Because of the rabbit: On the last night of summer, Emma and her Maine game warden father rescue a small domestic rabbit stuck in a fence; the very next day Emma starts fifth grade after years of being home schooled, excited and apprehensive about making new friends, but she is paired with Jack, a hyperactive boy, who does not seem to fit in with anyone--except that they share a love of animals, which draws them together, because of the rabbit. FIC LOR
The unlikely story of a pig in the city: Josie Shilling's family is too big, their cramped city house is too small, and she feels like no one's ever on her side. Then, on Thanksgiving Day, her older brother, Tom, brings home a pink, squirmy bundle wrapped in an old football jersey, a piglet he rescued from a nearby farm. Her name is Hamlet. FIC KEN
The Unteachables: 'The Unteachables' never thought they'd find a teacher who had a worse attitude than they did. And Mr. Kermit never thought he would actually care about teaching again. Over the course of a school year, though, room 117 will experience mayhem, destruction--and maybe even a shot at redemption- FIC KOR
Secrets and Scones: Scarlett, twelve, ended her friendships and activities when her mother started blogging about her every move, but when an elderly neighbor introduces her to cooking, she begins forging new connections. FIC REM
Reckless Club: After getting in trouble in the eighth grade, five students are assigned by a judge to spend the last day of summer helping out in an assisted living home and manage to forge an unexpected bond with the residents and with each other. FIC VRA
Whippoorwill: In rural New Hampshire, sixteen-year-old Clair Taylor and her neighbor, eighteen-year-old Danny Stewart, fall into an unlikely relationship as they work together to save Wally, a loveable, but mistreated dog kept chained in a junk-filled yard by Danny's cruel father. FIC MON
Jessica Darling's It List: The day before seventh grade begins, twelve-year-old Jessica Darling gets a list from her sister, whose popularity and beauty made her a junior-high standout, but when she tries to follow it, all goes awry, including losing her best friend. FIC MCC
Private Thoughts of Amelia E Rye: Growing up in a small town in upstate New York during the 1960s, a young girl, unwanted by her mother, searches for love and acceptance. FIC SHI
Can You Say Catastrophe? Thirteen-year-old April Sinclair gets her first two kisses--from two different boys--and is not sure how she feels about either one, and cannot wait to be at summer camp with her two best friends and away from her embarrassing family, but her parents cancel her camp plans in lieu of a family RV trip. FIC FRI
Rebel McKenzie: When feisty twelve-year-old Rebel McKenzie, an aspiring paleontologist, goes to spend the summer taking care of her older sister's seven-year-old son at the mobile home park in Frog Level, Virginia, she never expects to enter a beauty pageant or meet a hand model. FIC RAN
Barn Boot Blues: When her parents swap urban life in Minneapolis for rural life on a farm 100 miles away, twelve-year-old Taylor feels as if she is living on another planet. FIC FRI
Water Balloon: Marley's parents have separated and her relationship with her best friends is disintegrating. She's also being forced into the worst summer job ever. The only bright spot is the cute boy next door. With all these changes, can Marley get a grip on her past and her future? FIC VER
Beswitched: On her way, reluctantly, to a boarding school in present-day England, Flora suddenly finds herself in 1935, the new girl at St. Winifred's, having been summoned via a magic spell by her new dormitory mates. FIC SAU
You Wish: Kayla McHenry's life is transformed when a wish on her sixteenth birthday comes true--along with all of her previous birthday wishes, beginning with the appearance of a pink pony. FIC HUB
Camo Girl: Ella has always been friends with a boy known as Z, despite his reputation as the weird kid, but when a new boy, Bailey, moves to town and befriends Ella because they are the only two African American students in the class, she must choose between the popularity Bailey will bring to her life and her lifelong friendship with Z. FIC MAG
How I Nicky Flynn Finally get a life and a dog: Nicky Flynn's life gets all turned around when his parents divorce and he is forced to start a new life in a new town and school; but when his mother brings home Reggie, a former seeing-eye dog, from a shelter, Nicky begins to put his life back into perspective. FIC COR
Deep Down Popular : In a small, Virginia town, sixth-grader Jessie Lou Ferguson has a crush on the hugely popular Conrad Parker Smith, and when he suddenly develops a medical problem and the teacher asks Jessie Lou to help him, they become friends, to her surprise. FIC STO
