Imagine you have a perfect life with a perfect family and friendship, then everything comes crashing down. Well, this is Emma’s life story in Where We Used To Roam by Jenn Bishop. Emma has a best friend, Becca, who is the smartest person she knows but is very different from Emma. Emma has grown up, loves art, and likes to have fun, but Becca is still childish and loves books. Emma wants friends that understand her, like Lucy and Kennedy whom she meets and they have the same interests as her. Emma introduces Becca to her new friends and wants them to be friends with each other, but Becca is uncomfortable around them. Becca doesn’t show this to Emma, but instead she just hangs out with them anyway. One night they all go to Emma’s brother’s football game where he gets injured. Austin has to go to the hospital because of it, and when he does he gets pain pills. After his injury he has changed a lot. He never comes out of his room and he gets mad really easily. Austin’s family notices this and one day his mom finds his pain pills in his room, but Austin was taking them when the prescription passed. With all of this going on Emma also ruins her friendship with Becca at a school field trip. After this happens Emma wants to make things right with Becca, but she can’t because her family decided that it would be best to go to Wyoming with her mom’s old college friend. Emma’s parents want her to get away while they are dealing with getting Austin into rehab. Emma agrees and sets off to Wyoming for a month to get away. When Emma arrives it’s a little awkward adjusting to her new home for a month, but she does with time. For the time she’s there she makes new friends, sees amazing things, and has fun! Emma is finally having a good summer when her mom calls to inform her that Austin is home from rehab and that she can facetime him. Emma’s nervous and excited to see her brother. Will Austin get better or relapse? Will Emma and Becca make up? To find out, read Where We Used To Roam by Jenn Bishop!

If you like Where We Used To Roam you might also enjoy Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. These two books are connected because both of the main characters run away from  their problems. Maniac Magee follows the main character Maniac who lives in the town of Two Mills and is all alone because his parents died when he was young. Maniac has been running and moving ever since he ran away from his aunt and uncle’s house, because they would split him between them. Two Mills is separated by races and sections, such as the East End and the West End. Maniac wants to find a home, so he goes into the East End where he meets Mars Bars, the East End’s bully. After Mars Bars was harassing Maniac, Amanda Beale, one of the East Ender’s, saves Maniac and invites Maniac to her house. After being at her house for a while it was time for him to go home, but he couldn’t because he has no home. The Beale’s find this out and invite him to stay with them. Maniac agrees and is finally happy to have a home after searching for so long. After a couple of months of living with the Beale’s, Maniac is finally happy until the East Ender’s find out that Maniac is living with the Beales and start to harass them. With all of the harassing, Maniac decides to run away from the Beales so they don’t get hurt because of him. After running away Maniac meets Grayson who invites him to live with him. Maniac knew that this had happened before but he agreed. Maniac and Grayson have grown closer as a family, but with his old age it makes things hard. Will Grayson and Maniac live happily ever after? Will Maniac run away again and ever find a home? Read Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli to find out, but don’t forget to also read Where We Used To Roam by Jenn Bishop!

Worried. Devastated. Traumatized. These are the feelings that Amari Peters felt when her brother disappeared out of nowhere. This is what happens to Amari in Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston. Amari Peters was born in the “Wood”, a not so good neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia. Amari’s life has not been great ever since her brother disappeared, but her spirits were lifted when her brother left behind an invite addressed to her. The invite was to a magical school named Bureau, a place full of magic that her brother went to without her and her mom’s knowledge. Amari decides to go to this school to find out what happened to  her brother, but tells her mother it was a summer camp that Quinton went to, to not worry her. When Amari arrived at this “ summer camp” she was well known since her brother was a part of Vanquish, a partnership of him and Maria VanHelsing. As a tradition to the Bureau, newcomers will touch a crystal ball to enhance a supernatural ability. Amari’s goal in coming to the Bureau was to find her brother and not stand out , but her not standing out was all crushed when she touched the ball enhancing one hundred percent magic in her blood and also identifying her as a magician. In the magical world no one trusts magicians. Along the way of trying to fit into the Bureau, Amari makes friends like Dylan VanHelsing and Elsie, but she also makes some enemies like Lara VanHelsing, Dylan’s twin. Amari never lets her original goal go so to make progress in her investigation she asked Dylan to help her. Dylan decided to help her and to be one of her friends at the Bureau. As they got closer in the investigation and as friends Dylan revealed that he is an original magician just like she was. After knowing this, it’s easier to open up to him about her problems with growing as a magician. After many small and big challenges Amari and Dylan are close to figuring out who took Vanquish. Will they find out who took Vanquish? Will they both stay loyal to each other or will they turn on each other ? Read Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston to find out! 

