Avi. The Secret School.
Recommended Reading List
for Middle School Students
In 1925, fourteen-year-old Ida Bidson secretly takes over as
the teacher when the one-room schoolhouse in her remote
Colorado area closes unexpectedly. –Historical Fiction
Avi. True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.
Alcott, Louisa Mae. Little Women.
Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters-Meg, the pretty one; Jo, the tomboy; Beth, the shy one; and
Amy, the artist as they grow into young women in nineteenthcentury New England. Other titles by Alcott include Little
Men, Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom. --Fiction Classic
Almond, David. Kit’s Wilderness.
Thirteen-year-old Kit goes to live with his grandfather in the
decaying coal mining town of Stoneygate, England, and finds
both the old man and the town haunted by ghosts of the past.
--Realistic Fiction Mystery
Almond, David. Skellig.
Unhappy about his baby sister's illness and the chaos of
moving into a dilapidated old house, Michael retreats to the
garage and finds a mysterious stranger who is something like a
bird and something like an angel. –Realistic Fiction
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Fever, 1793.
In 1793 Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook,
separated from her sick mother, learns about perseverance and
self-reliance when she is forced to cope with the horrors of a
yellow fever epidemic. –Historical Fiction
Armstrong, William H. Sounder.
Angry and humiliated when his sharecropper father is jailed
for stealing food for his family, a young black boy grows in
courage and understanding by learning to read and with the
help of the devoted dog Sounder. –Realistic Fiction
Arrington, Frances. Prairie Whispers.
Only twelve-year-old Colleen knows that her baby sister died
just after she was born and that she put another baby in her
place until the baby’s father makes trouble for her family on
the South Dakota prairie in the 1860s. –Historical Fiction
Avi. Fighting Ground.
Thirteen-year-old Jonathan goes off to fight in the
Revolutionary War and discovers the real war is being fought
within himself. –Historical Fiction
Avi. Nothing but the Truth.
A ninth-grader's suspension for singing "The Star-Spangled
Banner" during homeroom becomes a national news story.
–Realistic Fiction
Avi. Ragweed.
Ragweed, a young country mouse, leaves his family and
travels to the big city, where he finds excitement and danger
and sees cats for the first time. Prequel to Poppy Series.
–Fantasy
As the lone "young lady" on a transatlantic voyage in 1832,
Charlotte learns that the captain is murderous and the crew
rebellious. –Historical Fiction
Avi. Windcatcher.
While learning to sail during a visit to his grandmother's at the
Connecticut shore, eleven-year-old Tony becomes excited
about the rumors of sunken treasure in the area and starts
following a couple who seem to be making a mysterious
search for something. –Realistic Fiction
Babbitt, Natalie. Kneeknock Rise.
Everyone else in the village is afraid of the creature who
supposedly dwells at the top of Kneeknock Rise but young
Egan investigates for himself. –Mystery
Ballard, Robert. Exploring the Titanic.
Describes the large luxury liner which sank in 1912 and the
discovery and exploration of its underwater wreckage.
--Non-fiction
Barron, T.A. The Fires of Merlin.
Having voyaged to the Otherworld in his quest to find himself,
the young wizard Merlin must face fire in many different
forms and deal with the possibility of losing his own magical
power. Other titles: The Mirror of Merlin and The Seven
Songs of Merlin. –Fantasy Series
Bauer, Marion Dane. On My Honor.
When his best friend drowns while they are both swimming in
a treacherous river that they had promised never to go near,
Joel is devastated and terrified at having to tell both sets of
parents the terrible consequences of their disobedience.
–Realistic Fiction
Bausum, Ann. Freedom Riders.
A study of the Freedom Riders of the civil rights movement,
through personal interviews and other primary-source
research. –Non-fiction
Beattie, Owen. Buried in Ice.
Probes the tragic and mysterious fate of Sir John Franklin's
failed expedition to find the Northwest Passage in 1845.
--Non-fiction
Bennett, Cherie. Zink.
With the help of a trio of zebras from the Serengeti, sixthgrader Becky faces her battle with leukemia, her family's fears
for her, her competition with a hypocritical classmate, and the
possibility that she might die.
Bloor, Edward. Tangerine.
Choi, Sook Nyul. Echoes of the White Giraffe.
Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football
hero brother Erik, fights for the right to play soccer despite his
near blindness and slowly begins to remember the incident
that damaged his eyesight. –Realistic Fiction
Fifteen-year-old Sookan adjusts to life in the refugee village in
Pusan but continues to hope that the civil war will end and her
family will be reunited in Seoul. (sequel to Year of Impossible
Goodbyes) –Historical Fiction
Brink, Carol Ryrie. Caddie Woodlawn.
Choi, Sook Nyul. Year of Impossible Goodbyes.
The adventures of an eleven-year-old tomboy growing up on
the Wisconsin frontier in the mid-nineteenth century.
–Historical Fiction
A young Korean girl survives the oppressive Japanese and
Russian occupation of North Korea during the 1940s, to later
escape to freedom in South Korea. –Historical Fiction
Broach, Elise. Shakespeare’s Secret.
Choldenko, Gennifer. Al Capone Does My Shirts.
A sixth-grader named Hero becomes interested in a missing
diamond, a five-hundred-year-old necklace, and a mystery
dating back to the time of Shakespeare. –Adventure
A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island
in 1935 when guards’ families were housed there, and has to
contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to
life with his autistic sister. –Historical Fiction
Brooks, Bruce. The Moves Make the Man.
A black boy and an emotionally troubled white boy in North
Carolina form a precarious friendship. –Realistic Fiction
Bunting, Eve. The Wall.
A boy and his father come from far away to visit the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial in Washington and find the name of the
boy's grandfather, who was killed in the conflict. –Picture
Burleigh, Robert. Into the Woods: John James
Audubon Lives His Dream.
Uses quotes from his journals to help explore Audubon's
decision to follow his dream to paint every bird species in
North America. –Picture Biography
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. The Secret Garden.
Ten-year-old Mary comes to live in a lonely house on the
Yorkshire moors and discovers an invalid cousin and the
mysteries of a locked garden. –Fiction Classic
Burnford, Sheila. Incredible Journey.
A Siamese cat, an old bull terrier, and a young labrador
retriever travel together 250 miles through the Canadian
wilderness to find their family. –Adventure
Clapp, Patricia. Constance.
Through a journal a young girl tells of her daily life,
hardships, romances and marriage during the first years of the
Pilgrim settlement at Plymouth. –Historical Fiction
Clements, Andrew. Things Not Seen.
When fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up and finds that he is
invisible, he and his parents and his new blind friend Alicia try
to find out what caused his condition and how to reverse it.
