BREADCRUMBS by Anne Ursu

A.R. Book Level: 4.8
A.R. Points: 9.0
Pages: 312

I just loved this.  It’s a book about a world of magic and fairy tales hidden within the real one, but it’s also about the tricky part of growing up where childhood and adolescence start to overlap and friendships are tested.  Hazel and Jack had always been best friends, but after a bizarre accident on the playground, Jack stops being friends with Hazel and, within a few days, disappears.  When Hazel learns that Jack went off into enchanted woods, she goes in to find him, but she doesn’t know if he’ll even want to be friends when she gets to him.  This is a modern spin on Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale “The Snow Queen” and a must-read for fans of Frances O’Roark Dowell’s Falling In.