When someone takes a pet goldfish, then other items from Ms. Blackwell’s classroom, each time leaving a clue in the form of a poem, student Edgar Allan competes with a classmate to be first to solve the mystery.
Realistic Fiction
Realistic Fiction genre
Justin Fisher Declares War!
At Spiro Agnew Elementary, the fifth graders rule the school. And class clown Justin Fisher rules them all. Or, at least, he did. Justin has always been the funniest kid in school. But this year, his new teacher isn’t amused. And when Justin gets in trouble with Mr. Tripp over and over, the other kids turn on him, too. No one wants to be friends with the class troublemaker. But Justin Fisher isn’t going down without a fight.
I Will Save You
Seventeen-year-old Kidd Ellison runs away to work for the summer at a beach campsite in California where his hard work and good looks lead to friendship and love but painful past memories surface in menacing ways.
How Tia Lola Learned To Teach
Juanita and Miguel’s great aunt, Tía Lola, comes from the Dominican Republic to help take care of them after their parents divorce, and soon she is so involved in their small Vermont community that when her visa expires, the whole town turns out to support her.
She’s Got Game
Fresh from the spotlight of their first television experience, the Amigas Inc. team is back, but the heat is always on in Miami and when they get hired to do an unusual quince for a bratty debutante, the temperature goes sky high.
Rain School
It is the first day of school in Chad, Africa. Children are filling the road. “Will they give us a notebook?” Thomas asks. “Will they give us a pencil?” “Will I learn to read?” But when he and the other children arrive at the schoolyard, they find no classroom, no desks. Just a teacher. “We will build our school,” she says. “This is our first lesson.”
Mr. Stink
Mr. Stink stank. He also stunk. And if it was correct English to say he stinked, then he stinked as well. . . .Ó Chloe sees Mr. Stink every day, but sheÕs never spoken to him. Which isnÕt surprising, because heÕs a tramp, and he stinks. But there’s more to Mr. Stink than meets the eye (or nose) and before she knows it, Chloe has an unusual new friend hiding in her garden shed. As Chloe struggles to keep Mr. Stink a secret, and her dad tries to hide a secret of his own, the stage is set for an epic family confrontation. But there’s one other person with an extraordinary secret Mr. Stink himself.
Sea
Despite recurring nightmares about her mother’s death and her own fear of flying, fifteen-year-old Sienna accepts her father’s birthday gift to fly to Indonesia with his team of disaster relief workers to help victims of a recent tsunami, never suspecting she would fall in love with an Indonesian boy, recently orphaned, who suspects his father is still alive.
Sweet Moon Baby
The smiling moon watches over a baby girl in China whose parents love her but cannot take care of her, and guides a childless couple that lives far away to the daughter for whom they yearn.
Between Sisters
The future looks bleak indeed for 16-year-old Gloria. Living in a poor area of Accra, she dreams of becoming a dressmaker, but after failing 13 out of 15 subjects on her final exams it seems unlikely to happen. Then a distant relative, Christine, offers to move Gloria to Kumasi to look after her son. In exchange, Christine will pay for Gloria to go to dressmaking school. In Kumasi everything seems possible, and life is grander than anything Gloria has ever experienced. But Kumasi is also full of temptations, like the popular boutique where the owner takes a fancy to Gloria and encourages her to buy clothes on credit. There’s also the smooth-talking Dr. Kusi, who gives Gloria rides in his red Passat and invites her to bring food to his apartment. Eventually betrayed by those around her, Gloria must reconcile her future, her family, and her desires.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume 5, Issue 2