Almost Zero
  Dyamonde Daniel: Book 3

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by Nikki Grimes

Dyamonde Daniel has her eye on a new pair of red high-top sneakers. Following some bad advice from a classmate, she thinks she has the right idea to go about getting them – by demanding her mother buy them! Unfortunately for Dyamonde, Mrs. Daniel doesn’t appreciate being told what to do and decides to teach her daughter a lesson. Soon Dyamonde finds herself in a clothing crisis, with almost zero to wear! Dyamonde is furious. But she begins to realize that some people have troubles much greater than hers…including her friend, Isabel Martinez, whose family has suffered a real crisis. Deciding she must she must help the Martinez family, Dyamonde enlists the aid of everyone she knows to do so. Witty and endearing, this heart-warming tale – told by Nikki Grimes herself – beautifully displays the difference between “wanting” and “needing.”Continue reading

Rich
  Dyamonde Daniel: Book 2

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by Nikki Grimes

Dyamonde Daniel’s best friend, Free, thinks he’s poor because he can’t buy a new video game. So when their teacher announces a poetry contest with a $100 prize, Free decides he’ll try to win it. But Free is not the only poet in the class. Before the contest is over everyone will know a little more about what being rich and being poor are really all about.
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You

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by Charles Benoit

Charles Benoit has created a stunner of a debut novel, one of the most anticipated titles of the fall season. Told entirely in the second person, the story quickly immerses us in the world of bright, disaffected Kyle Chase, who once showed great potential but by tenth grade has become a genuine slacker. With uncanny insight, crafting what can only be called YA Noir, Benoit takes us deep inside the mind of a young man on a collision course with catastrophe.

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What I Call Life

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by Jill Wolfson

When Cal Lavender’s mother has an “unfortunate episode” at the library, Cal is taken to a group care home run by a strange old woman called “The Knitting Lady.” Cal is clear that this is not her real life, just a temporary detour. But even detours can take you where you need to be. A charming, funny, and insightful first novel.

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United Tates of America

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by Paula Danziger

Skate Tate has a good life. She has close friends, a loving family, and her beloved Great Uncle Mort (GUM for short) who lives every day as if it were an adventure. Skate would like things to stay just the way they are. But life doesn’t work that way. For one thing, Skate has to figure out the strange new world of Biddle Middle, where eighth graders rule the roost, old friendships start to change, and a lowly sixth-grader has to struggle to make a place for herself. But other, more painful changes, are also in store for the Tates, and the story of how this close knit family responds to sudden tragedy will move and delight listeners everywhere. Told with her trademark wit and wisdom, filled with big laughs and unexpected tears, Paula Danziger’s newest novel is one of her finest achievements.

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