pages

"From the breathtaking beaches of Thailand to the barely tamed wilds of colonial Australia, The Pearl Sister is the next captivating story in New York Times bestselling author Lucinda Riley's epic series about two women searching for a place to call home. CeCe D'Apliese has always felt like an outcast. But following the death of her father--the reclusive billionaire affectionately called Pa Salt b

BelongingAdoptionAtmosphericFamily Secrets
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Patina

Jason Reynolds Β· 360 pages

"A newbie to the track team, Patina "Patty" Jones must learn to rely on her family and teammates as she tries to outrun her personal demons"--

AdoptionBelongingMiddle GradeTeen Protagonist
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Secrets of the Sea House

Elisabeth Gifford Β· 353 pages

Ruth and her husband move into a dilapidated old vicarage on a stunning island in the Outer Hebrides and set about turning the unloved house into a family home. Ruth's much-needed stability is threatened when they discover the remains of a baby buried beneath the house, its legs fused together into one limb - a mermaid child. When Ruth researches the history of the house, she uncovers the heart-br

IslandAdoptionFamily SecretsAtmospheric
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Into the Gauntlet

Margaret Peterson Haddix

The explosive finale! Throughout the hunt for the 39 Clues, Amy and Dan Cahill have uncovered history's greatest mysteries and their family's deadliest secrets. But are they ready to face the truth about the Cahills and the key to their unmatched power? After a whirlwind race that's taken them across five continents, Amy and Dan face the most the difficult challenge yet-a task no Cahill dared to i

OrphansMiddle GradeFamily SecretsTeen Protagonist
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The Scorpio Races

Maggie Stiefvater Β· 435 pages

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die. At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them. Puck Connolly is different. She

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The Forgotten Garden

Kate Morton Β· 648 pages

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Red Butterfly

A.L. Sonnichsen Β· 400 pages

A young orphaned girl in modern-day China discovers the meaning of family in this inspiring story told in verse, in the tradition of Inside Out and Back Again and Sold. Kara never met her birth mother. Abandoned as an infant, she was taken in by an American woman living in China. Now eleven, Kara spends most of her time in their apartment, wondering why she and Mama cannot leave the city of Tianji

BelongingAdoptionOrphansMiddle Grade
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The Wild Robot

Peter Brown Β· 287 pages

When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is alone on a remote, wild island. She has no idea how she got there or what her purpose is--but she knows she needs to survive. After battling a fierce storm and escaping a vicious bear attack, she realizes that her only hope for survival is to adapt to her surroundings and learn from the island's unwelcoming animal inhabita

BelongingIslandAdoptionMiddle Grade
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Canada

Richard Ford Β· 420 pages

After his parents are arrested and imprisoned for robbing a bank, fifteen-year-old Dell Parsons is taken in by Arthur Remlinger who, unbeknownst to Dell, is hiding a dark and violent nature that interferes with Dell's quest to find grace and peace on the prairie of Saskatchewan.

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The Black Opal

Victoria Holt Β· 364 pages

Abandoned as a baby, her exotic beauty prompted hushed whispers of gypsy blood. But lovely Carmel March remained shrouded in mystery.... When tragedy struck her adopted home of Commonwood House, little Carmel had been bundled off to Australia. Returning to England as a young woman, she became haunted by questions from her past, as well as the shocking revelation that she had been rushed from a

AdoptionOrphansFamily SecretsFirst Person Narrator
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Julie of the Wolves

Jean Craighead George Β· 170 pages

Miyax, like many adolescents, is torn. But unlike most, her choices may determine whether she lives or dies. At 13, an orphan, and unhappily married, Miyax runs away from her husband's parents' home, hoping to reach San Francisco and her pen pal. But she becomes lost in the vast Alaskan tundra, with no food, no shelter, and no idea which is the way to safety. Now, more than ever, she must look har

BelongingMiddle GradeAtmosphericOrphans
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The Callender Papers

Cynthia Voigt Β· 214 pages

In nineteenth-century Massachusetts, orphan Jean, employed to sort out the family papers of a reclusive artist, becomes curious about the mysterious, long-ago death of his wife and the subsequent disappearance of their young child.

OrphansFamily SecretsTeen ProtagonistMiddle Grade
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The End

Lemony Snicket Β· 368 pages

When Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire find themselves in the same boat as Count Olaf, after all the treachery that happened at the Hotel Denoument, in the middle of nowhere, they think there is nothing worse that can happen, until a horrid storm comes. When the wake up they find themselves on a simple island, where you eat and drink the same things, wear the same things, and do the same things.

IslandOrphansMiddle GradeFamily Secrets
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Red Thread Sisters

Carol Antoinette Peacock

After an American family adopts eleven-year-old Wen from a Chinese orphanage, she vows to find a family for her best friend, too.

BelongingAdoptionOrphansMiddle Grade
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Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Ransom Riggs Β· 392 pages

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of peculiar photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, and unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he

IslandBelongingAtmosphericFamily Secrets
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