Ruby knows she isn’t normal. She has always been afraid of the water, despite living on an island. She doesn’t know who her parents are. She also sees lines that form a grid connecting her to everything and everyone around her. As far as she knows, Ruby has no living family members. So it is a shock when Ruby finds out that she has two uncles and a grandma who want to take care of her. Finally, she will be taken care of. But having someone understand her may be more dangerous than she ever thought.
What I Tell Myself About Talent begins with a young boy searching himself to determine what he is good at or what he describes as talent. The story soon flows into a collection of multiple children searching in the world around them to discover their true callings. Along the way, the kids learn the benefits of hard work in jobs like shoveling snow or mowing grass, and they see the beauty in the world through painting and making music. They also discover through the various vocations in the world that the people around them mold how they see themselves.
Twelve year old Ruby Callahan, the main character in The Solomon Stone, by Christine Sandgren has been stranded on a Hawaiin island since her parents left her there after a party nine years ago. She is the only non-native person on the island but is also the best animal tracker because she can see “lines” that show her where things have been, and where they are going. For example, she can easily know when a cape buffalo will come to a certain spot on the island. Everything changes though, when her uncle and grandmother find her, and take her back to New York City.
A group of contestants enter a competition to win a large sum of money, but there's a catch... the game can maim, hurt, and injure but not kill. In a deceptively innocent arena filled with children toys and loud carnival type music, these contestants complete challenges. The game ends when all the challenges are completed by a person or after two weeks. After a challenge is completed, a gift is awarded either sodas, candy, or other partly useful objects.
Carrie’s Cupcake Success By Michelle Parmigaini is a book about a girl named Carrie who loves baking but dislikes math. At school she is assigned a math project to bring in something they love, but it must have something to do with math. Another student in the class tells Carrie that girls can’t be as good at math as boys. Carrie thinks about what her classmate told her and talks to her mom. She wants to use cupcakes in her project, but Carrie can’t figure out how math relates to baking. How will she solve this problem and finish her assignment?
“Our Wayward Fate,” written by Gloria Chao, is a story about diversity through the eyes of a sixteen year old girl. Ali Chu and her family are a single Asian family who reside in a small town in Indiana.
Human? Robot? Or a mixture of both? Dat is unsure of his place in this new world, not new to others, just to him. Because he’s a new prototype Model 500 with DNA from a human who gave his brain for the project when he died. As Dat and other Model 500s are introduced to the world, his sensors are overloaded with the information he was “birthed with” and the information surging around him.
A Young Girl has just found out that her father has gotten cancer. Pancreatic cancer to be exact. She doesn't know what to do. Is it her fault? Why is this happening to her family? Her father? Is God punishing her for forgetting to pray? These are all questions that she has been asking herself over and over and has been writing in her diary after her father got diagnosed. Why won't God make him better? She's been praying and praying, but her dad is still sick. Why isn't God listening? Can he even hear her? Will her dad be there to walk her down the aisle?
Julie Cavallo, the main character of The Killer Karma by Ana T. Drew started off her amateur detective career in Book 1 of the Julie Cavallo Investigates series, The Murderous Macaron. In that adventure, Julie and her friends successfully exposed the facts of Maurice Suave’s murder. But after Julie is almost killed by Suave’s murderer, her friends decide it is time to put their amateur sleuthing to rest.
Malala Yousafzai: Warrior with Words by Karen Leggett Abouraya is a biography of Malala’s life as she fights for the rights for girls all over the world to be able to go to school and receive education.
