When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

This Newbery winner is definately worth the award and the time to read! Miranda and her best friend Sal have a falling out upon entering sixth grade. Soon after she begins finding mysterious notes accurately prediciting the future. The mystery isn't that difficult to figure out. The brillance of the story rests in delivery. It's really a story about friendship but it is so uniquely wrapped up in a bit of sci-fi fantasy. Upon finishing, you'll want to check back to see if you missed some key clues. You'll also want to pick up A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle as this classic sci-fi is an intricate part of the story.

Humor with Heart

After Ever After
by Jordan Sonnenblick
When I picked this book up to read, I was clueless what I was about to experience. The story is actually I sequel to Sonneblick's Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie. You don't need to read the first, I didn't! The story picks up on the Alper family's struggle with Jeffery's cancer. In the first book, the story by Jeffery's older brother, during 8th grade. This time it's Jeffery telling the story, again during 8th grade. The story, though sad at times, is told with such ease and humor. It will make you laugh and cry...just like life. I particularly like the wording and description of following review.

"Most of all, he recognizes that humor and heart aren’t ways to lighten a story—they’re there to deliver it. As hilarious as it is tragic, and as honest as it is hopeful, don’t confuse this book with inspirational reading. It’s irresistible reading."-Booklist

Irresistible...YES!

Insight into a culture

Keeping Corner

by Kashmira Sheth

Set in India at the time of Gandhi, Leela is poised to embark on her new life with her husband when he suddenly dies. His death marks her as a widow. Keeping with tradition, Leela must shed all bight, colorful clothes and jewels; shave her head, and remain inside the family home for one year, "keeping corner". Her confinement isn't the worst of it, it is knowing that at age thirteen, she is a widow, considered bad luck with no future, and having a heart-broken family.

Sheth chronicles Leela's year juxtaposed again the revolutionary times of Gandhi. Will change come to India and to her small rural village? And if so, will it provide an opening, an outlet for Leela to learn, grow and love.

Fun fantasy

Dealing with Dragons
by Patricia C. Wrede

The first in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles series, this fantasy is a light-hearted and fun read. The main character Cimorene escapes the tedious tasks of being a princess and her pending marriage by volunteering to become a dragon's princess. Her new life is far more entertaining than her the boring proper princess lessons. It's while she is preforming her new duties that she stumbles upon a mystery. What are the wizards trying to steal from the dragons!

Dealing with Dragons is a great fantasy. Read this one and you'll be picking up the rest of the series; Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons and Talking to Dragons.