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****images from Goodreads/summaries by Ms. Tasich
CHAPTER BOOK List Titles
The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
Genre: Science Fiction
Summary: Roz is the only robot out of 500 who survives the hurricane that destroys the cargo ship carrying all the robots from the factory to their new owners. She is accidentally activated by a group of otters and begins her life on a remote island. There, she realizes she is not like the other animals who inhabit this place, but as time goes on, she is conditioned to try to learn from them. Along the way she begins to make friends and even adopts a gosling. But, the outside world is still there, and there are still people out there looking for the last of the robots from the crash a year ago. So when hunters come for Roz, she has to figure out what she is willing to risk: her safety? her family? her friends? the island?
Genre: Science Fiction
Summary: Roz is the only robot out of 500 who survives the hurricane that destroys the cargo ship carrying all the robots from the factory to their new owners. She is accidentally activated by a group of otters and begins her life on a remote island. There, she realizes she is not like the other animals who inhabit this place, but as time goes on, she is conditioned to try to learn from them. Along the way she begins to make friends and even adopts a gosling. But, the outside world is still there, and there are still people out there looking for the last of the robots from the crash a year ago. So when hunters come for Roz, she has to figure out what she is willing to risk: her safety? her family? her friends? the island?
Moo by Sharon Creech
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Summary: Reena's family decides to move from the big city to a small town in Maine and they have no idea what they are in for. After being there a few days, Reena's parents volunteer her and her younger brother Luke to help out their elderly neighbor Ms. Falala. She has a cow, a pig, a parrot, a cat, a snake and who knows what else living at her house and she needs someone to help take care of them. Reena eventually becomes good enough that she considers showing Zora the cow in the fair, but it will take some work to make the stubborn cow listen to her. And, while she is making friends with Zora, Ms. Falala is making friends with them.
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Summary: Reena's family decides to move from the big city to a small town in Maine and they have no idea what they are in for. After being there a few days, Reena's parents volunteer her and her younger brother Luke to help out their elderly neighbor Ms. Falala. She has a cow, a pig, a parrot, a cat, a snake and who knows what else living at her house and she needs someone to help take care of them. Reena eventually becomes good enough that she considers showing Zora the cow in the fair, but it will take some work to make the stubborn cow listen to her. And, while she is making friends with Zora, Ms. Falala is making friends with them.
Soar by Joan Bauer
Genre: Sports
Summary: Jeremiah wants nothing more than to coach baseball, because, as a 12 year old heart transplant recipient, he knows he can't get out on the field to play. His father, who found him abandoned when he was a baby, has to move for work and they find themselves in Hillcrest, Ohio, home to the Hornets, the most celebrated baseball team in history. But, after a student death and a steroid scandal rock the team and the town, Jeremiah decides he needs to find a way to make everyone realize what is great about baseball, whether they win or lose.
Genre: Sports
Summary: Jeremiah wants nothing more than to coach baseball, because, as a 12 year old heart transplant recipient, he knows he can't get out on the field to play. His father, who found him abandoned when he was a baby, has to move for work and they find themselves in Hillcrest, Ohio, home to the Hornets, the most celebrated baseball team in history. But, after a student death and a steroid scandal rock the team and the town, Jeremiah decides he needs to find a way to make everyone realize what is great about baseball, whether they win or lose.
Wish by Barbara O'Connor
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Summary: Charlie has been sent to live with her aunt Bertha and uncle Gus while her mama "gets back on her feet." Of course, Charlie doesn't know how long that will take, since it seems like mama is better at staying in her bathrobe and drinking diet coke all day than taking care of her kids. Scrappy, Charlie's dad is "getting corrected" at the local detention center, and her older sister Jackie is sent to stay with a friend. Charlie doesn't like any of this and wants to be able to go back home to Raleigh and be with her friends. Of course, these "friends" don't send her any letters of call her while she's at her aunt and uncles, but that doesn't seem to faze her. While there, Charlie meets Howard, the neighbor boy, and sets out to catch the local stray dog and make him her own. The only thing Charlie really worries about is making her wish every day, in one of her innumerable ways, because she's been wishing for the same thing since she was little.
