Middle School Reads!

 by Atia Abawi Genre: Realistic Fiction Tareq is living a happy life with his close knit family in Syria, but that life comes to an end the day that his mother and siblings are killed in a bombing.  Now his dad and his one remaining sister make the difficult choice to leave the only home they know in hopes of making a better life for themselves.  As refugees they have long days of travel from Syria to Turkey to Greece with the ultimate hope of making it to Germany.  Their journey will be full of tragedy, but ultimately courage and bravery will need to prevail if Tareq is able to get the happy ending that he deserves.

 by Mike Jung Genre:  Realistic Fiction Matt and Eric are best friends.  They love band, comics, and hanging out with each other.  On the first day of school, they learn that the marching band has been invited to perform at the World of Amazement band competition in the spring.  Matt has recently decided to switch from piccolo to drums so that kids will stop picking on him and so he can spend more time with Eric in the percussion section.  When he and Eric learn that their favorite comic creator, Jonah Burns, will be attending the DefenderCon just blocks from the World of Amazement on the same day they will be there, a plan is hatched to ensure that they get to have a grand adventure.  However, in the process of their planning, they must deal with a bully who is determined to ruin their master scheme.

 by Allan Wolf Genre:  Historical Fiction Hunger is following the Donner Party as they make their way through the Sierra Nevada mountain range during the winter of 1846-47.  The snow has come, the mountain passes are closed, and hunger is now their main enemy.  Parents are forced to make difficult choices.  Do they go with the rescue parties or stay where they are and try to survive the long winter?  No decision is easy and each will have life altering consequences.

 by Daniel Nayeri Genre:  Realistic Fiction Daniel, or Khosrou, is trying to tell his classmates a story.  His story.  But no ones believes what he is telling them and Daniel is having a hard time figuring out what to tell and how to explain.  How his classmates in Oklahoma see him, is not the way his family from Iran sees him.  How can he make them understand who he is and where he comes from?

 by Gene Luen Yang Genre:  Sports, Graphic Novel Gene Luen Yang is trying to keep his life in balance...teaching high school math, being a super husband and dad, and expanding his work as a comic book artist.  He is searching for the next topic of his book when the high school basketball team is poised to have their best season ever.  Gene has never particularily liked sports so why would he want to write a graphic novel about basketball?  As he begins to explore the team's history, he discovers that perhaps there are many lessons people could learn if he is able to write their story.

 by Jennifer De Leon Genre:  Realistic Fiction Liliana Cruz has just been accepted into the METCO program which will allow her to leave her inner city school in Boston and attend Westburg High, the wealthier and whiter high school.  Liliana isn't prepared for the changes that she has to face, but she knows that her parents expect her to work hard and make choices that will help her future.  Liliana knows that her mother is hiding something about her father who has mysteriously disappeared, and when she learns the truth about what her parents have been hiding from her, it makes her all the more determined to get the best education she can.

 by Nic Stone Genre:  Realistic Fiction Vernell, aka Quan, and Justyce, aka Jus, grew up less than a block apart.  They have a chance encounter one night in a park, but from that point on their lives go in drastically different directions.  Quan winds up behind bars while Jus graduates from high school and goes to college.  Jus decides to visit Quan when he is home and break and the two begin to correspond.  Quan eventually admits that he didn't commit the crime that he confessed to and Jus is determined to prove his friend's innocence.