Start Digging! If You Enjoyed Holes by Louis Sachar…

J/F/BLOOR
Bloor, Edward - Tangerine
Tangerine, Florida is an unusual place – lightning strikes the same place every day, sinkholes destroy the middle school, and Paul Fisher is legally blind and wants to be the goalie of his middle school soccer team. 294p.

J/F/CREECH
Creech, Sharon - Ruby Holler
Dallas and Florida have lived in a miserable orphanage their entire lives and have earned the nickname Trouble Twins. When Sairy and Tilly invite the twins to live with them in beautiful Ruby Holler, Dallas and Florida wonder if things are as good as they seem. 310p.

J/F/FINE
Fine, Anne - Flour Babies
A class of tough underachieving teens is assigned a science project to spend three weeks taking care of their own "babies," known as "The Great Flour Babies Experiment." 178p.

J/F/FLEISCHMAN
Fleischman, Sid - Bo and Mzzz Mad
When Bo Gamage decides he'd rather live with his wacky, estranged relatives than in foster care, he finds himself in a desert ghost town. Bo learns about treasure maps, the gold mine that started the big family feud and helps his relatives fight off bandits looking for fortune. 103p.

J/F/HOBBS
Hobbs, Will - The Maze
After stowing away in the back of a pick-up truck to escape from a youth detention facility, Rick finds himself stranded in the middle of a desert canyon called "The Maze." 198p.

J/F/LEVINE
Levine, Gail Carson - Dave at Night
After being orphaned at the age of eleven, Dave is sent to the horrible Hebrew Home for Boys, where he bands together with the other "elevens" in a clever campaign to avoid being beaten and starved. 281p.

J/F/LUBAR
Lubar, David - Hidden Talents
Sent to an alternative school for teens with behavioral problems, Martin meets several classmates whose quirky behavior leads him to believe they unknow-ingly possess psychic powers. 213p.

J/F/MIKAELSEN
Mikaelsen, Ben - Touching Spirit Bear
Banished for a year to an island for attacking a classmate, Cole must learn how to survive in the Alaskan wilderness. 241p.

J/F/MYERS
Myers, Walter Dean - The Righteous Revenge of Artemis Bonner
Catfish Grimes has just murdered Ugly Ned Bonner and is now on the lookout for the dead man's buried treasure. Ugly Ned's nephew, Artemis Bonner, is hot on the trail, hoping to avenge his uncle's death and claim the gold for himself. 140p.

J/F/PHILBRICK
Philbrick, W.R. - Freak the Mighty
Max and his friend Freak, whose birth defect affected his body but not his brilliant mind, find that they make a powerful team. 169p.

J/F/SPINELLI
Spinelli, Jerry - Maniac Magee
The legend of Maniac Magee started when Jeffrey Magee was seen running through town. It grew when he hit a homerun with a frogball. Who is this kid and where did he come from? 184p.

J/F/TOLAN
Tolan, Stephanie - Surviving the Applewhites
Jake is trouble. Word has it he burned down his old school and he gets kicked out of Traybridge Middle School in a record three weeks. Now he's sent to a home school run by the Applewhites, a chaotic family of artists. 216p.

J/F/TURNER
Turner, Megan Whalen - The Thief
An ingenious thief named Gen is offered his release from prison if he will agree to steal a politically important treasure from a neighboring kingdom. 219p.

Prepared by Sharon Lawrence, April 2003