White Plains Middle School
May 2013
Dear WPMS Students and Parents,
Did you know that research has documented that children lose two to three months of
reading skills while on break if they do not read?
The purpose of Project Summer Read is to encourage our students to enjoy literature and to continue developing
their independent reading skills, while at the same time preventing what is known as “summer slide.”
Our library media specialists, teachers, and WPMS students themselves have recommended the plethora of titles,
authors, and series on this list. Please note that this list is a starting point. Of course, other books selected by the
student with guidance from a parent/guardian and/or librarian are also acceptable.
About Lexiles
This past school year, every WPMS student took the SRI – Scholastic Reading Inventory – an assessment that helps
teachers figure out approximately where students are at in terms of reading ability. A student should be able to
read and understand books in a Lexile range of approximately 100 points below to 50 points above the designated
score.
“A Lexile text measure is based on two strong predictors of how difficult a text is to comprehend: word frequency
and sentence length.” (For more on Lexiles, visit www.lexile.com) It is important to note, though, that the Lexile
measure does not address the content or quality of the book.
The Lexile measure is a good starting point in the book-selection process, as knowing a child’s Lexile range can
help to locate books that he/she might enjoy reading. However, Lexiles are not the be all and end all! Student
interest and motivation for reading books that are age appropriate are critical factors to consider as book choices
are made. Remember that nothing replaces conversation with the middle schooler, his/her teachers, friends,
librarians, and book store professionals in making great reading choices.
Suggestions
 Read at least four books this summer.
 Read a little every day! This includes newspapers and magazines too.
 Enjoy what you read. If you’re 30 pages into a book, and you don’t like it, feel free to try a
different title. JUST READ 
Respectfully,
WPMS Middle School ELA teachers and Media Specialists
Graphics
http://www.maryvale.wnyric.org/photos/8106/3summer_reading_sun.png
Microsoft Office library
*Mature content
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White Plains Middle School
Bringing the Past to Life - Historical Fiction
Lexile
First
Last
600
Joseph
Bruchac
Title
Code Talker: A
Novel about the
Navajo Marines
of World War II
690
Eve
Bunting
SOS Titantic
740
Richard
Peck
River Between
Us
750
Rita
Laurie
Halse
WilliamsGarcia
One Crazy
Summer
Anderson
Chains
780
840
Gary L
Blackwood
The
Shakespeare
Stealer
990
Gary
Schmidt
Wednesday
Wars
Annotation
After being taught in a boarding school run by whites that Navajo
is a useless language, Ned Begay and other Navajo men are
recruited by the Marines to become Code Talkers, sending
messages during World War II in their native tongue.
With high hopes, Pegeen and her two brothers leave Ireland to
begin a new life in New York by sailing on a fabulous new ship…
the Titanic.
During the early days of the Civil War, the Pruitt family takes in
two mysterious young ladies who have fled New Orleans to come
north to Illinois.
In the summer of 1968, after traveling from Brooklyn to Oakland,
California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know,
eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a
cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet
and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants
them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.
After being sold to a cruel couple in New York City, a slave named
Isabel spies for the rebels during the Revolutionary War.
A young orphan boy is ordered by his master to infiltrate
Shakespeare’s acting troupe in order to steal the script of Hamlet,
but he discovers instead the meaning of friendship and loyalty.
Seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood, stuck in Mrs. Baker's classroom
during the 1967 school year while his classmates go to either
Catechism or Hebrew school, learns much of value about the
world in which he lives from the study of the plays of William
Shakespeare.
Fantasy/Sci Fi/Dystopia
670
Kate
DiCamilo
The Tale of
Despereaux
740
Maggie
Stiefvater
Shiver
1060
Garth
Nix
Sabriel
1070
Ingrid
Law
Savvy
The adventures of Desperaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual
talents, the princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to
be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to
ruin
In all the years she has watched the wolves in the woods
behind her house, Grace has been particularly drawn to an
unusual yellow-eyed wolf who, in his turn, has been watching
her with increasing intensity.
Sabriel, daughter of the necromancer Abhorsen, must journey
into the mysterious and magical Old Kingdom to rescue her
father from the Land of the Dead.
Recounts the adventures of Mibs Beaumont, whose thirteenth
birthday has revealed her "savvy"--a magical power unique to
each member of her family--just as her father is injured in a
terrible accident.
