Poison Ivy by Amy Goldman Koss

When three popular girls go on trial in Government class for their ruthless bullying of a girl named Ivy, it seems like the misfit will finally get her revenge. Eight first-person narrators give different versions of the event: Ivy―this victim doesn't want revenge, she just wants to be left alone; Ann―she's the beautiful, but infamously cruel, leader of the bullies; Marco―he may be the only person involved who has any morals, but he's also the target of Ann's persuasive affections; Daria―Ivy's painfully shy lawyer doesn't stand a chance; Bryce―the goofy court reporter knows all the real dirt, even if he doesn't care; Cameron―he sleeps through the proceedings but might wake up just in time to make a difference; Wayne―a true devotee of the legal process, too bad he's on the sidelines; and Faith―as the only witness for the prosecution, it all comes down to her. But where do her loyalties lie?

Reasistic Fiction

166 pages

Lexile 840

Summer Reading at the Public Library

Spirit Animals, Book 7: The Evertree by Marie Lu

Everything comes to a head in this seventh book in the "New York Times" bestselling series. The world of Erdas will be changed forever.

Conor, Abeke, Meilin, and Rollan were once ordinary kids. Then they discovered that they had spirit animals-wise and powerful partners who granted them with amazing gifts . . . and a legendary responsibility.

Together, the team has journeyed across Erdas, racing to stop a merciless foe. They have laughed and fought together. They've won challenges and lost friends. Some have even lost themselves.

Now that journey is about to end. They must reach a place forgotten by time and face off against an ancient enemy breaking free from his prison. They have just one chance to stop him . . . or the whole world will shatter.

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Booked by Kwame Alexander
Like lightning/you strike/fast and free/legs zoom/down field/eyes fixed/on the checkered ball/on the goal/ten yards to go/can’t nobody stop you/
can’t nobody cop you…
In this follow-up to the Newbery-winning novel THE CROSSOVER,  soccer, family, love, and friendship, take center stage as twelve-year-old Nick learns the power of words as he wrestles with problems at home, stands up to a bully, and tries to impress the girl of his dreams. Helping him along are his best friend and sometimes teammate Coby, and The Mac, a rapping librarian who gives Nick inspiring books to read.  

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Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo
Raymie Clarke has come to realize that everything, absolutely everything, depends on her. And she has a plan. If Raymie can win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition, then her father, who left town two days ago with a dental hygienist, will see Raymie's picture in the paper and (maybe) come home. To win, not only does Raymie have to do good deeds and learn how to twirl a baton; she also has to contend with the wispy, frequently fainting Louisiana Elefante, who has a show-business background, and the fiery, stubborn Beverly Tapinski, who’s determined to sabotage the contest. But as the competition approaches, loneliness, loss, and unanswerable questions draw the three girls into an unlikely friendship — and challenge each of them to come to the rescue in unexpected ways.


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The War That Saved My Life by Kimberley Brubaker Bradley
Nine-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute—she sneaks out to join him.
 
So begins a new adventure of Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take the two kids in. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read, and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie. But in the end, will their bond be enough to hold them together through wartime? Or will Ada and her brother fall back into the cruel hands of their mother?

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Pax by Sara Pennypacker
Pax and Peter have been inseparable ever since Peter rescued him as a kit. But one day, the unimaginable happens: Peter's dad enlists in the military and makes him return the fox to the wild. 

At his grandfather's house, three hundred miles away from home, Peter knows he isn't where he should be—with Pax. He strikes out on his own despite the encroaching war, spurred by love, loyalty, and grief, to be reunited with his fox.

Meanwhile Pax, steadfastly waiting for his boy, embarks on adventures and discoveries of his own.



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Series by Jenny Han--The Summer I Turned Pretty, It's Not Summer Without You, We'll Always Have Summer
Belly has always lived for the summertime, because summer means all her favorite things: swimming, the beach, and the Fischer boys, Conrad and Jeremiah. For as long as she can remember, she’s shared her summers with the brothers at Cousins Beach. And for as long as she can remember, she’s been in love with Conrad. Then one summer it seems like he might have feelings for her too—but so does Jeremiah.

As the summer seasons pass, Belly has to choose between two brothers who love her…and she’ll have to break one of their hearts.

This paperback collection of the complete series includes The Summer I Turned Pretty, It’s Not Summer Without You, and We’ll Always Have Summer.

