Summer Reading Recommendations tower she’s locked in. Then one day something terrible happens: Zach’s dad throws out all his action figures while he’s at school. Zach is too furious for words, so he quits the game and lies to Poppy and Alice about why, opening a rift in their friendship that he isn’t sure can be mended. But when Poppy takes the Queen out of her glass cabinet hoping to lure Zach back with a new twist in the game, weird things start happening. Poppy claims that the ghost of a girl has been visiting her at night, telling Poppy that she cannot rest until her remains are buried in her own grave. And that if Poppy doesn’t help her, she’ll make her sorry.
Doll Bones by Holly Black Grades 5 - 9 Zach, Poppy, and Alice are best friends. For as long as they can remember, they’ve been playing “the game” -- an ongoing saga that takes place in an imaginary world where their toys are the characters. There are pirates, mermaids, knights, and witches, but ruling over them all is the Great Queen, a creepy antique china doll that Poppy’s mom has locked in a glass display cabinet. The Queen is ruthless, cunning, and vindictive, putting her curse of misfortune on those who displease her until they can somehow win their way back into her good graces. Her one weakness? She cannot escape the glass
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Zach isn’t sure what to believe, but he and Alice agree to help Poppy, and the three friends set out on a quest worthy of their game’s main hero, William the Blade. But the further they get in their journey, the weirder things get. Eerie things start to happen. Is the Queen just a doll, or is there something paranormal at work?
Skyward by Brandon Sanderson Grades 6 and up Defeated, crushed, and driven almost to extinction, the remnants of the human race are trapped on a planet that is constantly attacked by mysterious alien starfighters. Spensa, a teenage girl living among them, longs to be a pilot. When she discovers the wreckage of an ancient ship, she realizes this dream might be possible—assuming she can repair the ship, navigate flight school, and (perhaps most importantly) persuade the strange machine to help her. Because this ship, uniquely, appears to have a soul.
