2017 Summer Reading Lists

Reading over the summer is vital to preventing "summer slide." Keep your children learning by selecting one of the great books from these lists!

Click the following links to view printable brochures with this information and more fun reading tips!

GRADES K-2

Schofield-Morrison, Ronnie and Morrison, Frank. I Got the Rhythm. Bloomsbury USA Children’s, 2014. On the way to the park, the sounds and music of the urban street captivate a mother and daughter.

Brown, Monica. Illus. by Rafael López. Tito Puente: Mambo King/Rey del Mambo. Rayo, 2013. This vibrant, bilingual portrayal of Tito Puente, the King of Mambo, conveys the rhythm and movement of the musical legend through the use of bold colors, swirly lines, and carefully placed word art.

Palacio, R.J. We’re All Wonders. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2017. This book taps into every child’s longing to belong, and to be seen for who they truly are. Addresses empathy and kindness.

Steig, William. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. Windmill Books, 1970. On a rainy day, Sylvester finds a magic pebble that can make wishes come true. But when a lion frightens him on his way home, Sylvester makes a wish that brings unexpected results.

Base, Graeme. Animalia. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986. Animalia is a book like no other. Abounding with fanciful, gorgeously detailed art, each page features one letter and images related to that letter.

Goble, Paul. The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses. Bradbury Press, 1978. "There was a girl in the village who loved horses... She led the horses to drink at the river. She spoke softly and they followed. People noticed that she understood horses in a special way." And so begins the story of a young Native American girl devoted to the care of her tribe's horses. Paul Goble tells how she eventually becomes one of them to forever run free.

Ziefert, Harriet. You Can’t Taste a Pickle With your Ear. Blue Apple Books, 2002. Why can't you hear a siren with your eyes? Spot an airplane with your hands? And how come a pickle on your ear isn't delicious? Discover how each of their five senses is hard at work all day long, providing them with information and helping them get the most out of their daily lives.

Dewdney, Anna. Llama Llama and the Bully Goat. Vikings Children’s Books, 2013. Llama Llama is learning lots of new things at school and making many friends. But when Gilroy Goat teases him and some of their classmates, Llama Llama isn't sure what to do.

Jenkins, Steve. Creature Features: 25 Animals Explain Why They Look the Way They Do. Houghton Miflin, 2014. Packed with many cool facts and visuals on where certain animals live and what they eat, this book captures twenty-five humorous—and very true—explanations of why animals look the way they do in order to exist in this world.

Offill, Jenny. 17 Things I am not allowed to Do Any More. Random House, 2007. A laugh-out-loud look at all the fun things grown-ups never let you do . Jenny Offill, author of 11 Experiments That Failed, describes how tough it is to be a kid, when even the (seemingly) best ideas are met with resistance.

Silverstein, Shel. The Giving Tree. 1964. This is a tender story, touched with sadness, aglow with consolation. Shel Silverstein has created a moving parable for readers of all ages that offers an affecting interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another's capacity to love in return.

Stanton, Brandon. Little Humans. Farrar, Strous, and Giroux, 2014. Street photographer and storyteller extraordinaire Brandon Stanton is the creator of the wildly popular blog "Humans of New York." To create Little Humans, a 40-page photographic picture book for young children, he's combined an original narrative with some of his favorite children's photos from his blog. The result is a hip, heartwarming ode to little humans everywhere.

McCloskey, Robert. Blueberries for Sal. Viking Press, 1948. As Sal and her mom set out to pick blueberries, so do a mother bear and her cub. Eventually the young set swap moms for an adventure tale and a comedy of errors.

Manushkin, Fran, & Lyon, Tammie. Kaitie: The Best Club. North Mankato, MN: Picture Window Books., 2017. Katie and her friends want to be part of Sophie’s new club, but Sophie does not think they are good enough, so they form their own club.

Lawler, Janet. Ocean Counting. National Geographic Kid’s Books, 2013. Throughout our world's oceans live wild animals that swim, leap, and dive through the pages of this charming title. The photography in this book presents young readers with a foundation for learning basic counting skills while discovering some magnificent ocean animals.

Freedman, Claire. Pirates Love Underpants. Simon and Schuster, 2012. Ahoy me hearties! Join the Pants Pirates on a special treasure hunt. Sail on the Pirate Ship Black Bloomer past angry crocs, sharks in fancy pants and through gurgling swamps on a quest to find… the Pants of Gold!

Willems, Mo. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! When a bus driver takes a break from his route, a very unlikely volunteer springs up to take his place-a pigeon! But you've never met one like this before. As he pleads, wheedles, and begs his way through the book, children will love being able to answer back and decide his fate.

Goodman, Susan. The Truth About Poop. We call it a waste product, but poop can also be bricks to build a house, fuel to power a trip to Mars, wipes for a baby’s bottom, buttons for your next sweater. Poop? YES! Kids (and adults too!) will be captivated by the astounding facts contained in this fascinating book, featuring hilarious illustrations.

Walsh, Melanie. Ten Things I Can Do to Help My World: Fun and Easy Eco-tips. (1st US ed.) Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2008. This book reveals 10 things that everyone can do to help conserve energy and our world.

