Ten Miles Past Normal

Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O’Roark Dowell

Janie Gorman's life is far from normal. When Janie's parents decided to leave suburbia and become goat farmers, Janie was all for it. But that was five years ago, and now that she's trying to fit into high school, being known as the goat girl is not working for her. Enter Monster and the Jam Band. In an attempt to impress a cute boy at shool, Janie follows her friends Sarah to Jam Band, an after school club where musicians get together to, well...jam. When Sarah decides after five minutes that Jam Band isn't for her, Janie finds herself learning to play bass with help from a guy named Monster. Add to the mix a civil rights project and a hootenanny planned by her mother, and Janie begins to discover that "normal" is not all it's cracked up to be.

My Double Life

My Double Life by Jeanette Rallison

Ever since Kari Kingsly became a pop star, Alexia has been told how much she looks like the famous singer. But she never expected Kari’s publicist to show up on her doorstep asking that Alexia pretend to be Kari’s double. Alexia only takes the job for two reasons…to help her pay for college and to get near the father she never met. But what Alexia doesn’t expect is that she’s going to fall in love…with someone who thinks she is Kari Kingsley. Suddenly everything is more complicated that Alexia could ever have imagined, and she has to decide what matters to her most.

Lonely Hearts Club

Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg

Penny Lane (yes, her parents actually named her for a Beatles song) has been taken advantage of by a boy for the last time. Swearing off dating, Penny forms her own personal Lonely Hearts Club. What she never imagines is how many girls feel like she does. As the size of the club grows, the problems multiply. The boys at school get angry, the principal thinks she is causing problems, and to top it off, Penny finds herself attracted to someone she never expected to like. All of a sudden, she has to decide if she can stay true to her heart and her ideals, a choice that is not so easy to make.

Penny's story continues in We Can Work it Out, a sequel that is just as good as the first book.

Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie & After Ever Afer

Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick

Steven lives to play the drums. It's what he does to escape the drama that comes with being thirteen. But when his little brother Jeff is diagnosed with leukemia, no amount of drumming can help. Or can it?  

After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick (sequel to Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie

Jeff and his best friend Tad have one big thing in common...they both have survived a bout with cancer. But Jeff is about to come up against his toughest opponent yet...the statewide standardized test. In order to pass 8th grade, Jeff has to pass the test, but the cancer treatments have left his brain unable to do math very well. Enter Tad. Tad's cancer treatments have left him unable to walk well. The deal? Tad will tutor Jeff in math and Jeff will train with Tad so that they can both walk across the stage at graduation. With a lot of humor and a lot of realism, Jordan Sonnenblick creates a middle school world that every reader, cancer survivor or not can relate to.