Green Boy by Susan Cooper

Long Pond Cay has always been a special spot for twelve-year-old Trey and his brother Lou. Its white sand beaches are always changing, with some new treasure to discover every visit, and there's even a small cave that the brothers have claimed as their own. Lou, who has never spoken in all his seven years, seems to have an affinity with the ospreys - large white birds - who live on the cay.

But the cay is threatened by a group of foreign businessmen who want to build a large hotel and resort there. They're planning to reshape the sea floor and the surrounding cays to create space for tennis courts, restaurants, and even a golf course! They've promised to bring in work and money for the local people, but they're only going to end up destroying the ecosystem of plants and animals that live in the shallow warm waters around the cays.

Trey and Lou's grandfather works hard to fight to save the cay, but the boys have their own fight ahead of them, spurred by a discovery they make on Long Pond Cay. In the time between the changing tides, a doorway opens to a strange land - one full of concrete and noise, fast vehicles and strange rules. And a prophecy that Lou is meant to bring about destruction and rebirth - a prophecy the Government wants to stop and the Underworlders work to make happen...

Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry

Have you ever wanted anything so badly that you knew your heart would break if you didn't have it?

That's the way Paul and Maureen feel about the Phantom, one of the wild ponies on Assateague Island. She's a beautiful copper and silver pony with a white map of the United States over her shoulders. Every year, the people of Chincoteague Island hold a Pony Penning Day, rounding up the wild ponies, but every year the Phantom has escaped the round up.

This year, though, it's going to be different. Paul's old enough to help with the round up, and he's determined to bring the Phantom in. And when he does, the brother and sister are going to buy the Phantom and give her a good home - her and her little silver-gold colt, Misty.

The siblings have hard work and a lot to learn along the way: they have to save up the Phantom's hundred-dollar price, deal with the highs and lows of the Pony Penning Day, and then, if they're very lucky, win the trust and cooperation of an independent, tough, thoroughly untamed pony.

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?