Sophia Garcia, thirteen, wants to excel at softball like her older sister, Ellie, and make her family proud, but when she is chosen for a different team and position than Ellie, she must learn to succeed by being herself.
There’s No Base Like Home
Intermediate (ages 9-14)
Material appropriate for intermediate age groups
A Grain of Rice
When a humble farmer named Pong Lo asks for the hand of the Emperor’s beautiful daughter, the Emperor is enraged. Whoever heard of a peasant marrying a princess? But Pong Lo is wiser than the Emperor knows. And when he concocts a potion that saves the Princess’s life, the Emperor gladly offers him any reward he chooses except the Princess. Pong Lo makes a surprising request. He asks for a single grain of rice, doubled every day for one hundred days. The baffled Emperor obliges only to discover that if you’re as clever as Pong Lo, you can turn a single grain of rice into all the wealth and happiness in the world!
Someday We Will Fly
Lillia, fifteen, flees Warsaw with her father and baby sister in 1940 to try to make a new start in Shanghai, China, but the conflict grows more intense as America and Japan become involved.
Mystery Of the Ghost Ship
Trapped in the mists of time by a terrible research experiment gone wrong, John Blake and his mysterious ship are doomed to sail between the centuries, searching for a way home. In the ocean of the modern day, John rescues a shipwrecked young girl his own age, Serena, and promises to help.
The Wind Called My Name
When ten-year-old Margarita Sandoval’s family moves to Wyoming during the Great Depression, she faces racism, homesickness, and the possibility that her grandmother’s land in New Mexico may be lost.
The Afterwards
When her best friend, Ness, dies suddenly, Ember finds a way into the Afterworld, determined to bring Ness back.
Vasilisa The Wise
Once upon a time, these stories of magical transformation were told to young women by their mothers and grandmothers and the wise women of the clan. The heroines of these old tales set out on a difficult road of trials to discover their true destiny. And marrying a prince was not the only goal. These ancient tales of wonder and adventure are about learning to be strong, brave, kind and true-hearted, and trusting in yourself to change the world for the better.
The Lotterys More Or Less
Nine-year-old Sumac Lottery considers it her job to make sure none of the Lottery celebrations are forgotten, especially now at Christmas time, and in her large, gay, and multiethnic family there are a lot of occasions for celebration in the house they all call Camelottery–but when a terrible ice storm hits Toronto, one of her dads, and her favorite brother cannot make it home from India, and it becomes increasingly difficult to hang on to the holiday spirit.
Lifeboat 12
In 1940, a group of British children, their escorts, and some sailors struggle to survive in a lifeboat when the ship taking them to safety in Canada is torpedoed. Includes historical notes.
The Bridge Home
Four determined homeless children make a life for themselves in Chennai, India.
The Bridge Home was our WOW Recommends: Book of the Month for October 2019 and also featured our August 2019 My Take/Your Take, June 2020 My Take/Your Take, and July 2020 My Take/Your Take.