Lasky, Kathryn. Chasing Orion. Candlewick Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0763639822. Ages 10-14.

In the summer of 1952, polio has spread throughout Indiana, causing a widespread panic. With pools closed and camps cancelled, Georgie is stuck at home all summer in a new neighborhood with nothing to do. That is, until she discovers that her next-door neighbor is a beautiful young teenage girl stuck in an iron lung. Fascinated by Phyllis’s eighty-seven cubic centimeters of air, Georgie vows to help Phyllis and works to bring her and her brother Emmett together. But Georgie realizes that Phyllis has other plans in store for Emmett, and soon Georgie must save Emmett from Phyllis's deception before it is too late.

In this coming-of-age story, Georgie is facing life in a new part of town, having to go to a new school and make all new friends. In addition, most of the things she loves to do that enable her to make friends are forbidden now due to the polio outbreak. Her only human contacts besides her family are Evelyn (the quirky girl she meets at the library) and Phyllis. Georgie first becomes entranced by the romanticism of Phyllis’s life in the iron lung, but her childlike innocence eventually enables her to see through all the lies and deception. There she finds a family who is determined to hang on to what little of their daughter they have left, and a daughter who wants so desperately to be freed from her iron prison, even if it means death. While Georgie’s situation is unique, the feelings she experiences are ones that tweens can relate to—trying to fit in, finding a purpose, living vicariously through older siblings, and wanting what she cannot have.

Kwapis, Ken. (Director). (2005). The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants [Motion picture]. United States: Alcon Entertainment. Ages 11-14.

When a single pair of jeans fits four lifelong friends (who couldn’t be more different) perfectly, it must be magic. So the girls form their sisterhood on the eve of going their separate ways for the summer—the pants being the perfect way to keep in touch and chronicle each of their experiences. While Carmen faces a new stepfamily in the states, Lena travels to Greece to meet her extended family and finds love as well. And as Tibby witnesses a young girl’s brave fight with leukemia, Bridget battles her own demons while making trouble at soccer camp. But in the end, the pants bring them back together, where they are there for each other after a summer none of them will forget. Based on the first book in the bestselling series by Ann Brashares.

Marsh, Katherine. The Night Tourist. Hyperion Books for Children, 2007. ISBN 978-1423106890. Ages 9-14.

After getting hit by a car Jack Perdu starts seeing things, so his father sends him to a special doctor in New York City. There he meets Euri, a ghost girl his age who leads him down below Grand Central Station into the New York Underworld. Having left the city eight years before after his mother died, Jack realizes that this is the chance for him to see his mother again. So they travel through the ghostly world together, their mission unearthing both the truth about Euri’s intentions and the truth about Jack’s mother.