Ship of Dolls, by Shirley Parenteau

Summary:  It’s 1926, and the one thing eleven-year-old Lexie Lewis wants more than anything is to leave Portland, where she is living with her strict grandparents, and rejoin her mother, a carefree singer in San Francisco. But Mama’s new husband doesn’t think a little girl should live with parents who work all night and sleep all day. Lexie’s class has been raising money to ship a doll to the children of Japan in a friendship exchange, and when Lexie learns that the girl who writes the best letter to accompany the doll will be sent to the farewell ceremony in San Francisco, she knows she just has to be the winner.

Candlewick

Find it at WCPL

Death by Toilet Paper, by Donna Gephart

Summary: Welcome the adventures of a contest-crazed seventh grader who uses his wits and way with words in hopes of winning a big cash prize to help his family avoid eviction.  Good toilet paper was the first thing to go.  Benjamin is about to lose a whole lot more than good toilet paper. But even with his flair for clever slogans, will he be able to win a cash prize large enough to keep a promise he made to his dad before he died?

Delacourte

Gameworld, by C. J. Farley

Summary:  It turns out that Dylan is the greatest gamer anyone has ever seen, and his skills unlock a real-life fantasy world inside the contest game Xamaica. Now actual monsters are trying to kill him, and he is swept up into an adventure along with his sister, his best friend, and the privileged daughter of Mee Corp.’s chief inventor.  In order to save his sister and his friends, Dylan must solve a dangerous mystery in three days and uncover secrets about Xamaica, his family, and himself.

Akashic Books