Georgie Burkhardt knows that the unidentifiable body buried in the family plot is not that of her older sister, Agatha, who recently ran away. In the adventurous historical novel One Came Home, based on two actual events in Wisconsin in 1871, the spunky 13-year-old heroine and best shot in Placid, Wisconsin, sets out to find her sister. She prepares for the trip with advice from Randolph B. Marcy’s The Prairie Traveler (a real book from which the author quotes), a few gold dollars and a Springfield single-shot rifle, and is surprised when Billy McCabe, Agatha’s unrequited love interest, shows up to accompany her.

The pair follow the path Agatha took with pigeoners, who crossed the Midwest trailing the country’s largest recorded migration of the now-extinct passenger pigeon. On the long ride atop a stubborn mule, the outspoken, headstrong girl has plenty of time to reflect on the events that led to Agatha’s departure (including Georgie’s own guilty actions), the handsomeness and unexpected kindness of Billy, and the meager clues that may lead to Agatha’s return. She tells it all in folksy narration, topped with self-deprecating humor.

Georgie’s not just a thinker, though. She roars into action when faced with cougars, ruthless counterfeiters, a mistaken woman who resembles Agatha and even death. As she makes some hard decisions, she learns to see the world beyond appearances and her own wishes. The author seamlessly introduces food, clothing, transportation and societal manners from the time period, allowing readers to learn about the era without even realizing it. Through Georgie’s unrelenting journey, Amy Timberlake has crafted a True Grit for the middle school set.

Nate Foster will never fit in with the kids in his hometown of Jankburg, Pennsylvania. In a place that worships sports stars, 12-year-old Nate prefers to belt out Broadway tunes loud enough for the neighbors to hear. So when Nate learns about an open casting call for E.T.: The Musical, he knows that this could be his only chance to escape.

In Better Nate Than Ever, by Broadway veteran Tim Federle, Nate travels to New York armed only with his cell phone, a box of Entenmann’s donuts and his mom’s ATM card.

Once Nate arrives in the city, things don’t go exactly according to plan. From getting caught in a downpour (in his audition clothes), to underestimating the number of kids interested in playing Elliot in E.T.: The Musical, Nate’s big plan for escape crumbles all around him. However, just like on stage, all you need is one twist of fate and everything can turn around.

A confession: Your reviewer is a huge fan of Broadway musicals. And on its surface, this book is written for fans like me. However, there is so much more to this story. Nate is rash and immature, yes, but he is also determined and courageous, and desperate to figure out where in the world he fits. Filled with adventure, suspense, humor and unique characters, Better Nate Than Ever will be enjoyed by anyone who has ever decided to stop waiting and make their own dreams come true.

Acclaimed author Gary Paulsen has often written about dogs, and is known as an enthusiastic fan of canines. He clearly passed this love on to his son, Jim, co-author of Road Trip, the quirky, fast-paced story of a father and son on a quest to rescue a young border collie.

As Gary Paulsen explains in his author’s note, he and Jim hadn’t actually set out purposefully to write a book together. Instead the project grew naturally and organically, with each sharing chapters over email. Notes the Newbery award-winning author: “Maybe it’s because we both love dogs that we could work together like this. . . . Jim and I lost track when we tried to count how many dogs we’ve owned over the years. But we’ve never lost sight of how much they added to our lives.”

Road Trip begins, appropriately, at the beginning of summer vacation. Fourteen-year-old Ben isn’t surprised at the sudden summons to hop in the truck and travel light. He’s used to tagging along with his dad’s spur-of-the moment adventures. And so is Atticus, the current (and sole) family Border collie. Atticus, who sometimes seems to know more than his humans, provides some of the book’s funniest passages. Atticus is not entirely keen on the quest to get another dog. “Getting a dog is a terrible idea,” he states. “Dogs are not my favorite thing. Dogs are messy and needy.”

Like all good road trips, this story contains adventure, danger, surprises, unexpected twists and turns, and a bevy of eccentric characters. And why not? From On the Road to Little Miss Sunshine, road trips are in our collective blood. Young readers could not begin with better guides than Gary and Jim Paulsen.