*Mature content
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White Plains Middle School
Get Serious About a Series!
Lexile
10001370
330500
400500
430750
550730
560880
590660
First
Name
Last Name
First Title in Series
Lemony
Snicket
Lincoln
Peirce
Carolyn
Keene
Various
Series Title
A Series of
Unfortunate
Events
Nancy Drew
Notebooks
Choose Your Own
Adventure
The 39 Clues
Donald J
Sobol
Encyclopedia
Brown
DJ
MacHale
Pendragon
610780
Henry
Winkler
Hank Zipzer
660890
Wendelin
VanDraanen
Sammy Keyes
700840
710750
770890
9501120
In a Class by Himself is the first title in this series.
Big Nate
Various
680760
The Bad Beginning is the first title in this series.
Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective is the first title in this
series.
Merchant of Death is the first title in this series.
Niagara Falls, or Does It? is the first title in this series. Inspired
by the true life experiences of Henry Winkler, this series is
about Hank Zipzer, the world's greatest underachiever!
Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief is the first title in this series.
The City of Ember is the first title in this series. Built as an
underground refuge for the human race, the city of Ember
begins to deteriorate as its lights start to flicker. When Lina
finds part of an ancient message, she’s sure it holds a secret
that will save the city. She and her friend Doon must decipher
the message before the lights go out on Ember forever.
The Capture is the first title in this series.
DuPrau
The Books of
Ember
Kathryn
Lasky
Guardians of
Ga’Hoole
Haddix
The Missing
Russell
Dork Diaries
Benton
Dear Dumb Diary
Jim
The Abominable Snowman is the first title in this series.
The Maze of Bones is the first title in this series.
Jeanne
Margaret
Peterson
Rachel
Renee
The Slumber Party Secret is the first title in this series.
Found! is the first title in this series.
Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life is the first title in this series.
Let's Pretend This Never Happened is the first title in this
series.
On the Battlefield
650
Walter
Dean
780
Walter
Dean
Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high
school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a
devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.
Robin Perry, from Harlem, is sent to Iraq in 2003 as a member
Sunrise Over
Myers
of the Civilian Affairs Battalion, and his time there profoundly
Fallujah
changes him.
Also see Jim Eldridge under “Kid Recs” for more On the Battlefield titles.
Myers
Fallen Angels *
*Mature content
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White Plains Middle School
Nonfiction
550
Greg
Abbey
Written in
Bone: Buried
Lives of
Jamestown &
Colonial
Maryland
Reports on the work of forensic scientists who are excavating
grave sites in James Fort, in Jamestown, Virginia, to understand
who lived in the Chesapeake Bay area in the 1600s and 1700s;
and uncovers the lives of a teenage boy, a ship's captain, a
colonial officer, an African slave girl, and others.
920
Jim
Murphy
The Boys' War
940
Andrea
Pinkney
980
Tayna Lee
Stone
Let it Shine
Almost
Astronauts: 13
Women Who
Dared to
Dream
990
1130
Steve
Sheinkin
The Notorious
Benedict
Arnold
Jim
Murphy
American
Plague
Includes diary entries, personal letters, and archival
photographs to describe the experiences of boys, sixteen years
old or younger, who fought in the Civil War.
Presents profiles of ten African-American women whose efforts
on behalf of racial justice and freedom have influenced the
course of history.
Profiles thirteen women who challenged social norms and
government policies to prove they could be exceptional
astronauts.
Most people know that Benedict Arnold was America’s first,
most notorious traitor. Few know that he was also one of its
greatest war heroes. This accessible biography introduces
young readers to the real Arnold: reckless, heroic, and driven.
Packed with first-person accounts, astonishing battle scenes,
and surprising twists, this is a gripping and true adventure tale.
Provides an account of the yellow fever epidemic that swept
through Philadelphia in 1793, discussing the chaos that erupted
when people began evacuating in droves, leaving the city
without government, goods, or services, and examining efforts
by physicians, the Free African Society, and others to cure and
care for the sick.
Spooky, Eerie, Creepy, Mysterious
750
Joan
Lowry
Nixon
Secret, Silent
Screams
1040
Phyllis
Naylor
Jade Green
Although everyone believes Barry committed suicide, Marti is
determined to prove her friend was murdered despite the
danger involved.
When orphan Judith Sparrow is sent to live with her uncle in his
haunted house, strange and mysterious things begin to happen
when Judith disobeys her uncle’s “green” rule.