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Summary: Charlie has been sent to live with her aunt Bertha and uncle Gus while her mama "gets back on her feet." Of course, Charlie doesn't know how long that will take, since it seems like mama is better at staying in her bathrobe and drinking diet coke all day than taking care of her kids. Scrappy, Charlie's dad is "getting corrected" at the local detention center, and her older sister Jackie is sent to stay with a friend. Charlie doesn't like any of this and wants to be able to go back home to Raleigh and be with her friends. Of course, these "friends" don't send her any letters of call her while she's at her aunt and uncles, but that doesn't seem to faze her. While there, Charlie meets Howard, the neighbor boy, and sets out to catch the local stray dog and make him her own. The only thing Charlie really worries about is making her wish every day, in one of her innumerable ways, because she's been wishing for the same thing since she was little.
Slacker by Gordon Korman
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Humor
Summary: Cam Boxer is an unapologetic gamer. He is so invested in his games that he actually ignores his house being on fire. When his parents come down on him for this and force him to get involved, he starts a fake club (The Positive Action Group) at school. No one is more surprised than Cam when the group takes off and more than half the student body want to be involved. The PAG ends up with a life of its own, but that will only work if Cam quits sabotaging it. And if the HS service community group is OK with sharing the spotlight. And if they ever manage to find Elvis the Beaver so they can relocate him to his new habitat since the other one got bulldozed for the mall.
All of this problems aren't nearly as serious as the town losing business and the exit ramp being demolished. Will the PAGgers get their act together in time to find a way to do some real good in the community?
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Humor
Summary: Cam Boxer is an unapologetic gamer. He is so invested in his games that he actually ignores his house being on fire. When his parents come down on him for this and force him to get involved, he starts a fake club (The Positive Action Group) at school. No one is more surprised than Cam when the group takes off and more than half the student body want to be involved. The PAG ends up with a life of its own, but that will only work if Cam quits sabotaging it. And if the HS service community group is OK with sharing the spotlight. And if they ever manage to find Elvis the Beaver so they can relocate him to his new habitat since the other one got bulldozed for the mall.
All of this problems aren't nearly as serious as the town losing business and the exit ramp being demolished. Will the PAGgers get their act together in time to find a way to do some real good in the community?
Save me a Seat by Sarah Weeks & Gita Varadarajan
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Summary: Told over the course of the first week of school, this story follows Joe and Ravi, two students in Ms. Beam's fifth grade class. Joe's favorite class is lunch, he likes spending time with Miss Frost the Resource Teacher, and he misses his fourth grade teacher. Ravi is new to school since his family recently immigrated here from India due to his dad's job transfer. Joe knows what it is like to be an outsider, and he is pretty much OK with trying to be a zebra who avoids the attention of the local crocodile in class. Ravi on the other hand is used to being smart and popular. So when he gets to his first day at Albert Einstein Elementary School, he doesn't understand why things aren't going the way he expects them to. And he definitely doesn't want anything to do with Joe, who reminds Ravi of another boy back home that he was perfectly content to make fun of there.
As the week goes on, the boys begin to realize that you don't have to be popular, but you do need friends. And friends are the ones who will help you out before you even know you need it.
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Summary: Told over the course of the first week of school, this story follows Joe and Ravi, two students in Ms. Beam's fifth grade class. Joe's favorite class is lunch, he likes spending time with Miss Frost the Resource Teacher, and he misses his fourth grade teacher. Ravi is new to school since his family recently immigrated here from India due to his dad's job transfer. Joe knows what it is like to be an outsider, and he is pretty much OK with trying to be a zebra who avoids the attention of the local crocodile in class. Ravi on the other hand is used to being smart and popular. So when he gets to his first day at Albert Einstein Elementary School, he doesn't understand why things aren't going the way he expects them to. And he definitely doesn't want anything to do with Joe, who reminds Ravi of another boy back home that he was perfectly content to make fun of there.
As the week goes on, the boys begin to realize that you don't have to be popular, but you do need friends. And friends are the ones who will help you out before you even know you need it.
