NYT - Middle Grade Paperback | Park County Library System

1) A long walk to water: based on a true story

Author

Notes

#1 on the Middle Grade Paperback list for 2024-09-15.

Summary

When the Sudanese civil war reaches his village in 1985, eleven-year-old Salva becomes separated from his family and must walk with other Dinka tribe members through southern Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya in search of safe haven. Based on the life of Salva Dut, who, after emigrating to America in 1996, began a project to dig water wells in Sudan.

2) Restart

Author

Korman, Gordon

Notes

#2 on the Middle Grade Paperback list for 2024-09-15.

Summary

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Chase does not remember falling off the roof, in fact he does not remember anything about himself, and when he gets back to middle school he begins to learn who he was through the reactions of the other kids--trouble is, he really is not sure he likes the Chase that is being revealed, but can he take the opportunity amnesia has provided and restart his life?

3) Willodeen

Author

Applegate, Katherine

Notes

#3 on the Middle Grade Paperback list for 2024-09-15.

Summary

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When the annual migration of hummingbears, a source of local pride and income, dwindles and no one knows why, Willodeen, armed with a magical birthday gift, speaks up for the animals she loves and vows to uncover this mystery.

4) Out of my mind

Author

Draper, Sharon M

Notes

#4 on the Middle Grade Paperback list for 2024-09-15.

Summary

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Considered by many to be mentally retarded, a brilliant, impatient fifth-grader with cerebral palsy discovers a technological device that will allow her to speak for the first time.

5) Fish in a tree

Author

Hunt, Lynda Mullaly

Notes

#5 on the Middle Grade Paperback list for 2024-09-15.

Summary

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Ally has been smart enough to fool a lot of smart people. Every time she lands in a new school, she is able to hide her inability to read by creating clever yet disruptive distractions. She is afraid to ask for help; after all, how can you cure dumb? However, her newest teacher Mr. Daniels sees the bright, creative kid underneath the trouble maker. With his help, Ally learns not to be so hard on herself and that dyslexia is nothing to be ashamed of....

6) Wish

Author

O'Connor, Barbara

Notes

#6 on the Middle Grade Paperback list for 2024-09-15.

Summary

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"A story about a girl who, with the help of the dog of her dreams, discovers that family doesn't always have to be related--they are simply people who love you for who you are"--

7) I am Malala: how one girl stood up for education and changed the world

Author

Yousafzai, Malala

Notes

#7 on the Middle Grade Paperback list for 2024-09-15.

Summary

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"I Am Malala. This is my story. Malala Yousafzai was only ten years old when the Taliban took control of her region. They said music was a crime. They said women weren't allowed to go to the market. They said girls couldn't go to school. Raised in a once-peaceful area of Pakistan transformed by terrorism, Malala was taught to stand up for what she believes. So she fought for her right to be educated. And on October 9, 2012, she nearly lost her life...

8) The boy who harnessed the wind

Author

Kamkwamba, William

Notes

#8 on the Middle Grade Paperback list for 2024-09-15.

Summary

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"When 14-year-old William Kamkwamba's Malawi village was hit by a drought in 2001, everyone's crops began to fail. His family didn't have enough money for food, let alone school, so William spent his days in the library. He came across a book on windmills and figured out how to build a windmill that could bring electricity to his village. Everyone thought he was crazy but William persevered and managed to create a functioning windmill out of junkyard...

9) Brown girl dreaming

Author

Woodson, Jacqueline

Notes

#9 on the Middle Grade Paperback list for 2024-09-15.

Summary

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"Jacqueline Woodson, one of today's finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and...

10) A wolf called Wander

Author

Parry, Rosanne

Notes

#10 on the Middle Grade Paperback list for 2024-09-15.

Summary

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I have a brother. Sharp. Bigger than me, and all growl. I have sisters. Pounce, who loves to wrestle, and Wag, who talks with her tail. And best of all, my brother Warm, who likes to curl up under my chin, the only pup smaller than me. Swift, a wild wolf cub, lives with his pack in the mountains. When a rival pack attacks, Swift and his family scatter, and Swift sets out on an incredible journey through dense forests, into barren wilderness, and across...