*Items may be found in multiple locations. Check the catalog or ask a librarian for assistance.

Adventure

Boyce, Frank Cottrell. Cosmic. [AR BL 4.5, Pts. 9.0]
Super-sized, eleven-year-old Liam makes a giant leap for boy-kind by competing with a group of adults for the chance to go into space.

Dahl, Roald. James and the Giant Peach.* [AR BL 4.8, Pts. 4.0]
James is miserable living with his two nasty aunts. When he spills magic crystals on a peach tree, a giant peach grows and grows until James climbs inside the fruit and rolls away to a fantastic adventure.

Eager, Edward. Half Magic. [AR BL 5.0, Pts 5.0]
Four siblings embark on a series of extraordinary adventures after finding a magic coin that grants exactly half of what they wish.

Konigsburg, E.L. From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.*[AR BL 4.7, Pts. 5.0]
Claudia and her brother Jamie run away from home and take up residence in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

O’Dell, Scott. Island of the Blue Dolphins.* [AR BL 5.4, Pts. 6.0]
Left on an island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl lives alone for eighteen years, surviving on her enormous courage and self-reliance.

O’Dell, Scott. Island of the Blue Dolphins. [AR BL 5.4, Pts. 6.0] Left on an island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl lives alone for eighteen years, surviving on her enormous courage and self-reliance. 

Selznick, Brian. The Invention of Hugo Cabret: a Novel in Words and Pictures.* [AR BL 5.1, Pts. 4.0]
After his father’s death, 12-year-old Hugo finds himself living within the walls of a Paris train station. He’s determined to restore his father’s robot-like structure in hopes of discovering a hidden message. He befriends an old filmmaker and his daughter.

Animals

Atwater, Richard. Mr. Popper’s Penguins. [AR BL 5.6, Pts. 3.0] The unexpected arrival of an Antarctic penguin changes the life of a house-painter who dreams of exploring the Poles. The Popper family soon includes twelve penguins, and they have hilarious adventures touring as “Popper’s Performing Penguins.”   

DiCamillo, Kate. Because of Winn-Dixie.   [AR BL 3.9, Pts. 3.0]
Because of Winn-Dixie, a big, ugly, dog, Opal learns 10 things about her long-gone mother from her preacher father and makes new friends among the somewhat unusual residents of her new hometown, Naomi, Florida.

DiCamillo, Kate.  Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures.*[AR BL 4.3, Pts. 5.0]
Rescuing a squirrel after an accident involving a vacuum cleaner, comic-reading cynic Flora Belle Buckman is astonished when the squirrel, Ulysses, demonstrates astonishing powers of strength and flight after being revived.

Gardiner, John. Stone Fox.* [AR BL 4.0, Pts. 1.0]
Willy trains with his dog Searchlight daily.  He is determined to win a dog sled race to save his grandfather's farm, but he must beat the undefeated Stone Fox, an imposing and silent Native American. 

King-Smith, Dick.The School Mouse.* [AR BL 5.0, Pts. 3.0]
When Flora the school mouse learns to read, no one – not even her parents can see the use in it.  She must convince them that reading is important – especially after she finds a bag marked POISON!

Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Shiloh.* [AR BL 4.4, Pts. 4.0]
When 11-year-old Marty finds a mistreated beagle pup, he has to face tough questions. Should he return the dog to its owner, only to have the animal abused again? Should he tell his parents? Should he steal food to help the poor creature?

O’Brien, Robert. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.* [AR BL 5.1, Pts. 8.0]
Having no one to help her with her problems, a widowed mother mouse, visits the rats whose former imprisonment in a laboratory made them wise and long-lived.

Selden, George. The Cricket in Times Square.* [AR BL 4.9, Pts. 4.0]
A country cricket falls into a picnic basket and ends up in New York city.

White, E.B. Charlotte’s Web. [AR BL 4.4, Pts. 5.0] Wilbur the pig is desolate when he discovers that he is destined to be the farmer’s Christmas dinner until his spider friend, Charlotte decides to help him. 

Science Fiction/Fantasy

Angleberger, Tom. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. [AR BL 4.7, Pts. 3.0] Sixth-grader Tommy and his friends describe their interactions with a paper finger puppet of Yoda, worn by their weird classmate Dwight, as they try to figure out whether the puppet can really predict the future.  

Brown, Peter. The Wild Robot. [AR BL 5.1, Pts. 5.0] Roz the robot discovers that she is alone on a remote, wild island with no memory of where she is from or why she is there, and her only hope of survival is to try to learn about her new environment from the island’s hostile inhabitants.  

Dahl, Roald. The BFG. [AR BL 4.8, Pts. 6.0] Snatched from her orphanage by the BFG (Big Friendly Giant), who spends his life blowing happy dreams to children, Sophie concocts with him a plan to save the world from nine other mean maneating giants. 