Garvey's Choice by Nikki Grimes
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Verse
Summary: Garvey isn't what his father wants or expects. He doesn't play sports. He isn't interested in throwing around a football. Instead, Garvey likes science. And reading. And singing. But his father doesn't care about any of this. To compensate, Garvey rewards himself with food. In his family of trim figures, he sticks out. As the school year starts back up, Garvey needs to figure out what he is going to do and how he can make it through the year happily-will he try to cave to his father's expectations? Or will he work on being true to himself? When the chance comes to join Chorus, Garvey learns just how talented he is.
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Verse
Summary: Garvey isn't what his father wants or expects. He doesn't play sports. He isn't interested in throwing around a football. Instead, Garvey likes science. And reading. And singing. But his father doesn't care about any of this. To compensate, Garvey rewards himself with food. In his family of trim figures, he sticks out. As the school year starts back up, Garvey needs to figure out what he is going to do and how he can make it through the year happily-will he try to cave to his father's expectations? Or will he work on being true to himself? When the chance comes to join Chorus, Garvey learns just how talented he is.
All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook by Leslie Connor
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Summary: Perry Cook has lived his entire life in the Blue River Correctional Facility. Born to a mother who is serving a sentence for manslaughter, he has been raised inside the walls of a co-ed, minimum security jail. But now, a new DA in town is looking into this unusual case and questioning whether or not his mother has served a sentence if she has been allowed to raise her son. This was an outstanding read. Highly recommend.
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Summary: Perry Cook has lived his entire life in the Blue River Correctional Facility. Born to a mother who is serving a sentence for manslaughter, he has been raised inside the walls of a co-ed, minimum security jail. But now, a new DA in town is looking into this unusual case and questioning whether or not his mother has served a sentence if she has been allowed to raise her son. This was an outstanding read. Highly recommend.
Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Summary: Deja is poor. Homeless even. Her family recently moved to Avalon, where the five of them share a one-room apartment. There's no kitchen, no sink, no bedrooms. As the oldest, she is responsible for helping out with her two younger siblings while her Ma goes to work and Pop spends his days inside. He's too sick to work, but Deja doesn't understand what's wrong with him. Or why it gets worse sometimes in the fall. Or what he keeps in his locked suitcase.
But at her new school, they are starting to study history. Learning about the past-past and recent-past. And what has changed and what has stayed the same. What it means to be New Yorkers, Americans, a community. Deja is frustrated because she doesn't understand what happened in the past with the towers. Or why it would make her new friend Sabeen sad and scared.
Deja and her other new friend Ben are going to figure out what happened. And why it makes Sabeen sad. And why Pop is so against Deja knowing anything about THAT DAY .
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Summary: Deja is poor. Homeless even. Her family recently moved to Avalon, where the five of them share a one-room apartment. There's no kitchen, no sink, no bedrooms. As the oldest, she is responsible for helping out with her two younger siblings while her Ma goes to work and Pop spends his days inside. He's too sick to work, but Deja doesn't understand what's wrong with him. Or why it gets worse sometimes in the fall. Or what he keeps in his locked suitcase.
But at her new school, they are starting to study history. Learning about the past-past and recent-past. And what has changed and what has stayed the same. What it means to be New Yorkers, Americans, a community. Deja is frustrated because she doesn't understand what happened in the past with the towers. Or why it would make her new friend Sabeen sad and scared.
Deja and her other new friend Ben are going to figure out what happened. And why it makes Sabeen sad. And why Pop is so against Deja knowing anything about THAT DAY .
Maxi's Secrets by Lynne Plourde
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Animals
Summary:
It's not a secret; Maxi is going to die. We find this out from Timminy during the first chapter. But as the story unfolds, and you see the relationship between Timminy, Maxi, and the rest of the neighborhood kids develop, you almost forget about it. Because Maxi is great at building bridges, helping others, and teaching important lessons. Like sometimes there aren't words for what happens, but that doesn't mean it's not important.
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Animals
Summary:
It's not a secret; Maxi is going to die. We find this out from Timminy during the first chapter. But as the story unfolds, and you see the relationship between Timminy, Maxi, and the rest of the neighborhood kids develop, you almost forget about it. Because Maxi is great at building bridges, helping others, and teaching important lessons. Like sometimes there aren't words for what happens, but that doesn't mean it's not important.