–Science Fiction
Clements, Andrew. A Week in the Woods.
The fifth grade’s annual camping trip in the woods tests
Mark’s survival skills and his ability to relate to a teacher who
seems out to get him. –Realistic Fiction
Cohen, Barbara. Thank You, Jackie Robinson.
A fatherless white boy, who shares with an old black man an
enthusiasm for the Brooklyn Dodgers and first baseman,
Jackie Robinson, takes a ball autographed by Jackie to his
elderly friend's death bed. –Fiction
Colfer, Eoin. Artemis Fowl.
Three lonely foster children learn to care about themselves and
each other. –Realistic Fiction
When a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family
fortune by capturing a fairy and demanding a ransom in gold,
the fairies fight back with magic, technology and a particularly
nasty troll. –Fantasy Series
Byars, Betsy. The Summer of the Swans.
Conrad, Pam. Prairie Songs.
Byars, Betsy. The Pinballs.
A teenage girl gains new insight into herself and her family
when her mentally retarded brother gets lost.
–Realistic Fiction
Louisa's life in a loving pioneer family on the Nebraska prairie
is altered by the arrival of a new doctor and his beautiful,
tragically frail wife. –Historical Fiction
Chase, Richard, editor. Grandfather Tales.
Conrad, Pam. Prairie Visions.
Contains a rich collection of folk tales originating from the
mountains of North Carolina and Virginia. –Folktale
Chase, Richard, editor. Jack Tales.
Eighteen Jack tales drawn from the folklore of the North
Carolina and Virginia mountain country. –Folktale
A fascinating collection of photos and stories about
photographer Solomon Butcher (who is featured in Prairie
Songs) and turn-of-the-century Nebraska. –Non-fiction
Cooney, Barbara. Eleanor.
Presents the childhood of Eleanor Roosevelt, who married a
president of the United States and became known as a great
humanitarian. –Picture Biography
Cooney, Caroline. The Ransom of Mercy Carter.
Cushman, Karen. The Ballad of Lucy Whipple.
In 1704, in the English settlement of Deerfield, Massachusetts,
eleven-year-old Mercy and her family and neighbors are
captured by Mohawk Indians and their French allies, and
forced to march through bitter cold to French Canada, where
some adapt to new lives and some still hope to be ransomed.
–Historical Fiction
In 1849, twelve-year-old California Morning Whipple, who
renames herself Lucy, is distraught when her mother moves
the family from Massachusetts to a rough California mining
town. –Historical Fiction
Cooper, Susan. The Dark is Rising.
On his eleventh birthday Will Stanton discovers that he is the
last of the Old Ones, destined to seek the six magical Signs
that will enable the Old Ones to triumph over the evil forces of
the Dark. –Fantasy Series
Craven, Margaret. I Heard the Owl Call My Name.
Sent to live with an Indian tribe in British Columbia, a young
minister learns not to fear his impending death. –Fiction
Creech, Sharon. Bloomability.
When her aunt and uncle take her from New Mexico to
Lugano, Switzerland, to attend an international school, Dinnie,
at 13, discovers her world expanding. –Realistic Fiction
Cushman, Karen. Catherine, Called Birdy.
The daughter of an English knight keeps a journal in which
she records the events of her life, particularly her longing for
adventures beyond the usual role of women and her efforts to
avoid being married off. –Historical Fiction
Cushman, Karen. The Midwife’s Apprentice.
In medieval England, a nameless, homeless girl is taken in by
a sharp-tempered midwife, and in spite of obstacles and
hardship, eventually gains the three things she most wants: a
full belly, a contented heart, and a place in this world.
–Historical Fiction
Danziger, Paula. P.S. There’s a Bat in Bunk Five.
On her own for the first time, 14-year-old Marcy tries to cope
with the new people and situations she encounters while
working as a counselor at an arts camp. –Realistic Fiction
Creech, Sharon. Love That Dog.
A young student, who comes to love poetry through a personal
understanding of what different famous poems mean to him,
surprises himself by writing his own inspired poem. –Fiction
________. Dear America Series (various authors)
Creech, Sharon. Ruby Holler.
De Angeli, Marguerite. The Door in the Wall.
Thirteen-year-old fraternal twins Dallas and Florida have
grown up in a terrible orphanage but their lives change forever
when an eccentric but sweet older couple invites them each on
an adventure, beginning in an almost magical place called
Ruby Holler. –Realistic Fiction
A crippled boy in fourteenth-century England proves his
courage and earns recognition from the King.
–Historical Fiction
Creech, Sharon. Walk Two Moons.
After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal
and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's
route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend
Phoebe, whose mother also left. –Realistic Fiction
Creech, Sharon. The Wanderer.
Thirteen-year-old Sophie and her cousin Cody record their
transatlantic crossing aboard the Wanderer, a forty-five foot
sailboat, which, along with uncles and another cousin, is en
route to visit their grandfather in England. –Realistic Fiction
Curry, Jane Louise. The Black Canary.
James discovers a portal to seventeenth-century London and
finds himself in a situation where his beautiful voice and the
fact that he is biracial might serve him well. –Adventure
Curtis, Christopher Paul.
Birmingham: 1963.
The Watson’s Go To
An African-American family from Michigan heads south to
Birmingham, Alabama to visit grandma and is confronted with
the racism that exists there in 1963. –Historical Fiction
Fictional diary accounts give a glimpse into the lives of young
people during different periods of history. –Historical Fiction
Deavers, Julie Reece. Say Goodnight, Gracie.
When a car accident kills her best friend Jimmy, with whom
she has shared everything from childhood escapades to
breaking into the professional theater scene in Chicago,
seventeen-year-old Morgan must find her own way of coping
with his death. –Realistic Fiction
DeFelice, Cynthia. The Ghost of Fossil Glen.
Allie knows it's not her imagination when she hears a voice
and sees in her mind's eye the face of a girl who seems to be
seeking Allie's help. –Mystery
DeFelice, Weasel.
Alone in the frontier wilderness in the winter of 1839 while
his father is recovering from an injury, eleven-year-old Nathan
runs afoul of the renegade killer known as Weasel and makes
a surprising discovery about the concept of revenge.
--Historical Fiction
DuPrau, Jeanne. The City of Ember.
In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on
Assignment Day to be a messenger, to run to new places in her
beloved but decaying city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown
Regions. Sequels: The City of Sparks and The Prophet of
Yonwood. –Fantasy
DiCamillo, Kate. Because of Winn-Dixie.
Farmer, Nancy. House of the Scorpion.
Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni describes her first summer in
the town of Naomi, Florida, and all the good things that
happen to her because of her big ugly dog Winn-Dixie.
–Realistic Fiction
In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special
status as the young clone of El Patron, the 140-year-old leader
of a corrupt drug empire between the U.S. and Mexico.
–Science Fiction
DiCamillo, Kate. The Tale of Despereaux.
Farmer, Nancy. Sea of Trolls.
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. –Fantasy
Jack and his sister Lucy are captured by Viking Berserkers
and taken to King Ivar the Boneless and his half-troll queen.
–Adventure
Filipovic, Zlata. Zlata’s Diary.
DiCamillo, Kate. The Tiger Rising.
Rob, who passes the time in his rural Florida community by
wood carving, is drawn by his spunky but angry friend Sistine
into a plan to free a caged tiger. –Realistic Fiction
The diary of a thirteen-year-old girl living in Sarajevo, begun
just before her eleventh birthday when there was still peace in
her homeland. –Autobiography
Dorris, Michael. Morning Girl.
Fleischman, John. Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but
True Story About Brain Science.
Morning Girl, who loves the day, and her younger brother Star
Boy, who loves the night, take turns describing their life on an
island in pre-Columbian America; in Morning Girl's last
narrative, she witnesses the arrival of the first Europeans to
her world. –Historical Fiction
The true story of Phineas Gage, a man who lived through a
horrible accident that left him with a hole in his brain; and
how the study of his injury in 1848 has provided insight into
how the brain works. –Non-fiction
Dowell, Frances O’Roark. Chicken Boy.
Fleischman, Paul. Joyful Noise: Poems for Two
Voices.
Since the death of his mother, Tobin’s family life and school
life have been in disarray, but after he starts raising chickens
with his seventh-grade classmate Henry, everything starts to
fall into place. –Realistic Fiction
Dowell, Frances O’Roark. Dovey Coe.
Accused of murder in her North Carolina mountain town in
1928, Dovey Coe, a strong-willed twelve-year-old girl, comes
to a new understanding of others, including her deaf brother,
as she attempts to clear her name. –Realistic Fiction
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Hound of the
Baskervilles.
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson set out to disprove the
legend of the curse of the devil-beast said to haunt the moors
near the Baskerville ancestral home. –Mystery
Draper, Sharon M. Double Dutch.
Three eighth-grade friends, preparing for the International
Double Dutch Championship jump rope competition in their
home town of Cincinnati, Ohio, cope with Randy's missing
father, Delia's inability to read, and Yo Yo's encounter with
the class bullies. –Realistic Fiction
Eckert, Allen. Incident at Hawk’s Hill.
A shy, lonely six-year-old wanders into the Canadian prairie
and spends a summer under the protection of a badger.
--Adventure
Farmer, Nancy. A Girl Named Disaster.
While journeying to Zimbabwe, eleven-year-old Nhamo
struggles to escape drowning and starvation and in so doing
comes close to the luminous world of the African spirits.
–Adventure
A collection of poems describing the characteristics and
activities of a variety of insects. Fleischman’s collection of
poems about birds is I Am Phoenix. –Poetry
Fleischman, Paul. The Whipping Boy.
A bratty prince and his whipping boy have many adventures
when they inadvertently trade places after becoming involved
with dangerous outlaws. –Adventure
Fleischman, Paul. Whirligig.
While traveling to each corner of the country to build a
whirligig in memory of the girl whose death he caused,
sixteen-year-old Brian finds forgiveness and atonement.
--Realistic Fiction
Fox, Paula. One Eyed Cat.
An eleven-year-old shoots a stray cat with his new air rifle,
subsequently suffers from guilt, and eventually assumes
responsibility for it. –Realistic Fiction
Freedman, Russell. Immigrant Kids.
Text and photographs chronicle the life of immigrant children
at home, school, work, and play during the late 1800s and
early 1900s. --Non-fiction
Freedman, Russell. Lincoln: a Photobiography.
Photographs and text trace the life of the Civil War President.
Newbery Award Winner.
--Biography
Freedman, Russell. Children of the Wild West.
Historical photographs with explanatory text present a picture
of life in the American West from 1840 to the early 1900s.
--Non-fiction
Fritz, Jean. Homesick: My Own Story.
_____. Great Minds of Science Series.
The author's fictionalized version, though all the events are
true, of her childhood in China in the 1920s.
--Autobiography
Fascinating accounts of the lives of some of the greatest
scientists in history including Aristotle, Archimedes,
Copernicus, Curie, Darwin, Einstein, Fleming, Hubble,
Lavoisier, Pasteur, Salk and many others. –Non-fiction
Fritz, Jean. Bully for You, Teddy Roosevelt!
Describes some of the well-known as well as the lesser-known
details of the dynamic twenty-sixth president’s life discussing
his conservation work, hunting expeditions, family life, and
political career. Other biographical titles by Fritz include:
Can’t You Make Them Behave, King George? And Then
What Happened, Paul Revere? Make Way for Sam Houston
and others. –Biography
Fritz, Jean. The Double Life of Pocahontas.
A biography of the famous American Indian princess,
emphasizing her adulation of John Smith and the roles she
played in two different cultures. –Biography
Gantos, Jack. Joey Pigza Loses Control.
Joey, who is still taking medication to keep him from getting
too wired, goes to spend the summer with the hard-drinking
father he has never known and tries to help the baseball team
he coaches win the championship. Sequel to Joey Pigza
Swallowed the Key. –Realistic Fiction
George, Jean Craighead. Julie of the Wolves.
While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a
thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope
of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack. –Adventure Series
Grove, Vicki. Reaching Dustin.
Sixth-grader Carly's assignment to interview a reclusive,
brooding classmate leads her to discover some of the events
that have caused his antisocial and abusive family's negative
impact on their Missouri farming community and Carly's
family in particular.
Gutman, Dan. Race for the Sky: the Kitty Hawk
Diaries of Johnny Moore.
Ordered to practice his writing skills in the blank book his
mother gave him, fourteen-year-old Johnny would rather go
fishing near his home on North Carolina’s Outer Banks and
cannot think of anything important to write until two
“dingbatters” from Ohio (Wilbur and Orville Wright) arrive in
1900 and try to build a flying machine. –Historical Fiction
Gutman, Dan. Jackie and Me.
With his ability to travel through time by using baseball cards,
Joe goes back to 1947 to meet Jackie Robinson, turning into a
black boy in the process. Another title is Honus and Me.
–Fiction
Gutman, Dan. Million Dollar Shot.
George, Kristine O’Connell. Swimming Upstream.
