Far from the Tree by Robin Benway

This National Book Award Winner about three young people affected by adoption is a lovely story with complex relationships and diverse characters. The protagonists are three biological siblings who find each other as teenagers and forget relationships at a time in their lives when they need each other for different reasons. Grace has recently given up her own baby for adoption and is grieving the loss, Maya has a family that loves her but her mom is dealing with alcoholism, and Joaquin has been a foster child for 18 years and can't bring himself to trust that his current foster parents really will stay with him permanently. The book explores these three teens and how they navigate their adoptive families, their bio siblings, and the issue of looking for their biological mother. It's a rich story, recommended for high school libraries.

Spy School by Stuart Gibbs

Ben is recruited for the CIA's top secret spy school due to his advanced math skills, but it turns out that he wass not really chosen for his abilities. He's a pawn in someone's game, and when an assassin comes after him, he is thrust into some serious espionage. He is aided by Erica, a 15-year-old student who kicks some serious butt as a spy. Reading this out loud to my daughter I was struck by some sexism--I could do without Stuart Gibbs' descriptions of girls (all spy girls don't really have to be "hot", do they?), but like his other books (Space Case, Belly Up) they are fun mysteries with underdog protagonists (and pretty sophisticated vocabulary). Sixth graders love these books, as does my own fourth grader (a hard-to-please girl). I enjoyed reading this aloud to her and trying to figure out who the mole was going to be.

Flight Season by Marie Marquardt

This is the story of three college-aged young people--Vivi, reeling from her father's death and about to fail out of an Ivy League school, TJ, working hard in the family restaurant while trying to get a nursing degree, and Angel--Guatemalan immigrant with a terminal illness, a biting sense of humor, and no one to love him. Angel sees the budding romance between Vivi and TJ, who are both working on his hospital wing, but it takes a while for Vivi and TJ to connect. The whole story is strung together by Vivi's sightings and observations about the birds that have been practically speaking to her since her father's death. It's a romance with a social conscience, and a good story in its own right. I highly recommend this gem of a novel by an insightful author with a passion for telling the stories of immigrants.