Book picks similar to
Lily Lo and the Wonton Maker by Frances Lee Hall


middle-grade
genre-realistic-fiction
juvenile
level-children

Drive Me Crazy


Terra Elan McVoy - 2015
    They didn’t exactly hit it off—in fact, depending on who you ask, that first meeting was either an embarrassment or a disaster—but they’re about to spend an entire week together, just the two of them and their honeymooning grandparents, road-tripping in Cassie’s grandmother’s Subaru.Lana thinks a summer road trip sounds like fun, but the backseat is a crowded place for two tween girls with two huge secrets to hide, and this bumpy road to friendship is full of unexpected twists and turns. Like it or not, they’re in this together, full speed ahead on the adventure of a lifetime.

A Dopeman & His Shawty


Tina J. - 2019
    The relationship is perfect from the outside looking in, but what happens when secrets come to light and ends their future? Kenji decides seven years is a long time for things to just end; however, after hearing some of the vile actions his ex committed, he can no longer salvage anything. Sadly, like most ex’s, Robin is in denial and refuses to let any woman take him from her. Nyana Simpson has gone through a lot in her youth, but she made it. As an adult, she’s living her life carefree, and nothing can bring her down. She has a job, and her own place but the loneliness creeps in making her feel as if no one can love her. She comes in contact with a man who couldn’t possibly desire her, the same way she desires him. What happens when one family member brings them together, and another is desperately trying to keep them apart? Sade is living in a nightmare she can’t wake up from. With no help in sight, she decides to transfer her job and start over. Unfortunately, the nightmare follows her, and things go from bad to worse. Somehow, her knight and shining armor appears, but can he save her when he’s dealing with his own nightmare? Sade has to do something to save her life, but what happens when her life is no longer her own and the person responsible decides to show her there’s no way out?

Fiona McGilray's Story: A Voyage from Ireland in 1849


Clare Pastore - 2001
    In a series of letters to her parents back home, Fiona describes her life in America, how she searches for family members there, and her experiences in making a new friend.

Striking Out


Will Weaver - 1900
    Never been to a movie. Never played baseball with a real team. Never got over feeling guilty for the loss of his brother. But change is in the air. Billy discovers he has a natural talent for baseball, especially as a pitcher. Maybe, just maybe, there's more in store for him than life on the farm. But can Billy convince his father of that? Or is he destined to spend the rest of his life pitching nothing but hay?Teenager Billy Baggs is desperately needed on his family's struggling dairy farm, but he's also an extraordinarily gifted natural baseball player. How he struggles to reconcile his father's desire to keep him on the farm with his coach's interest in getting him on the field is at the heart of this ‘meaty story.… The complex characters grow and change in profoundly real ways.''K. ‘[With] flashes of humor, a wealth of lovingly recounted details evokes the difficult daily life on a small dairy farm.''Publishers Weekly. 1994 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA)1994 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library)1993 "Pick of the Lists" (ABA)

Red Moon Rising


Paula Harrison - 2015
    For Laney is a faerie, a member of the Mist Tribe, and things are about to get exciting, and mysterious, and dangerous. Laney and her faerie friends must stop an evil Shadow Faerie finding the magical objects he needs to become all-powerful. Each book deals with the quest for a different object.

The Little Girl Who Was Forgotten by Absolutely Everyone (Even the Postman)


Katy Towell - 2005
    Yes, even the postman. She has everything a child could want, but not the one thing every child - and every grownup, too - needs. Love. Desperate for a friend, Emmeline makes a wish upon a magical star. It is a wish that will change the lives of everyone she knows forever.

Starting with Alice


Phyllis Reynolds Naylor - 2002
     Well, a pet and pierced ears and really long hair would be nice, too -- and most of all, Alice wishes she still had a mother. But starting third grade in a new school in a new town can be lonely, especially if the closest thing you have to a friend is weird Donald Sheavers from next door. But even making new friends can't solve all of Alice's problems. Somehow she manages to get into trouble for a stupid lie, and to get on the wrong side of a bullying crossing guard and three snooty girls whom Alice calls "the Terrible Triplets." Will Alice ever feel at home in Takoma Park?

The Looney Experiment


Luke Reynolds - 2015
    He s in love with a girl who doesn't know he exists, he is the class bully's personal punching bag, and to top it all off, his dad has just left the family. Into this drama steps Mr. Looney, a 77-year-old substitute English teacher with uncanny insight and a most unconventional approach to teaching. But Atticus soon discovers there's more to Mr. Looney's methods than he'd first thought. And as Atticus begins to unlock the truths within his own name, he finds that his hyper-imagination can help him forge his own voice, and maybe just maybe discover that the power to face his problems was inside him all along.

