Elisa in the middle

Sample

Kate Messner

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. 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. As she continues to use it, the pencil reveals a truth about her family that Ava would rather not know.

Sample

Barbara Haworth-Attard

Desperate to be popular, fourteen-year-old Teresa shares her uncertainties with her old Ken and Barbie dolls as she learns that her mother is pregnant, her grandfather has Alzheimers, and having a boyfriend does not automatically solve all her problems.

Sample

Lisa Railsback

Upon learning that her deceased mother, an artist, went through a "Purple Period," ten-year-old Noonie decides to do the same, hoping that this will bring her archaeologist-father home to see her win a school art contest and that the aunt, uncle, and cousin she lives with will come to understand her just a little.

Sample

Connie Griffith

In St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1927, thirteen-year-old Tootie McCarthy makes a new friend, Joey Staddler, and together they show up the conniving street preacher who has duped Tootie's older sister into joining him.