*Mature content
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White Plains Middle School
Realistic Fiction
510
Eve
Bunting
Blackwater
630
Katherine
Erskine
Mockingbird
670
Sharon
Flake
The Skin I'm In
690
Jenny
Lombard
Drita My
Homegirl
710
N.A.
Nelson
Bringing the
Boy Home
750
Nancy
Osa
Cuba, 15
750
Laura
Resau
What the
Moon Saw
760
Roland
Smith
Peak
800
Laura
Resau
Red Glass
1020
Brian
James
Thief *
When a boy and girl are drowned in the Blackwater River,
thirteen-year-old Brodie must decide whether to confess that
he may have caused the accident.
Ten-year-old Caitlin, who has Asperger's Syndrome, struggles to
understand emotions, show empathy, and make friends at
school, while at home she seeks closure by working on a
project with her father.
Thirteen-year-old Maleeka, uncomfortable because her skin is
extremely dark, meets a new teacher with a birthmark on her
face and makes some discoveries about how to love who she is
and what she looks like.
When ten-year-old Drita and her family move to New York
from Kosovo, she is teased about not speaking English, but
after a popular student named Maxine is forced to learn about
Kosovo as a punishment for teasing Drita, the two girls bond
and Drita is no longer teased.
As two Takunami youths approach their thirteenth birthdays,
Luka reaches the culmination of his mother's training for the
tribe's manhood test while Tirio, raised in Miami, Florida, by his
adoptive mother, feels called to begin preparations to prove
himself during his upcoming visit to the Amazon rain forest
where he was born.
Violet Paz, a Chicago high school student, reluctantly prepares
for her upcoming "quince", a Spanish nickname for the
celebration of a Hispanic girl's fifteenth birthday.
Fourteen-year-old Clara Luna spends the summer with her
grandparents in the tiny, remote village of Yucuyoo, Mexico,
learning about her grandmother's life as a healer, her father's
decision to leave home for the United States, and her own
place in the world.
A fourteen-year-old boy attempts to be the youngest person to
reach the top of Mount Everest.
Sixteen-year-old Sophie has been frail and delicate since her
premature birth, but discovers her true strength during a
journey through Mexico, where the six-year-old orphan her
family hopes to adopt was born, and to Guatemala, where her
would-be boyfriend hopes to find his mother and plans to
remain.
The arrival of a new foster boy named Dune prompts Elizabeth
to attempt to escape from the clutches of Sandra, a women
who takes in foster kids and makes them steal for her.
*Mature content
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White Plains Middle School
Withstanding the Test of Time - The Classics
570
Agatha
Christie
And Then
There Were
None
The
Adventures of
Tom Sawyer
750
Mark
Twain
770
William
Golding
Lord of the
Flies*
800
Brian
Jacques
Redwall
810
Betty
Smith
A Tree Grows
in Brooklyn
840
Esther
Forbes
Johnny
Tremain
870
Harper
Lee
To Kill a
Mockingbird*
910
Daniel
Keyes
Flowers for
Algernon
1070
Robert
Louis
Stevenson
Treasure
Island
1080
Ann
Frank
Diary of a
Young Girl
1300
Louisa May
Alcott
Little Women
N/A
Arthur
Laurents
West Side
Story
Considered the best mystery novel ever written by many
readers, And Then There Were None is the story of 10
strangers, each lured to Indian Island by a mysterious host.
Once his guests have arrived, the host accuses each person of
murder. Unable to leave the island, the guests begin to share
their darkest secrets--until they begin to die.
The adventures of a mischievous young boy and his friends
growing up in a Mississippi River town in the nineteenth
century.
This classic tale about a group of English schoolboys who are
plane-wrecked on a deserted island is just as chilling and
relevant today as when it was first published in 1954. At first,
the stranded boys cooperate, attempting to gather food, make
shelters, and maintain signal fires. Soon rules are being ignored
or challenged outright. Golding's gripping novel explores the
boundary between human reason and animal instinct, all on
the brutal playing field of adolescent competition. --Jennifer
Hubert
This epic animal fantasy moves the reader through a series of
adventures filled with villains, heroes, mysteries, and riddles.
This is a classic tale of good versus evil.
A young girl from an impoverished family comes of age in
Brooklyn at the turn of the twentieth-century.
