Previous Summers' Recommendations

Donovan has never been considered "gifted." But after getting caught in a major middle school prank, an administrative mix-up lands him in the Academy of Scholastic Distinction, a special program for gifted and talented students...and they come to realize that his unique gifts might be just what the school needs.

Cally Fisher stops talking...partly because her father and brother never speak of her mother who died a year earlier. But the connections she finds with a homeless dog and the blind boy downstairs help mend the family. This is a touching story of how friendship can mend a family's heart. Winner of the Schneider Family Award.

In 1776, after witnessing the execution of Nathan Hale in New York City, newly occupied by the British army, young Sophia Calderwood resolves to do all she can to help the American cause, including becoming a spy.

Sam Gribley is terribly unhappy living in his family's crowded New York City apartment. So, armed with just the bare necessities -- a penknife, a ball of cord, some flint and steel, and the clothes on his back -- he runs away to the mountains. There, Sam must rely on his own ingenuity and the resources of the great outdoors to survive -- and he discovers a side of himself he never knew existed. Newbery Honor winner.

Seventh-grader Georges adjusts to moving from a house to an apartment, his father's efforts to start a new business, his mother's extra shifts as a nurse, being picked on at school, and Safer, a boy who wants his help spying on another resident of their building.

When fairies stole her brother, Red vowed to get him back. Now trapped in the fairy realm, she strikes a bargain with the fairy court: her brother in exchange for all thirteen charms from her friend Tanya's bracelet. But as Red sets out on her quest to retrieve the charms, she soon learns that the fairies have done more than hide them -- they've enchanted them with the twisted qualities of the Thirteen Treasures they represent.

(Newbery Winner!) When Ivan, a gorilla who has lived for years in a down-and-out circus-themed mall, meets Ruby, a baby elephant that has been added to the mall, he decides that he must find her a better life. Winner of the Newbery Award.

After accidentally killing a substitute teacher with an apple, Seamus Hinkle is sent to Kilter Academy where he must behave badly and pull pranks on his teachers. Along with new friends Lemon and Elinor he discovers that there is more to the Academy than meets the eye.

Accident-prone, thirteen-year-old Gorse, falls into a trap while on her way to the palace to bless the newborn princess,Talia. She arrives in time to give a gift which may prove to be a real blessing in this take-off of Sleeping Beauty.

Kepi was content staying at home helping her father, who was wounded while building a pyramid for the pharaoh Khufu. She is kidnapped along with her baboon, Babu, and taken to the capital city. Where she is separated from Babu, Kepi sets out to find him and appeal to the pharaoh, and discovers she has powers she never knew about.

Deza Malone accompanies her mother and older brother on a trip to find her father, an African American man who left to find work in the Great Depression. They end up in a Hooverville outside of Flint, Michigan, and her brother attempts to be a performer while Deza and her mother search for a home.

Fourteen-year-old master chef and budding detective Neil Flambé, eyed as a prime suspect by the Vancouver police, rushes to solve a case in which some of the best chefs in town are turning up dead and the killer is leaving cryptic clues.

Princess Wisdom, who yearns for a life of adventure beyond the kingdom of Montagne; Tips, a soldier keeping his true life secret from his family; Fortitude, an orphaned maid who longs for Tips; and Magic the cat form an uneasy alliance as they try to save the kingdom from certain destruction.

Plain Kate's odd appearance and expertise as a woodcarver cause some to think her a witch, but friendship with a talking cat and, later, with humans help her to survive and even thrive in a world of magic, charms, and fear..

Welcome to Hokey Pokey. A place and a time, when childhood is at its best: games to play, bikes to ride, experiences to be had. When Jack's bike is stolen he feels like everything has started to go wrong. And even more troubling he alone hears a faint train whistle. But that's impossible: there no trains in Hokey Pokey, only tracks.

Can a photograph change the world? The answer is yes! Explore how a single moment captured on film can influence society and change the course of history.

Presents the story of Kennewick Man, one of the oldest and most complete skeletons found in America near the Columbia River in Washington.

Describes the lives of African Americans during the Jim Crow years, including photographs and interviews with African Americans who were young during this time and other primary resources.

When a skeleton from long-ago centuries is discovered, scientists want to study it for information about the person's life and death, about her or his time and place in history. Sometimes artists are asked to reconstruct faces from the past using copies of their skulls. Then these nameless, unknown people can be remembered, and honored.

The story of the two robot vehicles, Spirit and Opportunity, that were sent to explore Mars, lasting far past their projected lives of three months and sending back invaluable images of the environmentally hostile planet.