33 Minutes
Author: Todd Hasak-Lowy
Illustrator: Bethany Barton
Publisher: Aladdin
Website
A Blind Guide to Stinkville
Author: Beth Vrabel
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Awards: Winner of the ILA Intermediate Fiction Award
Website
A Dog Called Homeless
Author: Sarah Lean
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books, HarperCollins Publishers (Pbk.)
Awards: Schneider Family Book Award 2013
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A Mango-Shaped Space
Author: Wendy Mass
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Awards: 2004 Schneider Family Book Award, Middle-Grade Category; 2005 Great Lakes Great Book Award (MI); Named in the 2004 YA Top 40 by the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association; A VOYA Top Shelf Selection 2003; An Autumn 2003 Children’s BookSense 76 Pick; Listed as a 2004 & 2005 New York Public Library’s Best Books for the Teen Age; A Bank Street Books Top 35 Children’s Books of the Last 35 Years
Website
A Patron Saint for Junior Bridesmaids
Author: Shelley Tougas
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Because of Winn-Dixie
Author: Kate DiCamillo
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Awards: 2001 Newbery Honor Book; 2000 Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner; Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award; Book Sense Book of the Year Award for Children’s Literature
Website
Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms
Author: Katherine Rundell
Illustrator: Melissa Castrillon
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Awards: A Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Winner; Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year Selection Title; CBC/NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book; Capitol Choices List (DC); Wisconsin State Reading Association’s Reading List
Courage for Beginners
Author: Karen Harrington
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Awards: Maine Student Book Award List 2015-2016; Spirit of Texas Middle School Reading List 2015-2016
Crenshaw
Author: Katherine Applegate
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Awards: Capitol Choices 2016; Goodreads Choice Awards 2015, Middle Grades & Children’s; 2016 NCTE Charlotte Huck Award Recommended Book; Amazon.com Best Books of the Year 2015, 9-12; 100 Notable Titles for Reading and Sharing 2015, Children’s Books; 2016 Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People, 6-8; 2016 E.B. White Read-Aloud Award Winner
Eighth Grade is Making Me Sick: Ginny Davis’ Year in Stuff
Author: Jennifer L. Holm
Illustrator: Elicia Castaldi
Publisher: Random House Children’s Books
Emma Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree
Author: Lauren Tarshis
Publisher: Dial
Awards: SCBWI Golden Kite Honor Book for Fiction; Finalist, E.B. White Award; Book Sense Pick; Best Children’s Book of the Year: Publisher’s Weekly, School Library Journal, New York Public Library
Every Soul a Star
Author: Wendy Mass
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Awards: California Young Reader Medal; National Parenting Publications Awards, NAPPA Gold; Homeschool Book Award
Website
Grow: A Novel in Verse
Author: Juanita Havill
Illustrator: Stansislawa Kodman
Publisher: Peachtree Publishers
How to Steal a Dog
Author: Barbara O’Connor
Publisher: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Awards: ALA Book Links Lasting Connections 2007; Bank Street College Best Books of the Year 2007; Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices 2008; International Reading Association Notable Books for a Global Society 2008; NCSS-CBC Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies 2008; Parents Choice Recommendation 2007; School Library Journal Best Books of the Year 2007; Indiana Young Hoosier Award Winner 2011; Kansas Children’s Book Award Winner 2010; Maine Regional Library Cream of the Crop 2008; South Carolina Children’s Book Award Winner 2009; South Dakota Prairie Pasque Children’s Book Award Winner 2010
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I, Emma Freke
Author: Elizabeth Atkinson
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Awards: Sunshine State Young Reader Award, 2015; Ado-Lisant Prize for French Edition, 2015; Society of School Librarians International (SSLI) Honor Book Award, 2011; Bank Street College – Best Children’s Books 2011; Gold Medal Winner – Moonbeam Award 2010
Website
Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus
Author: Dusti Bowling
Publisher: Sterling Children’s Books
