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Times are tough for Beans and his family in Key West during the Great Depression. Can Beans and his friends trust the New Dealers who say that they have come to Florida to make their small, poor town a tourist destination? Bean’s saga is both humorous and poignant in his satisfying story.

Blake is a cautious young man who finds himself in the middle of a nightmare when he is forced to survive seven harrowing amusement park rides in an effort to save his brother. The surreal scenes and characters, as well as psychological drama, will leave readers spellbound by Blake’s battle for his soul.

In Rosario, Argentina, Camila Hassan lives a double life. At home, she is a careful daughter, living within her mother’s narrow expectations, in her rising-soccer-star brother’s shadow, and under the abusive rule of her short-tempered father. On the field, she is La Furia, a powerhouse of skill and talent. When her team qualifies for the South American tournament, Camila gets the chance to see just how far those talents can take her. In her wildest dreams, she’d get an athletic scholarship to a North American university. But the path ahead isn’t easy. Her parents don’t know about her passion. And the boy she once loved is back in town, but things aren’t the same as when he left: she has her own passions and ambitions now, and La Furia cannot be denied. As her life becomes more complicated, Camila is forced to face her secrets and make her way in a world with no place for the dreams and ambition of a girl like her.

There are only three things that matter to twelve-year-old Alice Alexis Queensmeadow: Mother, who wouldn’t miss her; magic and color, which seem to elude her; and Father, who always loved her. The day Father disappears from Ferenwood he takes nothing but a ruler with him. But it’s been almost three years since then, and Alice is determined to find him. She loves her father even more than she loves adventure, and she’s about to embark on one to find the other.

But bringing Father home is no small matter. In order to find him she’ll have to travel through the mythical, dangerous land of Furthermore, where down can be up, paper is alive, and left can be both right and very, very wrong. Her only companion is a boy named Oliver whose own magical ability is based in lies and deceit—and with a liar by her side in a land where nothing is as it seems, it will take all of Alice’s wits (and every limb she’s got) to find Father and return home to Ferenwood in one piece. On her quest to find Father, Alice must first find herself—and hold fast to the magic of love in the face of loss.

When Max—Maxine Zelaster—befriends her new robot classmate Fuzzy, part of Vanguard One Middle School’s new Robot Integration Program, she helps him learn everything he needs to know about surviving middle school—the good, the bad, and the really, really, ugly. Little do they know that surviving seventh grade is going to become a true matter of life and death, because Vanguard has an evil presence at its heart: a digital student evaluation system named BARBARA that might be taking its mission to shape the perfect student to extremes!

As a graduate student, Venkatesh began exploring the housing projects of Chicago and befriended members of a Chicago gang (after the gang briefly kidnapped him.) Venkatesh reports on the underground economy at work and the allure of gang membership, and makes suggestions for reaching out to gang members.

With the help of her chorus teacher, Black thirteen-year-old Genesis learns to love herself and finds her voice to overcome internalized racism and a verbally abusive family.

Espionage played an important role in defeating the British, as is demonstrated in this cleverly-formatted, intriguing book.

Vivy Cohen, an 11-year-old with autism, won’t let anything stop her from playing baseball — not when she has a major-league star as her pen pal. This novel-in-letters captures Vivy’s growing sense of her own capabilities. It’s a satisfying baseball story that never minimizes the challenges of autism but celebrates skill, determination, and love for the game.

Ghost wants to be the fastest sprinter on his elite middle school track team, but his past is slowing him down.

After seventh-grader Jerome is shot by a white police officer, he observes the aftermath of his death and meets the ghosts of other fallen black boys including historical figure Emmett Till.

Twelve-year old Oliver is kidnapped, pressed into service on a pirate ship, and finds adventure that includes outwitting a ghost who guards pirate treasure. Rich language is used in this fast-paced, exhilarating adventure tale.

The ghost of George Washington introduces Sara to other presidential ghosts.

Ryan Smithson was in high school on September 11, 2001, but the events of that day made him determined to join the military. Here, in his own, sometimes unpolished but always authentic words, he tells of the joys, fears, even boredom of being stationed in Iraq as an army engineer.

Tanya Lee Stone deftly uses new research to illuminate the dramatic facts behind the 2013 film of the same name, focusing both on the girls captured on camera and many others. She examines barriers to education in depth—early child marriage and childbearing, slavery, sexual trafficking, gender discrimination, and poverty—and shows how removing these barriers means not only a better life for girls, but safer, healthier, and more prosperous communities.

In three interwoven biographies, Weller chronicles the life and times of three tradition-breaking women singer-songwriters who came of age in the late 1960s.

Laced with real events and leaders such as Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry, Give Me Liberty explores the Revolutionary ideas and risks colonists faced in their quest for liberty. Thirteen-year-old Nathaniel Dunn is an indentured servant laboring on a tobacco plantation in colonial Virginia. Life is hard, and it’s about to get harder when Nathaniel is sold at an auction.

This novel is told mostly through a collection of short stories that feature the interactions of Eliot Rosewater, the primary trustee of the philanthropic Rosewater Foundation, and the people of Rosewater County, Indiana. Eliot, a drunk and a volunteer firefighter, has decided to actually give money to the needy, an action which calls into question his sanity by his family and their legal counsel.

Take a metaphysical journey into man’s first science, the search for meaning, as you try to deliver a package to the smartest man in the world who won’t take it until you understand.

Fed up with his parents’ boring old religion, agnostic-going-on-atheist Jason Bock invents a new god — the town’s water tower. When the Chutengodians hold their first ceremony high atop the dome of the water tower, things quickly go from merely dangerous to terrifying and deadly. 

Do you know who Poseidon is, or what he would look like? Maybe you want to know what a Greek god would say if he could get online and blog. If so, check out this teen-friendly guide to all of the gods and goddesses of Greek mythology.

All sixteen-year-old Cameron wants is to get through high school with a minimum of effort. It’s not a lot to ask. But that’s before he’s given some bad news: he’s sick and he’s going to die. Hope arrives in the form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel/possible hallucination with a bad sugar habit. She tells Cam there is a cure — if he’s willing to go in search of it. With the help of Gonzo, a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf, and a yard gnome who just might be the Viking god Balder, Cam sets off on a road trip through America into the heart of what matters most.

Sixteen-year-old Florrie turns political activist when she takes notice of the changing landscape of her beloved San Antonio hometown. Upset by the loss of small independent businesses to money-hungry corporations, she first begins her grassroots campaign with her family, who own their restaurant, encouraging them to support other local businesses and to avoid the chain stores. (School Library Journal)

This well-researched book is a lively cultural history of the Western Publishing Company and their bold WWII experiment to create affordable books for children. Learn, too, about the exceptionally talented writers and illustrators who helped create such a memorable series.