Johnny Tremain, apprentice silversmith, takes on the cause of
freedom as a message carrier for the Sons of Liberty in preRevolution Boston.
Scout Finch, the young daughter of a local attorney in the Deep
South during the 1930s, tells of her father's defense of an
African-American man charged with the rape of a white girl.
After being mentally retarded for all of his thirty-two years,
Charlie Gordon undergoes an operation designed to change his
life.
While going through the possessions of a deceased guest who
owed them money, Jim Hawkins and his innkeeper mother find
a treasure map that leads to a pirate's fortune.
The Diary of a Young Girl is the record of two years in the life of
a remarkable Jewish girl whose triumphant humanity in the
face of unfathomable deprivation and fear has made the book
one of the most enduring documents of our time.
Chronicles the humorous and sentimental fortunes of the four
March sisters--Meg, Jo, Amy, and Beth--as they grow into
young ladies in nineteenth-century New England.
They came together through love but violence threatened to
tear them apart. Maria was young and innocent and had never
known love—until Tony. And he, who had been seeking
something beyond the savagery of the streets, discovered it
with her.
*Mature content
P a g e |6
White Plains Middle School
Kid “Recs”
580
Loretta
Ellsworth
In a Heartbeat
610
Gordon
Korman
No More Dead
Dogs
630
Eleanor
Coerr
Sadako and
the Thousand
Paper Cranes
650
Darren
Shan
Cirque du
Freak series
Told in their separate voices, Eagan, who has died in a figureskating accident, becomes a heart donor for Amelia, who then
begins taking on some aspects of Eagan's personality.
Eighth-grade football hero Wallace Wallace is sentenced to
detention attending rehearsals of the school play where, in
spite of himself, he becomes wrapped up in the production and
begins to suggest changes that improve not only the play but
his life as well.
Hospitalized with the dreaded atom bomb disease, leukemia, a
child in Hiroshima races against time to fold one thousand
paper cranes to verify the legend that by doing so a sick person
will become healthy.
Two boys who are best friends visit an illegal freak show, where
an encounter with a vampire and a deadly spider forces them
to make life-changing choices.
Morton-Shaw
The Hunt for
the Seventh
When his father starts a new job at Minerva Hall as gardener,
twelve-year-old Jim discovers an ancient curse that needs to be
unraveled before disaster happens.
660
Christine
680
Ally
Condie
Matched
series
680
Dan
Gutman
The
Homework
Machine
684
James
Buckley, Jr
Soccer
Superstars
(Boys Rock!
series)
The
Miraculous
Journey of
Edward Tulane
700
Kate
DiCamilo
700
Paul
Langan
The Bully*
700
James
Patterson
Middle School
The Worst
Years of My
Life
700
Lore
Pittacus
I am Number
Four (Lorien
Legacies #1)
700
Veronica
Roth
Divergent (#1
of trilogy)
Cassia has always had complete trust in the Society to make
decisions for her, but when she is being paired with her ideal
mate, a second face flashes on the screen, and Cassia begins to
doubt the Society's infallibility as she tries to decide which man
she truly loves.
Four fifth-grade students--a geek, a class clown, a teacher's pet,
and a slacker--as well as their teacher and mothers, each relate
events surrounding a computer programmed to complete
homework assignments.
This book is a brief look at the competition and top players
from the soccer world.
Edward Tulane, a cold-hearted and proud toy rabbit, loves only
himself until he is separated from the little girl who adores him
and travels across the country, acquiring new owners and
listening to their hopes, dreams, and histories.
After Darrell Mercer and his mother move from Philadelphia to
California in the middle of the school year, the ninth-grader
quickly becomes a target for the freshman class bully, Tyray
Hobbs. This title is number five of the Bluford High series.
When Rafe Kane enters middle school, he teams up with his
best friend, "Leo the Silent," to create a game to make school
more fun by trying to break every rule in the school's code of
conduct.
In rural Ohio, friendships and a beautiful girl prove distracting
to a fifteen-year-old who has hidden on Earth for ten years
waiting to develop the Legacies, or powers, he will need to
rejoin the other six surviving Garde members and fight the
Mogadorians who destroyed their planet, Lorien.
