(3) YA After losing the eighth-grade top scholar award to her former-friend-turned-rival, Jonah, Grace decides to spend her summer training to beat him in a half marathon. As they train with (and confide in) each other, Grace discovers not only that she loves running, but also that she likes Jonah as more than a friend. Subplots -- including Grace’s efforts to please her largely absent father and a new friendship in a creative writing class -- add depth to this appealing light romance.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Kerns

(3) 4-6 Annabelle is relieved to be finished with seventh grade. An academically struggling scholarship day student, she doesn't fit in at her fancy island boarding school. Swimming, on the other hand, comes easily to Annabelle--but even that becomes complicated when she is recruited for the high-school swim team. In this fast-moving, believable story, likable Annabelle must navigate shifting friendships, the attention of an older boy, and her long-absent father's reentry in her life.

Reviewer: Renée Wheeler

(4) 4-6 Wanting to raise money for needy children with autism, well-off seventh grader Lauren (whose older brother is autistic) begins selling items--even stealing them to do so--and eventually drags her new friend, foster kid Sierra, into the scheme. Readers who can overlook Lauren's contrived descent into lawlessness should enjoy the honest alternating narratives (Lauren's is prose, Sierra's is in verse) about the boundaries of friendship.

Reviewer: Bridget McCaffrey