Eleven-year-old Eddie gets a chance to win a million dollars
by sinking a foul shot at the National Basketball Association
finals. –Realistic Fiction
A collection of poems capture the feelings and experiences of
life in middle school. –Poetry
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Double Identity.
During a summer spent at Rockaway Beach in 1944, Lily's
friendship with a young Hungarian refugee causes her to see
the war and her own world differently. –Historical Fiction
When thirteen-year-old Bethany's parents drop out of sight
with no explanation, leaving her with an aunt she never knew
existed, Bethany uncovers secrets that make her question
everything she thought she knew about her family.
--Science Fiction
Giff, Patricia Reilly. Nory Ryan’s Song.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Just Ella.
When a terrible blight attacks Ireland's potato crop in 1845,
twelve-year-old Nory Ryan's courage and ingenuity help her
family and neighbors survive. –Historical Fiction
In this continuation of the Cinderella story, fifteen-year-old
Ella finds that accepting Prince Charming’s proposal ensnares
her in a suffocating tangle of palace rules and royal etiquette,
so she plots to escape. --Fantasy
Giff, Patricia Reilly. Lily’s Crossing.
Giovanni, Nikki. Spin a Soft Black Song.
A poetry collection which recounts the feelings of Black
children about their neighborhoods, American society, and
themselves. –Poetry
Hahn, Mary Downing. Dead Man in Indian Creek.
When Matt and Parker learn the body they found in Indian
Creek is a drugrelated death, they fear Parker's mother may be
involved. –Mystery
Gipson, Fred. Old Yeller.
In the late 1860s in the Texas hill country, a big yellow dog
and a fourteen-year-old boy form a close, loving relationship.
--Realistic Fiction Classic
Going, K.L. The Liberation of Gabriel King.
In Georgia during the summer of 1976, Gabriel, a white boy
who is being bullied, and Frita, an African American girl who
is facing prejudice, decide to overcome their fears together.
–Realistic Fiction
Hahn, Mary Downing. Stepping on the Cracks.
In 1944, while her brother is overseas fighting in World War
II, eleven-year-old Margaret gets a new view of the school
bully Gordy when she finds him hiding his own brother, an
army deserter, and decides to help him. –Historical Fiction
Hahn, Mary Downing. Time for Andrew: A Ghost
Story.
When he goes to spend the summer with his great-aunt in the
family's old house, eleven-year-old Drew is drawn eighty
years into the past to trade places with his great-great-uncle
who is dying of diptheria. --Mystery
Hesse, Karen. Letters from Rifka.
In letters to her cousin, a young Jewish girl chronicles her
family's flight from Russia in 1919 and her own experiences
when she must be left in Belgium for a while when the others
emigrate to America. –Historical Fiction
Hesse, Karen. Witness.
Hale, Shannon. Princess Academy.
While attending a strict academy for potential princesses with
the other girls from her mountain village, fourteen-year-old
Miri discovers unexpected talents and connections to her
homeland. –Fantasy
A series of poems express the views of various people in a
small Vermont town, including a young black girl and a young
Jewish girl, during the early 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is
trying to infiltrate the town.
Hinton, S.E. Rumble Fish.
Hamilton, Bethany. Soul Surfer.
Bethany Hamilton shares the story of her lifelong love of
surfing, and tells how she was able to recover and return to
competition with the help of her family, friends, and faith,
after losing her arm in a shark attack at the age of thirteen.
--Biography
A junior high school boy idolizes his older brother, the
coolest, toughest guy in the neighborhood, and wants to be
just like him. Other titles by Hinton include: The Outsiders;
Tex; Taming the Star Runner; That Was Then, This is Now.
–Realistic Fiction
Hobbs, Will. Bearstone.
Hamilton, Virginia. Cousins.
Concerned that her grandmother may die, Cammy is
unprepared for the accidental death of another relative.
–Realistic Fiction
A troubled Indian boy goes to live with an elderly rancher
whose caring ways help the boy become a man.
–Realistic Fiction
Holm, Jennifer. Our Only May Amelia.
Hamilton, Virginia. Lyddie.
Impoverished Vermont farm girl Lyddie Worthen is
determined to gain her independence by becoming a factory
worker in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1840s.
–Historical Fiction
As the only girl in a Finnish American family of seven
brothers, May Amelia Jackson resents being expected to act
like a lady while growing up in the state of Washington in
1899. –Historical Fiction
Holt, Kimberly Willis. My Louisiana Sky.
Hamilton, Virginia. Many Thousand Gone.
Recounts the journey of Black slaves to freedom via the
Underground Railroad, an extended group of people who
helped fugitive slaves in many ways. –Non-fiction
Growing up in Saitter, Louisiana, in the 1950s, twelve-yearold Tiger Ann struggles with her feelings about her stern, but
loving grandmother, her mentally slow parents, and her good
friend and neighbor, Jesse. –Realistic Fiction
Hamilton, Virginia. M.C. Higgins, the Great.
Hoobler, Dorothy. In Darkness, Death.
As a slag heap, the result of strip mining, creeps closer to his
house in the Ohio hills, fifteen-year-old M.C. is torn between
trying to get his family away and fighting for the home they
love. –Realistic Fiction
In eighteenth-century Japan, young Seikei becomes involved
with a ninja as he helps his foster father, Judge Ooka
investigate the murder of a samurai. –Historical Fiction
Hamilton, Virginia. The People Could Fly:
American Black Folktales.
Retold Afro-American folktales of animals, fantasy, the
supernatural, and desire for freedom, born of the sorrow of the
slaves, but passed on in hope. –Folktale
Horvath, Polly. Everything on a Waffle.
Eleven-year-old Primrose, who lives in a small fishing village
in British Columbia, recounts her experiences and all that she
learns about human nature and the unpredictability of life in
the months after her parents are lost at sea. –Realistic Fiction
Hunt, Irene. Across Five Aprils.
Hautzig, Esther. The Endless Steppe.
During World War II, when she was eleven years old, the
author and her family were arrested in Poland by the Russians
as political enemies and exiled to Siberia. She recounts here
the trials of the following five years spent on the harsh Asian
steppe. --Biography
Hawk, Fran. The story of the H.L. Hunley and
Queenie's coin.
The story of the H.L. Hunley, the only submarine used during
the American Civil War. –Non-fiction Picture
Jethro, who is nine years old when the first April blooms, must
run the farm in southern Illinois almost alone during the Civil
War. Dangers on the home front prove as exciting as those in
battle. –Historical Fiction
Hunt, Irene. The Lottery Rose.
A young victim of child abuse gradually overcomes his fears
and suspicions when placed in a home with other boys.
