Lakeshore's Middle Grade March Madness 2023: Home

Meet Jack Reynolds. Making people laugh is his life's work. Jack's wacky MyTube videos are really starting to get a following. The only problem is, for the truly epic posts, he needs a collaborator. And, well, he doesn't exactly have any friends. So Jack has to swallow his pride and join the new after-school club for speed friendshipping. But who would make the best partner in comedy?
Brielle, Miss Perfect candidate for student body president?
Mario, whose mom won't even let him have a smartphone?
Or Tasha, the quiet, mysterious girl with a crocheted hat for every day of the week?
One of these kids could help catapult Jack to internet fame . . . or even become a true friend. But is going viral worth the cost of friendship?

Twelve-year-old Stick Lawson lives on Hatteras Island, North Carolina, where life moves steady as the tides, and mysteries abound as long as you look really hard for them. Stick and her friends Rain and Neb are good at looking hard. They call themselves the Dime Novel Kids. And the only thing Stick wants more than a paying case for them to solve is the respect that comes with it. But on Hatteras, the tides are changing. World War II looms. The island's cranky postmistress is acting suspicious. Curious newcomers have appeared. There are spies on the island- the Dimes know it. But who? Then in the waters off Hatteras's shores, a wartime menace shatters the island's peace, upending Stick's life and the lives of everybody she loves. The Dimes are about to face more mysteries than they ever could have wished for, and risk more than they ever could have imagined.

Mihi Whan Park loves fairy tales. She wants to be a princess more than anything, but everyone tells her she's not the "princess type"- whatever that means.
Then Mihi gets her shot. When she and her new friends Savannah and Reese discover a portal to a fairy-tale realm, they get a chance to learn to be princesses! Now Mihi can prove once and for all that she is the "princess type."
But the fairy-tale world isn't the wonderful place Mihi imagined. Hidden enemies plot against the girls, and becoming princesses comes at a cost. Soon, Savannah and Reese try to leave, and Mihi must figure out where her loyalties lie: with her friends and ehr future at home, or with her princess dreams- and all the consequences that come with them.

Odder spends her days off the coast of central California, practicing her underwater acrobatics and spinning the quirky stories for which she's known. She's a fearless daredevil, curious to a fault. But when Odder comes face-to-face with a hungry great white shark, her life takes a dramatic turn, one that will challenge everything she believes about herself--and about the humans who hope to save her.

Meet resilience, a Mars rover determined to live up to his name.
Res was built to explore Mars. He was not built to have human emotions. But as he learns new things from the NASA scientists who assemble him, he begins to develop humanlike feelings. Maybe there's a problem with his programming...
Human emotions or not, launch day comes, and Res blasts off to Mars, accompanied by a friendly drone helicopter named Fly. But Res quickly discovers that Mars is a dangerous place filled with dust storms and giant cliffs. As he navigates Mars's difficult landscape, Res is tested in ways that go beyond space exploration.
As millions of people back on Earth follow his progress, will Res have the determination, courage, and resilience to succeed . . . and survive?

Luz Veliz is a soccer star- or rather, she was a soccer star. With her serious knee injury, it's unlikely she'll be back on the field anytime soon. But without soccer, who is she? Even her dad treats her differently now- like he doesn't know her or, worse, like he doesn't even like her. When Luz discovers she has a knack for coding, it feels like a lifeline to a better self. If she can just ace the May Showcase, she'll not only skip a level in her coding courses and impress Ms. Freeman and intriguing, brilliant Trevor- she'll have her parents cheering her on from the sidelines, just the way she likes it.
But something- someone- is about to enter the Velizes' life. And when Solana arrives, nothing will be the same, ever again.

FIRE. ICE. FLOOD.
Three climate disasters.
Four kids fighting for their lives.
Akira is riding her horse in the California woods when a wildfire sparks- and grows scarily fast. How can she make it to safety when there are flames everywhere?
Owen and his best friend, George, are sued to seeing polar bears on the snowy Canadian tundra. But when one bear gets way too close for comfort, do the boys have any chance of surviving?
Natalie hunkers down at home as a massive hurricane barrels toward Miami. When the floodwaters crash into her house, Natalie is dragged out into the storm- with nowhere to hide.
Akira, Owen, George, and Natalie are all swept up in the devastating effects of climate change. But they are also connected in ways that will shock them- and could alter their destinies.

Eliot is grieving Babung, her paternal grandmother who just passed away, and she feels like she's the only one. She's less than excited to move to her new house, which smells like lemons and deception, and is searching for a sign, any sign, that ghosts are real. Because if ghosts are real, it means she can find a way back to Babung. When Eliot chases the promise of paranormal activity to the presumably haunted Honeyfield Hall, she finds her proof of spirits. But these ghosts are losing their memory, stuck between this world and the next, waiting to cross over. With the help of Hazel, the granddaughter of Honeyfield's owner (and Eliot's new crush), she attempts to uncover the mystery behind Honeyfield Hall and the ghosts residing within. And as Eliot fits the pieces together, she may just be able to help the spirits remember their pasts, and hold on to her grandmother's memory.

