Some New Fictional Books for Middle School Readers

Bound
Sally Gunning
In 1757, young Alice Cole and her family depart England for the colonies, but her mother and brothers perish on the violently stormy crossing. In Boston, her penniless father sells Alice into indentured servitude. Although she flees an abusive master, Alice is left pregnant and troubled in a pre-Revolutionary America where indentured servants suffered cruel indignities.
The Finder
Colin Harrison
Killers hunt for Jin Li, the owner of a Manhattan office cleaning company, who disappeared after stealing corporate secrets that she passed to her brother, a Shanghai speculator. Ray Grant, Li’s ex-lover, is the reluctant “finder,” an ex- New York City firefighter caught in a deadly investment conspiracy in Harrison’s compulsively readable thriller.
The German Bride
Joanna Hershon
Eva, a young Jewish woman, leaves behind her life in mid-19th century Berlin to marry a Jewish American merchant. The brutal journey to frontier Santa Fe is one of many trials Eva faces—her husband lied about his wealth and indulges in vice—but her determination to achieve a better life transforms Eva into the inspirational heroine of an engaging historical novel.
The Resurrectionist
Jack O’Connell
In a dazzlingly inventive fantasy, an Ohio druggist brings his comatose son to the Peck Clinic, where doctors “resurrect” vegetative patients. As he reads aloud from the boy’s Limbo Comics, the father realizes that his son’s recovery will depend on the intervention of the bizarre, freak show characters emerging from the comic book pages to influence medical reality.