All the Answers, Kate Messner. When Ava fumbled through a desk drawer, looking for a pencil, she never would have thought the ups and downs that pencil would give her. While taking a test at school, she learns that the blue pencil gives her answers to questions she writes down. She shares it with her best friend, Sophie, who also hears the voice. Through giggles and laughter, they ask all kinds of benign questions and get answers to almost everything. They use the pencil for good when they find out what the elder residents truly want when they visit the home where Ava's grandfather lives. Some are easy to acquire, like an old baseball or a pair of wool socks. Others are more challenging, like her grandfather wanting Ava's mother's forgiveness. The pencil brings Ava anxiety when she learns her mother has cancer but doesn't yet know it. She convinces her mom to keep her mammogram appointment instead of chaperoning on her field trip to the nature center high ropes course. To keep her mind off her mom's day, she forces herself to fret through each obstacle despite her wretched anxiety. She ends up being only one of ten kids to complete all ten obstacles.

One day in school, she learns her grandfather is not doing well. She leaves school, walking to the home, hoping to convince her mom to forgive her father. But, she also learns more about the voice behind the pencil.

This is a moving story that, at first, appears lighthearted and magical, yet has so much depth. It goes far beyond a talking pencil, but latches onto loss, life and acceptance. It wraps its arms around you, hugs you and stays with you. Don't miss out on this moving story.

Paper Things, Jennifer Richard Jacobson. Ari, age 11, and Gage, her brother, age 19, are on their own and homeless. Being orphans, the home they had with Janna is not working for Gage and he insists he can take care of his younger sister on his own. Shuffling from couch to couch, floor to floor, or when necessity calls, the homeless shelter, they trudge with their few belongings from place to place. Lack of food, wrinkled clothes, disheveled hair, and a hungry stomach get to be too much for Ari to hide from her best friend, Sasha, and others suspecting things are not going so well. Her comfort is her years of "paper things" she has cut from catalogs to make families and homes and comforts that she, herself, does not have.

Reggie and his dog, Amelia who make their home in a rented storage unit, offers them a night of respite and he makes Ari a paper airplane using a Jiffy Lube advertisement. Coincidentally Gage lands his first job at Jiffy Lube . . . leading Ari to believe his planes make wishes come true. With Sashi pulling away and making new friends, Ari finds a new friend in Daniel, the weird kid with a bucket list of things to do before moving on from Eastland Elementary.

With the growing concern of more and more students living in poverty and without homes, this is such a story and how well some students can hide their situation. It gives us a glimpse into the life of one girl trying to remain true to her home with her brother doing his best and the one with Janna that may not include Gage.

Some Kind of Courage, Dan Gemeinhart. The newest book from this talented author had me racing along with Joseph, the main character, in his gut wrenching run to reclaim Sarah, his beloved horse. Set in 1890, young Joseph has lost his dad to a freak wagon accident and his mother and little sister to typhoid. All he has is Sarah, sweet Sarah, who was sold out from under him by the very man his father asked to take responsibility for him. But Ezra Bishop, a mean spirited, conniving bullish man, now has his horse and is headed off to Wenatchee. When Joseph arrives, too late to meet up with Bishop, he finds a young Chinese boy outside the trading post, starving and thirsty. With his mother's warm words nestled in his soul, he kindly feeds him and encourages him to tag along. Although they can't understand one another, they learn to communicate in other ways and Joseph soon learns his name is Ah-Kee. They continue onto Walla Walla, where Bishop is next headed. Along the way, they come across a momma grizzly and Joseph and Ah-Kee barely make it up a rock when the grizzly stands tall enough to scrape Joseph's leg. About to shoot her point blank in the eye with the gun he took from the drunkard who sold Sarah, Ah-Kee, forces the gun down, climbs down the rock and . . . talks to the bear. And that momma took her cubs and wondered off. This is only the first of many hair raising adventures these two will have and the reader will be right there with them, gasping, choking, chugging.

Town after town finds Sarah just out of Joseph's reach, yet she is the only family he has and he will not give up. The two boys run across wickedly mean men, as well as tender hearted, generous folk that clothe and feed them. Joseph does finally rescue Sarah, sweet Sarah, from Caleb Fawney, the outlaw on the run, only to have her shot in the neck while riding her bareback from the dying Fawney. They both go down and they go down hard.

Oh, the tears flowed. You won't escape this story without shedding some tears and thinking of this story long after the pages come to an end.

Counting by 7's, Holly Goldberg Sloan. A wonderful story of Willow Chance and her search for a new home, after her parents are killed in a car accident. She is on her way home after getting ice cream with her school counselor, Dell Duke, her new found friend, Mai and Mai's older brother, Quang-ha when they notice emergency vehicles in her driveway. Willow's world is immediately shattered.

Upon receiving the only perfect test score on the school state test, her teacher assumed she cheated and refers her to the school counselor, Dell Duke. Willow is actually a genius, but her interest in the natural world and counting by sevens comes to an abrupt halt after the death of her parents. Pattie, Mai and Quang-ha Nguyen, allow her to stay with them temporarily. Quang-ha finds her a nuisance, but Pattie and Mae warm to her instantly, as does Dell. Each character, including Jairo, the taxi driver, rally around Willow, forming a quirky and unconventional, family relationship. The day finally arrives; however, when Lenora Cole, the social worker, calls to tell her she has a court date for her to be placed with a foster family. The ending will delight readers, leaving warm fuzzies through and through.