Eight Keys, by Suzanne LaFleur

Summary:  When twelve-year-old Elise, orphaned since age nine, becomes disheartened by middle school, with its bullies, changing relationships, and higher expectations, keys to long-locked rooms and messages from her late father help her cope.

Random House

Hurricane Katrina 2005, by Lauren Tarshis

Summary: Eleven-year-old Barry Hunter and his family attempt to ride out Hurricane Katrina at home in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans when his little sister gets ill, but when the levees break, Barry gets swept away from his family.

Scholastic

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Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie, by Julie Sternberg

Summary:  When nine-year-old Eleanor’s beloved babysitter Bibi moves away to care for her ailing father, Eleanor must spend the summer adjusting to a new babysitter while mourning the loss of her old one.

Amulet

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Marty McGuire, by Kate Messner

Summary:  When tomboy Marty is cast as the princess in the third-grade play, she learns about improvisation, which helps her become more adaptable.

Scholastic

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Junonia, by Kevin Henkes

Summary:  The week of her tenth birthday, Alice and her parents go to Sanibel Island, Florida, just as they do every year, but this time some of the people who are always there are missing and some new people have come, which unsettles Alice, who wants things to be exactly the same as they alway are.

Greenwillow

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Flirt Club, by Cathleen Daly

Summary:  Through notes and journal entries, best friends and self-proclaimed “drama geeks” Cisco (Izzy) and the Bean (Annie) write of the trials of middle school, as well as their efforts to attract boys by forming a Flirt Club.

Roaring Book Press

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From Willa With Love, by Coleen Paratore

Summary:  When her best friend Mariel and boyfriend JFK spend the summer away from Cape Cod, sophomore-to-be Willa, who works part-time in her family’s inn, is unprepared for new romance and other surprises.

Scholastic

 

Great The Wall of Lucy Wu, by Wendy Wan-Long Shang

Summary:  Eleven-year-old aspiring basketball star and interior designer Lucy Wu is excited about finally having her own bedroom, until she learns that her great-aunt is coming to visit and Lucy will have to share a room with her for several months, shattering her plans for a perfect sixth-grade year.

Scholastic

How Tia Lola Ended Up Starting Over, by Julia Alvarez

Summary:  Welcome to Tia Lola’s bed and breakfast! With the help of her niece and nephew and the three Sword Sisters, Tía Lola is opening the doors of Colonel Charlebois’ grand old Vermont house to visitors from all over. But they soon realize that running a B & B isn’t as easy they had initially thought—especially when it appears that someone is out to sabotage them!

Alfred A. Knopf

Kick, by Walter Dean Myers and Ross Workman

Summary:  Told in their separate voices, thirteen-year-old soccer star Kevin and police sergeant Brown, who knew his father, try to keep Kevin out of juvenile hall after he is arrested on very serious charges.

HarperTeen

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Lemonade Crime, by Jacqueline Davies

Summary:  When money disappears from fourth-grader Evan’s pocket and everyone thinks that his annoying classmate Scott stole it, Evan’s younger sister stages a trial involving the entire class, trying to prove what happened.

Houghton Mifflin

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The Loser List, by H. N. Kowitt

Summary:  When Danny gets caught trying to cross his name off the “Geek” list in the girls’ bathroom, he’s sent to detention. Bullies torment him mercilessly — until they discover that Danny can draw. He enjoys his new “bad boy” status, supplying tattoos and graffiti, until he’s unknowingly drawn into a theft. Turns out the bullies took a comic book from Danny’s favorite store. Can he steal it back before they get caught — and break off with the bullies before he gets in too deep?

Scholastic

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My Forever Friends, by Julie Bowe

Friends for Keeps series

Summary:  Former best friends Brooke and Jenna are feuding and soon all the girls in the fourth-grade class are split into two groups, with Ida May right in the middle trying to put things back the way they used to be.

Dial

Okay For Now, by Gary Schmidt

Summary:  As a fourteen-year-old who just moved to a new town, with no friends, an abusive father, and a louse for an older brother, Doug Swieteck has all the stats stacked against him until he finds an ally in Lil Spicer–a fiery young lady. Together, they find a safe haven in the local library, inspiration in learning about the plates of John James Audubon’s birds, and a hilarious adventure on a Broadway stage.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Storm Runners, by Roland Smith

Summary: Twelve-year-old Chase Masters travels the country with his father, a “storm runner,” but he is tested in ways he never could have imagined when he and a new friend are caught in a hurricane near St. Petersburg, Florida.

Scholastic

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