NOVELS List Titles
Desert Dark by Sonja Stone
Genre: Adventure
Summary: Nadia, 16, has been recruited to the Desert Academy, an ultra-exclusive training center and boarding school that preps students to become part of the CIAs Black Ops unit. Their training is absolutely confidential, from their families to the rest of the country. No one knows what goes on there. For good reason. But now there is a suspected double agent in their midst and everyone assumes it is Nadia. Will she be able to prove her innocence and find the real double agent in time?
Genre: Adventure
Summary: Nadia, 16, has been recruited to the Desert Academy, an ultra-exclusive training center and boarding school that preps students to become part of the CIAs Black Ops unit. Their training is absolutely confidential, from their families to the rest of the country. No one knows what goes on there. For good reason. But now there is a suspected double agent in their midst and everyone assumes it is Nadia. Will she be able to prove her innocence and find the real double agent in time?
When Friendship Followed Me Home by Paul Griffin
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Summary: Ben was a foster care kid, but he's been living with Mom Coffin for two years. Things are going OK, with the plan being that they are going to move to Florida next year after she retires. He finds Flip, a dog, on the street and takes him in. But then, things start to go wrong: Mom dies, he has to move in with his aunt and her boyfriend, and Halley, his best friend, is still sick with cancer. Ben doesn't know what to do, because unlike what he reads in books, he knows that you can't go back to the past. And nothing stays forever. So, while he tries to make connections, he also doesn't get too close because in the end it won't matter.
At least, that's what he used to think.
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Summary: Ben was a foster care kid, but he's been living with Mom Coffin for two years. Things are going OK, with the plan being that they are going to move to Florida next year after she retires. He finds Flip, a dog, on the street and takes him in. But then, things start to go wrong: Mom dies, he has to move in with his aunt and her boyfriend, and Halley, his best friend, is still sick with cancer. Ben doesn't know what to do, because unlike what he reads in books, he knows that you can't go back to the past. And nothing stays forever. So, while he tries to make connections, he also doesn't get too close because in the end it won't matter.
At least, that's what he used to think.
The Forgetting by Sharon Cameron
Genre: Science Fiction/Dystopian
Summary: Nadia lives in Canaan, a city within the walls. She, along with everyone else, is preparing for The Forgetting, an event that comes every 12 years. With it, all those in the city will forget their memories, forget their families, forget themselves. Because of this, they have been taught to write down their truths, keep them in their books, and to never let anyone take their books away from them. Because, the truth is not good and it is not bad. It just is the truth. And that is how they can survive.
But, Nadia is different. She didn't forget. She remembers. And that will make all the difference.
Genre: Science Fiction/Dystopian
Summary: Nadia lives in Canaan, a city within the walls. She, along with everyone else, is preparing for The Forgetting, an event that comes every 12 years. With it, all those in the city will forget their memories, forget their families, forget themselves. Because of this, they have been taught to write down their truths, keep them in their books, and to never let anyone take their books away from them. Because, the truth is not good and it is not bad. It just is the truth. And that is how they can survive.
But, Nadia is different. She didn't forget. She remembers. And that will make all the difference.
The Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse
Genre: Historical Fiction
Summary: Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering sought-after black market goods to paying customers, her nights hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the Dutch front lines when the Germans invaded. She likes to think of her illegal work as a small act of rebellion.
On a routine delivery, a client asks Hanneke for help. Expecting to hear that Mrs. Janssen wants meat or kerosene, Hanneke is shocked by the older woman's frantic plea to find a person - a Jewish teenager Mrs. Janssen had been hiding, who has vanished without a trace from a secret room. Hanneke initially wants nothing to do with such dangerous work, but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations that lead her into the heart of the resistance, open her eyes to the horrors of the Nazi war machine, and compel her to take desperate action.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Summary: Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering sought-after black market goods to paying customers, her nights hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the Dutch front lines when the Germans invaded. She likes to think of her illegal work as a small act of rebellion.
On a routine delivery, a client asks Hanneke for help. Expecting to hear that Mrs. Janssen wants meat or kerosene, Hanneke is shocked by the older woman's frantic plea to find a person - a Jewish teenager Mrs. Janssen had been hiding, who has vanished without a trace from a secret room. Hanneke initially wants nothing to do with such dangerous work, but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations that lead her into the heart of the resistance, open her eyes to the horrors of the Nazi war machine, and compel her to take desperate action.