Lock & Key : When she is abandoned by her alcoholic mother, high school senior Ruby winds up living with Cora, the sister she has not seen for ten years, and learns about Cora's new life, what makes a family, how to allow people to help her when she needs it, and that she too has something to offer others. FIC DES
Impossible Things : Cassidy Silver is accustomed to being the biggest freak in the seventh grade, but things start to change when Victoria, a new girl at school, chooses to be her friend, and the confidence she gains from having a friend spills over into other areas of Cassidy's life. FIC STE
Lucky : As Phoebe and her clique of privileged girlfriends get ready to graduate from eighth grade, a financial scandal threatens her family's security--as well as Phoebe's social status--but ultimately it teaches her the real meaning of friendship. FIC VAI
Violet Raines Almost got Struck by Lightning : In 1970's Florida, eleven-year-old Violet's world is turned upside down by the arrival of a girl from Detroit who seems bent on stealing Violet's best friends. FIC HAW
Aurelia : The king sends for Robert, whose father was a trusted spy, when someone tries to assassinate Aurelia, the stubborn and feisty crown princess of Tyralt. FIC OST
Four things my geeky-jock-of-a-best-friend must do in Europe : Written in the form of letters to her best friend, Delia, back home, Brady tells of her adventures while on a Mediterranean cruise with her mother and of her progress on Delia's list of things she must do, including the search for a code red "Euro-hottie." FIC HAR
Franny Parker: Through a hot, dry Oklahoma summer, twelve-year-old Franny tends wild animals brought by her neighbors, hears gossip during a weekly quilting bee, befriends a new neighbor who has some big secrets, and learns to hope. FIC MCK
The Kind of Friends We Used to Be: Twelve-year-olds Kate and Marylin, friends since preschool, draw further apart as Marylin becomes involved in student government and cheerleading, while Kate wants to play guitar and write songs, and both develop unlikely friendships with other girls and boys. FIC DOW
Callie's Rules: Eleven-year-old Callie Jones tries to keep track of all the rules for fitting in that other middle school students seem to know, but when the town decides to replace Halloween with an Autumn Festival, Callie leads her large family in an unusual protest. FIC ZUC
Viola in Reel Life: When fourteen-year-old Viola is sent from her beloved Brooklyn to boarding school in Indiana for ninth grade, she overcomes her initial reservations as she makes friends with her roommates, goes on a real date, and uses the unsettling ghost she keeps seeing as the subject of a short film--her first. FIC TRI
Faith, Hope and Ivy June: During a student exchange program, seventh-graders Ivy June and Catherine share their lives, homes, and communities, and find that although their lifestyles are total opposites they have a lot in common. FIC NAY
Cupcake Queen: When her parents separate and her mom decides to ditch Manhattan to open a cupcake bakery in Hog's Hollow, Penny has to leave her friends, big-city comforts, and her dad behind. But small-town life isn't all bad. Penny's new friends, Tally and Blake, and a cute boy, Marcus, make her wonder: could she be falling in love--with Hog's Hollow? FIC HEP
Sleepaway Girls: When the exceptionally people-pleasing Sam spends a summer as a counselor-in-training, she learns how to say no, to stand up for herself, and what it feels like to have a crush on a great guy. FIC CAL
The Wish: Wilma, granted her wish to be the most popular girl in school, forgets that she will graduate from eighth grade in three weeks and her popularity will vanish. FIC LEV
Tea Shop Girls: Thirteen-year-old Annie is thrilled when her grandmother agrees to let her work as a barista at the Steeping Leaf, but as the shop faces possible eviction and Annie begins to drift away from her friends, she fears everything is changing and wonders what she will do if the tea shop closes. FIC SCH
Rissa Bartholomew's Declaration of Independence: Having told off all of her old friends at her eleventh birthday party, Rissa starts middle school determined to make new friends while being herself, not simply being part of a "herd." FIC COM
The Wonder of Charlie Anne: In a 1930s Massachusetts town torn by the Depression and other hardships, as well as racial tension, Charlie Anne and Phoebe, the black girl who moves to the farm next door, form a friendship that begins to transform their community. FIC FUS