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The Nest by Kenneth Oppel

For some kids summer is a sun-soaked season of fun. But for Steve, it’s just another season of worries. Worries about his sick newborn baby brother who is fighting to survive, worries about his parents who are struggling to cope, even worries about the wasp’s nest looming ominously from the eaves. So when a mysterious wasp queen invades his dreams, offering to “fix” the baby, Steve thinks his prayers have been answered.

All he has to do is say “Yes.” But “yes” is a powerful word. It is also a dangerous one. And once it is uttered, can it be taken back?

244 pages
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Fast Break by Mike Lupica

Forced to live on his own after his mom dies and her boyfriend abandons him, 12-year-old Jayson does whatever it takes to get by. He will do anything to avoid the foster care system. 

Besides, his real home has always been the beat-up basketball court behind the projects in the North Carolina hills, and his family has always been his friends and teammates. He manages to get away with his deception until the day he gets caught stealing a new pair of basketball sneakers. Game over. 

Within a day a social worker places him with a family from the other side of town, the Lawtons. New home, new school, new teammates.

Jayson, at first, is combatative, testing the Lawtons' patience at every turn. He wants out, yet the Lawtons refuse to take the bait. But not everyone in Jayson's new life is so ready to trust him--and even Jayson's old friends give him a hard time now that he's attending a school full of rich kids.

It's on Jayson to believe that he deserves a better life than the one he once had. The ultimate prize if he can? A trip to play in the state finals at Cameron Indoor Stadium–home to the Duke Blue Devils and launching pad to his dream of playing bigtime college ball. Getting there will be a journey that reaches far beyond the basketball court.

Lexile 840

262 pages

The Foxglove Killings by Tara Kelly

Gramps always said that when the crickets were quiet, something bad was coming. And the crickets have been as silent as the dead. It started with the murdered deer in the playground, a purple foxglove in its mouth. But in the dying boondock town of Emerald Cove, life goes on.

I work at Gramps's diner, and the cakes-the entitled rich kids who vacation here-make our lives hell. My best friend, Alex Pace, is the one person who gets me, and I'm starting to have more-than-friend feelings for him-feelings I don't want to have. But he's changing. He's almost like a stranger now, keeping secrets and picking fights with the cakes.

Then one of the cakes disappears.

When she turns up murdered, a foxglove in her mouth, a rumor goes around that Alex was the last person seen with her-and everyone but me believes it. Well, everyone except my worst enemy, Jenika Shaw. When Alex goes missing, it's up to us to prove his innocence and uncover the true killer. But the truth will shatter everything I've ever known about myself-and Alex.

389 pages

Lexile 570

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Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt

The two-time Newbery Honor winner Gary D. Schmidt delivers the shattering story of Joseph, a father at thirteen, who has never seen his daughter, Jupiter. After spending time in a juvenile facility, he’s placed with a foster family on a farm in rural Maine. Here Joseph, damaged and withdrawn, meets twelve-year-old Jack, who narrates the account of the troubled, passionate teen who wants to find his baby at any cost. In this riveting novel, two boys discover the true meaning of family and the sacrifices it requires.

183 pages
Lexile 740

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This Way Home by Wes Moore with Shawn Goodman

Elijah Thomas knows one thing better than anyone around him: basketball. But when a sinister street gang, Blood Street Nation, wants him and his team members to wear the Nation’s colors in the next big tournament, Elijah’s love of the game is soon thrown into jeopardy.
 
The boys gather their courage and take a stand against the gang, but at a terrible cost. Now Elijah must struggle to balance hope and fear, revenge and forgiveness, to save his neighborhood. For help, he turns to the most unlikely of friends: Banks, a gruff ex–military man, and his beautiful and ambitious daughter. Together, the three work on a plan to destroy Blood Street and rebuild the community they all call home.

245 pages
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Pull By Kevin Waltman

Junior year. Derrick Bowen has put in two good years getting ready for this season. He put in the work and earned his coach's trust and his role as the starting point guard for Marion East. Marion has never won the Indiana state championship, but this year the team is Derrick's. And Derrick is good. Opponents worry when Derrick—D-Bow when he's pounding the rock—steps onto the court. Major colleges work feverishly to recruit him. Derrick is ready to run teams off the court.

If only he could get on the court and stay on it.

Old school coach Bolden suspends Derrick for the first game of the season after Derrick's best friend Wes gets busted for carrying a joint while in Derrick's car. Even after that, Marion High's team just doesn't quite click. They don't want to follow Derrick's lead as squad's dominant player. Dissension and selfishness are threatening to tear the team apart. And then Derrick hears a sickening snap as he lands awkwardly after a thunderous dunk.

