Recommendations based on "Wild Orchid: A Retelling of "The Ballad of Mulan" (Once upon a Time)"

It is 1930s rural Ireland, and after the death of her beloved father, 15-year-old Eleanor, her younger sister Alice, and their grief-stricken mother give up their farm and livelihood to live with Eleanor's aunt, a successful small-town milliner. Ellie is now free to indulge her longing to explore the world, to go to college and learn, earn her own living, perhaps to follow in her aunt's footsteps and learn a creative trade. Eventually, Ellie and her aunt persuade her mother to send her and Alice to America, to live with their uncle and his wife in their guest house in Manhattan. But, soon after arriving it is clear that Ellie will be nothing but a glorified slave in her uncle's house, working all hours cleaning, washing, and running errands. Ellie despairs when Alice is singled out for education and sent to school, while Ellie stays at home to be taunted by her educated teenage cousin .One night, Ellie decides to make a run for it. She packs her bag and boards a train to Boston, where Violet, a rich girl she met on the boat trip from Ireland, lives. Ellie hopes that with Violet's help she can fulfill her dreams—even it means leaving her family behind.

A heartfelt middle grade from Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo about two girls who go on an adventure to the top of a mountain, and learn about each other, themselves, and the magic friendship can bring, perfect for fans of Katherine Applegate and Barbara O'Connor.What do you do when you’re facing the impossible?Ever since the day when everything changed, Cal Scott’s answer has been to run―run from her mother who’s fighting cancer, run from her father whom she can’t forgive, and run from classmates who’ve never seemed to “get” her anyway. The only thing Cal runs toward is nearby Mt. Meteorite, named for the magical meteorite some say crashed there fifty years ago. Cal spends her afternoons plotting to summit the mountain, so she can find the magic she believes will make the impossible possible and heal her mother. But no one has successfully reached its peak―no one who’s lived to tell about it, anyway.Then Cal meets Rosine Kanambe, a girl who’s faced more impossibles than anyone should have to. Rosine has her own secret plan for the mountain and its magic, and convinces Cal they can summit its peak if they work together. As the girls climb high and dig deep to face the mountain’s challenges, Cal learns from Rosine what real courage looks like, and begins to wonder if the magic she’s been looking for is really the kind she needs.Each of Us a Universe by Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo is a glowing story of friendship, inner strength, and what happens when the impossible becomes possible.

A young girl triumphs over the Queen of Faeries to reclaim her ancestral home and free her true love in this haunting retelling of an old Scottish ballad. “Mikolaycak’s illustrations...attract attention yet do not overpower the story, making the book one that could be easily used as a picture story book presentation for middle- and upper-grade or even adult audiences.”-The Horn Book

In the wake of a destructive tornado, Ivy Aberdeen develops feelings for another girl in this stunning, tender novel about emerging identity, perfect for fans of The Thing About Jellyfish.When a tornado rips through town, twelve-year-old Ivy Aberdeen's house is destroyed and her family of five is displaced. Ivy feels invisible and ignored in the aftermath of the storm--and what's worse, her notebook filled with secret drawings of girls holding hands has gone missing.Mysteriously, Ivy's drawings begin to reappear in her locker with notes from someone telling her to open up about her identity. Ivy thinks--and hopes--that this someone might be her classmate, another girl for whom Ivy has begun to develop a crush. Will Ivy find the strength and courage to follow her true feelings?Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World is an exquisite addition to queer middle grade—and children's literature at large.

Stonewall Book Award Winner Lambda Literary Award Finalist Charlotte Huck Honor Book Perfect For Valentine's Day, Love, Violet By Charlotte Sullivan Wild And Charlene Chua Is A Touching Picture Book About Friendship And The Courage It Takes To Share Your Feelings. Only One Person Makes Violet’s Heart Skip Of All The Kids In Violet's Class, Only One Leaves Her Speechless: Mira, The Girl With The Cheery Laugh Who Races Like The Wind. If Only They Could Adventure Together! But Every Time Violet Tries To Tell Mira How She Feels, Violet Goes Shy. As Valentine's Day Approaches, Violet Is Determined To Tell Mira Just How Special She Is. Charlene Chua’s Luminous Watercolors Bring To Life This Sweet And Gentle Picture Book About Friendship, Love, And The Courage It Takes To Share Your Heart.

