Putnam, 2004
A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister. Reading Level: 6.5; Accelerated Reader: 3.5
Scholastic, 2004
When Naomi's absent mother resurfaces to claim her, Naomi runs away to Mexico with her great-grandmother and younger brother in search of her father.
Reading Level: 6.8; Accelerated Reader: 5.4
HarperCollins, 1994
The six horrible Herdmans, the worst kids in the history of the world, cause mayhem throughout the xhool year.
Reading Level: 5.4; Accelerated Reader: 5.4
Dial, 2004
Devastated by the loss of a second father, thirteen-year-old Bird follows her stepfather from Cleveland to Alabama in hopes of convincing him to come home, and along the way helps two boys cope with their difficulties.
Reading Level: 4.9; Accelerated Reader: 4.2
Wendy Lamb Books, 2004
Deeply involved in his cold and manipulative mother's shady business dealings in Flint, Michigan, fourteen-year-old Luther keeps a sense of humor while running the Happy Neighbor Group Home For Men, all the while dreaming of going to college and becoming a philosopher. Reading Level: 5.8
Cookcamp, by Gary Paulsen
Orchard Books, 1991
"A Richard Jackson book"
During World War II, a little boy is sent to live with his grandma, a
cook in a camp for workers building a road through the wilderness.
Reading Level: 5.5; Accelerated Reader: 5.0
Corner of the universe, by Ann M. Martin
Scholastic Press, New York : 2002
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.
Reading Level: 7.3
Accelerated Reader: 4.5
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004
After the death of her grandmother, a young orphaned girl leaves her house by the cove and begins a journey which leads her to people and experiences that exemplify the wisdom her grandmother had shared with her. Reading Level: 4.2; Accelerated Reader: 4.4
Northland Publishers, 1997
Two brothers attempt to survive in the desert outside Scottsdale, Arizona, after they are abandoned there following a carjacking.
Reading Level: 5.5; Accelerated Reader: 4.7
Fair Weather, by Richard Peck
Dial Books, 2001
In 1893, thirteen-year-old Rosie and members of her family travel from
their Illinois farm to Chicago to visit Aunt Euterpe and attend the World's
Columbian Exposition which, along with an encounter with Buffalo Bill
and Lillian Russell, turns out to be a life-changing experience for everyone.
Reading Level: 6.3; Accel.Reader: 4.7
Feed, by M.T. Anderson
Candlewick, 2002
In a future where most people have computer implants in their heads to
control their environment, a boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious
trouble.
Accelerated Reader: 4.4
Folk Keeper by Billingsley, Franny, 1954-
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1999
"A Jean Karl book." Orphan Corinna disguises herself as a boy
to pose as a Folk Keeper, one who keeps the Evil Folk at bay, and discovers
her heritage as a seal maiden when she is taken to live with a wealthy
family in their manor by the sea. Reading Level: 6.0; Accelerated Reader:
5.3
Francie, by Karen English
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999
When the sixteen-year-old boy whom she tutors in reading is accused of
attempting to murder a white man, Francie gets herself in serious trouble
for her efforts at friendship.
Reading Level: 5.0; Accelerated Reader: 4.2
Hyperion Books for Children, 2002
In 1934, a thirteen-year-old with a gift for numbers is offered the chance to leave her family's dairy farm to spend one term at an exclusive Philadelphia girls' school preparing for a scholarship exam.
Reading Level: 6.4; Accelerated Reader: 5.2
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2003
A fictionalized account of the Pakistani child who escaped from bondage in a carpet factory and went on to help liberate other children like him before being gunned down at the age of thirteen.
Reading Level: 5.5; Accelerated Reader: 5.1
Keeper of the doves, by Betsy Cromer Byars
Viking, 2002
In the late 1800s in Kentucky, Amie McBee and her four sisters both fear
and torment the reclusive and seemingly sinister Mr. Tominski, but their
father continues to provide for his needs.
Reading Level: 5.7; Accelerated Reader: 4.0
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2004
Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair when one sister becomes terminally ill. Reading Level: 4.9; Accelerated Reader: 4.7
Margaret K McElderry Books, 2004
In 1947, twelve-year-old Pattie Mae is sustained by her dreams of escaping Rich Square, North Carolina, and moving to Harlem when her Uncle Buddy is under arrest for attempted rape of a white woman and her grandfather is diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. Accelerated Reader: 4.6
Lord of the deep, by Graham Salisbury
Delacorte Press, 2001
Working for his stepfather on a charter fishing boat in Hawaii teaches
thirteen-year-old Mikey about fishing, and about taking risks, making
sacrifices, and facing some of life's difficult choices.
Accelerated Reader: 4.0
Joanna Cotler Books, 2002
Even though his classmates from first grade on have considered him strange and a loser, Daniel Zinkoff's optimism and exuberance and the support of his loving family do not allow him to feel that way about himself.
