Title: Ali Cross
Author: James Patterson Genres: Fiction, Mystery Narrator: Ali Cross Grade Level Interest: 6-8 Summary: Ali Cross has always looked up to his father, former detective and FBI agent Alex Cross. While solving some of the nation's most challenging crimes, his father always kept his head and did the right thing. Can Ali have the same strength and resolve? When Ali's best friend Abraham is reported missing, Ali is desperate to find him. At the same time, a string of burglaries targets his neighborhood---and even his own house. With his father on trial for a crime he didn't commit, it's up to Ali to search for clues and find his friend. But being a kid sleuth isn't easy---especially when your father warns you not to get involved!---and Ali soon learns that clues aren't always what they seem. Will his detective work lead to a break in Abraham's case or cause even more trouble for the Cross family? |
Title: The Benefits of Being an Octopus
Author: Ann Braden Genres: Fiction Narrator(s): Multiple Perspectives Novel Grade Level Interest: 6-8 Summary: Seventh-grader Zoey has her hands full as she takes care of her much younger siblings after school every day while her mom works her shift at the pizza parlor. Not that her mom seems to appreciate it. At least there’s Lenny, her mom’s boyfriend—they all get to live in his nice, clean trailer. At school, Zoey tries to stay under the radar. Her only friend Fuchsia has her own issues, and since they’re in an entirely different world than the rich kids, it’s best if no one notices them. Zoey thinks how much easier everything would be if she were an octopus: eight arms to do eight things at once. Incredible camouflage ability and steady, unblinking vision. Powerful protective defenses. Unfortunately, she’s not totally invisible, and one of her teachers forces her to join the debate club. Even though Zoey resists participating, debate ultimately leads her to see things in a new way: her mom’s relationship with Lenny, Fuchsia’s situation, and her own place in this town of people who think they’re better than her. Can Zoey find the courage to speak up, even if it means risking the most stable home she’s ever had? |
Title: The Bridge Home
Author: Padma Venkatraman Genre: Fiction Narrator(s): Viji Grade Level Interest: 6-8 Summary: When Viji and her sister, Rukku, whose developmental disability makes her overly trusting and vulnerable to the perils of the world, run away to live on their own, the situation could not be more grim. Life on the streets of the teeming city of Chennai is harsh for girls considered outcasts, but the sisters manage to find shelter on an abandoned bridge. There they befriend Muthi and Arul, two boys in a similar predicament, and the four children bond together and form a family of sorts. Viji starts working with the boys scavenging in trash heaps while Rukku makes bead necklaces, and they buy food with what little money they earn. They are often hungry and scared but they have each other--and Kutti, the best dog ever. When the kids are forced from their safe haven on the bridge, they take shelter in a graveyard. But it is now the rainy season and they are plagued by mosquitos, and Rukku and Muthu fall ill. As their symptoms worsen, Viji and Arul must decide whether to risk going for help--when most adults in their lives have proven themselves untrustworthy--or to continue holding on to their fragile, hard-fought freedom. |
Title: Charlie Hernandez & The League of Shadows (Charlie Hernandez, Book 1)
Author: Ryan Calejo Genre: Fantasy, Middle Grade Children's Novel, Mythology Narrator(s): Charlie Grade Level Interest: 6-8 Summary: The Lightning Thief meets the Story Thieves series in this middle grade fantasy inspired by Hispanic folklore, legends, and myths from the Iberian Peninsula and Central and South America. Charlie Hernández has always been proud of his Latin American heritage. He loves the culture, the art, and especially the myths. Thanks to his abuela’s stories, Charlie possesses an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the monsters and ghouls who have spent the last five hundred years haunting the imaginations of children all across the Iberian Peninsula, as well as Central and South America. And even though his grandmother sometimes hinted that the tales might be more than mere myth, Charlie’s always been a pragmatist. Even barely out of diapers, he knew the stories were just make-believe—nothing more than intricately woven fables meant to keep little kids from misbehaving. But when Charlie begins to experience freaky bodily manifestations—ones all too similar to those described by his grandma