Awards: A Junior Library Guild Selection; Library of Congress’ 52 Great Reads List 2018; Bank Street Best Children’s Books of the Year 2018; Chicago Public Library “Best of the Best” 2017; The Children’s Book Review Best Kids Books of 2017 for Tweens and Preteens; Autumn 2017 Indie Next Pick; Reading the West Award Winner; 2017 Cybils Award Finalist; Youth One Book, One Denver 2018; Sakura Medal Winner; A Mighty Girl’s 2017 Books of the Year; Evanston Public Library Best of 2017; Austin Public Library Best Tween Fiction 2017; Multnomah County Library Best Books of 2017; Southwest Books of the Year “Best of the Best” 2017; The News & Observer Best Books of 2017 for Young Readers; 2017 Nerdy Book Club Awards Middle Grade Fiction; Booksource Top 40 Classroom Library Titles of 2017; Changing Hands Bookstores Best of 2017; Flyleaf Books Favorite Middle Grade Books of 2017
Website
It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel
Author: Firoozeh Dumas
Publisher: Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Awards: Winner 2017 New York Historical Society Children’s History Book Prize; Winner 2017 California Library Association Beatty Award
Website
Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life
Author: Wendy Mass
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Awards: VOYA’s Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers 2007; Booksense Pick; Texas Lone Star Reading List Selection 2007-2008; Junior Library Guild Premier Selection; New York Public Library’s Best Books for the Teen Age 2007
Website
Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf: A Year Told From Stuff
Author: Jennifer L. Holm
Illustrator: Elicia Castaldi (cartoons by Matthew Holm)
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Awards: ALA Notable Book for Older Readers; Book Sense Children’s Picks – Fall 2007; 2008 IRA Children’s Choices, Grades 5-6; Beehive Award Master List (UT); BookPage Notable Title; Charlotte Award Ballot (NY); Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award Master List (VT); Lone Star Reading List 2008-2009; New York Public Library’s 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing
Ms. Bixby’s Last Day
Author: John David Anderson
Publisher: Walden Pond Press, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
Awards: A 2016 Junior Library Guild Selection; Top 10 Summer 16 Kids’ Indie Next Pick; A New York Times Notable Book; Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of the Year for Children; A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
Website
Paint the Wind
Author: Pam Munoz Ryan
Publisher: Scholastic (Pbk.)
Awards: Winner of the Pennsylvania Young Reader Award; Book Sense Children’s Picks Winter 2007-2008
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Pictures of Hollis Woods
Author: Patricia Reilly Giff
Publisher: Random House Children’s Books
Awards: Newbery Honor Book 2003; ALA Best Books for Young Adults 2003; ALA Notable Children’s Book 2003; Arkansas Charlie May Simon Master List 2005; Kentucky Bluegrass Master List 2004; Christopher Award 2003; Maine Student Book Master List 2003; Massachusetts Children’s Book Master List 2004; Illinois Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Award; ALSC Notable Children’s Recordings; ALSC Notable Children’s Recordings Selection 2003
Rain Reign
Author: Ann M. Martin
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Awards: 2015 Schneider Family Book Award Winner, Middle Grades; 2015 NCTE Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children, Winner; 2015 Josette Frank Award Winner, Younger Readers; SLJ Best Books 2014, Middle Grade; Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2014, Middle-Grade Books; Amazon.com Best Books of the Year 2014, Ages 9-12; PW’s Best Books of 2014, Middle Grade; Booklist Top of the List 2014, Youth Fiction; Booklist Editors’ Choice 2014, Fiction, Middle Readers; Booklist Lasting Connections 2014, Language Arts; ALA Notable Books for Children 2015, Middle Readers; 2015 CLA Notable Children’s Books in the English Language Arts; New York Times Notable Children’s Books of 2014, Middle Grade; Horn Book Fanfare List: Best Books of 2014, Fiction; Capitol Choices 2015
Rules
Author: Cynthia Lord
Publisher: Scholastic
Awards: Newbery Honor Medal; Schneider Family Book Award; Mitten Award (Michigan Library Association); Great Lakes Great Books Award (MI); Maine Student Book Award; Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award (VT); Kentucky Bluegrass Award; Great Stone Face Award (NH); Buckeye Children’s Book Award (OH)
Website
Song for a Whale
Author: Lynne Kelly
Publisher: Delacorte Press, an Imprint of Random House Children’s Books
Awards: Schneider Family Book Award; A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
Sure Signs of Crazy
Author: Karen Harrington
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (Pbk.)
