FIESTY FEMALES AND WEARY TRAVELERS

The Great Depression was a time when hardly anyone had any money. It was so bad in parts of the country, people would travel from town to town hoping to find something that would give them money to eat. While the strain was obvious to many of the kids, life went on, and accidents still happened. Mary Bayliss was said to be a miracle after she survived a horrible accident - one that her brother, Leo, did not survive. This story has a little bit about history, a little bit about family, a lot about dealing with the loss of someone you love. LEO AND THE LESSER LION by Sandra Forrester is a really good book. It's not too heavy on the history, and really shows how some things in life are just timeless. For 5th - 8th grades.

FAMILY SECRETS

WATCHING JIMMY by Nancy Hartry is about a young girl named Carolyn who's best friend Jimmy has been involved in a horrible accident that makes him brain damaged. Only Carolyn knows the truth to how Jimmy got that way, and she's not sure how to tell people. As the weight of this knowledge continues to press down on her, Carolyn learns what it means to "find her voice" when she is asked to audition for a local choir group AND perform an important speech on Canada's Remembrance Day. This is an easy-to-read story set in the late 1950's and does a great job of portraying that era from a non-stereotypical perspective. For grades 4 and up.

HOLY MYSTERY, GIRLS!

In New York, The Red Blazer Girls are enlisted by an alumni's mother to decipher clues to a valuable birthday gift hidden 20 years earlier. As the intrepid seventh graders of St. Veronica's, an elite all girls Catholic school, begin to search the church and school, they realize that others are also interested in The Ring of Rocamadour.

This new mystery by Michael D. Beil is a page turner with a little romance, academics, religion and a bit of teen angst thrown in for good measure. For readers in 5th & older wanting something beyond Nancy Drew series.

HOW TO BECOME A CATHOLIC

Abby thought there must be a list somewhere telling her what to believe in order to be Catholic. At first she just wanted to piss off her parents, and going to catechism classes and mass on Sundays seemed the easiest way to anger them. She knew she didn't really believe. She couldn't wholly believe. She didn't understand how to believe. What's there to believe in? God? Sure. But believe in Jesus? Well, that would take a leap of faith.

Leap of Faith by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley is a thoughful story of a young girl searching for a place to belong and someone to believe in her. For middle schoolers and up.