A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly is a story that combines details about the life of a fictional 16-year-old girl growing up in 1906 with a real crime story.  Mattie Gorky’s mother dies leaving her to look after her younger siblings on her family’s farm. Dreaming about going to college, but not having the funds, she gets a job as a waitress at a nearby resort. One afternoon a guest named Grace Brown gives her a packet of letters and asks her to burn them. Later Grace Brown dies from drowning. Mattie, who reads the letters, finds clues to what happened. The book is based on the actual death of Grace Brown, an incident that inspired Theodore Dreiser to write An American Tragedy. 

Several students have already read and recommended Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever. From the book jacket: "Adventure, fighting, backstabbing and love abound" in this action-packed follow-up to Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment...  The heart-stopping quest of six winged kids--led by fourteen-year-old Max--to find their parents and investigate the mind-blowing mystery of their ultimate destiny continues when they're taken under the wing of an FBI agent and attempt, for the first time, to live "normal" lives. But going to school and making friends doesn't stop them from being relentlessly hunted by sinister spies, who lead Max to face her most frightening match yet: a new and better version of herself." Books one and three have also been added to the library.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter comes recommended by several readers. From the book jacket: "On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he sees immediately that she has Down's syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split second decision that will alter all of their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and never to reveal the secret. But Caroline, the nurse, cannot leave the infant. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself. So begins this beautifully told story that unfolds over a quarter of a century in which these two families, ignorant of each other, are yet bound by David Henry's fateful decision that long-ago winter night."

The Moonlit Cage by Winnipeg writer Lois Holeman comes recommended by Tiffany P. and Mrs. Pauls. Both said the book would appeal to those who enjoy a good romance with a historical theme about other cultures.

 From the book jacket:

Set in 1850s Afghanistan, and moving from there to India and London, Linda Holeman’s second novel is an epic story of one woman’s escape from persecution and her search for a better life. Darya is the beautiful, passionate fugitive escaping a vicious husband and the wrath of her remote Afghani village. When she stumbles across David, a mysterious young stranger in the mountains while escaping from her husband, she is captivated and falls in love. But David’s story began long ago, and both he and Darya will have to overcome many obstacles in their search for happiness.

A Long Way Gone: Memories of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah -

This book comes personally recommended by Mr. Shindle who is considering adding it to his class reading list. It tells the heart-felt and horrifying true story of Beah's experiences as a child soldier in the beautiful but war ravaged African country of Sierre Leone.