Mary Jane Auch.  One-Handed Catch

After losing his hand in an accident in his father's butcher shop in 1946, sixth-grader Norman uses hard work and humor to learn to live with his disability and to succeed at baseball, art, and other activities.

Patrick Carman.  Atherton:  The House of Power

Edgar, an eleven-year-old orphan, finds a book that reveals significant secrets about Atherton, the strictly divided world on which he lives, even as geological changes threaten to shift the power structure that allows an elite few to live off the labor of others.

J. B. Cheaney.  The Middle of Somewhere

Twelve-year-old Ronnie loves organization, especially because her brother has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, but traveling with their grandfather who is investigating wind power in Kansas brings some pleasant, if chaotic, surprises.

Karen Day.  Tall Tales

Sixth-grader Meg Summers and her family move to a new state every few years as her alcoholic father tries to get a fresh start, but when they land in Indiana and Meg finally makes a real friend and begins to talk about her family's problems, they all find the strength to try to change their destiny.

Cynthia DeFelice.  One Potato, Two Potato

A very poor, humble couple live so simple a life they share everything, until the husband discovers a pot with magical powers buried under the very last potato in the garden.

Douglas Florian.  Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars:  Space Poems

and Paintings  A collection of twenty poems about comets, stars, the moon and Mars.

Lisa Graff.  The Thing about Georgie

Georgie's dwarfism causes problems, but he could always rely on his parents, his best friend, and classmate Jeanie the Meanie's teasing, until a surprising announcement, a new boy in school, and a class project shake things up.

Charise Mericle Harper.  Just Grace

Misnamed by her teacher, seven-year-old Just Grace prides herself on being empathetic, but when she tries to help a neighbor feel better, her good intentions backfire.

Alison Hart.  Gabriel's Horses

In Kentucky, during the Civil War, the twelve-year-old slave Gabriel, contends with a cruel new horse trainer and skirmishes with Confederate soldiers as he pursues his dream of becoming a jockey.

Emily Jenkins.  Toys Go Out:  Being the Adventures of a

Knowledgable Stingray, a Toughy Little Buffalo, and Someone Called Plastic  Six stories relate the adventures of three best friends, who happen to be toys.

Patricia Lauber.  What You Never Knew about Beds, Bedrooms, and

Pajamas  You make your bed in the morning. At times in the past, people really made their beds -- and at night they stuffed straw into a sack, making a bed to lie on. Nightclothes were first worn in the 1500s. Before that, people slept in their day clothes, their underwear, or nothing at all. In Ancient Rome, bedrooms were small. A servant guarded the doorway by sleeping across it. Learn these facts and more in this true but funny account.

Emily Arnold McCully.  Marvelous Mattie:  How Margaret E. Knight

Became an Inventor  Mattie Knight loved to make things ranging from a foot warmer for her mother or toys for her older brothers. Or, when she was 12, a metal guard to prevent shuttles from shooting off looms and hurting workers. Later, Mattie invented a machine that could cut and glue the square-bottomed paper bags we still use today. Meet the woman known as "the Lady Edison."

Barbara O'Connor.  How to Steal a Dog

Living in the family car in their small North Carolina town after their father leaves them virtually penniless, Georgina, desperate to improve their situation and unwilling to accept her overworked mother's calls for patience, persuades her younger brother to help her in an elaborate scheme to get money by stealing a dog and then claiming the reward that the owners are bound to offer.

Nancy Ruth Patterson.  The Winner's Walk

Surrounded by a multitalented family, nine-year-old Case Callahan feels driven to succeed, but his failed attempts at various competitions discourage him until he finds a stray dog with a surprising past.

Gary Paulsen.  Lawn Boy

Things get out of hand for a twelve-year-old boy when a neighbor convinces him to expand his summer lawn mowing business.

Brian Selznick.  The Invention of Hugo Cabret

When twelve-year-old Hugo, an orphan living and repairing clocks within the walls of a Paris train station in 1931, meets a mysterious toyseller and his goddaughter, his undercover life and his biggest secret are jeopardized.

Joyce Sidman.  This is Just to Say:  Poems of Apology and

Forgiveness  In haiku, pantoums, two-part poems, snippets, and rhymes, Mrs. Merz's sixth-grade class writes of apology. Some poets are deeply sorry; some not at all. Some are forgiven; some are not. In each pair of poems a relationship, a connection, is revealed.

Catherine Thimmesh.  Team Moon:  How 400,000 People Landed

Apollo 11 on the Moon  Culled from direct quotes from the people behind the scenes, NASA transcripts, national archives and NASA photos, the whole story of Apollo 11 and the first moon landing emerges.

Tim Tingle.  Crossing Bok Chitto:  A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and

Freedom  In the 1800s, a Choctaw girl becomes friends with a slave boy from a plantation across the great river, and when she learns that his family is in trouble, she helps them cross to freedom.

Ruth White.  Way Down Deep

In the West Virginia town of Way Down Deep in the 1950s, a foundling called Ruby June is happily living with Miss Arbutus at the local boarding house when suddenly, after the arrival of a family of outsiders, the mystery of Ruby's past begins to unravel.