Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink

Caddie Woodlawn is a classic of American young adult literature because it appeals to readers on more than one level. It illuminates American pioneer life by vividly describing the everyday experiences of the Woodlawn family, members of a loosely knit farming community at the edge of the western Wisconsin wilderness. Warm and realistic, the book depicts mid-nineteenth-century farm life and family relationships as experienced by an eleven-year-old tomboy

Have you ever had a secret club with secret names that only your friends know about? Well Margaret does, they named the club the S.P.T's. It's an all girl's club of pre-teens. They are all in the same class in the same grade. To find out what happens read the book! I thought this book was interesting because it is about a girl beginning to evolve into a young woman. Nancy was a character that I found rude because she was mean to people she thought were different. Margaret, the main character, changed from a child to a mature young woman. This book is a unique and special book because it gives you a second look at childhood before leaving it. This book was such a great book, I felt like never putting it down!

They were standing in a group under the trees, tossing up wishes for the future wishes and predictions, grand and wild inflated,

This is a story about a man named Eddie and it begins at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun. It might seem strange to start a story with an ending. But all endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time.The last hour of Eddie's life was spent, like most of the others, at Ruby Pier, an amusement park by a great gray ocean. The park had the usual attractions, a boardwalk, a Ferris wheel, roller coasters, bumper cars, a taffy stand, and an arcade where you could shoot streams of water into a clown's mouth. It also had a big new ride called Freddy's Free Fall, and this would be where Eddie would be killed, in an accident that would make newspapers around the state.

The Giver, by Louis Lowery, is a book about steps people have to take their life. From the time they are born,till the time they turn 12. At a certain age, if you are a girl, you can no longer tie ribbons in your hair, but then you turn old enough for the community to give you a bicycle. At the age of 9 you will have to start doing community work, so when you turn 12, the community work you do will become your occupation for the rest of your life. Unless you chose to be birth mother. In their community, you can only have 2 children, 1 son and 1 daughter. But you don't give birth to them yourself, someone else does that.

The way their life is, is different from ours. They live in a community where everybody has to follow rules. Rules such as if you reach up to a certain age, you have to do certain things... and this story is about Jonas, and his life.

When he turned 12, the elder were giving out assignments, but they skipped Jonas. Jonas didn't know what was going on. After the elders were finish giving out the assignments, the elders purposly skipped Jonas because he was became the choosen one, he was the the Gifted one, he became The Giver. Being the Giver, he was able to lie to his parents, and he can do stuff that other kids can't. Him being the giver took away all his time from his friends. But even if he wasn't the choosen one, his friends had their own assignments too, so they might not have been able to play with Jonas.

A must read for the adventure seeker and wilderness lover !Brian Robeson, thirteen, boards a small bush plane along with the pilot. He is going to visit his father in Canada, after his parent's separation, knowing the secret, the reason for their divorce. Brian leaves New York with a hatchet, a parting gift from his mother. Most of the book is about Brian's experiences on his own, learning to take from nature to find food and shelter, learning to hunt and fish and protect himself. Does he live? Is he saved? These questions keep the reader intrigued for all 195 pages of the text. Brian is a strong, well developed character. He evolves, learns and matures from his experience. His story is one of bravery, determination, and the power of positive thinking. Gary Paulsen's writing style is naturally flowing, highly descriptive, and easy to read. The book is a fast read, but is easy to set down and pick up again without losing one's place in the story. A Newbery Honor Book that deserves to be read

If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy." Such is the reigning philosophy at Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention facility where there is no lake, and there are no happy campers. In place of what used to be "the largest lake in Texas" is now a dry, flat, sunburned wasteland, pocked with countless identical holes dug by boys improving their character. Stanley Yelnats, of palindromic name and ill-fated pedigree, has landed at Camp Green Lake because it seemed a better option than jail. No matter that his conviction was all a case of mistaken identity, the Yelnats family has become accustomed to a long history of bad luck, thanks to their "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!" Despite his innocence, Stanley is quickly enmeshed in the Camp Green Lake routine: rising before dawn to dig a hole five feet deep and five feet in diameter; learning how to get along with the Lord of the Flies-styled pack of boys in Group D; and fearing the warden, who paints her fingernails with rattlesnake venom. But when Stanley realizes that the boys may not just be digging to build character--that in fact the warden is seeking something specific--the plot gets as thick as the irony

Karana, a Native American girl, is accidentally left alone when her people abandon their island home off the coast of California. After a failed attempt to leave the island in a leaky canoe, Karana decides to build a house and learn to hunt while waiting to be rescued. Her isolation from humans teaches her how to co-exist peacefully with the local wildlife, even the wild dog she considers her worst enemy. After many years, missionaries come to the island, and Karana, yearning for human companionship, goes with them to the mainland. A fictional reconstruction of a true story, Island of the Blue Dolphins depicts a character whose courage and determination help her survive against nearly impossible odds.

