Monthly Archives: August 2016

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

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wonder

August Pullman is entering middle school in the fall.  Auggie has never attended school before.  Auggie has mandibulofacial dysostosis, a facial defect, and because of the need for multiple surgeries, he was homeschooled until now.  Auggie’s parents encourage him to attend fifth grade at Beecher Prep.  Mr. Tushman, the principal at Beecher Prep, invites Auggie in over the summer to join a few students, Charlotte, Jack and Julian while they give him a tour of his new school. Auggie is excited to finally be going to a real school but at the same time, he is so nervous.  Will his classmates ever be able to see beyond his face and get to know the real Auggie?

The Body in the Woods by April Henry

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body in the woods

Alexis, Ruby, and Nick are the newest members of Portland’s Search and Rescue.  Thrown together on a team during a search for a missing autistic man named Bobby, they couldn’t be more different.  Alexis can’t let people she meets get too close because then they’d find out about her mother’s mental illness.  Nick lost his dad in Iraq where his dad was a soldier.  Nick is always pushing himself to do more and be brave, trying to be the son of which his father would be proud.  Ruby is brilliant and obsessed with criminal forensics, but she lacks social skills so people find her a bit odd.  Knowing this is their first time out in the field searching for a missing person, their leader Mitchell Wiggins sends the trio to a location where they are unlikely to find him.  They don’t find Bobby but they do find a body of a young girl. As they call into the Search and Rescue base to report their discovery,  they are wondering if one of the hikers that they passed on the trail could be her killer?

The Hired Girl by Laura Am Schlitz

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hired girl

Joan Skaggs is a bright fourteen-year-old who lives with her father and brothers on Steeple Farm.  Farm life is hard in 1911.  When Joan’s mother dies, her father will not allow her to return to school.  Her mother always hoped that Joan would use her education to get off the farm, but it looks like Joan is destined to keep her father’s house while her brothers and father toil in the fields. Miss Chandler, Joan’s teacher, visits Joan on the farm one day and presents her with  a beautiful journal encouraging Joan to practice her gift of writing. Her father, agitated by Miss Chandler’s interference, chases Miss Chandler off the farm mortifying and embarrassing Joan. How could her father be so unrefined? Joan is not one to be kept down on the farm.  Daily she plans her escape to a better life, maybe not the one her mother had dreamed for her, but definitely an escape from the harsh life at Steeple Farm. Joan makes her escape to the big city, and an adventure ensues which Joan shares with readers in her journal.