NCW Libraries

New friends and a mystery help Aven, thirteen, adjust to middle school and life at a dying western theme park in a new state, where her being born armless presents many challenges.

Eleven-year-old Verbena Polter gets through a difficult summer of turbulent emotions and the revelation of a disturbing family secret with an odd new friend who believes she is the ghost of a girl who drowned many years before.

It is World War II, and Franny and her parents, Sina and Old Tom, enjoy a quiet life on a farm on Vancouver Island. Franny writes, Sina sculpts, and Old Tom tends to their many gardens--including the ancient, mysterious night garden. Their peaceful life is interrupted when their neighbor begs Sina to watch her children. Soon after the children move in, amid the chaos of the household, Sina sees UFOs, a hermit makes himself useful, a mystery involving...

At Greenglass House, a smuggler's inn, twelve-year-old Milo, the innkeepers' adopted son, plans to spend his winter holidays relaxing but soon guests are arriving with strange stories about the house sending Milo and Meddy, the cook's daughter, on an adventure.

Twelve-year-old Imani, the only black girl in Hebrew school, is preparing for her bat mitzvah and hoping to find her birthparents when she discovers the history of adoption in her own family through her great-grandma Anna's Holocaust-era diary.

Anytime Josie Shilling's large family gets too chaotic, volunteering at the local animal clinic is the one place she can escape--and she loves working with the animals. But when a box mysteriously appears on the clinic's front steps, Josie suddenly becomes responsible for seven adorable puppies! Taking care of her pig, Hamlet, last fall was a bit harder than she thought. So how is she ever going to handle a whole litter of mischievous pups and find...

"Nora and Bens younger sister Birdy loves to keep secrets. She surprises her family more than once: She hides a kitten in her room. She writes a beautiful poem. One day Birdy watches her mother spit into a tube, ready to send it off to find out more about herself and where her family came from. Birdy spits into a tube, too, when no one sees her. But when the test results come back, they are a surprise. Birdy is seemingly not related to Nora and Bens...

"When adopted by the eagle prince, a valley-born eaglet must learn to become a princess and also, a heroine"--

Elmer is a special needs Dachshund who lives at Danny and Ron's Rescue, but he longs to be adopted, and when he attracts the attention of a family he is willing to do anything to impress them--including working hard at the agility course for the pet talent show.

Through e-mails, letters, blog entries, and movie scripts, twelve-year-old Ruth, an American girl, and Ruby, an English one, discover that they are long-lost twins.