Julia is having a difficult year. She has been placed in an orphanage with a cantankerous head nun, her brother is in trouble with a notorious mobster, and a persistent philanthropist keeps meddling in her life. And now Julia finds herself becoming increasingly attached to one of the orphanage’s quirky boarders. Is her goal of uniting her siblings and living out west just an impossible dream? In The Year We Sailed the Sun (Atheneum, $17.99), author Theresa Nelson weaves these separate storylines of familial loyalty, a unique friendship, and a surprisingly action-packed adventure into an engrossing novel of turn-of-the-century St. Louis. Ages 9-12. Renee Bosco