Can Derrick lead the team to victory from the bench?

300 pages

Kid Owner by Tim Green

When Ryan's estranged father unexpectedly dies, Ryan learns that he has inherited the Dallas Cowboys. With his new role as owner of this NFL team, Ryan has high hopes that he can be more than just a middle-school misfit. Maybe he can even get off the bench and into the starting lineup of his own football team.

With the help of his friends Jackson and Izzy, Ryan takes advantage of his newfound stardom. He convinces his coach to use a tricky passing offense that plays to Ryan's strengths.

But just when things are looking up, Ryan's nasty stepmother makes a legal play to make her own son the Cowboys' kid owner. With drama heating up both on and off the field, Ryan quickly realizes he may lose much more than just the Dallas Cowboys.

325 pages

Lexile 790

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Terrible Typhoid Mary: A True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

This is the story of a cook- a quiet,diligent cook who kept to herself. Her specialty was homemade ice cream topped with fresh peaches, which she served on hot summer days. She worked for some of the wealthiest families in New York, who spoke highly of her skills.

But when six members of one household nearly died, the cook mysteriously disappeared- and the hunt for Typhoid Mary began.

A real life crime novel.

This captivating biography looks beyond the tabloid scandal. 
How did this private and obscure domestic cook become one of the most notorious and misunderstood women in American history?  
What happens to a person whose name and reputation are forever damaged?
And who is really responsible for the lasting legacy of Typhoid Mary?

176 pages
Lexile 980

Code of Honor by Alan Gratz

Kamran Smith has it all. He's the star of the football team, dates the most popular girl in school, and can't wait to enlist in the Army like his big brother, Darius. Although Kamran's family hails from Iran, Kamran has always felt 100% American. Accepted.

And then everything implodes.

Darius is accused of being a terrorist. Kamran refuses to believe it, but the evidence is there; Darius has been filmed making threats against his country, hinting at an upcoming deadly attack. Kamran's friends turn on him; suddenly, in their eyes he's a terrorist, too.

Kamran knows it's up to him to clear his brother's name. In a race against time, Kamran must piece together a series of clues and codes that will lead him to Darius and the truth.

But is it a truth Kamran is ready to face? And is he putting his own life at risk?

Lexile 660

278 pages

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Chris Lynch War Series

Vietnam Book One:I Pledge Allegiance- Navy

Four best friends. Four ways to serve their country.

Morris, Rudi, Ivan, and Beck are best friends for life. So when one of the teens is drafted into the Vietnam War, the others sign up, too. Although they each serve in a different branch, they are fighting the war together — and they pledge to do all they can to come home together.  

Haunted by dreams of violence and death, Morris makes it his personal mission to watch over his friends — and the best place to do that is in the US Navy. Stationed off the coast of Vietnam on the USS Boston, Morris and his fellow sailors provide crucial support to the troops on the ground.

But the Boston itself isn't safe from attack. And as Morris finds his courage and resolve tested like never before, he keeps coming back to a single thought.

He made a pledge. He must keep them safe.

Book 2- Sharpshooter- Army

Book 3- Free Fire Zone- Marines

Book 4- Casualties of War-Air Force

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World War II: Book 1- The Right Fight-Army

There are few things Roman loves as much as baseball, but his country is at the top of the list. So when it looks like the United States will be swept up into World War II, he turns his back on baseball and joins the US Army.

Roman doesn't mind. As it turns out, he is far more talented with a tank than he ever was with a baseball. And he is eager to drive his tank right into the field of battle, where the Army is up against the fearsome Nazis of the Afrika Korps.

The North African terrain is like nothing Roman has ever known, and desert warfare proves brutal. As Roman drives his team deeper into disputed territory, one thing becomes very clear: Life in wartime is a whole new ball game.

Book 2- Dead in the Water  -Navy

Book 3- Alive and Kicking-Air Force

Book 4- The Liberators-Marines

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Escape from Baxters' Barn by Rebecca Bond

Burdock the barn cat is a loner who has experienced repeated rejection. So when he learns that all the farm animals are in grave danger—their owner is devising evil plans, they’re locked in their pens with no evident escape route, and a fierce storm is brewing—Burdock realizes he “could go it alone.”

However, when the animals plan their escape, each contributing skills, encouragement, and ideas, Burdock faces a moral quandary: “Saving yourself seemed right. Obviously abandoning your companions seemed wrong. But what if saving yourself meant abandoning them?”

When Burdock resolves his quandary, he participates in a clever team effort in which the animal friends escape and find a place they can truly call home.

