Reading
Olympics
2016
Flora the pig was born for adventure: “If it’s unexplored and needs to get dug
up, call me. I’m your pig,” she says. The day Flora spots a team of sled dogs is
the day she sets her heart on becoming a sled pig. Before she knows it, she’s
on board a ship to Antarctica for the most exhilarating—and dangerous—
adventure of her life.
It's 1776, and the Revolutionary War is raging. Fourteen-year-old Nathan Wade is a patriot, but
he's too young to join the fight. Then his cousin David Bushnell comes to town with a secret.
David has designed a water machine that can explode bombs underwater. And his mission is to
launch it against the British warships in New York harbor. Nate reluctantly agrees to help David
build the weapon of World War II; dubbed the American Turtle.
A magical breadbox that delivers whatever you wish
for—as long as it fits inside? It's too good to be true!
Jess Aarons has been practicing all summer so he can be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. And
he almost is, until the new girl in school, Leslie Burke, outpaces him. The two become fast friends
and spend most days in the woods behind Leslie's house, where they invent an enchanted land
called Terabithia. One morning, Leslie goes to Terabithia without Jess and a tragedy occurs.
Anna, José, and Henry have never met, but they have more in common than they
realize. Snowed in together at a chaotic Washington, DC, airport, they encounter a
mysterious tattooed man, a flamboyant politician, and a rambunctious poodle named
for an ancient king. Even stranger, news stations everywhere have just announced that
the famous flag that inspired "The Star-Spangled Banner" has been stolen!
Polly Peabody, 11, lives on an unusual rhubarb farm where it rains at exactly 1 p.m.
every Monday, and some of the plants taste like chocolate. But then the weekly rain
stops, plants start to die, Polly's older brother becomes ill, and Aunt Edith pressures
Polly's dad to sell the property. Now Polly must interpret the farm's signs and
symptoms to figure out both the problem and the solution.
Going to school and making new friends can be tough. But going to school
and making new friends while wearing a bulky hearing aid strapped to your
chest? That requires superpowers!
EllRay Jakes is tired of being bullied by fellow classmate Jared Matthews. But
when EllRay tries to defend himself, he winds up in trouble.
When Claudia Kincaid decides to run away, she knows she wants to run to a place that is comfortable, and beautiful. She chooses
the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Knowing that her younger brother, Jamie, has money and thus can help her
with the serious cash flow problem she invites him along. Once settled into the museum, Claudia and Jamie, find themselves
caught up in the mystery of an angel statue that the museum purchased at an auction for a bargain price of $250. The statue is
possibly an early work of the Renaissance master Michelangelo, and therefore worth millions. Is it? Or isn't it? Claudia is
determined to find out.
A mysterious rowboat transports five adventurous kids back in time to the
eve of the Battle at Trenton where they experience the American Revolution.
In the winter of 1925, Nome, Alaska, was hit by an unexpected and deadly outbreak of diphtheria. Officials
immediately quarantined the town, but the only cure for the community of more than 1,400 people was
antitoxin serum and the nearest supply was in Anchorage--hundreds of miles of snowbound wilderness away.
The only way to get it to Nome was by dogsled.
Twenty teams braved subzero temperatures and blizzard conditions to run over 600 miles in six days in a
desperate relay race that saved the people of Nome. Several of the dogs, including Togo and Balto, became
national heroes. Today their efforts, and those of the courageous mushers, are commemorated every March by
the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father when the single-engine plane in
which he is flying crashes. Suddenly, Brian finds himself alone in the Canadian wilderness with
nothing but a tattered Windbreaker and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present.
A young Jewish boy escapes the ghetto and finds a group of resistance fighters in the
forests of Poland. Does he have what it takes to survive the Nazis -- and fight back?
Ida B. Applewood believes there is never enough time for fun. That's why she's so happy to be
homeschooled and to spend every free second outside with the trees and the brook. Then some
not-so-great things happen in her world. Ida B has to go back to that Place of Slow but Sure BodyCramping, Mind-Numbing, Fun-Killing Torture—school.
