Emma-Jean Lazarus is a 7th grader at William Gladstone Middle School. Everyone thinks she is strange, but Emma-Jean doesn't seem to care. She is much more concerned about practical & logical things. Emma-Jean's heroes are her father, Eugene, a college mathematics professor who died two years earlier, and the French mathematician, Jules Henri Poincare, who was also her father's hero. One afternoon while she is at school, Emma-Jean finds Colleen Pomerantz crying in the girl's bathroom and decides that she can use her logical reasoning skills to solve Colleen's problem. She forges a document to help her classmate and finds herself in big trouble. Can she undo the mess she created?

Reviewed by: rn

Date read: 6/25/2009

ISBN-10: 0142411507

ISBN-13: 9780142411506

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Two teenage boys, Sam an Israeli Jew, and Yusuf, a Palestinian Muslim from the West Bank, find themselves as uneasy roommates in a Jerusalem hospital. They each hold the strong antagonistic feelings for the other's race and religion that society dictates. As they learn more about each other, they discover that many of the things they believed were in fact misconceptions. They embark on a dangerous escapade into the Old City of Jerusalem at night. Both would be viewed as collaborators and are at great risk if they are found together without the right papers. Despite their serious injuries, they persevere through a series of perilous adventures. Their relationship with each other develops from belligerence into grudging tolerance and acceptance and finally to strong admiration and friendship as they rely on each other to survive and find their way back to the hospital. This is a great book that broaches the issues of the Middle East and of tolerance and friendship in a fast paced action packed story that will surely engage JH readers.

Reviewed by: jcooper

Date read: 1/26/2013

ISBN-10: 1554514312

ISBN-13: 9781554514311

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Ally wears a meteorite around her neck, and her dream is to discover a comet. Bree spends all her time with the A-Clique, and her dream is to become a model. Jack keeps his love of drawing and reading to himself, and he's failing science. He dreams of flying. These three lives are set to collide around the time of a rare solar eclipse at the Moon Shadow Campground, and all of their lives will be transformed as a result.

Similar books: 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass; Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass

Awards nominated: Rebecca Caudill Award Nominee 2012

Reviewed by: emc

Date read: 7/1/2011

ISBN-10: 9780316002578

ISBN-13: 9780316002578

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Abby is on the verge of repeating sixth grade. Her only hope is to get good grades the rest of the year and complete a special assignment. The assignment she chooses is to be a pen pal to a student in Afghanistan. The letters from a farm in Illinois to a mountainous region near Kabul become very personal and the friendship crosses their cultural differences. But it is these same differences that cause unrest in Sadeed's village and his life is threatened. At Abby's school, the flag of Afghanistan is taken off her bulletin board and she is told she cannot replace it. Their simple letters of friendship have to stop to avoid conflicts. Is this fair?

Awards nominated: Rebecca Caudill Award Nominee 2012 and Bluestem Award Nominee 2012

Reviewed by: rn

Date read: 7/1/2011

ISBN-10: 1416949313

ISBN-13: 9781416949312

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Imagine picking up a milk carton at lunch, and seeing your 3-year-old face as a missing child. Janie's search for the truth behind her kidnapping, and her real identity, begins in her high school lunch room. The story continues in Whatever Happened to Janie, Voice on the Radio, and What Janie Found.

Reviewed by: sc

Date read: 3/27/2009

ISBN-10: 038532328X

ISBN-13: 9780385323284

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