5.7/2 Aleutian Sparrow - Hesse, Karen. In June of 1942, seven months after attacking Pearl Harbor, the Japanese navy invaded Alaska's Aleutian Islands. For nine thousand years the Aleut people had lived and thrived on these treeless, windswept lands. Within days of the first attack, the entire native population living west of Unimak Island was gathered up and evacuated to relocation centers in the dense forests of Alaska's Southeast. With resilience, compassion, and humor the Aleuts responded to the sorrows of upheaval and dislocation. This is Vera's story, but it is woven from the same fabric as the stories of displaced peoples throughout history. It chronicles the struggle to survive and to keep community and heritage intact despite harsh conditions in an alien environment. In a luminous novel of unrhymed verse, Newbery winner Karen Hesse brings to light this little-known episode from America's past.

4.6/0.5 Almost Forever ­ Testa, Maria. A young girl describes what she, her brother, and their mother do during the year that her doctor father is serving in the Army in Vietnam.

4.5/4 Bronx Masquerade ­ Grimes, Nikki. While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they've written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.

5.0/2 Heartbeat ­ Creech, Sharon. Twelve-year-old Annie ponders the many rhythms of life the year that her mother becomes pregnant, her grandfather begins faltering, and her best friend (and running partner) becomes distant.

4.7/2 Locomotion ­ Woodson, Jacqueline. In a series of poems, eleven-year-old Lonnie writes about his life, after the death of his parents, separated from his younger sister, living in a foster home, and finding his poetic voice at school.

3.5/3 Loose Threads ­ (811) Grover, Lorie Ann. A series of poems describes how seventh-grader Kay Garber faces her grandmother's battle with breast cancer while living with her mother and great-grandmother and dealing with everyday junior high school concerns.

4.5/1 Love That Dog ­ Creech, Sharon. A young student, who comes to love poetry through a personal understanding of what different famous poems mean to him, surprises himself by writing his own inspired poem.

5.0/5 Make Lemonade ­ Wolff, Virginia Euwer. In order to earn money for college, fourteen-year-old LaVaughn babysits for a teenage mother.

5.6/7 Out of the Dust ­ Hesse, Karen. In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.

3.7/1 Shanghai Messenger ­ Cheng, Andrea. Eleven-year-old Xiao Mei is on her way to China to meet her extended family. She was initially reluctant to make the trip, wondering if she would be accepted because she is only half Chinese, but her grandmother, Nai Nai, tells stories of family members that pique her curiosity. Xiao Mei agrees to be Nai Nai's messenger, and to Look everything./Remember. Once in Shanghai, the girl is warmly welcomed, and begins to learn about and appreciate her heritage. She makes wontons with Auntie, visits gardens where her great-grandfather's words are carved in the archways, and participates in morning Tai Chi exercises. When Xiao Mei returns home to Ohio after a week, she takes gifts, including a fan painted by an uncle that brings a little bit of China to America. This is a superb book, capturing both the excitement and adventure of Xiao Mei's trip, as well as her realization that family ties can bridge great distances.

3.8/1 What is Goodbye?: Poems on Grief ­ Grimes, Nikki. Alternating poems by a brother and sister convey their feelings about the death of their older brother and the impact it had on their family.

5.0/2 Witness ­ Hesse, Karen. A series of poems express the views of various people in a small Vermont town, including a young black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate the town.

Poetry:

5.3/4 Arachne Speaks ­ (811) Hovey, Kate. A poem about Arachne, who challenged the goddess Athena to a weaving contest and was changed into a spider.

4.4/0.5 Swimming Upstream: Middle School Poems ­ ( 811) George, Kristine O'Connell. A collection of poems capture the feelings and experiences of a girl in middle school.