After James Henry Trotter's parents are tragically eaten by a rhinoceros, he goes to live with his
two horrible aunts, Spiker and Sponge. Life there is no fun, until James accidentally drops some
magic crystals by the old peach tree and strange things start to happen. The peach at the top of
the tree begins to grow, and before long it's as big as a house. Inside, James meets a bunch of
oversized friends—Grasshopper, Centipede, Ladybug, and more. With a snip of the stem, the
peach starts rolling away, and the great adventure begins.
A great American hero comes fully to life in this epic retelling filled with glorious, detailed
watercolors. From his momentous birth, when all the animals come to see him and the sun won't
go to bed, John Henry works wonders. As a child he helps his father by adding "a wing onto the
house with an indoor swimming pool and one of them jacutzis"-and that's just before lunch.
Other episodes trace the growth of his generous spirit. His greatest feat is, of course, in his battle
against the steam drill, as he races the machine to cut through a mountain.
Lucy is the first to find the secret wardrobe in the professor's mysterious old house. At
first, no one believes her when she tells of her adventures in the land of Narnia. But
soon Edmund and then Peter and Susan discover the Magic and meet Aslan, the Great
Lion, for themselves.
A Robert Frost poem sends Jack into a tale (told with poetry) of how he found his dog, Sky. At
first, his poems appear to be little, short writings. But when a poem by Walter Dean Myers ("Love
That Boy" from Brown Angels) unleashes the joy Jack felt with his pet, he becomes even more
honest in his poetry.
Henry Mosley is concerned that his everyday life lacks the excitement experienced by the young
heroes of his favorite novels. “We may be the most boring twelve-year-olds on the planet,” he tells
his friends Riley and Reed. Henry proposes that they undertake a series of projects, thus “Becoming
Men of Action and Daring” who “Alter the Course of History” and, with luck, “Impress Girls.”
Furious that Ma and Pa have sent her out to work for the money they need, May Betts, 11, finds herself in a
small, sod homestead on the western Kansas prairie in the late 1870s, 15 miles away from home, caring for a
new, unsettled young bride, who is just a few years older than May. When the bride takes off, her husband
leaves to find her, and May is all alone—frightened, furious, abandoned. Can she survive the five months until
her parents come to collect her at Christmas?
Edward Tulane is an exceedingly vain, cold-hearted china rabbit owned by 10-year-old Abilene Tulane, who
dearly loves him. Her grandmother relates a fairy tale about a princess who never felt love; she then whispers
to Edward that he disappoints her. His journey begins when he falls overboard during the family’s ocean
journey. Sinking to the bottom of the sea where he will spend 297 days, Edward feels his first emotion–fear.
Caught in a fisherman’s net, he lives with the old man and his wife and begins to care about his humans. Then
their adult daughter takes him to the dump, where a dog and a hobo find him. They ride the rails together until
Edward is cruelly separated from them. His heart is truly broken when next owner, four-year-old Sarah Ruth,
dies. He wishes Abilene’s grandmother knew that he has learned to love.
When Mina, a self-professed "girlie-girl," discovers that she excels at track, her friends are as
surprised as she is, especially competitive Ruth. Even more surprising is the way running seems to
lift Mina up and make her happy. When Coach chooses her to run the fifty-meter against Ruth,
Mina is torn. Should she slow down and let Ruth hold on to the spotlight?
In this Newbery Honor-winning page-turner, twelve-year-old orphan Homer runs away from Pine
Swamp, Maine, to find his older brother, Harold, who has been sold into the Union Army. With
laugh-aloud humor, Homer outwits and outruns a colorful assortment of civil War-era thieves,
scallywags, and spies as he makes his way south, following clues that finally lead him to
Gettysburg. Even through a hail of gunfire, Homer never loses heart--but will he find his brother?
