Published by HMH Books for Young Readers 

Summary:  When Tru and Nelle first meet, he thinks she is a boy and she thinks he is a girl.  After exchanging a few rounds of insults, the two become fast friends.  Both live in Monroeville, Alabama, a sleepy little town in the throes of the Great Depression, but their combined imaginations create a force to be reckoned with.  They love to read, and Sherlock Holmes becomes a favorite.  Before long, Tru is Sherlock and Nelle is Watson, and they’re on the prowl for a real mystery.  A break-in at the local drugstore provides one, but it ends in disaster, and the two decide it’s safer to write their stories than to act them out in real life.  Eventually, Tru’s socialite mother remarries and sends for him to join her in New York City, but first he throws a blow-out farewell party that results in a confrontation with the local Ku Klux Klan.  The writing, the friendship, the wild party…all foreshadow what would happen to these two children who grew up to become Truman Capote and (Nelle) Harper Lee. 336 pages; grades 3-5.

Pros:  Fans of To Kill a Mockingbird will enjoy learning more about the real-life Scout and Dill.  The writing beautifully captures the Depression-era South.  Modeled on Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the book ends with a few short stories which are flesh out the longer novel.

Cons:  Readers in the targeted age range aren’t likely to be familiar with Harper Lee or Truman Capote, making this a much less appealing choice for the younger crowd.

Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Summary:  Deja’s home is a single room that she shares with her parents and younger brother and sister in a Brooklyn homeless shelter.  Her father, for reasons that are unclear to Deja, is unable to hold a job; her mother’s salary as a waitress isn’t enough to cover basic living expenses for the family.  With the move to the shelter, Deja has to change schools.  She’s nervous at first, but quickly makes two friends, Ben and Sabeen, and discovers that she likes this school better than any other she’s attended.  There’s a new curriculum for the fifth graders this year, teaching them about 9/11 and their connection to that event.  At first, Deja’s mystified by this, as she’s never heard about the events of 9/11.  Gradually, she comes to understand not only the tragic day itself, but its impact on her friends—Ben, whose father served in the military in Iraq and Sabeen, whose Muslim family has had to deal with prejudice and discrimination—and her own family.  As Deja becomes more insistent, her father gradually tells her about what happened to him on that fateful day, and together, they begin to move toward healing and rebuilding their family.  240 pages; grades 4-6.

Pros:  A powerful story to commemorate the 15^th anniversary of 9/11.  Readers who weren’t alive in 2001 will learn along with Deja the events of that day and how it changed the people of the United States.

Cons:  It was difficult for me to believe that a fifth-grader who had spent all her life in New York City had never heard about the World Trade Center or 9/11.

Published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers 

Summary:  On September 10, 2010, four kids deal with difficulties in their lives.  In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Will is still grieving the loss of his father, killed when trying to help a stranded motorist on the highway.  Aimee’s mother is off on another business trip to New York City, while Aimee stresses about starting a new school in California.  Sergio is so upset with his absentee father that he skips school and rides the NYC subway, where he meets a kind firefighter who takes Sergio under his wing.  Naheed is starting middle school and for the first time in her life, is self-conscious about the hijab she wears.  Everything changes early the next morning, when events unfold across the U.S. that will impact all four children for a long time into the future.  The final chapter, “One Year Later” brings them together for the one-year ceremony at Ground Zero.  An author’s note tells her personal story of 9/11 and how she came to write this book.  208 pages; grades 3-7.

Pros:  Four engaging stories come together on two fateful days.  Fans of the “I Survived” series will enjoy this book—while there isn’t much of the survival element, it is gripping historical fiction about a catastrophic event.

Cons:  So many characters in a relatively short book makes it hard to get to know any one of them.

Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers 

Summary:  When 11-year-old Rocco is accused of stealing from his parents’ landlord in Italy, he is sold off to a padrone who brings him to New York City to work as a street musician.  In reality, he’s little more than a beggar and a slave, forced to turn over his earnings to the padrone in return for minimal food and shelter.  Hungry and desperate to return home, Rocco joins a band of pickpockets.  He turns out to be a pretty good bandit, and for a while, it looks like he may have found a way to get enough money for a return passage to Italy.  But a bungled robbery results in his arrest, and Rocco finds himself in a reform school on an island off of Manhattan.  A daring escape during the Blizzard of 1888 almost kills him, but he is a rescued by a kind Irish man and his daughter.  Living with them begins a chain of events that puts Rocco’s life back on track and allows him to help other immigrant boys caught in his circumstances.  Back matter includes more information on the historical period covered and about the picaresque novel.  304 pages; grades 3-7.

Pros:  Rocco’s adventures cover a dizzying array of real and imagined people and places from late 19^th century New York City.  He’s a scrappy, likeable narrator, and kids will learn a lot of history while enjoying a page-turning set of adventures.

Cons:  The author’s notes seemed a bit too long to hold most kids’ attention.

Published by Clarion Books 

Summary:  Zomorod is starting sixth grade in Newport Beach, California, the latest stop on her family’s shuffle between their native Iran and her father’s petroleum engineering jobs in California.  It’s not an easy transition, but Zomorod knows one step she can take to help herself—change her name to Cindy.  Middle school has its ups and downs, but Cindy makes some good friends, is at the top of her classes, and finds herself enjoying life in America.  It’s 1978, though, and as events in Iran deteriorate, so does Cindy’s life.  The anti-Iranian sentiment peaks with the taking of American hostages, and Cindy’s father’s job gets cut.  No one is hiring Iranian engineers, and as the crisis in Iran drags on, Cindy finds herself withdrawing from her friends.  Finally, the family is out of savings, and it looks like they will have to go back to Iran—an Iran they hardly recognize anymore under the Ayatollah Khomeini.  Just as things are bottoming out, help comes from a most unexpected source, and Cindy’s friends and neighbors show her that kindness is an international virtue.  An author’s note tells about the semi-autobiographical nature of her story and introduces the Falafel Kindness project.  384 pages; grades 4-7.

Pros:  If Judy Blume were an Iranian immigrant and didn’t write about puberty issues, she might sound something like this.  Cindy’s story is a perfect blend of middle school girl story, historical fiction, and lessons in compassion.

Cons:  When events from your own high school days are categorized as “historical fiction”.

Published by Dutton Books for Young Readers 

Summary:  1943 is the year Annabelle turns 12, and a year when heart-wrenching circumstances change her life forever.  The catalyst is the arrival of Betty Glengarry, the 14-year-old granddaughter of Annabelle’s neighbors, and a girl who quickly establishes herself as a bully.  Her targets include Annabelle and Toby, a World War I veteran who lives as a squatter on a smokehouse near Annabelle’s family’s farm.  Although some of the neighbors have always been wary of Toby, Annabelle and her parents know him as a good man, if somewhat reserved and eccentric.  When Betty goes missing, Toby is a prime suspect, and Annabelle believes it is up to her to help.  Despite her efforts, tragic events unfold, and Annabelle sees the best and worst of humanity encapsulated in her small Pennsylvania community.  304 pages; grades 5-8.

Pros:  The beautiful writing, engagingly flawed characters, and subtle but profound messages have put this book at the top of my 2017 Newbery contender list.

Cons:  This is definitely a tragedy…there’s not a happy ending, although it’s appropriate, and in many ways, satisfying.   Young readers will need some help to understand the many layers of the story.