Thirteen-year-old Jalen doesn’t believe in horoscopes, especially since her sign, Sagittarius, never seems to fit her. She goes to see an astrologer, Madame Beausoleil, on her birthday anyway since the annual visit is a tradition she has always kept with her grandmother. This year, Jalen goes with her friend Ellie since her grandmother is in the hospital dying of cancer. It’s not the same with Ellie, and Jalen is just as disappointed in her horoscope reading as ever, but she finds a dusty old book in the crowded gift shop that she feels compelled to have. It’s called Keypers of the Zodiack and it’s locked with a chain. Jalen can’t help wondering if unlocking the book might help her to unlock the mystery of who she is as well.

Author Kristin O’Donnell Tubb’s exciting new middle grade fantasy, The 13th Sign, is a departure from her two earlier books, both works of historical fiction (Selling Hope, Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different). Here, she starts with an intriguing premise: What if there were a 13th sign in the zodiac that has been hidden from humans? When another sign is squeezed in, almost everyone’s astrological sign changes to make room for it. Tubb is adept at creating the main characters’ distinct personalities and then altering them when the 13th sign is unlocked. But these changes create all kinds of problems, and Jalen and her friends set out to put the 13th sign back under lock and key.

The story moves along at nice pace: fast enough to keep readers turning the pages but contemplative enough to keep them thinking. While we realize that Jalen must seal away the 13th sign in the end, there are still many surprises as the adventure unfolds, with a chance at a sequel to come. This inventive fantasy, set in the real world of New Orleans, will appeal to a wide audience.

Hokey Pokey is the perfect kids’ world. There are many places to play, continuous cartoons on a big screen, wild herds of bicycles, even places for tantrums and snuggling. Only kids live here, from the time they first shed their diapers until they become Big Kids. But what happens then?

Newbery Award-winning author Jerry Spinelli explores this question with his usual grace and creativity in Hokey Pokey. His main character Jack wakes up one morning to find that his great stallion bike Scramjet has been stolen and nothing is as he expects. When he discovers that his tattoo, the one every newbie gets upon entering Hokey Pokey, is starting to fade, he knows for sure that his life is about to change forever.

It’s hard to talk about how wonderful this book is without giving away its secrets. Adults will know early on what Jack is experiencing, and tweens might guess but not fully understand. Pre-teens will identify with Jack—and his friends the Amigos and his nemesis Jubilee—in a way that will startle them. The ending is a satisfying “click” of the last puzzle piece. If readers are put off by the childish-seeming premise at the beginning, encourage them to keep going. Hokey Pokey is not just a place, but also a journey they will recognize.

This is the kind of remarkable, unique and perfect coming-of-age story that makes the reader think, “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?” And all of a sudden, there is no better way to describe childhood—or its end.

In Gingersnap, Newbery Honor winner Patricia Reilly Giff returns to the Brooklyn of her childhood to tell the heartwarming story of a young girl during World War II.

Since her parents’ death in a car accident, Jayna has been under the care of her brother, Rob. But Rob is called up for duty, leaving Jayna with Celine, their landlady.

When a telegram arrives, the news is terrifying: Rob is missing in action. Unable to face a loveless future as a burden to Celine, Jayna decides to take matters into her own hands. With her pet turtle in a cat carrier, Jayna boards a bus from upstate New York to Brooklyn. She is following clues in her mother’s old recipe book, which tell of a bakery called Gingersnap. Could a grandmother she has never known live there?

Evoking the sights, sounds and tastes of neighborhoods from a time gone by, Gingersnap was a labor of love for Giff, whose inspirations included memories of her grandfather.

Readers are often introduced to WWII through stories of combat. Gingersnap offers an evocative picture of life on the home front.

Lyssa was raised in idyllic Austin, Texas, by a magical mother who starred in the local talent show and seemed to hang the stars without a stepladder. When her mother died, life became flat and monochromatic. News that their family home is set to be demolished gives Lyssa a mission—make it from her new digs in Washington State to Austin in time to save the house, riding her dilapidated two-wheeled scooter, Zip. No problem, right?

During her road trip—it's more than fair to call it an odyssey—Lyssa encounters a range of eccentric characters who push the bounds of magic realism into the surreal. First-time author Ellie Rollins humanizes this colorful landscape with precise description. Lyssa meets an unnaturally tall woman whose hair “was gray and wispy, like it had been fashioned from dandelion seeds and dental floss.” Growing up in show business, she's naturally unfazed by the craziness that unfolds while she desperately tries to get home, navigating through gender-flipped singers, a restaurant flood, burlesque mermaids—the list goes on. Watch out for the whirlpool in the Motel Charybdis' hot tub (just a friendly warning).

