Good Books for Middle Schoolers   Fiction Erin Bow  Plain Kate Plain Kate's odd appearance and expertise as a woodcarver cause some to think her a witch, but friendship with a talking cat and, later, with humans help her to survive and even thrive in a world of magic, charms, and fear. Cina Williams Chima  The Demon King: a Seven Realms Novel Relates the intertwining fates of former street gang leader Han Alister and headstrong Princess Raisa, as Han takes possession of an amulet that once belonged to an evil wizard and Raisa uncovers a conspiracy in the Grey Wolf Court. Kate de Goldi  The 10 p.m. Question Twelve-year-old Frankie Parsons has a quirky family, a wonderful best friend, and a head full of worrying questions that he shares with his mother each night, but when free-spirited Sydney arrives at school with questions of her own, Frankie is forced to face the ultimate ten p.m. question.   Nancy Bo Flood  Warriors in the Crossfire Twelve-year-old Joseph helps his family to survive when the natives of Saipan are caught in the crossfire between the Japanese soldiers and the American troops at the end of World War II.   Jessica Day George  Princess of Glass In the midst of maneuverings to create political alliances through marriage, sixteen-year-old Poppy, one of the infamous twelve dancing princesses, becomes the target of a vengeful witch while Prince Christian tries to save her. Morris Gleitzman  Once After living in an Catholic orphanage for nearly four years, a naive Jewish boy runs away and embarks on a journey across Nazi-occupied Poland to find his parents.   April Henry  Girl, Stolen When an impulsive carjacking turns into a kidnapping, Griffin, a high school dropout, finds himself more in sympathy with his wealthy, blind victim, sixteen-year-old Cheyenne, than with his greedy father.   Andy Mulligan  Trash Fourteen-year-olds Raphael and Gardo team up with a younger boy, Rat, to figure out the mysteries surrounding a bag Raphael finds during their daily life of sorting through trash in a third-world country's dump. Kenneth Oppel  Half Brother   In 1973, when a renowned Canadian behavioral psychologist pursues his latest research project--an experiment to determine whether chimpanzees can acquire advanced language skills--he brings home a baby chimp named Zan and asks his thirteen-year-old son to treat Zan like a little brother.   Lynne Rae Perkins  As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth A teenaged boy encounters one comedic calamity after another when his train strands him in the middle of nowhere, and everything comes down to luck. Mitali Perkins  Bamboo People Two Burmese boys, one a Karenni refugee and the other the son of an imprisoned Burmese doctor, meet in the jungle and in order to survive they must learn to trust each other. Jennifer Roy  Mindblind Fourteen-year-old Nathaniel Clark, who has Asperger's Syndrome, tries to prove that he is a genius by writing songs for his rock band, so that he can become a member of the prestigious Aldus Institute, the premier organization for the profoundly gifted.   Polly Shulman  The Grimm Legacy New York high school student Elizabeth gets an after-school job as a page at the "New-York Circulating Material Repository," and when she gains coveted access to its Grimm Collection of magical objects, she and the other pages are drawn into a series of frightening adventures involving mythical creatures and stolen goods. Arthur Slade  The Hunchback Assignments In Victorian London, fourteen-year-old Modo, a shape-changing hunchback, becomes a secret agent for the Permanent Association, which strives to protect the world from the evil machinations of the Clockwork Guild.   Jordan Sonnenblick  After Ever After Although Jeff and Tad, encouraged by a new friend, Lindsey, make a deal to help one another overcome aftereffects of their cancer treatments in preparation for eighth-grade graduation, Jeff still craves advice from his older brother Stephen, who is studying drums in Africa.   Non Fiction Susan Campbell Bartoletti  They Called Themselves the KKK Uses personal accounts unearthed from oral histories, congressional documents, and diaries, to unveil the creation of the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tennessee, and its spread across the American South. Ann Bausum  Denied, Detained, Deported: Stories from the Dark Side of American Immigration An award-winning author examines the history of American immigration--a critical topic in 21st century America--particularly those lesser-known stories of immigrants who were denied entrance into the States or detained for security reasons.   Rick Bowers  Spies of Mississippi In the 1950s and 1960s, the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission compiled secret files on more than 87,000 private citizens in the most extensive state spying program in U.S. history. Its mission: to save segregation. Candace Fleming  The Great and Only Barnum Biography of P.T. Barnum, showman and founder of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. Readers can visit Barnum's American Museum; meet Tom Thumb, the miniature man (only 39 in. tall) and his tinier bride (32 in.); experience the thrill Barnum must have felt when, at age 60, he joined the circus; and discover Barnum's legacy. Paul Janeczko  The Dark Game: True Spy Stories Describes the contributions and techniques of American spies over the course of the past two centuries, recounting dramatic missions while profiling such historical figures as anti-slavery spy Elizabeth Van Lew and the "Choctaw code talkers." Kathleen Krull  Marie Curie Traces the life and work of the Polish-born scientist whose study of radioactivity lead to her receiving two Nobel Prizes. Danica McKellar  Hot X: Algebra Exposed Advises teen girls how to tackle algebra with confidence, sharing accessible step-by-step coverage of everything from square roots and polynomials to quadratic equations and word problems. Martin W. Sandler  Secret Subway: the Fascinating Tale of an Amazing Feat of Engineering In 1869, Alfred Beach wanted to build America's first air-powered railway below New York City, but Boss Tweed, powerful politician and notorious crook, opposed. Working under night cover, Beach and his crew carved a three-hundred-foot tunnel beneath a department store. Before long, the project was discovered and the public raved about its potential. But no further tunnels were ever built. What happened to Beach's railway, and where is it now? James L. Swanson  Chasing Lincoln's Killer Based on rare archival material, obscure trial manuscripts, and interviews with relatives of the conspirators and the manhunters, CHASING LINCOLN'S KILLER is a fast-paced thriller about the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth: a wild twelve-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia. Catherine Thimmesh  Lucy Long Ago: Uncovering the Mystery of Where We Came From This story of scientific sleuthing invites readers to wonder what our ancestors were like and recounts the discovery of the remains of Lucy, the world's most famous hominid.     last updated 08/09/2011