Clements, Andrew. Double Trouble In Walla Walla. It's an ordinary morning in Walla Walla until Lulu, her teacher, the school nurse, and the principal are all infected by a word warp which makes them reduplicate everything they say.

Miller, Pat Zietlow & Morrison, Frank. The Quickest Kid in Clarksville. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Kids. 2016. This is a timeless story of dreams, determination, and friendship.

Shannon, David. No, David! When David Shannon was five years old, he wrote and illustrated his first book. On every page were these words: NO, DAVID! . . . and a picture of David doing things he was not supposed to do. Now David is all grown up. But some things never change.

Uhlberg, Myron, illustrator Bootman, Colin. Dad, Jackie, and Me. Peachtree Publishers, 2005. The year is 1947 and Jackie Robinson has just been signed to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Although Dad was never a sports fan (since he can’t hear them on the radio), he becomes determined to meet Jackie in person. He wants to shake the hand of a man “who works to overcome thoughtless prejudice.”

McCloskey, Robert. Make Way for Ducklings. Viking Press, 1941. Mr. and Mrs. Mallard search for the perfect place in Boston to hatch their ducklings. They travel all over the city and find a quaint little island on the Charles River. Once their ducklings hatch, Mrs. Mallard teaches them how to swim, dive and walk in a straight row through the busy city streets.

Cronin, Doreen, illustrator Lewin, Betsy. Duck for President. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2004. Duck brings democracy and elections to the farm in a bid to avoid work. Unfortunately, it’s campaigning, not serving, that captivates Duck. He abdicates the presidency to return to the farm and write his memoirs.

Johnson, Robyn. The Enchanted Dolls’ House. Handprint Books, 2006. Peer through windows, unfold letters and open closet doors of dollhouses from the medieval times through the 1900s. Search for 10 little boys in the pages of this book filled with information about dollhouses through the ages.

Shea, B. Ballet Cat: The Totally Secret Secret (First edition.). Los Angeles: Disney-Hyperion, 2015. Ballet Cat and Sparkles the Pony are trying to decide what to play today. Nothing that Sparkles suggests goes well with the leaping, spinning, and twirling that Ballet Cat likes to do. When Sparkles's leaps, spins, and twirls seem halfhearted, Ballet Cat asks him what's wrong. Sparkles doesn't want to say. He has a secret that Ballet Cat won't want to hear. What Sparkles doesn't know is that Ballet Cat has a secret of her own, a totally secret secret. Once their secrets are shared, will their friendship end, or be stronger than ever?

Nelson, K. He's Got the Whole World in His Hands. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2005. A read-along DVD. A picture-book interpretation of one of America's best-known songs., The book focuses on landscapes and images of a boy and his family. Includes printed melody-line and all four verses.

Rosen, M., & Oxenbury, H. We're Going on a Bear Hunt (1st American ed.). New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 1989. THE AWARD-WINNING CLASSIC IN POP-UP. We're going on a bear hunt. We're going to catch a big one. Will you come too? For years readers have been swishy swashing and splash sploshing through this award-winning favorite.

Webb, S. Tanka Tanka Skunk! (1st Scholastic ed.). New York: Orchard Books, 2004. Uses animal names to introduce rhythmic language and rhyme, as Tanka the elephant and his friend Skunk play drums to keep the beat.

Carlstrom, N. W., & Degen, B. Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? (1st American ed.). New York: London: Macmillan, 1986. Jesse Bear starts his day. The weather is warm and sunny and just right for all the things Jesse Bear enjoys doing - like playing in his sandbox, chasing butterflies, and swinging in his swing.

GRADES 3-5

Davidson, Tish. African American Scientists and inventors. Philadelphia: Mason Crest, 2013 . Sketches ranging from a few sentences to a few paragraphs showcase widely known African Americans, such as George Washington Carver, as well as lesser-known achievers, such as computer scientist Paul Williams.

Federle, Tim. Better Nate Than Ever. Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2013. Nate Foster has big dreams. His whole life, he’s wanted to star in a Broadway show. But how is Nate supposed to make his dreams come true when he’s stuck in Pennsylvania, where no one appreciates a good show tune?

Bryant, Jen. A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin. Knopf Books, 2013. As a child in the late 1800s, Horace Pippin loved to draw. He drew pictures for his sisters, his classmates, his co-workers. Even during W.W.I, Horace filled his notebooks with drawings from the trenches . . . until he was shot.

Dahl, Roald. The BFG. Penguin Books, 1982. The BFG is no ordinary bone-crunching giant. He is far too nice and jumbly. It's lucky for Sophie that he is. Had she been carried off in the middle of the night by the Bloodbottler, or any of the other giants—rather than the BFG—she would have soon become breakfast.

Konigsburg, E.L. The View from Saturday. Athenum Books for Young Readers, 1996. Take four sixth graders; combine them as the Epiphany School team for Academic Bowl; add one paraplegic teacher. Stir them with Konigsburg's masterful hand and you have an ingenious story.

