Chelsey and the Green-Haired Kid by Carol Gorman

Chelsey may be wheelchair bound, but she has to solve who pushed the kid off the back of bleachers. The kid died right in front of her and either the green-haired kid is another witness or involved in the murder. If the murder killed once, she could be the next victim, especially if the killer wants no on left to identify him to the police. Why would anyone want to kill someone at a high school basketball game? Why does the green-haired kid wants nothing to do with solving this unless he might be involved? I read this almost 20 years ago and if a book sticks in your mind that long after reading so many more great books, you know it has to be good. Mystery lovers, see if you can solve this before the author does it for you.

Soup by Robert Newton Peck

Don't miss this just because it is an old book, but if you read it , please don't try any of the pranks on your friends and family. Based on the author's own growing years, Rob learns sometime following your best friend's ideas of fun can get you in more trouble than what your worst enemy's ideas would. Whether it is whipping apples at a church or tying up your aunt, things never seem to work out as planned. Life was so much more fun when the grown ups didn't worry about where the kids were unless they missed 2 meals or didn't make it home before dark. Life back then also included the dreaded bully, but you have to read the book to see who was the most feared bully in school. You will be surprised to see who it was.

The Cats of Roxville Station by Jean Craighead George

The action at the start of this book will upset any cat lover, but sets the story of how outside cats survive and learn which humans they can trust. Rachet has learned not to trust humans and now she has to learn the ways of feral cats to survive. A small colony of cats live in the neighborhood near a train station. While some humans are helpful, like the lady who puts out cat food, other do anything they can to "get rid of the cats". Mike, who lives with a foster mother that hates cats, wants to befriend Rachet but how can a cat learn to trust one of the creatures that harmed her and tried to kill her. While this is a fiction story, it has more facts than some non fiction. I learned a few thing about cats and I have lived too many for years. If you love the Warriors series, instead of rereading while you wait for the next book, try this. All my students who love the Warriors series and read this loved it.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

When I first saw the cover, I wondered if any student would ever pick this book up. When the book won the 2010 Newbery Award, I remembered that you shouldn't judge a book by the cover. After reading it, I now understand what makes this special. Miranda just loves the book Wrinkle in Time, her life in New York, and her mom. As the book starts, she loses her best friend. She gets weird notes found in even weirder places from someone who tells her that s/he has come to save her friend. It seems that that person knows what happens even before it does. The subplots about finding a new best friend and surviving the ups and downs of a parent's appearance on a national televised game show only adds to the mystery. Even though the story is set in the late 1970's, any junior high student will enjoy the parts set in a school. The times may change, but the characters that are part of any school seem to always stay the same. If you have read and love Wrinkle in Time, you will love this book. It is not only the main character's favorite book, the plot of Wrinkle is the key to solving what is going on in this story.

Closed for the Season by Mary Downing Hahn

After about the 5th student told me this was the best book they ever read, I knew I needed to read it. Other books by this author are also popular and had to have multiple copies bought. Now I see why. How would you like to find out that you are not just the new kid in town, but you also live in a house of an unsolved murder. Logan just wants to fit in with the students at his new junior high when school starts, but events will probably stop that. His next door neighbor wants his help solving the murder and once they start, they have to see it through. Whoever killed Mrs. Donaldson has started to notice their search and now they may be the target. If you like plot twists, you will love this. For those of you who read the last few pages to see what happens, it won't work. The author has solved the it sooner and you will have to read it to find out who did murder that poor sweet little old lady. One of the characters will not be who you think that character is. It fit the plot but it was a shock. For those of you who are picked on by the popular kids, you will really love the ending.

It has been a year since I started this blog.

Greetings to all who do look at this blog. I started this a year ago so junior high (and high school also) students would be able to find great books to read. Every book on this blog is a book that I have recommended to students and had gotten good feedback. It is not a complete list of all the great books I have read, but all of these are found in my small junior high library so they should be able to found in others. I have been adding 4 books a month to build the blog, but since there are now well over 45 books, I will be only listing 1 or 2 books each month. I have gone to other blogs and felt a little overwhelmed trying to find things. I want this to be user friendly. If you like mysteries, you can just find a mystery book on the blog and click on the mystery label and every mystery book on the blog will pop up. This will work with any genre, including nonfiction ones. You can also just click on any of the labels in the list and all the books under that label will pop up. Speaking of nonfiction, I have been a nonfiction reader for most of my life and have found those students who tell me they hate to read are usually a nonfiction readers. I hope you will find this blog useful when you want a book to read. Let me know if you have anything you want to add, because comments are welcome.

