get ahead of the game! make a black-eyed susan title a part of your summer reading!

Get ahead of the game! Make a Black-eyed Susan title a part of your summer reading!

Albie has always been told he’s “almost” good enough at everything he’s ever tried. He just never seems to get there.

This is an autobiography in poetry by the author of award-winning books such as Locomotion and Peace, Locomotion.

After a meteor shower, one ofArianne’s horses gives birth to a baby centaur, a half horse/half human creature. The family is already dealing with Arianne’s baby brother, born with a birth defect.

Can the new kid Ellie just met, really be her grandfather who came back to life as a young boy? This one is from the author of all those “Babymouse” books!

Twelve-year-old Gabriel teams up with a magical raven to find his missing father in this fantasy.

Though her famous photographer father encourages her to use her camera, Lucy doesn’t think she’ll ever be good enough.But, the camera and her Lucy’s new friend, Nate, change her life.

11-year old Jaden feels like an epic failure. But, when his family travels to war-torn Kazakhstan to adopt a child, Jaden understands how much more difficult life can be.

When the really short new kid joins Woodrow’s class, he knows that – like himself – Toulouse is going to be a target for the school’s bullies. Then, when Woodrow and Toulouse prove the be a powerhousevolleyball team, things change.

From the author of the “Origami Yoda” series: A group of kids team up to solve the mystery of what evil might be going on at the local wastewater treatment plant.

Gabby uses her writing time just to escape from her parents’ constant fighting. But, a teacher sees the real possibilities in Gabby and her poetry.

A Japanese-style superhero battles intergalactic octopus monsters, city-smashing giant robots, and armies of squawking crow-demons, while trying to fit in some quality videogame hours on the couch.

When Cam’s father, who can’t afford much, gives Cam a cardboard box for his birthday, Cam is – of course – disappointed. Until the cardboard man he folds the box into comes to life.

This is a graphic collection of true stories of canine military heroes of World War I, World War II and the Vietnam conflict.

Cece Bell’s graphic autobiography about growing up deaf has already won a Newbery honor award. If you like Smile, Drama or Sisters by Raina Telgemier, you’re going to like El Deafo by Cece Bell.

Denny’s got powers; but, it’s going to take a powerful group of warrior friends to keep Denny and his powers safe from the forces of evil who wish to take and use them for their own purposes.

A grandmother tells her granddaughter the incredible story of how, as a young Jewish child, friends and neighbors hid her and kept her safe from the German Nazis intent on killing all Jews during World War II.

Three Hispanic friends work together to create the most awesome “lowrider” car in competition.

Can a unicorn who thinks just a little too much of herself and a young girl who spends most of her time absent-mindedly daydreaming really become friends?

When a group of orphans discover they have a common connection, plucky heroine Phoebe leads them in a daring escape from their orphanage to an uninhabited moon.

Animals in an English zoo present their own, crazy, versions of two of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays.

Grade 6 - 9

When Will comes into possession of the key to a treasure being transported on a train, he becomes the target of the bad guys who want that key and want that treasure.

A memoir: This is the author’s own story, a story of survival when so many in his community were being sent to die in the Nazi death camps in Poland during World War II.

12-year-old Josh Bell is master on the basketball court and master of hip-hop poetry as well. Can any of that help when he gets in trouble for breaking rules or save his father when his dad falls ill?

It’s 1859. “Eel” is an orphan living on filthy edges of London’s Thames River. And, then, things get worse as London is the target of a cholera epidemic, ground-zero for “The Blue Death.”

Milo is the 12-year-old adopted son of the innkeepers of Greenglass House. The house has always been creepy but becomes creepier still on the arrival a set of mysterious gets and things in the house begin to go missing.

Already world famous, this is the memoir penned by Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani girl who spoke out for the rights of girls to be educated in her country and survived an attempt to kill her by those who opposed her ideas.

Not everyone enjoys summer reading; but, when one class is assigned a classic book to read over vacation, three friends cook up the most outrageous tricks, pranks and plots to get everyone – kids and adults – begging to read the book.

Victoria is a 14-year-old competing in an Alaskan dog sled race; and, this book is the story of her attempts to survive the harshest conditions - no food, falling temperatures - when she and her dog team lose their way.

By the author of Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes! Two abandoned siblings face a mysterious specter and an ancient curse that threatens their lives.

12-year-old Casey Snowden wants to be a sports reporter. When he uncovers the unpleasant truth behind the way a well-known former baseball player has been living exile, he has to decide whether some stories, some truths are better left untold.