Historical: "Catherine, Called Birdy"

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Cushman, Karen. Catherine, Called Birdy. New York: HarperTrophy, 1994.

Looking for romance but about to be sold off to a shaggy-bearded revolting brute, Catherine plots to escape her fate.

Catherine, called Birdy, is a dainty damsel living in medieval England. Dainty that is when she's not rebelling against her "lady lessons" and a beast of a father ready to sell her to the highest bidder. "Corpus Bones!"

Catherine chronicles her young, rebellious and restless days in this day-by-day account of a young lady looking for romance while avoiding the revolting suitors her father has lined up for her.

In a time when girls were traded in marriage for wealth and status, is there hope for Catherine, a slip of a girl with big ideas, also known as Birdy?

Golden Kite Award. YALSA 100 Best Books (1950-2000). ALA Notable Children's Books. Newbery Honor Book. Booklist Editors' Choice. Parents' Choice Awards.

Historical: "Dogboy"

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Russell, Christopher. Dogboy. New York : Greenwillow Books, 2006.

Raised with dogs. Thrust into battle. Brind must find the courage to make his way home.

Who is Brind and why does he race over fallen oak and slippery mud with a pack of Sir Edmond Dowe's mastiffs? This novel of aggression and loyalty, revenge and love reads like an adventure movie complete with narrow escapes and twisting plot lines.

Set in medieval times, Brind, the Dogboy, was raised with a litter of mongrel pups and has lived with dogs ever since. When Sir Edmond heads to France to the Battle of Crécy, he takes Brind and the pack of dogs with him. He plans for Brind to control the dogs until the exact right moment when he will unleash them on the French as weapons of mass destruction.

As Brind travels across the French countryside shadows of darkness and mystery stretch far across that foreign land. But Brind is not alone and it is through Glaive, the most powerful dog in the pack, and Aurélie, a girl at war with herself, that Brind will discover just who he is and where he, the Dogboy, finally belongs.

Fantasy: "Skellig"

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Almond, David. Skellig. NY: Dell Yearling, 1998.

Lying among the dead bluebottles and dust, Skellig inhabits the garage of Michael's new house. With the help of Mina, Michael will try to help this sorrowful creature recover.

Well: who is Skelling? This story takes us into a crumbling garage where bluebottles and spiders drop unexpectedly, and unknown things scuttle about. Where also a retched creature in a dusty black suit slowly deteriorates...

This story is set in a small town in England where David and his family have moved with the new baby who is very sick. As his parent's tend to his sister, David is full of tension and resentment. Why did they have to move? Why doesn't his sister get well? Why all this change?

David finds Skellig in the garage and sets about trying to help him. Together with Mina, his new friend and neighbor, they embark upon a course of action that they hope will bring about recovery. It is in that healing they will find out who they are and who exactly is Skellig.

Carnegie Medal. Garden State Teen Book Award. New York Times Notable Book. ALA Notable Children's Book. Booklist Editors' Choice. School Library Journal Best Book. Costa Book Award. Michael L. Printz Honor Book. Parents' Choice Award.