If you like Amari and the Night Brothers then you might also like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K Rowling. These two books connect because both characters go to a magical school and solve mysteries there. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone follows the main character Harry where he lost his parents and had to live with his aunt and uncle. Harry’s aunt and uncle treat him terribly and act as if he’s their maid. After getting treated terribly for so long, Harry meets Hagrid who is a groundskeeper at Hogwarts, a magical school for Wizards and Witches. Hagrid knew Harry’s parents and invited him to go to Hogwarts since his parents were wizards too. Harry then sets off to Hogwarts where he makes friends and lives a very interesting and good life he has never had with his aunt and uncle. Harry and his friends come across their first mystery, which is the sorcerer’s stone that grants eternal life which Voldemort, the wizard that killed Harry’s parents, wants. Harry and his friends, Hermione and Ron, have to stop Voldemort from getting the stone and living eternally because if he lives forever then he would cause more trouble than he already has. One of the problems that are in their way to stop Voldemort is that the stone is heavily guarded with traps that they have to get through themselves to stop him. Will Harry, Hermione, and Ron get past the traps and stop Voldemort? Will they get caught and not be able to stop Voldemort? Read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and the rest of the Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling to find out, but don’t forget to read Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston first! 

Let me introduce you to Audra, a teenage Lithuanian girl who has the trait of being brave. This trait is shown when Audra has to go on multiple adventures to stand up to the Russian Cossack soldiers in the book Words On Fire by Jennifer Nielsen In the beginning of this story, the Cossack soldiers have taken over Lithuania and put in many different laws in place, such as Lithuanians couldn’t practice their religion or read books in Lithuanian. What Audra doesn’t know is that her parents were in an important business of book smuggling but never discussed it with Audra personally but one day Audra figured out what they do. Then, one day Cossack soldiers led by Officer Rusakov come to Audra’s home to confront her parents about their business. Not only do they come but they burn Audra’s home, arresting her parents, and leave Audra with an illegal book that she had to get to a woman she doesnt know named Milda.    After multiple days Audra finds Milda with the help of a boy named Lukas who becomes her friend. Audra stays with Milda for a while and Audra wants to smuggle books to honor her parents. This is a really hard job, but Audra is really brave so she wants to do it . Now Audra has to go on many more adventures to do this job all to get her parents back. Will Audra reunite with her parents? Will Audra and Lukas get caught by Officer Rusakov and get sent to prison or be safe? Read Words on Fire by Jennifer Nielsen to find out! 

If you liked the book Words on Fire by Jennifer Nielsen then you might also like the book Night Divided also by Jennifer Nielsen, which is another historical Fiction book. This book connects to Words on Fire because both characters realize at the end of the book that assumptions of people are not always correct. Night Divided follows the main character Gerta who is trying to escape the East end of the Berlin Wall in Germany. Gerta’s family lives on the East End of Berlin where the Soviet Union is in charge. Gerta’s family hates living in the East, but her mom doesn’t want to leave her own mother behind if they leave.  Her father and younger brother Dominik have already escaped to the West End where it’s free to see if they can find a home for their family before the wall is complete. Now that the wall is complete nobody can leave the East End. Gerta, and older brother Fritz now have to find a way to make it over there too and then convince her mother to go with them. Will Fritz and Gerta find a way to Escape? Will they get caught and arrested? Read the book Night Divided by Jennifer Nielsen to find out.