What if you could fly?

That would be pretty cool, right?  Maybe...or maybe not, according to The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester.  Piper McCloud lives on a farm in Lowland County.  Her parents have usually kept her apart from the other kids, because they worry what would happen if anyone else knew she could fly.  After Piper is allowed a rare appearance in a local baseball game and makes an amazing play, her secret is out.  But wait - in rushes a helicopter and black sedans (what the heck??), whisking her away to a special school where she'll be safe.  The school is an incredible underground facility where she meets other children who have unique talents, such as shrinking/growing, conjuring up weather systems, and phenomenal strength.  Then Piper and the others find out this is actually a very bad place for them to be, because - well, I won't give it away. The pace of the book is uneven (slow start, slow ending, ups and downs in the middle), and a lot of the characterization is pretty one-dimensional, but you still might enjoy reading about kids with super powers and wondering...which super power would you want to have?

How important is your individuality?

Lots to think about when you read Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. The new kid at school goes by the name Stargirl, and she's something else - wears odd clothes, sings "Happy Birthday" while strumming her ukulele, and doesn't really seem to care about others' opinions. After not knowing what to think of her, the students gradually accept her eccentricities and think she's okay. But when she does the unforgiveable - showing compassion to an injured player from an opposing school's basketball team - she is totally shunned. When her friend Leo tries to explain "normal" behavior, she shows up at school with a total make-over: new clothes, look, attitude, and eerily like everyone else. Will the students stop the shunning? Can she keep her true personality buried? And what's more important to Leo, the friendship of Stargirl or the friendship of the others? This excellent story would be great for a book club discussion.