Ajmera,
Maya. To Be An Artist.Illustrated by John D.
Ivanko. Charlesbridge, 2004. AR Level: 4.7, Grades K-3 An introductiontousing
various art forms to
express creativity.
Beaumont,
Karen. I Ain’t Gonna Paint No
More! Illustrated by
David Catrow. Harcourt, 2005. Grades Pre-K-2
In the rhythm of a familiar folk song, a child cannot resist adding one
more dab of paint in surprising places.
Durango, Julia.
Cha-Cha
Chimps.Illustrated
by Eleanor Taylor. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers,
2006.
AR Level 2.4Grades Pre-K-1 Ten
chimps sneak out
of bed and go to “Mambo Jamba’s where they dance and dance.
Henkes,
Kevin. Lilly’s Big Day. Greenwillow Press,
2006. AR Level 3.6, Lexile 660 Grades K-2 When her teacher announces that he is getting married, Lilly the mouse sets
her heart on being the flower girl at his wedding.
Himmelman,
John. Tudley Didn’t Know.Sylvan Dell Publishing, 2006. AR Level 2.8, Lexile 520 Grades
Pre-K-2
Tudley the turtle flies to help a hummingbird, glows to help a firefly,
and hops to help a frog, not knowing turtles can't do those things.
Huggins,
Peter. Trosclair and the Alligator.
Illustrated by
Lindsey Gardiner. Star Bright Books, 2006. AR
Level 3.0 Grades Pre-K-2 Trosclairignores his father's warning about
Gargantua, the rogue alligator
living in nearby Bayou Fontaine, and heads off into Bee Island Swamp to
hunt for turtle eggs.
Knudsen,
Michelle. Library
Lion. Illustrated by Kevin Hawkes. Candlewick Press, 2006. AR
Level 2.8 Lexile 470 Grades K-3
A lion starts visiting the local library but runs into trouble as he
tries to both obey the rules and help his librarian friend.
Lies, Brian.
Bats at the
Beach.
Houghton Mifflin, 2006. AR
Level 2.4 Grade Pre-K-2
On a night when the moon can grow no fatter, bats pack their moon-tan
lotion and baskets of treats and fly off for some fun on the beach.
McLeod, Bob.
Superhero
ABC.
HarperCollins, 2006. AR
Level 2.4 Grades 1-4
Humorous SuperHeroes such as Goo Girl and The Volcano represent the
letters of the alphabet from A to Z.
Nevius,
Carol. Building with Dad.
Illustrated by Bill Thomson. Marshall Cavendish, 2006. AR
Level 2.1 Grades K-2
A father and his young child watch the construction of the new school,
from the bulldozing of earth and mixing of the concrete for the
foundation to the hanging of the new sign.
O’Connor,
Jane. Fancy Nancy.
Illustrated by Robin Preiss
Glasser. HarperCollins, 2006. AR
Level 2.1 Grades Pre-K-2
A young girl who loves fancy things helps her family to be fancy for
one special night.
Park, Frances
and Ginger Park. The Have a Good Day
Café.Illustrated
by
Katherine Potter. Lee and Low Books, 2005.
AR
Level 3.3 Lexile 720 Grades 1-3
Mike's grandmother, who has moved from Korea to live with Mike and his
family in the United States, inspires him to suggest an idea to help
their floundering food cart business.
Ray, Mary Lyn.
Welcome, Brown Bird.
Illustrated by Peter Sylvada.Harcourt, Inc., 2004. AR
Level 2.4 Grades K-3
While a boy in North America urges his father not to cut down the trees
where the wood thrush lives, a boy in South America awaits the return
of the bird that he calls "la flauta" for its flute-like song.
Reynolds,
Aaron.
Chicks and Salsa. Illustrated by Paulette
Pogan. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005. AR
Level 4.5 Grades K-3
Soon after the chickens tire of their feed and decide to make tortilla
chips and salsa, all the other animals on Nuthatcher Farm start to
crave southwestern cuisine.
Schaefer, Lola
M. An
Island Grows. Illustrated by Cathie
Felstead.Greenwillow Books, 2006. AR
Level 1.4 Grades Pre-K-2
With few words, the author details how over time, bit by bit, an island
rises out of the sea.