Indigo Star by Hilary McKay

The second book of a 4 book series about the Cassons, a British family whose parents are artists, it stands alone. Indigo is the only boy in a house full of females. His dad lives in London. While home is a happy chaotic place, school is something to be dreaded. It is so bad at school that Indigo is happy to get mononucleosis to miss an entire semester, but he must go back. When he gets back, the bullies have a new target, Tom, the American kid who does everything to make himself a target. Why is Tom so angry at everyone? How can the two of them get back at the bullies and teach a lesson at the same time? Behind this main plot are many subplots involving too many suiters for the oldest sister, why their father is not living with them, and will their mother ever remember to make dinner. One of the most popular series at EML's library. You will laugh out load about who really gets the best of the bullies.

Backfield Package by Thomas J. Dygard

Four friends who play for a winning high school team make a promise to each other that when recuited to play college football, they will go as a package. Only one offer comes and it is second tier school. Joe, the quarterback, is by far the best of them all, so when he gets offers to better college programs, his family tells him to take one of those offers. But how can he let his friends down especially when he knows that it their talents that help him be the star quarterback he is? Is anyone else having doubts about even going to college? If you love football, you will love the game action in this book.

Willow Run by Patricia Reilly Giff

Sequel to Lilly's Crossing, this does stand alone. What would you do if your whole life is turned upside down? Meggie's family moves to Michigan so her father can work in the bomber plant. She has a nice home in New York, but lives in quickly-built worker housing. Her brother is off to war and her German American grandfather stays back in New York to look after things. Thrown into a group of other transplants, she learns that life is what you make it and that friends don't have to share your background, just your present.

No Place For Me by barthe DeClements

Probably out of print for years, this book has stood the test of time and will be remembered by readers who share some of the same feelings as Cooper, the 7th grade main character. Growing up in an unstable home with a high maintenance mom that is now drying out in rehab, Cooper feels no one wants her until she goes to live with her late father's sister. Aunt Maggie is different than most, she is a free spirit, practices the old religion of Wicca, but is understanding. Aunt Maggie seems to care about her, but after what happened to Copper at her other two aunts' home, can she let down her guard to find out what real families will do for each other. Trusting adults are hard if you never had an adult that didn't let you down.

The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman

Winner of the Newbery, the heart warming tale of a girl who finds a home, an occupation, some food, and her own name. Nameless until the midwife starts calling her Beetle because of where she found her (think of the grossest place in the world) , Beetle never remembers anyone who cared for her, not even in toddlerhood. Life is tough in the 14th century. Midwifery is looked down about even if they are the only ones who can help bring a new life in the world. What would you do to keep the only safe place you have ever know and what name would you give yourself if you could? This character in this very quick read has more in common with todays students than you think possible. Hope, dreams and needs don't change, just the ablity to fill them.

Wolf by the Ears by Ann Rinaldi

Based on historical people and maybe actual facts, this story is about the tough choice that Thomas Jefferson's bi-racial daughter has to make. She is a slave like her mother, but at 21 she can get her freedom. If she does take her freedom, will she pass as white, or stay true to those who raised her. But who is Harriet, if she has both black and white parents. At a time when you had to choose and could not be both, passing will open up a better world but you would lose your past forever. You either will love or hate Ann Rinaldi's work . Filled with strong teenage women characters, the stories are true to their settings in history. Being bi-racial, EML also had to make the choice of who I am. Once you make it, it is who you are for the rest of your life, even if you don't look like the choice you made when you get older.

The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney

While they don't put faces of missing children on school milk cartons anymore, just image if you saw a picture of yourself as a young child on one. When teenage Janie does, she starts down a path to find the truth, but can she handle the truth and where it leads. She has her whole world pulled apart. Can she put herself back together? Who are her "real" parents, those who raised her or the ones she share blood ties? Does she risk her world to find out? First of a series of 4 books. EML had to face a similar problem when her birth parents found her after 42 years and found someone will get hurt everytime, it is just the way these things work out.