Anyone who makes the long and difficult journey to the winner's podium at the Tour de France has a story to tell. A good writer can probably make it an interesting story, too. But to win the Tour de France after traveling to the brink of death, undergoing debilitating cancer treatments, and having your physique (and your psyche) reduced to a shadow of its former self is nothing less than astounding. Then to write a book about your ordeal and come back to win the Tour de France three more times pushes the definition of Herculean! Who is this guy anyway?

It was morning, and the new sun sparkled gold across the ripples of a

gentle sea. A mile from shore a fishing boat chummed the water. and the word for Breakfast Flock flashed through the air, till a crowd of a thousand seagulls came to dodge and fight for bits of food. It was another busy day beginning. But way off alone, out by himself beyond boat and shore, Jonathan

Livingston Seagull was practicing. A hundred feet in the sky he lowered his webbed feet, lifted his beak, and strained to hold a painful hard twisting curve through his wings. The curve meant that he would fly slowly, and now he slowed until the wind was a whisper in his face, until the ocean stood still beneath him. He narrowed his eyes in fierce concentration, held his breath, forced one... single... more... inch...of... curve... Then his featliers ruffled, he stalled and fell.

Seagulls, as you know, never falter, never stall. To stall in the air is for them disgrace and it is dishonor.

But Jonathan Livingston Seagull, unashamed, stretching his wings

again in that trembling hard curve - slowing, slowing, and stalling once more - was no ordinary bird.

Miyax pushed back the hood of her sealskin parka and looked at the artic sun.

Pi Patel is an unusual boy. The son of a zookeeper, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior, a fervent love of stories, and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes.

The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them "the truth." After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional-but is it more true?

Life of Pi is at once a realistic, rousing adventure and a meta-tale of survival that explores the redemptive power of storytelling and the transformative nature of fiction. It's a story, as one character puts it, to make you believe in God.

You can find it in most libraries because it received the Newbery Medal but you'll want at least one copy of your own.

For those of you who haven't already had the pleasure, let us introduce you to this wonderful book. It's about prejudice and love and home and baseball and fear and understanding. It's about Jeffrey Lionel Magee, sometimes known as Maniac Magee, and about the people of the town of Two Mills.

Jeffrey's parents were killed in a trolley accident when he was three and he spent the next eight years in the bizarre household of his Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan, who hated each other but refused to divorce and so lived in the same house without speaking to each other, using Jeffrey as their go-between. In a scene that will remind some of you of John Irving's adult novel, Prayer for Owen Meany, Jeffrey screams at them from the middle of a school concert, "Talk to each other!" and then runs away.

That's the beginning of his running and his search for a real home. He ends up in the town of Two Mills, two hundred miles away from his aunt and uncle. Two Mills is a town divided by race into East and West End. There Jeffrey becomes "Maniac Magee", the subject of legends that have lasted ever since. In his search for a place to belong, he eventually succeeds to some degree in uniting the town by forcing at least some of the Blacks and Whites to know each other.

There's enough to work with in this novel to take up a whole school year, but first of all, the novel is fun. There is much to laugh out loud about before you cry and then you think about what Spinelli is telling us in this book which is understandable, at least on one level, by children as young as third graders.

You won't need most of these suggestions for things to talk about. The book is so rich and so well written that you need to talk about it when you've finished reading it and so will the kids.

Set in Denmark during the Nazi occupation, this story explores a lesser known aspect of World War II. The Johansen family, including ten-year-old Anne Marie, take over the care of her Jewish friend, Ellen Rosen. The Rosens are in danger and hope Ellen can pass as a member of the Johansen family until passage can be arranged for all of the Rosens to leave Denmark and go safely to Sweden. Anne Marie shows courage and determination in helping her friend.

