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Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman
On a spring morning, neighbors Valentina Kaplan and Oksana Savchenko wake up to an angry red sky. A reactor at the nuclear power plant where their fathers work--Chernobyl--has exploded. Before they know it, the two girls, who've always been enemies, find themselves on a train bound for Leningrad to stay with Valentina's estranged grandmother, Rita Grigorievna. In their new lives in Leningrad, they begin to learn what it means to trust another person. Oksana must face the lies her parents told her all her life. Valentina must keep her grandmother's secret, one that could put all their lives in danger. And both of them discover something they've wished for: a best friend. But how far would you go to save your best friend's life? Would you risk your own?Told in alternating perspectives among three girls--Valentina and Oksana in 1986 and Rifka in 1941--this story shows that hatred, intolerance, and oppression are no match for the power of true friendship.
Call Number: 560L
Show Me a Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte
Mary Lambert has felt safe and accepted on her beloved island of Martha's Vineyard, comforted by the fact that her great-great-grandfather was the first deaf islander and paved the way for many to learn sign language. However, when Mary's brother dies and her family shatters amidst land disputes with the English settlers and Wampanoag people, it paves the way for an opportunistic young scientist to come and study the island's prevalent deafness.
Call Number: Y / 730L
Two Roads by Joseph Bruchac
In 1932, twelve-year-old Cal must stop being a hobo with his father and go to a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school, where he begins learning about his history and heritage as a Creek Indian.
Call Number: Y / 740L
I Survived the Attack of the Grizzlies, 1967 (I Survived #17) by Lauren Tarshis
Eleven-year-old Melody Vega and her family visit Glacier National Park every summer, but this year Mel comes face-to-face with a terrifying grizzly bear.
Call Number: T / 550L
Ground Zero by Alan Gratz
On September 11, 2001, Brandon is visiting his dad at work in the World Trade Center when the first plane hits. He begins a harrowing journey to escape and survive. On September 11, 2019, Reshmina has grown up in Afghanistan surrounded by war, but she dreams of peace. When her village is attacked, she comes across a wounded American soldier named Taz, and she must make an impossible choice that could put her family in grave danger.
Call Number: 690L
Beverly, Right Here by Kate DiCamillo
Resolved to leave her home for good, young runaway Beverly is determined not to depend on anyone else, but as she settles in her new home and job, she forms connections with the people around her that alter her perspectives about life and herself.
Call Number: 480L
Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm
Ten-year-old Beans Curry, a member of the Keepsies, the best marble playing gang in Depression-era Key West, Florida, engages in various schemes to earn money while "New Dealers" from Washington, D.C., arrive to turn run down Key West into a tourist resort.
Call Number: 490L
I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912 (I Survived #1) by Lauren Tarshis; Scott Dawson
Excited to board the Titanic with his aunt and little sister, ten-year-old George begins to explore the ill-fated ship's first-class storage cabin when the ship is rocked by a collision with an iceberg and begins to sink.
Call Number: 390L
Room to Dream (Front Desk #3) by Kelly Yang
Mia Tang and her family are taking the trip of a lifetime to visit family in Bejing, but as happy as Mia is to be back with family, she notices that something is different, namely, that her years in America have changed her, and her Chinese relatives see it too.
Call Number: 650L
A Place to Belong by Cynthia Kadohata; Julia Kuo (Illustrator)
Twelve-year-old Hanako and her family, reeling from their confinement in an internment camp, renounce their American citizenship to move to Hiroshima, a city devastated by the atomic bomb dropped by Americans.
Call Number: X 690L
I Survived the Children's Blizzard, 1888 (I Survived #16) by Lauren Tarshis
When John Hale's parents moved from Chicago to a farm in the Dakota Territory in the late 1880s, he was not happy (too hot in summer, too cold in winter, and that is just the beginning); but after a year, and now eleven, he has settled in and made some friends at school--but when a sunny day in January 1888 turns abruptly into a deadly blizzard he will need all his strength and courage to survive what became known to history as The Children's Blizzard.
Call Number: 630L
I Survived the Joplin Tornado, 2011 (I Survived #12) by Lauren Tarshis; Scott Dawson
A young boy living in Joplin, Missouri, finds himself facing the deadly force of a massive, mile-wide tornado that tears through the town in 2011.
Call Number: Q / 710L
Planet Earth Is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos
Autistic and nearly nonverbal, twelve-year-old Nova is happy in her new foster home and school, but eagerly anticipates the 1986 Challenger launch, for which her sister, Bridget, promised to return.
Call Number: X / 740L
Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk
Ellie’s family is forced to leave their home in town and start over in the untamed wilderness of nearby Echo Mountain. Ellie loves her new home, but there is little joy after a terrible accident leaves her father in a coma. An accident unfairly blamed on Ellie.
Call Number: 690L
I Survived the Japanese Tsunami, 2011 (I Survived #8) by Lauren Tarshis
A massive earthquake and devastating tsunami hit Japan while Ben is visiting his late father's hometown, pulling Ben's family apart and leaving him stranded in a strange country during an epic disaster.
Call Number: Q / 650L