In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose
among five predetermined factions to define her identity for
the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she
*Mature content
P a g e |7
White Plains Middle School
700
Anne
Schraff
Someone to
Love Me*
720
Dav
Pilkey
Captain
Underpants
series
720
Wendelin
VanDraanen
Flipped
730
Patrick
Ness
A Monster
Calls
740
Madeleine
L'Engle
A Wrinkle in
Time
740
Wendelin
VanDraanen
Runaway
discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one
group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.
When Cindy Gibson starts dating Bobby Wallace, he appears to
be everything that Cindy is looking for, until he starts behaving
strangely and Cindy finds herself in the worst trouble of her
life. This is book four of the Bluford High series.
When George and Harold hypnotize their principal into thinking
that he is the superhero Captain Underpants, he leads them to
the lair of the nefarious Dr. Diaper, where they must defeat his
evil robot henchmen.
In alternating chapters, two teenagers describe how their
feelings about themselves, each other, and their families have
changed over the years.
Thirteen-year-old Conor awakens one night to find a monster
outside his bedroom window, but not the one from the
recurring nightmare that began when his mother became ill--an
ancient, wild creature that wants him to face truth and loss
A classic. Meg and Charles Wallace set out with their friend
Calvin in a search for their father. His top secret job as a
physicist for the government has taken him away and the
children search through time and space to find him.
After running away from her fifth foster home, Holly, a twelveyear-old orphan, travels across the country, keeping a journal
of her experiences and struggle to survive.
750
S.E.
Hinton
The Outsiders
750
Ann M
Martin
A Corner of the
Universe
750
Marjorie
Kinnan
Rawlings
The Yearling
760
Jim
Eldridge
Black Ops
series
760
Carl
Hiaasen
Hoot
760
Lois
Lowry
The Giver
760
Sara
Shepard
Pretty Little
Liars (Book 1
of series)
770
Maureen
Johnson
Thirteen Little
Blue Envelopes
Three brothers struggle to stay together after their parents'
death, as they search for an identity among the conflicting
values of their adolescent society in which they find themselves
"outsiders."
The summer that Hattie turns twelve, she meets the childlike
uncle she never knew and becomes friends with a girl who
works at the carnival that comes to Hattie's small town.
A young boy living in the Florida backwoods is forced to decide
the fate of a fawn he has lovingly raised as a pet.
Book 1: Jungle Kill, Book 2: Death in the Desert, Book 3: Urban
Assassin. When former Special Forces officer Mitch is offered
a dangerous undercover mission, he must trust his five new
teammates as they rescue a West African freedom fighter.
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes
involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of
burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas
becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in
his community and discovers the terrible truth about the
society in which he lives. Gathering Blue and Messenger are
companion novels in this trilogy.
Book 1: When one of their tightly-knit group mysteriously
disappears, four high school girls find their friendship difficult
to maintain when they begin receiving taunting messages from
someone who seems to know everything about their past and
present secrets.
When seventeen-year-old Ginny receives a packet of
mysterious envelopes from her favorite aunt, she leaves New
Jersey to criss-cross Europe on a sort of scavenger hunt that
transforms her life.
*Mature content
P a g e |8
White Plains Middle School
770
780
Kathryn
Julie
Lasky
Kagawa
Ashes
In 1932 Berlin, thirteen-year-old Gaby Schramm witnesses the
beginning of Hitler's rise to power, as soldiers become
ubiquitous, her beloved literature teacher starts wearing a
jewelled swastika pin, and the family's dear friend, Albert
Einstein, leaves the country while Gaby's parents secretly bury
his books and papers in their small yard.
Iron Fey series
(The Iron King
#1)
(First book in series) When her half-brother is kidnapped,
Meghan Chase, who has recently learned that she is the
daughter of the summer faery king, must journey into a strange
world she never imagined to face an unknown enemy and save
those she loves.
790
Lisi
Harrison
The Clique
series
810
Suzanne
Collins
The Hunger
Games trilogy
Stewart
The
Mysterious
Benedict
Society
(Book 1)
840
Trenton
Lee
850
Dave
Pelzer
A Child Called
"It"*
860
Sara
Weeks
So.B.It
910
Mike
Lupica
Summer Ball
Haugen
Frederick
Douglass:
Slave, Writer,
Abolitionist
930
Brenda
(First book in series) Wealthy Massie is determined to exclude
middle class Claire, the daughter of her father's old friend, from
her seventh-grade clique at a very exclusive private school in
Westchester, New York, but after Massie steals her only friend,
Claire strikes back.