Huey, Lois Miner. Ick! Yuck! Ew!: Our Gross American History. Lerner Publishing Group, 2013. In history class, you've studied people who lived long ago. But do you know just how gross daily life was in the United States around the time of the American Revolution? People rarely bathed. They didn't wash most of their clothes regularly. Their teeth were rotting. Hop in a time machine and travel back to June 1770 in the pages of this book!

Lin, Grace. The Year of the Dog: A Novel New York: Little, Brown, 2006. Frustrated at her seeming lack of talent for anything, a young Taiwanese American girl sets out to apply the lessons of the Chinese Year of the Dog, those of making best friends and finding oneself, to her own life.

Grabenstein, Chris. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library.1968. Twelve year old Kyle gets to stay overnight in the new town library, designed by his hero (the famous gamemaker Luigi Lemoncello), with other students but finds that come morning he must work with friends to solve puzzles in order to escape.

Bass, Hester. Seeds of Freedom: The Peaceful Integration of Huntsville, Alabama. Candlewick Press, 2015. Mention the Civil Rights era in Alabama, and most people recall images of terrible violence. But something different was happening in Huntsville. For the citizens of that city, creativity, courage, and cooperation were the keys to working together to integrate their city and schools in peace.

Woodson, Jacqueline. Brown Girl Dreaming. Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement.

Blume, Judy. Freckle Juice. Four Winds Press, 1971. A hilarious story about wanting to be different. The main character, Andrew Marcus, will do just about anything to have freckles like his classmate Nicky Lane. When a classmate offers to sell Andrew a recipe for a concoction called "freckle juice", he wants some immediately.

Coville, Bruce. Diary of a Mad Brownie. Random House, 2015. Angus is a brownie. No, not the kind you eat! He’s a tiny magical creature that loves to do chores. Angus has just “inherited” a new human girl, Alex. She’s a total hurricane-like disaster—and she likes it that way, thank you very much! Living with each other isn’t easy but Angus and Alex soon learn there is a curse that binds them.

Swanson, Diane. Burp!: The Most Interesting Book You'll Ever Read About Eating. Kids Can Press, 2001. The stomach grumbles, growls, and roars. The curious will finally discover what causes those noisy rumbles, what food is made of, how the body breaks it down, how sight and smell affect taste and many more incredible facts to digest.

Berger, Gilda & Marvin. Did You Invent the Phone All Alone, Alexander Graham Bell? Scholastic, 2007. An educational and entertaining biography of Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone. His life as inventor, scientist, and teacher is clearly told in a question-and-answer format, and complemented by a mix of photographs and illustrations.

Craighead George, Jean. The Eagles are Back. Dial Books, 2013. The American bald eagle, the national symbol of the United States, was once dangerously near to extinction. With the help of dedicated volunteers and decades of hard work, the eagle population made a dramatic comeback. This moving picture book tells the story of one boy who helped in the hatching of an eaglet.

Thomas, Peggy. For the Birds. Boyds Mills Press, 2011. Children who may feel that their fascination with the natural world puts them out of the mainstream will love this book. It's not the average biography. Young Roger Tory Peterson scrapes through a variety of youthful adventures. "Sit–at–your–desk school" isn't his thing. But outside, he watched, drew, and listened...to every "chirp, whistle and trill."

Barnett, Mac and Scieska, Jon. Battle Bunny. Simon and Schuster, 2013. When Alex gets a silly, sappy picture book called Birthday Bunny, he picks up a pencil and turns it into something he'd like to read: Battle Bunny. An adorable rabbit's journey through the forest becomes a secret mission to unleash an evil plan--a plan that only Alex can stop.

White, E.B. Charlotte’s Web. Harper and Brothers, 1952. This beloved book by E. B. White is a classic of children's literature that is "just about perfect." Some Pig. Humble. Radiant. These are the words in Charlotte's Web, high up in Zuckerman's barn. Charlotte's spiderweb tells of her feelings for a little pig named Wilbur, who simply wants a friend. They also express the love of a girl named Fern, who saved Wilbur's life when he was born the runt of his litter.

Viorst, Judith & Smith, Lane. Lulu and the Brontosaurus. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2010.

Lulu’s parents refuse to give in when she demands a brontosaurus for her birthday and so she sets out to find her own, but while the brontosaurus she finally meets approves of pets, he does not intend to be Lulu’s.

Tang, Greg. The Grapes of Math. Scholastic Paperbacks, 2004. The Grapes of Math will challenge all kids — and parents, too — to open their minds and solve problems in new and unexpected ways. By looking for patterns, symmetries, and familiar number combinations displayed within eye-catching pictures, math will become easier and quicker than anyone could have ever imagined!

Stone, Tanya Lee. Courage has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles : America's first Black paratroopers. Candlewick Press, 2013. Tanya Lee Stone examines the role of African Americans in the military through the history of the Triple Nickles, America’s first black paratroopers, who fought in a little-known attack on the American West by the Japanese.

Grimes, Nikki. Words with Wings. WordSong, 2013. Gabby daydreams to tune out her parents' arguments, but when her parents divorce and she begins a new school, daydreaming gets her into trouble. Her mother scolds her for it, her teacher keeps telling her to pay attention, and the other kids tease her...until she finds a friend who also daydreams and her teacher decides to work a daydreaming-writing session into every school day.