Tomp, Sarah
Wones. Red,
White, and Blue Good-bye. Illustrated by Ann Barrow. Walker
& Co., 2005. AR
Level 2.5 Grades Pre-K-2
The young daughter of a Navy man does not want him to go to sea, but he
points out the red flag on the mailbox, the white clouds in the sky,
and the blue ocean that will remind her of him while he is away.
Armstrong,
Alan. Whittington.
Random House, 2005. AR Level 4.9 Lexile 760 Grades 4-6 Whittington, a feline descendant of Dick Whittington's famous
cat of English folklore, appears at a rundown barnyard plagued by rats
and restores harmony while telling his ancestor's story. Birdsall,
Jeanne. The Penderwicks.
Knopf, 2005. AR
Level 4.7 Lexile 800 Grades 4-6
While vacationing with their widowed father in the Berkshire Mountains,
four lovable sisters, ages four through twelve, share adventures with a
local boy, much to the dismay of his snobbish mother.
Burleigh, Robert. Langston’s Train
Ride. Orchard, 2004. AR
Level 3.7 Lexile 690 Grades 3-6
Describes how the twentieth-century African American poet Langston
Hughes affirms his vocation as a writer through the composition of his
famous 1921 poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers."
Carbone,
Elisa.Blood on the River:
James Town in 1607. Viking, 2006.AR
Level 5.3 Lexile 820 Grades 5-8 Traveling to the New World in 1606 as the page to Captain John
Smith, twelve-year-old orphan Samuel Collier settles in the new colony
of James Town, where he must quickly learn to distinguish between
friend and foe.
Clements, Andrew. Room One: A Mystery or Two.Simon & Schuster, 2006.AR
Level 5.1 Lexile 840 Grades 4-6
Ted Hammond, the only sixth grader in his small Nebraska town's
one-room schoolhouse, searches for clues to the disappearance of a
homeless family.
Glazer, Linda. Bridge to America.
Houghton Mifflin, 2005.AR
Level 3.3 Grades 4-6 Eight-year-old Fivel narrates the story of his family's Atlantic
Ocean crossing to
reunite with their
father in the United States, from its desperate beginning in a shtetl
in Poland in 1920 to
his stirrings of
identity as an American boy. Haddix, Margaret Peterson.
Double Identity. Simon
& Schuster,
2005.AR
Level 5.0 Lexile 810 Grades 5-8
Thirteen-year-old Bethany's parents have always been
overprotective, but when they suddenly drop out of sight with no
explanation, leaving her with an aunt she never knew existed, Bethany
uncovers shocking secrets that make her question everything she thought
she knew about herself and her family.
Harley,
Bill. The Amazing Flight of
Darius Frobisher. Peachtree, 2006.AR
Level 4.4 Lexile Grades 4-6
When his adventurous father disappears during a hot-air balloon flight,
ten-year-old Darius is torn away from his beloved housekeeper and sent
to live with an obnoxious aunt until a strange bicycle repairman with a
secret changes his life.
Kehret, Peg. Trapped. Dutton,
2006.AR
Level 5.0 Lexile 830 Grades 3-5 When his owner, Alex, finds an illegal animal trap in the woods,
Pete the cat faces grave danger as he tries to help his human friends
find the culprit who set the trap.
Kludstrup,
Kristin. The
Book of Story
Beginnings. Candlewick Press,
2006.AR
Level 4.5 Lexile 720 Grades 4-6
After moving with her parents to Iowa, twelve-year-old Lucy discovers a
mysterious notebook that can bring stories to life and which has a link
to the 1914 disappearance of her great uncle.
Lord, Cynthia. Rules.
Scholastic, 2006. AR
Level 3.9 Lexile 780 Grades 4-7
Frustrated at life with an autistic brother, twelve-year-old Catherine
longs for a normal existence but her world is further complicated by a
friendship with an young paraplegic.
Lubar, David. Punished.DarbyCreek
Publishing, 2006.AR
Level 3.6 Lexile 470 Grades 4-7 While roughhousing at the library with his friend Benedict,
Logan literally runs into an elderly patron, who, as a punishment,
saddles Logan with an unusual curse: everything he tries to say comes
out as a pun.