In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain
control through an annual televised survival competition pitting
young people from each of the twelve districts against one
another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test
when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.
After passing a series of mind-bending tests, four children are
selected for a secret mission that requires them to go
undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened,
where the only rule is that there are no rules.
Dave's bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his
clothes were torn and raunchy. When his mother allowed him
the luxury of food, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps that
even the dogs refused to eat. The outside world knew nothing
of his living nightmare. He had nothing or no one to turn to, but
his dreams kept him alive--dreams of someone taking care of
him, loving him and calling him their son.
After spending her life with her mentally retarded mother and
agoraphobic neighbor, twelve-year-old Heidi sets out from
Reno, Nevada, to New York to find out who she is.
Thirteen-year-old Danny must prove himself all over again for a
disapproving coach and against new rivals at a summer
basketball camp.
A biography profiling the life of Frederick Douglass, his escape
from slavery, his career as an author and orator, and his quest
for justice. Includes source notes and timeline.
1040
Allan
Zullo
War Heroes:
Voices from
Iraq
(Ten True
Tales series)
1080
John
Boyne
The Boy in the
Striped
Pajamas
All ten persons featured in this book earned medals for
bravery, yet all said they were just doing the job they were
trained to do. Still, when you read the gripping accounts of
their gutsy actions, you'll see that they displayed an intense
boldness that spurred them to reach far beyond their personal
limits.
Bored and lonely after his family moves from Berlin to a place
called "Out-With" in 1942, Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer,
befriends a boy in striped pajamas who lives behind a wire
fence.
*Mature content
P a g e |9
White Plains Middle School
1090
Allan
Zullo
Battle Heroes:
Voices from
Afghanistan
(Ten True
Tales series)
310400
Kazu
Kibuishi
Amulet series
360450
Jeff
Smith
Bone series
590740
Rick
Riordan
Percy Jackson
and the
Olympians
Various
Bluford High *
610750
660770
James
Patterson
700800
Franklin
W
Dixon
760900
Lloyd
Alexander
Maximum
Ride
The Hardy
Boys series
Prydain
Chronicles
(The Book of
Three)
Heather
Brewer
The Chronicles
of Vladimir
Tod series
770890
Scott
Westerfield
Uglies series
Margaret
Peterson
Haddix
(First book in series) After the tragic death of their father, Emily
and Navin move with their mother to the home of her
deceased great-grandfather, but the strange house proves to
be dangerous. Before long, a sinister creature lures the kids'
mom through a door in the basement. Em and Navin,
desperate not to lose her, follow her into an underground
world inhabited by demons, robots, and talking animals....
(First book in series) The adventure starts when cousins Fone
Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone are run out of Boneville
and later get separated and lost in the wilderness, meeting
monsters and making friends as they attempt to return home.
The Lightning Thief is the first book in the series. After learning
that he is the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the
sea, twelve-year-old Percy is sent to a summer camp for
demigods like himself, and joins his new friends on a quest to
prevent a war between the gods.
Lost and Found is the first title in this series.
The Angel Experiment is the first title in this series. After the
mutant Erasers abduct the youngest member of their group,
the "birdkids," who are the result of genetic experimentation,
take off in pursuit and find themselves struggling to understand
their own origins and purpose.
Even though these books were written quite some time ago,
they still appeal to kids today.
Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper to a famous oracular sow, sets out
on a hazardous mission to save Prydain from the forces of evil.
770820
775850
The heroes spotlighted in Battle Heroes: Voices from
Afghanistan represent some of the tens of thousands of
American troops who, with steadfast boldness, have been
battling a ruthless enemy in knee-deep snow of rugged
mountains, in scorching temperatures of sand-blasted desert
plains, and in deadly close combat of militant-occupied villages.
You'll read ten gripping stories of bravery.
The Shadow
Children series
Eighth Grade Bites (First book in series) For thirteen years,
Vlad, aided by his aunt and best friend, has kept secret that he
is half-vampire, but when his missing teacher is replaced by a
sinister substitute, he learns that there is more to being a
vampire, and to his parents' deaths, than he could have
guessed.
Uglies is the first title in this series.
Among the Hidden is the first title in this series. Luke’s parents
hide him away so that the population police will not know that
he exists. It is a lonely life for Luke, who wishes he could go
outside and play, like his brothers do, and also go to school, to
leave the house and go anywhere. When the land behind
Luke’s farm is developed into a neighborhood, Luke is shocked
to meet another child like him, Jen. She tells him all about
other "shadow children" who live hidden away from the rest of
society. When Jen organizes a big rally to support the hidden
children, will Luke risk his life by going to it?