DiCamillo, Kate and K.G. Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures. (First ed.). Somerville, Mass.: Candlewick Press, 2013. Holy unanticipated occurrences! A cynic meets an unlikely superhero in a genre breaking new novel by master storyteller Kate DiCamillo.

Fritz, Jean. Homesick. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1982. Born in China of American parents, young Jean feels torn between her homesickness for the America of her grandmother’s letters and the devout love she feels for the Chinese culture.

Fleischman, Sid. Jim Ugly. Greenwillow Books, 1992. The year is 1894. Jake Bannock and his father Sam are on the run and hiding out in Blowfly, Nevada. When Sam unexpectedly disappears and is presumed dead, it’s up to Jake and Sam’s dog, Jim Ugly, to get to the bottom of the mystery.

McCloskey, Robert. Homer Price. Puffin, 1943. Homer Price’s six sidesplitting exploits included here will keep your child reading and rolling in the aisles. Robert McCloskey was truly inspired by his funny bone when he wrote these stories.

Dorris, Michael. Morning Girl. Hyperion Books for Children, 1992. Simple story, beautifully told, appeals to kids who like thoughtful character-based stories. This lyrical look at pre-Columbian Taino culture stresses the bonds of family, and behavioral changes involved in growing up, and raises the issue of culture differences in a powerful way.

Armstrong, Jennifer, illustrator Roth, Roger. The American Story: 100 True Tales from American History. Random House, 2006 This big, 360-page book tells stories drawn from the archives of American historical events, large and small. Its 100 short tales recount in cogent and chronological order stories of courage, struggle, discovery and freedom that shaped the American experience.

Hill, L. C., & Taylor, T. (2013). When the Beat was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop. New York: Roaring Brook Press. From his childhood in Jamaica to his youth in the Bronx, here's how Kool Herc came to be a DJ, how kids in gangs stopped fighting in order to breakdance, and how the music he invented went on to define a culture and transform the world.

GRADES 6-8

Haddix, Margaret Petersen. Among the Hidden: Book #1 in the Shadow Children Series. Simon & Schuster Children’s Books, 1998. Luke has never been to school. Luke is one of the shadow children, a third child forbidden by the Population Police. Finally, he’s met a shadow child like himself.

Kamkwamba, William The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Young Readers Edition. Puffin, 2015. When a terrible drought struck William Kamkwamba's tiny village in Malawi, his family lost all crops. William explored books in his village library, looking for a solution. He came up with an idea: he could build a windmill. Made out of scrap metal and old bicycle parts, it brought electricity and water to his home and family.

Stiefvater, Maggie. The Scorpio Races. Scholastic, 2013. Some race to win. Others race to survive. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die. Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep. Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races.

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Treasure Island. 1883 . Treasure Island is an adventure narrating a tale of "buccaneers and buried gold."

Wells, H.G. The Time Machine. Wells sends his brave explorer to face a future burdened with our greatest hopes...and our darkest fears. A pull of the Time Machine’s lever propels him to the age of a slowly dying Earth. There he discovers two bizarre races who not only symbolize the duality of human nature, but offer a terrifying portrait of the men of tomorrow as well.

Tamaki, Mariko, Tamaki, Jillian. This One Summer. First Second, 2014. Rose and her parents have been going to Awago Beach since she was a little girl. Her friend Windy is always there, too. But this summer is different. It's a summer of secrets and heartache.

Avi. Catch You Later Traitor. Algonquin Young Readers, 2015. It's 1951, and twelve year old Pete Collison is a regular kid in Brooklyn, New York, who loves Sam Spade crime dramas. But when an FBI agent shows detective up at Pete's doorstep, accusing Pete's father of being a Communist, Pete is caught in a real life mystery.

Hendrick, Gail. Something Stinks! Tumblehome Learning, Inc. 2013. Dead fish are washing ashore on the Higdon River, and seventh grader Emily Sanders decides to find out why.

Can a handful of determined seventh graders find out the true source of the stink in the Higdon River?

Bridges, Ruby. Through My Eyes. Scholastic Press, 1999. In November 1960, all of America watched as a tiny six year old black girl, surrounded by federal marshals, walked through a mob of screaming segregationists and into her school. An icon of the civil rights movement, Ruby Bridges chronicles each dramatic step of this pivotal event in history.

Johnson, Jaleigh . The Mark of the Dragonfly. Yearling, 2015. Piper has never seen the Mark of the Dragonfly until she finds the girl amid the wreckage of a caravan in the Meteor Fields. The girl doesn’t remember a thing about her life, but the intricate tattoo on her arm is proof that she’s from the Dragonfly Territories and that she’s protected by the king.

Ryan, Paul Munoz, Mirtalipova, Dinara. Echo. Scholastic Press, 2015. Lost in the Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and finds himself entwined in a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica. Decades later three children, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California, find themselves caught up in the same thread of destiny- tied together by the music of the same harmonica.

Salerni, D. K. The Eighth Day. New York, NY: Harper, 2014. When Jax wakes up to a world without any people in it, he learns that he's really in an eighth day—an extra day between Wednesday and Thursday. Some people are Transitioners, able to live in all eight days. Torn between protecting a new friend and saving the entire human race from complete destruction, Jax is faced with an impossible choice.

