Okay for Now           
     
by: Gary D. Schmidt



Gary Schmidt is one of my new favorite authors!  I love his characters and you will, too!
Doug Swieteck is a middle school boy trying to make it.  Things are anything but easy for Doug, but he has as amazing way of rising above his not so great circumstances.

The Bad Beginning                by: Lemony Snicket

(Book #1 of A Series of Unfortunate Events)





Even though they are charming and clever,
the Baudelaire children lead lives full of misery and woe.  
One might say they are magnets for misfortune.

Wringer
by: Jerry Spinelli
1998 Newbery Honor Book




Palmer did not want to be a wringer. 
This was one of the first things he had 
learned about himself.  It isn't easy
choosing not to do something that
everyone expects you to do.

The River
by: Gary Paulsen

Two years ago Brian's accident left him stranded in the woods alone and amazingly he survived. (Read Hatchet) This time they want him to do it all again on purpose so they can learn survival skills from him.
Brian agrees, but the emergency supplies go back with the plane or Brian says he won't stay with Derek.  Derek is going to record the entire experience, and he agrees to send everything back except the radio.  Little did they know they would need those supplies and radios break.

A Long Way From Chicago
by: Richard Peck

1999 Newbery Honor

Joey and Mary Alice go to stay with their grandmother once a summer for a week.  Joey and Mary live in Chicago and Grandma lives in a small town a long way from Chicago where things are very different.  Grandma does things that Mary and Joey don't even tell their won parent about! Although Mary and Joey don't realize it at the time, those weeks with Grandma will become some of the best memories of their lives.

Bridge to Terabithia
by: Katherine Paterson

1978 Newbery Honor

A wonderful story about friendship, death, family, school, and secret enchanted places.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
by: J.K. Rowling


Harry has a miserable life with the Dursley's, his horrible aunt and uncle and their son, Dudley. His room is a tiny closet at he foot of the steps, and he hasn't had a birthday in eleven years.  That all changes when an owl brings a message to Harry. Off to wizard school he goes and his life will never be the same.