I am Malala

I am Malala: how one girl stood up for education and changed the world
By Malala Yousafzai
With Patricia McCormick

(Young Readers Edition)

Malala always had a passion for education--ever since she was a very little girl, she loved school and excelled at learning. When the Islamist militant group known as the Taliban began to take control of her hometown in Pakistan, all girls were suddenly forbidden to attend school. Along with her father, Malala spoke out about this injustice (she was 11 years old at the time) and through interviews and blog postings she gave the world an understanding of the horrors of Taliban occupation.
One day, inside the school bus on the way home from school, Malala was shot in the head by the Taliban...miraculously, she survived, though she underwent many serious operations.
To this day Malala speaks passionately all over the world about the rights of children and women to receive an education.
In 2014, at age 17, Malala Yousafzai won the Nobel Peace Prize--the youngest person ever to win this prestigious honor.
An amazing, inspiring true story of courage and perseverance.

Counting by 7s

Counting by 7s
By Holly Goldberg Sloan

I believe this is one of my favorite books, ever.
It is hard to imagine a novel that begins with a tragedy, is all about the agonizing process of grief, and somehow also makes the reader laugh out loud.
That is what Holly Goldberg Sloan has created--a beautiful, heart-wrenching and humorous story of a genius middle school girl dealing with the worst thing that has ever happened.
The quirky, eventually-lovable characters in this book are full of spirit but have real-life flaws and problems...they work together to make the impossible happen!
I love that the setting is Bakersfield, California, too.

The Thickety

The Thickety: A Path Begins
By J.A. White

Witchcraft, fantasy, horror, magic...this first book in the Thickety series (4 books altogether) is pretty gripping!

Kara Westfall, a young witch, must figure out whether her powers are evil or for good--or some strange combination of the two... Long ago her mother was murdered before her eyes by the community for being a witch, and Kara has always wondered about her mother's powers and how they were used. The community watches Kara closely to determine whether she should share the same fate as her mother.

Isolated on an island, the town Kara lives in with her dad and little brother borders a creepy forest, the "Thickety." In this magical forest live horrific beasts and strange beings. Kara must enter the Thickety in order to find out the answers she needs to know...

Shooting Kabul

Shooting Kabul 

By N.H. Senzai

Taking place around the time of the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001, middle school student Fadi faces harassment and bullying for being Muslim in his new community of Fremont, California. Along with his family, Fadi recently fled his home country of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, but his 6-year-old sister was accidentally left behind. Fadi is determined to find her by any means and cooks up some wild plans to get to Pakistan, where he thinks his little sister might be.
I loved this story, and especially the surprising and clever end..!

Revolution

Revolution
By Deborah Wiles

This is a hefty book, almost 500 pages. But along with the gripping Civil Rights-era story are pages of photos, leaflets, song lyrics and quotes from the Mississippi Freedom Summer project in 1964.
"The overthrowing of Jim Crow [state laws] by the federal government was a revolution. And it came with its battles. One of those battles was Freedom Summer," writes the author in the book's afterword.
Revolution is an incredible documentary novel about what it took to ensure African Americans in the south could vote and access their rights as citizens of this country. It truly took a  revolution.

Vango

Vango: Between Sky and Earth
 By Timothée de Fombelle

This is a cliff hanger, no doubt...good thing the second book is now out (Vango: A Prince Without a Kingdom)!
An action-packed adventure that includes some WWII history--and even a photograph of the giant "airship" blimp, the Graf Zeppelin--this is the story of one very interesting boy, Vango. Mysteriously orphaned as a toddler, he travels the globe seeking refuge from enemies while trying to uncover his past. Along the way he meets and befriends some colorful characters: a pirate/priest on a secret island, an orphaned girl who lives in a castle in Scotland, the captain of the Graf Zeppelin in Germany, and many others. Always running (or scaling buildings or trains or the Eiffel Tower or other tall structures), Vango somehow manages to survive one crazy adventure after another!

Tokyo Heist

Tokyo Heist
By Diana Renn

Nothing like a good mystery for summer reading!
I enjoyed the twists and turns in Tokyo Heist, and I liked the teenage characters a lot. Violet, especially, is creative and smart; I loved her ideas for her own super-hero manga story about Kimono Girl...
The plot in this novel is clever, and includes cool manga-related details and background, along with the art-theft-Japanese-mafia theme!
And since I spent a few hours in the Tokyo airport earlier this summer, I especially enjoyed the reference to some interesting, unusual toilets...
A fun story!