The Girl I Used to Be by April Henry
Genre: Mystery
Summary: Olivia (who used to be Ariel) hasn't had a family in years. Her parents were murdered when she was three, leaving her to bounce from foster home to foster home, eventually being adopted and taking on her new name of Olivia. Up until now, everyone has assumed her father killed her mother and took off. But now, new evidence points to him also being a victim, and the police don't have any leads on who could have killed them both. Olivia goes back to her hometown for the funeral and to see if she can finally solve the mystery of what really happened in the woods all those years ago.
Genre: Mystery
Summary: Olivia (who used to be Ariel) hasn't had a family in years. Her parents were murdered when she was three, leaving her to bounce from foster home to foster home, eventually being adopted and taking on her new name of Olivia. Up until now, everyone has assumed her father killed her mother and took off. But now, new evidence points to him also being a victim, and the police don't have any leads on who could have killed them both. Olivia goes back to her hometown for the funeral and to see if she can finally solve the mystery of what really happened in the woods all those years ago.
Projekt 1065 by Alan Gratz
Genre: Historical Fiction
Summary: During WWII, Ireland maintained neutrality, allowing them to keep an embassy and an ambassador in Germany. What was later discovered was that those in this position of power were sneaking information back to the Allies. This is the story of one fictional family who served as the real life ambassador did.
Michael is in the Hitler Youth, even though he doesn't believe a word of it. He likes to read forbidden American detective novels, likes to listen to news broadcasts from outside the borders of Germany and he doesn't believe in the mastery of the Aryan race. But, while in Germany, he has to act like he does. His parents, Irish dignitaries, are really spies and he works to help them. His photographic memory gives him an edge, so he is used to find documents and pictures, which he then relays back to his parents. One day, he unwittingly gets access to blueprints for Projekt 1065, the German plans for a jet plane, the first of its kind. He knows he needs to get these plans back to the Allies for them to have a chance to win the war. But what all is he willing to sacrifice for the greater good?
Genre: Historical Fiction
Summary: During WWII, Ireland maintained neutrality, allowing them to keep an embassy and an ambassador in Germany. What was later discovered was that those in this position of power were sneaking information back to the Allies. This is the story of one fictional family who served as the real life ambassador did.
Michael is in the Hitler Youth, even though he doesn't believe a word of it. He likes to read forbidden American detective novels, likes to listen to news broadcasts from outside the borders of Germany and he doesn't believe in the mastery of the Aryan race. But, while in Germany, he has to act like he does. His parents, Irish dignitaries, are really spies and he works to help them. His photographic memory gives him an edge, so he is used to find documents and pictures, which he then relays back to his parents. One day, he unwittingly gets access to blueprints for Projekt 1065, the German plans for a jet plane, the first of its kind. He knows he needs to get these plans back to the Allies for them to have a chance to win the war. But what all is he willing to sacrifice for the greater good?
Ghost by Jason Reynolds
Genre: Sports
Summary: Castle Crenshaw learned he could run the night his mom drug him from the house away from his father. When the cops showed up later, his dad was sitting on the front porch, with the gun next to him, like he wanted to get caught. Castle, who decides he wants to be called Ghost, tries to not think about his dad, but avoiding it doesn't help keep him out of trouble at school.
One day, on his way home, he sees kids practicing at the track. He lines up on the outside of the track and races a kid on the 100 meter. Ghost wins, barely, in his too big shoes and old jeans. Coach asks him if he wants to try out for the Defenders, one of the elite track teams in the city. Ghost isn't sure at first, but he ends up on the team.
Genre: Sports
Summary: Castle Crenshaw learned he could run the night his mom drug him from the house away from his father. When the cops showed up later, his dad was sitting on the front porch, with the gun next to him, like he wanted to get caught. Castle, who decides he wants to be called Ghost, tries to not think about his dad, but avoiding it doesn't help keep him out of trouble at school.
One day, on his way home, he sees kids practicing at the track. He lines up on the outside of the track and races a kid on the 100 meter. Ghost wins, barely, in his too big shoes and old jeans. Coach asks him if he wants to try out for the Defenders, one of the elite track teams in the city. Ghost isn't sure at first, but he ends up on the team.
