Outrun the Moon

Outrun the Moon
By Stacey Lee

Fifteen-year-old Mercy Wong will win you over with her spunky attitude, strength, sense of humor, and determination. And she will need all of that and more to survive San Francisco's 1906 earthquake; not only does Mercy face the destruction of her city and beloved Chinatown neighborhood, but she faces discrimination at being a girl AND as a Chinese American.
Against all odds, Mercy talks her way into a private, elite girls school because she's convinced it is her only ticket to becoming the businesswoman she wants to be...but the Great Quake shakes up her plans and brings many unexpected connections, along with devastation and tragedy.
I could not put this book down!

Talking Leaves

Talking Leaves 
by Joseph Bruchac

I read this novel over the winter vacation and found it really interesting, and good!
Told from the perspective of the great Cherokee leader Sequoyah's 13-year-old son, Uwohali, the story relates how the Cherokee alphabet was first invented. At the time, tribe members thought Sequoyah was crazy--or engaging in witchcraft--when he first began to write strange characters and claim to use them for  communication...but eventually his genius invention helped unify the Cherokee people and inspire pride and autonomy.
Joseph Bruchac also wrote Code Talker, which I love.

www.native-languages.org

All the Lovely Bad Ones

All the Lovely Bad Ones
By Mary Downing Hahn

It was fun to read this creepy ghost story, recommended to me by Fiona, an avid reader and regular in our middle school library.

Brother and sister Travis and Corey are spending the summer at their grandmother's inn in rural Vermont--and to make things a little more fun they decide to revive some old ghost stories by pretending to haunt the grounds. Little do they know they are awakening real ghosts with their pranks! A group of orphaned children inhabited the "poor farm" centuries ago and were treated cruelly by the farm's mistress, Miss Ada. The ghost-children, "the lovely bad ones," still long for justice and to be peacefully laid to rest. The horrible Miss Ada continues to mistreat them, though, even from beyond the grave...it's up to Travis and Corey to put an end to this head ghost, and to restore peace at the farm. Will they be brave enough?

All American Boys

All American Boys
By Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

All American Boys is a timely, important, and super impressive book about how an isolated instance of police brutality towards a black teenager affects an entire community, and ultimately the whole country.
When Rashad, age 16, reaches into his bag for his cell phone at a corner store, a minor accident leads to a false accusation that he's trying to shoplift a bag of chips; he is brutally beaten up by a police officer who claims he is "just doing his job."
This event is captured on video and broadcast around the country on the news while Rashad recovers in the hospital...Meanwhile, Quinn, a classmate who witnessed the beating, tries to figure out what he should do in the face of this incredible injustice--especially because he is a friend and neighbor of the police officer.
Told in alternating voices, by two different teenagers--one black, one white--the novel is also written by two authors--one black, one white.

The Great Wall of Lucy Wu

The Great Wall of Lucy Wu
By Wendy Wan-Long Shang

Sixth-grader Lucy would much rather play basketball than go to Chinese School. She knows she will hate it--and besides, why does she need to learn to speak Chinese anyway? She wants to be a basketball star!
When her great aunt comes from China to visit for an extended stay (months!) Lucy is even more horrified that she will have to share her room with Yi Po...who doesn't speak any English.
Lucy is sure her year is doomed. But she is in for some surprises, to help her deal with the challenges of family and school stuff!

To This Day

To This Day
By Shane Koyczan

To This Day is a spoken word poem by Shane Koyczan, beautifully illustrated in this powerful book by 30 different artists from around the world.
The video of Koyczan's poem about bullying--and being bullied himself--went viral on the internet in 2013. It is moving and inspiring.

The Mildenhall Treasure

The Mildenhall Treasure
By Roald Dahl
Illustrated by Ralph Steadman

Since I love all stories by Roald Dahl, I was curious when I found this on our library's shelves; I had never heard of it before. This true, short story is amazingly and beautifully illustrated, so it's really a picture book--and quite a great one!
Inspired by a news story from a newspaper he read in 1945, Roald Dahl interviewed an English farmer named Gordon Butcher who had accidentally uncovered a Roman treasure while working in the fields one day. Little did Mr. Butcher know he had stumbled upon an incredible, rare fortune, buried for over a thousand years...and then he was cheated out of it by a greedy neighboring farmer who knew what the treasure was really worth.

Here is an account of the of the same story and photos of the treasure from the British Museum, where it is kept to this day:
https://blog.britishmuseum.org/2012/03/29/roald-dahl-and-the-mildenhall-treasure/