The Moon Within


Aida Salazar - 2019
    About her changing body. Her first attraction to a boy. And her best friend's exploration of what it means to be genderfluid.But most of all, her mother's insistence she have a moon ceremony when her first period arrives. It's an ancestral Mexica ritual that Mima and her community have reclaimed, but Celi promises she will NOT be participating. Can she find the power within herself to take a stand for who she wants to be?A dazzling story told with the sensitivity, humor, and brilliant verse of debut talent Aida Salazar.

Merci Suárez Changes Gears


Meg Medina - 2018
    For starters, Merci has never been like the other kids at her private school in Florida, because she and her older brother, Roli, are scholarship students. They don’t have a big house or a fancy boat, and they have to do extra community service to make up for their free tuition. So when bossy Edna Santos sets her sights on the new boy who happens to be Merci’s school-assigned Sunshine Buddy, Merci becomes the target of Edna’s jealousy. Things aren't going well at home, either: Merci’s grandfather and most trusted ally, Lolo, has been acting strangely lately — forgetting important things, falling from his bike, and getting angry over nothing. No one in her family will tell Merci what's going on, so she’s left to her own worries, while also feeling all on her own at school. In a coming-of-age tale full of humor and wisdom, award-winning author Meg Medina gets to the heart of the confusion and constant change that defines middle school — and the steadfast connection that defines family.

Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade


Barthe DeClements - 1981
    So when the book club money disappears, why is the whole class punished? Nothing's fair!But soon Jenny realizes some things aren't fair for Elsie, either. Elsie is on a strict diet, but when she starts losing weight, her mother won't buy her new clothes. Instead, she plans to send Elsie to boarding school. Suddenly everyone wants to help Elsie. Nothing's fair in fifth grade - but sometimes things get better!

Armstrong & Charlie


Steven B. Frank - 2017
    After all, if he starts sixth grade, chances are he’ll finish it. And when he does, he’ll be older than his older brother ever was. Armstrong isn’t looking forward to sixth grade, either. This year, he’ll have to wake up at 5:30 to ride a bus to an all-white school in the Hollywood Hills. When Armstrong and Charlie are assigned seats next to each other, what starts as a rivalry becomes a close friendship. Set in Los Angeles in the 1970s, Armstrong and Charlie is the hilarious, heartwarming tale of two boys from opposite worlds. Different, yet the same.

Mountain Pose


Nancy Hope Wilson - 2001
    Nancy Hope Wilson creates a strong, yet vulnerable heroine.Ellie's family didn't like Grandma Aurelia - no one had even seen the cranky old woman since she showed up at Ellie's mom's funeral five years ago. Ellie hadn't given her much thought - not until the woman left her Hart Farm. Not only did Ellie inherit the farmhouse where her mother had spent summers as a girl, she got everything in it - including an old suitcase full of diaries that her grandmother requested she read. But Grandma Aurelia had never been generous, and Ellie's father thinks there is a downside to the gift. When Ellie delves into the diaries, she uncovers a dark family secret.

Laugh Till You Cry


Joan Lowery Nixon - 2004
    He and his mom were only supposed to spend the summer there, helping out his grandmother. But Cody’s grandmother is sick and needs them to stay. Now he’s the new kid at the local middle school and all his friends are back in California. You’d think Cody’s cousin Hayden would show him the ropes. Not only is Hayden in the same grade, he lives next door. But Hayden doesn’t want anything to do with Cody. Cody’s luck begins to change when he befriends Officer Ramsey, a policeman and aspiring stand-up comic. Officer Ramsey appreciates Cody’s jokes so much, he pays Cody for the material! But it’s no laughing matter when a crime is committed at school and Cody becomes a suspect. Cody is going to need more than jokes to solve this mystery—and clear his name.From the Hardcover edition.

The Cardboard Kingdom


Chad SellMichael Cole - 2018
    This is the summer when sixteen kids encounter knights and rogues, robots and monsters—and their own inner demons—on one last quest before school starts again.In the Cardboard Kingdom, you can be anything you want to be—imagine that!

Deep Water


Watt Key - 2018
    When the clients, a reckless boy Julie's age and his equally foolhardy father, disregard Julie's instructions during the dive, she quickly realizes she's in over her head.And once she surfaces, things only get worse: One of the clients is in serious condition, and their dive boat has vanished--along with Julie's father, the only person who knows their whereabouts. It's only a matter of time before they die of hypothermia, unless they become shark bait first. Though Julie may not like her clients, it's up to her to save them all.