Zip is a genuine treat, a classic retold with freshness, humor and heart. Kids who are familiar with Homer’s Odyssey will be amazed at how the same story can translate into present-day life in the U.S., and those who haven't read it will enjoy the adventure and be well primed to tackle the source material later. Under all the mythology, there's also a moving story here about grief, love, loss and what makes a home a home. Don't let Zip pass you by.

Newbery-winning novelist Karen Cushman introduces her first male leading character in Will Sparrow’s Road, an engaging historical fiction adventure set in 1599, in Elizabethan England.

By all accounts, including his own, young Will Sparrow is a liar, a thief and a runaway. Will lives the only way he can—by his wits. It’s no wonder his motto has become: “I care for no one but myself . . . and nothing but my belly.”

Will’s father has sold him to an innkeeper in exchange for ale. But when the innkeeper threatens to sell Will off as a chimney sweep as a penalty for stealing a cold rabbit pie, Will knows the time has come to make his own way in the world. Along the way, he meets up with a troupe of “oddities and prodigies” who travel from fair to fair.

Cushman deftly weaves in Will’s adventures with fascinating details about Renaissance fairs of the time, which served as temporary markets for the sale of livestock, food and goods: “saddles and baskets and woolen cloth . . . candlesticks of pewter and brass, heaps of apple tarts, creamy cheeses, and plums.” Some young readers will recognize elements of the “Saturday markets” we have in cities and towns today, which combine farmers’ markets with hand-made goods and entertainment.

But readers will be less familiar with the odd members of Thomas Tidball’s band, which include a learned pig named Duchess, a wild cat-girl, a little man named Lancelot Fitzgeoffrey—and, eventually, Will himself. In this harsh world, where nothing is quite as it seems, Will must learn to sort friend from foe, and hope that, in the end, he can find a place to call home. Cushman’s lively account of his journey makes it a pleasure to follow along.

Imagine your mother disappearing, leaving you with someone you don’t know and don’t trust. Imagine being forced from your home, onto the streets of a busy city, left to find food and shelter, or to starve and freeze. Now imagine all of this taking place when you were only four years old. That is exactly what happens to Ivan in The Dogs of Winter, a new book by Bobbie Pyron, which is based on a true story. Left with nowhere to go, and no one to turn to, Ivan begins living on the streets of Moscow, Russia.

However, Ivan is not alone for very long. First, he is adopted into a group of children living on the streets. Ivan and the other children spend their days begging for money, stealing food and trying to avoid both the militsiya (the police) and the gangs of Crow Boys. One day, though, Ivan stumbles into a small hollow behind a building and is surrounded by a pack of wild dogs. Through careful action (and a lot of food), Ivan slowly integrates into the pack and begins to live solely with the dogs. For the next two years, Ivan and his pack move to a number of different places, and finally to the woods outside of Moscow, continuously avoiding danger and capture. It is there that Ivan must confront who and what he really is.

The Dogs of Winter is an incredibly engaging and engrossing book. The fact that it is based on a true story only heightens the appeal of the writing. Pyron, a former librarian and author of two previous books, including A Dog's Way Home, is able to give incredible insight into the mind of a young child, communicating the character and emotions of both boy and dog without coming across as silly or trying too hard. Readers are left continuously on edge with fear and excitement as Ivan and his pack escape detection and do their best to survive with no one’s help but their own. Perfect for fans of animal, adventure or survival stories, The Dogs of Winter will pull young readers in from the first chapter and leave them fully absorbed in Ivan’s unique life.

Abby, a big girl with an even bigger heart, is tired of the “medium girls” who are medium smart and medium attractive. And she’s especially tired of their ringleader and bully, Kristen. In The Second Life of Abigail Walker by award-winning author Frances O’Roark Dowell, the sixth-grader walks away from their pettiness and discovers a rich world with unexpected friendships.

Abby takes solace in an abandoned field where she can draw and dream of houses she’d like to build. When Kristen and her followers threaten to locate her, Abby takes off deeper into the woods, where she finds a farm with 9-year-old Anders and his Iraqi war veteran father, Matt, who’s waiting for a space in the VA hospital. Suffering from what appears to be Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Matt has become obsessed with Lewis and Clark’s expedition and the numerous animal species the explorers encountered along the way.

