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All the Blues in the Sky by Renee Watson

Sage was looking forward to spending her 13th birthday with her best friend, until tragedy struck. When her best friend is killed, Sage struggles to have the energy to move on with her own life. How can she, after she has suffered such a profound horrible loss? And even other students in her grief group at school don't understand what it is like to have a person in your life one moment and then gone the next - well, at least not all of them understand it. Sage wrestles with the question of which loss is greater and can she really find the courage to live the life she wants, without her friend.

Recommended for grades 6th and up.

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How the Ghost Army Hoodwinked Hitler by Rebecca Siegel

This is the incredible story of how one unit was able to fool the German army during World War II and possibly help save thousands of lives. Because it was a secret army, it is hard to know their true impact, but reading this book will make you realize how there were many different fronts on which the war was fought.

Recommended for grades 6 and up.

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Gaslit by Megan Davidhiszar

Ella is facing a huge medical diagnosis. She found out that the migraines she has been having that are just debilitating are not caused by stress, or diet, but by a brain tumor. Being in high school and finding out you might have a brain tumor that could kill you is not something anyone wants to hear.

But Ella is trying her best to block it out and so she volunteers on New Year’s Eve to babysit for her little cousin, Joey, so her aunt can go check on her sick boyfriend, and Ella has had to cancel her own plans due to a wicked migraine, so she figures why not? When Ella gets to her aunt’s house though, she finds everyone passed out and the smell of gas – the kind that can kill you! Ella tries her best to save everyone, but she isn’t able to. Now, she is trying to figure out what really happened that night, and are other people telling her the truth, or is her mind playing tricks…on her?

Recommended for grades 7 and up.

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Death in the Jungle by Candace Fleming

What really happened to the people of Jonestown in Guyana, South America on the night of November 18, 1978? Were people there willingly, or had some wanted to leave but were not allowed? This book does a comprehensive dive into the personalities, the reasons and the dreams of the people who died in the jungle that day.

Recommended for mature 8th graders and up due to the content and the subject matter.

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Are You Nobody Too? By Tina Cane

Emily is having a terrible time fitting in to her new school. On the surface, it seems like she should be having no trouble, because she is Chinese American and her new public school has a ton of Chinese Americans, but she was adopted by white parents and didn't grow up speaking Mandarin. Leaving behind her friends at her private school has been hard. Will she ever make new friends and adjust to the new post Covid world?

Recommended for grades 8 and up.

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Slugfest by Gordon Korman

Yash is ready to move on from 8th grade to high school. He feels like he is pretty much there already since he has gotten to skip PE at his middle school and go play on all the JV teams at the high school...because...he...is...that...good. Period. But when his middle school principal shows up at one of his JV games, he knows something is off, but he has no idea just how off! And Yash isn't the only one who is going to be having their summer put on hold, all because of a new state law!

Recommended for grades 6 and up.

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Al Capone Does My Shirts By Gennifer Choldenko

Moose really doesn’t want to leave his home in Santa Monica to move to Alcatraz Island. His father takes a job as a guard so the family can get Natalie, Moose’s sister, into a special school. Even though Natalie is older than Moose she acts much younger, and the whole family has to make changes for her. And this time, that change means Moose is living on an island with Al Capone.

Recommended for grades 6 and up.

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Soldier Boys by Dean Hughes

Both Dieter and Spence have a few things in common - both have a desire to stand up for their country and do what they think is right. Both have families that care about them going to fight in the war, and both are totally unprepared for the things they will be asked to do and see as they fight in Europe during World War II.

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