–Realistic Fiction
Huynh, Quang Nhuon.
The Land I Lost:
Adventures of a Boy in Vietnam.
Konigsburg, E.L. The View from Saturday.
A collection of personal reminiscences of the author's youth in
a hamlet on the central highlands of Vietnam. --Biography
Four students, with their own individual stories, develop a
special bond and attract the attention of their teacher, a
paraplegic, who chooses them to represent their sixth-grade
class in the Academic Bowl competition. –Realistic Fiction
Jackson, Livia Bitton. I Have Lived a Thousand
Years: Growing up in the Holocaust.
Krumgold, Joseph. Onion John.
A memoir of Elli Friedman, who was thirteen years old when
the Nazis invaded her native Hungary. –Autobiography
Friendship with the town odd-jobs man, Onion John, causes a
conflict between Andy and his father. –Realistic Fiction
Janeczko, Paul B. Worlds Afire.
Lavender, William. Just Jane.
In this novel written as a collection of eyewitness poems, the
excitement and anticipation of attending the circus on July 6,
1944, in Hartford, Connecticut, turns to horror when a fire
engulfs the circus tent, killing nearly 170 people, mostly
women and children. –Historical Fiction
Levine, Gail Carson. Ella Enchanted.
Jensen, Dorothea. Riddle of Penncroft Farm.
Lars Olafson's move to a farm near Valley Forge brings him
friendship with the ghost of an eighteenth-century ancestor
who recounts his adventures during the American Revolution.
--Historical Fiction
Johnson, Angela. Heaven.
Fourteen-year-old Marley's seemingly perfect life in the small
town of Heaven is disrupted when she discovers that her father
and mother are not her real parents. –Realistic Fiction
Johnson, Angela. Toning the Sweep.
On a visit to her grandmother Ola, who is dying of cancer in
her house in the desert, fourteen-year-old Emmie hears many
stories about the past and her family history.
–Realistic Fiction
Kehret, Peg. Earthquake Terror.
When an earthquake hits the isolated island in northern
California where his family had been camping, twelve-yearold Jonathan Palmer must find a way to keep himself, his
partially paralyzed younger sister, and their dog alive until
help arrives. –Realistic Fiction
Kipling, Rudyard. Just So Stories.
A classic collection of stories about animals, insects, and other
subjects that include "How the Whale Got His Throat," "The
Elephant's Child," and others. – Folktale
Jane Prentice, orphaned daughter of an English earl, arrives in
South Carolina, in 1776 to find her loyalties divided over the
question of American independence. –Historical Fiction
In this novel based on the story of Cinderella, Ella struggles
against the childhood curse that forces her to obey any order
given to her. –Fantasy
Levitin, Sonia. Journey to America.
A Jewish family fleeing Nazi Germany in 1938 endures
innumerable separations before they are once again united.
–Historical Fiction
Lisle, Janet Taylor. The Art of Keeping Cool.
In 1942, Robert and his cousin Elliot uncover long-hidden
family secrets while staying in their grandparents' Rhode
Island town, where they also become involved with a German
artist who is suspected of being a spy. –Historical Fiction
London, Jack. White Fang.
The adventures in the northern wilderness of a dog that is part
wolf and how he comes to make his peace with man. Another
title by London, The Call of the Wild, tells the story of a dog
stolen from his home and taken into the Arctic north. White
Fang is part dog, part wolf--first abused, then transformed by
patience and affection. –Classic Fiction
Lord, Bette Bao. In The Year of the Boar and
Jackie Robinson.
In 1947, a Chinese child comes to Brooklyn where she
becomes Americanized at school, in her apartment building,
and by her love for baseball. –Historical Fiction
Lowry, Lois. Anastasia Krupnik.
Konigsburg, E.L. From the Mixed Up Files of
Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
Two suburban children run away from their Connecticut home
and go to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, where
their ingenuity enables them to live in luxury. –Mystery
Konigsburg, E.L. Silent to the Bone.
When he is wrongly accused of gravely injuring his baby halfsister, thirteen-year-old Branwell loses his power of speech
and only his friend Connor is able to reach him and uncover
the truth about what really happened. –Realistic Fiction
Anastasia's 10th year has some good things like falling in love
and really getting to know her grandmother and some bad
things like finding out about an impending baby brother.
–Realistic Fiction Series
Lowry, Lois. The Giver.
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. –Science Fiction
Macauley, David. Pyramid.
Text and black-and-white illustrations follow the intricate and
fascinating step-by-step process of the building of an ancient
Egyptian pyramid. Other works by David Macauley include
Castle and Cathedral. –Non-fiction
McKissack, Pat. The Dark-Thirty: Southern
Tales of the Supernatural.
A collection of ghost stories with African American themes,
designed to be told during the Dark Thirty--the half hour
before sunset--when ghosts seem all too believable. –Folktale
Mah, Adeline Yen. Chinese Cinderella.
McKissack, Pat. Porch Lies.
The author tells the story of her painful childhood in China
where she lived until the age of fourteen with her father,
stepmother, and siblings, all of whom considered her bad luck
because her mother died shortly after giving birth to her.
--Autobiography
Presents a collection of nine original tales drawn from African
American oral tradition that blends history and legend with sly
humor, creepy horror, villainous characters, and wild farce.
--Short Stories
Marrin, Albert. Dr. Jenner and the Speckled
Monster: the Search for the Smallpox Vaccine.
Mikaelson, Ben. Touching Spirit Bear.
Tracks the trail of the variola virus down through time and
around the world to explain the significance of Edward
Jenner's vaccine for smallpox. –Non-fiction
After his anger erupts into violence, fifteen year-old Cole, in
order to avoid going to prison, agrees to participate in a
sentencing alternative based on the Native American Circle
Justice, and is sent to a remote Alaskan Island where an
encounter with a huge Spirit Bear changes his life. –Fiction
Marshall, Catherine. Christy.
Mochizuki, Ken. Baseball saved us.
In 1912, nineteen-year-old Christy Huddleston leaves her
comfortable home to teach in a one-room schoolhouse in an
isolated area of the Great Smokies.
A Japanese American boy learns to play baseball when he and
his family are forced to live in an internment camp during
World War II, and his ability to play helps him after the war is
over. –Historical Fiction Picture
Mazer, Norma Fox. Good Night, Maman.
After spending years fleeing from the Nazis in war-torn
Europe, twelve-year-old Karin Levi and her older brother
Marc find a new home in a refugee camp in Oswego, New
York. –Historical Fiction
Murphy, Jim. The Boy’s War: Confederate and
Union Soldiers Talk About the Civil War.
