This document provides summaries for 12 books recommended for intermediate readers. The books cover a range of topics including friendship, loss, family, adventure, and overcoming challenges. Some of the books described are Because of Mr. Terupt about students whose lives are changed by a new teacher, Everything for a Dog which tells parallel stories of dogs finding homes, and Out of My Mind about a child with cerebral palsy who discovers a way to speak.

1. 2012-2013
GOLDEN SOWER
INTERMEDIATE

2. BECAUSE OF MR. TERUPT
ROB BUYEA
Seven fifth-graders at
Snow Hill School in
Connecticut relate how
their lives are changed for
the better by "rookie
teacher" Mr. Terupt.

3. EVERYTHING FOR A DOG
ANN M. MARTIN
In parallel stories, Bone,
an orphaned dog, finds
and loses a series of
homes, Molly, a family pet,
helps Charlie through the
grief and other after-
effects of his brother's
death, and lonely Henry
pleads for a dog of his
own.

4. THE FAMILIARS
ADAM EPSTEIN & ANDREW JACOBSEN
Three young wizards-in-
training are kidnapped by
an evil queen and their
familiars--Aldwyn the alley
cat, Skylar, a know-it-all
blue jay, and Gilbert a tree
frog who can see the
future--set out on a
dangerous journey to
rescue the boys.

5. THE FANTASTIC SECRET OF
OWEN JESTER
BARBARA O’CONNOR
After Owen captures an
enormous bullfrog, names it
Tooley Graham, then has to
release it, he and two friends
try to use a small submarine
that fell from a passing train
to search for Tooley in the
Carter, Georgia, pond it came
from, while avoiding nosy
neighbor Viola.

6. LOVE, AUBREY
SUZANNE LAFLEUR
While living with her Gram
in Vermont, eleven-year-
old Aubrey writes letters
as a way of dealing with
losing her father and sister
in a car accident, and then
being abandoned by her
grief-stricken mother.

7. LUCKY: MARIS, MANTLE, AND MY
BEST SUMMER EVER
WES TOOKE
Louis, who loves baseball
despite being the worst
stickball player in White
Plains, New York, sees his
opportunity to be bat boy for
the 1961 Yankees team as the
perfect way to escape the
problems of his father's
remarriage and moving to the
suburbs.

8. OUT OF MY MIND
SHARON M. DRAPER
Considered by many to
be mentally retarded, a
brilliant, impatient fifth-
grader with cerebral
palsy discovers a
technological device that
will allow her to speak for
the first time.

9. STORM MOUNTAIN
TOM BIRDSEYE
Two thirteen-year-old
cousins are trapped in a
blizzard on the same
treacherous mountain in
the Cascades that
claimed the lives of their
world-famous, mountain-
climber, twin fathers
exactly two years earlier.

10. WALLS WITHIN WALLS
MAUREEN SHERRY
When the Smithfork
family moves into a
lavish Manhattan
apartment building,
they discover clues to
a decades-old mystery
hidden behind the
walls of their new
home.

11. WILDFIRE RUN
DEE GARRETSON
A relaxing retreat to
Camp David turns deadly
after a faraway
earthquake sets off a
chain of disastrous
events that traps the
president's twelve-year-
old son, Luke, and his
two friends within the
compound.