F SEL	To Catch a Mermaid (age 8-11) by Suzanne Selfors humor ... illness/loss ... family ... fantasy ... magic When Boom Broom's mother is swept away by a twister, he doesn't think his life can get any worse. But when he and his sister Mertyle find a baby mermaid who grants unlimited wishes, he thinks his luck has turned--until his sister is hit by the curse of the merfolk.
F MAC	Edward's Eyes (age 8-11) by Patricia Maclachlan illness/loss ... family ... sports Jake is a part of an extraordinary family. He has a life filled with art, music, and long summer nights on the Cape. He has hours and days and months of baseball. But, more than anything in this world, Jake knows he has Edward. From the moment he was born, Jake knew Edward was destined for something. Edward could make anyone laugh and everyone think. During one special year, he became the only one in the neighborhood who could throw a perfect knuckleball. It was a pitch you could not hit. That same year, Jake learned there are also some things you cannot hold.
F KIM	Kaline Klattermaster's Tree House (age 8-11) by Haven Kimmel school ... humor ... family ... illness/loss Kaline Klattermaster LOVES his mom. ADORES his mom. But his mom can be, well, a bit forgetful sometimes. A bit lax. A bit...CRAZY. For instance, she's a bit crazy when she leaves him in the tub for THREE HOURS. Or gives him a chicken leg for breakfast...or forgets that he needs to go to school. AND he's not completely sure his mother understands how time works. She's been even a bit MORE CRAZY since his dad left. So it's a very good thing that the folks in Kaline's tree house are not so crazy. They understand him. They don't mind that he sometimes HAS to play his pretend bugle, and, of course, they are FULL of good advice on how to handle bullies. His mom hints that the tree house is imaginary. Kaline is UNCONVINCED.
F LIT	Mine for Keeps (age 8-11) by Jean Little school ... illness/loss ... family Sarah Jane Copeland expects special treatment when she returns home after spending five years at a cerebral palsy center, but her family treats her as an able member.
F MAY	Rock River (age 8-11) by Bill Maynard adventure ... family ... illness/loss Twelve-year-old Luke's summertime adventures along the river are haunted by the memory of his older brother Robert, who died being a daredevil in the same place a year and a half earlier.
F GIF	Rat Teeth (age 8-11) by Patricia Reilly Giff illness/loss ... growing up ... family It's bad enough that his parents are divorced and his two front teeth stick out a mile, but when he loses a baseball game to the fourth graders, even a "toughie" like Cliffie feels he has no choice but to run away.
F LOV	A Year Without Rain (age 8-11) by D. Anne Love illness/loss ... family Her mother's death and a year-long drought has made life difficult for twelve-year-old Rachel and her family on their farm in the Dakotas, but when she learns that her father plans to get married again, it is almost more than Rachel can bear.
F BRA	Weaver's Daughter (age 8-11) by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley illness/loss ... historical In 1791 after her family's journey from Pennsylvania, ten-year-old Lizzie suffers from the disease of asthma in her new home in the Southwest Territory (present-day Tennessee).
F CAS	Dorothy's Darkest Days (age 8-11) by Judith Caseley illness/loss ... school ... friendship ... family Dorothy's boisterous life with her parents, two brothers, and sister is suddenly changed when something tragic happens to a classmate of hers, but she finds that things eventually do return to normal.
F YAR	Tamika and the Wisdom Rings (age 8-11) by Camille Yarbrough family ... illness/loss Tamika finds strength in her family, her friends, and herself as she copes with the murder of her father.
F WIL	Each Little Bird that Sings (age 8-11) by Deborah Wiles friendship ... family ... illness/loss Comfort Snowberger is well acquainted with death since her family runs the funeral parlor in their small southern town, but even so the ten-year-old is unprepared for the series of heart-wrenching events that begins on the first day of Easter vacation with the sudden death of her beloved great-uncle Edisto.
