A Dog on His Own by Mary Jane Auch

Humans can't be trusted.

They just can't. They'll let you down every time.

Like this morning, when K-10 is just minding his own business and two guys trick him, trap him, and take him to the animal shelter.

Which, okay. Isn't entirely all that bad. When you're in, you get two squares a day and a comfy place to sleep where no one can sneak up on you. And K-10 has his own patented technique for getting adopted right quick - he's never spent more than one night at a shelter in his life.

But there's something different about this shelter stay. It all starts with Tucker, the old dog in the cage next to K-10. Now, K-10 himself would rather spend as little time as possible with humans, but some dogs aren't like that. Some dogs actually like living with people. Tucker's one of those kind of dogs - and his time at the shelter is nearly up. K-10 might not have any use for humans, but dogs have got to stick together, so he helps Tucker get adopted by, even K-10 has to admit, a pretty nice old guy.

And then there's Pearl, a tough old lady of a black Lab with an escape plan and a sharp tongue. And Peppy, a high-pitched, high-energy Chihuahua who thinks he's bigger than he is. K-10's a loner, a tough guy, a need-nobody, but... he can't leave those two on their own. They'll get eaten alive out there in the world!

Zucchini Out West by Barbara Dana

Zucchini loves living with Billy.

Billy is a quiet, shy boy who loves animals. He has a list next to his bed of all of the endangered and threatened animal species in the world. He told Zucchini he wants to help shorten that list, to help save the lives of all of those animals, but he isn't sure yet how to do it.

Right now, Billy has two problems. One is his shyness. He never quite gets the courage to ask people questions, and sometimes he'll talk himself out of doing things because he thinks he'll be stupid.

The other problem is Zucchini. Now, Zucchini is Billy's best friend, but he's also a ferret. He's a small tan ferret with a cold nose, a black mask, and black feet, which is where the problem really starts. There are three different kinds of ferrets in the world, and one of them is endangered: the black-footed ferret. It's one of the rarest mammals in the world, and it's illegal to own one. So if Zucchini really is a black-footed ferret, he and Billy won't be able to stay together anymore.

The only way to know for certain is to ask one of the experts on ferrets. Billy has the chance, on a family vacation, to talk to the scientists who study ferrets and ask them questions about saving endangered animals, about ferrets, and about Zucchini in particular. If only he can pull his courage together...

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

At 4 o'clock in the afternoon on the day after Halloween, sixteen people gather to hear the reading of the following will. Can you solve the mystery before they do?

I, Samuel W. Westing, resident of Westing County in the fair state of Wisconsin in the great and glorious United States of America, being of sound mind and memory, do hereby declare this to be my last will and testament.

First - I returned to live among my friends and my enemies. I came home to seek my heir, aware that in doing so I faced death. And so I did.
Today I have gathered together my nearest and dearest, my sixteen nieces and nephews (Sit down, Grace Windsor Wexler!) to view the body of your Uncle Sam for the last time.
Tomorrow its ashes will be scattered to the four winds.

Second - I, Samuel W. Westing, hereby swear that I did not die of natural causes. My life was taken from me - by one of you! The police are helpless. The culprit is far too cunning to be apprehended for this dastardly deed. I, alone, know the name. Now it is up to you. Cast out the sinner, let the guilty rise and confess.

Third - Who among you is worthy to be the Westing heir? Help me. My soul shall roam restlessly until that one is found.
The estate is at the crossroads. The heir who wins the windfall will be the one who finds the ...

Fourth - Hail to thee, O land of opportunity! You have made me, the son of poor immigrants, rich, powerful, and respected.
So take stock in America, my heirs, and sing in praise of this generous land. You, too, may strike it rich who dares to play the Westing game.

Fifth - Sit down, Your Honor, and read the letter this brilliant young attorney will now hand over to you.

Sixth - Before you proceed to the game room there will be one minute of silent prayer for your good old Uncle Sam.

Seventh - And now, dear friends, relatives, and enemies, the Westing game begins.
The rules are simple:

• Number of players: 16, divided into 8 pairs.


• Each pair will receive $10,000.


• Each pair will receive one set of clues.


