CLASSROOM BOOK SETS

Bridge to Terabithia / Katherine Paterson  
The life of a ten-year-old boy in rural Virginia expands when he becomes friends with a newcomer who subsequently meets an untimely death trying to reach their hideaway, Terabithia, during a storm. Jess copes with tragedy by going to a secret kingdom in the woods invented by newcomer Leslie Burke.  (top of page)

Bunnicula / James Howe
Harold the Dog and Chester the Cat are madcap sleuths on the trail of Bunnicula, the rabbit. A vampire bunny? Chester the cat thinks the new arrival to the family is actually a vampire - and is convinced when white vegetables are drained of their juices. But how can the pets warn their masters of this new deadly danger?  (top of page)

Cages/ Peg Kehret
Shoplifting, family alcoholism, and a struggle for personal honesty are the themes in this competently
drawn problem novel told in third person and featuring ninth-graders Kit and Tracy, long-time best
friends. A strict and caring teacher plays a supporting role. The Horn Book, 1991  (top of page)

Call of the Wild / Jack London
Novel by Jack London, published in 1903 and often considered to be his masterpiece. London's version of the classic quest story using a dog as the protagonist has sometimes been erroneously categorized as a children's novel. Buck, who is shipped to the Klondike to be trained as a sled dog, eventually reverts to his primitive, wolflike ancestry. He then undertakes an almost mythical journey, abandoning the safety of his familiar world to encounter danger, adventure, and fantasy. When he is transformed into the legendary "Ghost Dog" of the Klondike, he has become a true hero.  (top of page)

Case of the Wandering Weathervanes / E. W. Hildick
The reputation of the Mcgurk Detective Organization is at stake! Someone has stolen Brains Bellingham's latest invention.  (top of page)

Day of Glory / Philip Spencer
It is a day of blood and a day of glory and it begins on the village green in Lexington and spreads toward small towns like Concord. Brave colonists, united in their bid for freedom, stand up against the British     Soldiers and drive them back to Boston.  (top of page)

The Chocolate Touch / Patrick Catling
A boy acquires a magical touch that turns everything his lips touch into chocolate.   (top of page)

The Drinking Gourd / F.N. Monjo
When he is sent home for misbehaving in church, Tommy discovers his house is a station on the underground railroad.  (top of page)

Dragonwings / Laurence Yep
Life in America is very hard. Moon Shadow must learn new customs, a different language and new ways to deal with strange people. But most of all, he must learn about his father. He quickly grows to love and respect this special man who dreams of building a flying machine. Together father and son work to realize their dream -- to have Dragonwings soar through the air.  (top of page)

Grab Hands and Run / Frances Templeton
Felipe is 12, his sister Romy eight, when his father "disappears" from home in El Salvador. The children and their young mother flee for their lives but to new troubles as refugees in Guatemala, then Mexico, Texas, and at last Wisconsin. This work of fiction was inspired by the stories of a Salvadoran family who lived with the author's family while waiting for Canadian citizenship. --This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title.

Hatchet / Gary Paulsen
When the pilot suffers a massive heart attack and dies, Brian must somehow land the plane by himself and then, left with only the clothes he is wearring and a hatchet he received from his mother, Brian must put thoughts of the past behind him and try to figure out how he can stay alive. (top of page)

Indian in the Cupboard / Lynne Reid Banks
It all began with a birthday present Omri didn't want. It would become Omri's secret: precious, dangerous, wonderful - even magical. (top of page)

Island of the Blue Dolphins / Scott O'Dell
A haunting and unusual story based on the fact that in the early 1800s an Indian girl spent 18 years alone on a rocky island far off the coast of California.  A quiet acceptance of fate characterizes her ordeal.  (top of page)

It's Like This, Cat / Emily Cheney Neville  
A large print edition of the story of a 14 year old New York boy, and his relationships with a stray tomcat, and eccentric old woman, a troubled older boy, the first girl with whom he has been friends, and his father.  (top of page)

Johnny Tremain/ Esther Forbes
Historical Fiction at its best, portraying Revolutionary Boston as a living drama, through the shrewd eyes of an observant boy.  (top of page)

Julie of the Wolves / Jean Craighead George
Lost in the Alaskan wilderness, a 13 year old Eskimo girl is gradually accepted by a pack of wolves she learns to love.  (top of page)

The Library Card / Gerry Spinelli
Collection of four stories in which the lives of four young people in different circumstances are changed by their encounters with books.