Palacio, Racquel J. Wonder. Knopf, 2012. August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid, but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face.

Halls, Kelly. Tales of the Cryptids: Mysterious Creatures That May or May Not Exist. School and Library Publishing, 2006. Everyone loves the stories of legendary creatures that just might really exist. This book relies on the latest information from experts who study these mysterious beings, and the counterarguments are explored from experts who strongly believe they do no exist. Stories from eyewitnesses are recounted, as well.

Webb, Sophie. Far from Shore. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. Readers accompany

field biologist and ornithologist Sophie Webb on a NOAA Pacific Ocean voyage. From San Diego to Peru, they share in her observations of not only birds, but dolphins, whales, and bioluminescent plankton as she details populations and habitats.

Gownley, Jimmy. The Dumbest Idea Ever. Graphix, 2014. What if the dumbest idea ever turned your life upside down? At thirteen, Jimmy was popular, at the top of his class, and the leading scorer on his basketball team. But all that changed when chicken pox forced him to miss the championship game. Before Jimmy knew it, his grades were sinking and nothing seemed to be going right. How did Jimmy turn things around and get back on top at school?

Milford, Kate. Greenglass House. Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014. At Greenglass House, a smuggler's inn, twelve-year-old Milo, the innkeepers' adopted son, plans to spend his winter holidays relaxing. But soon, guests are arriving with strange stories about the house sending Milo and Meddy, the cook's daughter, on an adventure.

McHale, D.J. Curse of the Boggin (The Library, Book 1). Random House Children’s Books, 2016. Middle school students who love eerie and creepy reads will love D.J. MacHale’s newest series. Marcus begins seeing apparitions who urge him to find a key. His search leads him into bone-chilling adventures with the undead as well as clues to what happened to his deceased parents.

Alexander, Kwame. Booked. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers, 2016. Soccer-loving Nick has a lot on his mind including his big game, his parents, and school bullies. This is another book told in verse from the author of The Crossover.

Losure, Mary. The Fairy Ring: Or Elsie and Frances Fool the World. Candlewick Press, 2012. Frances was nine when she first saw the fairies. They were tiny men, dressed all in green. Nobody but France saw them, so her cousin Elsie painted paper fairies and took photographs of them "dancing. The girls promised each other they would never, ever tell that the photos weren’t real. But how were Frances and Elsie supposed to know that their photographs would fall into the hands of someone famous who believed ardently in fairies— and wanted very much to see one?

O’Brien, Robert. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. Aladdin, 1997. Some extraordinary rats come to the aid of a mouse family. Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse with four small children, is faced with a terrible problem. She must move her family to their summer quarters immediately, or face almost certain death. But her youngest son, Timothy, lies ill with pneumonia and must not be moved. Fortunately, she encounters the rats of NIMH, who come up with a brilliant solution to her dilemma.

Rawlings, Marjorie. The Yearling. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1938. Young Jody adopts an orphaned fawn he calls Flag and makes it a part of his family and his best friend. But life in the Florida backwoods is harsh, and so, as his family fights off wolves, bears, and even alligators, and faces failure in their tenuous subsistence farming, Jody must finally part with his dear animal friend.

Grimes, Nikki. Garvey’s Choice. Wordsong/Boyds Mills, 2016. Garvey is a rotund boy dealing with his father’s disappointment and schoolmates’ name calling. He stumbles until he meets Manny, a boy with albinism, who explains that the choices Garvey makes are the ones that matter most. This book is written in Tanka poems.

Levine, Ellen S. Freedom’s Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories. Puffin Books, 1993. In this inspiring collection of true stories, thirty African Americans who were children or teenagers in the 1950s and 1960s talk about what it was like for them to fight segregation in the South- to sit in an all white restaurant and demand to be served, to refuse to give up a seat at the front of the bus, to be among the first to integrate the public schools, and to face violence, arrest, and even death, for the cause of freedom.

Rappaport, Doreen. Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust. Candlewick Press, 2014. Through twenty one meticulously researched accounts — some chronicled in book form for the first time — Doreen Rappaport illuminates the defiance of tens of thousands of Jews across eleven Nazi occupied countries during World War II.

Allen, Thomas B. George Washington Spymaster: How the Americans Out Spied the British and Won the Revolutionary War. National Geographic Children’s Books, 2012. Enter the shadowy world of double agents, covert operations, codes and ciphers—a world so secret that America's spymaster himself doesn't know the identities of some of his agents.

Swanson, James. Chasing Lincoln’s Killer. Scholastic Press, 2009. A fast paced thriller about the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth: a wild twelve day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia.

Bathroom Readers’ Institute. Uncle John's Strange and Scary Bathroom Reader for Kids Only! Portable Press, 2005. Read about fun, unusual, strange, and silly people: the tallest, shortest, and weirdest characters along with the amazing achievements of ordinary and extraordinary people.

GRADES 9-10

Randall, Munroe. What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014). If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, and consults with nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity.

