Candy Shop War

If you like magic, excitement, danger, and candy, this is the book for you.  This is the first book in the Candy Shop War series.  Nate has moved to a new town and is trying to make friends in the summer before school starts.  He meets Summer, Trevor, and Pigeon who live nearby and who also happen to be going into 5th grade just like Nate!

After the first day of school the four walk home and stop by a new Candy Shop in town run by Mrs. White.  They discover she has magic candy that she will give them, but only if they do her a "favor" first.   She first gives them rock candy that makes you weightless, which they also need to do the job for her of stealing a watch and book from the museum. (She's only borrowing it :) )  After they complete the first job, she has another job, and another because she is on the hunt for a very powerful treasure.  Mr. Stott, who drives the ice cream truck, wants to stop Mrs. White and the kids begin to help him.  Nate and his friends begin to wonder who they can trust and so they decide to go after the treasure on their own, and thus begins the WAR!

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Mull, Brandon. The Candy Shop War. Aladdin, 2014.

The Girl I Used to Be by April Henry

Olivia Reinhart used to be Ariel Benson, a girl whose father murdered her mother when she was 3 years old.  She is told they have found her father's jawbone and think he was murdered at the same time.  As she returns to the town she lived in before for her father's funeral she is confronted with questions of why her parents were killed, who took her to the Wal-mart and dropped her off, and was it someone they knew.  As she begins to dig into the past, she stirs up too much and puts her own life in danger.  

Great book for 7th and up.  

Henry, April. The girl I used to be. Square Fish, 2017.

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Miranda is 16 years old, her older brother Matt is off at college and her younger brother Jonny is 13. Miranda’s parents are divorced. She and her brother’s live with her mom, who is a writer, and her dad is remarried to Lisa, who is pregnant. On May 18 an asteroid is supposed to hit the moon and everyone is planning on watching it, it almost seems festive, like a party. However, once the asteroid hits it shifts the moon closer to the earth and causes the earth’s climate to change in drastic ways. Electricity is gone, grocery stores run out of food, gas goes up to $10+ a gallon and school is closed indefinitely... Will things ever get back to normal? Miranda wonders, but what she doesn’t realize is the worst is yet to come.


This is the first book in The Last Survivors series.

Pfeffer, Susan Beth. Life as we knew it. Graphia, 2010.

Rising Water by P. J. Petersen

Kevin was arrested for stealing a car, even though he returned it, and is assigned to volunteer at an animal rescue center for community hours. Tracy and Luke work at the animal rescue center because they enjoy helping the animals. Tracy cannot stand Kevin and his attitude, and Luke enjoys having Kevin’s help. The heavy winter rains come and flood the town. Luke and Tracy, who are brother and sister, have a boat and take it to help a dog survive the flood, when it’s owner can’t get home. Luke invites Kevin to go along and help. As they start off in the boat they find more people stranded at their homes and help them to get out of the flood. After they help the dog, they notice a house has looters in it. They try to identify the thieves, but Luke gets captured. Can Tracy and Kevin work together to save Luke?

Quick read and lots of action!

Petersen, P. J. Rising water. Aladdin Paperbacks, 2003.

Ghost by Jason Reynolds

Ghost 


World Records...

Sunflower seeds...

Running...


Castle Cranshaw AKA Ghost loves learning world records and he also can run...FAST. He sees a group of people running at a track and decides to run, knowing he can run faster than the fastest. He doesn’t have great technique, but he can run. The coach begins training him and helping him become a better runner, and as he does, Ghost has to face some of his past problems, like his dad threatening him and his mom when he was younger, stealing shoes, skipping school and getting in a fight.

This is the first book of a series of books about kids who run...great book.  

Reynolds, Jason. Ghost. Atheneum Books For Young Readers, 2017.

When

Maddie sees shadowy digits on everyone’s forhead...their deathdate. Her mother makes her tell people their deathdates to make money to support her family. One lady comes to find out her daughter’s deathdate because she has leukemia, but Maddie see’s a picture of her son and his deathdate is next week. The boy goes missing adn maddie is pulled into the homicide investigation. He is later found murdered and Maddie is a suspect. As more and more young people disappear and are later found murdered, one thing is clear, Maddie is at the center of it all. Is she the key to solving the case or is she next?


You HAVE to read this book. I could not put it down. HIGHLY recommended.


2013 Lone Star Award

Laurie, Victoria. When. Scholastic, Inc., 2017.

Brave

Jensen wants to be a NASA astronaut, but is not good at math.  He is part of the Art Club, but is having a hard time getting along with friends, finding a partner (he always gets picked last) and realizing that he is being bullied.  Jenny and Akilah are on the school newspaper staff and are doing a social experiment and help Jensen realize that he is bullied and how to be brave.  Jensen is still too scared to stand up for himself so he finds other ways of "protecting" himself.  Will he ever be able to be Brave and stand up to the bullies?

Chmakova, Svetlana. BRAVE. New York: Yen Press, 2017. Print.