A Certain October by Angela Johnson

A Certain October is a small and unassuming book. It paints an intricate picture of Scotty and her friends and family as she navigates through a difficult month in her life. Scotty's younger brother with autism steals cookies and runs naked through the neighborhood. Her best friend Misha is preparing for the homecoming dance where she is a rebellious homecoming queen candidate. Scotty's other best friend, Falcone, has broken up with his boyfriend and trying to find a way to visit his estranged older sister. Everyone is going about their normal lives when Scotty and her brother are in a train wreck. The book is about how she deals with the resulting injuries, death, and guilt. It's not a sad book, though. It shows how ordinary people can go on living in spite of difficult circumstances Angela Johnson's writing style is spare and deceptively simple, at times poignant and often humorous. It's a beautiful and rewarding book that will most certainly win some literary awards this year. Recommended for grades 9-up.

BZRK by Michael Grant

This book at times blew my mind and went right over my head. It's about two rival factions of futuristic scientists who have developed nanobots that can be controlled by human brains and sent into other people's bodies, usually for evil purposes. Smart young kids are the best at controlling these nanobots but they frequently go insane after a few years of piloting the bugs through human flesh. (Lots of gross descriptions of this here, by the way.) A war is on and this book is all action and intrigue as they battle for world domination. I totally see the appeal to teens but honestly, it was a little hard for me to follow this crazy story. Recommended for grades 9-up.

Cardboard by Doug TenNapel

This colorful, action-packed graphic novel drew me in and I finished the book in one sitting. It features an underdog kid named Cam with a down-and-out father. Together they create a cardboard man that comes to life. Bill, as he is called, is a good character (as far as cardboard men go) and helpful to have around. The problems arise when Cam's nasty friend Marcus figures out how to create his own cardboard army of evil creatures. The cardboard creatures rage out of control and Cam and Marcus must fight them off. This alone is a great plot for middle school kids, but what made it compelling for me was the subplot of Cam's unemployed dad dealing with the grief of losing his wife and feeling like an inadequate father. The art and the story work together perfectly to tell a story that will have great appeal to kids intermediate and middle school kids. Recommended for readers from 4th grade and up.

Outcasts United: The Story of a Refugee Soccer Team That Changed a Town by Warren St. John

This is the young people's version of an adult book that was published several years ago. It's the true story of a soccer team for refugees in a town very close to where I live in Georgia. It is really the story of a Jordanian woman named Luma who immigrated to the United States and dedicated herself to helping refugees by coaching soccer teams for children and teenagers. The author, a New York Times reporter, followed Luma's teams for a season and wrote about their games, their life stories, and the community where they settled. Luma is a tough coach who cares deeply for her players but often has to make difficult decisions about who will play on her teams. The players come from all over the world and Clarkston, Georgia isn't the most welcoming place for them. For many of the players, the "Fugees" team becomes their family and their reason for living. I love the story of this team and I know this book will appeal to soccer fans. My criticism of this book is that I wanted deeper knowledge about Luma and the families she works with but this book tended to spend more time on soccer play-by-play than on the details of their lives. This book is a solid nonfiction choice for middle school students, but I suspect that adults and older teens will prefer the original version of Outcasts United.

UnWholly by Neal Shusterman

I'm a huge fan of Unwind and of Neal Shusterman in general, and this sequel did not disappoint. In fact, it got me even more interested in this futuristic world in which scientific advancements have made human body parts a valuable commodity—valuable enough to where people willingly justify killing teenagers for their body parts.  The main characters from Unwind are all back and fighting against unwinding in various ways. Lev is a poster child for rescued tithes, while Connor and Risa are living at the airfield and protecting hundreds of runaway unwinds. Risa, paralyzed from the waist down, sacrifices herself to protect Connor, and ends up in the company of Cam, the world's first composite human—made entirely of the body parts of unwound teenagers. His creators think he will be welcomed by humanity as the perfect person but many see him as a monster. A new character named Starkey emerges as the champion of the "storks" and an enemy to Connor's society of unwinds. It's another thought-provoking and riveting read that students are already devouring. The book stands on its own, but all the pieces are in order for an amazing third book in the trilogy.

Ungifted by Gordon Korman

Donovan is kind of a troublemaker at his middle school. He's definitely not a kid that would get recommended to attend a special academy for gifted students. But after causing a major statue malfunction that destroys his school gymnasium, the superintendent has Donovan's name on a piece of paper on his desk. When that paper accidentally gets submitted to the academy for gifted students, Donovan realizes that it's a great place to hide from the punishment he faces for the statue incident. Donovan definitely doesn't rise to the occasion and become gifted in math and science, but he does make some friends and the gifted kids come to appreciate his laid back style and sense of humor. There's a robot and a pregnant sister that factor into the story to keep things interesting. While I don't think this is quite at the level of Schooled or No More Dead Dogs, this is another fun book about middle school life from Gordon Korman.