Alone in the World; Orphans and Orphanages in America by Catherine Reef

It is hard to image how different children without parents or who could not keep them were treated in the past compared today. Was it a better way or was it worst than today? With all the stories in the news, would it be better to bring back orphanages as safe places to grow up? Why do senior citizens who grew up in them talk so loving about them? Are they just remembering the good and not the bad? Do the fiction books you read tell the real story? Find out in this book. EML started life out in an orphanage so I had to read this book when I got it. Maybe I should have been left there? What do you think?

Into the Wild by Erin Hunter (Warriors series)

This is the book that has started 3 different series about 4 clans of wild cats trying to survive in an unforgiving world and the fights with each other. Rusty is just a kittypet (house cat) who takes off to wild, but he might be the answer that the leader of ThunderClan's saw as she dreamt. Does he have what it takes to help the clan when other clan breaks tradition and tries to take all the clans land for itself? Can he be a warrior or is he just a soft pet of Two legs? You need to read the books in order so you won't get lost, but each series has its own story line. Reading this one first, you will learn how one cat can make a difference to a whole world of cats. Not only for cat lovers, if you enjoy battles between warriors, you will love the action in the fights between the clans. Warriors are not made, they are born, but training will keep warriors from dying before their time. But remember, the worst enemies can be the closest friends if they choose to be.

The Forest of Silence by Emily Rodda (Deltora Quest series)

First book of a series that EML was told by too many students she had to get for the library, it is a great adventure filled with many dangers that the characters barely survive. When a king lets down his people by not doing his duties, evil overruns the kingdom. His main duty was to wear a magical belt that kept the evil powers at bay. After many years of war, 2 brave young men set out to find the stones from that belt that have been hidden across the kingdom. If those stones can be found and the belt put back together, the heir to the throne will be able drive the evil powers out. While both think it won't be that difficult, it takes a surprise creature's help to keep both of them from dying before the adventure even starts. If you read this one, plan on reading all 8 to see how this quest will end.

Gameprey by Mel Odom (Tom Clancey' Net Force series)

While this type of book isn't normally EML's cup of tea, I did enjoy it but if you are a gamer or a person who dreams of creating your own games, you will enjoy it more. Set the near future where the internet will be a huge part of our lives, Net Force is like a FBI or a CIA organization that keep the bad guys from using it for crime. One of the junior members is a game designer and while at computer gamers' convention in Los Angeles, she and another junior member are sucked into solving the disappearance of the creator the latest, greatest game. When they realize that someone will kill to keep the game out, they call on the rest of Net Force to help before they are next victims. Once you learn the rest of the story, you may never play online games again without worrying about if this story is based on truth or it could really happen.

Striking Out by Will Weaver (Billy Baggs Novel)

The first book of a 3 part series about a farm boy who can pitch, doesn't look like something non baseball lovers or farm kids could relate to very well. But if you don't get along with your parents, have dreams beyond your small world, or have that person who you want to get even with, this book is a great one for you. Billy's life is sad, hard, and limited. But does he give up or give in, when there are people who want to help him make his dreams come alive? Real world problems with no easy answers lurk in the corners of this young adult award winner.

How to Raise and Keep a Dragon by John Topsell

If dragons were really real, this would be the book for the would be owner. It has everything from the different types of dragons to care, housing, and feeding of your pet. A chapter on training is a must read since you need to keep him/her under control and if it is a flying dragon, being able to go out for a ride. Also included is instructions on how to show your dragon at the dragon show and what the judges look for to have Best-in-Show. It is found in the 398 section in the library with the rest of the dragon information books. If you love that Disney movie that came out in March 2010, you will love this book.

Babe Ruth (Up Close M.V.P) by Wilborn Hampton

You never know what book will change your life. While this Babe Ruth biography was not the one, another one was for EML. I was 10 years old when I read it and didn't have a great home life. But reading what the Babe went through, I know I could make it through mine with ease. It gave me an anchor when I needed it. He lived his life his way, looked out for the kids, and enjoyed getting paid for playing a game. He set his records not using steriods, but eating and drinking too much. My big questions have always been, was he a better pitcher or a better hitter. This is for the reader who loves baseball and the reader who's life is not easy. Both will find a hero they need.