Book Recommendations

Margaret and Maizon may not be family but they feel like sisters. they have done everything together since they can remember on their block in Brooklyn. Everything might be changing though. Margaret’s father is int he hospital and for the first time she and Maizon will be split up. Maizon is afraid to go to a school with hardly any black students and Margaret is afraid of feeling all alone. Will they both survive the fall?

Mrs. Branyon

In Coraline’s apartment are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen doors open and one only opens on to a brick wall until the day it leads to another world just like hers only different. There is another mother, another father and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go. Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight with all her wits and all the tools she can find if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself. The book is even better than the movie.

Mrs. Branyon

Have you ever wished you were someone else? Mary Elousie is dying to be in the school play, but the part she gets is the last one she wants–narrator of the Black History skit. Even though her grandmother, Big Momma, says it’s important to remember her heritage, Mary Elouise hates being reminded about slavery and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She’d rather be int he skit about presidents with Brandy, the girl in her class with beautiful blond hair. Then one day, two stroytellers come to school with glorious tales of Africa…and a new way for Mary Elouise to see herself and her heritage.

Mrs. Branyon

Cuban-born Michael Arroyo is a phenomenal little league baseball player. One day he hopes to play for the pros, but for this year, he is hoping his Bronx little league team can make it to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. At 12 years old, this is his last chance. Michael is so good that players and coaches from other teams begin to question his age. What will happen to Michael if he can’t get a copy of his birth certificate from Cuba? In addition to this difficulty, Michael and his brother Carlos have been keeping a secret. Their father died in March and they are trying to make it on their own until Carlos turns 18 in nine months. I loved this story!

Mrs. Spisak

A group of genetically enhanced kids who can fly and have other unique talents are on the run from part-human, part-wolf predators called Erasers in this exciting thriller.  Max, 14, and her adopted family–Fang and Iggy, both 13, Nudge, 11, Gazzy, 8, and Angel, 6–were all created as experiments in a lab called the School.  Jeb, a sympathetic scientist, helped them escape and, since then, they’ve been living on their own.  The Erasers have orders to kill them so the world will never find out they exist. Max’s old childhood friend, Ari, now an Eraser leader, tracks them down, kidnaps Angel, and transports her back to the School to live like a lab rat again. The youngsters are forced to use their special talents to rescue her as they attempt to learn about their pasts and their destinies.

Mrs. Branyon

“My name is Dovey Coe, and I reckon it don’t matter if you like me or not. I’m here to lay the record straight, to let you know them folks saying I done a terrible thing are liars…. I hated Parnell Caraway as much as the next person, but I didn’t kill him.”

Twelve-year-old Dovey has never had the slightest problem speaking her mind. But now, faced with a murder trial, she may just have to keep her mouth shut while the slick city lawyer takes care of things. It all started when the wealthy, vain, greedy Parnell takes a notion to win Dovey’s older sister, trying to convince her she’s too pretty to go off to college. But behind her back, he treats Dovey and her deaf brother Amos like dirt all summer long. Dovey gets in her jabs whenever she can–until the day she finds herself trapped in a back room with an irate, vengeful Parnell. Things don’t look too good for Dovey when she comes to and finds her enemy dead on the floor next to her.

Mrs. Branyon

After being left in a parking lot by their mother, thirteen-year-old Dicey and her three younger siblings have to figure out how to survive. Dicey knows if she goes to the authorities, she could risk having her family split up. So, she chooses the only other option: walking. For days they try to stay hidden and find food while journeying to find a great-aunt they have never met who may not want them. I love the connection of the family in this story, and their desire to stay together against all odds. This is one of my favorites, and the sequels are awesome, too!

Mrs. Spisak

Cassie’s family, which is African-American, is different from many of the other families during 1933 because they own their land.  Cassie doesn’t understand why this is important until the year of the night riders, the farm burnings, and overwhelming fear.  It is only then that Cassie understands that it is the land that gives her family courage and pride and nothing can take that away.  “With the land to hold them together, nothing can tear them apart.”

Mrs. Branyon

Charlie Bone can hear the voices of the people in the photographs he sees.  He doesn’t like this talent but his evil aunts think it is wonderful.  They send him to a special school with other students who have equally mysterious powers.  Charlie begins to investigate his school and his classmates and discovers some hidden problems.  Will Charlie be able to leave the school and report his discoveries?  But more importantly:  Will Charlie be allowed to live?

Mrs. Branyon

One of my favorite books is So Be It by Sarah Weeks. This is the story of Heidi who lives with her mentally challenged mother and a helpful neighbor Bernadette. Her mother can only communicate through 23 simple words such as good, more, and out. Heidi becomes intrigued and then haunted by the one word only her mother says, “soof.” Her journey to discover the meaning of this word leads to the discovery of who her mother really is and eventually leads to Heidi’s discovery of herself and her own potential.

Mrs. Branyon