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. –Non-fiction
McDonald, Janet. Spellbound.
Raven, a teenage mother and high school dropout living in a
housing project, decides, with the help and sometime
interference of her best friend Aisha, to study for a spelling
bee which could lead to a college preparatory program and
four-year scholarship. –Realistic Fiction
Myers, Walter Dean. Scorpions.
McKinley, Robin. Beauty: A Retelling of the Story
of Beauty and the Beast.
Namioka, Lensey.
Break.
Kind Beauty grows to love the Beast at whose castle she is
compelled to stay and through her love releases him from the
spell which had turned him from a handsome prince into an
ugly beast. –Modern Fairy Tale
Ailin's life takes a different turn when she defies the traditions
of upper class Chinese society by refusing to have her feet
bound. –Historical Fiction
McKinley, Robin. The Blue Sword.
Harry, bored with her sheltered life in the remote orangegrowing colony of Daria, discovers magic in herself when she
is kidnapped by a native king with mysterious powers.
–Fantasy
McKinley, Robin. The Hero and the Crown.
Aerin, with the guidance of the wizard Luthe and the help of
the blue sword, wins the birthright due her as the daughter of
the Damarian king and a witchwoman of the mysterious,
demon-haunted North. –Fantasy
After reluctantly taking on the leadership of the Harlem gang,
the Scorpions, Jamal finds that his enemies treat him with
respect when he acquires a gun until a tragedy occurs.
–Realistic Fiction
Ties That Bind, Ties That
Napoli, Donna. North.
Tired of his mother’s overprotectiveness and intrigued by the
life of explorer Matthew Henson, twelve-year-old Alvin
travels north and spends a season with a trapper near the
Arctic Circle. –Historical Fiction
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. The Agony of Alice.
Eleven-year-old, motherless Alice decides she needs a
gorgeous role model who does everything right; and when
placed in homely Mrs. Plotkins's class she is greatly
disappointed until she discovers it's what people are inside that
counts. Other titles in this series include: Alice In-Between;
Alice in Rapture, Sort of. –Realistic Fiction Series
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Blizzard’s Wake.
Park, Linda Sue. A Single Shard.
In March of 1941, when a severe blizzard suddenly hits Grand
Forks, North Dakota, a girl trying to save her stranded father
and brother inadvertently helps the man who killed her mother
four years before. –Realistic Fiction
Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives
under a bridge in a potters' village, and longs to learn how to
throw the delicate celadon ceramics himself.
–Historical Fiction
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Send No Blessings.
Patterson, Katherine. Jacob Have I Loved.
A teenager in a large family that lives in a trailer yearns for an
escape and a chance to make something of herself. When a
good and decent man, seven years her senior, falls in love with
her, she realizes marriage to him could solve her problems.
–Realistic Fiction
Feeling deprived all her life of schooling, friends, mother, and
even her name by her twin sister, Louise finally begins to find
her identity. –Realistic Fiction
Nelson, Marilyn. Carver, a Life in Poems.
Fearing that her legal guardian plans to abandon her to return
to France, ten-year-old aspiring scientist Lucky Trimble
determines to run away. The newest Newbery Award Winner!
–Realistic Fiction
A collection of poems that combine to provide a portrait of the
life of nineteenth-century African-American botanist and
inventor George Washington Carver. –Poetry
Nye, Naomi Shihab. A Maze Me: Poems for Girls.
Patron, Susan. The Higher Power of Lucky.
Paulsen, Gary. Dogsong.
A collection of seventy-two original poems arranged in five
sections entitled Big Head, Secret Hum, Magical Geography,
Sweet Dreams Please, and Something True. –Poetry
A fourteen-year-old Eskimo boy who feels assailed by the
modernity of his life takes a 1400-mile journey by dog sled
across ice, tundra, and mountains seeking his own “song” of
himself. –Realistic Fiction
O’Brien, Robert C. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of
NIMH.
Paulsen, Gary. Guts: The True Stories Behind
Hatchet and the Brian Books.
Having no one to help her with her problems, a widowed
mouse visits the rats whose former imprisonment in a
laboratory made them wise and long lived. --Fantasy
O'Dell, Scott. Black Star, Bright Dawn.
Dawn must face the challenge of the Idatarod dogsled race
alone when her father is injured. –Adventure
O'Dell, Scott. Sarah Bishop.
Left alone after the deaths of her father and brother who take
opposite sides in the War for Independence, and fleeing from
the British who seek to arrest her, Sarah struggles to shape a
new life for herself in the wilderness. –Historical Fiction
O'Dell, Scott. Sing Down the Moon.
A young Navajo girl recounts the events of 1864 when her
tribe was forced to march to Fort Sumner as prisoners of the
white soldiers. –Historical Fiction
Park, Barbara. The Graduation of Jake Moon.
Fourteen-year-old Jake recalls how he has spent the last fouryears of his life watching his grandfather descend slowly but
surely into the horrors of Alzheimer's disease. –Fiction
Park, Barbara. Mick Harte Was Here.
Thirteen-year-old Phoebe recalls her younger brother Mick
and his death in a bicycle accident. –Realistic Fiction
Park, Linda Sue. The Kite-Fighters.
In Korea in 1473, eleven-year-old Young-sup overcomes his
rivalry with his older brother Kee-sup, who as the first-born
son receives special treatment from their father, and combines
his kite-flying skill with his brother's kite-making skill in an
attempt to win the New Year kite-fighting competition.
–Historical Fiction
The author relates incidents in his life and how they inspired
parts of his books about the character, Brian Robeson.
--Autobiography
Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet.
After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four
days in the wilderness, learning to survive initially with only
the aid of a hatchet given by his mother, and learning also to
survive his parents' divorce. Sequel is The River. – Adventure
Paulsen, Gary. Nightjohn.
Twelve-year-old Sarny's brutal life as a slave becomes even
more dangerous when a newly arrived slave offers to teach her
how to read. –Historical Fiction
Paulsen, Gary. Soldier’s Heart.
Eager to enlist, fifteen-year-old Charley has a change of heart
after experiencing both the physical horrors and mental
anguish of Civil War combat. –Historical Fiction
Peck, Richard. A Long Way from Chicago.
A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with
his sister during the Great Depression to visit their larger-thanlife grandmother. –Historical Fiction
Peck, Richard. A Year Down Yonder.
During the recession of 1937, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice is
sent to live with her feisty, grandmother in rural Illinois and
comes to a better understanding of this fearsome woman.
Sequel to A Long Way From Chicago. –Historical Fiction
Pfeffer, Susan. The Year Without Michael.