Coville, Bruce. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher. [AR BL 4.9, Pts. 4.0] While trying to dodge the pestering Mary Lou, Jeremy finds himself in a small magic shop where he purchases a strange egg. Out of the egg hatches a dragon that only Jeremy and Mary Lou can see.  

Howe, Deborah. Bunnicula: A rabbit Tale of Mystery. [AR BL 4.2, Pts. 2.0] When the Monroe family finds a rabbit at a showing of Dracula, they give their new pet the perfect name—Bunnicula. Chester, the cat, suspects that Bunnicula is a vampire rabbit, and he enlists Harold, the dog, to help prove it.   

Martin, Ann M. The Doll People. [AR BL 4.0, Pts. 5.0] Annabelle Doll is 8 years old—and has been for over 100 years. Nothing much has changed in the dollhouse during that time. When the "Real Pink Plastic" Funcraft family moves in next door, the Doll family's world is turned upside down in more ways than one!  

Shurtliff, Liesl. Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin. [AR BL 4.4, Pts. 9.0] Relates the tale of Rumpelstiltskin’s childhood and youth, explaining why his name is so important, how he is able to spin straw into gold, and why a first-born child is his reward for helping the miller’s daughter-turned-queen.  

Stead, Rebecca. When You Reach Me. [AR BL 4.5, Pts. 6.0] In 1979, as her mother prepares to be a contestant on the The $20,000 PYRAMID, a twelve-yearold New York City girl tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from an anonymous source that seem to defy the laws of time and space.  

Hstorical Fiction

Choldenko, Gennifer. Al Capone Does My Shirts. [AR BL 3.5, Pts. 7.0] A 12-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935, when the guards’ families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.  

Erdich, Louise. The Birchbark House. [AR BL 6.1, 7.0] Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847.  

Fleischman, Sid. By the Great Horn Spoon! [AR BL 5.1, Pts. 6.0] Jack and his aunt's faithful butler, Praiseworthy, set out to strike it rich in the Gold Rush. As they travel by sea and land, the pair meet a series of memorable characters such as the daring, crusty sea Captain Swain and the diabolical Cut-Eye Higgins.  

Ryan, Pam Munoz. Riding Freedom. [AR BL 4.5, Pts. 3.0] A fictionalized account of Charley (Charlotte) Parkhurst who ran away from an orphanage, posed as a boy, moved to California, and fooled everyone by her appearance.  

Speare, Elizabeth George. Sign of the Beaver. [AR BL 4.9, PL 5.0]  
Matt is trying his best to survive on his own until his family returns to their pioneer homestead in the Maine wilderness. Matt becomes friends with a Native American boy, Attean, and when his family does not return as expected, Matt must decide if he should continue waiting or begin a new life with his friend.  

Tarshsis, Lauren. I Survived:  the Bombing of Pearl Harbor. (I Survived #4) [AR BL 4.3, Pts. 2.0] Visiting his favorite Hawaiian beach when Japanese forces suddenly attack Pearl Harbor, 11-yearold Danny Crane struggles through the smoke, destruction, and chaos to make his way back home.  

Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Little House in the Big Woods. [AR BL 5.3, Pts. 5.0] A year on the life of two young girls growing up on the Wisconsin frontier, as they help their mother with the daily chores, enjoy their father’s stories and singing, and share special occasions when they get together with relatives and neighbors.  

Humorous  

Barnett, Mac. The Terrible Two. (The Terrible Two #1) [AR BL 4.5, Pts. 4.0]  When master prankster Miles Murphy moves to sleepy Yawnee Valley, he challenges the local mystery prankster in an epic battle of tricks but soon the two join forces to pull off the biggest prank ever seen.  

Blume, Judy. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. [AR BL 3.3, Pts. 3.0] Fourth-grader Peter Hatcher’s little brother, Fudgie, is constantly meddling with Peter’s stuff and throwing tantrums. But the worst trouble comes when Fudge gets his hands on Peter’s pet turtle, Dribble.  

Cleary, Beverly. Ramona the Pest. [AR BL 5.1, Pts. 4.0] The classic light-hearted tale of Ramona Quimby, who knows that she isn't a pest on purpose. So how in the world does she get in trouble? Why does Davy run away whenever Ramona comes near him? And how does she manage to disrupt her whole class?  

Dahl, Roald. The Twits. [AR BL 4.4, Pts. 1.0] The misadventures of two terrible old people who enjoy playing nasty tricks and are finally outwitted by a family of monkeys.   

Griffith, Andy. The 13-Story Treehouse. [AR BL 3.8, Pts. 1.0] Follows the efforts of Andy and Terry to meet a latest book deadline despite numerous distractions in their sophisticated tree house home, including flying cats, giant bananas, and sea monsters pretending to be mermaids.  

Pastis, Stephen. Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made. [AR BL 3.8, Pts. 3.0] Resolving to earn so much money that his mother will no longer stress out over the bills, 11-yearold Timmy Failure launches a detective business with a lazy polar bear partner named Total but finds their enterprise, Total Failure, Inc., challenged by a college-bound spy and a four-foot-tall girl whom Timmy refuses to acknowledge.  

Paulsen, Gary. Lawn Boy. [AR BL 4.3, Pts. 2.0] 
Things get out of hand for a twelve-year-old boy when a neighbor convinces him to expand his summer lawn-mowing business.  

Rockwell, Thomas. How to Eat Fried Worms. [AR BL 3.5, Pts. 2.0] A young boy is challenged by his friends to eat 15 worms in 15 days for 50 dollars.  

Rodkey, Geoff. The Tapper Twins Go to War (with Each Other). (The Tapper Twins #1)  [AR BL 5.4, Pts. 4.0] An oral history that reports, through transcribed recordings, text messages, photographs, illustrations, screenshots, and more, an epic prank war between twelve-year-old twins Reese and Claudia Tapper of New York City.  

Sachar, Louis. Sideways Stories from Wayside School. [AR BL 3.3, Pts. 3.0] The Wayside School was supposed to be one story high, with 30 classrooms side by side; instead, it was built sideways, with 30 one-classroom stories. Each of the students in the 30th-story classroom has a very strange story to tell. 

Mystery

Bertman, Jennifer Chambliss. Book Scavenger. (The Book Scavenger #1)  [AR BL 5.5, Pts. 11.0] When 12-year-old Emily teams up with James to follow clues in an odd book, they hope to figure out its secrets before the men who attacked Emily's hero, publisher Garrison Griswold, come after them.  

Hale, Bruce. This Gum for Hire: A Chet Gecko Mystery. [AR BL 3.6, Pts. 2.0] To save his own skin, private eye Chet Gecko sets out to solve the mystery of Emerson Hicky Elementary School's disappearing football players.  

Turnage, Sheila. Three Times Lucky. [AR BL 3.9, Pts. 9.0] Washed ashore in tiny Tupelo Landing, North Carolina, Mo LoBeau, now eleven, and her best friend, Dale, turn detective when the amnesiac Colonel, owner of a café and co-parent of Mo with his cook Miss Lana, seem implicated in a murder.  

Van Draanan, Wendelin. Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief. [AR BL 4.6, Pts. 6.0] 13-year-old Sammy’s penchant for speaking her mind gets her in trouble when she involves herself in the investigation of a robbery at the “seedy” hotel across the street from the seniors’ building where she is living with her grandmother.  

Warner, Gertrude Chandler. The Boxcar Children. (Boxcar Children #1) [AR BL 3.9, Pts. 2.0] The classic mystery series begins when four orphaned and homeless children come across an abandoned boxcar, they turn it into their home to avoid living with their grandfather, who they've never met.  

Realistic Fiction  

Clements, Andrew. Frindle. [AR BL 5.4, Pts. 2.0] When Nick decides to start calling his pen a “frindle,” the new word spreads like wildfire. His classmates, the townspeople, everyone is calling their pens “frindles.” Nick’s crotchety teacher wants to end all the nonsense, but it’s too late.  There’s no stopping the frindle phenomenon.  

Estes, Eleanor. The Moffats. [AR BL 5.2, Pts. 6.0] The classic favorite in which four children and a hard-working widowed mother live together on New Dollar Street in the village of Cranbury. Their seemingly quiet lives are studded with almost daily unexpected adventures, with laugh-out-loud results.  

Fitzhugh, Louise. Harriet the Spy. [AR BL 4.5, Pts. 8.0] The discovery of Harriet's secret journal, concerning the personalities and activities of her schoolmates and neighbors, causes pandemonium.  

Lin, Grace. The Year of the Dog. [AR BL 4.9, Pts. 4.0] Frustrated at her seeming lack of talent for anything, Grace, a Taiwanese-American girl, tries to apply the lessons of the Chinese Year of the Dog to her life, making best friends and finding her true self.  

Lord, Cynthia. Rules. [AR BL 3.9, Pts. 4.0] Frustrated at life with an autistic brother, twelve-year-old Catherine longs for a normal existence, but her world is further complicated by a friendship with a young paraplegic.  

Palacio, R.J. Wonder. [AR BL 4.8, Pts. 11.0] Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunting and fear of his classmates as he struggles to be seen as just another student. 

Paterson, Katherine. Bridge to Terabithia. [AR BL 4.6, Pts. 5.0] The life of a ten-year-old boy in rural Virginia expands when he becomes friends with the new girl in town. They create a fantasy world, Terabithia, in the pine forests, and it is there they share their innermost secrets.  

Weeks, Sarah. Save Me a Seat. [AR BL 4.8, Pts. 5.0] Classmates Ravi, newly arrived from India and used to being a star student, and Joe, who's shy and struggles in class, alternately tell the story of their first week of fifth grade.