Libby's Guide

Liberty Johansen loves looking for new patterns in the night sky. Until the year that everything goes wrong and she can’t see her sky pictures anymore.  Her dad moves out and doesn’t seem to want to see her.  Kids at school are being unkind.  But mostly, Liberty feels like her sky is falling and nothing will seem right again.

Through artful and age appropriate storytelling, King presents an interesting perspective on depression. She explores dealing with a parent with depression as well as a teen experiencing depression herself.  Liberty’s experience is realistic and sincere, without bei...

Ever since her dad injured his hip and her older brothers left home, D.J. Schwenk’s life has been keeping her family’s dairy farm going.  She dropped out of basketball, failed classes, and has almost no social life. Then Jimmy Ott sends a new challenge her way--help Brian Nelson train to be Hawley’s starting quarterback in the fall.  Even though Brian is a stuck up rich kid as well as Red Bend’s biggest rival (and therefore the enemy), D.J. is intrigued by the job.

Surprisingly, as Brian learns from D.J., she learns some things from him. D.J. begins to understand that people might be differen...

Samantha longs to move back to New York and work as a musician, but for a Chinese American girl in 1849 that dream seems impossible.  Instead, when tragedy strikes, she finds herself disguised as a boy fleeing West with a runaway slave.  Posing as the boys Sammy and Andy, the two girls join the many heading out in the California gold rush.  Along the way, they face many dangers and hardships, but they find unexpected allies in a group of rough cowboys.

Under a Painted Sky is a fast moving western adventure with endearing characters.  It also looks at race and gender issues in America’s W...

Patty Jones is a problem solver/caretaker who is determined to always be strong.  She looks after her little sister, keeps tabs on her sick mom, and tries to stay on top of all her school work.  Running with the Defenders track team is her one release.  But Patty is used to being the one taking care of things, not trusting others.  When Coach asks her to run with the relay team, can she trust them enough to build a winning team?

Patina is the second book in Jason Reynolds’s track series. It is a great book for kids who love sports and strong characters.  This one is a great book for...

Raymie Clarke has a plan. She is going to win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition. Her father will see her picture in the paper, leave the dental hygienist, and come back home.  But things don’t go exactly as she plans.  Instead, Raymie meets Beverly Tapinski and Louisiana Elefante.  These two friends show Raymie that there are all sorts of troubles in the world, but also all sorts of good.

As usual, Kate DiCamillo approaches some difficult subjects in a poetic and sensitive way.  Her writing can touch the ugly things in the world and find beauty anyway. Raymie Nightingale i...

In a world of virtual reality, the video game Warcross has become more than just a game--it is a way of life.  For Emika Chen, a bounty hunter who catches people betting illegally, Warcross provides the meager income that helps her scrape by.  Until the day Emika hacks into the International Warcross Championships and her whole world changes.  Suddenly she is a professional player and meeting Hideo Tanaka, the young billionaire who created the game.

Emika has the life she has always dreamed of, but she finds herself in more danger than she ever imagined.  Warcross is a fast-paced science...

Peter’s older brother Randall disappears and Peter is determined to find him.  He knows that Randall’s disappearance is related to some distinctive graffiti tags that are showing up in local subway stations. Myla recognizes those tags are connected to a symbol on her necklace.  Together, Myla and Peter are drawn into the mystery of the symbol and find themselves facing more danger than they expected.

Alternating between Peter and Myla’s perspective, Finding Mighty is a mystery filled with plenty of action.  It also includes parkour, graffiti, and local New York history.  It is a fun read for...

Tyler Jones is graduating top of his class at the Aurora Academy. This should give him first pick for his future Aurora Squad. However, an unexpected rescue mission puts him late to the pick and now he is stuck with all the Academy misfits.  On top of that, Tyler is also stuck with Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he just rescued from a spacecraft abandoned over 200 years ago.

As Tyler’s squad attempts to complete their first mission, it becomes apparent that there is much more to Auri than they know. Many people are trying to keep her presence a secret and possibly destroy her altogether. Soon i...

Ana is the daughter of Republican supporters in post civil war Spain.  She and her siblings try to stay invisible and earn a meager living under Franco’s regime.  Daniel Matheson is the son of an American oil tycoon who is trying to arrange drilling rights with Franco.  With his interest in photography, Daniel observes some of the fear and repression of Franco’s reign.  His friendship with Ana leads both of them to some secrets and possible danger.

In The Fountains of Silence, Ruta Supetys does an excellent job creating interesting characters with an engaging storyline.  She also po...

For five years, Coyote and her father, Rodeo, have been roaming around the country in their giant, yellow school bus. They started their journey after Coyote lost her mom and sisters in a car crash.  Rodeo is running away from the loss and never looking back. The wandering lifestyle suits Coyote just fine, until she learns that a park where she, her sisters, and her mom buried a memory box is about to be demolished. Suddenly, Coyote desperately needs to get home, but that’s the last place Rodeo will let her go.

As Coyote stealthily urges Rodeo toward home, they pick up a group of unlikely passenge...