Smith, Mike. Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather (Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2010). Experience the most devastating storms of the last fifty years through the eyes of the scientific visionaries who took them on and tamed them. The struggle to understand nature's fury provides fascinating insights into the natural forces that shape our world, and the turbulent politics that influence the scientific establishment.

Dumas, Alexandre. The Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics, 2003). The classic story of an innocent man wrongly, but deliberately imprisoned and his brilliant strategy for revenge against those who betrayed him.

Asher, Jay. Thirteen Reasons Why (Penguin Books, 2007). When Hannah Baker commits suicide, she leaves behind thirteen cassette tapes to those she feels contributed to her decision to end her life. Clay finds the box of tapes, and as he starts listening to Hannah and his heartrending night begins.

Roach, Mary. Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. (New York: W.W). In a fun style, Roach describes the nitty-gritty of how we got into space. She includes hysterical anecdotes and comments from past astronauts and cosmonauts regarding the daily details they experienced.

Asante, MK. Buck: A Memoir (Random House Inc, 2013). A coming-of-age story about navigating the wilds of urban America and the shrapnel of a self-destructing family. MK’s memoir is an unforgettable tale of how one precocious, confused kid educated himself through gangs, rap, mystic cults, ghetto philosophy, and, eventually, books.

Niven, Jennifer. All Bright Places. (Knopf, 2015). Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.

Renteria, Robert. From the Barrio to the Board Room (Writers of the Round Table Press, 2008). Robert Renteria's shares his journey from East L.A. and gang and drug life to becoming VP of a publicly traded company, owner of his own businesses and now his work as a civic leader, empowering our nation's youth to stay in school, out of gangs and off drugs.

Sibert, Robert F. Vincent Van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist (Yearling, 2003). This is the enthralling biography of the nineteenth-century Dutch painter known for pioneering new techniques and styles in masterpieces such as Starry Night and Vase with Sunflowers. The book cites detailed primary sources.

Cormier, Robert. The Chocolate War. (Random House Inc., 2012). The Chocolate War made its debut in 1974, and quickly became a bestselling—and provocative—classic for young adults. This chilling portrait of an all-boys prep school casts an unflinching eye on the pitfalls of conformity and corruption in our most elite cultural institutions.

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food nation the Dark-side of the All-American Meal (Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt, 2001). One out of four Americans opts for a quick and cheap meal at a fast-food restaurant, without giving either its speed or its thriftiness a second thought. Eric Schlosser, an award-winning journalist, wants you to know why those French fries taste so good and "what really lurks between those sesame-seed buns."

Jiménez, Francisco. The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999). This is an autobiographical novel detailing the author’s journey from Mexico to the United States of America. The book follows the life of young Panchito and his family as they move from one location to another to harvest crops in the United States.

Flake, Sharon. Bang! (Jump at the Sun, 2005) Mann is only thirteen, and his family is still reeling from the tragic shooting death of his little brother, Jason, each person coping with grief in his or her own way. Mann used to paint and ride horseback, but now he's doing everything he can to escape his emotions: getting involved in fights at school, joyriding at midnight, and much worse.

Wiesel, Elie. Night (Hill and Wang, 1972). Night is a work about Wiesel’s experience with his father in the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944–1945, at the height of the Holocaust and toward the end of the Second World War. Wiesel writes about the death of God and his own increasing disgust with humanity, reflected in the inversion of the father–child relationship as his father declines to a helpless state and Wiesel becomes his resentful teenage caregiver.

Dick, Phillip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Doubleday, 1968). By 2021, the World War had killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remained coveted any living creature, even humans. Companies built incredibly realistic humans. Rick Deckard is an officially sanctioned bounty hunter whose job was to find rogue androids, and to retire them. But cornered, androids tended to fight back, with deadly results.

Flack, Sophie. Bunheads. (Little, Brown, 2011). A young dancer must decide if she wants to continue to devote her whole life to ballet when a handsome musician enters the picture. The author danced with the New York City Ballet for nine years and gives the reader an authentic glimpse into the world of ballet.

Picoult, Jodi. My Sister’s Keeper (Washington Square Press, 2005). Anna is not sick, but by age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she is in life. Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.

Wright, Richard. Black Boy. (Harper, 1998). Black Boy is a classic of American autobiography, a subtly crafted narrative of Richard Wright's journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. An enduring story of one young man's coming of age during a particular time and place, Black Boy remains a seminal text in our history about what it means to be a man, black, and Southern in America.

Roberts, Alice. The Complete Human Body. (Dorling Kindersley, 2010). This book looks at the human body from many perspectives. Big and detailed, this ambitious volume examines human evolution, anatomy, function, reproduction, and disease in an orderly, up-to-the-minute visual format.

Meyer, Melissa. Cinder. (Square Fish, 2013). Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth's fate hinges on one girl, Cinder, a gifted mechanic, and a cyborg.

Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars (Penguin Books, 2014). Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet (Simon and Schuster, 2006). 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—and the dreadful secret that has been tearing him apart since his parent’s divorce.