• Forfeits: If any player drops out, the partner must leave the game. The pair must return the money. Absent pairs forfeit the $10,000; their clues will be held until the next session.


• Players will be given two days' notice of the next session. Each pair may then give one answer.


• Object of the game: to win.

Eighth - The heirs will now be paired. When called, go to the assigned table. Your name and position will be read as signed on the receipt.
It will be up to the other players to discover who you really are.

1. MADAME SUN LIN HOO, cook
   JAKE WEXLER, standing or sitting when not lying down


2. TURTLE WEXLER, witch
   FLORA BAUMBACH, dressmaker


3. CHRISTOS THEODORAKIS, birdwatcher
   D. DENTON DEERE, intern, St. Joseph's Hospital, Department of Plastic Surgery


4. ALEXANDER MCSOUTHERS, doorman
   J. J. FORD, judge, Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court


5. GRACE WINDSOR WEXLER, heiress
   JAMES SHIN HOO, restaurateur


6. BERTHE ERICA CROW, Good Salvation Soup Kitchen
   OTIS AMBER, deliverer


7. THEO THEODORAKIS, brother
   DOUG HOO, first in all-state high-school mile run


8. SYDELLE PULASKI, secretary to the president
   ANGELA WEXLER, none

Ninth - Money! Each pair in attendance will now receive a check for the sum of $10,000. The check cannot be cashed without the signatures of both partners. Spend it wisely or go for broke. May God thy gold refine.

Tenth - Each pair in attendance will now receive an envelope containing a set of clues. No two sets of clues are alike. It is not what you have, it's what you don't have that counts.

Eleventh - Senseless, you say? Death is senseless yet makes way for the living. Life, too, is senseless unless you know who you are, what you want, and which way the wind blows.
So on with the game. The solution is simple if you know whom you are looking for. But heirs, beware! Be aware!
Some are not who they say they are, and some are not who they seem to be. Whoever you are, it's time to go home.
God bless you all and remember this:
Buy Westing Paper Products!

Escape to West Berlin by Maurine Dahlberg

It’s July of 1961, and Heidi Klenk is about to have the worst summer of her life. To start things off, she just found out that her family won’t be going to visit Opa and Oma, her grandparents, on their farm this August like they do every year. Her mom is about to have a baby, so she doesn’t want to travel, and Heidi’s parents won’t let her go alone; they say she’s too young.

Even worse, Heidi’s father is being called a traitor. You see, Heidi and her family live in Berlin, which after World War II was split into two parts – the East, which is Soviet, and the West, which is not. Heidi’s family lives in East Berlin, but her father works in the West, and has since long before the division of the city. Some people in the East think that border-crossers like Heidi’s dad are betraying the East by working in the higher-paying West but receiving the health care and other benefits of the East, and recently the tension has been getting worse and worse.

Now even Heidi’s best friend Petra won’t play with her, and Heidi’s father has been told he must get a job in the East. Their landlord is threatening to evict them, and Heidi’s parents have begun whispering behind closed doors.

And that is worst of all, because above all else, Heidi wants to be treated like the responsible teen she is and not like a child. She wants to be able to ride the train out to Opa and Oma’s on her own, she wants to be able to choose her friends, and she wants to be able to help make the decisions about her family’s life.

But when everything goes wrong all at once, will Heidi be as level-headed and responsible as she thinks she is?

Cat Running by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Fast Cat Kinsley, the fastest runner at Brownwood School. She took first in the Play Day races last year, even though she was only a short skinny fifth-grader then. But she beat out all the boys, even the sixth-grade ones, from Lincoln and Elmwood too.

Cat loves running. It makes her feel free, the way her legs burn and her lungs ache and everything seems to kind of fade away. She can forget about bossy Ellen and teasing Cliff, about frail Mama and stern Father, about the fact that she won't be running in the Play Day races this year...

And that's all Father's fault, and he'd better know it. Every other girl at school will be wearing slacks for Play Day, but Cat will be stuck in a dress, because Father is too old-fashioned and too stubborn and won't pay a dime for anything Cat wants. Won't he feel guilty when Brownwood loses the games and don't get the prize money to buy new gloves and bats for the kids to play with.

