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WEE |
Pie
(age 8-11) by Sarah Weeks illness/loss ... friendship ... enterprise Publisher comments: When Alice's Aunt Polly passes away, she takes with her the secret to her world-famous pie-crust recipe. Or does she? In her will, Polly leaves the recipe to her extraordinarily surly cat Lardo . . . and then leaves Lardo in the care of Alice. Suddenly Alice is thrust into the center of a piestorm, with everyone in town trying to be the next pie-contest winner ... including Alice's mother and some of Alice's friends. The whole community is going pie-crazy . . . and it's up to Alice to discover the ingredients that really matter. Like family. And friendship. And enjoying what you do. |
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CRE |
Pleasing the Ghost
(age 8-11) by Sharon Creech illness/loss ... humor ... spooky ... family Ever since his father died, Dennis has been seeing ghosts. Lots of ghosts. They blow in on the breeze, visit for a while, and fly off again. But one night the ghost of his Uncle Arvie floats in the window. And Arvie wants to do more than chat. Together, they find a lost love letter, finish a special painting, and dig up buried treasure...all for Arvie's widow, Julia. Dennis loves having his uncle around again, but there's still one ghost he's longing to see. Perhaps on the next ghost wind . . . |
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BUC |
The Big Wave
(age 8-11) by Pearl S. Buck survival ... growing up ... family ... illness/loss Kino lives on a farm on the side of a mountain in Japan. His friend, Jiya, lives in a fishing village below. Everyone, including Kino and Jiya, has heard of the big wave. No one suspects it will wipe out the whole village and Jiya's family, too. As Jiya struggles to overcome his sorrow, he understands it is in the presence of danger that one learns to be brave, and to appreciate how wonderful life can be. |
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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. |
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KEN |
Me and the Pumpkin Queen
(age 8-11) by Marlane Kennedy family ... illness/loss ... enterprise Mildred's Guide to Growing a Giant Pumpkin 1. Get the right seeds. These days, no one grows a Pumpkin Show winner without Howard Dill's Atlantic Giant seeds. 2. Convince your dad that having a pumpkin patch in your backyard is a good idea. 3. Make sure that your dogs stay far, far away from your seedlings. 4. Don't let your busybody aunt interfere with your "pumpkin obsession," no matter how much she wishes you were interested in boys or clothes or anything other than pumpkins. 5. Find a best friend who can help out in a pinch. 6. Never, ever, ever give up. |
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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. |
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COE |
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
(age 8-11) by Eleanor Coerr war ... folklore ... historical ... illness/loss Publisher comments: When Hiroshima-born Sadako falls gravely ill with leukemia, she recalls a Japanese legend that holds that if a sick person folds one thousand cranes, the gods will grant her wish and make her healthy again. |
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BYA |
Good-bye, Chicken Little
(age 8-11) by Betsy Cromer Byars family ... illness/loss Publisher comments: Jimmie Little's life has been frightening and unpredictable, so much that he has begun to define himself by his fears. He learns, though, that with the help of his family he can let his fears go forever. |
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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). |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. sequel: Hate That Cat |