Pick of the Decade 1995-2005:
7th Grade

Best Fiction

Alexander, Lloyd. The Iron Ring , 1997.

Young Tamar, ruler of a small, mythical Indian kingdom, wagers with a visiting king and loses his kingdom and his freedom. To fulfill his promise, Tamar embarks on a journey full of magic and danger, a journey that may cost him his life. (See also: The Book of Three ; The Black Cauldron ; The Castle of Llyr ; Taran Wanderer ; The High King ; The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian ; The Wizard in the Tree ; The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen and The Arkadians .)

Almond, David. Skellig ,1999.

Michael and his family have just moved into their new home, but a pall of fear haunts them. His newborn sister is gravely ill. When he explores the dilapidated shed, Michael discovers a strange creature that seems to be part man, part owl, part angel. Michael enlists the aid of his neighbor, Mina, and together they are determined to nurse the ailing, mysterious Skellig back to health. (See also: Heaven Eyes ; Secret Heart and The Fire-Eaters .)

Alvarez, Julia. Before We Were Free , 2002.

In the early 1960s in the Dominican Republic , twelve-year-old Anita learns that her family is involved in the underground movement to end the bloody rule of the dictator, General Trujillo.

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Fever 1793, 2000.

In 1793 Philadelphia , sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic.

Armstrong, Jennifer. Dreams of Mairee Mehan , 1996.

Mairhe, who lives in an Irish slum in Washington , D.C. , in the 1860s, struggles to come to grips with the impact of the Civil War on her family. (Sequel: Mary Mehan Awake .)

Avi. Escape from Home , 1996.

Driven from their impoverished Irish village, fifteen-year-old Maura and her younger brother meet their landlord's runaway son in Liverpool while all three wait for a ship to America ; their fates continue to intertwine on board ship and in the New World . (Sequel: Lord Kirkle's Money .)

Avi. Crispin: The Cross of Lead , 2002.

Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret. (See also: The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle .)

Barron, T. A. The Lost Years of Merlin , 1996.

A strange boy washes up on the rocky shore of ancient Wales , with no name, no memory, no identity. He undertakes a dangerous journey to the enchanted land of Fincayra to discover his true destiny. (Sequels: The Seven Songs of Merlin ; The Fires of Merlin ; The Mirror of Merlin and The Wings of Merlin .)

Bass, L. G. Sign of the Qin: Outlaws of Moonshadow, No. 1 , 2004.

In long-ago China , Prince Zong, the mortal young Starlord chosen to save humankind from destruction, joins the twin outlaws, White Streak and Black Whirlwind, to fight the Lord of the Dead and his demon hordes (first in a trilogy).

Bauer, Cat. Harley, Like a Person , 2000.

Harley, an artistic teenager living with her alcoholic father and angry mother, suspects that she is adopted and begins a search for her biological parents.

Bauer, Joan. Backwater , 1999.

While compiling a genealogy of her family of successful attorneys, sixteen-year-old history buff Ivy Breedlove treks into the mountain wilderness to interview a reclusive aunt with whom she identifies and who in turn helps her to truly know herself and her family.

Bell , Hilari. The Goblin Wood , 2003.

Twelve-year-old Makenna is learning to be a hedgewitch from her mother. When she witnesses her mother's brutal execution Makenna escapes to the wood where she joins with the goblins to stop the rulers who want to rid the land of magic. (See also: The Fall of a Kingdom and The Rise of a Hero .)

Bunting, Eve. S. O. S. Titanic , 1996.

Fifteen-year-old Barry O'Neill, traveling from Ireland to America on the maiden voyage of the Titanic, finds his life endangered when the ship hits an iceberg and begins to sink.

Cabot, Meg. The Princess Diaries , 2000.

Mia, who is trying to lead a normal life as a teenage girl in New York City , is shocked to learn that her father is the Prince of Genovia, a small European principality, and that she is a princess and the heir to the throne. (Sequels: Princess in the Spotlight ; Princess in Love ; Princess in Waiting ; Princess in Pink and Princess in Training .)

Cameron, Ann. Colibri , 2003.

Kidnapped when she was very young by an unscrupulous man who has forced her to lie and beg to get money, a twelve-year-old Mayan girl endures an abusive life, always wishing she could return to the parents she can hardly remember.

Clement-Davis, David. Fire Bringer , 2000.

In ancient Scotland , a young deer, Rannoch, discovers he is the changeling destined to fulfill "the Prophecy." But this means he has to risk his life to defeat the evil deer, Sgorr, and reunite the Great Herd.

Cooney, Carolyn. Burning Up , 1999.

When a girl she had met at an inner-city church is murdered, fifteen-year-old Macey channels her grief into a school project that leads her to uncover prejudice she had not imagined in her grandparents and their wealthy Connecticut community.

Cross, Gillian. Tightrope , 1999.

When she begins receiving bizarre threatening messages from someone who seems to know her every move, teenage Ashley, after seeking help from the neighborhood tough guy, comes to realize that she alone can end the stalker's reign of terror.

Crossley-Holland, Kevin. The Seeing Stone , 2001.

In the England of 1199, lives a young lad named Arthur whose life is changed completely when his friend, Merlin gives him a magical stone in which he can see the life of the once and future king. (Sequels: At the Crossing Places and The King of the Middle March .)

Cushman, Karen. Matilda Bone , 2000.

Fourteen-year-old Matilda, an apprentice bonesetter and practitioner of medicine in a village in medieval England , tries to reconcile the various aspects of her life, both spiritual and practical. (See also : Catherine, Called Birdy .)