Lowry, Lois
Gossamer
A dream-giver whose "touch was like gossamer," Littlest One hails from a race of beings who bestow healing dreams patched together from memory fragments found in sleepers' belongings. Assigned to help a troubled foster child and his elderly guardian, this novice dream-giver must do battle with "sinisteeds" who create nightmares from "hidden things, old guilts, and failings."

Schlitz, Laura Amy
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village
Illustrated with watercolor and ink drawings, this 2008 Newbery Medal winner has 22 character sketches that bring to life the personalities and lifestyles existing in the Middle Ages. Let the monologues and dialogues of peasants, maidens, a shepherdess, and an eel-catcher—among many others—put you smack in the middle of the medieval action.

Boyce, Frank Cottrell
Framed
The Hughes family owns a failing gas station in Wales until flooding in London leads the National Gallery to move its valuable holdings to an abandoned quarry just up the mountain from the Hughes' garage. The art chief mistakes Dylan for a precocious art aficionado. Dylan's younger sister, a criminal mastermind-in-the-making, plots to right the family's fortunes by nicking Van Gogh's Sunflowers, and replacing it with a paint-by-numbers look-alike in this comic tale.

Cushman, Karen.
The Loud Silence of Francine Green
Living in 1949 Los Angeles, Francine is a quiet part of a solid family, yet her best friend Sophie is outspoken and questions authority. When Sophie’s father—a Hollywood screenwriter—is in danger of being blacklisted, Francine realizes she has something to say. What will it take for Francine to exercise her freedom of speech? This is a coming of age story under the shadow of McCarthyism.

Hale, Shannon
Book of A Thousand Days
By the author of River Secrets and The Goose Girl this tale’s heroine is Dashti, formerly an orphan and now a lady’s maid. When Dashti and her mistress, Saren, are shut in a tower for seven years for Saren’s refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment. But the arrival outside the tower of Saren’s two suitors—one welcome, the other not—brings both hope and great danger, and Dashti must make the desperate choices of a girl whose life is worth more than she knows.

Ryan, Pam Munoz. Esperanza Rising
After her father’s murder, thirteen-year-old Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their fairytale existence at beautiful Rancho de las Rosas in Mexico, to live and work in a migrant worker camp in the San Joaquin Valley during the Great Depression. Adjustments to her new life are difficult for Esperanza. But like the phoenix in her beloved grandma's story, Esperanza endures, "Rising again, with a new life ahead..."

Peck, Richard
The River Between Us
It’s 1861 and a steamboat brings two mysterious young ladies from New Orleans to Illinois. Mama offers them room and board, and the Pruitts' lives are forever changed. Fair and beautiful Delphine, with her fancy dresses and high-society ways, fascinates the family. And what of Calinda, the darker-skinned young woman? Could she be Delphine's slave? A gripping Civil War story from the female point of view, this novel covers how the country changed and the split in loyalty that separated towns and even families.

Lester, Julius
Day of Tears : A Novel in Dialogue
On a day when rain came down "hard as sorrow," Pierce Butler must sell off hundreds of slaves to cover his gambling debts. 12-year-old Emma cares for the master's daughters and has been promised that she will never be sold. However, on the last day of the auction, Butler impulsively sells her to a woman from Kentucky and Emma is forced to leave her home and family for an unknown destination and future. A large cast of characters—slaves, owners, businessmen and abolitionists—tell their own stories, in their own voices.

Taylor, Peter Lane
The Secret of Priest’s Grotto
During World War II, as the Nazis closed in, several Jewish families disappeared into the labyrinthine caves of Western Ukraine. They stayed hidden for nearly a year, facing danger of discovery, malnutrition, and sensory deprivation. This is a fascinating story of 38 people, including toddlers and a 75-year-old grandmother, who lived in four underground rooms, sealed off from the outside world for 344 days. Striking photographs bring the story to life.

Schmidt, Gary D
The Wednesday Wars
It’s Long Island back in 1967 and Holling Hoodhood is just trying to get through 7 th grade. His challenges are big and small: the Vietnam War, the school bully, his father’s business, and a teacher who he quite dislikes. Forced to study Shakespeare after school with her every Wednesday afternoon, Holling finds that life, love, and tragedy in Shakespeare’s plays mirror his own life.

Holm, Jennifer
Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf: A Year Told Through Stuff
Ginny has ten items on her big to-do list for seventh grade. None of them, however, include accidentally turning her hair pink. Or getting sent to detention for throwing frogs in class. Or losing the lead role in the ballet recital to her ex-best friend. Or the thousand other things that can go wrong between September and June. But it looks like it's shaping up to be that kind of a year! Here's the story of one girl's worst school year ever.

Blackwood, Gary
The Shakespeare Stealer
A delightful and heartwarming romp set in Elizabethan England, this book tells the tale of Widge, a 14-year-old orphan, who learns shorthand and becomes a secretary to self-serving Dr. Bright. Dr. Bright sells Widge to a theatrical manager in London where Widge discovers fun, friendship, and backstage intrigue at the Globe Theater. The adventures begin when Widge is welcomed into the company as an aspiring apprentice.