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Summer Reading Suggestions

Alabama Moon by Watt Key

A young boy named Moon, used to living an isolated life in the forest with his father, has to adapt his outdoor survival skills to fit into the civilized world when his father dies unexpectedly and leaves Moon alone in the world.

Artemis Fowl, the Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer
It turns out that Artemis isn't the only young genius available to solve the dilemma of a vanishing spell that will release otherworldly creatures into the human world. But can it be true-has he finally met his match in twelve-year-old Minerva?

 
Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson  394.1
Go behind the scenes and learn how fast food chains and junk food companies hook kids in and how these industries negatively affect the well being of people and our planet.

Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata
Rick Hansi, a seventeen-year-old from Minnesota, becomes a dog handler and is sent to Vietnam with Cracker, a sharp and heroic German shepherd trained to sniff out bombs, booby traps, and the enemy.

Crispin at the Edge of the World by Avi
Branded as traitors, Crispin and Bear flee to coastal towns in fourteenth-century England, where they survive by performing a musical juggling act and bond as a family after befriending a disfigured girl. Sequel to Crispin, Cross of Lead.

Crossing the Wire by Will Hobbs
Victor must deal with "coyotes" who will steal his money and strand him in the desert, Border Police who will imprison him, and dealers who will force him to carry their illegal drugs as he tries to cross the border between Mexico and the United States in order to find a job.
Fairest by Gail Carson Levine
Aza is NOT the fairest of the all, and when she discovers a magic mirror that has the power to make her beautiful, she gains more heartache than joy-until she meets a prince who recognizes her inner beauty.

Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Dylan's life needs a little lift as he is the only boy in a small Welsh town forced to look to his infant brother and pet chickens for company. Dylan gets almost more excitement than he can handle as the crime of the century falls into his lap when the entire contents of a famous art museum is brought to his dead-end town for safekeeping.
Gossamer by Lois Lowry
Littlest One, who is from a race of elfish "dream givers," is given her first assignment: to bestow dreams upon a lonely elderly woman and an abused young boy she has taken in as a foster child.
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
Hattie inherits land in Montana in 1917 and has to "prove up" to keep it : putting up fences, planting crops, and building a house. But as anti-German sentiment sweeps the country, Hattie realizes that "proving up" isn't just about farming, it's also about standing by her principles - and her friends.

 

How to Survive in Antarctica by Lucy Bledsoe  919.8
Can you survive in the most extreme climate on Earth? Then Antarctica might be the place for you: temperatures that reach 100 degrees below zero, winds that blow at 200 miles per hour, and crevasses that are thousands of feet deep. Watch your step! The author describes the incredible challenges she faced while working at this remote spot.

 

Jim Thorpe: Original All-American by Joseph Bruchac
This is the story of a truly admirable American who was treated unfairly, yet found his calling at the Carlisle Indian School, where he began his rise to fame as one of the greatest athletes of all time.

Mimus by Lilli Thal
Prince Florin, enslaved as an apprentice to a rival king's court jester, must play the fool while figuring out how to save his father, his kingdom, and his own life.
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The Ranger's Apprentice: The Burning Bridge by John Flanagan
Will is called into battle when Lord Morgarath and his deadly creatures find a way to cross an insurmountable pass into the kingdom. Sequel to The Ruins of Gorlan.

The Road to Paris by Nikki Grimes
Eight-year-old Paris finds comfort in a foster home but hates to be separated from her brother. Although she learns to trust her new family, she faces a life-changing decision about her future when her mother plans to remarry, make a new home, and bring Paris back.
 

 

Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
Mythological creatures haunt a seventh grader named Percy as an innocent game of friendly dodgeball turns into a death match against cannibal giants. Sequel to The Lightning Thief.
 
Small Steps by Louis Sachar
Armpit is determined to keep his life on track, but a get-rich-quick scheme and an encounter with a teen pop sensation make his life spin out of control in this funny adventure.
The Trap by John Smelcer
A survival story told from two viewpoints - an elderly Indian caught in a trap far from his village in the dead of winter and his grandson who has to decide when to go and look for him. The Alaskan temperatures are plummeting...
Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy
An amazing account of survival during the most desperate times imaginable. A quarter of a million people walked into the ghetto in Lodz, Poland in 1939; only 800 walked out in 1945. Of those who survived, only twelve were children.  This is the story of one of the twelve.
   

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