Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs

Ninth Ward, by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Dealing with the days leading up to and immediately after Hurricane Katrina, through the eyes of a 12 year old girl living in NOLA's Ninth Ward with her 82-year old caretaker, Mama Ya-Ya.  Allows the reader to see the neighborhood and the life through the eyes of a bright, creative child who sees ghosts, believes in signs, loves math and words and learning and longs to build bridges when she grows up.

White Cat by Holly Black, Curse Workers, Bk. 1

It was extremely hard not to read ahead in this book because I wanted to know what was going to happen next.  Little clues and pieces of info get scattered out like breadcrumbs, drawing you on, making you want to keep reading.  I figured out some of the twists before they came, but not all, and not too much before they were revealed.

The Miles Between by Mary Pearson

Destiny wants one fair day, so when she discovers a convertible car apparently abandoned and just waiting for her, she enlists 3 classmates from boarding school to go on a roadtrip to a nearby town. Cute Seth, flaky Mira and serious Aiden join her, and as Destiny slowly begins to admit that her parents did not abandon her by choice and that sometimes things cannot be controlled no matter how much she tries, she faces the truth behind their death and her denial and discovers that Seth, Mira and Aiden aren't defined only by their most obvious characteristics, either.

SLJ grades 9 and up