Every year I have the joy and privilege of going into local schools and sharing my favorite books with fourth and fifth grade students. I read lots of middle grade fiction year-round, but only the top twenty or so make it into the final cut. A few of the books are general crowd pleasers, there are several interesting non-fiction titles, some graphics, and hopefully there are some amazing books that I know most students would pass up because of the cover or subject matter. I am excited to present you with this year's list! Click on the titles to reserve a copy of a book.
Non
Fiction
“A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin” by Jen Bryant--Horace Pippin was the grandson of a
slave who loved to paint. When he went off to fight in WW1, he was permanently
injured in his painting arm. Slowly he retaught himself to paint by holding his
weak wrist with his strong hand. He painted from what he saw in life, and one
day the famous painter N.C. Wyeth arranged for him to have an art show and
Horace became famous.
“Octopuses” by Melissa Gish—There are many animals books released all the time, but I find the mysterious and weird octopus to be particularly fascinating, so I included this lovely new volume that shows the different types of octopuses, where they live, and all their brilliant and quirky behaviors.
“Ouch!” by Joe Rhatigan—Have you
ever wondered why your bruises turn green? Or what makes pink eye pink? Look no
further than Joe Rhatigan’s compendium of medical pain, “Ouch!: The weird and
wild ways your body deals with agonizing aches, ferocious fevers, lousy lumps,
crummy colds, bothersome bites, breaks, bruises and burns and makes them feel
better!” Packed full of useful and humorous pictures, this book will get you up
to speed on the causes and treatment of all normal forms of illness and
accident.
“The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups” by David Wisniewski—An oldie but goodie, this book
contains all the truth in life that you never knew! If it doesn’t make you
laugh, there’s something wrong with you!
“Wild Boy” by Mary Losure—In 1797, a
young boy was discovered in the woods of France, completely naked and living
off what he could forage. He was taken captive a few times, but always managed
to escape. Until one day he was escorted to a school where a Doctor tried to
teach him how to speak. He became a sensation, and people came from all over to
see the “Savage of Aveyron,” as he was called. He never learned how to talk,
but he did communicate and become partly civilized. The doctor’s accounts of
his teaching methods changed the face of education for special needs children
and inspired Maria Montessori, who came up with her now popular method of
education.
A
Touch of Magic
“A Tangle of Knots” by Lisa Graff—From a
seemingly impossible tangle of unrelated characters comes a wonderful and
mysterious adventure surrounding the “Lost Luggage Emporium” There’s Cady, an
orphan looking for a forever family who has a Talent for baking everyone’s
perfect cake, “V,” who is recovering from a stroke and can’t communicate,
rebellious Zane with a Talent for spitting, an archeologist knitter, a man
who’s a chameleon, and a Talent thief.
“Flora & Ulysses” by Kate DiCamillo—This book is almost indescribable. It starts
with girl and ends with a squirrel. Somewhere in between are super-heroes,
arch-villains, trolls, a giant donut, poetry, and maybe even some new friends. For a fuller review, go here.
“The Desperate Adventures of Zeno& Alya” by Jane
Kelley—Zeno is a
proud African Grey Parrot. Alya is an eleven year old girl living in Brooklyn.
They don’t yet know that they need each other. Not until Zeno realizes that he
is alone, and Alya realized that she has forgotten how to try. Both parrot and
girl have to change in order to survive, and the journey is harrowing. One
fights capture and nature, the other fights cancer. Will they survive? Will
they ever be together?
Science
Fiction
“Escape From Mr. Lemoncello’s Library” by Chris Grabenstein—A brand new
library becomes a giant technological puzzle that a group of 12-year olds have
to solve before they can leave. See if you can figure out the mystery before the contestants!
“The Water Castle” by Megan Frazer Blakemore—After his
father suffers a debilitating stroke, Ephraim Appledore-Smith’s family
relocates to the old family estate in Maine for his recovery. The old house,
called the Water Castle by the locals, has been looked after by the Green
family for as long as it’s been around, but Mallory, the youngest Green, is
tired of hearing the old myths surrounding the house about the Fountain of
Youth. Only there really is something strange about the town, as Ephraim soon
finds out. Desirous of standing out from his athletic older brother and
brilliant little sister, he hopes that Crystal Springs will be a chance for him
to stand out. Only it turns out the everyone in town is extra-athletic and
extra-smart. On top of that, classmate Will Wylie has a century-long grudge
against Ephraim that he just doesn’t understand. Through a class assignment
about explorers, the three kids with no reason to be friends begin a reluctant
adventure to figure out exactly what happened at the Water Castle that makes
the land so different.
Realistic
Fiction
“Anna Was Here” by Jane Kurtz—Anna has a
contingency for every emergency. She is the founding member of the Safety Club,
after all. So when her Dad informs her that her family will be leaving their
Colorado town for Kansas, Anna is understandably upset. After all, she knows
everything in her town, and Kansas has tornadoes! Before even arriving, Anna
decides that she is not going to like anything about her dad’s hometown. She
even sleeps in her sleeping bag so that she won’t get used to her new bed. But there
are a lot of strange relatives to meet, and secrets to find out, and
emergencies to face head on until Anna finds that maybe a contingency plan is
not always what’s needed in life.
“Counting by 7’s” by Holly Goldberg Sloan—Willow
Chance is odd. She loves to garden. As in, she’s an expert horticulturalist.
She finds comfort counting by sevens. She’s African-American and her parents
are Caucasian. And she’s only ever had one friend. So when she starts middle
school, she picks out her favorite gardening outfit and hopes that her chances
of making a friend will be better. Life gets even more challenging when tragedy
strikes, and it takes a strange mix of characters to put Willow’s life back
together again and help her to understand others.
