Ten-year-old Megan Brady tells of her family’s lifestyle, spending summers traveling in a caravan through the Irish countryside getting work where they can, and winters in Dublin so the children can attend school.
Family life
Kiss Me, I’m Perfect!
When Lacey reluctantly wears to school a shirt from her grandma that says “Kiss me, I’m perfect,” she is pleasantly surprised by what happens.
Love You Forever
This is the story of how that little boy goes through the stages of childhood and becomes a man. It is also about the enduring nature of parents’ love and how it crosses generations.
Mortimer
Even after his mother, his father, his brothers and sisters, and even two policemen try to get Mortimer to be quiet and go to sleep, he still insists on making noise.
I’m So Embarrassed
Whether by showing his baby pictures to his teacher or smoothing his hair with spit, Andrew’s mother constantly embarrasses him while at the mall until he figures out a way to get even.
Ruby Red
Sixteen-year-old Gwyneth discovers that she, rather than her well-prepared cousin, carries a time-travel gene, and soon she is journeying with Gideon, who shares the gift, through historical London trying to discover whom they can trust.
The Cabinet of Earths
Thirteen-year-old Maya, in Paris with her family for a year, lands in the middle of the mysterious La Societe’s quest for immortality when the magical Cabinet of Earths chooses her as its next Keeper, promising to restore her mother’s health. Includes historical notes.
Ghosts of the Titanic
Alternates between the tales of Angus Seaton, the youngest crew member on a boat recovering bodies from the Titanic wreckage in 1912, and Kevin Messenger, a modern-day class clown in Victoria, British Columbia, who helps lay a victim’s spirit to rest.
The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind
Sonia’s entire village believes she has a gift, but it’s only in leaving home that she finds out who she truly is. A compelling tale from a rich new voice in young adult fiction.Sixteen-year-old Sonia Ocampo was born on the night of the worst storm Tres Montes had ever seen. And when the winds mercifully stopped, an unshakable belief in the girl’s protective powers began. All her life, Sonia has been asked to pray for sick mothers or missing sons, as worried parents and friends press silver milagros in her hands. Sonia knows she has no special powers, but how can she disappoint those who look to her for solace? Still, her conscience is heavy, so when she gets a chance to travel to the city and work in the home of a wealthy woman, she seizes it. At first, Sonia feels freedom in being treated like all the other girls. But when news arrives that her beloved brother has disappeared while looking for work, she learns to her sorrow that she can never truly leave the past or her family behind. With deeply realized characters, a keen sense of place, a hint of magical realism, and a flush of young romance, Meg Medina tells the tale of a strongwilled, warmhearted girl who dares to face life’s harsh truths as she finds her real power.
Grandfather Counts
When Helen’s grandfather, Gong Gong, comes from China to live with her family, he’s shocked to find that none of his grandchildren speak Chinese. How will he communicate with them? At first he keeps to himself. Then one day he joins Helen to watch the trains. He starts counting the train cars in Chinese, and she repeats the words. Then Helen says the numbers in English. They continue to teach each other, and Helen even learns her Chinese name, which means “flower.” In this luminously illustrated intergenerational story, the devotion between a young girl and her grandfather helps them overcome barriers of age and language.