F SMI	A Taste of Blackberries (age 8-11) by Doris Buchanan Smith friendship ... illness/loss Jamie is special, full of surprises, unpredictable. He can get into trouble, and then out of it. He courts danger, and always escapes. And he has an answer for every impossible question. But when something sudden and terrible happens to Jamie, his best friend has to face the tragedy alone. Now there are questions that not even Jamie could have answered.
F PAT	Flip-flop Girl (age 8-11) by Katherine Paterson family ... friendship ... illness/loss Uprooted following the death of their father, nine-year-old Vinnie and her five-year-old brother, Mason, cope in different ways--one in silence--but both with the help of Lupe, the flip-flop girl.
F PAR	Clara and the Hoodoo Man (age 8-11) by Elizabeth Partridge spooky ... illness/loss ... family ... historical When Clara meets the hoodoo man on Red Owl Mountain, she knows she should just take little Bessie by the hand and leave. Momma has always warned Clara that the hoodoo man can put a fix on you. The next day, Bessie becomes dangerously sick. Is it Clara's fault? Is it hoodoo? Based on a true story, this is a vivid picture of rural life in turn-of-the-century Tennessee.
F NAP	The Bravest Thing (age 8-11) by Donna Jo Napoli illness/loss When her pet rabbit's newborn babies die, her doctor tells her that she may have scoliosis, and her aunt is diagnosed with cancer, ten-year-old Laurel feels constantly reminded of the mortality of all living things.
F WIL	Love, Ruby Lavender (age 8-11) by Deborah Wiles letters/journal ... illness/loss ... family When Ruby's grandmother, Miss Eula goes to visit her new grandbaby in Hawaii, Ruby is sure that she will have a lonely, empty, horrible summer without her in boring old Halleluia, Mississippi. What happens instead? She makes a new friend, saves the school play, writes plenty of letters to her favorite (and only) grandmother . . . and finally learns to stop blaming herself for her grandfather's death. Not too bad, for a nine-year-old.
F HEN	Sun and Spoon (age 8-11) by Kevin Henkes family ... illness/loss It had been only two months since Spoon Gilmore's grandmother died, but already he was worried that he would forget her. That's why he needed something of Gram's - something special that had belonged to her, something to remember her by. Spoon wasn't quite sure what the something was, though he knew he would know it when he saw it. But Spoon's little sister, Joanie, did not leave him much time to look. She was always following him, demanding attention. Spoon didn't have the time he needed to think, or perhaps he wouldn't have done what he did.
F HEN	Words of Stone (age 8-11) by Kevin Henkes illness/loss ... friendship ... family Blaze Werla is having a routine summer. He spends his days alone, wandering around the hill next door, and his nights awake, avoiding the dreams that haunt him. Then a message appears on the side of the hill and Blaze's predictable summer suddenly takes a turn toward the mysterious. By the time he meets outgoing Joselle Stark, Blaze finds himself in entirely new territory, where the unexpected seems almost normal.
F GIF	Lily's Crossing (age 8-11) by Patricia Reilly Giff war ... illness/loss ... friendship ... historical Every summer Lily and her father go to her family's house in Rockaway, near the Atlantic Ocean. But the summer of 1944 is different. World War II has called Lily's father overseas, Lily's best friend Margaret had to move with her family to a wartime factory town, and Lily is forced to live with her grandmother. But then a boy named Albert, a refugee from Hungary, comes to live in Rockaway. He has lost most of his family to the war. Soon he and Lily form a special friendship, and they have secrets to share. But they have both told lies, and Lily's lie may cost Albert his life.
F CRE	Love That Dog (age 8-11) by Sharon Creech illness/loss ... animals ... authorship ... school ... poetry Jack hate poetry. Only girls write it and every time he tries to, his brain feels empty. But his teacher, Ms. Stretchberry, won't stop giving her class poetry assignments, and Jack can't avoid them. But then something amazing happens. The more he writes, the more he learns he does have something to say.

Barron Park Elementary School, Sat Aug 25 11:55:26 2012 Other themes and genres