2008 BBC List with Summaries
Whittington / Armstrong, Alan / A feline descendant of Dick Whittington's famous cat of English folklore appears at a barnyard plagued by rats. / 4.9
Shakespeare’s Secret / Broach, Elise / A sixth-grader named Hero becomes interested in a missing diamond, a five-hundred-year-old necklace, and a mystery dating back to the time of Shakespeare. / 4.0
Sister’s Grimm / Buckley, Michael / Orphans Sabrina and Daphne Grimm are sent to live with an eccentric grandmother that they have always believed to be dead. / 5.2
Legend of Spud Murphy / Colfer, Eoin / When their mother drops them off at the library several afternoons a week, William and his brother dread boredom and the overbearing librarian, but they are surprised at how things turn out. / 3.8
Misadventures of Maude Marche / Couloumbis, Audrey / Eleven-year-old Sallie and her fifteen-year-old sister escape their self-serving guardians and begin an adventure resembling those in the dime novels Sallie loves to read. / 5.1
Chicken Boy / Dowell, Frances O’Roark / Since the death of his mother, Tobin's life has been in disarray, but after he starts raising chickens with his seventh-grade classmate, Henry, everything starts to fall into place. / 5.1
Giant Rat of Sumatra / Fleischman, Sid / A cabin boy on a pirate ship finds himself in San Diego in 1846 as war breaks out between the United States and Mexico. / 4.5
Stumptown Kid / Gorman, Carol / In a small Iowa town in 1952, eleven-year-old Charlie Nebraska, whose father died in the Korean War, learns the meaning of both racism and heroism when he befriends a black man who had played baseball in the Negro Leagues. / 3.7
Owen Foote, Mighty Scientist / Greene, Stephanie / Third grade best friends Owen and Joseph struggle to come up with a great science fair project that they will both enjoy doing, then something goes wrong and they have to change their plans two days before the fair. / 3.8
Double Identity / Haddix, Margaret Peterson / When thirteen-year-old Bethany's parents drop out of sight with no explanation, leaving her with an aunt she never knew existed, Bethany uncovers secrets that make her question everything she thought she knew about her family. / 5.0
Princess Academy / Hale, Shannon / While attending a strict academy for potential princesses with the other girls from her mountain village, fourteen-year-old Miri discovers unexpected talents and connections to her homeland. / 6.0
Airball: My life in briefs / Harkrader, Lisa / Uncoordinated Kansas seventh-grader Kirby Nickel braves his coach's ire and becomes captain of the basketball team in order to help him prove that NBA star Brett McGrew is the father he has never known. / 4.4
Defiance / Hobbs, Valerie / While vacationing in the country, eleven-year-old Toby, a cancer patient, learns some important lessons about living and dying from an elderly poet and her cow. / 4.0
Ghost’s Grave / Kehret, Peg / Twelve-year-old Josh finds adventure when he meets the ghost of a coal miner while spending the summer in Washington State with his Aunt Ethel when his parents get an overseas job. / 5.0
Day Joanie Frankenhauser became a boy / Lantz, Francess / Ten-year-old Joanie pretends to be a boy when her family moves to a new town, but soon finds there are unexpected consequences. / 3.8
Dog’s Life / Martin, Anne M. / Squirrel, a stray puppy, tells her life story, from her nurturing mother and brother to making her own way in the world, facing busy highways, changing seasons, and humans both gentle and brutal. / 5.1
Abby Takes a Stand / McKissick, Patricia / Gee recalls for her grandchildren the 1960 sit-ins held at restaurants and lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee to protest segregation. / 3.6
Scarecrow and His Servant / Pullman, Philip / A scarecrow and his boy servant, Jack, set off on a dangerous adventure as they try to outwit the crooked Buffaloni family and stake their claim to valuable Spring Valley. / 5.3
Listening for Lions / Whalen, Gloria / Left an orphan after the influenza epidemic in British East Africa in 1918, thirteen-year-old Rachel is tricked into assuming a deceased neighbor's identity to travel to England. / 5.7
Middle School books
Code Orange / Cooney, Caroline B / While conducting research for a school paper on smallpox, Mitty finds an envelope containing 100-year-old smallpox scabs and fears that he has infected himself and all of New York City. / 6.2Flush / Hiaasen, Carl / With their father jailed for sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his younger sister, Abbey, must gather evidence that the owner of this floating casino is emptying his bilge tanks into the protected waters around their Florida Keys home. / 5.0
Alice Macleod, Realist at last / Juby, Susan / Sixteen-year-old Alice uses her screen-writing aspirations to help her get through a challenging period in her life after her boyfriend goes to Scotland, her mother is jailed for environmental activism, and her depressed father cannot get a job. / 4.9
Eldest / Paolini, Christopher / After successfully evading an Urgals ambush, Eragon is adopted into the Ingeitum clan and sent to finish his training so he can further help the Varden in their struggle against the Empire. / 7.0
Criss Cross / Perkins, Lynne Rae / Teenagers in a small town in the 1960s experience new thoughts and feelings, question their identities, connect, and disconnect as they search for the meaning of life and love. / 5.5
The Lightning Thief / Riordan, Rick / After learning that he is the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea, twelve-year-old Percy is sent to a summer camp for demigods like himself, and joins his new friends on a quest to prevent a war between the gods. / 4.7
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince / Rowling, J.K. / Sixth-year Hogwarts student Harry Potter gains valuable insights into the boy Voldemort once was, even as his own world is transformed by maturing friendships, schoolwork assistance from an unexpected source, and devastating losses. / 7.2
Uglies / Westerfeld, Scott / Just before their sixteenth birthdays, when they will be transformed into beauties whose only job is to have a great time, Tally’s best friend runs away and Tally must find her and turn her in, or never become pretty at all. / 5.2
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