The Clockwork Three by Matthew J Kirby

Science Fiction, Historical Fiction,

Steam Punk

Three ordinary children are brought together by extraordinary events...

Giuseppe is an orphaned street musician from Italy, who was sold by his uncle to work as a slave for an evil padrone in the U.S. But when a mysterious green violin enters his life he begins to imagine a life of freedom.

Hannah is a soft-hearted, strong-willed girl from the tenements, who supports her family as a hotel maid when tragedy strikes and her father can no longer work. She learns about a hidden treasure, which she knows will save her family — if she can find it.

And Frederick, the talented and intense clockmaker's apprentice, seeks to learn the truth about his mother while trying to forget the nightmares of the orphanage where she left him. He is determined to build an automaton and enter the clockmakers' guild — if only he can create a working head.

Together, the three discover they have phenomenal power when they team up as friends, and that they can overcome even the darkest of fears.

At age six, Ben MacDonald has the ability to communicate with animals better than he can with people. Then one June day in 1870, he wanders away from his family’s farm to observe the wild creatures he loves. When he doesn’t return home, his family begins a desperate search for him. As the days go by with no sign of Ben, the MacDonalds start to lose hope. How could a small boy survive on the prairie?

But Ben is alive in a story that would seem incredible if it were not based on a true incident. Ben is found and adopted by a badger who has recently lost her pups. Ben survives an extraordinary summer in the wild, learning to live like his badger mother. The powerful bond that develops between the boy and the wild animal tests the limit of Ben’s human spirit and makes his story unforgettable.

Incident at Hawk’s Hill by Allan W. Eckert

Historical fiction

Night by Elie Wiesel

Non-fictionA terrifying account of the Nazi death camp horror that turns a young Jewish boy into an agonized witness to the death of his family...the death of his innocence...and the death of his God.

Penetrating and powerful, as personal as The Diary Of Anne Frank, Night awakens the shocking memory of evil at its absolute and carries with it the unforgettable message that this horror must never be allowed to happen again.

Nothing But the Truth Documentary Novel – Realistic Fiction by Avi

Structured as a series of journal entries, memos, letters and dialogues, this novel is a satire of high school politics, revealing how truth can easily become distorted.

Phillip Malloy, a clownish freshman, is kept from joining the school track team by his grades in English class.

Convinced that the teacher just doesn’t like him, Philip concocts a plan to get transferred out of her class. Breaking the school’s policy of silence during the national anthem, he hums along, and ends up in a crisis at the center of the nation’s attention.

Soldier’s HeartHistorical Fiction

In June 1861, when the Civil War began, Charley Goddard enlisted in the First Minnesota Volunteers. He was 15. He didn't know what a "shooting war" meant or what he was fighting for. All he knew was that he didn't want to miss out on a great adventure.

The "shooting war" meant the horror of combat and the wild luck of survival; It meant knowing how it feels to cross a field toward the enemy, waiting for fire. Waiting for death. And Charley learned: This is how it’s done.

When he entered the service he was a boy. When he came back he was different. He was only 19, but he was a man with "soldier's heart,"

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit

Fantasy

Doomed to—or blessed with—eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family wanders about trying to live as inconspicuously and comfortably as they can.

When 10-year-old Winnie Foster stumbles on their secret she is kidnapped, finds herself helping a murderer out of jail, and is eventually offered the ultimate gift—but doesn’t know whether to accept it.

Tangerine by Edward Bloor

Realistic Fiction

Paul Fisher sees the world from behind glasses so thick he looks like a bug-eyed alien. But he’s not so blind that he can’t see there are some very unusual things about his family’s new home in Tangerine County, Florida. Where else does a sinkhole swallow the local school, fire burn underground for years, and lightening strike at the same time every day?

The chaos is compounded by constant harassment from his football-star brother, and adjusting to life in Tangerine isn’t easy for Paul—until he joins the soccer team at his middle school. With the help of his new teammates, Paul begins to discover what lies beneath the surface of his strange new hometown. And he also gains the courage to face up to some secrets his family has been keeping from him for far too long.

In Tangerine, it seems, anything is possible.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Adventure, Mystery, Suspense, Fantasy

In this Newbery Medal-winning novel, Bod is an unusual boy who inhabits an unusual place—he’s the only living resident of a graveyard. Raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolf, and other cemetery denizens, Bod has learned the antiquated customs of his guardians’ time as well as their ghostly teachings—such as the ability to Fade so mere mortals cannot see him.

Can a boy raised by ghosts face the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead? And then there are beings such as ghouls that aren’t really one thing or the other.