families

Eleven-year-old June Jackson has always been good at making the people around her happy, even if that means avoiding telling them what you really think, but as she starts middle school her fairy godmother puts a spell on her that forces her to speak only the truth--even to her friends and family.

When her father goes to fight in World War II, Elizabeth goes with her mother and sister to her grandfather's house where she learns to face up to the always puzzling and often cruel realities of the adult world.

The year that she is in the fourth grade is a difficult one for Amber, as she tries to deal with escalating telephone fights between her divorced parents and her father's impending return to take joint custody of her.

When Maria's family embarrasses her while she tries to win her tryout to be the school mascot, she decides she wants to leave the Pepper pack permanently.

"Oddbird has always been on his own. And he's managed pretty well. But that's changing--now, he wishes for a family. When Oddbird's friends plan a big surprise for him, he realizes he's surrounded by those who accept and care for him. All families don't look the same, and sometimes the families we choose are where we belong"--.

"Magaly enjoys the yummy Cuban food her Abuela has been cooking since arriving from Havana, but when Magaly's sweater goes missing, she discovers that Abuela is making ropa vieja for dinner. Old clothes for dinner? Yuck! Magaly needs to hide the rest of her clothes before her family eats them up. Endnotes feature other imaginative names of food around the world, facts about Cuba, Spanish vocabulary, and two delicious recipes for ropa vieja and arroz con leche.".

Eleven-year-old Jack Clark struggles with everyday obstacles while his family and community contend with the challenges brought on by the Dust Bowl in 1937 Kansas.

Impatient with the constraints put on her as an aristocratic girl living in Korea during the seventeenth century, twelve-year-old Jade Blossom determines to see beyond her small world.

Twelve-year-old Ava finds an old pencil in her family's junk drawer and discovers, during a math test, that it will answer factual questions, so she and her best friend Sophie have a great time--and Ava grows in self-confidence--until the pencil reveals a truth about her family that Ava would rather not know.