in his favorite legend—he is suddenly swept up in a world where the mythical beings he’s spent his entire life hearing about seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Hispanic folklore and into his life. And even stranger, they seem to know more about him than he knows about himself. Soon, Charlie finds himself in the middle of an ancient battle between La Liga, a secret society of legendary mythological beings sworn to protect the Land of the Living, and La Mano Negra (a.k.a. the Black Hand), a cabal of evil spirits determined to rule mankind. With only the help of his lifelong crush, Violet Rey, and his grandmother’s stories to guide him, Charlie must navigate a world where monsters and brujas rule and things he couldn’t possibly imagine go bump in the night. That is, if he has any hope of discovering what’s happening to him and saving his missing parents (oh, and maybe even the world). |
Title: City of Ghosts (City of Ghosts, Book 1)
Author: Victoria Schwab Genre: Novel, Young adult fiction Narrator(s): Cassidy Grade Level Interest: 6-8 Summary: Cassidy Blake's parents are The Inspectors, a (somewhat inept) ghost-hunting team. But Cass herself can REALLY see ghosts. In fact, her best friend, Jacob, just happens to be one. When The Inspectors head to ultra-haunted Edinburgh, Scotland, for their new TV show, Cass—and Jacob—come along. In Scotland, Cass is surrounded by ghosts, not all of them friendly. Then she meets Lara, a girl who can also see the dead. But Lara tells Cassidy that as an In-betweener, their job is to send ghosts permanently beyond the Veil. Cass isn't sure about her new mission, but she does know the sinister Red Raven haunting the city doesn't belong in her world. Cassidy's powers will draw her into an epic fight that stretches through the worlds of the living and the dead, in order to save herself. |
Title: Looking Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks
Author: Jason Reynolds Genre: Short stories, Children's Middle Grade, Fiction, YA Narrator(s): Multiple Grade Level Interest: 6-8 Summary: This story was going to begin like all the best stories. With a school bus falling from the sky. But no one saw it happen. They were all too busy-- Talking about boogers. Stealing pocket change. Skateboarding. Wiping out. Braving up. Executing complicated handshakes. Planning an escape. Making jokes. Lotioning up. Finding comfort. But mostly, too busy walking home. Jason Reynolds conjures ten tales (one per block) about what happens after the dismissal bell rings, and brilliantly weaves them into one wickedly funny, piercingly poignant look at the detours we face on the walk home, and in life. |
Title: The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise
Author: Dan Gemeinhart Genre: Adventure, Realistic Fiction, YA, Middle Grade Narrator(s): Coyote Grade Level Interest: 6-8 Summary: Five years. That's how long Coyote and her dad, Rodeo, have lived on the road in an old school bus, crisscrossing the nation. It's also how long ago Coyote lost her mom and two sisters in a car crash. Coyote hasn’t been home in all that time, but when she learns the park in her old neighborhood is being demolished - the very same park where she, her mom, and her sisters buried a treasured memory box - she devises an elaborate plan to get her dad to drive 3,600 miles back to Washington state in four days...without him realizing it. Along the way, they'll pick up a strange crew of misfit travelers. Lester has a lady love to meet. Salvador and his mom are looking to start over. Val needs a safe place to be herself. And then there's Gladys.... Over the course of thousands of miles, Coyote will learn that going home can sometimes be the hardest journey of all...but that with friends by her side, she just might be able to turn her “once upon a time” into a “happily ever after”. |
Title: Stepsister
Author: Jennifer Donnelly Genre: Fantasy, Retelling Fairy Tales, YA, Fiction Narrator(s): Isabelle Grade Level Interest: 6-8 Summary: Isabelle should be blissfully happy – she’s about to win the handsome prince. Except Isabelle isn’t the beautiful girl who lost the glass slipper and captured the prince’s heart. She’s the ugly stepsister who’s cut off her toes to fit into Cinderella’s shoe ... which is now filling with blood. When the prince discovers Isabelle’s deception, she is turned away in shame. It’s no more than she deserves: she is a plain girl in a world that values beauty; a feisty girl in a world that wants her to be pliant. Isabelle has tried to fit in. To live up to her mother’s expectations. To be like her stepsister. To be sweet. To be pretty. One by one, she has cut away pieces of herself in order to survive a world that doesn’t appreciate a girl like her. And that has made her mean, jealous, and hollow. Until she gets a chance to alter her destiny and prove what ugly stepsisters have always known: it takes more than heartache to break a girl. |
