WE'RE NOT IN BROOKLYN ANYMORE!

First they visited their long-lost mother in Oakland in One Crazy Summer, they returned to life with their father in Brooklyn in P.S. Be Eleven, and now the Gaither girls are back--this time visiting their paternal relatives in rural Alabama--in Gone Crazy in Alabama, the third and final installment of the series from award-winning author Rita Williams-Garcia. 

Much like the previous two novels, Williams-Garcia paints an all-at-once funny, poignant, and unflinchingly realistic look at life in the 1960s for these three young black girls and their family. As their father reminds 12-year-old Delphine and her younger sisters Vonetta and Fern while he's telling them to be on their best behavior, "the South's not like Bed-Stuyvesant and you can't get more southern than Alabama." 

And truer words have never been spoken: they get their milk and butter from a cow, the best entertainment is hearing their great-grandmother and great-aunt tell conflicting stories about their decades-long feud, and, perhaps most notably, they experience the very real presence of the KKK. But when a potentially deadly storm strikes, things get even more real as Vonetta goes missing after a fight with her sisters. Will the Gaither girls and their family ever be the same after their time in the deep South? 

This historical fiction novel really tells it like it was, and will make a gripping read for 5th to 8th graders, whether or not they've already enjoyed the previous two books in the series. 

WHAT IF YOUR SISTER DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW YOU?

Sunny Skyland has run away from her foster home to find her long lost twin sister, who she hasn't seen since she was three years old. Sunny's had a rough road, and think that reuniting with her twin will make everything better. Along the way across three or four states, Sunny finds a dog who teaches her a lot about love and communication, and she begins to regret leaving her latest foster parent without saying anything. When she finds her twin, Starr, things don't exactly work out like she's planned. RUNAWAY TWIN by Peg Kehret is great for 4th-8th grades.

LUCK IS WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT

Living in a small town means that the friendship pool is not large and in the case of Harry "Dit" Sims it meant that there was almost no one his age in his small Alabama town. But that is going to change, coming to town is a new postmaster and his family. Set in 1917 The Best Bad Luck I Ever had by Kristin Levine tells the story of the somewhat unusual friendship that forms between Dit and Emma who end up teaching each other a lot and making a difference in their community.

For grades 5 through 8.