TOP TEN BOOKS WE'VE READ THIS YEAR

It's time for Mrs. Wilson and myself to name the top ten books we have read this year. While it is difficult to choose just ten, some books always stand out. You will also find books that appear on both of our lists. We would love to see your top ten so please share it with us. Have a wonderful holiday season.

Mrs. Wilson's List

1. Anything But Typical , by Nora Raleigh Baskin

2. Out of My Mind, by Sharon M. Draper

3. Dark Life, by Kat Falls

4. The Maze Runner, by James Dashner

5. One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams-Garcia

6. Blood Wounds, by Susan Beth Pfeffer

7. Ninth Ward, by Jewell Parker Rhodes

8. Three Black Swans, by Caroline B. Cooney

9. Bounce, by Natasha Friend

10. How to Survive Middle School, by Donna Gephart

Miss Hagensee's List

1. Cinder, by Marissa Meyer

2. The Always War, by Margaret Peterson Haddix

3. How to Survive Middle School, by Donna Gephart

4. Bamboo People, by Mitali Perkins

5. Ship Breaker, by Paolo Bacigalupi

6. Mindblind, by Jennifer Rozines Roy

7. Anything But Typical , by Nora Raleigh Baskin

8. Secrets at Sea, by Richard Peck

9. Climbing the Stairs, by Padma Venkatraman

10. Blood Wounds, by Susan Beth Pfeffer

BASEBALL IN THE DESERT

During World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans were rounded up and sent to internment camps in the desert. In Kathryn Fitzmaurice's book A Diamond in the Desert, she looks at one of these camps, Gila River, and the efforts of a group of boys to organize an baseball team and create a baseball diamond in the middle of the desert. Tetsu, a star first baseman at home in California, is one of these boys. With his father shipped off to North Dakota for questioning and his sister very ill, life in the camp is difficult. Now there is a baseball team and the chance to leave the camp to compete against teams from other camps. But Tetsu is worried about his family. Should he play baseball or not? Based on a true story this book gives a vivid peek into the Japanese internment camps of World War II.