Having grown a pair of wings and felt the longing for the freedom of the skies, twelve-year-old Gwinna goes to the Mother of the Owls, who sends her on a quest to find the songs of the wind.

When Esperanza, a wild filly who is part of a group of mares, joins a larger herd, she makes friends with Strider, a young stallion, and when the two are separated from the herd they must face the dangers of the wilderness on their own.

In the sleepy English countryside of decades past, there is a town that has stood on a jut of granite for six hundred years. And immediately to the east stands a high stone wall, for which the village is named. Here in the town of Wall, Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester. One crisp October night, as they watch, a star falls from the sky, and Victoria promises to marry Tristran if he'll retrieve that star and bring it back for her. It is this promise that sends Tristran through the only gap in the wall, across the meadow, and into the most unforgettable adventure of his life.In the sleepy English countryside of decades past, there is a town that has stood on a jut of granite for six hundred years. And immediately to the east stands a high stone wall, for which the village is named. Here in the town of Wall, Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester. One crisp October night, as they watch, a star falls from the sky, and Victoria promises to marry Tristran if he'll retrieve that star and bring it back for her. It is this promise that sends Tristran through the only gap in the wall, across the meadow, and into the most unforgettable adventure of his life.

Winner of the Blue Peter Book Award and the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, and shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal.Already being proclaimed a classic in children's literature and compared to the likes of Roald Dahl and Eva Ibbotson, Katherine Rundell's Rooftoppers merges fantasy and historical fiction with sophisticated lyrical prose and vivid imagery that will delight middle grade readers, tweens, teens, and parents and teachers alike.Join plucky heroine Sophie, her eccentric guardian Charles, and her intrepid orphan allies on the rooftops of Victorian Paris, as they encounter suspense and adventure that will keep kids of all ages on the edge of their seats right to the heartwarming end.My mother is still alive, and she is going to come for me one day.Everyone thinks that Sophie is an orphan. Found floating in a cello case and swaddled in a Beethoven score, she is the only recorded female survivor of a shipwreck on the English Channel. But Sophie remembers seeing her mother wave for help...Charles, a fellow survivor and an eccentric scholar, finds Sophie and brings her home to his London bachelor flat. Raised in a quirky home filled with music, words and love (though questionable diet), Sophie grows into a free-spirited tomboy with a taste for Shakespeare and the unshakeable belief that anything is possible. And you should never ignore a possible.So when the child welfare agency in its bureaucratic wisdom threatens to send Sophie to an orphanage, the optimistic girl and her odd guardian flee to Paris on a quest to find her mother, starting with the only clue she has - the address of the cello maker.Secured in an attic to evade the French authorities, Sophie escapes through the skylight and meets Matteo and his network of rooftoppers - homeless urchins who tightrope walk above the busy streets below, dining on pigeons and snails alongside the gargoyles and bell tower of Notre Dame. Together they set out on an unimaginable adventure, scouring the city for Sophie's mother before she is caught and sent back to London - and most importantly, before she loses hope.Readers who enjoyed the Lemony Snicket books, Ellen Potter's The Kneebone Boy, Cornelia Funke's The Thief Lord, and Sally Gardner's I, Coriander will want to put Rooftoppers on their "Must Read" list.

"Animals dream about the things they do in the day time just like people do. If you want sweet dreams, you've got to live a sweet life." So says Loyd Peregrina, a handsome Apache trainman and latter-day philosopher. But when Codi Noline returns to her hometown, Loyd's advice is painfully out of her reach. Dreamless and at the end of her rope, Codi comes back to Grace, Arizona to confront her past and face her ailing, distant father. What the finds is a town threatened by a silent environmental catastrophe, some startling clues to her own identity, and a man whose view of the world could change the course of her life. Blending flashbacks, dreams, and Native American legends,Animal Dreams is a suspenseful love story and a moving exploration of life's largest commitments. With this work, the acclaimed author ofThe Bean Trees and Homeland and Other Stories sustains her familiar voice while giving readers her most remarkable book yet.