Ramona just wants everyone to be happy. If only her father would smile and joke again, her mother would look less worried, her sister would be cheerful, and Picky-picky would eat his cat-food. But Ramona's father has lost his job, and nobody in the Quimby household is in a very good mood.

Ramona tries to cheer up the family as only Ramona can -- by rehearsing for life as a rich and famous star of television commercials, for instance -- but her best efforts only make things worse. Her sister, Beezus, calls her a, pest, her parents lose patience with her, and her teacher claims she's forgotten her- manners. But when her father admits he wouldn't trade her for a million dollars, Ramona knows everything is going to work out fine in the end.

The summer before first grade sure isn't an easy one for Ramona.  There are a lot of changes going on at the Quimby house and Ramona's not sure she likes them one bit.  She has a new bedroom that terrifies her, and she's positive that something is hiding under her bed.  And to make matters worse, her mother gets a job to help pay for the new bedroom.  Ramona sure misses her and the cookies she used to bake.  School finally starts and Ramona realizes that the first grade is not for cowards.

Julia Red Fern lives with her mother and older brother in an apartment that's part of a rambling old house. Julia's brother, Greg, describes Julia's room as a room made of windows, and Julia loves it. The only furniture she can fit in her room is a large desk (with drawers she can lock) and her sleeping cot; her books fit neatly in the room's built-in shelves. Julia is a writer; she writes stories and keeps a journal that she has titled "The Book of Strangeness," in which she records the odd things she has observed about life. She keeps lists of the words she loves ("Mediterranean" and "quiver" and "Lapis lazuli") and the words she hates ("mucus" and "larva" and "okra"), as well as lists of the animals she has known ("Dogs Alive and Dogs Dead" and "Cats Alive and Cats Dead"). Julia's life is complicated by the people she loves: her mother, a widow, who is about to marry an old family friend (who Julia refers to only as "That One"); her elderly neighbor, Rhiannon Moore, a pianist who appears and disappears with startling frequency; her best friend, Addie, who is as down to earth and straightforward as Julia is complicated and dreamy; and a new friend, Leslie, who at the age of fourteen is already publishing her poems and stories in magazines.

No one really knows what Shawn McDaniel is like. Especially his father. All they see when they look at Shawn is a boy with cerebral palsy who cannot communicate at all or even move his body of his own will. But readers know that Shawn has a brilliant --- and constantly active --- mind. He can understand and remember everything he hears, people just aren't aware of that fact. And in this book, when Shawn relates statements like "I'm 14 years old. I think my father is planning to kill me," you'll be enticed to unravel his amazing and powerful story

Farley Drexel Hatcher, known to his fans as "Fudge," is the lively and often annoying little brother of Peter Hatcher in the series that has become an American classic. Beginning with TALES OF A FOURTH GRADE NOTHING and continuing in the newest book, DOUBLE FUDGE, the irrepressible Fudge storms through life creating chaos wherever he goes. His family knows he's exceptionally smart and his mother is always quick to point out "it's just a phase," but Fudge has a way of misinterpreting things that leads to daily doses of catastrophe and endless hilarity. Enjoy Fudge's newest phase --- the money miser --- in Judy Blume's sixth Fudge adventure, DOUBLE FUDGE. And take some time to look through the rest of our Kidsreads Fudge Feature that includes a biography about the author, some fun facts and games to test your Fans-of-Fudge skills!

Like his father and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor diver, gathering pearls from the gulf beds that once brought great wealth to the King of Spain and now provide Juan, Kino and their infant son with meager substance. Then, on a day like any other, Keno emerges from the sea with a pearl as large as a seagull’s egg.

There's bad news and good news about the Cutter High School swim team. The bad news is that they don't have a pool. The good news is that only one of them can swim anyway.

A group of misfits brought together by T. J. Jones (the J is redundant) to find their places in a school that has no place for them, the Cutter All Night Mermen struggle to carve out their own turf. T. J. is convinced that a varsity letter jacket--unattainable for most, exclusive, revered, the symbol (as far as T. J. is concerned) of all that is screwed up at Cutter High--will be an effective carving tool. He's right. He's also wrong.

Still, it's always the quest that counts. And the bus on which the Mermen travel to swim meets--piloted by Icko, the permanent resident of All, Night Fitness--soon becomes the cocoon inside which they gradually allow themselves to talk, to fit, to bloom.