Breadcrumbs / Anne Ursu / 312 pages

This is a great book but will not appeal to every young reader.  A 5th grade girl, Hazel, doesn't fit in for many reasons: she's adopted, her father left the family, she's from India, she's starts at a new school, and she is imaginative and creative with different interests than anyone in her class.  The only person who makes her feel worthwhile is her good childhood friend Jack who is just as imaginative but likes to hang with the guys too.  Ursu alludes to elements of other childrens books and fairy tales to create parallels to the life that Hazel is living.  The first half of the book deals with the real world that Hazel must survive, the 2nd half of the book deals with a fantasy world in which Hazel ventures to save her bestfriend Jack after he has hurt her and then gone missing.  It's this mixing of the real and the fantasy that make the book intriguing.  I would say this would be for special readers who want to be left thinking about how the world of fantasy may align with the real world we experience.