Transitions 2010
Summer Reading

Into the Dark: An Echo Falls Mystery by Peter Abrahams (YA)
Thirteen-year-old Ingrid Levin-Hill tries to clear her grandfather’s name when he is accused of murdering an environmental activist found on his farm.  This is the third title in the Echo Falls series.

Chains : Seeds of America by Laurie Halse Anderson (YA)
Isabel and her sister Ruth are sold to a cruel couple in New York City.  Isabel spies for the rebels during Revolutionary War.

Ashes of Roses by Mary Jane Auch (YA)
When Rose Nolan arrives on Ellis Island as a seventeen-year-old Irish immigrant, she hopes to find a land of opportunities, but instead she finds a hard life of tenements and factory work.

Penderwicks On Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall (J)
The Penderwick sisters decide that it is time for their father to start dating and they create a Save Daddy Plan to help him along.  This follows The Penderwicks.

Cross My Heart and Hope To Spy by Ally Carter
Cammy, Bex and Liz, while attending the Gallagher Academy Spy School, have to discover who is responsible for the security breaches that leave the school’s top secret status at risk.  This is part of the Gallagher Girls series.

Sweetgrass Basket by Marlene Carvell (YA)
Using alternating voices, two Mohawk sisters describe their lives at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, established in 1879 to educate Native Americans into the white culture.

Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements (YA)
When fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up and finds himself invisible, he and his parents and his new blind friend Alicia try to find ways to reverse his condition so that he can return to normal life.

Shooting the Moon by Frances O’Roark Dowell (J)
Twelve-year-old Jamie’s brother joins the Army and is sent to Vietnam.  Her excitement wears off after she receives rolls of film from her brother which reveal a new side of the war.

Much Ado About Anne by Heather Vogel Frederick (J)
Entering seventh grade, four girls continue their mother daughter book club, reading Anne of Green Gables while dealing with a mean classmate.  This book follows The Mother-Daughter Book Club.

Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke (J)
Mo’s fictitious double – Buejay – tries to keep the Book of Immortality from unraveling.  Adderhead kidnaps all of the children in the kingdom and dooms them to slavery in the silver mines unless Bluejay surrenders.  This continues the trilogy that began with Inkheart, and Inkspell.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (YA)
Nobody Owens, a normal boy, is raised by ghosts and other inhabitants of the graveyard after the members of his family are killed.

Cat O’Nine Tails by Julia Golding (YA)
Cat and her friends are kidnapped and forced to work on a ship bound for the New World and she must use her wits to save herself and her friends in this entry in the Cat Royal Adventure series.

Scat by Carl Hiaasen (YA)
Classmates Nick and Marta decide to investigate a mysterious fire that starts while they are on a school trip to a Florida wildlife preserve.

Ever by Gail Carson Levine (YA)
Teenaged Kezi, who is to be sacrificed to the Hyte god, falls in love with young Olus who is the Akkan god of the winds.  Together they try to change her fate through a series of quests.

Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock (YA)
Ben is transformed through instruction in life at court, determination, and magic from a sullen, pudgy, graceless girl into Crown Princess Benevolence.

How To Steal a Dog : A Novel by Barbara O’Connor (J)
Georgina thinks that she can help her mother with finances by stealing a dog and waiting for the owners to offer a reward.

Season of Gifts by Richard Peck
Twelve-year-old Bob Barnhart and his family have some surprising gifts given to them by their big hearted neighbor Mrs. Dowdel in this companion to A Long Way From Chicago and A Year Down Yonder.

Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins (YA)
When her father loses his job and leaves India to look for work in America, 16 year old Asha Gupta, her older sister Reet, and her mother go to live with her uncle’s family in Calcutta.  The family is caught between the old fashioned traditions and the values of modern Indian families.

Red Glass by Laura Resau
Sixteen-year-old Sophie travels through Mexico with a six-year-old orphan her family hopes to adopt and to Guatemala, where her boyfriend hopes to find his mother.

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan (J)
For the first 12 years of her life, Esperanza Ortega is pampered by servants and her parents on their ranch in Mexico, but a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and her mother to flee to California to work in the fields.

Trouble by Gary Schmidt (YA)
Fourteen-year-old Henry wishes to honor his brother Franklin’s dying wish to climb Maine’s Mount Katahdin, but Trouble finds the family and brings racial tensions in the school and at home.

Antsy Does Time by Neal Shusterman (YA)
Fueled by friendship, Antsy Bonano begins a campaign of signing over days of life to a dying classmate.

Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples (YA)
The lives of Najimah, a young Afghan girl and Nusrat, an American-Muslim teacher, intersect during the Afghanistan and Pakistan War in 2001 – 2002.

The Doom Machine by Mark Teague
The small, sleepy town of Vern Hollow is invaded by a flying saucer filled with inept aliens.

Listen! by Stephanie S. Tolan (J)
Twelve-year-old Charley, recovering from an accident that shattered her leg, tries to connect with a mysterious dog who appears in the woods across the lake from her home.

So Be It : A Novel by Sarah Weeks (J)
After spending her life with her mentally slow mother, twelve-year-old Heidi sets out from Reno, Nevada, to New York to find out the history of her life.