Members of the Chapman family try to cope with the
disappearance of fourteen-year-old Michael. –Realistic Fiction
Philbrick, Rodman. The Young Man and the Sea.
Rinaldi, Ann. Or Give Me Death.
At age 12, Skiff Beaman realizes that he must find a way to
support the family when his father becomes severely
depressed following his mother’s death in this poignant and
dramatic story about a determined boy who refuses to give up
despite overwhelming odds. –Realistic Fiction
With their father away most of the time advocating
independence for the American colonies, the children of
Patrick Henry try to raise themselves, manage the family
plantation, and care for their mentally ill mother.
–Historical Fiction
Pinkney, Andrea. Silent Thunder: A Civil War
Story.
Riordan, Rick. The Lighting Thief.
In 1862 eleven-year-old Summer and her thirteen-year-old
brother Rosco take turns describing how life on the quiet
Virginia plantation where they are slaves is affected by the
Civil War. –Historical Fiction
_____. Poetry for Young People Series.
Beautifully illustrated poetry by poets such as Robert
Browning, Lewis Carroll, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost,
Langston Hughes, Edward Lear, Edgar Allen Poe, Walt
Whitman, and many others. –Poetry
Polacco, Patricia. Pink and Say.
Say Curtis describes his meeting with Pinkus Aylee, an
African-American soldier, during the Civil War and their
capture by Southern troops. –Historical Picture
Prelutsky, Jack. Something Big Has Been Here.
An illustrated collection of humorous poems on a variety of
topics. –Poetry
Rawls, Wilson. Summer of the Monkeys.
In rural Oklahoma at the turn of the century, fourteen-year-old
Jay Berry Lee discovers a tree full of monkeys, a discovery
that leads to a summer that teaches him about life.
–Realistic Fiction
Reit, Seymour. Behind Rebel Lines.
Recounts the incredible story of the Canadian woman, Emma
Edmonds, who disguised herself as a man and slipped behind
Confederate lines to spy for the Union army during the Civil
War. –Historical Fiction
Rinaldi, Ann. Hang a Thousand Trees with
Ribbons: the story of Phillis Wheatley.
A fictionalized biography of the eighteenth-century African
woman who, as a child, was brought to New England to be a
slave, and after publishing her first poem when a teenager,
gained renown throughout the colonies as an important
African-American poet. –Historical Fiction
Rinaldi, Ann. Numbering All the Bones.
Thirteen-year-old Eulinda, a house slave on a Georgia
plantation in 1864, turns to Clara Barton, the eventual founder
of the American Red Cross, for help in finding her brother
Neddy who ran away to join the Northern war effort and is
rumored to be at Andersonville Prison. –Historical Fiction
Percy, expelled from six schools for being unable to control
his temper, learns the truth from his mother that his father is
the Greek god Poseidon, and is sent to Camp Half Blood
where he is befriended by a satyr and the demigod daughter of
Athena who join him in a journey to the Underworld to
retrieve Zeus's lightning bolt and prevent a catastrophic war.
--Fantasy
Roberts, Willo Dean. Megan’s Island.
First eleven-year-old Megan is astonished when her mother
insists on taking her and her younger brother up to the lake
cottage a week before school is out; then they find mysterious
strangers following them. –Mystery
_____. Royal Diaries Series.
A few of the many titles are: Anastasia, the Last Grand
Duchess; Cleopatra: Daughter of the Nile; Eleanor of
Aquitaine: Marie Antoinette, Princess of Versailles;
NZingha, Warrior Queen of Matamba. –Historical Fiction
Ruckman, Ivy. Night of the Twisters.
A fictional account of the night freakish and devastating
tornadoes hit Grand Island, Nebraska, as experienced by a
twelve-year-old, his family, and friends.
Ryan, Pam Munoz. Becoming Naomi Leon.
When Naomi’s absent mother resurfaces to claim her, Naomi
runs away to Mexico with her great-grandmother and younger
brother in search of her father. –Realistic Fiction
Ryan, Pam Munoz. Esperanza Rising.
Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of
wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps
of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh
circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the
Great Depression. –Realistic Fiction
Rylant, Cynthia. Missing May.
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.
–Realistic Fiction
Sachar, Louis. Holes.
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. Sequel is Small Steps. –Adventure
Salisbury, Graham. Eyes of the Emperor.
Spinelli, Jerry. Stargirl.
Following orders from the United States army, several young
Japanese-American men train K-9 units to hunt Asians during
World War II. –Historical Fiction
Stargirl, a teen who animates quiet Mica High with her
colorful personality, suddenly finds herself shunned for her
refusal to conform. –Realistic Fiction
Salisbury, Graham. Under the Blood-Red Sun.
Staple, Suzanne Fisher. Shiva’s Fire.
Tomikazu Nakaji's biggest concerns are baseball, homework,
and a local bully, until life with his Japanese family in Hawaii
changes drastically after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in
December 1941. –Historical Fiction
From the day of her birth, the day of the cyclone that kills her
father and devastates her village in southern India, Parvati
struggles to understand herself and her giftedness and comes
to accept that she must sacrifice her friends and family in
order to devote her life to the art of dance. –Fiction
Say, Allen. Grandfather’s Journey.
A Japanese-American man recounts his grandfather's journey
to America, which he later also undertakes, and the feelings of
being torn by a love for two different countries. –Picture
Silverstein, Shel. Where the Sidewalk Ends.
A boy who turns into a TV set and a girl who eats a whale are
only two of the characters in a collection of humorous poetry
illustrated with the author's own drawings. Silverstein has
also written A Light in the Attic and others. --Poetry
Soto, Gary. Baseball in April.
A collection of eleven short stories focusing on the everyday
adventures of Hispanic young people growing up in Fresno,
California. –Short Stories
Taylor, Mildred. The Land.
Paul-Edward, the son of a part-Indian, part-African slave
mother and a White plantation owner father, finds himself
caught between the two worlds of his parents as he pursues a
dream of owning land in the aftermath of the Civil War.
–Historical Fiction
Taylor, Mildred. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
An African-American family living in Mississippi during the
Depression of the 1930s is faced with prejudice and
discrimination which its children do not understand. Sequel:
Let the Circle Be Unbroken. –Historical Fiction
Taylor, Mildred. Mississippi Bridge.
A young boy seeks revenge against the Romans for killing his
parents, but is turned away from vengeance by Jesus.
Newbery Award Winner. –Historical Fiction
During a heavy rainstorm in 1930s rural Mississippi, a tenyear-old white boy sees a bus driver order all the black
passengers off a crowded bus to make room for late-arriving
white passengers and then set off across the raging Rosa Lee
River. –Historical Fiction
Speare, Elizabeth George. Sign of the Beaver.
