Laura Wicks' Library
Norman Smith Elementary
| ISBN | Title | Author | Description | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0141303522 | A Long Way From Chicago | Richard Peck | A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to visit their larger-than-life grandmother. | Puffin Modern Classics |
| 9780439442589 | A Year Down Yonder | Richard Peck | During the recession of 1937, fifteen yr old Mary Alice is sent to live with her fiesty, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois and comes to a better understanding of this fearsome woman. | |
| 9780803725188 | A Year Down Yonder | Richard Peck | During the recession of 1937, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice is sent to live with her feisty, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois for a year and comes to a better understanding her. | Dial Books |
| 9780140324648 | Adam of the Road | Elizabeth Janet Gray, Elizabeth Gray Vining | Grade Level 7.4, Book # 1, Points 9. | Puffin Books |
| 9780439136792 | Afternoon on the Amazon | Mary Pope Osborne | Eight-year-old Jack, his seven-year-old sister, Annie, and Peanut the mouse ride in a tree house to the Amazon rain forests, where they encounter giant ants, flesh-eating piranhas, hungry crocodiles, and wild jaguars. | |
| 9780142403709 | Al Capone Does My Shirts | Gennifer Choldenko | The Newbery Honor Book and New York Times Bestseller that is historical fiction with a hint of mystery about living at Alcatraz not as a prisoner, but as a kid meeting some of the most famous criminals in our history. Al Capone Does My Shirts has become an instant classic for all kids to read! Today I moved to Alcatraz, a twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd and surrounded by water. I'm not the only kid who lives here. There are twenty-three other kids who live on the island because their dads work as guards or cooks or doctors or electricians for the prison, like my dad does. And then there are a ton of murderers, rapists, hit men, con men, stickup men, embezzlers, connivers, burglars, kidnappers and maybe even an innocent man or two, though I doubt it. The convicts we have are the kind other prisons don't want. I never knew prisons could be picky, but I guess they can. You get to Alcatraz by being the worst of the worst. Unless you're me. I came here because my mother said I had to. A Newbery Honor Book A New York Times Bestseller A People magazine "Best kid's Book" An ALA Book for Young Adults An ALA Notable Book A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year A Krikus Reviews Editor's Choice A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year A Parents' Choice Silver Honor Book A New York Public Library "100 Titles for Reading and Sharing" Selection A New York Public Library Best Book for the Teen Age *"Choldenko's pacing is exquisite. . . . [A] great read."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review *"Exceptionally atmospheric, fast-paced and memorable!"—Publishers Weekly, starred review *"The story, told with humor and skill, will fascinate readers."—School Library Journal, starred review "Al is the perfect novel for a young guy or moll who digs books by Gordon Korman, or Louis Sachar."—Time Out New York for Kids "Funny situations and plot twists abound!"—People magazine "Heartstopping in some places, heartrending in others, and most of all, it is heartwarming."—San Francisco Chronicle | Penguin |
| 9780545571739 | American Revolution | Mary Pope Osborne, Natalie Pope Boyce | Presents a picture of life in colonial America and reviews the causes and major events of the American Revolution. | |
| 9780545571715 | Ancient Rome and Pompeii | Mary Pope Osborne, Natalie Pope Boyce | What was it like to be a gladiator? How many people died in the destruction of Pompeii? How did Roman children spend their days? Find out the answers to these questions and more in Magic Tree House Research Guide: Ancient Rome and Pompeii. This is the nonfiction companion to Vacation Under the Volcano (Magic Tree House #13). | |
| 9780590849029 | Angels Don't Know Karate | Debbie Dadey, Marcia Thornton Jones | Miss Angela Michaels, the new karate teacher in Bailey City, who is also the school crossing guard, is so kind and generous that Melody becomes convinced that she is a guardian angel. Original. | Scholastic Paperbacks |
| 9780064401845 | Bridge to Terabithia | Katherine Paterson | A secret world of their own Jess Aaron's greatest ambition is to be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. He's been practicing all summer and can't wait to see his classmates' faces when he beats them all. But on the first day of school, a new kid, a new girl, boldly crosses over to the boy's side of the playground and outruns everyone. That's not a very promising beginning for a friendship, but Jess and Leslie Burke become inseparable. It doesn't matter to Jess that leslie dresses funny, or that her family has a lot of money -- but no TV. Leslie has imagination. Together, she and Jess create Terabithia, a magical kingdom in the woods where the two of them reign as king and queen, and their imaginations set the only limits. Then one morning a terrible tragedy occurs. Only when Jess is able to come to grips with this tragedy does he finally understand the strength and courage Leslie has given him. | Harper Collins |
