Recommended Reading List - Summer 2004
Prairie School, Avi. In 1880, Noah's aunt teaches the reluctant nine-year old how to read as they explore the Colorado prairie together, Noah pushing Aunt Dora in her wheelchair.
Rowan of Rin, Rodda. Because only he can read the magical map, young, weak and timid Rowan joins six other villagers to climb a mountain and try to restore their water supply, as fears of a dragon and other horrors threaten to drive them back.
Love that Dog, Creech. 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.
Tale of Despereaux, DiCamillo. The adventures of Despereaux 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.
Granny Torrelli Makes Soup, Creech. With the help of her wise grandmother, twelve-year-old Rosie manages to work out some problems in her relationship with her best friend, Bailey, the boy next door.
Trolls, Horvath. Eccentric Aunt Sally comes from Canada to babysit the Anderson children while their parents are on a trip to Paris and every night the bedtime story adds another piece to a very suspect family history.
Judy Moody Gets Famous, McDonald. When a third grade classmate gets her picture in the paper for winning a spelling bee, Judy is determined to find a way to become famous herself.
Heaven Eyes, Almond. Having escaped from their orphanage on a raft, Erin, January, and Mouse float down into another world of abandoned warehouses and factories, meeting a strange old man and an even stranger girl with webbed fingers and little memory of her past.
Frozen Stiff, Shahan. Cousins Cody and Derek take a kayak trip in Alaska and find themselves battling the raw elements of an untamed wilderness.
Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963, Curtis. The ordinary interactions and everyday routine of the Watsons, an African-American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
Mississippi Trial, 1955, Crowe. In Mississippi in 1955, a sixteen-year-old finds himself at odds with his grandfather over issues surrounding the kidnapping and murder of a fourteen-year-old African-American from Chicago.
Things Not Seen, Clements. When fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up and finds himself invisible, he and his parents and his new blind friend Alicia try to find out what caused his condition and how to reverse it.
Crispin, Avi. Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret.
Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, Pratchett. A talking cat, intelligent rats, and a strange boy cooperate in a Pied Piper scam until they try to con the wrong town and are confronted by a deadly evil rat king.
Phantom Tollbooth, Juster. Milo travels through a magical tollbooth and begins a journey to the Kingdom of Wisdom, where he and a "watch dog" named Tock try to end the feud between numbers and words.
Amulet of Samark, Stroud. Nathaniel, a young magician's apprentice, becomes caught in a web of magical espionage, murder, and rebellion, after he summons the djinni Bartimaeus and instructs him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the powerful magician Simon Loveland.
Surviving the Applewhites, Tolan. Jake, a budding juvenile delinquent, is sent for home schooling to the arty and eccentric Applewhite family's Creative Academy, where he discovers talents and interests he never knew he had.
Gawgon and the Boy, Alexander. In Depression-era Philadelphia, when eleven-year-old David is too ill to attend school, he is tutored by the unique and adventurous Aunt Annie, whose teaching combines with his imagination to greatly enrich his life.
Flipped, Van Draanen. In alternating chapters, two teenagers describe how their feelings about themselves, each other, and their families have changed over the years.
Wild Magic, Pierce. The mage Numair, the knight Alanna, and Queen Thayet enlist thirteen-year-old Daine's help to battle the dreadful immortal creatures that have recently begun to attack the kingdom of Tortall.
Bad Beginning, Snicket. After the sudden death of their parents, the three Baudelaire children must depend on each other and their wits when it turns out that the distant relative who is appointed their guardian is determined to use any means necessary to get their fortune.
Stargirl, Spinelli. Stargirl, a teen who animates quiet Mica High with her colorful personality, suddenly finds herself shunned for her refusal to conform.
Charlie's Run, Hobbs. Hoping to stop his parents' impending separation and keep them from getting a divorce, eleven-year-old Charlie runs away from their home in inland California and finds a ride to the coast.
House of the Scorpion, Farmer. In a furture where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patron, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.
Pictures of Hollis Woods, Giff. A troublesome twelve-year-old orphan, staying with an elderly artist who needs her, remembers the only other time she was happy in a foster home, with a family that truly seemed to care about her.
Artemis Fowl, Colfer. Twelve-year-old millionaire, genius, and criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl finds himself in over his head after he kidnaps a dangerous fairy.
Golden Compass, Pullman. Originally published as: Northern Lights. Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.
Westing Game, Raskin. The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim their inheritance.
Corner of the Universe, Martin. The summer that Hattie turns twelve, she meets the childlike uncle she never knew and becomes friends with a girl who works at the carnival that comes to Hattie's small town.
Land, Taylor. Prequel to: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. 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 his dream of owning land in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Olive's Ocean, Henkes. On a summer visit to her grandmother's cottage by the ocean, twelve-year-old Martha gains perspective on the death of a classmate, on her relationship with her grandmother, on her feelings for an older boy, and on her plans to become a writer.
A Place to Call Home, Koller. Caring for her two younger siblings after their unreliable mother abandons them, fifteen-year-old Anna discovers the difficulties of trying to be a parent.
Transall Saga, Paulsen. While backpacking in the desert, thirteen-year-old Mark falls into a tube of blue light and is transported into a more primitive world, where he must use his knowledge and skills to survive.
Hoot, Hiassen. Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.