Or will it be too late?
Fourth-grader Hank, while on a field trip aboard "The Pilgrim Spirit," tries to
learn knot tying in his own funny way.
When a tornado watch is issued one Tuesday evening in June, twelve-year-old Dan Hatch and his
best friend, Arthur, don't think much of it. After all, tornado warnings are a way of life during the
summer in Grand Island, Nebraska. But soon enough, the wind begins to howl, and the lights and
telephone stop working. Then the emergency siren starts to wail. The story revolves around 12year-old Dan Hatch, his baby brother, Ryan, and Dan's best friend, Arthur, who are home alone
when a devastating tornado sweeps through town. Based on a 1980 disaster.
Nobody understands Wallace Wallace. This reluctant school football hero has been suspended from the team
for writing a terrible book report of the book Old Shep, My Pal. But Wallace won`t tell a lie-he hated every
minute of the book! Why does the dog in every classic novel have to croak at the end? After refusing to do a
rewrite, his English teacher, who happens to be directing the school play Old Shep, My Pal, forces him go to the
rehearsals as punishment. Although Wallace doesn`t change his mind, he does end up changing the play into a
rock-and-roll rendition, complete with Rollerblades and a moped!
It’s boys vs. girls when the noisiest, most talkative, and most competitive fifth graders in history
challenge one another to see who can go longer without talking. Teachers and school
administrators are in an uproar, until an innovative teacher sees how the kids’ experiment can
provide a terrific and unique lesson in communication
Eleven-year-old Delphine has only a few fragmented memories of her mother, Cecile, a poet who wrote verses
on walls and cereal boxes, played smoky jazz records, and abandoned the family in Brooklyn after giving birth
to her third daughter. In the summer of 1968, Delphine’s father decides that seeing Cecile is “something whose
time had come,” and Delphine boards a plane with her sisters to Cecile’s home in Oakland. What they find
there is far from their California dreams of Disneyland and movie stars.
A prequel of sorts to the Peter Pan stories, this is a fast-paced and fluffy pirate adventure, complete with
talking porpoises, stinky rogues, possible cannibals, a flying crocodile, biting mermaids, and a much-soughtafter trunk full of magical glowing green "starstuff." Ever hear of Zeus? Michelangelo? Attila the Hun?
According to 14-year-old Molly Aster they all derived their powers from starstuff that occasionally falls to Earth
from the heavens. On Earth, it is the Starcatchers' job to rush to the scene and collect the starstuff before it
falls into the hands of the Others who use its myriad powers for evil.
Ocax the hoot owl has promised to protect the mice occupying an abandoned farmhouse as long
as they ask permission before "moving about." Poppy, a timid dormouse, is a loyal, obedient
subject-until she sees Ocax devour her fiancé and hears the owl deny her father's request to seek
new living quarters. To prove that the intimidating ruler is really a phony, Poppy embarks on a
dangerous and eye-opening quest, which ends with her one-on-one battle with Ocax.
Logan knows he shouldn't have been playing tag in the library reference stacks and he's sorry that he crashed
into Professor Wordsworth. But what did the strange old man mean when he said that Logan should be
punished? Suddenly, the boy starts speaking in puns really awful puns and he can't stop. His family and friends
think he's just smarting off, but Logan quickly realizes that he is under a curse. According to the professor, there
is only one way to break the spell. Logan has three days to collect seven oxymorons, seven anagrams, and
seven palindromes or the pun-ishment will continue forever.
Rose Howard is obsessed with homonyms. She's thrilled that her own name is a homonym, and
she purposely gave her dog Rain a name with two homonyms (Reign, Rein), which, according to
Rose's rules of homonyms, is very special. Not everyone understands Rose's obsessions, her
rules, and the other things that make her different - not her teachers, not other kids, and not her
single father. When a storm hits their rural town, rivers overflow, the roads are flooded, and Rain
goes missing. Rose's father shouldn't have let Rain out. Now Rose has to find her dog, even if it
means leaving her safe routines.