Reading Level: 5.2; Accelerated Reader: 4.3
Make lemonade, by Virginia Euwer Wolff
Henry Holt, 1993
Fourteen-year-old LaVaughn, trying to earn the money for college, takes
a job caring for the two children of Jolly, a single teenage mom, and
must find the courage to make the right decision for all of them after
Jolly is fired. Reading Level: 5.2; Accelerated Reader: 5.0
HarperCollins, 2004
First published in the U.K. by Macmillan Children's Books, c2004. The Cunningham brothers literally have money drop in their laps when a bag of cash falls from the sky; however, the crooks who initially stole the loot are hot on the trail to retrieve it. Reading Level: 5.7; Accelerated Reader: 4.0
Miracle's Boys, by Jacqueliine Woodson
G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2000
Twelve-year-old Lafayette's close relationship with his older brother,
Charlie, changes after Charlie is released from a detention home and blames
Lafayete for the death of their mother.
Reading Level: 5.3; Accelerated Reader: 4.3
Music From a Place Called Half Moon, by Jerrie Oughton
Houghton Mifflin, 1995
In 1956 in Half Moon, North Carolina, thirteen-year-old Edie Jo comes
to terms with her own prejudice and the death of a friend.
Reading Level: 5.1; Accelerated Reader: 4.5
Nothing wrong with a three-legged dog, by Graham McNamee. Delacorte
Press, 2000
"A Yearling book." With the help of his good friend Lynda and
her three-legged dog Leftovers, ten-year-old Keath learns how to handle
the class bully and deal with being the only white boy in his class.
Reading Level: 4.5; Accelerated Reader: 3.7
Greenwillow Books, 2003
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 be a writer.
Reading Level: 6.6; Accelerated Reader: 4.7
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2004
"this intelligently structured, humorously told, and richly observant story weaves two cliches of middle-grade fiction--the David-and-Goliath scenario and the bad summer camp experience--into a bracing, contemporary tall tale. Readers will root for Margaret's success, admire her determination, and applaud her abhorrence of conformity wherever she finds it."(Booklist) Reading Level: 5.3; Accelerated Reader: 5.5
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.
Accelerated Reader: 4.4
Front Street/Cricket Books, 2000
When he is given a device that will allow him to "undo" what has happened in the past, Gib Finney is not sure what event from the worst day in his life he should change in order to keep his sister from being hit by a truck.
Reading Level: 6.6; Accelerated Reader: 4.8
Clarion, 2002
When Angel's self-absorbed mother leaves her and her younger brother with their poor great-grandmother, the eleven-year-old girl worries not only about her mother and brother, her imprisoned father, the frail old woman, but also about a mysterious man who begins sharing with her the wonder of the stars.
Reading Level: 5.4; Accelerated Reader: 4.3
Secret School, by Avi
Harcourt, 2001
In 1925, fourteen-year-old Ida Bidson secretly takes over as the teacher
when the one-room schoolhouse in her remote Colorado area closes unexpectedly.
Reading Level: 4.2; Accelerated Reader: 4.1
Cricket Books, 2001
"A Marcato book." Rob becomes obsessed with searching the airwaves for his long-gone father, a radio announcer.
Reading Level: 4.7
Silent to the Bone, by E. L. Konigsburg
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2000
When he is wrongly accused of gravely injuring his baby half-sister, thirteen-year-old
Branwell loses his power of speech and only his friend Connor is able
to reach him and uncover the truth about what really happened.
Reading Level: 6.0; Accelerated Reader: 5.4
HarperCollins, 2003
After her parents disappear and she is turned over to the care of a strange "great-uncle," Molly must rely on her dreams about an old Mohawk story for her safety and maybe even for her life.
Reading Level: 5.3; Accelerated Reader: 4.8
Dutton Children's Books, 2004
Annika, a twelve-year-old foundling in late nineteenth-century Vienna, inherits a trunk of costume jewelry, and soon afterwards a woman claiming to be her aristocratic mother arrives and takes her to live in a strangely decrepit mansion in Germany. Reading Level: 6.8; Accel. Reader: 6.1
HarperCollins, 2003
Despite the opposition of the owner of the Red Rock Runner Railroad in 1893, the new settlers of Florence, Oklahoma, are determined to build a real town.
Reading Level: 6.2; Accelerated Reader: 6.4
Candlewick Press, 2003
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.
Reading Level: 4.1; Accelerated Reader: 4.7
Toning the Sweep, by Angela Johnson
Orchard Books, 1993
On a visit to her grandmother Ola, who is dying of cancer in her house
in the desert, fourteen-year-old Emmie hears many stories about the past
and her family history and comes to a better understanding of relatives
both dead and living. Reading Level 5.4; Accel.Reader: 4.7
Holt, 1999
During the summer of 1971 in a small Texas town, thirteen-year-old Toby and his best friend Cal meet the star of a sideshow act, 600-pound Zachary, the fattest boy in the world. Reading Level: 5.0; Accelerated Reader: 4.5
Dial Books for Young Readers, 2000
2001 Newbery Medal
During the recession of 1937, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice is sent to live with her feisty, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois and comes to a better understanding of this fearsome woman.
Reading Level: 5.2; Accelerated Reader: 4.5
Margaret K McElderry Books, 2000
Ten-year-old Fred (short for Frederika) narrates the story of school and village life among the Athapascans in Alaska during 1948 when Miss Agnes arrived as the new teacher. Reading Level: 4.2; Accelerated Reader: 4.5
