The Magician's Elephant, by Kate DiCamillo

 

Peter Augustus Duchene is quite the name for an orphan with more questions than answers. For a person with little fortune so far in life, the appearance of a fortune teller in the street baring news of where to find his long lost sister is more than good news; it is a life changing event. And that is how life goes. Anything is possible and that is exactly what DiCamillo touches on: the impossible becoming possible. 

Meanwhile, a magician performs the best trick of his life with dire results. With the wave of his wand an elephant comes crashing through the tent ceiling, paralyzing a well-to-do woman. Also, a man and his dog find their own magic in the air, it seems, and Peter's lost sister is given mysterious signs leading her to her brother. 

Lives pass one another and at times crash unappolegetically, as DiCamillo masterfully brings all of them to a breath-taking head. There are wonderful additional resources for incorporating this classic in the making into your classroom.

This is How you Lose Her, by Junot Diaz

Love that is lost means so much more when all that one has is the void that is left. Diaz shows how love comes in many forms, is felt on various levels, and can disappear as quickly as it first tickled one's heart. Yunior, an outrageously intelligent, hard-headed with a scarred past that leads him to rationalize lies that ultimately hurt and lead to the loss of the person her holds most dear.

While Yunior's story remains at the center, the trembling hearts of others swirl around him, as his best friend reveals a love child in the Dominican Republic, a woman struggling to make a living in the US with the distance from her family still at home tugging at her heart, and a young student grappling with an unexpected pregnancy that could keep her from an education that she has built her whole life around.

Yunior's older brother, Rafa, attempts to hold onto the last ounce of who he was before cancer dwindled him down to almost nothing while Yunior finds and loses himself in the arms of Alma, Miss Lora, Magdelina, and others. They bring wisdom, comfort, spontaneity, and sometimes nothing more than a warm touch.

The False Prince, by Jennifer A. Neilson

 

Sage is just getting by as an orphan. However, his days of stealing food to supplement the meals at the orphanage and wearing clothes to the point of rags are over when he is taken by a nobleman, Connor, with the incentive to compete against three other boys for the change to pass for the lost prince. The country is erupting in war and Connor, along with many other hopefuls, are looking to deliver the prince that went missing years before to take the place of the recently deceased king and queen. 

Though, the new clothes and ample food are enticing, Sage doesn't easily bend to the wishes of those that will ultimately determine his fate and remains suspicious of his fellow competitors, who prove to be as conniving as he had suspected. 

SPOILER ALERT!!!

The twist comes when it is revealed that Sage is the actual prince that went missing years before when the ship that he was on was attacked by pirates. It turns out that Sage had actually wiggled out of the ship early and was subsequently found by his father and asked to go into hiding in order to keep the countries from going into battle. He changed his name and lived as an orphan from the age of 10-14, when he was recruited by Connor, due to his resemblance to the missing prince, to vie for the position of prince. 

The story moves at a good pace, but I felt that the ending was a bit predictable. However, there is no doubt that this would be a good read for boys especially, but girls as well who are fans of adventures like The Maze Runner or The Hunger Games.