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NEWBERY WORTHY?
After one crazy summer with their mother, Cecile, in Oakland, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern fly back to Brooklyn and don't make it out of the airport without getting in trouble with Big Ma who is happy to see them but worried about their independence and "power to the people" mindset. More than the Gaither girls has changed while they were in Oakland, though. Pa's got a girlfriend, Uncle Darnell isn't the same as when he left for Vietnam, and the political air in Brooklyn and America is rapidly changing. Not to mention the country is being swept away by this hot new music group, The Jackson Five. While Delphine loves the tall one, Jermaine, her sisters are in love with the youngest Jackson named Michael. Delphine tries to be the responsible one and reign the girls in, but no one wants to listen to a bossy older sister anymore. How will the girls handle all this change? How will their mother play a role in their lives all the way from Oakland without a telephone or any way to reach her other than letters?
Find out in Rita Williams-Garcia's sequal to One Crazy Summer, P.S. Be Eleven, which, through prose and letters tells the story of the Gaither girls growing up in Brooklyn in the late 60s/early 70s and Cecile's reminder to Delphine to stop growing up so fast and just be eleven. Grades 6 and up.
Jayna, or Gingersnap as her mother liked to call her, is an excellent soup maker. She knows just the soup for every occasion and can make a soup with whatever happens to be in the fridge - even if its just a carrot and some soup stock. Which is a good thing, since it's 1945 and food is being rationed due to World War II. Some days, it feels like there isn't ever enough to eat - and there is never enough sugar or butter to make cakes and cookies. Cooking and baking remind Jayna of her brother, Rob, who shipped out with the Navy as a cook and is her only family. Jayna and Rob's parents both died in a car accident, leaving the kids to bounce from foster home to foster home until Rob was old enough to adopt Jayna. Now that Rob is somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Jayna has to live with their landlady, Celia, who is too concerned with Jayna's manners and safety.
Jayna feels all alone in the great big world - that is until she starts hearing a ghost speak to her. The ghost comes and goes, but tells Jayna she's there to help her find a family. She encourages Jayna to go into Rob's closet where she finds a cookbook that Jayna believes belonged to her mother and there the adventure to find her family begins.
Kids in 4th grade and up can follow Jayna as she leaves upstate New York in search of a grandmother she never knew but desperately wants to find in Gingersnap by Patricia Reilly Giff.
Since Maggie's twin brother is allergic to dogs, it seemed like a perfect plan when her parents suggested she help out her landlord by walking her dog after she hurt her ankle. One thing led to another and instead of walking just one dog for fun she now walks three dogs and has her own bustling small business and all the troubles that come with a business; jealous competition, more business than she could handle, and mysterious dog disappearances. On top of all this, she must keep it a secret from her parents, help out her ex-best friend and keep her blooming crush on "Milo" under wraps. Girl's Best Friend: A Maggie Brooklyn Mystery by Leslie Margolis is a fabulous new mystery series for girls who are seriously into dogs. 
For readers in 5th-8th grade.
For readers in 5