Living with Viola


Rosena Fung - 2021
    Viola is Livy's anxiety brought to life, a shadowy twin that only Livy can see or hear. Livy tries to push back against Viola's relentless judgment, but nothing seems to work until she strikes up new friendships at school. Livy hopes that Viola's days are numbered. But when tensions arise both at home and at school, Viola rears her head stronger than ever. Only when Livy learns how to ask for help and face her anxiety does she finally figure out living with Viola.Rosena Fung draws on her own early experiences with anxiety and the pressures of growing up as the child of Chinese immigrant parents to craft a personal story.

Sex & Violence


Carrie Mesrobian - 2013
    He has a strategy--knows the profile of The Girl Who Would Say Yes. In each new town, each new school, he can count on plenty of action before he and his father move again. Getting down is never a problem. Until he hooks up with the wrong girl and finds himself in the wrong place at very much the wrong time.AND THEN YOU CAN'T SEE ANYTHING ELSE.After an assault that leaves Evan bleeding and broken, his father takes him to the family cabin in rural Pearl Lake, Minnesota, so Evan's body can heal. But what about his mind?HOW DO YOU GO ON, WHEN YOU CAN'T THINK OF ONE WITHOUT THE OTHER?Nothing seems natural to Evan anymore. Nothing seems safe. The fear--and the guilt--are inescapable. He can't sort out how he feels about anyone, least of all himself. Evan's really never known another person well, and Pearl Lake is the kind of place where people know everything about each other--where there might be other reasons to talk to a girl. It's annoying as hell. It might also be Evan's best shot to untangle sex and violence.

I, Neil: An Alice in Deadland Adventure (Alice, No. 8)


Mainak Dhar - 2014
    That's the only name I have known for a long time. My mission is to follow and protect the yellow-haired girl called Alice. She was the one who gave us freedom, who united us, who showed that those like me, the ones you call Biters, are not monsters to be feared or animals to be hunted down. We live together now, us and the humans, in a place you know as Wonderland. The name doesn't matter. All I know is that I finally have a place I can call home. I have fought many battles and suffered many scars, and as new enemies threaten Alice and my home, I will have to fight again. But now I must fight the toughest battle I have fought yet. The battle to remember who I once was. For you see, now I remember I was someone before I became Bunny Ears.I am Neil and this is my story.

That Stubborn Seed of Hope


Brian Falkner - 2017
    A boy helps his sister disguise her birthmark on her first day of school. A seventeen-year-old awakens to find himself trapped in an elderly body. A teenage girl discovers her boyfriend has a life-threatening virus the day after they share their first kiss. A high school student tries to communicate to his hospitalised brother who is in a vegetative state. Brian Falkner serves up bite-sized tales of fear - fear of rejection, fear of dying, fear of disease, fear of the unknown, fear of exclusion, fear of being caught and fear of embarrassment - showing how that stubborn seed of hope hungers our darkest moments.

It's the End of the World as I Know It


Matthew Landis - 2019
    And he's prepared: he's got plenty of canned goods, he's fully outfitted with HAZMAT suits, and he's building himself a sturdy fallout shelter. When his neighbor Misty insists on helping with the shelter, Derrick doesn't think it's such a good idea. Misty's just had a kidney transplant, and her reaction to her brush with death is the opposite of Derrick's: where Derrick wants to hide, Misty wants to see and do everything. But as confident as Misty is, Derrick's doomsday fears just keep getting worse. And Derrick's promised apocalypse day begins with a very strange disaster, Derrick and Misty have to figure out a way to survive--especially when the end of the world as they know it looks nothing like they expected.

When Reason Breaks


Cindy L. Rodriguez - 2015
    Emily Delgado appears to be a smart, sweet girl, with a normal life, but as depression clutches at her, she struggles to feel normal. Both girls are in Ms. Diaz’s English class, where they connect to the words of Emily Dickinson. Both are hovering on the edge of an emotional precipice. One of them will attempt suicide. And with Dickinson’s poetry as their guide, both girls must conquer their personal demons to ever be happy.In an emotionally taut novel with a richly diverse cast of characters, readers will relish in the poetry of Emily Dickinson and be completely swept up in the turmoil of two girls grappling with demons beyond their control.

Rated


Melissa Grey - 2019
    The higher it soars, the more valued you are. The lower it plummets, the harder you must work to improve yourself. For the students at the prestigious Maplethorpe Academy, every single thing they do is reflected in their ratings, updated daily and available for all to see.But when an act of vandalism sullies the front doors of the school, it sets off a chain reaction that will shake the lives of six special students -- and the world beyond.