Appelt, Kathi. Kissing Tennessee and Other Stories From the
Stardust Dance.
Graduating eighth graders relate their stories of love and heartbreak that
have brought them to Dogwood Junior High's magical Stardust Dance.
Atkins, Jeanine. Borrowed Names.
Told in vivid, compelling poems, this is the story of three daughters and their remarkable mothers whose work in literature, business, and science changed the world.
Bryant, Jennifer. Ringside, 1925:views from the Scopes trial.
Visitors, spectators, and residents of Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925 describe, in a series of free-verse poems, the Scopes "monkey trial" and its effects on that small town and its citizens.
Creech, Sharon. Heartbeat.
Twelve-year-old Annie ponders the many rhythms of life the year that her mother
becomes pregnant, her grandfather begins faltering, and her best friend (and
running partner) becomes distant.
Creech, Sharon. Love That Dog.
A young student, who comes to love poetry through a personal understanding
of what different famous poems mean to him, surprises himself by writing his
own inspired poem.
Gutman, Dan. Talent Show.
After a devastating tornado destroys much of Cape Bluff, Kansas, residents come together as a community to put on a talent show as a fund-raiser.
Frost, Helen. Crossing Stones.
In their own voices, four young people, Muriel, Frank, Emma and Ollie, tell of their experiences during the first World War, as the boys enlist and are sent overseas, Emma finishes school and Muriel fights for peace and women's suffrage.
Glenn, Mel. Foreign Exchange.
A series of poems reflect the thoughts of various people--town residents young and old, teachers, and some students visiting from the city--caught up in the events surrounding the murder of a beautiful high school student who had recently moved to the small lake-side community of Hudson Landing.
Hemphill, Stephanie. Wicked Girls.
A fictionalized account, told in verse, of the Salem witch trials, told from the perspective of three of the real young women living in Salem in 1692--Mercy Lewis, Margaret Walcott, and Ann Putnam, Jr.
Hesse, Karen. Aleutian Sparrow.
An Aleutian Islander recounts her suffering during World War II in American
internment camps designed to "protect" the population from the invading
Japanese.
Hesse, Karen. Witness.
A series of poems express the views of various people in a small Vermont town,
including a young black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early 1920s
when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate the town.
Mass, Wendy. Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall.
When high school junior Tessa Reynolds falls into a coma after getting hit in the head during gym class, she experiences heaven as the mall where her parents work, and she revisits key events from her life, causing her to reevaluate herself and how she wants to live.
Myers, Walter Dean. Riot.
In 1863, fifteen-year-old Claire, the daughter of an Irish mother and a black father, faces ugly truths and great danger when Irish immigrants, enraged by the Civil War and a federal draft, lash out against blacks and wealthy "swells" of New York City.
Sones, Sonya. One of those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies.
Fifteen-year-old Ruby Milliken leaves her best friend, her boyfriend, her
aunt, and her mother's grave in Boston and reluctantly flies to Los Angeles
to live with her father, a famous movie star who divorced her mother before
Ruby was born.
Sones, Sonya. What My Mother Doesn’t Know.
While searching for Mr. Right, Sophie learns about herself, her life, and
her friends.