Book picks similar to
Madison Morgan: When Dogs Blog by Pam Torres


middle-grade
first-reads
c-with-animals-aw
abuse

A Case of Serendipity


K.J. Farnham - 2018
    If Bucky’s Beans doesn’t stop spamming her phone with discount codes for frou-frou java concoctions, she’s going to flip. After multiple failed attempts to unsubscribe, Ruth takes to the company’s Facebook page to vent her frustration over the never-ending texts.When attorney, Henry Mancuso, stumbles upon Ruth’s complaint, he has no idea that a simple Facebook scroll is going to change his life. Now, he has to get Ruth to agree to a class action lawsuit when she’s just looking for some peace on her mobile device—not a drawn-out case against a coffeehouse giant.As Ruth and Henry battle the legal waters, a friendship full of fun and spontaneity blooms. But could something more be brewing between these two and this coffeehouse case?

Summer and July


Paul Mosier - 2020
    Perfect for fans of Rebecca Stead, Ali Standish, and Erin Entrada Kelly.Twelve-year-old Juillet is preparing for the worst summer ever. She and her mom are staying in the seaside neighborhood of Ocean Park, California, for a month, where her mom will be working at the local hospital and Juillet will be on her own, like always.Her dad is off in Europe with his new girlfriend, and her best friend, Fern . . . well, Juiller isn’t allowed to talk to Fern anymore. Fern took the blame for Juillet’s goth-girl clothes and “not-real” fears, like sharks and rip currents and the number three.Then Juillet meets Summer, a local surfer girl who knows the coolest people and places around town. With free-spirited and adventurous Summer, Juillet begins to come out of her shell and face the things weighing her down. But when Summer reveals her own painful secret, it’s Juillet’s turn to be the strong and supportive friend.

That's What Friends Do


Cathleen Barnhart - 2020
    But when a new kid named Luke starts hanging out with them, what was a comfortable pair becomes an awkward trio.Luke’s comments make Sammie feel uncomfortable—but all David sees is how easily Luke flirts with Sammie, and so David decides to finally make a move on the friend he’s always had a crush on.Soon things go all wrong and too far, and Sammie and David are both left feeling hurt, confused, and unsure of themselves, without anyone to talk to about what happened.As rumors start flying around the school, David must try to make things right (if he can) and Sammie must learn to speak up about what’s been done to her.

Bayou My Love


Lauren Faulkenberry - 2016
    For Enza, Bayou Sabine means pain and heartache: a mother who left her and a father whose lies have caught up with him. Her only fondness for the bayou comes from the summers she spent there with her grandmother, Vergie. Now that Vergie’s gone, Enza wants to flip the house and put her past to rest—but this small town is full of big secrets—and it has one more surprise for her.When Enza finds her grandmother’s house occupied by sexy firefighter Jack Mayronne, she wants to kick him out. But Jack turns on the charm and convinces her to let him stay in exchange for helping her flip the house. Sparks fly as they share the same roof, and as their fling intensifies, Enza learns that Jack has dangerous secrets of his own. When the truth about her mother’s disappearance begins to surface, Enza must decide: how much is she willing to sacrifice to start over—and can she trust Jack with her heart?  Note: This book was previously published with the title Bayou My Love.“Faulkenberry creates a world of magic, suspense, and desire. An engrossing romance with just the right amount of heat!” -Julie C. Gardner, author of Letters for Scarlet

Flight of the Puffin


Ann Braden - 2021
    She wants to be different, but sometimes that doesn’t work out. Now she's suspended again.On the opposite side of the country lives Vincent, a kid who loves the mathematician Katherine Johnson and being a non-conformist, who’s trying hard not to get stuffed into lockers at his new school. But that’s not working out too well either.   Nearby is T, who couldn’t take living at home anymore and is determined to survive on a rainy sidewalk.And then there’s Jack, a big-hearted kid so engaged in the fight to keep his small rural school open that he’s lost focus on the ones who need him most.Four kids. Four different lives. And then… one card with a message of hope takes flight and starts a chain reaction, helping each kid summon the thing they need, whether it’s bravery, empathy, or understanding. But best of all, it makes each one realize they matter -- and that they're not flying solo anymore.

Second Best Friend


Non Pratt - 2018
    There’s nothing Jade is better at than Becky. So when Jade is voted in as Party Leader ahead of her school’s General Election only to find herself standing against Becky, Jade sees it as a chance to prove herself. If there’s one thing she can win, it’s this election – even if it means losing her best friend.

From the Chrysalis


Karen E. Black - 2012
    Karen Black's story "From the Chrysalis" is based on the most deadly prison uprising in Canadian history, the Kingston Penitentiary Riot of April 1971. Recommended for over 18. Some readers may be disturbed by the violence in the prison and/or the first cousin romance."From the Chrysalis" is the twisted and winding tale of Liza and her dashing and dangerous older cousin Dace Devereux. Set in Canada, it is the tale of a relationship blighted by uncomprehending relatives, social conventions, a harrowing stint in Maitland Penitentiary (complete with riots and semi-totalitarian "people's committees"), the well-intentioned galumph Mel, and a conundrum Liza has to bear calling for an ever more inevitable decision. The prison scenes, with their occasionally stark violence but underlying ethical probity are especially fascinating, but there's also lots of romantic tension, a kind of yearning whose fulfilment seems always out of reach, even when its physical manifestation is realized. (Julian Fauth, 2009 Juno Award winner)Review Highlights:

All the Beloved Ghosts


Alison MacLeod - 2017
    A professor of cardiovascular physiology lingers on the cusp of consciousness as he waits for his new heart to be delivered, still beating, from another body—and is carried on a tidal wave of memories to an attic room half a century ago. Visiting Sylvia Plath’s grave in Yorkshire, the author imagines a conversation with the poet, a fellow North American who settled in grey England. She reflects on the treasured photograph of Princess Diana she took as a teenager, one of a multitude taken during a life cut short. And at Charleston, Angelica Garnett, child of the Bloomsbury Group, is overpowered by echoes of the past—all the beloved ghosts that spring to life before her eyes. MacLeod’s characters hover on the border of life and death, where memory is most vivid and the present most elusive.

