Sparrow Road

The Broken Bridge

Philip Pullman · 218 pages

Over the course of a long summer in Wales, sixteen-year-old Ginny, the mixed-race, artist daughter of an English father and a Haitian mother, learns that she has a half-brother from her father's earlier marriage, and that her own mother may still be alive.

Little Darlings

Jacqueline Wilson

Sunset lives a life of luxury with her beautiful ex-model mum, a world-famous ex-rocker dad and two little celeb siblings. But life on the red carpet is no compensation for rowing parents, constant nagging, being exposed to the media’s spotlight, and having no real friends. Meanwhile, Destiny is an only child living on a rundown estate, whose loving but sickly mother constantly reminds her that sh

Moon Over Manifest

Clare Vanderpool · 384 pages

Twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker is the daughter of a drifter who, in the summer of 1936, sends her to stay with an old friend in Manifest, Kansas, where he grew up, and where she hopes to find out some things about his past.

Zebra Forest

Adina Rishe Gewirtz · 200 pages

When eleven-year-old Annie first started lying to her social worker, she had been taught by an expert: Gran. She told Annie and her little brother, Rew, the one thing they know about their father: that he was killed in a fight with an angry man who was sent away. Annie tells stories, as she and Rew laze under the birches and oaks of Zebra Forest -- stories about their father the pirate, or pilot,

The Secret Garden

Frances Hodgson Burnett · 256 pages

A ten-year-old orphan comes to live in a lonely house on the Yorkshire moors where she discovers an invalid cousin and the mysteries of a locked garden.

My Life Next Door

Huntley Fitzpatrick · 432 pages

When Samantha, the seventeen-year-old daugher of a wealthy, perfectionistic, Republican state senator, falls in love with the boy next door, whose family is large, boisterous, and just making ends meet, she discovers a different way to live, but when her mother is involved in a hit-and-run accident Sam must make some difficult choices.

Midsummer's Mayhem

Rajani LaRocca · 351 pages

That Summer

Sarah Dessen · 198 pages

During the summer of her divorced father's remarriage and her sister's wedding, fifteen-year-old Haven comes into her own by letting go of the myths of the past.

Fablehaven

Brandon Mull · 351 pages

For centuries, mystical creatures of all description were gathered to a hidden refuge called Fablehaven to prevent their extinction. The sanctuary survives today as one of the last strongholds of true magic in a cynical world. Enchanting? Absolutely! Exciting? You bet. Safe? Well, actually, quite the opposite . . . Kendra and her brother Seth have no idea that their grandfather is the current c

Pieces of Why

K.L. Going · 224 pages

Twelve-year-old Tia lives in a white slum in New Orleans with her mother, and her whole world revolves around singing in the gospel choir with her best friend, Keisha--but when practice is interrupted by a shooting outside the church, and a baby is killed, Tia finds that she cannot sing, and she is forced to confront her feelings about her incarcerated father who killed a girl in a failed robbery

Some Kind of Happiness

Claire Legrand · 374 pages

Finley Hart is sent to her grandparents' house for the summer, but her anxiety and overwhelmingly sad days continue until she escapes into her writings which soon turn mysteriously real and she realizes she must save this magical world in order to save herself.

Holes

Louis Sachar · 240 pages

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day, digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green

A Corner of the Universe

Ann M. Martin · 189 pages

The summer that Hattie turns twelve, she meets the childlike uncle she never knew and becomes friends with a girl who works at the carnival that comes to Hattie's small town.

Walk Two Moons

Sharon Creech · 288 pages

After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left.

Half a Chance

Cynthia Lord · 221 pages

Lucy, with her mother and her photographer father, has just moved to a small rural community in New Hampshire, and with her new friend Nate she plans to spend the summer taking photos for a contest, but pictures sometimes reveal more than people are willing to see. Lucy, with her mother and her photographer father, has just moved to a small rural community in New Hampshire. With her friend Nate,

The Distance Between Us

Kasie West · 312 pages

"Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers knows better thant to trust a rich boy. But then she meets the richest guy of all, who proves money might not matter after all"--Provided by publisher. Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers knows better than to trust a rich boy, but then she meets the richest guy of all, who proves money might not matter after all.

The Silver Star

Jeannette Walls · 304 pages

Two motherless sisters--Bean and Liz--are shuttled to Virginia, where their Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying mansion that's been in their family for generations. When school starts in the fall, Bean easily adjusts and makes friends, and Liz becomes increasingly withdrawn. Then something happens to Liz and Bean is left to challenge the injustice of the adult world.

Sunset Bay

Susan Mallery · 342 pages

"L.A. accountant Megan Greene has a successful job, a handsome cardiologist fiancé, and a doting father. Surely they make up for her estranged sister and hypochondriac mother ... and a niggling sense that something, somewhere, got lost along the way. But then Megan's life falls spectacularly apart. Faced with the knowledge that neither he father nor her fiancé are the men she thought they were, sh

The Book of Ruth

Jane Hamilton · 328 pages

"I learned slowly, that if you don't look at the world with perfect vision, you're bound to get yourself cooked." Having come within an inch of her life, Ruth Dahl is determined to take a good look at it - to figure out whether, in fact, she's to blame for the mess." Pegged the loser in a small-town family that doesn't have much going for it in the first place. Ruth grows up in the shadow of her

Wonderstruck

Brian Selznick · 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

Reel Life Starring Us

Lisa Greenwald · 320 pages

Dina is used to being popular but starting a new school in eighth grade is difficult, especially where cliques rule, and although working with "queen bee" Chelsea on a video project should help, Chelsea is hiding huge family problems that could mean trouble for both girls.

Circle of Secrets

Kimberley Griffiths Little

A year after her mother has deserted the family, eleven-year-old Shelby goes to stay with her, deep in the Louisiana bayou, where they both confront old hurts and regrets.

The Truth About Delilah Blue

Tish Cohen · 412 pages

Delilah, an aspiring artist and nude model, starts to question her life and father, who has begun to show signs of Alzheimer's disease, after her mother suddenly returns with a young daughter and reveals a shocking family secret.

The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd · 311 pages

Sue Monk Kidd's ravishing debut novel has stolen the hearts of reviewers and readers alike with its strong, assured voice. Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's fiercest racis