Awards: A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year 2013; Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award List 2014-2015; NCTE Notable Children’s Book 2014; Parents’ Choice Award Winner Silver Honor, 2013; Kentucky Bluegrass Award Master List, 2014-2015; Young Hoosier Book Award List 2015-2016; Volunteer State Book Award List 2015-2016; Spirit of Texas Middle School Reading List 2015-2016
The Higher Power of Lucky
Author: Susan Patron
Illustrator: Matt Phelan
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Awards: Newbery Award, 2007; FOCAL Award (CA); ALA Notable Book 2007; Junior Library Guild Selection
The Meaning of Maggie
Author: Megan Jean Sovern
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Awards: Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2014, Middle-Grade Books; Amazon.com Best Books of the Year 2014, Ages 9-12; 2015 NCTE Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children, Recommended Title; 2014 Cybils Awards Finalist, Middle Grade Fiction;
CBC Children’s Choice Book Awards, 2015 Reading List, Advanced Readers; Parents’ Choice 2014 Fiction, Gold; Earphones Award Winner
The One and Only Ivan
Author: Katherine Applegate
Illustrator: Patricia Castelao
Publisher: HarperCollins
Awards: Newbery Medal 2013; Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award; Christopher Award 2013; Crystal Kite Member Choice Award (CA, HA) 2013; Flicker Tale Children’s Book Award for Intermediate Books 2013
Website
The Reinvention of Edison Thomas
Author: Jacqueline Houtman
Publisher: Boyds Mills Press
Awards: Tofte/Wright Award for Children’s Literature; CCBC Choices 2011; Read on Wisconsin! Featured December 2010 Middle School Book; Cited for outstanding achievement in children’s literature by the Wisconsin Library Association; Kansas State Reading Circle 2011; Charlotte Award (NYSRA) Suggested Reading List 2012 Intermediate; Charlie May Simon Children’s Book Reading List 2012-2013 (AR); Garden State Children’s Book Award Reading List 2013 (NJ)
Website
The Secret Tree
Author: Natalie Standiford
Publisher: Scholastic
Awards: A New York Times Notable Children’s Book of 2012; A Junior Library Guild Selection; The New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice; A Washington Post KidsPost Summer Book Club Selection; A Summer ‘12 Kids’ Indie Next List Book; 2014 Kentucky Bluegrass Award List; 2013 Missouri State Teachers’ Association Reading Circle
Website
Touch Blue
Author: Cynthia Lord
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Awards: 2011 Lupine Award, Maine Library Association; 2011 Maine Literary Award, Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance; 2010 Books for Children, Christian Science Monitor; Best Children’s Books of the Year (2011), Bank Street College (starred for outstanding merit); Best Children’s Books of 2010, Book Page; Selected by Independent Booksellers as a top Ten Book on the Autumn 2010 Kids’ Indie Next List; Selected as a Fall 2010 Top Ten Children’s Book by the New England Children’s Booksellers Advisory Council; Editor’s Pick, Adoptive Families Magazine
Website
Walk Two Moons
Author: Sharon Creech
Publisher: HarperCollins
Awards: Newbery Medal 1995; ALA Notable Children’s Book; NCTE Notable Children’s Book in the Language Arts; Parents’ Choice Gold Award; The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books blue Ribbon; School Library Journal Best Book; Oklahoma Sequoyah Young Adult Book Award; Virginia Young Readers Award
Website
Where the Red Fern Grows
Author: Wilson Rawls
Publisher: Doubleday
Awards: Massachusetts Children’s Book Award Winner 1987; New Hampshire Great Stone Face Award Winner 1988; New Hampshire Great Stone Face Children’s Book Award Winner 1988; North Dakota Flicker Tale Children’s Book Award Winner 1981; A Top 100 Children’s Novel, School Library Journal; A Must-Read for Kids 9 to 14, NPR