The Center of Everything, by Linda Urban

Summary:  For Ruby Pepperdine, the center of everything is on the rooftop of Pepperdine Motors, stargazing from the circle of her grandmother Gigi’s hug. Now Ruby’s best friend, Lucy, is mad at her. Worst of all, Ruby regrets what happened with Gigi. And now it’s too late to make things right. But Ruby has one last hope. It all depends on what happens on Bunning Day, when the entire town will hear her read her winning essay. And it all depends on her twelfth birthday wish– unless she messes that up too.

Harcourt

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Water Castle, by Megan Frazer Blakemore

Summary:  When Ephraim learns of the Fountain of Youth that is supposed to be at his family’s castle home, he’s sure finding it can cure his dad. With Mallory and Will’s help, the trio embarks on a mission that brings them deep into their families’ shared history and on a quest that will blur the lines of magic and science.

Walker

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Dumpling Days, by Grace Lin

Summary: When Pacy, her two sisters, and their parents go to Taiwan to celebrate Grandma’s sixtieth birthday, the girls learn a great deal about their heritage.

Little, Brown

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Dreamsleeves, by Coleen Paratore

Summary:  During a momentous summer, thirteen-year-old Aislinn’s dreams include that her father will stop drinking and give her more freedom, that her fifth sibling will be born safely, that she will not lose her best friend or her potential boyfriend, and that she can teach members of her community both to express their dreams and to help others’ dreams come true.

Scholastic

A Month of Sundays, by Ruth White

Summary:  In the summer of 1956 while her mother is in Florida searching for a job, fourteen-year-old April Garnet Rose, who has never met her father, stays with her terminally ill aunt in Virginia and accompanies her as she visits different churches, looking for God.

FS&G

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Never Forgotten, by Patricia McKissack

Summary:  In eighteenth-century West Africa, a boy raised by his blacksmith father and the Mother Elements–Wind, Fire, Water, and Earth–is captured and taken to America as a slave.

Schwartz & Wade

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Ten, by Lauren Myracle

Summary:  Winnie celebrates her unique style through her first year with a double-digit age as she has many new experiences, from the high of spending time in New York City with her aunt and big sister, to the low of her two best friends suddenly becoming interested in boys.

Dutton

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Wonderstruck, by Brian Selznick

Summary:  Having lost his mother and his hearing in a short time, twelve-year-old Ben leaves his Minnesota home in 1977 to seek the father he never knew in New York City, and meets there Rose, who is also longing for something missing from her life. Ben’s story is told in words; Rose’s in pictures.

Scholastic

The Tanglewood Terror, by Kurtis Scaletta

Summary: When a giant glowing fungus encroaches upon thirteen-year-old Eric’s small town, he, his little brother Brian, and a runaway girl try to stop it–and figure out what happened to the Puritan town that had mysteriously disappeared from the same spot.

Alfred A. Knopf