O’Dell, Scott. Island of the Blue Dolphins (Houghton Mifflin, 1960). In the Pacific there is an island that looks like a big fish sunning itself in the sea. This is the story of Karana, the Indian girl who lived alone for years on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. Year after year, she watched one season pass into another and waited for a ship to take her away. But while she waited, she kept herself alive by building shelter, making weapons, finding food, and fighting her enemies, the wild dogs.

Dashner, James. The Maze Runner (Random House Children's Books, 2009). The first book in a science-fiction trilogy. Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze. He quickly realizes that — if he is to escape — he must work with the community in which he finds himself.

Korman, Gordon. Son of The Mob (Hyperion, 2002). Vince Luca is just like any other high school guy. There is just one thing that really sets him apart for other kids; his father happens to be the head of a powerful crime organization. How is he supposed to explain to a girl what his father does for a living?

Bacigalupi, Paolo. Ship Breaker (Little, Brown 2010). Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota--and hopefully live to see another day. But when, by luck or chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life: Strip the ship for all it's worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life.

Ivarez, Julia. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (Algonquin, 1991). The Garcia sisters and their family must flee their home in the Dominican Republic after their father’s role in an attempt to overthrow a tyrannical dictator is discovered. In the U.S.A., their parents try to hold on to their old ways, but the girls try find new lives: by forgetting their Spanish, by straightening their hair and wearing fringed bell bottoms. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents sets the sisters free to tell their most intimate stories about how they came to be at home and not at home in America.

Myers, Walter Dean. Black Boy (Harper Collins, 2001). Walter was quick-tempered and physically strong, always ready for a fight. Yet, he aspired to be a writer and hoped for a better future in Harlem. His hopes for a successful future diminished as he came to fully realize the class and racial struggles that surrounded him.

Whaley, John Corey. Where Things Come Bac (Books for Young Readers, 2011). In the remarkable, bizarre, and heart-wrenching summer before Cullen senior year of high school, he is forced to examine everything. This extraordinary tale from a rare literary voice finds wonder in the ordinary and illuminates the hope of second chances.

Blumenthal, Karen. Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different (Square Fish, 2012). Traces the inspiring life and career of the late founder of Apple, covering topics ranging from his struggles as an adopted child to his inspirational Stanford University commencement speech.

Oates, Joyce Carol. Freaky Green Eyes. (Harper Tempest, 2003). This story focuses on a young girl whose life seems to be without problems. However, being rich is not being without problems and not always enough to be happy.

GRADES 11-12

Roach, Mary. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (New York; W.W. Norton, 2003). Mary Roach focuses on the age-old question, "What happens to us after we die?" In Stiff, she explores the "lives" of human cadavers from the time of the ancient Egyptians to current campaigns for human composting.

Preston, Richard. The Hot Zone (New York: Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1995). This is an account of the first emergence of the Ebola virus. In a few days 90 percent of its victims are dead. As a result, a secret military SWAT team of soldiers and scientists are mobilized to stop the outbreak of this exotic "hot" virus.

Larson, Edward J. An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton, and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011). This is a fascinating take on Antarctic exploration. It's the first book to place the famed voyages of Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen, his British rivals, Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton, and others in a larger scientific, social, and geopolitical context.

Grahame-Smith, Seth. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Grand Central, 2010). Many people know about Abe Lincoln’s political successes, but few know that, after his mother was killed by a vampire, Old Abe became a ruthless vampire hunter. This “biography,” packed full of historical facts, will not disappoint readers who like a good horror story.

Johnson, Steven. The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World (New York: Riverhead Books, 2006). An account of the worst cholera outbreak in Victorian London and an exploration of how Dr. John Snow's solution revolutionized the way we think about disease in cities.

Sacks, Oliver W. The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: and Other Clinical Tales (New York : Perennial Library/Harper & Row, 1987). This book tells the stories of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations: patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; who are stricken with violent tics and grimaces or who shout involuntary obscenities.

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis (Pantheon Books, 2000). Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran

from ages six to fourteen years.

Bradbury, Ray. Farenheit 451 (Ballentine Books, 1953). Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.

Kaufman, Amie. Iluminae: The Iluminae Files. (LaRoux Industries, 2015). The first book in an epic series that bends the sci-fi genre into a new dimension. The year is 2575, and two rival mega-corporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than a speck at the edge of the universe. Now with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to evacuate with a hostile warship in hot pursuit.

Morrison, Toni. Beloved (Knopf, 1987). Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.

Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. (Logmans, Green & Co, 1886). Indeed, the mind can make a body different. Thus, Hyde must have his own distinct body; he does not merely "take over" Jekyll’s body. On the other hand, before the experiment, Hyde and Jekyll both live in one body. Or, perhaps they are not two minds, but two aspects of one mind.

O’Brein, Tim. The Things They Carried. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1990). A groundbreaking mediation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling, depicting the men of Alpha Company and the character Tim O’Brein who has survied his tour of Vietnam.

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man (Ishi Press, 2015) The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be.

Anderson, M.T. Feed (Candlewick Press, 2010). Titus’ society is dominated by the feed, a next-generation Internet/television hybrid that is directly hardwired into the brain. But, everything changes when Titus and his pals travel to the moon for spring break.

