I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest

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Libby and May meet one afternoon and begin creating Princess X together.  Over the next three years, their friendship blossoms as they create more adventures for Princess X with May creating the storyline and Libby the illustrations. The two best friends are inseparable until one terrible night when Libby and her mom a careen off a bridge in their car.  May is now sixteen.  She splits time between her divorced parents; Atlanta with her mom and Seattle with her dad.  One day, lonely and bored, in Seattle she spots a Princess X sticker on a store window, and then she sees her everywhere. Who could be doing this?  Is Libby alive?

Girl, Stolen by April Henry

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The opportunity was there.  A Cadillac Escalade with the keys in the ignition.  Griffin seized the opportunity, jumped in, started the car and drove off.  Score!  “Stop our car and get out!” Cheyenne Wilder yelled from the back seat. Idiot! He forgot to check the backseat. Griffin drove faster. He had to get out of the shopping mall parking lot now.  He had to get somewhere where he could think. Cheyenne realized she was being kidnapped.  What Griffin doesn’t know yet is his passenger is the daughter of Nike’s president and she is blind.

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

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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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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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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.

 

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson

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Astrid and Nicole have been best friends forever, but their friendship hits a bumpy road during the summer before middle school.  After Astrid’s mom takes the girls to watch Portland’s roller derby team, the Rose City Rollers, play the Oregon City Rollergirls, Astrid decides she wants to sign up for Roller Derby Summer Camp with Nicole. Astrid dreams of becoming a Rose City Roller, while Nicole has no interest what so ever in roller derby. Nicole plans to attend summer dance camp.  Astrid feels abandoned by Nicole and her feelings become even more conflicted when she finds out that her enemy, mean girl Rachel, will be spending more time with Nicole at dance camp.  Astrid deceives her mom who believes that Nicole and Astrid will be attending Roller Derby Summer Camp together, and Nicole’s mom will be picking up the girls after camp. But Astrid attends roller derby camp on her own and walks home every day by herself.  Astrid finds out that Roller Derby Summer Camp is a lot of hard work especially if you don’t know how to skate.  Astrid discovers deceiving her mom is equally as hard.

Sunny Side Up by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm

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Sunny Side Up

Sunshine Lewin, or Sunny as she is known to her family, is sent to spend the summer in Florida with her grandfather.  Sunny’s vision of trips to Disney World and hanging out with other kids at the pool changes quickly when she discovers that her grandfather lives in a retirement community.  There aren’t many kids around and the “big plans” her grandfather has for her each day include trips to the bank and the grocery store. Sunny is facing a summer of complete boredom. Through flashbacks, we learn that Sunny has been sent to her grandfather’s while her parents deal with a family issue.  As the title suggests, Sunny does her best to keep her sunny side up and enjoy her exile in Florida.

Doll Bones by Holly Black

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Doll Bones_Alice, Poppy, and Zach have been friends since elementary school.  They get together every day after school to play a great game of imagination with characters they have developed over the years with each of the friends playing an imaginary character. One of the characters, an antique doll Poppy’s mother keeps locked in a glass cabinet, they call the Great Queen has always had an air of mystery surrounding it.  When Zach’s father returns to the family, he wants Zach to get more into sports, so he pressures Zach to give up the time he spends with his best friends to pursue basketball. Just as Zach’s dad takes a desperate action to end the game leaving Zach feeling he has no choice but to abandon his friends, Poppy approaches Zach with a story of a haunted china doll. Poppy needs Zach and Alice to accompany her on a quest to return the Great Queen to her final resting spot.  Has Poppy made a gruesome discovery or is this just another part of the game?

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

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unwind_After the Second Civil War, known as the Heartland War, leaders of United States of America put into place a set of amendments known as “The Bill of Life.” These amendments protect human life from conception until the child reaches the age of thirteen.  From the age of thirteen until a child reaches the age of eighteen, a parent may choose to have a child unwound.  As Shusterman’s story begins, unwinding is a common practice in society.

Connor and Risa are on a bus to an unwinding center.  Lev, a tithe, is traveling by Cadillac to the center. An accident causes their paths to cross, and now they are on the run from the Juvey-cops.  If Connor, Risa, and Lev can survive until they are eighteen, they will remain whole.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

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Blue Lily, Lily BlueMaggie Stiefvater’s Blue Lily, Lily Blue is Book III in The Raven Cycle.  Blue Sargent’s mother, Maura, is missing.  Maura’s psychic sisters, Persephone and Calla, cannot locate her. Blue, Adam Parrish, Ronan Lynch and Richard Campbell Gansey III are still on a quest to find the cave that holds Glendower and perhaps the missing Maura. Others are trying to find Glendower as well. Persephone is coaching Adam to use his new found abilities and gives him this particular message: “Three in particular,” she murmured. “To be woken. Oh, no. No. Two. One should not be woken.”  It will be up to the Raven Boys and Blue to find the cave and figure out Persephone’s message.