Ann, Not Annie


Sage Steadman - 2017
    Easier said than done since Jacob isn't even aware she exists. The truth is, due to Ann's lively temper she spends more time in detention with the rest of the school rejects than she does fantasizing about Jacob Waters wearing spandex. Her best friend and devout alien believer, Lisa, doesn't like the changes she's seeing in her BFF. Neither does Danny Feller, a fellow detention inmate and resident lost boy who has started keeping an extra watchful and unwanted eye on Ann. When a chance encounter in an empty hallway changes everything, Ann finds all her dreams coming true and she is well on her way to living the perfect life she's always wanted. But appearances aren't always what they seem and Ann is going to have to face not just cold hard facts, but also her past.

Iris and the Tiger


Leanne Hall - 2016
    There is an odd feeling around the house, where time moves slowly and Iris’s eyes play tricks on her. While outside, in the wild and untamed forest, a mysterious animal moves through the shadows.Just what is Aunt Ursula hiding?But when Iris discovers a painting named Iris and the Tiger, she sets out to uncover the animal’s real identity–putting her life in terrible danger.

Hyacinth Girls


Lauren Frankel - 2015
    After Callie is exonerated, she begins to receive threatening notes from the girl who accused her, and as these notes become desperate, Rebecca feels compelled to intervene. As she tries to save this unbalanced girl, Rebecca remembers her own intense betrayals and best-friendships as a teenager, when her failure to understand those closest to her led to tragedy. She'll do anything to make this story end differently. But Rebecca doesn’t understand what's happening or who is truly a victim, and now Callie is in terrible danger.This raw and beautiful story about the intensity of adolescent emotions and the complex identity of a teenage girl looks unflinchingly at how cruelty exists in all of us, and how our worst impulses can estrange us from ourselves - or even save us.

The Glimmering Room


Cynthia Cruz - 2012
    Peopled with "ambassadors from the Netherworld"--the orphaned and abused, the lost and addicted--Cruz leads us through this "traveling minstrel show / Called girlhood--" which is at once tragic and magical.

You Knew Me When


Emily Liebert - 2013
    Katherine Hill left her small New England hometown in pursuit of a dream. Now, twelve years later, she’s a high-powered cosmetics executive in Manhattan and a much glossier version of her former self, unrecognizable to her family and old friends. Not that she would know—she hasn’t been home in over a decade. Laney Marten always swore she’d never get "stuck” in Manchester, Vermont. No, she was destined to live out her glamorous big-city dreams. Instead, she wound up a young wife and mother. That was when her best friend ran out. When Katherine receives word of an inheritance from former neighbor Luella Hancock, she reluctantly returns home to the people and places she left behind. Hoping for a second chance, she’s met by an unforgiving Laney, her former best friend. And there’s someone else who’s moved on without her—someone she once loved. Tethered to their shared inheritance of Luella’s sprawling Victorian mansion, Katherine and Laney are forced to address their long-standing grudges. Through this, they come to understand that while life has taken them in different directions, ultimately the bonds of friendship and sisterhood still bind them together. But are some wounds too old and deep to mend?

Butterfly (Butterfly #1)


Rebecca Sherwin - 2016
    It is a dark romance and contains content some readers may find disturbing. I once was Erin, fierce and strong,But now she's gone, I don't belong. He wants my heart, but it's not mine. I've hidden it, and now can't findThe soul it once took solace in.All that's left is pain and sin. But still, my dark knight keeps me here. To live in hate and dread and fear. So what will happen once he knows,The more he hurts me, the more I grow? The faster I flourish in the dark,The harder I fight to leave my mark. When his mind swallows me whole,When he finds my heart as black as coal,Will he save me from his hell,Or remind me just how hard I fell? I once was Erin, fierce and strong. Now this pitch black world is where I belong. I've waved the girl I was goodbye.Now I am his Butterfly...

Best Intentions


Erika Raskin - 2017
    She’s thrilled when the perfect opportunity falls in her lap. The catch? The job is at her husband's hospital and he seems not to share her enthusiasm. Undeterred, she takes the position counseling vulnerable young women as they prepare to give birth.Marti quickly begins to feel like she is making a difference in the lives of her clients. Soon, though, she finds herself caught up in the dark side of the medical center—with its long hours, overworked doctors and entrenched practices. When she witnesses something she can't unsee, Marti, who has always done her best to keep a low-profile, finds herself thrust under a dangerous spotlight with all of Richmond, Virginia watching.In her captivating domestic suspense novel Best Intentions, Erika Raskin weaves together high stakes hospital politics, the pressures of family life, and the consequences of trying to do the right thing.