| Title | Author | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|
| The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle | Avi | As the lone “young lady” on a transatlantic voyage in 1832, Charlotte learns that the captain is murderous and the crew rebellious. (Grades 6-8) |
| Nothing But the Truth | Avi | All Phil wants to do is get out of Miss Narwin’s English class. His scheme to accomplish this sounds innocent enough, but it quickly goes haywire and has consequences Phil never dreamed of. A great book about school, communication, and taking responsibility. (Grades 5-8) |
| Juan Bobo: Four Folktales from Puerto Rico | Carmen Bernier-Grand | Puerto Rican folktales about noodlehead Juan Bobo, written in both English and Spanish. (Grades 2 and 3) |
| Ordinary Magic | Malcolm Bosse | 14 year old boy deals with a life changing move from India to the midwestern US. (Grades 6-8) |
| Arthur Writes a Story | Marc Brown | Arthur must write a story, but how can he make it more exciting and interesting than everyone else’s? (Grades 2-4) |
| The Mouse and the Motorcycle | Beverly Cleary | A reckless young mouse named Ralph makes friends with a boy in room 215 of the Mountain View Inn and discovers the joys of motorcycling. (Grades 3-5) |
| Ramona’s World | Beverly Cleary | Ramona’s newest challenge is the fourth grade. Will she make it through? (Grades 2-5) |
| Frindle | Andrew Clements | Nick’s a fifth-grader who doesn’t mind a battle of wits with his teachers, but his showdown with Mrs. Granger assumes legendary proportions. It seems Nick’s hit on the revolutionary idea that objects are whatever you call them, and he calls a pen a “frindle.” (Grades 4-6) |
| Walk Two Moons | Sharon Creech | After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother’s route. Newbery Medal Winner. (Grades 5-8) |
| The Watsons Go To Birmingham | Christopher Paul Curtis | Kenny Watson thinks growing up in Detroit is weird. But the America of 1963 is even weirder than Kenny knows when the Watsons go to Birmingham and encounter racism. (Grades 6-8) |
| Amber Brown Is Not a Crayon | Paula Danziger | Best friends Amber and Justin must deal with Justin’s moving away. (Grades 2 – 4) |
| The Beaded Moccasins | Lynda Durrant | Based on the true story of the capture of Mary Campbell by Indians as a 12-year old. Mary must learn to adapt to a new culture. Her most difficult trial, however, comes when her two worlds once again meet face to face. (Grades 5-7) |
| Echohawk | Lynda Durrant | Jonathan is captured by Indians, but is fortunate to be taken under the wing of his captor, Glickihigan. When he is sent with his Indian friends to be “educated” at a white mission school, he must decide where his real loyalties lie. (Grades 5-8) |
| The Great Brain | John D. Fitzgerald | The exploits of the Great Brain are described by his younger brother, frequently the victim of the Great Brain’s schemes for gaining prestige or money. (Grades 4 – 6) |
| The Skin I’m In | Sharon Flake | Maleeka has a difficult time being accepted by her African-American friends because of her ebony dark skin. Hurt and resentful, she finds it easy to strike out at her new teacher, a white woman with a disfiguring facial birthmark…and to side with the friends whose acceptance she craves when some basic matters of right and wrong emerge. (Grades 7-8) |
| Pictures of Hollis Woods | Patricia Reilly Giff | Twelve-year-old Hollis Woods has been through many foster homes–and she runs away, every time. In her latest placement, with an artist named Josie, the tightly wound Hollis begins to relax ever so slightly. In the warmth of Josie’s creativity, Hollis’ own drawings, always her voice and the way she sees best, proliferate. (Grades 5-7) |
| Babe and Me | Dan Gutman | With their ability to travel through time using vintage baseball cards, Joe and his father have the opportunity to find out whether Babe Ruth really did call his shot when he hit that home run in the third game of the 1932 World Series against the Chicago Cubs. (Grades 4-7) |
| Jackie and Me: A Baseball Card Adventure Card | Dan Gutman | Jackie Robinson comes alive through a baseball card. (Grades 4 – 7) |
| Virtually Perfect | Dan Gutman | It was only a matter of time before the computer age spawned its own “Frankenstein” story. When you meet Victor the Vactor you’ll find yourself wondering how far off in the future he might really be! (Grades 5-8) |
| On Being Sarah | Elizabeth Helfman | Confined to a wheelchair with cerebral palsy and unable to vocalize, twelve-year-old Sarah enters a new school. Based on the life of a real person. (Grades 5-9) |
| Keeper of the Night | Kimberly Willis Holt | Isabel, a thirteen-year-old girl living on the island of Guam, and her family try to cope with the death of Isabel’s mother who committed suicide. (Grades 6-10) |
| My Louisiana Sky | Kimberly Willis Holt | A coming of age story about the intelligent daughter of mentally slow parents. (Grades 6-9) |
| When Zachary Beaver Came to Town | Kimberly Willis Holt | Nothing ever happens in Toby’s small Texas town. Now their sleepy town is about to get a jolt with the arrival of Zachary Beaver, billed as the fattest boy in the world. (Grades 5-9) |
| Letters From Camp | Kate Klise | Sent to Camp Happy Harmony to learn how to get along with each other, pairs of brothers and sisters chronicle in letters home how they come to suspect the intentions of the singing family running the camp. (Grades 4-8) |