But Browntown School does win, and all because of That Zane Perkins. He's a newcomer to school, one of the Okies who set up camp down by Mr. Otis' farm looking for work after the great dust storms out in Oklahoma and Texas chased them out of their homes. He wears shirts and overalls that are patched and worn and too big or too small, and he runs the Play Day races barefoot! Cat's refusing to run because she'd have to wear a dress instead of slacks, and that Zane Perkins runs it barefoot, like he doesn't know any better!

Cat hates that Zane Perkins. She'll hate him 'til the day she dies.

But she doesn't hate little Sammy Perkins. And when Sammy needs them, Cat just might have to team up with that Zane Perkins in a race against time itself...

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.

Ellie McDoodle: New Kid in School by Ruth McNally Barshaw

This is the end. At least that's what Ellie thinks. Goodbye familiar house. Goodbye familiar school. Goodbye friends. Goodbye life. Ellie's family is moving for her dad's job, and even worse than being "the new kid" she now has to share a room with her sister Risa.

But then she finds the library, and woods to explore. School is still not so great. Teachers get her name wrong, and some of the students play "new kid bingo." How will Ellie make it change?

All fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid should definitely give Ellie McDoodle a try. Its illustrated journal format is fun to read. This book is the second in a series. See also Ellie McDoodle: Have Pen, Will Travel.

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Just imagine...

You are a girl, an orphan your whole life, who has gone from family to family and finally to an orphanage, helping and living, but never been part of your own family. You have red hair and freckles and are awfully thin, all of which you are sadly aware of and wish could be changed.

Just imagine...

You are taken from the orphanage on a train to a tiny little village in the countryside and told that Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert want to adopt you. But when you arrive at their house, a beautiful spot called Green Gables that just feels like home... you find out they wanted a boy, not a girl.

Just imagine...

For some reason, just for some reason, though you're never quite sure why in particular, Matthew and Marilla decide you will stay with them, in this lovely house with its white-flowered cherry trees, and its cheerful little brook, and the shining lake beneath the bridge.

Just imagine...

You make a perfect friend in Diana Barry, who lives just on the other side of the Haunted Wood, and a perfect enemy in Gilbert Blythe - which is all his fault because he pulled your hair and called you "carrots." And maybe you aren't Lady Cordelia Fitzgerald of Idlewild, but you are Anne Shirley of Green Gables, and that indeed is so ever much better than being Anne Shirley of nowhere-at-all!

Just imagine...

Rosa, Sola by Carmela Martino

Rosa is very excited: her mother is going to have a little bambino, a little baby! Rosa has been an only child all her life, and she's a little jealous of her best friend AnnaMaria, who has a baby brother and two little sisters. But it's okay now, because Rosa is going to be a big sister herself now, with a baby brother or sister of her own to take care of!

On Rosa's tenth birthday, Papa and Uncle Sal rush Ma to the hospital while Rosa and Aunt Ida stay home, praying for Ma and for the baby. The next day at school seems to drag on, until Rosa comes home to find Aunt Ida crying. The baby died, Aunt Ida tells Rosa, and suddenly everything is wrong.

Ma is sick, Papa is angry, and Rosa feels guilty, because she was the one who prayed so hard for a little brother. With her family all in pieces, Rosa feels even more sola - even more alone - than she did before. There has to be something she can do to bring her family back together!

The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden

Chester, meet New York City.

New York City, meet Chester.

Wow.

When a small black cricket hops into a picnic basket for a taste of liverwurst, he never imagines he'll end up in New York City. Let alone that he'll end up in the Times Square subway station, surrounded by more noise and movement and general danger than any poor country cricket has ever dealt with before.

Thank goodness for Mario Bellini, the newsstand boy who finds Chester the cricket and gives him a home in the Bellini family newspaper and magazine stand. Thank goodness too for Tucker Mouse and Harry Cat, a pair of unlikely friends who teach Chester everything he needs to know about living in the big city.

Of course there are rough spots to life, even with wonderful friends like these. Mama Bellini, for example, doesn't trust Chester and isn't sure she wants him to stay at the newsstand. And Chester does get himself into trouble all on his own with perfectly honest mistakes. But overall, it's an incredible adventure, especially when Chester takes New York City by storm with a talent all his own.

What do you think that talent could be?

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?