Books in Readers Circle series

Fourteen-year-old Davie and his best friend, Geordie, are altar boys at their local Catholic Church. They’re full of mischief, but that all changes when Stephen Rose comes to town. Father O’Mahoney thinks it would be a good idea for Davie and Geordie to befriend him—maybe some of their good nature will rub off on this unhappy soul. But it’s Stephen who sees something special in Davie.Stephen’s a gifted sculptor. One day as Davie looks on, Stephen brings a tiny figure to life. It’s a talent he has, the gift of creation—and he knows that Davie has this talent, too. Davie allows Stephen to convince him to help bring a life-size figure to life—and Clay is born. Clay is innocent, but Stephen has special plans for him.What has Davie helped to unleash on the world?

Newbery Honor Winner Ruth White gives readers an unforgettable story of one girl’s experience growing up with a sister that develops schizophrenia. It’s 1955 when 13-year-old Lyric moves with her father and older sister, Summer, from a small Virginia town to the big industrial city of Flint, Michigan. Summer has always been a little odd, but shortly after the move, things take a turn for the worse when she starts talking to imaginary people and having frightening episodes of paranoia. When she slips out of reality and into the depths of schizophrenia, the devoted Lyric can no longer reach her.Lyric loves her sister but is torn between taking constant care of Summer and enjoying her own youth. Soon a decision will have to be made that will affect their lives forever.

Eddy Okana lies about his age and joins the Army in his hometown of Honolulu only weeks before the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Suddenly Americans see him as the enemy—even the U.S. Army doubts the loyalty of Japanese American soldiers.Then the Army sends Eddy and a small band of Japanese American soldiers on a secret mission to a small island off the coast of Mississippi. Here they are given a special job, one that only they can do. Eddy's going to help train attack dogs. He's going to be the bait.

He’s a boy called Jew. Gypsy. Stopthief. Runt. Happy. Fast. Filthy son of Abraham. He’s a boy who lives in the streets of Warsaw. He’s a boy who steals food for himself and the other orphans. He’s a boy who believes in bread, and mothers, and angels. He’s a boy who wants to be a Nazi some day, with tall shiny jackboots and a gleaming Eagle hat of his own. Until the day that suddenly makes him change his mind. And when the trains come to empty the Jews from the ghetto of the damned, he’s a boy who realizes it’s safest of all to be nobody.Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli takes us to one of the most devastating settings imaginable—Nazi-occupied Warsaw of World War II—and tells a tale of heartbreak, hope, and survival through the bright eyes of a young orphan.

It’s a hot, hot summer, and in the depths of the Toronto Transit Authority’s Lost and Found, 17-year-old Duncan is cataloging lost things and sifting through accumulated junk. And between Jacob, the cranky old man who runs the place, and the endless dusty boxes overflowing with stuff no one will ever claim, Duncan’s just about had enough. Then he finds a little leather book. It’s a diary filled with the dark and dirty secrets of a twisted mind, a serial killer stalking his prey in the subway. And Duncan can’t make himself stop reading.What would you do with a book like that? How far would you go to catch a madman?And what if time was running out. . . .From the Hardcover edition.

From National Book Award-nominated authors Laura and Tom McNealAudrey and her two best friends have just transferred to Jemison High from their tiny private school. They're a nerdy little trio, so everyone is shocked when the handsome new guy, Wickham Hill, asks Audrey out. Audrey is so smitten that she doesn't pay much attention to The Yellow Paper, a vicious underground school newspaper...until it threatens to tell a tale that could change everything.From the Hardcover edition.

Joe Maloney is out of place in this world. His mother wants him to be a man, and he can’t be that yet. His only friend, Stanny Mole, wants to teach him how to kill, and Joe can’t learn that. Joe’s mind is always somewhere else: on the weird creatures he sees in the distant sky, the songs he hears in the air around him, the vibrations of life he feels everywhere. Everybody laughs at Joe Maloney.And then a tattered circus comes to town, and a tiger comes for him. It leads him out into the night, and nothing in Joe Maloney’s world is ever the same again.The transformative power of imagination and beauty flows through this story of a boy who walks where others wouldn’t dare to go, a boy with the heart of a tiger, an unlikely hero who knows that sometimes the most important things are the most mysterious.From the Hardcover edition.

“In a series of exquisitely presented snapshots, a young teen struggles to cope with the aftermath of her mother’s suicide. . . . Stunningly beautiful.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred“Readers are drawn into Isabel’s world and her determination to keep on going in the face of her overwhelming loss and responsibilities.”—School Library Journal, StarredAn ALA Best Book for Young AdultsA School Library Journal Best Book of the YearA Kirkus Reviews Editor’s ChoiceA Parents’ Choice Gold Award

Harmony McLean has been different from the moment she was discovered. When a falling star struck his chicken coop, Felix McGillicuddy never expected to find a baby girl miraculously left behind. He names her after the harmony of spheres in honor of her celestial arrival, and his wife, Nettie Mae McLean, gives Harmony her strong Irish surname to keep her grounded. Soon after her 15th birthday, something special begins coursing through Harmony–the power to move objects and affect the universe with her energy. But this mountain-bred girl is looking for a way to fit into the big world, not stand out any more than she already does.In this powerful novel from the writer of Night Flying, a young woman must learn to accept who she is before she can claim the magic that has chosen her.From the Hardcover edition.