12-year-old Rump is the butt of everyone's joke. But when he finds an old spinning
wheel, his luck seems to change. Rump discovers he has a gift for spinning straw into
gold. His best friend, Red Riding Hood, warns him that magic is dangerous, and she’s
right. With each thread he spins, he weaves himself deeper into a curse.
Based on the true story of a young Japanese girl who contracts leukemia as a result of the atom
bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, the story follows Sadako as a healthy schoolgirl winning
relay races, through her diagnosis with the atom bomb sickness, to her long stay in the hospital. It
is in the hospital that she first begins making origami cranes to pass the time. Her ultimate goal is
to make 1000.
Thirteen is when a Beaumont’s savvy hits—and with one brother who causes
hurricanes and another who creates electricity, Mibs Beaumont is eager to
see what she gets.
Starting sixth grade at a new school is never easy, especially when your name is Hero. Named
after a character in a Shakespeare play, Hero isn't at all interested in this literary connection. But
when she's told by an eccentric neighbor that there might be a million dollar diamond hidden in
her new house and that it could reveal something about Shakespeare's true identity, Hero is
determined to live up to her name and uncover the mystery.
A collection of true stories about the amazing lives of eight shelter dogs. Many of
these dogs were unwanted because of their size, behavior, or medical condition. All of
the dogs found owners who loved and cared for them.
When Joe Stoshack hears about Shoeless Joe Jackson -- and the gambling scandal that destroyed
the star player's career -- he knows what he has to do. If he travels back in time with a 1919
baseball card in his hand, he just might be able to prevent the infamous Black Sox Scandal from
ever taking place. And if he could do that, Shoeless Joe Jackson would finally take his rightful
place in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Stuart Little is no ordinary mouse. Born to a family of humans, he lives in New York City with his
parents, his older brother George, and Snowbell the cat. Though he's shy and thoughtful, he's
also a true lover of adventure. Stuart's greatest adventure comes when his best friend, a
beautiful little bird named Margalo, disappears from her nest. Determined to track her down,
Stuart ventures away from home for the very first time in his life.
For shy young Peter Mark Roget, books were the best companions -- and it wasn’t long before
Peter began writing his own book. But he didn’t write stories; he wrote lists. Peter took his love
for words and turned it to organizing ideas and finding exactly the right word to express just what
he thought. His lists grew and grew, eventually turning into one of the most important reference
books of all time.
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 diphtheria.
Blessed with-or doomed to-eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family
wanders about trying to live as inconspicuously and comfortably as they can. When ten-year-old
Winnie Foster stumbles on their secret, the Tucks take her home and explain why living forever at
one age is less of a blessing than it might seem. Complications arise when Winnie is followed by a
stranger who wants to market the spring water for a fortune.
Ben Franklin was the scientist who, with the help of a kite, discovered that lightning is
electricity. He was also a statesman, an inventor, a printer, and an author-a man of
such amazingly varied talents that some people claimed he had magical powers!
Twelve-year-old Lidie must leave her beloved home in Brazil for a new life in New York. She
reunites with Pai and her older brother, who left shortly after Mamãe died five years earlier.
Lidie's father and Rafael train racehorses for a wealthy benefactor. When she meets the filly Pai
has dubbed Wild Girl, Lidie remembers her mother calling her by that name. The horse's story
parallels hers, as they are both plunked down into an unfamiliar, sometimes harsh environment.
But when at last Lidie rides Wild Girl, it is as if their spunky, spirited souls gloriously merge.
Fredle is an earnest young fellow suddenly cast out of his cozy home behind the kitchen
cabinets—into the outside. It's a new world of color and texture and grass and sky. But with all
that comes snakes and rain and lawnmowers and raccoons and a different sort of mouse (field
mice, they're called) not entirely trustworthy. Do the dangers outweigh the thrill of discovery?