The Classy Crooks Club


Alison Cherry - 2016
    Not only does her grandmother dictate how she walks, what she eats, and which rooms she can enter, she fills all AJ's free time with boring sewing lessons. Grandma Jo wants nothing more than to transform her adventurous, fun-loving granddaughter into a prim and proper lady.But AJ’s dull summer takes a sharp turn when she discovers that her grandmother's "bridge group" is actually a heist club. When Grandma Jo offers to let AJ learn lock-picking instead of embroidery in exchange for help with a few capers, AJ is happy to join her grandmother's madcap band of thieves, who claim to steal only for ethical reasons. But even the most respectable ladies can hide truly surprising secrets, and AJ finds she must decide for herself what it means to be one of the good guys.

The (Almost) Perfect Guide to Imperfect Boys


Barbara Dee - 2014
    Per their official Life Cycle of Amphibian Boys, while tadpoles are totally not developed yet (read: boys who still love fart jokes and can't have a normal conversation with girls without making fun of them), a frog is the top of the boy food chain--evolved and mature. Sadly, not many boys have reached that elusive frog status at Staunton Middle School.Finley thought she had everyone pegged, until Zachary Mattison enters the picture. After suddenly leaving the year before, Zachary's surprise reappearance at SMS forces Finley to see him in a new light. And when the official life cycle list falls into the wrong hands, it causes a battle between the boys and girls that turns into an all-out war--one that Finley isn't sure anyone can really win...

Flutter: The Story of Four Sisters and an Incredible Journey


Erin E. Moulton - 2011
    Mama's going to have a baby, which means now there will be four Rittle sisters instead of just three. But when baby Lily is born too early and can't come home from the hospital, Maple knows it's up to her to save her sister. So she and Dawn, armed with a map and some leftover dinner, head off down a river and up a mountain to find the Wise Woman who can grant miracles. Now it's not only Lily's survival that they have to worry about, but also their own. The dangers that Maple and Dawn encounter on their journey makes them realize a thing or two about miracles-and about each other.Praise for FLUTTER:   “Moulton is an author to watch, and her debut novel will appeal to girls Maple's age who prefer action to character realism.” –Booklist   “Moulton's charming debut explores the challenges and rewards of sisterhood….[in] a heartfelt tale of familial love, with just a touch of magic.” –Publishers Weekly

Michener's South Pacific


Stephen J. May - 2011
    Michener was an obscure textbook editor working in New York. Within three years, he was a naval officer stationed in the South Pacific. By the end of the decade, he was an accomplished author, well on the way to worldwide fame. Michener’s first novel, Tales of the South Pacific, won the Pulitzer Prize. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein used it as the basis for the Broadway musical South Pacific, which also won the Pulitzer. How this all came to be is the subject of Stephen May’s Michener’s South Pacific.An award-winning biographer of Michener, May was a featured interviewee on the fiftieth-anniversary DVD release of the film version of the musical. During taping, he realized there was much he didn’t know about how Michener’s experiences in the South Pacific shaped the man and led to his early work.May delves deeply into this formative and turbulent period in Michener’s life and career, using letters, journal entries, and naval records to examine how a reserved, middle-aged lieutenant known as "Prof" to his fellow officers became one of the most successful writers of the twentieth century.

Thick as Thieves: Tales of Friendship


Ruskin Bond - 2013
    Some stories will make you smile, somewill bring tears to your eyes, some may make your heart skip a beat—butall of them will renew your faith in the power of friendship.

Aloha, Kanani


Lisa Yee - 2011
    When her chic cousin Rachel from Manhattan comes to stay for a month, Kanani can't wait to get to know her cousin and help Rachel feel at home. But a clash of cultures ensures, and Kanani feels ignored. She tries to extend hospitality but everything she does seems to make Rachel unhappy. How can she find a way to connect with her cousin and make things better? "Sometimes people who want help the least need it the most," her mother tells her. After a mixup with a diary leads to a fight, Kanani reaches out to Rachel in an openhearted spirit of caring and good will, and discovers that she has misjudged her cousin. In the process, Kanani learns the true meaning of Hawaii's "aloha spirit."

Lucky for Some


Fleur Beale - 2002
    She must leave her city life of girlfriends, dancing lessons, school and hairdressers to live in a ramshackle house, go to a school with only boys in her class and play rugby. What does the country life have to offer a girl like her?