The Bone Man

by Laura Simms
Lexile: ???
Genre: Traditional Literature (A Native American Modoc Tale)

Nulwee's grandmother told him a scary tale about what happened the day he was born. She tells him about how Kokolimalayas, the Bone Man, drank the river dry and devoured all of the people except for him. When he grows up, his destiny will be to bring back the water and the people to his land. His grandmother is a wise old woman who is able to provide him with information to help him defeat the Bone Man when the showdown occurs.

The Polar Bear Son

Retold by Lydia Dabcovich
Lexile: 470
Genre: Traditional Literature (An Inuit Tale)

This is a story of an old Eskimo woman who adopts a polar bear who turns out to be a fantastic hunter. She is blessed to have the bear in her life and shares all of the food that he provides for her. But, other hunters get jealous and create a plot to kill the bear. The village children overhear the plot and rush to tell the woman before it is too late.

This is the House that Jack Built

by Simms Taback
Lexile: ???
Genre: Traditional Literature

This silly rhyming story begins with Jack and the house he built. Then along comes the cheese, the rat, the cat, the dog...and oh so many more surprises to behold that end up filling the original house that Jack built.

The Rough Face Girl

by Rafe Martin
Lexile: 540
Genre: Traditional Literature (Algonquin Indian Legend)

All the young women wanted to marry the invisible being who was supposedly very handsome. However, in order to win his love, the girl he would marry had to be able to see him. All the young women tried, but none were successful until the Rough-Face Girl who had been scarred by the fire got her turn.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

by John Boyne
Lexile: ???
Genre: Traditional Literature (fable)

Bruno is a 9 year old boy living during the horrors of the World War II and is completely unaware about why people are living behind fences and wearing striped pajamas. He is lonely and meets a friend through the fence. They are unable to play together and come from completely opposite worlds, but forge an unusual friendship that ends in a tragedy for both boys.

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

by Ally Carter
Lexile: 1000
Genre: fiction

Cammie attends the Gallagher Academy for exceptional young women. The townspeople thinks its a snobby, rich boarding school where rich parents send their spoiled girls. However, in reality, it is actually a school that trains young ladies in the art of spying. All is fine in Cammie's world, until she meets Josh, a nice young man who attends the local high school. Is it possible for her to be friends with him and train to be a spy?

The Goose Girl

by Shannon Hale
Lexile: 870
Genre: Fantasy

Ani has never quite fit in with her family and when her father dies, her mother, the Queen, decides that Ani will not be fit to be her successor and arranges her to marry the prince of a neighboring land. Ani is forced to journey through the forest when half of her traveling party turns against her and tries to kill her and the companions who are loyal to the Queen. Ani narrowly escapes and is forced to live and work as a goose girl instead of a princess in the royal palace. She is determined to get back what should be hers, but will anyone belive her wild tale?

Birmingham, 1963

by Carole Boston Weatherford
Lexile: ???
Genre: Poetry

This book captures the awful day of September 15, 1963 when members of the Ku Klux Klan set off a bomb underneath the back steps of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. The book contains real photographs of that terrible day and includes poems about the four young ladies who lost their lives that day.

Swimming Upstream: Middle School Poems

by Kristine O'Connell George
Lexile: ???
Genre: Poetry Anthology

This collection of poems is for anyone who has ever experienced the ups and downs of middle school life. No doubt you will be able to connect with many of these poems - lost on the way to class, lockers that won't open, arguments with friends, homework assignments...these poems make middle school life seem almost...fun?

Cornflakes

by James Stevenson
Lexile: ???
Genre: Poetry Anthology

This anthology takes you on a rather strange journey from hamburgers to the wastebasket to a weather report. This short, funny poems will bring you some good laughs.

The Nine Lives of Travis Keating

Lexile: ???
Genre: Realistic Fiction

Travis Keating has agreed to a 365 day experiment - living in a tiny fishing community on the coast of Newfoundland with his dad. Things get off to a rocky start when he makes enemies with Hud, the town bully, who is out to get Travis at any chance he can get. Travis discovers some stray cats whom he befriends, but must keep secret from his father until it becomes a matter of life and death for his animals.

Firegirl

by Tony Abbott
Lexile: 670
Genre: Realistic Fiction

It's business as usual in Mrs. Tracy's 7th grade class until one day when Jessica, a new student arrives. Jessica has been horribly burned in a fire and doesn't come to school often because of frequent visits to the hospital for surgery and therapy. Tom is always relived when Jessica isn't there because he doesn't know how to talk to her without staring. Everyone in the class wonders what the story is behind her burns, but no one is willing to befriend her. One day, Mrs. Tracy asks Tom to take Jessica her homework, and Tom learns more than he wants to know about what happened to Jessica.

Petey

by Ben Mikaelson
Lexile: 740
Genre: Realistic Fiction

At the age of two, Petey is placed into the care of the Warm Springs Insane Asylum after his parents have been told that their boy will never think, act, or grow like a normal child. Over the years, several people who take the time to get to know Petey and realize that he is able to think and communicate in many special ways. Eventually he meets Trevor, a boy who needs friends as much as Petey does, and the two of them form a unique and unlikely friendship that changes both of their lives for the better.