| 9780553494105 | Bud, Not Buddy | Christopher Paul Curtis | The Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award-winning classic about a boy who decides to hit the road to find his father—from Christopher Paul Curtis, author of The Watsons Go To Birmingham—1963, a Newbery and Coretta Scott King Honoree. It’s 1936, in Flint, Michigan. Times may be hard, and ten-year-old Bud may be a motherless boy on the run, but Bud’s got a few things going for him: 1. He has his own suitcase full of special things. 2. He’s the author of Bud Caldwell’s Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself. 3. His momma never told him who his father was, but she left a clue: flyers advertising Herman E. Calloway and his famous band, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression!!!!!! Bud’s got an idea that those flyers will lead him to his father. Once he decides to hit the road to find this mystery man, nothing can stop him—not hunger, not fear, not vampires, not even Herman E. Calloway himself. BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times School Library Journal Publishers Weekly “[A] powerfully felt novel.” —The New York Times “Will keep readers engrossed from first page to last.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred “Curtis writes with a razor-sharp intelligence that grabs the reader by the heart and never lets go. . . . This highly recommended title [is] at the top of the list of books to be read again and again.” —Voice of Youth Advocates, Starred | Laurel Leaf |
| 9780689713705 | Caddie Woodlawn | Carol Ryrie Brink | The adventures of an eleven-year-old tomboy growing up on the Wisconsin frontier in the mid-nineteenth century. At age 11, Caddie Woodlawn is the despair of her mother and the pride of her father: a clock-fixing tomboy running wild in the woods of Wisconsin. In 1864, this is a bit much for her Boston-bred mother to bear, but Caddie and her brothers are happy with the status quo. Written in 1935 about Carol Ryrie Brink's grandmother's childhood, the adventures of Caddie and her brothers are still exciting over 60 years later. With each chapter comes another ever-more exciting adventure: a midnight gallop on her horse across a frozen river to warn her American Indian friends of the white men's plan to attack; a prairie fire approaching the school house; and a letter from England that may change the family's life forever. This Newbery Medal-winning book bursts at the seams with Caddie's irrepressible spirit. In spite of her mother's misgivings, Caddie is a perfect role model for any girl -- or boy, for that matter. She's big-hearted, she's brave, and she's mechanically inclined! | Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books |
| 9780142400104 | Cam Jansen: the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds #1 | David A. Adler | No mystery is too great for super-sleuth Cam Jansen and her amazing photographic memory! Can Cam help catch the diamond thief? Cam and her friend Eric are sitting at the mall when the jewelry store is robbed. Cam sees the thief, but the police arrest the wrong person. Now it's up to Cam to catch the real criminal! The Cam Jansen books are perfect for young readers who are making the transition to chapter books, and Cam is a spunky young heroine whom readers have loved for over two decades. | National Geographic Books |
| 046594005953 | Chanticleer and the Fox | Barbara Cooney | ||
| 9780380709588 | Dear Mr. Henshaw | Beverly Cleary | Dear Mr. Henshaw, I wish somebody would stop stealing the good stuff out of my lunchbag. I guess I wish a lot of other things, too. I wish someday Dad and Bandit would pull up in front in the rig ... Dad would yell out of the cab, "Come on, Leigh. Hop in and I'll give you a lift to school." Leigh Botts has been author Boyd Henshaw's number one fan ever since he was in second grade. Now in sixth grade, Leigh lives with his mother and is the new kid at school. He's lonely, troubled by the absence of his father, a cross-country trucker, and angry because a mysterious thief steals from his lunchbag. Then Leigh's teacher assigns a letter-writing project. Naturally Leigh chooses to write to Mr. Henshaw, whose surprising answer changes Leigh's life. | HarperCollins |
| 9780545571777 | Dolphins and Sharks | Mary Pope Osborne, Natalie Pope Boyce | Discusses dolphins and sharks, their ocean habitats, and general information about oceans and oceanography. | |
| 9780374418977 | Duffy and the Devil | Harve Zemach | Duffy and the Devil was a popular play in Cornwall in the nineteenth century, performed at the Christmas season by groups of young people who went from house to house. The Zemachs have interpreted the folk tale which the play dramatized, recognizable as a version of the widespread Rumpelstiltskin story. Its main themes are familiar, but the character and details of this picture book are entirely Cornish, as robust and distinctive as the higgledy-piggledy, cliff-hanging villages that dot England's southwestern coast from Penzance to Land's End. The language spoken by the Christmas players was a rich mixture of local English dialect and Old Cornish (similar to Welsh and Gaelic), and something of this flavor is preserved in Harve Zemach's retelling. Margot Zemach's pen-and-wash illustrations combine a refined sense of comedy with telling observation of character, felicitous drawing with decorative richness, to a degree that surpasses her own past accomplishments. Duffy and the Devil is a 1973 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and Outstanding Book of the Year, a 1974 National Book Award Finalist for Children's Books, and the winner of the 1974 Caldecott Medal. | Square Fish |
| 9780439403122 | Earthquake in the Early Morning | Mary Pope Osborne | The magic tree house takes Jack and Annie to San Francisco in 1906, in time for them to experience one of the biggest earthquakes the United States had ever known. | |
| 9780545220767 | Felicity the Friday Fairy | Daisy Meadows | Kirsty and Rachel agree to help when Jack Frost steals Felicity the Friday Fairy's Fun Day Flag, turning a day of cookie baking into a chore. | |
| 9780395726181 | Golem | A saintly rabbi miraculously brings to life a clay giant who helps him watch over the Jews of sixteenth-century Prague. | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |