Books



=Suggested Reading: =

Warner, Gertrude Chandler, **The Boxcar Children** This pleasant story opens as four tired and hungry siblings, aged 5 to 15, press their noses against a bakery window, eyeing the lovely goodies inside. They have recently lost their parents and are on the run from their mean grandfather, whom they have never met. They find an abandoned boxcar in the woods, set up housekeeping, and live quite happily on berries, bread, and a little meat bought with the oldest boy's gardening pay. Life is very good until one of the girls becomes sick and they must tell an adult about where they live.

L'Engle, Madeleine, **A Wrinkle in Time** Everyone in town thinks Meg is volatile and dull-witted and that her younger brother Charles Wallace is dumb. People are also saying that their father has run off and left their brilliant scientist mother. Spurred on by these rumors, Meg and Charles Wallace, along with their new friend Calvin, embark on a perilous quest through space to find their father. In doing so they must travel behind the shadow of an evil power that is darkening the cosmos, one planet at a time

Henry, Marguerite, **Sea Star,** Suspenseful, deeply moving tale, narrated from the horse's point of view, follows Black Beauty from his carefree days as a colt through a variety of experiences at the hands of many owners — some sensitive and gentle, others thoughtless and cruel. A memorable story for animal lovers of all ages.

Sewell, Anna, **Black Beauty** Suspenseful, deeply moving tale, narrated from the horse's point of view, follows Black Beauty from his carefree days as a colt through a variety of experiences at the hands of many owners — some sensitive and gentle, others thoughtless and cruel. A memorable story for animal lovers of all ages.

Paulsen, Gary, **Hatchet,** Hatchet is the story of a boy named Brian. On a trip to the Canadian oilfields to spend the summer with his dad, the pilot of the Cessna he is traveling in suffers a heart attack and dies. Brian must land the plane in the forest. Brian learns to exist in in this wilderness. He faces many dangers including hunger, animal attacks, and even a tornado. This book gives the reader a better understanding of what it is like to survive in an untamed land.

Cleary, Beverly, **Mouse and the Motorcycle** Ralph the mouse was terrified. All he had wanted to do was ride the little motorcycle someone had left on the table. Instead, both Ralph and the motorcycle had taken a terrible fall - right into the bottom of the wastepaper basket. He was trapped, left to wait for whatever fate was in store for him. But it turned out to be Ralph's lucky day. Along came Keith, the owner of the toy motorcycle.

