Eight Keys by Suzanne La Fleur

"The trouble all started right before the first day of sixth grade, the last time Franklin and I played Knights."

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Elise and Franklin have always been best friends. Elise has always lived in the big house with her loving Uncle and Aunt, because Elise's parents died when she was too young to remember them. There's always been a barn behind the house with eight locked doors on the second floor. When Elise and Franklin start middle school, things feel all wrong. Bullying. Not fitting in. Franklin suddenly seems babyish. Then, soon after her 12th birthday, Elise receives a mysterious key left for her by her father. A key that unlocks one of the eight doors upstairs in the barn . . .

Wendy Lamb Books; 224 pages

The Summer I Learned to Fly by Dana Reinhardt

"For some people it's the smell of sunblock."

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Thirteen-year-old Drew starts the summer of 1986 helping in her mother's cheese shop and dreaming about co-worker Nick, but when her widowed mother begins dating, Drew's father's book of lists, her pet rat, and Emmett, a boy on a quest, help her cope.

Wendy Lamb Books; 216 pages

Liar, Liar - The Theory, Practice and Destructive Properties of Decemption by Gary Paulsen

"By midmorning Monday, I had Katie Knowles believing that I suffer from a terrible disease."

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Summary: Fourteen-year-old Kevin is very good at lying and doing so makes life easier, but when he finds himself in big trouble with his friends, family, and teachers, he must find a way to end his lies forever.

Wendy Lamb Books; 120 pages

Woods Runner by Gary Paulsen

"He was not sure exactly when he became a child of the forest."

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Summary: Samuel, 13, spends his days in the forest, hunting for food for his family. He has grown up on the frontier of a British colony, America. Far from any town, or news of the war against the King that American patriots have begun near Boston. But the war comes to them. British soldiers and Iroquois attack. Samuel s parents are taken away, prisoners. Samuel follows, hiding, moving silently, determined to find a way to rescue them. Each day he confronts the enemy, and the tragedy and horror of this war. But he also discovers allies, men and women working secretly for the patriot cause. And he learns that he must go deep into enemy territory to find his parents: all the way to the British headquarters, New York City.

Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books; 164 pages.

Wild Girl by Patricia Reilly Giff

"Sudden light burst against the foal's closed eyes."

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Abstract: When twelve-year-old Lidie leaves Brazil to join her father and brother on a horse ranch in New York, she has a hard time adjusting to her changed circumstances, as does a new horse that has come to the ranch.

Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books; 147 pages

Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur

"It was fun at first, playing house."

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Abstract: While living with her Gram in Vermont, eleven-year-old Aubrey writes letters as a way of dealing with losing her father and sister in a car accident, and then being abandoned by her grief-stricken mother.

Publisher: Wendy Lamb; 262 pages

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

"So Mom got the postcard today."

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Summary: As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1980s television game show, "The $20,000 Pyramid," a twelve-year-old New York City girl tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from an anonymous source that seems to defy the laws of time and space.

Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books; 208 pages

Eleven by Patricia Reilly Giff

"Never mind being afraid of eleven right now."

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LC CIP Summary: When Sam, who can barely read, discovers an old newspaper clipping just before his eleventh birthday, it brings forth memories from his past, and, with the help of a new friend at school and the castle they are building for a school project, his questions are eventually answered.

Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books; 165 pages (Alternate spellings of this award include: Newberry, Newbury, & Newbary)