Thomas, Jane Resh. Princess in the Pigpen.
Left alone to guard the family's wilderness home in
eighteenth-century Maine, a boy is hard-pressed to survive
until local Indians teach him their skills. –Historical Fiction
Elizabeth, a duke's daughter sick with fever, travels through
time from Elizabethan England to a farm in modern Iowa,
where she has difficulty convincing anyone of the truth of her
story. –Historical Fiction
Speare, Elizabeth George. The Witch of Blackbird
Pond.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit.
Speare, Elizabeth George. Bronze Bow.
A young girl's rebellion against bigotry culminates in a
terrifying witch hunt and trial. –Historical Fiction
Spinelli, Jerry. Crash.
Seventh-grader John "Crash" Coogan has always been
comfortable with his tough, aggressive behavior, until his
relationship with an unusual Quaker boy and his grandfather's
stroke make him consider the meaning of friendship and the
importance of family. –Realistic Fiction
The adventures of the well-to-do hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, who
lived happily in his comfortable home until a wandering
wizard granted his wish. –Fantasy Series
Tsuchiya, Yukio. Faithful Elephants: A True
Story of Animals, People, and War.
Recounts how three elephants in a Tokyo zoo were put to
death because of the war, focusing on the pain shared by the
elephants and the keepers who must starve them. –Picture
Slote, Alfred. Finding Buck McHenry.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Eleven-year-old Jason, believing the school custodian Mack
Henry to be Buck McHenry, a famous pitcher from the old
Negro League, tries to enlist him as a coach for his Little
League team by revealing his identity to the world. –Fiction
Describes the adventures of a young boy living along the
Mississippi River before the Civil War. Additional titles by
Twain include: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; A
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court; The Prince and
the Pauper and others. –Fiction Classics
Snyder, Zilpha Keatley. Song of the Gargoyle.
When mysterious men in black abduct his father, the court
jester of Austerneve, thirteen-year-old Tymmon flees into the
forest, where he acquires a strange animal companion and
plots to rescue his father. –Adventure
Uchida, Yoshiko. The invisible thread.
Wojciechowska, Maia. Shadow of a Bull.
Children's author, Yoshiko Uchido, describes growing up in
Berkeley, California, as a Nisei, second generation Japanese
American, and her family's internment in a Nevada
concentration camp during World War II. –Autobiography
Manolo Olivar has to make a decision: to follow in his famous
father's shadow and become a bullfighter, or to follow his
heart and become a doctor. –Fiction
Wolff, Virginia Euwer. Make Lemonade.
Uchida, Yoshiko. A Jar of Dreams.
A young girl grows up in a closely-knit Japanese-American
family in California during a time of great prejudice.
In order to earn money for college, fourteen-year-old
LaVaughn babysits for a teenage mother. –Realistic Fiction
Wood, June Rae. The Man Who Loved Clowns.
Van Drannen, Wendelin. Flipped.
In alternating chapters, two teenagers describe how their
feelings about themselves, each other, and their families have
changed over the years. –Realistic Fiction
Thirteen-year-old Delrita, whose unhappy life has caused her
to hide from the world, loves her uncle Punky but sometimes
feels ashamed of his behavior because he has Down's
syndrome. –Realistic Fiction
Van Drannen, Wendelin. Swear to Howdy.
Woodson, Jacqueline. Miracle’s Boys.
Two thirteen-year-old boys share neighborhood adventures,
complaints about their older sisters, family secrets, and even
guilt that bind them together in a special friendship.
–Realistic Fiction
Twelve-year-old Lafayette's close relationship with his older
brother Charlie changes after Charlie is released from a
detention home and blames Lafayette for the death of their
mother. –Realistic Fiction
Voigt, Cynthia. Homecoming.
Yee, Lisa. Millicent Min, Girl Genius.
Abandoned by their mother, four children begin a search for a
home and an identity. –Realistic Fiction
In a series of journal entries, eleven-year-old child prodigy
Millicent Min records her struggles over the course of a
tumultuous summer. –Realistic Fiction
Voigt, Cynthia. Dicey’s Song.
(Sequel to Homecoming) Now that the four abandoned
Tillerman children are settled in with their grandmother, Dicey
finds that their new beginnings require love, trust, humor and
courage. –Realistic Fiction
Warren, Andrea. Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the
Nazi Death Camps.
Explores the experiences of a twelve-year-old Jewish boy
growing up during the Holocaust in Poland. --Biography
Weeks, Sarah. So Be It.
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.
–Realistic Fiction
White, Ruth. Belle Prater’s Boy.
When Woodrow’s mother suddenly disappears, he moves to
his grandparents’ home in a small Virginia town where he
befriends his cousin and together they find the strength to face
the terrible losses and fears in their lives. –Realistic Fiction
Yee, Lisa. Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time.
After flunking sixth-grade English, basketball prodigy
Stanford Wong must struggle to pass his summer-school class,
keep his failure a secret from his friends, and satisfy his
academically demanding father. –Realistic Fiction
Yep, Laurence. Dragonwings.
In the early twentieth century a young Chinese boy joins his
father in San Francisco and helps him realize his dream of
making a flying machine. –Historical Fiction
Yep, Laurence. Dragon’s Gate.
When he accidentally kills a Manchu, a fifteen-year-old
Chinese boy is sent to America to join his father, an uncle, and
other Chinese working to build a tunnel for the
transcontinental railroad through the Sierra Nevada mountains
in 1867. Sequel to "Mountain light." –Historical Fiction
Yolen, Jane. The Devil’s Arithmetic.
Hannah resents the traditions of her Jewish heritage until time
travel places her in the middle of a small Jewish village in
Nazi-occupied Poland. –Historical Fiction
Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Little House on the Prairie.
A family travels from the big woods of Wisconsin to a new
home on the prairie, where they build a house, meet
neighboring Indians, build a well, and fight a prairie fire.
--Adventure Series
Yolen, Jane. The Pictish Child.
Williams, Barbara. Titanic Crossing.
Yolen, Jane. Tam Lin.
In 1912, thirteen-year-old Albert considers his younger sister a
pest, but things change when they travel with their mother and
uncle aboard the Titanic and are caught up in its tragic
sinking. –Historical Fiction
In this retelling of an old Scottish ballad, a Scottish lass, on
the Halloween after her sixteenth birthday, reclaims her family
home which has been held for years by the fairies and at the
same time effects the release of Tam Lin. –Folktale
While visiting relatives in Scotland, three children come to the
aid of a refugee from the distant past, a young Pict girl
escaping a massacre of her people. –Historical Fiction