Red-Hot Rattoons by Elizabeth Winthrop

Armed with a boom box, a stage wardrobe, and a tube of city maps, five tap-dancing country rats, who call themselves the Rattoons, set off to seek their fame in Rat Hollow-the rat community that pulses with a life all its own beneath the streets of New York City.
But when Rat Hollow turns its back on them, the Rattoons break the law and take their act aboveground to dance for humans in front of the Metropolitan Museum, only to find that danger assails them from every direction. So the Rattoons turn to Oliver String Bean Bailey, the legendary human impresario who knows rat speak. Will he help them achieve their dancing dream?

Factory Girl by Barbara Greenwood

At the dingy, overcrowded Acme Garment Factory, Emily Watson stands for eleven hours a day clipping threads from blouses. Every time the boss passes, he shouts at her to snip faster. But if Emily snips too fast, she could ruin the garment and be docked pay. If she works too slowly, she will be fired. She desperately needs this job. Without the four dollars a week it brings, her family will starve. When a reporter arrives, determined to expose the terrible conditions in the factory, Emily finds herself caught between the desperate immigrant girls with whom she works and the hope of change. Then tragedy strikes, and Emily must decide where her loyalties lie.

The Graduation of Jake Moon by Barbara Park

Life hasn't been the same for Jake Moon since his grandfather, Skelly, got Alzheimer's disease. At first Jake thought, no big deal, it was just a disease that made old people forget where they put their car keys. But he was wrong. It is a big deal. A very big deal.
For one thing, he can't invite friends over because Skelly might do something embarrassing like tell them to zipper their "briskets," or Jake might reach into the freezer for a can of frozen orange juice and find Skelly's frozen pajamas there instead. He used to love spending time with his grandfather...but now he is mostly stuck fastening the Velcro on Skelly's sneakers, or wiping rice off his chin. It's like all of a sudden he's the grown-up, and Skelly's the kid. How can the one person Jake could always count on be fading as fast as — well, as the moon.

The 100 Dresses by Eleanor Estes

Wanda Petronski, an immigrant girl in an American school, who is ridiculed for wearing the same faded blue dress every day. When she tells her classmates that she has one hundred dresses at home, she unwittingly triggers a game of teasing that eventually ends in a lesson for all.

Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

Christian is gaga for Princess Marigold. But he's just a commoner, and no match for royalty. Heck, he lives in a cave with a troll! And now he's discovered another reason to put his love-soggy heart on ice: Queen Olympia is scheming to take over the kingdom--and she'll bump off her own daughter to do it. Can Christian foil her diabolical plans?

The Garden of Eve by K.L. Going

Evie reluctantly moves with her widowed father to Beaumont, New York, where he has bought an apple orchard, dismissing rumors that the town is cursed and the trees haven't borne fruit in decades. Evie doesn't believe in things like curses and fairy tales anymore--if fairy tales were real, her mom would still be alive. But odd things happen in Beaumont. Evie meets a boy who claims to be dead and receives a mysterious seed as an eleventh-birthday gift. Once planted, the seed grows into a tree overnight, but only Evie and the dead boy can see it--or go where it leads.

The Stray by Dick King-Smith

On her seventy-fifth birthday, Henny Hickathrift leaves the old-folks home with its 'boring people' and sets off on a journey that lands her in the seaside resort of Saltmouth, with all but one penny of her 50 pounds spent. When she spots a stray dog on the beach, she writes in the sand, matter of factly and without a trace of self-pity, 'I am a stray old woman.' A family of five red-haired children spot her message and quickly invite her home, where even their dubious father is charmed by Henny's delight in everything she finds and by her straightforward sense of loyalty and honor.

True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

In 1832 thirteen-year-old Charlotte Doyle boards the Seahawk for the voyage from England to America where she will be reunited with her parents. Believing that she will be traveling with two other families, Charlotte arrives at the dock to discover that she will be the only passenger—and the only female—on the long journey. Evil, danger, mutiny, and, ultimately, courage await Charlotte in this tale of adventure and self-discovery.

The Beloved Dearly by Doug Cooney

Ernie is a twelve-year-old tycoon, always on the lookout for a fast buck. This time he stumbles onto a money-making bonanza: pet funerals. He hires Dusty to decorate the burial boxes and Tony to dig the holes, but his prize find is Swimming Pool, a tomboy who delivers a crying jag not to be missed. Business goes through the roof - until Ernie loses Swimming Pool over a raise and the whole venture unravels.

Stepping on Cracks by Mary Downing Hahn

In 1944, while her brother is overseas fighting in World War II, eleven-year-old Margaret gets a new view of the school bully Gordy when she finds him hiding his own brother, an army deserter, and decides to help him.