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New Books for 6th Graders
Reading Level: Grades 6 -8
Scarlett cannot bear the idea of going on an weekend school retreat where she'll have to get dressed in front of the other girls who will see her secondhand store gray underwear. The perfect out seems to appear in the form of some mushrooms that, according to a book she glances at, will make her sick to her stomach. Unfortunately, a slight identification error winds up killing her and her entire family leaving her, a girl who only had four friends in life, an extremely lonely ghost. Then a boy on a ghostly chat room suggests that she kill one or two of her former friends so that she can have companions forever. That's not a terrible idea, is it?
Reading Level: Grades 5 - 8
Driving at break-neck speed past a Cook County Forest Preserve after midnight, late for curfew again, Mike nearly hits a girl who is standing in the middle of the road. His decision to give the hapless hitchhiker a ride home turns into a night spent sitting in a graveyard listening to the ghosts of Chicago area teenagers as tell him the stories of their lives, and deaths.
Reading Level: Ages 12 and up
Sixteen-year-old Eliza Miller has reached the age for Amish teenagers to experience "rumspringa", their wild time, when they must decide whether or not to committ to the Amish way of life. Eliza yearns to spend the summer with the "English" and learn about the modern world. When she is offered the opportunity to be a nanny in the Chicago area it's everything she could wish for, including a romance with a Yankee boy. This is a wonderful look at a unique culture, and yet in many ways, Eliza is just like anyone else trying to find their path in life.
Nancy Grossman is a Highland Park author.
Reading Level: Grades 5 - 8
After Tomas' house burns down, his family moves back to Slovakia where they had lived until Tomas was five and where he had nearly died. Soon after his arrival in his mother's home town he begins to have strange encounters with Slovakian legendary characters. Everyone, from Death herself to a crazy water vampire, known as a vodnik, seems to remember him and want something from him.
Reading Level: Grades 3-6
This is the true story of Tuyet, an eight -year- old orphan who didn't remember her life before the Saigon orphanage. There were the scars that she thought might have been from the war that still raged on, but she couldn't remember When Saigon fell, she was one of 57 babies and children evacuated to Canada during "Operation Babylift."
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Books by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Novels about war orphans:
Betti on the Highwire by Lisa Railsback
Dogtag Summer by Elizabeth Partridge
Grades 4+
Ivan (The Ape at Exit 8) is a downtrodden, has-been silverback gorilla living in a small, unkept domain within a shopping mall, occasionally accompanied by Bob, a stray dog who sneaks into Ivan's domain through a hole in the glass.
Stella, an aging elephant with a bad foot, dies from lack of treatment after Ruby, a baby elephant purchased from a defunct circus, arrives at the mall. The owner hopes Ruby will jumpstart visitor attendance again. Before Stella dies, she asks Ivan to promise that he will bring Ruby somewhere safe, knowing his devotion to protection of his friends is paramount.
Ivan's poetic narration is honest, painful, and heartbreaking; Applegate's insight into captive animal life is powerful. Don't miss this book, no matter how old you are.
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More books by Katherine Applegate.
Reading Level: Ages 12 and up
Combining murder mystery, historical fiction, and a coming-of-age story, this chilling book is base on real life events in the author's past. The time is 1956 and Nora anticipates spending a the summer before her senior year with her group of friends. But two of her friends are shot to death on their way to the last day of school. Everyone but Nora is sure that the murderer is a jealous ex-boyfriend. Told from a number of perspectives, the story examines the effect this horrible event had on so many lives.
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Another story of a shooting is
Give a Boy a Gun by Todd Strasser
Reading Level: 5-8
Imagine that you are trapped way down in the earth in stifling heat with little light, air, food or water. Imagine that for the first 17 days you don't even know if anyone is searching for you. These are the personal stories of the trapped miners, their loved ones, and their rescuers. Throughout the books are photos of the families, the rescue equipment, and amazing pictures of the men while they are trapped deep within the earth.
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Another book about the miners is
Trapped: How the World Rescued 33 Miners From 2,000 feet Below the Chilean Desert
Reading Level: Grades 3-6
Lenny is pitchforked into a death defying race to save the world when best friend Casper purchases the Heidelberg Handlebar Number Seven mustache.
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Books by Tom Angleberger
Other crazy adventures include:
Whales on Stilts by M.T. Anderson
We Are Not Eaten by Yaks by C. Alexander London and
The Brain Finds a Leg by Martin Chatteton
Reading Level: Grades 4-6
Hilary McKay scores again in this prequel to the Casson Family series. Before her struggles with A level exams and her adventures with "Michael Darling" the beleaguered driving instructor, Caddy Casson was a 12-year-old girl facing the loss and challenges of changing friendships.
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Books by Hilary McKay
If you enjoy Caddy and her eccentric family try:
Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie Tolan
Ordinary Jack by Helen Cresswell and
The Heroic Life of Al Capsella by Judith Clarke
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