Dial Books for Young Readers, 1999
Twelve-year-old Hillary, who has traveled across the country all her life with her parents who sell crafts, finds herself facing a stay of nine whole months in Ashwater, California. Reading Level: 6.4; Accel. Reader: 4.6
Backwater, by Joan Bauer
Putnam, 1999
While compiling a genealogy of her family of successful attorneys, sixteen-year-old
history buff Ivy Breedlove treks into the mountain wilderness to interview
a reclusive aunt with whom she identifies and who in turn helps her to
truly know herself and her family. Accelerated Reader: 5.1
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2003
A high school junior and his cousin suffer the ramifications of joining what seems to be a "reputable" school club. For ages 12 and up.
Accelerated Reader: 4.7
Belle Prater's Boy, by Ruth White
Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1996
1997 Newbury Medal Honor
When Woodrow's mother suddenly disappears, he moves to his grandparents'
home in a small Virginia town where he befriends his cousin and together
they find the strength to face the terrible losses and fears in their
lives. Reading Level: 5.5; Accelerated Reader: 4.4
Getting Near to Baby, by Audrey Couloumbis.
2000 Newbery Medal Honor
J.P. Putnam's Sons, 1999
Although thirteen-year-old Willa Jo and her Aunt Patty seem to be constantly
at odds, staying with her and Uncle Hob helps Willa Jo and her younger
sister come to terms with the death of their family's baby.
Reading Level: 5.0; Accelerated Reader: 5.1
Front Street, 2004
Abandoned by his mother, thirteen-year-old Heck tries to survive on his own as his mind bounces between the superhero character he imagines himself to be and the harsh reality of his life. Accelerated Reader: 4.2
Holes, by Louis Sachar
Dell Yearling, 2000 c1998; 2000 Newbery Medal Honor
As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to
a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional
camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure,
and a new sense of himself.
Reading Level: 6.5; Accelerated Reader: 4.6
Hope was Here, by Joan Bauer
Putnam, 2000. 2001 Newbery Honor
When sixteen-year-old Hope and the aunt who has raised her move from Brooklyn
to Mulhoney, Wisconsin to work as waitress and cook in the Welcome Stairways
diner they become involved with the diner owner's political campaign to
oust the town's corrupt mayor. Accelerated Reader: 5.1
Margaret K McElderry Books, 2004
Sequel to: Saffy's angel. Spurred on by his youngest sister, Rose, twelve-year-old Indigo sticks up for himself and an American boy who has replaced him as the primary target of the school bullies.
Reading Level: 5.6; Accelerated Reader: 4.9
Land, by MIldred Taylor
P.Fogelman, 2001; 2002 Coretta Scott King Award
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.Road
to Memphis and Let the Circle Be Unbroken are books 2 &
3. Reading Level: 8.9; Accel Reader: 5.0
Lyddie, by Katherine Paterson
Lodestar Books, 1991
Impoverished Vermont farm girl Lyddie Worthen is determined to gain her
independence by becoming a factory worker in Lowell, Massachusetts, in
the 1840s. Reading Level: 6.5; Accelerated Reader: 5.6
Little Brown, 1990
1991 Newbery Medal Honor
After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee's life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic and other feats which awe his contemporaries.
Reading Level: 5.4; Accelerated Reader: 4.7
Monster, by Walter Dean Myers
HarperCollins, 1999
While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon
records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of
a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has
taken. Accelerated Reader: 5.1
1992 Newbery Medal Honor
A ninth-grader's suspension for singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" during homeroom becomes a national news story. Reading Level: 6.9; Accelerated Reader: 3.6
HarperCollins, 2001.
Winner of the 2000 Carnegie Medal. Smuggled out of Nigeria after their mother's murder, Sade and her younger brother are abandoned in London when their uncle fails to meet them at the airport and they are fearful of their new surroundings and of what may have happened to their journalist father back in Nigeria.
Reading Level: 5.8; Accelerated Reader: 5.2
Dutton Children's Books, 2004
A Brooklyn eighth-grader nicknamed Antsy befriends the Schwa, an "invisible-ish" boy who is tired of blending into his surroundings and going unnoticed by nearly everyone. "The humor is just right for boys, but the complexity of plot, the depth and richness of the characters, and the underlying seriousness of the issues belies the easy-to-read comedy." (Booklist) Reading Level: 5.0
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect
on Melinda's freshman year in high school. Accelerated Reader: 4.5
Surviving The Applewhites, by Stephanie S. Tolan
HarperCollins, 2002
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. Reading Level:5.7;
Accelerated Reader: 5.5
Wanderer, by Sharon Creech
HarperCollins, 2000. 2001 Newbery Medal Honor
Thirteen-year-old Sophie and her cousin Cody record their transatlantic
crossing aboard the Wanderer, a forty-five foot sailboat, which, along
with uncles and another cousin, is en route to visit their grandfather
in England. Reading Level: 5.7; Accel Reader: 5.2
HarperTrophy, 1998
1998 Newbery Medal Honor
As Palmer comes of age, he must either accept the violence of being a wringer at his town's annual Pigeon Day or find the courage to oppose it.
Reading Level: 5.5; Accelerated Reader: 4.5
See Also:
Under a Different Sky, by Deborah Savage
Houghton Mifflin, 1997
A boy with Olympic dreams and an extraordinary horse struggles to transcend
his impoverished family background as he falls in love with the emotionally
troubled daughter
of a wealthy family.
When She Was Good, by Norma Fox Mazer
Scholastic Signature, 2000 c1997
The death of her abusive, manipulative older sister prompts seventeen-year-old
Em to remember their unpleasant life together, with their parents and
then later on their own.