Maniac Magee / Gerry Spinelli
Maniac Magee was a legend. Kids were always talking about how fast he could run; how high he could jump; how no knot would stay knotted once he began to untie it. But the thing Maniac Magee was best known for is what he did for the kids from the black East End nad those from the white West End of Twin Mills.  (top of page)

Max and Me and the Time Machine / Gery Greer
Steve buys a time machine at a yard sale and takes his friend Max back to the year 1250, where they land in the middle of jousting match, with the fierce Sir Bevis as an enemy.  (top of page)

Moccasin Trail / Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Jim Keath has lived for six years as a Crow Indian when he learns that his two younger brothers and a siser are journeying wesst to take up land. The grueling hardships on the journey ot Oregon and in making a home provide exciting reading.  (top of page)

My Brother Sam is Dead / Charles Collier
Recounts the tragedy that strikes the Meeker family during the Revolution when one son joins the rebel forces while the rest of the family tries to stay neutral in a Tory town.

Number the Stars / Lois Lowry
Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think about life before the war. But it's now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching in their town.  (top of page)

Perloo the Bold / Avi
Perloo, a peaceful scholar who has been chosen to succeed Jolaine as leader of the furry underground people called the Montmers, finds himself in danger when Jolaine dies and her evil son seizes control of the burrow.   (top of page)

The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo / Judy Blume
Lately second-grader Freddy Dissel has that left-out kind of feeling.  Life can be lonely when you're the middle kid in the family and you feel like "the peanut butter part of a sandwich," squeezed between an older brother and a little sister.  But now for the first time it's Freddy's chance to show everyone how special he is and, most of a all, prove it to himself!(top of page)

Pushcart War / Jean Merrill  
The outbreak of a war between truck drivers and pushcart peddlers brings the mounting problems of traffic both to the city of New York and the world.  (top of page)

Rifles for Watie / Harold Keith
Jeff Bussey is sixteen when the Civil War begins. He can't wait to leave his Kansas farm and defend the Union cause against the dread Stand Watie, leader of the Cherokee Indian rebels.  (top of page)

The River / Gary Paulsen
Written in response to reader demand for another book about Brian, the young hero of Gary
Paulsen's Newbery Honor book, Hatchet, here is a gripping story of challenge and survival in the wilderness. To learn more about the psychology of survival, Brian is asked to repeat his incredible wilderness endurance from Hatchet, not knowing that soon another disaster will strike. (top of page)

Sacagawea: American Pathfinder / Flora Warren Seymour
Describes how Sacagawea found adventure guiding Lewis and Clark to the Oregon coast.  (top of page)

Sarah, Plain and Tall / Sarah MacLachlan
In the late 19th century a widowed midwestern farmer with two children--Anna and Caleb--advertises for a wife. When Sarah arrives she is homesick for Maine, especially for the ocean which she misses greatly.  The tale gently explores themes of abandonment, loss and love.  (top of page)

The Secret Garden / Frances Hodgson Burnett
Mary Lennox was almost ten years old when her parents died. When Mary goes to live with her uncle in his huge old house in the country, her life changes forever. She discovers a place of magic and mystery - of friends and happiness.  (top of page)

Shoebag / Mary James
Shoebag, a happy young cockroach who finds himself suddenly changed into a little boy, changes the lives of those around him before returning to his former life as an insect. (top of page)

Sing Down the Moon / Scott O'Dell
Fourteen-year-old Bright Morning has an eerie feeling that her happy life in the red buttes of the Canyon de Chelly will be changed forever as Black Dog barks and she sees Spanish slavers riding straight toward her.  (top of page)

The Summer of the Swans / Betsy Byars
"This has been the worst summer of my life," says Sara. She hates that boy, Joe Melby...Aunt Willie has never been so bossy...and even Charlie, her gentle, brain-damaged brother, is a pest - instisting they stay at the lake and watch the swans. Then Charlie disappears.  (top of page)

There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom / Louis Sachar
He may be the weirdest kid in school, but he's not completely hopeless! The triumph of Bradley                   Chalkers, the weird, insecure bully of the fifth grade, will appeal to every reader who's cheered                  for--or been--the underdog. Winner of 17 children's choice awards, including an IRA/CBC                      Children's Choice  (top of page)

Westing Game / Ellen 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.  (top of page)

Where the Lillies Bloom / Vera & Bill Cleaver
When Mary Call vows to hold her orphaned family together, and to keep her dreamy sister from marrying a 'villain,' she becomes one of the most enterprising, tough, courageous, and unforgettable heroines you will ever meet.  (top of page)

Witch of Blackbird Pond / Elizabeth George Speare
A young girl rebels against bigotry which culminates in a witch hunt and breathtaking trial.  (top of page)

return to Library Resource Page

return to Central Library Home Page