Middle school is the worst, especially for David Bravo. He doesn't have a single class with his best (and only) friend, Antoine. He has to give a presentation about his heritage, but he's not sure how- or even if- he wants to explain to his classmates that he's adopted. And after he freezes up at his first cross-country race, causing an accident that leaves Antoine with a busted ankle, he's 100 percent sure he's cursed.
David wishes he could do it all over. He doesn't expect his wish to summon a pushy, annoying talking dog who claims to be his new timeline guide. According to Fea, somewhere in his past, David made a choice that put his life on the wrong track. And she can take him back to fix it.
David knows exactly what he wants to undo: the accident that hurt Antoine. But when his first try (and the second, and the third) is a total disaster, he and Fea are left scrambling through timeline after timeline, trying to figure out what she's really here to fix- a quest that may lead them to answers in the most unexpected places.

Cress Watercress is a rabbit. Home means a warren on the riverbank with Mama and Papa and baby Kip. Meals at dawn and dusk, and honey-ginger tea to help the baby with his breathing.
When Papa doesn't return from a nocturnal honey-gathering expedition, Mama assumes the worst- after all, it's a dangerous world for a rabbit. Though Cress begs to stay- what if Papa comes hoem and doesn't know where they've gone?- Mama moves the family to the basement apartment of the Broken Arms,a run-down apartment tree witha menacing wol landlord, a nosy mouse super, a rowdy family of suirrels, and a pair of songbirds who broadcast everybody's buisness. Could a dead tree full of annoying neighbors- and no Papa- ever be home?

Sai has a secret.
As Assistant to Mangkon's most celebrated mapmaker, Paiyoon Wongyai, she plays the part of a well-bred young lady with a glittering future. In reality, her father is a low-life con man- and in a kingdom where the status of your ancestors dictates your social position, no one can know that Sai's connection to the past is a single tarnished link. So when Sai is given an opportunity to join Paiyoon on an expedition to chart the southern seas, she jumps at her chance to sever the link and start a new life.
Soon she realizes that there is more to the expedition than meets the eye and that she's not the only one on board who has secrets. When she learns that the ship might be heading for the fabled Sunderlands- a land of dragons, dangers, and riches beyond imagination- she has to decide exactly what she's willing to risk to chase after her dreams.

No one predicted the dragon apocalypse. The dragons came suddenly and decimated the world as we knew it, including New York City. Now, five years later, Noah, his hard-core survivalist father, and a ragtag group of survivors are barely scraping by in this new reality. At least for the few months the dragons are hibernating, until it's no longer safe aboveground.
Noah has seen firsthand the damage these creatures can do. When it comes to dragons, it's kill or be killed. But a chance encounter between Noah and a young dragon forces him to question everything he thought he knew. With rumors spreading that there's a group of survivors living in harmony with dragons instead of hiding underground, Noah teams up with his fire-breathing ally to find out if peace between humans and dragons is really possible.
But the division runs deeper than scales versus skin because trying to follow his heart might just cost Noah his family, too. If Noah and his father can't see eye to eye, can he really get humans and dragons to?

A fresh start. That's all Evan Pao wants as he, along with his mother and sister, flee from California to Haddington, Virginia, hoping to keep his father's notoriety a secret.
But Haddington is a southern town steeped in tradition, and moving to a place immersed in the past ahs its own price. Although Evan quickly makes fiends, one boy, Brady Griggs, seems determined to make sure that as a Chinese American, Evan feels that he does not belong. When Evan finds a unique way to make himself part of the school's annual Civil War celebration, the reaction is swift and violent. As all of his choices at home and at school collide, Evan must decide whether he will react with he same cruelty shown to him, or choose a different path.

Cuban-born eleven-year-old Oriol lives in Santa Barbara, California, where she struggles to belong. But most of the time that's okay, because she enjoys helping her parents care for the many injured animals at their veterinary clinic.
Then Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American winner of a Nobel Prize in Literature, moves to town, and aspiring Oriol finds herself opening up. And when she discovers that someone is threatening the life of a baby elephant at her parents' clinic, Oriol is determined to take action. As she begins to create a world of words for herself, Oriol learns it will take courage and strength to do what she thinks is right- even if it means keeping secrets from those she loves.

It takes a special person to end up in detention on the last day of school. It takes a REALLY special person to accidentally burn down the school yard while chasing a fire-breathing chipmunk. But nothing about Valentina Salazar has ever been "normal." The Salazars are protectors, tasked with rescuing the magical creatures who sometimes wander into our world, from grumpy unicorns to chupacabras . . . to the occasional fire-breathing chipmunk. When Val's father is killed during a rescue mission gone wrong, her mother decides it's time to retire from their life on the road. She moves the family to a boring little town in upstate New York and enrolls Val and her siblings in real school for the first time. But Val is a protector at heart and she can't give up her calling. So when a mythical egg surfaces in a viral video, Val convinces her reluctant siblings to help her find the egg before it hatches and wreaks havoc. But she has some competition: the dreaded monster hunters who'll stop at nothing to destroy the creature . . . and the Salazar family.

Every year, in the magical town of Ravenskill, Witchlings who participate in the Black Moon Ceremony are placed into covens and come into their powers as full-fledged witches. And twelve-year-old Seven Salazar can't wait to be placed in the most powerful coven with her best friend! But on the night of the ceremony, in front of the entire town, Seven isn't placed in one of the five covens. She's a Spare! Spare covens have fewer witches, are less powerful, and are looked down on by everyone. Even worse, when Seven and the other two Spares perform the magic circle to seal their coven and cement themselves as sisters, it doesn't work! They're stuck as Witchlings--and will never be able to perform powerful magic. Seven invokes her only option: the impossible task. The three Spares will be assigned an impossible task: If they work together and succeed at it, their coven will be sealed and they'll gain their full powers. If they fail... Well, the last coven to make the attempt ended up being turned into toads. Forever ..