Spring 2024 Reading Recommendations
3/16/24
When You Wish Upon A Lantern by Gloria Chao
Liya and Kai had been best friends since they were little kids, until The Biggest Misunderstanding Of All Time—and they haven’t spoken since. Then Liya discovers her family's wishing lantern store is struggling, and she decides to secretly fulfill the wishes people write. A covert mission that rekindles Liya and Kai's friendship even as their feuding families threaten to tear them apart again.
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Young authors-to-be might find inspiration from the fact that Hinton wrote this best-selling novel while still in high school. The Outsiders is about two weeks in the life of a 14-year-old boy, Ponyboy Curtis, and his struggles with right and wrong in a society where people are stereotyped as entitled “socs” or wrong side of the tracks “greasers.”
Aniana Del Mar Jumps In by Jasminne Ménde
Aniana del Mar belongs in the water like a dolphin belongs to the sea. But she and Papi keep her swim practices and meets hidden from Mami, who has never recovered from losing someone she loves to the water years ago. That is, until the day Ani's stiffness and swollen joints mean she can no longer get out of bed, and Ani is forced to reveal just how important swimming is to her.
By The Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman
For fans of the I Survived… series, this book presents a rollicking adventure about the California Gold Rush and one determined twelve-year-old, Jack, who sets out to strike it rich in San Francisco.
From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
Zoe Washington isn’t sure what to write. What does a girl say to the father she’s never met, hadn’t heard from until his letter arrived on her twelfth birthday, and who’s been in prison for a terrible crime? A crime he says he never committed. Zoe is determined to uncover the truth.
Wink by Rob Harrell
Twelve-year-old Ross Maloy just wants to be normal. Not to have a rare eye cancer, not to lose his hair, not to have to wear a weird hat or have a goopy eye full of ointment. Just when Ross starts to feel like he's losing his footing, he discovers how music, art, and true friends can change everything. Filled with comic panels and art, as well as hope and humor.
Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper
Melody cannot walk or talk, but she has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She is smarter than most of the adults who try to diagnose her and smarter than her classmates in her integrated classroom - the very same classmates who dismiss her as mentally challenged because she cannot tell them otherwise. But Melody refuses to be defined by cerebral palsy. And she's determined to let everyone know it - somehow.
Attack of the Black Rectangles By A. S. King
When Mac first opens his classroom copy of Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic and finds some words blacked out, he thinks it must be a mistake. But then when he and his friends discover someone in his school is trying to prevent kids from reading the full story. But who?
She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran
When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam to visit her estranged father, she has one goal: to pretend to be a happy family in the French colonial house Ba is restoring. But the house has other plans. The walls exude a thrumming sound and bugs are in places they don’t belong. She finds curious traces of her ancestors in the gardens and at night Jade can’t ignore the ghost of the beautiful bride who leaves her cryptic warnings.
Dear Mothman by Robin Gow
Halfway through sixth grade, Noah’s best friend and the only other trans boy in his school, Lewis, passed away in a car accident. Lewis was always bringing a new paranormal story to share with Noah. After his death, Noah starts writing letters to Mothman, hoping he will understand how Noah feels. As Noah becomes sure of Mothman’s existence he decides to trek into the woods and find cryptid for himself.