Title: Unsinkable: From Russian Orphan to Paralympic Swimming World Champion
Author: Jessica Long Genre: Nonfiction, Sports, Autobiography, YA Narrator(s): Jessica Long Grade Level Interest: 6-8 Summary: The top Paralympic swimmer in the world, Jessica Long delivers an inspirational photographic memoir. Born in Siberia with fibular hemimelia, Jessica Long was adopted from a Russian orphanage at thirteen months old and has since become the second most decorated U.S. Paralympic athlete of all time. Now, Jessica shares all the moments in her life—big and small, heartbreaking and uplifting—that led to her domination in the Paralympic swimming world. This photographic memoir, filled with photographs, sidebars, quotes, and more, will thrill her fans and inspire those who are hearing her story for the first time. |
Title: Unteachables
Author: Gordon Korman Genre: Humor, YA, Realistic Fiction, Middle Grade Narrator(s): Multiple Perspectives Grade Level Interest: 6-8 Summary: The Unteachables are a notorious class of misfits, delinquents, and academic train wrecks. Like Aldo, with anger management issues; Parker, who can’t read; Kiana, who doesn’t even belong in the class—or any class; and Elaine (rhymes with pain). The Unteachables have been removed from the student body and isolated in room 117. Their teacher is Mr. Zachary Kermit, the most burned-out teacher in all of Greenwich. He was once a rising star, but his career was shattered by a cheating scandal that still haunts him. After years of phoning it in, he is finally one year away from early retirement. But the superintendent has his own plans to torpedo that idea—and it involves assigning Mr. Kermit to the Unteachables. The Unteachables never thought they’d find a teacher who had a worse attitude than they did. And Mr. Kermit never thought he would actually care about teaching again. Over the course of a school year, though, room 117 will experience mayhem, destruction—and maybe even a shot at redemption. |
About KBA Books:
Each year, a KBA committee for each grade band chooses ten books that will be featured on each Master List (Preschool, K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12) through a year-long process that requires many volunteer hours. These committees include school librarians, public librarians, academic librarians and classroom teachers from across the state and represent both public and private schools. Master List committees are chaired by KASL members who report to the KBA Coordinator and the KASL Board.
Many schools suggest that students should read at least 2 suggested books from a Master List to be eligible to vote in the annual KBA awards. The specific voting process is determined at the individual school/library level. Schools, libraries, parents and community organizations participating in and promoting the KBA program should select books from these lists for inclusion in collections and programming that they feel are appropriate for the needs and interests of their patrons or students. The Kentucky Bluegrass Award is designed to encourage students to read widely from well-reviewed literature that reflects a variety of experiences and points of view.
Each year, a KBA committee for each grade band chooses ten books that will be featured on each Master List (Preschool, K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12) through a year-long process that requires many volunteer hours. These committees include school librarians, public librarians, academic librarians and classroom teachers from across the state and represent both public and private schools. Master List committees are chaired by KASL members who report to the KBA Coordinator and the KASL Board.
Many schools suggest that students should read at least 2 suggested books from a Master List to be eligible to vote in the annual KBA awards. The specific voting process is determined at the individual school/library level. Schools, libraries, parents and community organizations participating in and promoting the KBA program should select books from these lists for inclusion in collections and programming that they feel are appropriate for the needs and interests of their patrons or students. The Kentucky Bluegrass Award is designed to encourage students to read widely from well-reviewed literature that reflects a variety of experiences and points of view.