Abby finds solace with this family that doesn’t judge her weight or watch how many pizza slices she slips onto her dinner plate. Soon she’s not just swapping lunch with her new Indian-American friends and getting to know the school’s computer expert but relying on them for research to help Matt with his animal project. Enhancing this realistic story is a layer of magic and folklore as the woods is also home to a fox that observes Abby’s situation. Intermittent chapters from the fox’s point of view reveal an unusual connection to Matt’s tour of duty.

Unlike most stories that tackle bullying or issues with weight, this touching tale doesn’t feature Abby trying to defend herself from the mean girls or trying to shed pounds. Instead, the spunky, resilient tween looks for and finds acceptance from those she cares about—including herself. That’s something all readers can relate to, no matter their size or popularity.

Benny’s life has always been different. Benny’s mom, Nola, is tired of living in small-town Missouri, and longs to be back in New Orleans. Benny’s dad, Calvin, grew up in Dennis Acres and could never imagine leaving it, and his “collectibles,” behind. In Homesick, the new novel by Kate Klise, these conflicting emotions become too much. After Benny’s dad loses his store, he has to move his entire inventory home. Furious, Benny’s mom demands that Calvin throw something—anything—away. When Calvin refuses, Benny’s mom walks out the door, leaving Benny and his dad behind.

Benny’s dad has always like to collect things—“irredeemables” from the repairman in town, electronic equipment that he believes will be part of a computer network that connects the entire country (Homesick takes place in 1983, before the Internet was widely used, or even known), and anything else he can find. After Nola leaves, though, Calvin begins to “collect” everything—used pizza boxes, truckloads from the dump and enough spare parts to actually build a working motorcycle. It fills the house that Benny and his dad live in, and then spills out onto the porch, and into the yard.

This mess would be bad enough under normal circumstances, but when Dennis Acres accidentally wins the title of “America’s Most Charming Small Town,” everyone realizes that Calvin’s mess needs to be cleaned up. Everyone that is, except for Calvin. Benny enlists the help of a number of memorable characters to devise a way to clean up and clear out his house. However, there is another force that no one sees coming that will change everything.

Homesick is a unique novel that offers both hilarious situations and heartwarming moments. There is a relatively small cast of characters, but each is presented carefully as having both flaws and redeemable characteristics. Klise, who lives in the Missouri Ozarks and has written several award-winning books for children, creates a community that invites you into its inner workings, and makes it easy to feel as if you know everyone in town. Her latest novel holds broad appeal for anyone who likes a good story and great characters. One warning, though: the ending will really blow you away!

Malcolm is a runt of a rat, enough so that he's mistaken for a mouse and brought from the Pet Emporium to Mr. Binney's fifth-grade classroom. Once there he befriends some students and also discovers the Midnight Academy, an after-hours gathering of all the class pets who work together to keep the school's “nutters,” or kids, safe. The Academy's disdain for rats keeps Malcolm in hiding about who he really is, and suspicious of Honey Bunny, a rabbit with a giant chip on his shoulder. The Academy claims “a critter reveals his true self at midnight,” when the faculty and students aren't around. When the school is faced with a crisis, will Malcolm step forward?

Malcolm at Midnight is an interesting mash-up of a middle-grade novel. First-time author W.H. Beck combines many beloved themes—intelligent animals, secret clubs, middle school melodrama—into a fine-tuned noir mystery. Snip the cat is evil enough to star in an animal remake of Cape Fear, yet the story of his youth makes him sympathetic (to a degree). And the plot against the school is genuinely creepy and similar to things kids may have heard about on the news. That said, the book also has a winning sense of humor—the story is told in the form of a note left for Mr. Binney by an anonymous student, and is lavishly footnoted with side commentary, including definitions of classroom vocabulary words. Beck finds comic relief in the scariest moments, as when Malcolm is scooped up by a barn owl—instead of becoming a rat-kebab, he manages to help the owl: “In nature, a friendship like this is usually permanently damaged by one friend eating the other.”

Brian Lies’ illustrations bring both the action and the quieter moments to life. Malcolm at Midnight is ultimately a story about identity and inclusion, but kids will get that message along with a spoonful of adventure, a smart whodunit and several laughs. This one's a winner.