246 pages

Shattered Glass by Teresa Toten

Toni has always had nightmares about fire, and she also has burn scars but no idea how she got them. So when fire destroys the orphanage she has grown up in, she is ready to make her way to Toronto, where she hopes to discover the truth about the mother she believes hurt and then abandoned her. Toronto proves to be both daunting and exciting for Toni, whose charm and innocence attract attention—not always positive—wherever she goes. Buoyed by the music she hears at the folk club where she finds a job, and encouraged by her glamorous landlady, Toni unearths shocking information that contradicts everything she believes and makes her re-evaluate what she feels for all the new people in her life.

235 pages
Series Website

Read the Secrets Series:

The Unquiet Past

Small Bones

Shattered Glass

My Life Before Me

A Big Dose of Lucky

"

Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls by Meg Cabot

When nine-year-old Allie Finkle's parents announce that they are moving her and her brothers from their suburban split-level into an ancient Victorian in town, Allie's sure her life is over. She's not at all happy about having to give up her pretty pink wall-to-wall carpeting for creaky floorboards and creepy secret passageways-not to mention leaving her modern, state-of-the-art suburban school for a rundown, old-fashioned school just two blocks from her new house.

lexile 850
228 pages

Check out some of her rules at the back of the book.
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What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

When Evie's father returned home from World War II, the family fell back into its normal life pretty quickly. But Joe Spooner brought more back with him than just good war stories. When movie-star handsome Peter Coleridge, a young ex-GI who served in Joe's company in postwar Austria, shows up, Evie is suddenly caught in a complicated web of lies that she only slowly recognizes. She finds herself falling for Peter, ignoring the secrets that surround him...until a tragedy occurs that shatters her family and breaks her life in two.

Lexile  HL 620
284 pages

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Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers

Robin "Birdy" Perry, a new army recruit from Harlem, isn't quite sure why he joined the army, but he's sure where he's headed: Iraq. Birdy and the others in the Civilian Affairs Battalion are supposed to help secure and stabilize the country and successfully interact with the Iraqi people. Officially, the code name for their maneuvers is Operation Iraqi Freedom. But the young men and women in the CA unit have a simpler name for it: WAR.

In this novel, Walter Dean Myers looks at contemporary war with the same power and searing insight he brought to the Vietnam War in his classic, Fallen Angels. He creates memorable characters, like the book's narrator, Birdy, a young recruit from Harlem who's questioning why he even enlisted; Marla, a tough-talking, wisecracking gunner; Jonesy, a guitar-playing bluesman who just wants to make it back to Georgia and open a club; and a whole unit of other young men and women, and drops them in Iraq, where they are supposed to help secure and stabilize Iraq and successfully interact with the Iraqi people. The young civil affairs soldiers soon find their definition of "winning" ever more elusive and their good intentions being replaced by terms like "survival" and "despair." Caught in the crossfire, Myers' richly rendered characters are just beginning to understand the meaning of war in this powerful, realistic novel of our times

Lexile 780
282 pages

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Does my Head Look Big In This? by Rand Abdel-Fattah

When sixteen-year-old Amal decides to wear the hijab full-time, her entire world changes, all because of a piece of cloth...

Sixteen-year-old Amal makes the decision to start wearing the hijab full-time and everyone has a reaction. Her parents, her teachers, her friends, people on the street. But she stands by her decision to embrace her faith and all that it is, even if it does make her a little different from everyone else.
Can she handle the taunts of "towel head," the prejudice of her classmates, and still attract the cutest boy in school?

Lexile 850
360 pages

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A Curse as Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Charlotte Miller has always scoffed at talk of a curse on her family's woolen mill, which holds her beloved small town together. But after her father's death, the bad luck piles up: departing workers, impossible debts, an overbearing uncle. Then a stranger named Jack Spinner offers a tempting proposition: He can turn straw into gold thread, for the small price of her mother's ring. As Charlotte is drawn deeper into her bargains with Spinner-and a romance with the local banker-she must unravel the truth of the curse on the mill and save the community she's always called home.



lexile 840
395 pages

Fables, Folk Tales and Myths
Fantasy

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A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

The Appalachian Trail trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America–majestic mountains, silent forests, sparking lakes. If you’re going to take a hike, it’s probably the place to go. And Bill Bryson is surely the most entertaining guide you’ll find. He introduces us to the history and ecology of the trail and to some of the other hardy (or just foolhardy) folks he meets along the way–and a couple of bears.


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394 pages