Dyck, Peter **Story Time Jamboree** <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">Dyck has animals tell well-known Bible stories, featuring animal characters in the place of humans. Drawn from the Scriptures, these stories from Beaver, Badger, and others are exciting and fun to read, and supply values for maturing.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 15px;">White, E.B., **Stuart Little**, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">When Mrs. Frederick C. Little's second son arrived, everybody noticed that he was not much bigger than a mouse. The truth of the matter was, the baby looked very much like a mouse in every way." So begins E.B. White's tale of a sensitive, erudite mouse who lives with the Littles in New York City.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 1.5;">Curtis, Christopher Paul, **<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 1.5;">//Bud, Not Buddy// **<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 1.5;">, <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">(Newbery medal) Wonderful book. Made me laugh out-loud. Setting is in Flint Mi. during the 1930’s, a young African American boy is orphaned at the age of six. After four years of living in an orphanage and foster homes he runs away to look for a father he has never know. Through delightful wit and humor Curtis gives the reader a window into the lives of African American when hard times made music all the more important.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 1.5;">DiCamillo, Kate, **<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 1.5;">//The Tale of Despereaux// ** <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">DiCamilo's old-fashioned, somewhat dark story, narrated "Dear Reader"-style, begins "within the walls of a castle, with the birth of a mouse." Despereaux Tilling, the new baby mouse, is different from all other mice. Sadly, the romantic, unmouselike spirit that leads the unusually tiny, large-eared mouse to the foot of the human king and the beautiful Princess Pea ultimately causes him to be banished by his own father to the foul, rat-filled dungeon.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">DiCamillo, Kate **//Because of Winn-Dixie//** <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">Because of Winn-Dixie, a big, ugly, happy dog, 10-year-old Opal learns 10 things about her long-gone mother from her preacher father. Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal makes new friends among the somewhat unusual residents of her new hometown, Naomi, Florida. Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal begins to find her place in the world and let go of some of the sadness left by her mother's abandonment seven years earlier. With her newly adopted, goofy pooch at her side, Opal explores her bittersweet world and learns to listen to other people's lives.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">Fenner, Carol, **//Yolonda’s Genius//** <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">Yolanda is a street smart African American who is fiercely protective of her younger brother Andrew. Getting their mother to see Andrew’s musical gift for Jazz becomes Yolanda’s goal. Set in Chicago, and then a small town in Michigan this book describes both cultures from the eyes of a preteen.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">Creech, Sharon, //**Walk Two Moons**// <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">Thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle's mother has disappeared. While tracing her steps on a car trip from Ohio to Idaho with her grandparents, Salamanca tells a story to pass the time about a friend named Phoebe Winterbottom whose mother vanished and who received secret messages after her disappearance. One of them read, "Don't judge a man until you have walked two moons in his moccasins." Despite her father's warning that she is "fishing in the air," Salamanca hopes to bring her home. By drawing strength from her Native American ancestry, she is able to face the truth about her mother. Walk Two Moons won the 1995 Newbery Medal.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 1.5;">Kauffman, Christmas Carol, //<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 1.5;">**Not Regina** // <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">The 1500's were stirring times in Europe. Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to a church door in Germany and exploded the powder keg of unrest that seethed for decades. Against this background, Regina Strahm finds herself caught between two religious fractions in Switzerland.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">Marshall, Catherine, **//Christy//** <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">When Christy Huddleston leaves a life of privilege and ease to teach in the impoverished Smokey Mountains, her faith is severely tested by her pupils, the love of two men, and the curious customs of the mountain people in her community. Yet she grows to love these people and the simple, fulfilling lifestyle to be found in the heart of God's country. Christy is based on the life of author Catherine Marshall's mother. Beautifully told, this is a charming, timeless tale of love and faith.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">Marshall, Catherine, **//Julia//** <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">Marshall, draws from her own life experiences for this coming-of-age story in which a young girl discovers herself and the strength of her faith. Set during the 1889 Johnstown flood in central Pennsylvania. Young Julia must use all her skills as a newspaper reporter to put into words the most horrific event of her young life.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">Peck, Richard, **//A Year Down Yonder//** <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">Joey has gone off to work for the Civilian Conservation Corps, while 15-year-old Mary Alice has to go stay with Grandma alone--for a whole year, maybe longer. From the very first moment when she arrives at the depot clutching her Philco portable radio and her cat, Bootsie, Mary Alice knows it won't be easy. And it's not. She has to sleep alone in the attic, attend a hick town school where in spite of her worn-out coat she's "the rich girl from Chicago," and be an accomplice in Grandma's outrageous schemes to run the town her own way--and do good while nobody's looking. But being Grandma's sidekick is always interesting, and by the end of the year, Mary Alice has grown to see the formidable love in the heart of her formidable Grandma.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">Taylor, Mildred D. **//Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry//** <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">The story is told from Cassie’s (a young African American girl) perspective about her family’s struggle to retain the family farm in Mississippi during the 1930”s. Pride and strong moral values guides the choices family members make during difficult racial and economic times.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">Yep, Laurence, **//Dragonwings//** <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">This Newbery Medal winning novel takes place in the San Francisco Bay Area at the turn of the century. It is the story of a Chinese boy, Moon Shadow (the narrator), who moves to Chinatown to be with his father, Windrider, who is working on a flying machine even as the Wright brothers are. An historical novel, it depicts not only the lives of and discrimination against San Francisco's Chinese immigrants in the early 1900"s, bu t also the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.