Clementine by Sara Pennypacker

Clementine is having a not-so-good week. She tries to help her best friend and ends up making a big mess - okay, make that two big messes. She keeps getting sent to the principal's office for things that really were great ideas, even if they didn't work quite right. And to top it all off, she just knows that her parents are planning to get rid of her and just keep Spinach (Also known as Radish, Pea Pod, Zucchini - Well, if Clementine is named for a fruit, shouldn't her brother be named for a vegetable? It's only fair!) because he's the "easy one."

Clementine knows she really is the "hard one." Her room is never clean, her best friend is mad at her, and she talks too much and too fast and too loud. In fact, Clementine's not sure that even winning the Great Pigeon War is going to save her from being sent away. To top it all off, her parents have been having some really mysterious conversations lately...

A warm, funny story in the tradition of Amber Brown and Junie B. Jones.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The sole survivor of an attack against his family, 18 month old Nobody Owens toddles his way to the graveyard at the top of a hill and finds sanctuary with the kindhearted souls who reside there. As Bod grows up, he learns many lessons from the living, the dead, and a mysterious mentor who is neither.

The Graveyard Book is part adventure, part coming of age, and all creepy fun. Recommended for ages 10 and up.

Lyddie by Katherine Paterson

In 1843, thirteen-year-old Lyddie is determined to keep her family's farm together until her father returns from out West. But then her mother goes to live with her aunt, taking the two babies, Agnes and Rachel, with her. Lyddie and Charles manage to eke out a winter at the farm, and have great plans for the coming year, when a letter arrives from their mother telling them that there is a debt on the farm and that she's found them jobs - Lyddie at the inn and Charles at the mill.

Actually, she's "hired them out" - their employers will feed, clothe, and house Lydia and Charles in exchange for their work and 50 cents sent to their mother each week. It's a hard, lonely life, but the money can help with the farm, so Lyddie makes friends with the cook and just concentrates on working hard.

But a misunderstanding with the mistress of the inn leaves Lyddie without a job - and free to pursue a dream she's had since she first saw a young lady in a pink silk dress travelling on the stagecoach. She's off to Lowell, Massachusetts, where working at one of the weaving mills she'll earn two whole dollars a week and even have time to study.

Even life in the weaving town isn't perfect, though. The work is hard and fast-paced, but Lyddie knew it would be. The workdays keep getting longer, though, and the pace even faster, until some of the girls are talking about petitioning for better working conditions. Lydia agrees that it would be nice to have a bit more light, and it really does get hard to breathe in the weaving rooms, with all the cloth-dust flying everywhere - some of her friends have come down sick from breathing the thick air all day - but she is afraid to lose her job. There have been threats made to the girls who talk about the petition, that they are making trouble and would lose their jobs if they keep on like that.

It's hard for Lyddie to choose - the health of herself and her friends, or her farm?

The Secret History of Tom Trueheart by Ian Beck

Tom Trueheart’s whole family are adventurers. Ever hear of Jack the Giant-Killer? That’s his dad. Jack and the Beanstalk? His brother, also named Jack. The Frog Prince? Prince Charming? All Tom’s brothers. Oh, the names have been changed a bit, to make things more exciting, but all of the great stories you’ve ever heard come from the adventures of the Trueheart family, recorded and passed on by the Story Bureau.

The Story Bureau, you see, is responsible for the creation, writing, and publishing of all of the best stories one finds on one's bookshelves: Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, the list goes on and on. The creative minds at the Story Bureau come up with ideas for stories and then someone - usually a member of the Trueheart family - lives out the adventure, solving problems, rescuing princesses, and killing monsters. Then that person tells his story, and the writers and artists at the Bureau create a book out of it to be published and sent out for everyone in the world to read.

At least... that's the way it's supposed to happen. But when all six of Tom's older brothers leave for adventures and don't come back in time for his twelfth birthday, it's up to Tom to find them and set things right.

But it’s not all his brothers’ fault, you see; there’s an evil mastermind hiding in the wings. Who is he? And what is he trying to do?

Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry

"It happened many years ago, before the traders and missionaries first came to the South Seas, while the Polynesians were still great in numbers and fierce of heart. But even today the people of Hikueru sing this story in their chants and tell it over the evening fires. It is the story of Mafatu, the Boy Who Was Afraid."

Mafatu, whose mother was killed by the sea when he was only three years old and who nearly died at the same time. Mafatu, who ever since has been afraid of the ocean, though the sea surrounds and supports the life of his people. He is the son of the Chief, but how is he to earn his place as a man and one day his people's leader if he sits on the land and does women's work instead of going out onto the sea and fishing?

When he can no longer stand the teasing of the other boys, Mafatu goes out in one of the canoes late one night with only his dog, Uri, and the albatross Kivi for companionship. He is determined to sail out to another island and return with proof of his courage and of his conquering of the sea.

But a wild storm sees Mafatu thrown up on the shores of an uninhabited island with no canoe, no supplies, and no weapons. If he is ever to get home, he will have to find ways to create all of these things from the island and the surrounding ocean. And - is the island truly uninhabited?