Any misfits out there?

Misfit or not, you'll cheer for the title character in I, Emma Freke by Elizabeth Atkinson. Emma lives with her free-spirited mom Donatella and her grandfather on the East Coast.  Although Emma is 12, she's almost six feet tall; her height, as well as her red hair and unusual name (sounds a lot like "am a freak"), make her quite an outcast, with only one true friend. Emma has never known her father, and when she gets invited to a Freke family reunion at a campground in Wisconsin, she's excited to have the chance to meet that unknown side of her family.  When she gets there, she's thrilled - not only do they pronounce their name "Frecky" (not "Freak"), but they accept her!  They like her! They look and act like her! Well...maybe not exactly.  With a lot of humor, eccentric personalities, and thoughtfulness, the author provides wonderful characters and a terrific read, especially for the summer.  

Not a camp you'd want to visit

Sometimes I have a hard time judging what middle school readers would think of a book, and that was the case with 90 Miles to Havana by Enrique Flores-Galbis. Although the writing style won't be for everyone, the plot is pretty interesting.  Julian and his brothers are living a good life in Cuba in 1961.  But the country is in turmoil, and the boys are among 14,000 children evacuated to the U.S. as part of Operation Pedro Pan. The brothers live in a refugee camp in Miami, where surviving the actions of the camp bullies is a daily struggle.  The threat of being sent to an orphanage and never seeing their parents again is very real; when Julian's brothers are sent away, he's on his own.  Julian is a clever, resourceful kid - can he figure out how to reunite his family?  Based on the author's childhood experiences, this is a part of Cuban and U.S. history that isn't well known - but should be.

For aspiring chefs!

Close to Famous by Joan Bauer is one of those books that I didn't want to end.  When the Elvis-impersonating boyfriend of Foster McKee's mom becomes abusive, Foster and her mom make a quick exit from Memphis and end up in Culpepper, West Virginia.  Yes, it's one of those small towns with quirky characters, and they're great to read about: the kindly couple that lets the McKees stay in their trailer; Macon, the boy who wants to make documentary films (but doesn't even have a camera); and famous movie actress Charleena Hendley, who's just looking for a little privacy.  Foster's dream is to make cupcakes on her own cooking show; she's not able to read recipes, but she's awesome at remembering what she learns from the show of her chef idol, and soon her cupcakes are making their way into the hearts (and stomachs) of the Culpepper residents.  The stories and hopes of the characters are woven together so well, you'll wish you could visit Culpepper, meet everyone, and try one of Foster's specialities.

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?

A special set of twins

I didn't want The Other Half of My Heart by Sundee T. Frazier to end!  In this absolute gem of a story, Minni and Keira are twins, but it's not obvious - Minni looks a lot like their white father, and Keira takes after their black mother.  They live in a mostly-white, artsy community in the state of Washington.  Minni doesn't realize how Keira often feels out of place until the girls have a summer visit to North Carolina to visit their domineering grandmother and participate in the Miss Black Pearl Preteen Program.  Now it's Minni's turn to feel like a fish out of water, with her pale skin, red hair, and blue eyes. While some girls in the program give her grief for her appearance, her grandmother obviously favors her compared to Keira.  The twins' feelings, questions, and concerns are very authentic, and although the issues of race relations and identity are serious, there are some warm and humorous parts to the story as well.  This book would be perfect for either a middle school girls' book club or a mother/daughter book club.

And you'll be wonderstruck, too

Fans of The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick also need to pick up Selznick's newer book, Wonderstruck.  Don't let the size scare you: there are a lot of pages because he tells one story in words and one in pictures.  Ben lives in Gunflint, Minnesota; it's 1977, and his mother recently died.  He never knew his father but believes he's in New York City, and Ben runs away to find him.  The parallel story is about Rose, a deaf girl living near New York City in 1927. She also runs away into the city in search of a movie star, who you learn is the mother that has abandoned her.  The author did an amazing amount of research to prepare the book (I was lucky enough to hear him talk!), and he does an incredible job of weaving the stories back and forth in a way that makes sense.  As you would expect, the stories and pictures come together in the end in a wonderful way.  This is definitely a book to enjoy multiple times.

"My career as a swindler and a charlatan"

Oooh, I like clever books like Fortune's Folly by Deva Fagan.  Fortunata's father is a shoemaker, but ever since his wife died, he's been making the ugliest shoes imaginable and selling very few.  Fortunata tries to support them by learning the tricks of telling fortunes; by looking for just the right clues (a scar, a type of fabric) she's able to suggest things that are likely to come true.  She is soon required to predict the future for the shy, stuttering Prince Leonato, who's searching for a princess to become his wife.  She comes up with an idea that's fairly far-fetched, and then learns that the fortune must come true, or her father will be put to death.  Readers will notice subtle references to multiple fairy tales (such as Rapunzel and Cinderella), and even though the ending isn't difficult to predict, the pathway to the end takes some unexpected turns.  Part adventure and part romance...this is a fun one!

Will Fadi ever find his sister?

Shooting Kabul by N. H. Senzai has a misleading title: the only "shooting" is done by a camera, and it happens in the U.S., not Kabul (in Afghanistan).  That said, this is an thoughtful book with a wealth of social issues to ponder or discuss.  After Fadi's father is threatened by the Taliban, the family flees Kabul in the middle of the night.  However, in all the chaos while trying to get on the escape truck, Fadi's younger sister Mariam lets go of his hand, and she is tragically left behind.  The family settles near San Francisco, where Fadi tries to adapt to his new middle school.  He's good at photography, and he sets his mind on winning a photography contest - the big prize is a flight to India, which is relatively close to the town where Mariam was last seen.  Can he win the contest and help reunite his family?  Although the ending is too abrupt, the story includes a rich description of Fadi's close family life and Afghan American culture; the glossary of unfamiliar words is a nice touch.

Duck and cover!

I've never seen the format used in Countdown by Deborah Wiles, but it's really interesting.  It's a "documentary novel": a novel that's interspersed with all sorts of visual content - newspaper articles, song lyrics, advertisements, photographs, quotes, maps - and it does an amazing job of pulling the reader into the time frame of the book, which is the early 1960s. Franny and her family live near Andrews Air Force Base, where her dad is a pilot.  On one level, she's dealing with everyday stuff - a younger brother who's way too perfect, a cute boy who lives nearby, a best friend who doesn't seem to be a friend any more - but on another level, she's living through the events leading up to the Cuban  Missile Crisis, with "duck and cover" drills at school in case of a bomb, and a war veteran uncle who wants to build a bomb shelter in their yard.  Additional resources (books and web sites) are listed after the story, and history fans will be glad to hear this is the first of a trilogy  - the second book is scheduled to be released in 2013.

A cat, a blue jay, and a red-eyed tree frog

An odd combination of animals, but they're the amusing main characters in The Familiars by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson.  Aldwyn, a scrappy alley cat, is on the run after stealing some fish, and he ducks into a store that's filled with animals.  A pet store?  Not quite - these are magical animals that are sold as "familiars" to wizards-in-training.  Before Aldwyn knows it, he's scooped up by Jack and heading for quite a bit of adventure.  Jack's two fellow apprentices have familiars of their own, of course: Skylar, an uppity blue jay, and Gilbert, a very funny (and clueless) tree frog.  When the three magicians are kidnapped, it's up to their familiars to save them....except that Aldwyn hasn't exactly told the others that he has no magical ability whatsoever.  Lots of action and plenty of humor - I wasn't surprised to learn that movie options have already been picked up.