Rebecca+Caudill+Synopsis

**//11 Birthdays //** **by Wendy Mass** After celebrating their first nine same-day birthdays together, Amanda and Leo, having fallen out on their tenth and not speaking to each other for the last year, prepare to celebrate their eleventh birthday separately but strange things begin to happen as the day of their birthday begins to repeat itself over and over again.

//**The Alchemyst**//  **by Michael Scott** Fifteen-alcyear-old twins, Sophie and Josh, find themselves caught up in the deadlyh struggle between rival alchemists, Nicholas Flamel and John Dee, over the possession of an ancient book that holds the secret formulas for alchemy and everlasting life.

**//All Shook Up//**  **by Shelley Pearsall** When 13-year-old Josh finds out he has to stay with his dad in Chicago for a few months, he’s not too thrilled. But when he arrives at the airport, he’s simply devastated. His father—who used to be a scatterbrained, but pretty normal, shoe salesman—has become a sideburn-wearing, hip-twisting, utterly embarrassing Elvis impersonator.

**by Susan Campbell Bartoletti** In October 1942, seventeen-year-old Helmuth Hubener, imprisoned for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, recalls his past life and how he came to dedicate himself to bring the truth about Hitler and the war to the German people.
 * //The Boy Who Dared//**

**by Laurie Halse Anderson** As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year-old Isabel wages her own fight for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, become the property of a cruel New York City couple who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel.
 * //Chains//**

**by Helen Frost** In a remote area of Alaska, twelve-year-old Willow helps her father with their sled dogs when she is not at school, wishing she were more popular, all the while unaware that the animals surrounding her carry the spirits of dead ancestors and friends who care for her.
 * //Diamond Willow// **

//**Fablehaven**// **by Brandon Mull** Kendra and her brother, Seth, have no idea that their grandfather is the caretaker of Fablehaven. Inside the gated woods, ancient laws keep relative order among all the magical creatures. But when the rules get broken, powerful forces of evil are unleashed, and Kendra and Seth face the greatest challenge of their lives. To save their family, Fablehaven, and perhaps even the world, they must find the courage to do what they fear most.

**by Margaret Peterson Haddix** When thirteen-year-olds Jonah and Chip, who are both adopted, learn they were discovered on a plane that appeared out of nowhere, full of babies with no adults on board, they realize that they have uncovered a mystery involving time travel and two opposing forces, each trying to repair the fabric of time.
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//Found// **

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**//A Friendship for Today//** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**by Patricia C. McKissack** In 1954, twelve-year-old Rosemary Patterson learns that she will be attending an all-white school in the fall; but when her best friend is diagnosed with polio, she must face the first day of school alone. Then the girl who has shown her the most cruelty becomes an unlikely confidante, and Rosemary learns important truths about the power of friendship to overcome prejudice.

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**//The Great Wide Sea//** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**by M. H. Herlong** Ben, Dylan, and Gerry are still mourning their mother's death when their dad decides to buy a boat and take them on a year-long sailing trip. They gradually learn to live together in close quarters. But one morning, the boys wake up to discover their father has disappeared—and they are lost.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**by Suzanne Collins** Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen accidentally becomes a contender in the annual Hunger Games, a grave competition hosted by the Capitol where young boys and girls are pitted against one another in a televised fight to the death. It's "Survivor" for real.
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//The Hunger Games// **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**by Audrey Shafer** Twelve-year-old Gabe grew up in the foster care system until a social worker located his Uncle Vernon two years before. When he comes home to discover that his uncle has died of a heart attack, he's terrified of going back into the system--so he tells no one. The next day, he discovers a strange note in his mailbox: I HAVE A SECRET. DO NOT BE AFRAID. And his uncle's body is gone**.**
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//The Mailbox// **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**by Jordan Sonnenblick** After being assigned to perform community service at a nursing home, sixteen-year-old Alex befriends a cantankerous old man who has some lessons to impart about jazz guitar playing, love, and forgiveness.
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//Notes from the Midnight Driver// **

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//**Savvy**// <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**by Ingrid Law** Recounts the adventures of Mibs Beaumont, whose thirteenth birthday has revealed her "savvy"--a magical power unique to each member of her family--just as her father is injured in a terrible accident.

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**//Scarlett//** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**by Cathy Cassidy** After being expelled from yet another school in London, twelve-year-old Scarlett is sent by her exasperated mother to live with her father, stepmother, and stepsister in Ireland, where, with the help of a mysterious boy, she eventually overcomes her anger and resentment and feels part of a family again.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//**Scat**// <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**by Carl Hiaasen** Bunny Starch, the most feared biology teacher ever, disappeared after a school field trip, and the kids in her class are relieved. But when the principal tells them that she is away on a "family emergency," Nick and Marta don't buy it. They figure the class delinquent, Smoke, has something to do with her disappearance. And he does! Just not in the way they think.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//**Schooled**// Cap lives in isolation with his grandmother, a former hippie named Rain; but when she falls from a tree and breaks her hip, Cap is sent to a foster home where he has his first experience in a public school.
 * by Gordon Korman**

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**by Gary D. Schmidt** Fourteen-year-old Henry, wishing to honor his brother Franklin's dying wish, sets out to hike Maine's Mount Katahdin with his best friend and dog, but fate adds another companion--the Cambodian refugee accused of fatally injuring Franklin--and reveals troubles that predate the accident.
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//Trouble// **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**by Leslie Connor** Twelve-year-old Addie tries to cope with her mother's erratic behavior and being separated from her beloved stepfather and half-sisters when she and her mother go to live in a small trailer by the railroad tracks on the outskirts of Schenectady, New York. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//**Yellow Star**// <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**by Jennifer Roy** From 1939, when Syvia is four and a half years old, to 1945 when she has just turned ten, a Jewish girl and her family struggle to survive in Poland's Lodz ghetto during the Nazi occupation.
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//Waiting for Normal// **