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Cover image for The Midwife's Apprentice

by Karen Cushman

From the author of Catherine, Called Birdy comes another spellbinding novel set in medieval England.

by E. L. Konigsburg

Four students, with their own individual stories, develop a special bond and attract the attention of their teacher, a paraplegic, who chooses them to represent their sixth-grade class in the Academic Bowl competition.

Out of the Dust

by Karen Hesse

A poem cycle that reads as a novel, Out of the Dust tells the story of a girl named Billie Jo, who struggles to help her family survive the dust-bowl years of the Depression.

Holes

by Louis Sachar

Stanley Yelnats has had awful luck his whole life: He's overweight, kids tease him, his family is poor, and now he's accused of a crime he didn't commit! Stanley blames his great-great grandfather, Elya Yelnats, who stole a pig from a gypsy.

Bud, Not Buddy

by Christopher Paul Curtis

It's 1936, in Flint, Michigan. Ten-year-old Bud may be a motherless boy on the run, but he's on a mission. His momma never told him who his father was, but she left a clue: posters of Herman E. Calloway and his famous band, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression!

A Year Down Yonder

by Richard Peck

The worst part of the "Roosevelt Recession" in 1937 is that Mary Alice has to spend a year in a rural town with her feisty and conniving Grandma Dowdel. After enduring many outrageous schemes, Mary Alice eventually learns to appreciate her grandmother's wisdom and her ways.

A Single Shard

by Linda Sue Park

Tree-ear, an orphan, lives under a bridge in Ch'ulp'o, a potters' village famed for delicate celadon ware. He has become fascinated with the potter's craft; he wants nothing more than to watch master potter Min at work, and he dreams of making a pot of his own someday.

Crispin: The Cross of Lead

by Avi

In fourteenth-century England a nameless thirteen-year-old peasant boy, who thought he had little to lose, finds himself with even less. Accused of a crime he did not commit, he has been declared a "wolf's head," meaning that anyone can kill him on sight.

The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread

by Kate DiCamillo

Welcome to the story of Despereaux Tilling, a mouse who is in love with music, stories, and a princess named Pea. It is also the story of a rat called Roscuro, who lives in the darkness and covets a world filled with light.

Kira-Kira

by Cynthia Kadohata

Glittering. That's how Katie Takeshima's sister, Lynn, makes everything seem. The sky is kira-kira because its color is deep but see-through at the same time. The sea is kira-kira for the same reason.

Criss Cross

by Lynne Rae Perkins

Teenagers in a small town in the 1960s experience new thoughts and feelings, question their identities, connect, and disconnect as they search for the meaning of life and love.

The Higher Power of Lucky

by Susan Patron Illustrated by Matt Phelan

Ten-year-old Lucky, who is intent upon seeking her Higher Power after overhearing people speak at AA meetings, determines that running away is the way to prevent her legal guardian, Brigitte, from abandoning her and returning home to France.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village

by Laura Amy Schlitz Illustrated by Robert Byrd

Step back to an English village in 1255, where life plays out in dramatic vignettes illuminating twenty-two unforgettable characters.

The Graveyard Book

by Neil Gaiman Illustrated by Dave McKean

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be "completely" normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead.

Moon over Manifest

by Clare Vanderpool

Winner of the 2011 Newbery Medal

The movement of the train rocked me like a lullaby. I closed my eyes to the dusty countryside and imagined the sign I'd seen only in Gideon's stories: Manifest — A Town with a Rich Past and a Bright Future.

When You Reach Me

by Rebecca Stead

Four mysterious letters change Miranda’s world forever.

Dead End in Norvelt

by Jack Gantos

With surprises at every turn (and more than a few outright gasps!) this sly, edgy comedy follows one boy's attempt to survive the world's wackiest summer job.Jack's plans for summertime excitement are shot down when he is "grounded for life" by his feuding parents.