February 2021 list by K. Pearson
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Alone
by Megan E. Freeman
When twelve-year-old Maddie hatches a scheme for a secret sleepover with her two best friends, she ends up waking up to a nightmare. She’s alone—left behind in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated and abandoned.
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Amari and the Night Brothers
by B. B. Alston
Amari, a poor Black girl from the projects, gets an invitation from her missing brother to join the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs and join in the fight against an evil magician.
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The Ambassador of Nowhere, Texas
by Kimberly Willis Holt
A companion to the National Book Award-winning When Zachary Beaver Came to Town is set decades after the Vietnam War and finds Toby’s daughter, Rylee, befriending a September 11 first responder’s son, who helps her search for her father’s long-lost friend.
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Case File: Little Claws
by Eliot Schrefer
When an animal is in trouble, there’s only one place to turn: the Animal Rescue Agency! Dashing Esquire Fox used to organize the world’s most elaborate chicken raids until the day she encountered Mr. Pepper. Meeting the blustery old rooster changed her heart, convincing her to turn from a life of crime and instead form the Animal Rescue Agency, which masterminds rescue operations across the globe.
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Clues to the Universe
by Christina Li
The only thing Rosalind Ling Geraghty loves more than watching NASA launches with her dad is building rockets with him. When he dies unexpectedly, all Ro has left of him is an unfinished model rocket they had been working on together.
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Ghosted
by Michael Fry
Larry’s got a few problems. In school, he’s one of those kids who easily gets lost in the crowd. And Grimm, Larry’s best friend in the whole world, has ghosted him. Literally. One minute Grimm was saving a cat in a tree during a lightning storm, and the next, he’s pulling pranks on Larry in his new ghostly form.
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The Good War
by Todd Strasser
From the author of The Wave comes a poignant and timely novel about a group of seventh graders who are brought together—and then torn apart—by an afterschool club that plays a video game based on WW2.
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Halfway to Harmony
by Barbara O'Connor
Ten-year-old Walter Tipple is grieving his beloved older brother, Tank, when a sassy girl named Posey moves in next door and Banjo, a hot-air balloonist, sets the pair on an adventure.
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Karma Moon: Ghost Hunter
by Melissa Savage
Karma Moon is a firm believer in everything "woo-woo," as her dad calls it. So when she asked her trusty Magic Eight Ball if the call asking her dad to create a ghost-hunting docuseries was her dad's big break, it delivered: "No doubt about it." Because the universe never gets it wrong. Only people do.
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Kondo & Kezumi Reach Bell Bottom
by David Goodner
As best friends Kezumi and Kondo continue their exploration, they keep disagreeing about what their next adventure should be but finally remember what matters most--friendship.
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The Million Dollar Race
by Matthew Ross Smith
Grant Falloon isn’t just good at track; he’s close to breaking the world record 100-meter time for his age group. So when the mega-rich Babblemoney sneaker company announces an international competition to find the fastest kid in the world, he’s desperate to sign up.
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Noah McNichol and the Backstage Ghost
by Martha Freeman
After their director breaks her leg, the cast of a sixth-grade play is delighted with volunteer director Mike, but eleven-year-old Noah McNichol has reason to believe Mike is a ghost.
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Red Stars
by Davide Morosinotto
A middle grade mystery adventure told through diary entries, maps and photos depicts the harrowing journey of two siblings who become separated when the Nazis declare war on the Soviet Union and their city evacuates its children on trains meant to carry them to safety.
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Root Magic
by Eden Royce
It’s 1963, and things are changing for Jezebel Turner. Her beloved grandmother has just passed away. The local police deputy won’t stop harassing her family. With school integration arriving in South Carolina, Jez and her twin brother, Jay, are about to begin the school year with a bunch of new kids. But the biggest change comes when Jez and Jay turn eleven— and their uncle, Doc, tells them he’s going to train them in rootwork.
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The Sea in Winter
by Christine Day
It’s been a hard year for Maisie Cannon, ever since she hurt her leg and could not keep up with her ballet training and auditions. Her blended family is loving and supportive, but Maisie knows that they just can’t understand how hopeless she feels.
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Sentinels in the Deep Ocean
by StacyPlays
After barely surviving the harsh tundra biome, Stacy has finally discovered the origins of the intelligent, playful wolves who’ve raised her. But will Stacy be able to decode a mysterious diary that may hold the keys to her future in the taiga?
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Starla Jean
by Elana K. Arnold
She's full of moxie, clever as a fox, and obsessed with catching a chicken she finds at the park. When Starla first sees the scrawny bird wandering around, she just knows they're destined for one another. Her dad says, "If you can catch it, you can keep it," and Starla Jean is not one to back down from a challenge.
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Stella Díaz Dreams Big
by Angela Dominguez
Stella is happy as a clam in fourth grade. She's the president of the Sea Musketeers conservation club, she starts taking swim lessons, and she joins a new art club at school. But as her schedule fills up, school gets harder, too. Suddenly the tides have turned, and she is way too busy!
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Take Back the Block
by Chrystal D. Giles
Wes Henderson has the best style in sixth grade. That--and hanging out with his crew (his best friends since little-kid days) and playing video games--is what he wants to be thinking about at the start of the school year, not the protests his parents are always dragging him to.
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The Tiger's Nest
by Trudi Trueit
Venturing into a region in the Indian Ocean to participate in a friendly robotics competition, Team Cousteau follows clues to a cliffside tomb, where a familiar foe would prevent Cruz from retrieving the final pieces of his mother’s cipher.
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Willow Moss & the Forgotten Tale
by Dominique Valente
Willow Moss once considered herself rather unimpressive. But after saving the world of Starfell from certain ruin, she’s feeling a tiny bit proud. The only problem? Since she restored the lost day, no one actually remembers that the disaster ever happened.
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