MIDDLE SCHOOL RECOMMENDED

Because of Winn-Dixie

Through the love she gains from her new pet, a girl gains the courage to ask her father about the mother who abandoned them.

Breaking Through

Breaking Through chronicles the author's teenage years. At the age of 14, Francisco and his family are caught by la migra (immigration officers) and forced to leave their California home, but soon find their way back.

Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing Up Latino in the US

Illustrating the "beat and pulse" of generations of U.S. writers of Latin American heritage, the poems are presented both in the original and in translation;

Favorite North American Indian Legends

Charming stories - brimming with humor, whimsy and imagination - include an Algonquin tale of how Glooskap conquered the Great Bull-Frog;

Poetry From A to Z : A Guide for Young Writers

It will show that although poetry isn't easy, it can be a lot of fun to write about what you imagine

Oxford Children's History of the World

Organized chronologically from the ancient world through the 20th century, each carefully planned double-page spread begins with a brief paragraph summarizing the subject. Topics touched upon include art and architecture, religion and rulers, and science.

Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States

In Spanish and English, the poets speak eloquently of themselves, how and where they live, their families, and their dreams for the future.

Redwall

As the inhabitants of Redwall Abbey bask in the glorious Summer of the Late Rose, all is quiet and peaceful. But things are not as they seem. Cluny the Scourge, the evil one-eyed rat warlord, is hell-bent on destroying the tranquility as he prepares to fight a bloody battle for the ownership of Redwall.

Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind

a beautiful portrayal of the life of a girl growing up among camel-dealing nomads in modern Pakistan. Shabanu knows the way her people, the Cholistanis, have always lived: a daughter abides by her father's decisions, a wife obeys her husband's wishes.

Shark Life: True Stories About Sharks & the Sea

Benchley draws upon four decades of diving and studying ocean creatures in these insights and lessons about sharks.

Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush

Fourteen-year-old Tree, resentful of her working mother who leaves her in charge of a retarded brother, encounters the ghost of her dead uncle and comes to a deeper understanding of her family's problems.

The Boy and the Samurai

In feudal Japan, orphan Saru lives by his wits in a city still threatened by the conflict of rival warlords. He spends winter nights under a little-used shrine, with only a stray cat for warmth; eventually, he makes a few friends who change his life.

The Darkangel (The Darkangel Trilogy)

The servant girl Aeriel must choose between destroying her vampire master for his evil deeds or saving him for the sake of his beauty and the spark of goodness she has seen in him.

The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn

Although Seikei has been born into the merchant class, he dreams impossibly of becoming a samurai. In 1735, on the Tokaido Road, the life of this fourteen-year-old Japanese boy changes dramatically.

The Incredible Journey of Lewis & Clark

he Lewis and Clark expedition, that staple of American history courses, is given a fresh account here. Blumberg explores a confrontation between two cultures, in a manner which is sympathetic to and revealing of the feelings of both peoples.

The Kestrel (Firebird)

The echoes of that shot ring from the muskets and cannons of a Westmark suddenly at war-a war that turns simple, honest men into cold-blooded killers, Mickle into a military commander, and Theo himself into a stranger. . . .

The Magic Orange Tree: and Other Haitian Folktales

File this under your folklore section and anticipate wide interest in a collection of Haitian folk stories, both from a literary and from a cultural perspective. Almost thirty stories gathered by Wolkstein provide strong literary pieces packed with diversity and varied themes.

The Tree Is Older Than You Are: A Bilingual Gathering of Poems & Stories from Mex

English translations appear alongside the Spanish poems and tales that explore everything from a table set for supper to a peach tree to a legend of rabbit's long ears.

Walk Two Moons

Thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle's mother has disappeared. While tracing her steps on a car trip from Ohio to Idaho with her grandparents, Salamanca tells a story to pass the time about a friend named Phoebe Winterbottom whose mother vanished and who received secret messages after her disappearance. One of them read, "Don't judge a man until you have walked two moons in his moccasins."