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Genre: Science Fiction/Dystopian
Summary: Citra and Rowen have been taken on as apprentices by Scythe Faraday. While it is unusual to take on two apprentices, it is not illegal and Scythe Faraday intends to have the one not chosen return to his or her normal life after the apprenticeship is over. For the other, the one chosen, a life as a Scythe awaits-a life where it is one's duty and responsibility to glean others in the world, ensuring that we don't reach overpopulation.
But Scythe Faraday dies, the Scythedom decries that after their apprenticeship Citra and Rowen will have to glean the loser, and they are both taken on by two new Scythes. Scythe Curie and Scythe Goddard have VERY different views about the future of the Scythedom, and the fate of the world could hang in the balance.
Genre: Science Fiction/Dystopian
Summary: Citra and Rowen have been taken on as apprentices by Scythe Faraday. While it is unusual to take on two apprentices, it is not illegal and Scythe Faraday intends to have the one not chosen return to his or her normal life after the apprenticeship is over. For the other, the one chosen, a life as a Scythe awaits-a life where it is one's duty and responsibility to glean others in the world, ensuring that we don't reach overpopulation.
But Scythe Faraday dies, the Scythedom decries that after their apprenticeship Citra and Rowen will have to glean the loser, and they are both taken on by two new Scythes. Scythe Curie and Scythe Goddard have VERY different views about the future of the Scythedom, and the fate of the world could hang in the balance.
Ryan Quinn and the Rebel's Escape by Ron McGee
Genre: Adventure
Summary: Ryan Quinn just wants to be a normal teenager. Play baseball. Go to school. Find some friends. Now that his parents have somewhat settled in New York, he thinks this could be his chance. Sure his dad still travels for his job with the UN, but they no longer settle for months or years at a time in foreign countries. While that was exciting, Ryan is ready for dull.
And then his mother is abducted. And he finds a secret room in his house, with fake passports, credit cards, and identities for his whole family. Is his father a criminal like the FBI claims? Will he be able to rescue his mom? Ryan is thrown into a high-stakes, fast-paced adventure that rivals Jason Bourne.
Genre: Adventure
Summary: Ryan Quinn just wants to be a normal teenager. Play baseball. Go to school. Find some friends. Now that his parents have somewhat settled in New York, he thinks this could be his chance. Sure his dad still travels for his job with the UN, but they no longer settle for months or years at a time in foreign countries. While that was exciting, Ryan is ready for dull.
And then his mother is abducted. And he finds a secret room in his house, with fake passports, credit cards, and identities for his whole family. Is his father a criminal like the FBI claims? Will he be able to rescue his mom? Ryan is thrown into a high-stakes, fast-paced adventure that rivals Jason Bourne.
Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk
Genre: Historical Fiction
Summary: Annabelle's life is somewhat quiet, but she's OK with that. She knows the second World War is raging, but it seems somewhat removed so far. She works hard at school, knowing that her two brothers will take over the family farm. She has befriended Toby, the WWI vet who roams the hills and forests surrounding her town. And then, a new girl comes to town.
Betty is staying with her grandparents, and everyone knows she has had some troubles. But no one knows just how far she will go. Betty takes to threatening Annabelle and her brothers. She even starts blaming Toby for the bad things that are happening in the town to the elderly German man Mr. Ansel. Annabelle knows that Betty is bad, but no one else seems to see it. And the town starts to turn on Toby, setting Annabelle down a path of truths, half-truths, and lies that she isn't sure she'll ever make it out of intact.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Summary: Annabelle's life is somewhat quiet, but she's OK with that. She knows the second World War is raging, but it seems somewhat removed so far. She works hard at school, knowing that her two brothers will take over the family farm. She has befriended Toby, the WWI vet who roams the hills and forests surrounding her town. And then, a new girl comes to town.
Betty is staying with her grandparents, and everyone knows she has had some troubles. But no one knows just how far she will go. Betty takes to threatening Annabelle and her brothers. She even starts blaming Toby for the bad things that are happening in the town to the elderly German man Mr. Ansel. Annabelle knows that Betty is bad, but no one else seems to see it. And the town starts to turn on Toby, setting Annabelle down a path of truths, half-truths, and lies that she isn't sure she'll ever make it out of intact.
