In 1985 southern Sudan is ravaged by war. Rebels and government forces battle for control, with ordinary people . . . people like the boy, Salva Dut . . . caught in the middle. When Salva's village is attacked, he must embark on a harrowing journey that will propel him through horror and heartbreak, across a harsh desert, and into a strange new life. Years later, in contemporary South Sudan, a girl named Nya must walk eight hours a day to fetch water....

Except for reading the Kiel Gnomenfoot magic adventure series, Owen's life is boring until he sees his classmate Bethany climb out of a book in the school library and he learns that Bethany is half-fictional and has been searching every book she can find for her missing father, a fictional character.

"Twelve-year-old Kyle gets to stay overnight in the new town library, designed by his hero (the famous gamemaker Luigi Lemoncello), with other students but finds that come morning he must work with friends to solve puzzles in order to escape"--

"Jacqueline Woodson, one of today's finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and...