When India moves to a new home with her preacher father, she yearns to have a friend. She befriends a dog and together they bring together a mix of people who are also in need of friendship.

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Five-year-old Matilda is a genius whose mathematical and reading abilities are totally unappreciated by her father--a dishonest used-car salesman--and her mother, a devotee of bingo and TV soaps. Only when the girl enters school does she find an understanding teacher, Miss Honey, who tries to defend her pupils against the unbelievably cruel headmistress Miss Trunchbull.

"Trouble twins" Dallas and Florida are orphans who have given up believing there is such a thing as a loving home. Tiller and Sairy are an eccentric older couple who live in the beautiful, mysterious Ruby Holler, but they're restless for one more big adventure. When they invite the twins to join them on their journeys, they first must all stay together in the Holler, and the magic of the place takes over. Two pairs of lives grow closer, and are changed forever.

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Fourth-grader, Evan Treski is good at talking with people. His sister, a second-grader is a whiz at math, but does not understand people' ways. When their lemonade war begins, there's no telling who will win or if they will ever become close again.

The story follows the adventures, joys, and heartaches of a privileged and prejudiced Dutch boy stranded on a remote tropical island with a wise West Indian, following an enemy attack on a boat leaving Curacao.

!3 year old Sophie hears the sea calling, promising adventure and a chance for discovery as she sets sail for England with her three uncles and two cousins. Through travel logs, we hear stories of the past and the challenges of surviving at sea.

The summer Hattie turns 12, her uncle returns after being away for ten years. He is schizophrenic and autistic. Hattie takes to her uncle, even though the rest of the family has trouble dealing with him. Adam sees that Hattie's shy ways are not a disability.

During the Recession in 1937, Mary Alice has to spend a year in a rural town with her feisty and conniving Grandma Dowdel. After enduring outrageous schemes, Mary Alice eventually learns to appreciate her grandma's wisdom and ways.

Every summer from 1929-1935, Joey Dowdel and his younger sister are sent to spend a week with their grandmother in her small Illinois town. Much excitement occurs when Grandma Dowdel outwits the banker, sets illegal fish traps, and saves the town from the terror of the Cowgill boys. Now an old man, Joe Dowdel remembers those seven summers and his larger than life grandma.

When Gregor falls through the grate in the laundry room of his apartment building, he hurtles into the dark underland where spiders and rats coexist with humans. This world is on the brink of war. A prophecy foretells that Gregor has a role to play in the underland's future. Gregor wants no part of it, until he realizes it's the only way to solve the mystery of his father's disappearance. 

It started out as an ordinary summer until 13 year old Zinny discovered the old, overgrown trail that ran through the woods behind her family's house. It was her chance to finally make people notice her.

Rosie Beckett has never left her family farm. Then a letter from her aunt arrives and her life changes. She's invited to visit her aunt and go to the Chicago World's Fair.

Meggie Dillon's life has been turned upside down by World War II. She and her family move to Michigan where her father will help the war effort by building planes used to fight the enemy. While there, Meggie faces questions about courage and what it takes to go into battle.

This book is the alternative ending to Hatchet. (You need to read Hatchet first.)

Two years after Brian survived 54 days alone in the Canadiann wilderness, the government wants him to head back so they can learn what he did to stay alive. He's accompanied by a psychologist who is knocked unconscious during a storm. Now Brian needs to save the man and himself while fighting nature.

It's the summer of 1944, and World War II has changed everyone's life. Lily and her family will go to their summer home by the Atlantic Ocean, but her father and best friend won't. Lily has no one her age to spend vacation with until Albert, a refugee with a secret sewn into his coat, comes. Both have secrets and have told lies that might jeopardize the life of one of them.

Ten strangers are lured to a mansion on an isolated island by an absent host "U.N. Owen". Someone begins killing them off one by one. They work together to determine who the killer is only to.....

A bizarre chain of events begins when sixteen unlikely heirs gather for the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will. No one knows why the millionaire has chosen a stranger, a possible murderer, to inherit his fortune. That doesn't stop him from challenging them to figure out the secret of his death using the clues in his will.

Stranded on an uninhabited island, a group of boys try to govern themselves. They begin to lose sight of common decency and morals, and chaos ensues resulting in death and destruction.

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Stargirl, a tenth grader, is a nonconformist who enters Mica High. She is at first embraced by the students for her uniqueness and then shunned by them for it. The rise and fall of her popularity and its consequences is narrated by Leo, her boyfriend, who also becomes a target. They both find ways to meet the challenges of being the outcasts.

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