“The Boy On the Porch” by Sharon Creech—Marta and
John’s lives change on the day they find the boy curled up sleeping on their
porch. When he finally wakes, the boy says nothing, but hands them a note that
says, “Plees tak kair of Jacob. He is a good boy. Wil be bak wen we can.” Not
knowing when that is, Marta and John keep the boy hesitantly, letting him run
free on their farm and quietly questioning people in town to find out if
there’s a missing boy. Month eventually go by with no one coming for Jacob, and
they all decided to start looking for where he came from. What happens next, no
one is expecting, especially not Marta and John. This is not a story for
someone looking for excitement, but lots of heart and maybe just a little bit
of magic.
“The Thing About Luck” by Cynthia Kadohata—Summer is
nervous that all of her classmates will experience “the big change” while she’s
away working the wheat harvest with her grandparents. After her parents leave
to take care of her great-grandparents in Japan, Summer and her brother Jaz
have to travel around the country with their grandparents. Jiichan drives a
combine and Obaachan cooks for the harvest crew. But Obaachan has terrible back
pain, which means that Summer is the one cooking and making sure that her
little brother, Jaz, doesn’t hurt himself or destroy anything in his angry
moments. As she worries about catching malaria again, what it would be like to
kiss the foreman’s son Robbie, and the mysterious mortgage that keeps them all
working so hard, Summer begins to learn what it means to grow up.
Historic
Fiction
“Bluffton” by Matt Phelan—What would it be like if an
elephant, a zebra, and a whole host of entertainers moved to your town for the
summer. What if one of the entertainers was the brilliantly comic Buster
Keaton? You no longer have to wonder, because Matt Phelan has created the gorgeously illustrated graphic novel,"Bluffton", about young Buster Keaton's summers in Michigan.
“Navigating Early” by Claire Vanderpool— After his
mom suddenly dies, thirteen-year-old Jack moves from Kansas to a Maine boarding
school. There he meets Early, a boy with no parents and a love for math.
Together they set out on a journey to track down a legendary bear on the
Appalachian Trail, running into pirates, a volcano, and lumberjacks on the way.
“Sugar” by Jewell Parker Rhodes—10-year-old
sugar wants to leave River Road plantation. Her mother has died and she is no
longer a slave now that the Civil War is over; but Sugar holds out hope that
the Daddy she doesn't remember will some day return for her. Unfortunately, her
best friend Elizabeth moves north, leaving her the only child left on the sugar
plantation besides Billy, the owner’s son. And they have been forbidden to play
together. One day, Sugar hears rumors of men from China coming to work in the
cane fields. The former slaves are afraid of their jobs being taken away, but
Sugar is curious about the new men and where they have come from. Always
getting into mischief and wanting to play, Sugar becomes a part of change in
her community.
“The Birchbark House” by Louise Erdrich—Omakayas
lives in a birchbark house on an island on Lake Superior with her voyageur
father, mother, beautiful older sister, and two baby brothers. In the spring,
her family moves from the village to live on the shore in a birch bark house.
Omakayas’ job is to look after her pesky little brother, scrape hides, and
chase crows away from the family corn. Somehow she can’t seem to stay out of
trouble. One winter, the entire village is stricken with smallpox, and Omakayas
is the only one of her family to not fall ill. It is only then that she learns
the truth of who she is through a woman in her village. If you like it, you can read the rest of the series!
Fantasy
“Fortunately, the Milk” by Neil Gaiman—In a short illustrated story that is fun for the whole family, a father
goes on an unlikely adventure fetching milk from the corner store.
“The Real Boy” by Anne Ursu—Oscar is
the magician’s hand, or helper, on the magical island of Aletheia, where magic
keeps everyone safe. Wolf, the magician’s apprentice, runs the magic shop and
pesters Oscar in his free time, while Oscar is happy to stay in his herb
closet, away from people who are mystifying to him. Until one day when Wolf
leaves Oscar in charge of the shop and everything starts to fall apart,
including people. With the help of the healer’s apprentice, Callie, and the
baker, Oscar is left to piece together the true history of Aletheia that
everyone is trying to forget.
“The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp” by Kathi
Appelt—A boy
missing his grandfather, a group of marauding feral hogs, an unusual patch of
sugarcane, an alligator wrestler, a greedy man and two raccoons to watch over
it all come together in this unusual and very Southern Sasquatch tale. In order
to save their swamp, twelve-year-old Audie and two young raccoons have to use
their ingenuity and courage, overcoming mean critters both animal and human.
“The Twistrose Key” by Tone Almhjell—There is a
world where all loved pets go to when they die. It’s called Sylvaros, and every
once in awhile, Sylvaros is in danger. When that danger comes, a Twistrose, or
a brave child, is called into their world to rescue them. When Lin loses her
pet vole Rufus, she knows none of these things until a key is delivered to her
house. Not knowing where the lock that fits the key resides, Lin heads to the
always-locked basement of her rented house first off. Down the stairs she finds
strange things, but the strangest of all is the rose bush that becomes a portal
to a snowy world. There she discovers her lost pet, a magical world, and a boy
of ice who needs rescuing. And it’s up to her to find him before the day ends.
“Rump” by Liesl Shurtliff—Rump takes his
unfortunate name and tries to fix the disaster he caused by spinning straw into
gold. For a full review, go here.
I hope that you found something you liked! For more suggestions, visit your local branch.
--Andrea W., H.Q.
No comments:
Post a Comment