Lupica, Mike. Heat.Philomel Books, 2006. AR
Level 5.3 Lexile 940 Grades 5-8
Pitching prodigy Michael Arroyo is on the run from social services
after being banned from playing Little League baseball because rival
coaches doubt he is only twelve years old and he has no parents to
offer them proof.
Martin, Ann M. A Dog’s Life: The Autobiography of a Stray.
Scholastic, 2005. AR
Level 5.1 Lexile 870 Grades 4-6
Squirrel, a stray puppy, tells her life story, from her nurturing
mother and brother to making her own way in the world, facing busy
highways, changing seasons, and humans both gentle and brutal.
Napoli, Donna Jo.
Ugly.
Hyperion, 2006. AR
Level 3.3 Lexile 470 Grades 3-5 In thisretelling of the Andersen tale, a swan is driven from the
duckling family he's born into and forced to fend for himself in the
Tasmania.
Robinson, Sharon.Safe
at Home. Scholastic, 2006. AR
Level 3.6 Lexile 600 Grades 3-5
After the death of his father, Elijah Breeze, a ten-year-old African
American boy, moves back to New York City with his mother and attends a
summer baseball camp as he tries to make new friends and adapt to urban
ways.
Rodowsky, Colby. The Next-Door
Dogs. Farrar Straus Giroux, 2005. AR
Level 4.8 Lexile 960 Grades 3-5
Although terrified of dogs, nine-year-old Sara forces herself to face a
labrador retriever and a dalmatian when she must help her next-door
neighbor, who has fallen and broken her leg.
Stanley, Diane. Bella at Midnight.
HarperCollins, 2006. AR
Level 6.0 Lexile 950 Grades 5-8 Raised by peasants, Bella discovers that she is actually the
daughter of a knight and finds herself caught up in a terrible plot
that will change her life and the kingdom forever.
Tolan, Stephanie S. Listen!
HarperCollins, 2006. AR
Level 5.4 Lexile 910 Grades 4-6
During her solitary convalescence from a crippling accident,
twelve-year-old Charley finds a wild dog, and the arduous process of
training him leads her to explore her feelings about her mother's death
two years earlier.
Acampora,
Paul. Defining Dulcie.
Dial Books, 2006. Grades 7 & up
After her father dies, Dulcie's torn away from all she knows when her
mother decides to leave family and friends and move to California.
Dulcie rebels; she takes her father's beat-up truck, sets out on her
own, and returns to her former Connecticut home.
Anderson,
M.T. The Astonishing Life
of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the
Nation.
Candlewick,
2006.
Grades 8 & up
Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the
experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age
sixteen, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the
years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War.
Barkley, Brad
and Heather Hepler. Scrambled
Eggs at Midnight.
Dutton, 2006. Grades 7-9
Calliope and Eliot, two fifteen-year-olds in Asheville, North Carolina,
begin to acknowledge some unpleasant truths about their parents and
form their own ideas about love.
De La
Pena, Matt. Ball Don’t Lie.
Delacorte,
2005. Grades 9 & up
Seventeen-year-old Sticky lives for basketball and plays at school and
at the Lincoln Rec Center in Los Angeles but he is unaware of the many
dangers--including his own past--that threaten his dream of playing
professionally.
Giles,
Gail. What Happened to Cass
McBride? Little, Brown
and Company, 2006. Grades 9 & up
After his younger brother commits suicide, Kyle decides to exact
revenge on the person he holds responsible--by burying her alive.
Green,
John. An Abundance of
Katherines.Dutton,
2006.
Grades 9 & up
Having been recently dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named
Katherine, recent high school graduate and former child prodigy Colin
sets off on a road trip with his best friend to try to find some new
direction in life while also trying to create a mathematical formula to
explain his relationships.
Hobbs,
Will. Crossing the Wire.
Harper Collins, 2006. Grades 7-9
Fifteen-year-old Victor Flores journeys north in a desperate attempt to
cross the Arizona border and find work in the United States to support
his family in central Mexico. Jones, Traci. Standing Against the Wind. Farrar,
Straus and Giroux, 2007. Grades 6-8
As she tries to escape her poor Chicago neighborhood by winning a
scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, shy and studious
eighth-grader Patrice discovers that she has more options in life than
she previously realized.
