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Reviews and Recommendations
Reading to middle-schoolers
Here are a few titles that don't miss
By Amy Stover
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.
The year is 1978 and middle school student Miranda is living in
New York City obsessing over Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time.
Miranda has enough to worry about: her best friend, who suddenly
refuses to hang out with her; a boy she might kind of like; the homeless
guy on the corner near her New York City apartment that everyone calls
the laughing man, and her single mom, an aspiring game show
contestant. Life was hectic with just that, but now Miranda is getting
creepy hidden notes from someone who claims to be from the future
and wants to save her life. It will take a tragedy to show Miranda that
neither the notes nor her friendships are quite what she imagined. Gr
8-12.
Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen.
For his birthday Lawn Boy has just been given the ancient riding
lawn mower his grandfather used before his death.Thanks, Grandma.
With a long summer ahead of him and no transportation in front of him
(his bike's got a busted tire and he can't drive a car to save his life)
Lawn Boy's got nothing to do but start cutting neighborhood lawns.
What starts with a dream of earning enough for a new tire or maybe
even a new ride ends with earning half a million dollars, managing
eight employees, playing the stock market and investing in a prize
fighter. This was a summer no one saw coming. Gr 6-10.
The Alchemyst by Michael Scott.
When teen twins Josh and Sophie began their summer jobs, they
never imagined anything like what was about to happen. Amidst an
explosive shift at a San Francisco bookstore, Josh discovers that he
has been employed by Nicholas, a 700 year old alchemist who is
locked in combat with a race called the Dark Elders over a book. The
Codex, which contains the secrets of immortality, has been stolen
along with Nicholas's wife, leaving Josh and Sophie unwittingly caught
up in a quest for their return. Along the way they face temptation,
danger and even death as they fight to reclaim the secret to immortality
and maybe save the world. Gr 8-12.
Amy Stover is head of Bookmobile and Outreach Services for Raleigh
County Public Library.