Grade 1-5 recommendations:
1. The Whispers by Greg Howard
Riley is an eleven-year-old boy who has a lot of wishes. To stop being bullied. For his crush to like him back. To stop wetting his bed, but most of all, for his mom to come back. This fantasy book follows Riley as he goes on a trip with his friend, Gary to find the Whispers, magical fairies that will grant you wishes if you leave them a tribute. But this journey might just give him more than what he wished for...
2. A World Below by Wesley King
A fun eighth-grade field trip to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico takes a terrifying turn when an earthquake hits, plunging the students into an underground lake while their teacher disappears. Told from three different perspectives, this adventure novel follows the students as they attempt to survive and in the process, discover secrets about each other. After all, it's hard to hide your true self in the dark...
3. The 1,000-Year-Old Boy by Ross Welford
This historical fiction novel follows the story of Alfie Monk. A regular teenage boy...who's 1000 years old. When everything he knows and loves is destroyed in a fire, Alfie decides to go on an adventure. One that lets him find a way to live...which also means finding a way to eventually die.
4. Alone by Megan E. Freeman
This adventure novel follows Maddie, a twelve-year-old who plans to have the perfect sleepover with her two best friends. The only problem is, when she wakes up, she's all alone in a town that's mysteriously been evacuated and left behind. Follow her as she attempts to survive multiple hardships including loneliness.
5. Nikki on the Line by Barbara Caroll Roberts
This fiction story follows Nicki, a thirteen-year-old girl who wants to be a basketball star. But when she's selected to play on an elite-level club team, she can't seem to keep up. Moreover, her best friend seems to be drifting further away from her, she has a family tree project to do in science which will reveal an embarrassing secret about her and she has to take care of her annoying younger brother. With all these new problems and responsibilities, Nicki's confidence plummets. Follow her as she attempts to get her life back in order.
Grade 6-8 recommendations:
1. When You Read This by Mary Adkins
This realistic fiction follows the story of Smith Simoni as he attempts to fulfill the last wish of a dear friend of his, Iris Massey, who passed away due to terminal illness, and her final wish was getting her blog posts published as a book. But to do so, he must get the approval of her big sister, Jade. Follow the two as they figure out how to start new beginnings from loss.
2. How it feels to float by Helena Fox
This young adult book follows the story of Biz, a girl who knows how to float. How to float on the surface of normality. Her dad provides her comfort though, telling her how much he loves her, but he's not there because he died when she was just six. And when on one day, her dad disappears, Biz has to make a decision. Whether to float all the way or find her dad or maybe...there's another option she has yet to discover...
3. Good Enough by Jen Petro-Roy
This realistic fiction novel follows the story of Riley, a twelve-year-old who aspires to be an artist, who's a runner, a sister, and a friend... and who's currently receiving treatment for anorexia. She's alienated her friends, betrayed her family's trust, abandoned her art, and turned running into something harmful. Riley now wants her life back and she's willing to recover but she must overcome multiple obstacles: her dieting mom, her gymnastics-star sister, the school bully, and her roommate at the hospital. But her main obstacle will be figuring out if she's ever going to be good enough.
4. The Upside of Falling by Alex Light
This romance novel follows the story of seventeen-year-old Becca Hart, a girl who... big surprise, doesn't believe in love! She ends up lying to her friend however about having a fake boyfriend. Brett Wells, popular and a jock, wants his father to get off his back and needs a prom date. After hearing Becca's lie, he makes a deal with her and agrees to be her fake boyfriend. This story follows their journey together as they both realize that this fake romance, might be the most real thing in their lives.
5. The Other Side of Lost by Jessi Kirby
This realistic fiction book follows the story of an online influencer, Marie Turner, who seems to have a perfect life! Keyword: Seems. Marie posts a video revealing the truth about herself and how unhappy she is and receives major backlash. To distance herself, she decides to hike up a mountain that she was supposed to hike up with her late cousin. The story follows Marie as she attempts to find herself in her chaotic life.
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