| Regarding the Fountain | Kate Klise | Dry Creek Middle School wants a plain and simple fountain, but plain and simple aren’t in designer Flo Waters’ vocabulary. Making friends and solving a mystery round out the plot. (Grades 4-6) |
| The View From Saturday | E.L. Konigsberg | When a team working together equals more than the sum of its parts, we say it has synergy. Well, this story about a team of sixth-grader academics called “The Souls” has synergy to spare–as well as wisdom, humor, and style. What’s more important: learning to answer questions, or ask them? (Grades 6-8) |
| In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson | Bette Bao Lord | When 10-year old Shirley Temple Wong leaves China with her mother to join her father in America, she believes she is heading for the “Beautiful Country.” What she is headed for is the 5th grade in Brooklyn’s P.S. 8 and a whole lot of culture shock. But she also finds that America’s great pastime in Brookyln spans more than the East River. (Grades 4-6) |
| Betsy-Tacy | Maud Hart Lovelace | Tacy moves into the house across the street from Betsy and the five-year-olds become inseparable friends. Set in 1900’s. (Grades 2-5) |
| Betsy, Tacy, and Tib | Maud Hart Lovelace | Three best friends’ daily adventures in the early 1900′s. (Grades 2 – 5) |
| Libby Bloom | Susan Rowan Masters | Fourth grader Libby, finally finds something she can do well – play the tuba! Set at Love Elementary School. (Grades 3 – 5) |
| My Life In Dog Years | Gary Paulsen | Paulsen reveals bits and pieces of his own life story through his experiences with eight of his dogs. He writes of his own troubles matter-of-factly while wittily and affectionately enumerating his dogs’ virtues. (Grades 4-10) |
| Grover G. Graham and Me | Mary Quattlebaum | A toddler’s unabashed adoration and the patience and wisdom of two unlikely foster parents spark the beginning of 11-year-old Ben’s healing process in this story of a summer of growth and change. (Grades 4-6) |
|
J. K. Rowling | Harry is attending the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry where he is a star Seeker on the Quidditch team. But it’s not all fun and games. Harry is uncertain about his wizard heritage, spending summer with the muggle (as non-wizards are called) Dursleys, and is frequently called upon to battle the most dire wizards in the realm of black magic. (Grades 4-12) |
| Holes | Louis Sachar | The 1998 Newbery Award-winning novel. Stanley Yelnats is sent to a correctional camp in Texas. Suddenly he finds himself separating the strands of multiple mysteries—of shady goings-on at the camp, of previous generations, and of the mystery of growing up. (Grades 5-7) |
The Time Warp Trio
|
Jon Scieszka | Joe and his friends have a ticket to travel through time, but in all three of these comedy-adventures the ticket threatens to become one-way. Take your pick from an encounter with King Arthur’s Knights, Blackbeard the Pirate, or a West wilder than Clint Eastwood ever saw. (Grades 3-6) |
| Mean Margaret | Tor Seidler | Fred marries Phoebe, the woodchuck of his dreams, only to have his cozy home invaded by a cyclone of an abandoned human baby named Margaret. With the help of gentle Phoebe and some others, Fred discovers that sometimes good deeds do get rewarded. (Grades 3-4) |
| The Killer Angels | Michael Shaara | Considered one of the greatest novels on the Civil War. This depiction of the Battle of Gettysburg puts your feet on Little Round Top and your emotions in the hearts of the men who fought there–from the generals to humble recruits on both sides. (Grades 7-12) |
| Chocolate Fever | Robert Kimmel Smith | From eating too much chocolate, Henry breaks out in brown bumps that help him foil some hijackers and teach him a valuable lesson about self-indulgence. (Grades 2 – 6) |
| The War With Grandpa | Robert Kimmel Smith | Peter declares war on grandpa after he moves into Peter’s bedroom. Will Peter give in? (Grades 3-8) |
| The Sign of the Beaver | Elizabeth George Speare | Thirteen-year old Matt is left to guard his family’s cabin in the Maine wilderness, and quickly finds he is unable to survive the harsh winter ahead. An Indian boy named Attean arrives to begin teaching Matt the “signs” that will help to become self-sufficient…and Matt, in turn, agrees to teach Attean the white man’s signs: reading. (Grades 4-7) |
| Wrestling Sturbridge | Rich Wallace | Ben is the second-best wrestler of his weight class in the state–and second string to the best, his friend and a member of his team. As a “jock” Ben has many social advantages in a small school, yet he is driven by the dedicated athlete’s need to be the best, as well as the very real need to win a scholarship and escape his hometown. A great father-son read. (Grades 7-8) |
| The Castle In the Attic | Elizabeth Winthrop | A gift of a toy castle, complete with silver knight, introduces William to an adventure involving magic and a personal quest. (Grades 3-7) |
| The Battle for the Castle | Elizabeth Winthrop | Sequel to: The Castle in the Attic. Twelve year-old William uses the magic token to return, through the toy castle in his attic, to the medieval land of Sir Simon, which is now menaced by a skeleton ship bearing a plague of ravenous rats. (Grades 4 -8) |
James Prendergast Library
By PDGACO GaballaLoans