O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1990). A groundbreaking mediation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling, depicting the men of Alpha Company and the character Tim O’Brein who has survied his tour of Vietnam.

Draper, Sharon. Out of my Mind (Atheneum Books, 2010). Melody is not like most people. She cannot walk or talk, but she has a photographic memory. She is smarter than her classmates in her integrated classroom—the very same classmates who dismiss her as mentally challenged. But Melody refuses to be defined by cerebral palsy. And she’s determined to let everyone know it…somehow.

Walker, Alice. The Color Purple (Harcourt Brace, 1982). Celie is a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20 years of her life, beginning at age 14, when she is being abused and raped by her father and attempting to protect her sister from the same fate, and continuing over the course of her marriage to "Mister," a brutal man who terrorizes her. Celie eventually learns that her abusive husband has been keeping her sister's letters from her and the rage she feels, combined with an example of love and independence provided by her close friend Shug, pushes her finally toward an awakening of her creative and loving self.

Kwan, Kevin. Crazy Rich Asians (Anchor Books, 2013). When Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas, she envisions a humble family home and quality time with the man she hopes to marry. But Nick has failed to give his girlfriend a few key details. One, that his childhood home looks like a palace, and two that he just happens to be the country’s most eligible bachelor.

Camus, Albert. The Stranger (Vintage International, 1989). Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explores what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd”.

Rowell, Rainbow. Fangirl (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2013). Feeling cast off when her best friend outgrows their shared love for a favorite celebrity, Cath, struggles to survive on her own, in her first year of college, while avoiding a surly roommate, bonding with a handsome classmate, and worrying about her fragile father.

Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success (Little, Brown, and Co. 2008). Bill Gates, the Beatles and Mozart have in common an unusual opportunity to intensively cultivate a skill that allowed them to rise above their peers. Gladwell tears down the myth of individual merit to explore how culture, circumstance, timing, birth and luck account for success.

Sedaris, David. Me Talk Pretty One Day (Little, Brown and Company, 2001). David Sedaris' move to Paris from New York inspired these hilarious pieces, including the title essay, about his attempts to learn French from a sadistic teacher who declares that "every day spent with you is like having a caesarean section". No one hones a finer fury in response to such modern annoyances as restaurant meals presented in ludicrous towers of food and cashiers with six-inch fingernails.

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart (Anchor Books, 1994). Intertwining stories, both of which center around Okonkwo, a “strong man” of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first of these stories traces Okonkwo's fall from grace with the tribal world in which he lives. The second story concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world through the arrival of aggressive, proselytizing European missionaries. This book is the most illuminating and permanent monument we have to the modern African experience as seen from within.

Callahan, David. The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead (Mariner Books, 2004). Do you take your chance to cheat? David Callahan thinks many of us would; witness corporate scandals, doping athletes, and plagiarizing journalists. Callahan's "Winning Class" has created a separate moral reality where it cheats without consequences-while the "Anxious Class" believes choosing not to cheat could cancel its only shot at success in a winner-take-all world.

Levitt, Steven and Dubner, Stephen. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. (William Morrow, 2006). Levitt and Dubner present unconventional ideas about how economic, social, and moral incentives affect real situations. These include whether good parenting or genetics contributes more to child what motivates teachers as well as sumo wrestlers to cheat, an association between abortions and reduced crime, and outcomes.

Myers, Walter Dean. Sunrise Over Fallujah (Scholastic Press, 2006). Instead of heading to college as his father wishes, Robin leaves Harlem and joins the army to stand up for his country after 9/11. While stationed in Iraq with a war looming that he hopes will be averted, he begins writing letters home to his parents and to his Uncle Richie. Robin finds himself in a diverse Civil Affairs unit of both men and women, with a mission to serve as a buffer between winning over the Iraqi people and concurrent military operations.

Chwast, Seymour. Dante’s Divine Comedy (LuLu.Com, 2105). All three stages of Dante’s epic poem are chronicled here in a visually appealing, humorous manner. The illustrations depict the details and complexity of the classic tale.

Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Random House Publishing Group, 1997). This is the story of Arthur Dent, an average British citizen, who gets caught up in a myriad of space adventures when his house, and then Earth is demolished.

Chibbaro, Julie. Deadly (Simon and Schuster, 2011). This portrait of Typhoid Mary focuses on the methodology used to track and identify the source of infection. Mary Mallon, the cook who has historically been identified as the source of much of the contagion in the typhoid epidemic, believes that the suspicions about her role in the epidemic are based on prejudice against immigrants since the concept of germs and contagion are not common in her community.

Condie, Ally. Matched (Speak, 2011). Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So, when Xander’s face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows he is her ideal mate, until she sees Ky Markham’s face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Cassia can’t stop thinking about Ky. Now, she must choose between Xander and Ky, and face the fact that the Society’s matching system may be flawed.

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi (Knoph Canada, 2001). After deciding to sell their zoo in India and move to Canada, Santosh and Gida Patel board a freighter with their sons and a few remaining animals. Tragedy strikes when a terrible storm sinks the ship, leaving the Patels’ teenage son, Pi as the only human survivor. However, Pi is not alone; a fearsome Bengal tiger has also found refuge aboard the lifeboat.

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