Cody and the Mysteries of the Universe (Cody #2) by Tricia Springstubb and illustrated by Eliza Wheeler.
Cody's best friend, Spencer, and his parents are moving in with his
grandmother right around the corner, and Cody can't wait. For one thing,
Cody needs Spencer to help solve the mystery of the never-seen Mr.
Meen, who lives on the other side of the porch with a
skull-and-crossbones sign in the window and an extermination truck out
front. How's Cody to know that a yellow jacket would sting her, making
her scream "Ow! Ow!" just as they start spying? Or that the ominous
window sign would change overnight to "Welcome home," only deepening the
mystery? In this second adventure, Spencer's new-school jitters, an
unexpected bonding with a teacher over Mozart, and turf-claiming kids
next door with a reason for acting out are all part of Cody's
experiences as summer shifts into a new year at school.
The Darkest Corners, by Kara Thomas.
There are ghosts around every corner in Fayette, Pennsylvania. Tessa
left when she was nine and has been trying ever since not to think about
it after what happened there that last summer. Memories of things so
dark will burn themselves into your mind if you let them.
Callie never left. She moved to another house, so she doesn't have to walk those same halls, but then Callie always was
the stronger one. She can handle staring into the faces of her
demons—and if she parties hard enough, maybe one day they'll disappear
for good.
Tessa and Callie have never talked about what they saw
that night. After the trial, Callie drifted and Tessa moved, and
childhood friends just have a way of losing touch.
But ever since
she left, Tessa has had questions. Things have never quite added up. And
now she has to go back to Fayette—to Wyatt Stokes, sitting on death
row; to Lori Cawley, Callie's dead cousin; and to the one other person
who may be hiding the truth.
Only the closer Tessa gets to the truth, the closer she gets to a killer—and this time, it won't be so easy to run away.
The Lie Tree, by Frances Hardinge.
Faith Sunderly leads a double life. To most people, she is
reliable, dull, trustworthy—a proper young lady who knows her place as
inferior to men. But inside, Faith is full of questions and curiosity,
and she cannot resist mysteries: an unattended envelope, an unlocked
door. She knows secrets no one suspects her of knowing. She knows that
her family moved to the close-knit island of Vane because her famous
scientist father was fleeing a reputation-destroying scandal. And she
knows, when her father is discovered dead shortly thereafter, that he
was murdered.In pursuit of justice and revenge, Faith hunts through her
father's possessions and discovers a strange tree. The tree bears fruit
only when she whispers a lie to it. The fruit of the tree, when eaten,
delivers a hidden truth. The tree might hold the key to her father's
murder—or it may lure the murderer directly to Faith herself. Frances
Hardinge is the author of many acclaimed novels, including Cuckoo Song,
which earned five starred reviews.
Scarlett Epstein Hates it Here, by Anna Breslaw.
Meet Scarlett Epstein, BNF (Big Name Fan) in her online community of
fanfiction writers, world-class nobody at Melville High. Her best (read:
only) IRL friends are Avery, a painfully shy and annoyingly attractive
bookworm, and Ruth, her pot-smoking, possibly insane
seventy-three-year-old neighbor.
When Scarlett's beloved TV
show is canceled and her longtime crush, Gideon, is sucked out of her
orbit and into the dark and distant world of Populars, Scarlett turns to
the fanfic message boards for comfort. This time, though, her subjects
aren't the swoon-worthy stars of her fave series—they're the real-life
kids from her high school. Scarlett never considers what might happen if
they were to find out what she truly thinks about them...until a
dramatic series of events exposes a very different reality than
Scarlett's stories, forever transforming her approach to
relationships—both online and off.
Trial by Fire (Riley Donovan #1) by Norah McClintock.
Riley Donovan is the new kid in a small town where her aunt (and
guardian) has just started a job as a detective on the town's police
force. Riley is home alone when a neighbor's barn catches on fire; when
she realizes that he is trapped in the barn, she calls 9-1-1 and then
tries to save him . But instead of being hailed as a hero, Riley finds
herself the target of vandalism and violence. Never one to back away
from a confrontation, Riley discovers that her neighbor, Mr. Goran is an
immigrant from Kurdistan who is hated by most of the townspeople. When
he is accused of arson, Riley is positive he's innocent. In her
determination to get to the truth, she makes some powerful enemies,
uncovers the depth of the town's prejudice and corruption, and figures
out who is targeting Mr. Goran—and why.
The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown. (Also available in audio.)
When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she
is alone on a remote, wild island. Why is she there? Where did she come
from? And, most important, how will she survive in her harsh
surroundings? Roz's only hope is to learn from the island's hostile
animal inhabitants. When she tries to care for an orphaned gosling, the
other animals finally decide to help, and the island starts to feel like
home. Until one day, the robot's mysterious past comes back to haunt
her....
Heartwarming and full of action, Peter Brown's middle-grade
debut raises thought-provoking questions about the environment, the role
technology plays in our world, and what it means to be alive.
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