Kidd,
Ronald. MonkeyTown:
The Story of the Scopes Trial.
Simon &
Schuster, 2006. Grades 6-9
When her father hatches a plan to bring publicity to their small
Tennessee town by arresting a local high school teacher for teaching
about evolution, the resulting 1925 Scopes trial prompts
fifteen-year-old Frances to rethink many of her beliefs about religion
and truth, as well as her relationship with her father.
Korman,
Gordon. Born to Rock. Hyperion, 2006. Grades 7-9
High school senior Leo Caraway, a conservative Republican headed to
harvard, learns that his biological father is a punk rock legend.
Larson,
Kirby. Hattie Big Sky. Delacorte, 2006. Grades 6
& up
After inheriting her uncle's homesteading claim in Montana,
sixteen-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks travels from Iowa in 1917 to make
a home for herself and encounters some unexpected problems related to
the war being fought in Europe.
Levithan,
David and Rachel Cohn. Nick
and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.
Knopf, 2006. Grades 10 & up
High school student Nick O'Leary, member of a rock band, meets
college-bound Norah Silverberg and asks her to be his girlfriend for
five minutes in order to avoid his ex-sweetheart.
McCormick,
Patricia. Sold.
Hyperion, 2006. Grades 9 & up
Thirteen-year-old Lakshmi leaves her poor mountain home in Nepal
thinking that she is to work in the city as a maid only to find that
she has been sold into the sex slave trade in India and that there is
no hope of escape.
Miller,
Kristin. Kiki Strike: Inside the ShadowCity.
Bloomsbury USA, 2006. Grades 5-8
Life becomes more interesting for Ananka Fishbein when, at the age of
twelve, she discovers an underground room in the park across from her
New York City apartment and meets a mysterious girl called Kiki Strike
who claims that she, too, wants to explore the subterranean world.
Pearsall,
Shelley. All of the Above. Little Brown, 2006.
Grades 5-8
Five urban middle school students, their teacher, and other community
members relate how a school project to build the world's largest
tetrahedron affects the lives of everyone involved.
Portman, Frank. King Dork. Delacorte, 2006.
Grades 10 & up
High school loser Tom Henderson discovers that "The Catcher in the Rye"
may hold the clues to the many mysteries in his life, including the
death of his father. Resau,
Laura. What the Moon Saw. Delacorte Press, 2006.
Grades 6-9
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.
Riordan,
Rick. The Lightning
Thief.
Miramax,
2006. Grades 6-9
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.
Salisbury,
Graham. The House of the Red Fish. Delacorte, 2006. Grades 7-9
Over a year after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and the arrest of
Tomi's father and grandfather, Tomi and his friends, battling
anti-Japanese-American sentiment in Hawaii, try to find a way to
salvage his father's sunken fishing boat.
Shulman,
Polly. Enthusiasm.G.P.Putnam’s Sons, 2006. Grades 8 & up
Julie and Ashleigh, high school sophomores and Jane Austen fans, seem
to fall for the same Mr. Darcy-like boy and struggle to hide their true
feelings from one another while rehearsing for a school musical.
Werlin,
Nancy. The Rules of Survival. Dial, 2006. Grades 8 & up
Seventeen-year-old Matthew recounts his attempts, starting at a young
age, to free himself and his sisters from the grip of their emotionally
and physically abusive mother.
Whelan,
Gloria. Listening
for Lions. Harper
Collins, 2005. Grades 5-8 Left an orphan after the influenza epidemic in British East
Africa in 1918, thirteen-year-old Rachel is tricked into assuming a
deceased neighbor's identity to travel to England, where her only dream
is to return to Africa and rebuild her parents' mission hospital.
Zevin,
Gabrielle. Elsewhere. Farrar, Straus
and Giroux, 2005. Grades 7 & up After
fifteen-year-old Liz Hall is hit by a taxi and killed, she finds
herself in a place that is both like and unlike Earth, where she must
adjust to her new status and figure out how to "live."