In You Gotta Have Heart by Bruce Bernstein, the main character, Alan, is an orphan in an orphanage that has a very long name, so the boys living in it just call it The Home.
Alan’s parents died in a car crash, and to add to the pain, The Home is also where two bullies named Frankie and Jack live. Alan is tired of Frankie and Jack picking on his roommate, Chris, and himself, so he joins a karate dojo to learn how to fight back.
The Carver is about a young boy named Enzo who has been missing his best friend Zack and his mother for three years. When his father, Pino, disappears as well, he must begin his journey to find his family along with his neighbor Pietro (who is also known as the boy who learned how to fly). All he has are the figurines of people his father gave to him, which lead him to all the people he will need to accomplish his quest.
Audrey Grey's Shadow Rise is the story of a girl named Maia Greystone. She is the strong main character though she has her downfalls and shortcomings. The book starts with her remembering the bombing from the previous book. She is being tortured by the Archduchess and plans to escape. When she does, she finds herself in the hands of the rebels, who she thought were her friends.
Rosetown by Cynthia Rylant, a novel centered on the adventures of 9-year-old Flora, a recent transplant to Rosetown, Indiana, captured my attention from the first page and held it until the end. The book chronicles Flora's adjustment to a new town, the flourishing friendship with Yury, and the excitement of beginning 4th grade. But Flora's transition to Rosetown is complicated by her parents' recent divorce and her insecurities of being new in town.
True Blue by Joyce Scarbrough is a story to treasure in your heart forever. Beginning in fourth grade, Wade Strickland has really wanted to tell Jeana Rusell that he is madly in love with her. So has Billy Joe DuBose. Jeana loves them both as brothers, not as boyfriends.
No longer masquerading as Everly March, Maia flees the Island and joins up with the Fienan Rebels. Unfortunately, nothing is as she expected. The boy she loved no longer remembers her, the people she fought so hard to save don’t trust her, and her brother is a total stranger. On top of that, Maia has less than a week to stop the rebels from making a terrible mistake that will cost them all their lives.
Guinevere has never known a “normal” life thanks to her mother, Vienna, who can’t remember anything past the age of thirteen thanks to an incident that occurred when Guinevere was young that no one seems to want to talk about. Nevertheless, Jed St.