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White Plains Middle School
800920
John
Flanagan
8801030
JK
Rowling
9101010
Jeff
Kinney
Robert
Rigby
C.S.
Lewis
n/a
Ranger's
Apprentice
series
Harry Potter
series
Diary of a
Wimpy Kid
series
Glory Days
(Goal! Series,
Book 3) *
The Chronicles
of Narnia
The Ruins of Gorlan is the first title of this series. Follow the
adventures of Will, an orphan who is taken as an apprentice
Ranger, as he strives to keep the Kingdom of Araluen safe from
invaders, traitors, and threats. He is joined on his adventures
by his mentor Halt and his best friend Horace.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is the first title in this
series.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid is the first title in this series.
Santiago Munez returns to England and is selected for the
World Cup Squad, but then an injury threatens his dream of
playing in the World Cup finals.
The Magician's Nephew is the first title in this classic series.
Teacher “Faves”
780
Mal
Peet
Keeper
590
Jerry
Spinelli
660
Louis
Sachar
Holes
670
Lois
Lowry
Number the
Stars
670
Walter
Dean
Myers
Monster*
690
Laurie
Halse
Anderson
Speak*
700
Henry
Winterfeld
Detectives in
Togas
Stargirl
700
E.L.
Konigsburg
From the
Mixed-up Files
of Mrs. Basil E.
Frankweiler
720
Tom
Angleberger
Darth Paper
Strikes Back
730
Markus
Zusak
The Book Thief
*
In an interview with a young journalist, World Cup hero, El
Gato, describes his youth in the Brazilian rain forest and the
events, experiences, and people that helped make him a great
goalkeeper and renowned soccer star.
In this story about the perils of popularity, the courage of
nonconformity, and the thrill of first love, an eccentric student
named Stargirl changes Mica High School forever.
As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they
attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent
to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he
finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of
himself.
In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-yearold Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when
she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.
While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old
Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the
courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to
terms with the course his life has taken.
A traumatic event in the summer has a devastating effect on
Melinda's freshman year of high school.
In an effort to save a boy wrongly accused, a group of young
friends living in ancient Rome search for the culprit who
scrawled graffiti on the temple wall.
Claudia and her brother run away to the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, where she sees a statue so beautiful, she must identify
its sculptor. To find out, she must visit the statue's former
owner, the elderly Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
After several Origami Yoda-related incidences, Dwight is
suspended for being a troublemaker and Yoda asks Tommy and
Kellen to save Dwight by creating a case file that proves Dwight
is an asset to Ralph McQuarrie Middle School.
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death
relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose bookstealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the
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White Plains Middle School
750
Michael
Northrop
Trapped
760
Tom
Angleberger
Strange Case
of Origami
Yoda
760
Andrew
Clements
The School
Story
770
James
Lincoln and
Christopher
Collier
My Brother
Sam is Dead
780
Cornelia
Funke
Inkheart
820
Neil
Gaiman
The Graveyard
Book
830
Sharon
Draper
Out of My
Mind
840
Maggie
Stiefvater
The Scorpio
Races
880
Francisco
Jimenez
The Circuit
930
Philip
Pullman
The Golden
Compass
940
Jordan
Sonnenblick
Drums, Girls,
and
Dangerous Pie
960
Bethany
Hamilton
Soul Surfer
980
Cynthia
Rylant
Missing May
1000
Rodman
Philbrick
Freak, the
Mighty
1000
Norton
Juster
The Phantom
Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.
The day the blizzard started, no one knew that it was going to
keep snowing for a week. That for those in its path, it would
become not just a matter of keeping warm, but of staying alive.
Sixth-grader Tommy and his friends describe their interactions
with a paper finger puppet of Yoda, worn by their weird
classmate Dwight, as they try to figure out whether or not the
puppet can really predict the future. Includes instructions for
making Origami Yoda.
After twelve-year-old Natalie writes a wonderful novella, her
friend Zoe helps her devise a scheme to get it accepted at the
publishing house where Natalie's mother works as an editor.
Recounts the tragedy that strikes the Meeker family during the
Revolution when one son joins the rebel forces while the rest
of the family tries to stay neutral.
Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father, who repairs and
binds books for a living, can "read" fictional characters to life
when one of those characters abducts them and tries to force
him into service.
Nobody Owens is a normal boy, except that he has been raised
by ghosts and other denizens of the graveyard.
Considered by many to be mentally retarded, a brilliant,
impatient fifth-grader with cerebral palsy discovers a
technological device that will allow her to speak for the first
time.
Nineteen-year-old returning champion Sean Kendrick competes
against Puck Connolly, the first girl ever to ride in the annual
Scorpio Races, both trying to keep hold of their dangerous
water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.
Offers a look at a migrant family, detailing their daily life and
the struggles they endured to build an existence on the small
opportunities they were given.
Accompanied by her shape-shifting daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets
out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children
from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far
North,
The life of eighth-grader Steven Alper, already complicated by
his friendship with two girls and a prodigious talent for
drumming, is turned upside down when his five-year-old
brother Jeffrey is diagnosed with leukemia.
They say Bethany Hamilton has saltwater in her veins. How else
could one explain the passion that drives her to surf? How else
could one explain that nothing—not even the loss of her arm—
could come between her and the waves?
After the death of the beloved aunt who has raised her, twelveyear-old Summer and her uncle Ob leave their West Virginia
trailer in search of the strength to go on living.
At the beginning of eighth grade, learning disabled Max and his
new friend Freak, whose birth defect has affected his body but
not his brilliant mind, find that when they combine forces they
make a powerful team.
A bored young boy, Milo, drives his small electric car through a
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White Plains Middle School
Tollbooth
1010
Zilpha
Keatly
Snyder
The Egypt
Game
1090
Richard
Llewellyn
How Green
Was My Valley
Left for Dead
1260
630710
770840
Pete
Nelson
Suzanne
Collins
Greg
Taylor
Zilpha
Keatly
Snyder
N/A
The Underland
Chronicles
Killer Pizza
series
The
Changeling
toy tollbooth and finds himself in the Land Beyond. A journey
through a land where Milo learns the importance of words and
numbers provides a cure for his boredom.
An interracial group of children, entranced with the study of
ancient Egypt, play their own Egypt game, are visited by a
secret oracle, become involved in a murder, and befriend the
antique dealer-professor before they move on to new interests.
How Green Was My Valley is Richard Llewellyn's bestselling -and timeless -- classic and the basis of a beloved film. As Huw
Morgan is about to leave home forever, he reminisces about
the golden days of his youth when South Wales still prospered,
when coal dust had not yet blackened the valley. Drawn simply
and lovingly, with a crisp Welsh humor, Llewellyn's characters
fight, love, laugh and cry, creating an indelible portrait of a
people. -amazon.com
Recalls the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis at the end of
World War II, the navy cover-up and unfair court martial of the
ship's captain, and how a young boy helped the survivors set
the record straight fifty-five years later.
Gregor the Overlander is the first title in this first series by the
author of The Hunger Games.
While working as summer employees in a local pizza parlor,
three teenagers are recruited by an underground organization
of monster hunters.
Part of Zilpha K. Snyder's magic as a writer is her ability to
create young characters who face real tragedies and traumas
and yet somehow overcome what seem to be the
insurmountable odds of surviving adolescence. Facing my own
crises as I approached Junior High, I found her books at once
inspiring and reassuring. -Fritz R. Ward, via Amazon.com
Favorite Authors
Andrew
Roald
Sharon
Lois
Gordon
Lois
Mike
Walter Dean
Lauren
Gary
Pam Munoz
Gary
Avi
Clements
Dahl
Draper
Duncan
Korman
Lowry
Lupica
Myers
Myracle
Paulsen
Ryan
Soto
Some Selected Titles
Murder at Midnight (590), The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (740)
Things Not Seen (740)
The Witches (740), Boy (1090)
Double Dutch (760), Romiette and Julio (610)
Ransom (750), Down a Dark Hall (750)
Schooled (740), Swindle (710)
Gossamer (660)
Two Minute Drill (880), Heat (940)
Bad Boy (970), Slam (750)
Bliss (640), ttyl (N/A)
My Life in Dog Years (1150), Guts (950)
Esperenza Rising (750), Becoming Naomi Leon (830)
Petty Crimes (800), Baseball in April (830), Buried Onions (850)
Unless otherwise notes, the annotations are from NoveList K-8.
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