Penny From Heaven by Jennifer Holm

Eleven-year-old Penny's summer begins as most summers have before. She lives at home with her mother and grandparents. The house is quiet, mom works long hours as a secretary, and Penny's grandparents are slightly eccentric. Me-me (Grandma) is kind, but a horrible cook who favors wholesome "American" food like meatloaf and liver. Pop-pop (Grandpa) is given to inappropriate comments and overestimating his plumbing abilities.

Fortunately, Penny has her deceased father's siblings, cousins, mothers, nephews, nieces, aunts and uncles to spoil her, feed her, and employ her in the family store. They're a large, Italian-American family with lots of love, food, kids and quarrels. But the Faluccis have something in common with Penny's other family--they won't tell her the secret about her father's death. Everyone--from her mom's family to her father's--gives Penny a vague answer: Penny's father died in a hospital.

Penny spends her summer hanging out, playing baseball, and delivering groceries with her cousin and best friend, Frankie, a twelve-year-old boy on the verge of real trouble with the law. She's having a good time until something dramatic happens. Her mother begins dating. And not just anybody...She begins dating Mr. Mulligan, the milkman.

Soldier's Heart by gary paulsen

This book is a true story and it says so in the authors note. This book is very sad, interesting, and violent. It is about a 16 year old boy who heard of a shooting war. His name was Charley. He wanted to enlist for the army but they said that you must be 18 to go and enlist for the army that would take place in the shooting war. Charley lies about his age and gets in without question. He gets training and fights in the army and in the battles he fought in he learns what it really is like to be in the army. He learned that you always think you're going to die. He learned that if someone is having a slow and painful death because of a wound they will want to shoot themselves. Charley learned a lot in the army and that is why this book is called soldiers heart. My favorite part is the whole book because it is so interesting and sad.

Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Damian and his brother, Anthony, miss their recently deceased mother very badly. So does their father. With that in mind, Damian and Anthony's dad moves them out of their old home and into a new one hoping to exorcise any painful memories. Once moved in, Damian sets up a cardboard house along the railroad tracks where he can escape into his own little world. While playing one day, a bag full of money literally falls on top of Damian's world. He shares his good fortune with Anthony who immediately begins to strategies on how to invest the money wisely. Unfortunately for the duo, the money will be useless in just a few days whenever the UK converts all of its money into Euros. Damian, being a very, very devout Christian, decides to give the money to the poor because he believes that it is a gift from God. Anthony, worried about things such as exchange and interest rates, tries to spend as much of his money on himself and stash some of it away in investments such as real estate.


It was just one sack of a number of sacks of money strategically stolen and hidden by bank robbers. One of them was supposed to pick up the bag that young Damian found, and quickly begins to follow the young boy in order to get his money back. All of this is done without Damian's father knowing about this until one day at school, Damian makes a rather large contribution to a fund for poor children. The lady who is collecting the donations (Daisy Donovan), falls not only for the boy's giving heart but for his father as well.

Gary Paulsen by Edith Hope Fine

The Biography about Gary Paulsen written by Edith Hope Fine is a wonderful story that talks about all of Paulsen's goals, achievements, and also books written by Gary Paulsen himself. Paulsen did not have a good childhood in fact he spent most of his childhood taking care of himself. His two parents were always drinking and using drugs because of all there stress. Most of there stress was from either his dad going to war almost every month, or the fact that they did not know how to take care of Gary. Gary being the smart man he is learned all of his lessons in life by watching his parent's mistakes. Gary Paulsen uses a lot of imagery, as well as wonderful examples filling the readers mind with pictures and thoughts about the topic. The cover of the book has a wonderful picture of Gary. The book was put in chronological order of Gary Paulsen's life. The book also has colorful photos in each chapter of Gary. Also in the back of the book there is a timeline of the exact dates when Gary wrote his book's. You would be very surprised at how many books Gary has written!! Underneath all pictures there is a quote that Gary wrote at the time that the picture was taken. I think all people young and old would love to read this book.

the foxman by gary paulsen

A fifteen-year-old boy has been putting up with the hazards of his drunken parents for some time now. After a certain event happens as a result of them being drunk, the boy is ordered by the court to go live with his family in the cold woods of Minnesota until he can come back home.
While staying with his new family, the boy will see what it's like to do some pretty tough chores, he'll hear many unfunny war stories, and try to fit in with the people he now has to share a house with. But all of those things pale in comparison to meeting and befriending the Foxman. This 'Foxman' isn't your typical, everyday person; something bad happened to him years ago, and he doesn't choose to be anywhere near society, but there's something about the boy's company that changes him.

Brians Winter by gary paulsen

Now, in this second sequel, Paulsen shows what would have happened if the 13-year-old boy had been forced to endure the harsh winter. For a brief time, Brian lives in relative luxury, living off the contents of the recently recovered survival pack, which included a gun for hunting. Then, his freeze-dried food runs out and his rifle fails, and he realizes how careless and complacent he has become. Suddenly aware of the changing seasons, he works frantically to winterize his shelter, fashion warmer clothes from animal skins, and construct a more powerful bow and arrow. About the time he has mastered winter survival, he discovers a dog-sled trail that leads him to a trapper and final rescue. The same formula that worked before is successful here: the driving pace of the narration, the breathtaking descriptions of nature, and the boy who triumphs on the merits of efficient problem solving.

Brians Hunt by gary paulsen

The fifth story about Brian, now 16, takes place two years after he had been stranded in the Canadian wilderness as the result of a plane crash. Brian is unable to adjust to living back in civilization and arranges to home school himself in the Canadian north woods. As he begins his new life, he encounters a wounded dog that appears to be domesticated. He starts to get a gut feeling that the dog may have come from a Cree camp in the north where friends of his live. After attending to the dog's wounds, he decides to head toward the camp only to find that the residents have experienced a savage bear attack. The theme of respecting the power of nature resonates throughout this brief book. The story is filled with practical information about surviving in the wilderness that will delight listeners who hunt and camp. Young adults will relate to the relationship between Brian and the dog, along with the hint of a possible future romance with Susan, a young Cree woman.