A Handful of Stars

 

When Lily's blind dog is saved by a young girl named Salma, they become fast friends, even though Salma and her family are migrant workers in the blueberry industry and will be leaving as soon as the season ends.  Salma learns of the yearly Blueberry Festival where a young resident can become the queen of the festival.  She sets out to not only enter, but to win.  She encounters some trouble though because of her residency status.  Lily roots for her because she sees how Salma was like her mother who died when she was just a baby.  This is a great story about friendship and bucking the system.  (FIC LOR)

Heroes

Yet another winner by Alan Gratz!  In this historical fiction story, we meet two friends who live near the Pearl Harbor naval base.  Their dads are pilots in the Navy.  WWII has started but Americans in Hawaii have not really felt its impact....until Dec 7, 1941.  Frank and Stanley are best friends touring one of the battleships when the Japanese attacks start.  They scramble for their lives, while chaos erupts all around them.  They survive but their friendship is challenged when after the attacks, their community turns on its Japanese1American members.   (FIC GRA)