Kid Reads New Book Reviews
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Small as an Elephant
Reading Level: Grades 3 - 6
Jack and his mother go camping in Maine over Labor Day weekend, but when Jack wakes up on their first morning, his mother is gone, along with her tent and the car. Jack's mother has done this before, so he's worried... but knows she'll come back eventually. But the end of the weekend looms closer, and Jack's food money has long since run out.
Jack knows that if he tells anyone his mother has disappeared again, he'll be taken away from her, so he starts heading home, alone.
Small as an Elephant is a wonderful urban survival story about a boy who loves nothing more than his mother, and elephants.
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More books by Jennifer Richard Jacobson
A few similar stories of kids in charge of themselves:
The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron
Betti on the High Wire by Lisa Railsback
How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O'Connor
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
Afternoon of the Elves by Janet Taylor Lisle
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Tags: 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, Books for Boys, Don't Miss These, Family, Read-Alikes, Realistic Fiction, J Fiction, EF
Amelia Lost: the Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart
Reading Level: Grades 3-5
Amelia Earhart was one of the most formidable female pilots of her time, spurring her decision to be the first woman to fly around the world - alone. But a few hours into her flight, Amelia's plane lost radio contact with the ground and became lost. She was never found. Fleming's new biography of Earhart is great for younger readers interested in both the story and the time period.
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Other fascinating biographies:
The Great and Only Barnum by Candace Fleming
Login or register to post comments | Printer-friendly version | Send to friend | PDF version | Tags: 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, Biographies, Read-Alikes, J Non-Fiction, EF
I Survived: The Shark Attacks of 1916
Reading Level: Grades 2-4
If one of your friends came up to you and told you there was a man-eating shark in Lake Michigan, right off the shore of Highland Park, you'd probably laugh at them. That's what happened when Chet, a ten year old boy living in New Jersey in 1916, sees a shark fin in the river near his house. But no one believes him. A few days later, Chet hears about a shark attacking a person just up the coast - but his friends don't believe that either - there's no way a shark would ever attack a person. But Chet knows what he saw in the river, and he believes the newspaper story. How can he stop his friends from continuing to swim in the river?
(Based on a True Story)
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More survival stories:
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Brain Jack
Reading Level: Grades 6+
After accidentally crashing the country's online systems for three days, teenage hacker Sam finds himself recruited and working for Homeland Security - and all he intended to do was use Telecomerica's giant bank account to purchase new state-of-the-art laptops and neuroheadsets for him and his best friend. Suddenly, thrust into the world of professional hacking, Sam begins to unearth information about Telecomerica and the neuro-headsets that go against even his unscrupulous view of privacy.
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A few other suspenseful digital adventures:
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Streams of Babel by Carol Plum-Ucci
Hacking Timbuktu by Stephen Davies
The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer
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Delirium
Reading Level: Grades 7+
Love, aka deleria is the reason for all problems in the world, which is why upon every citizen's eighteenth birthday, a cure is administered, severing the receiver from potential infection. Boys and girls under the age of eighteen, of course, are separated, lest interaction between two uncureds causes an infection. 17 year-old Lena Haloway, like all other teens her age, can't wait to get the vaccine and be cured of the deleria - she hopes that becoming cured will finally sever her from the stigma of her uncured mother's suicide. Just a few months before her scheduled cure, Lena meets Alex, somewhat by accident, and becomes infected. Headstrong and in love, Lena begins to question the cure, as well as everything her society stands for and has taught her; yet her cure date looms ever-closer, promising to destroy herself and Alex.
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A few other dystopian love stories:
Older readers will also enjoy:
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Bless This Mouse
Reading Level: Grade 2-4
It is not easy for Hildegarde, the Mouse Mistress of Saint Bartholemew's Church, to keep the more than two hundred church mice who dwell in the church safe and away from human eyes. But try she must for each mouse sighting by a human increases the chances of the dreaded GREAT X
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Other tales of hidden creatures include:
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Say Hello to Zorro!
Reading Level: Ages 3 - 8
Bud the dog has a good life. He has his things and his routine and he likes it that way. Then Zorro comes along. Zorro is bossy and doesn't share (but Bud can be grumpy and selfish too). Can these two dogs find ANYTHING they have in common and become friends?
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No Passengers Beyond This Point
Reading Level: Grade 5-7
Six-year-old Mouse, twelve-year-old Finn and their unfriendly older sister India are sent to live with their uncle in Colorado after their mother loses the family home. Instead rendezvousing with their Uncle Red at the airport, they are met by a man driving a feather covered car who takes them to Falling Bird a world that seems, a first, much better than the life they left behind.
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More books by Gennifer Choldenko
If you enjoyed this story try:
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Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder
Reading Level: Grades 3 - 7
When Lisa’s best friend moves from Norway across the world, she prepares herself for an unpleasant school year. Of course, that’s before Nilly, the smallest red-headed boy she’s ever seen, moves in next door. Nilly, a courageous, outspoken boy, quickly befriends both Lisa and Doctor Proctor, a pleasantly mad scientist who lives on the other side of Nilly’s new house. Doctor Proctor, a frustrated inventor who never seems to invent anything quite useful enough for anyone, finds Nilly’s creativity a helpful asset to his inventions, especially his latest one – Fart Powder.
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A few other flatulent adventures
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Pink
Reading Level: Grades 7+
What does pink mean to you? Does it mean a little girl’s bedroom, wallpapered with ponies, princesses, ballerinas and unicorns? A color occasionally featured in your wardrobe? A bonafide, lip-glossed, perfect 'Plastic' a la Mean Girls? Or is pink a color you hate with every dark black fiber of your being?
For Ava, pink is a secret. Pink is the color, the person, that she wants to become – a girl who likes color instead of cloaking herself in black, hiding behind the monochrome lipstick and hair matched perfectly with black, black, black and more black clothing. Ava and her longtime girlfriend, Chloe, have been a dark duo for most of high school; Ava has not had a problem with that at all. At least not until now.
Ava wants to explore her pink, preppy side, but she’s afraid of Chloe’s feminist, antiestablishment and anti…pretty much everything, except Ava and her freethinking parents. What’s more, Ava isn’t 100% sure that she’s a lesbian anymore. It isn’t that she doesn’t love Chloe, or that she doesn’t like girls anymore; she just wonders what it’s like playing for the other team. But in order to explore those desires, she would have to leave Chloe, something Ava isn’t ready to do. So rather than confront Chloe about her identity-altering questions, Ava applies to a new school for the next school year – Billy Hughes.
Before her first day at Billy Hughes, Ava spends hours at the hairdresser stripping years of black dye out of her hair. She prepares her first day outfit – a pink cashmere sweater previously hidden away in the very bottom of her closet. Everything is ready for her new life as a pink.
Everything goes perfectly on Ava’s first day – Alexis, obviously one of the most popular girls in school, invites Ava to her lunch table, and within just a few bites, Ava’s future in the school as a popular girl (a Pastel, in this novel) is secured. All she needs to do now is keep up her façade as a sort-of-Goth with Chloe, and gain a part in the school play with Alexis, Ella-Grace, and Vivian.
When she bombs her audition, Ava joins stage crew, in the hopes that she’ll still be able to hang out with Ethan, the hot guy Alexis is trying to set her up with. (I mean really, who better to test one’s sexuality with than a super-hot theater guy named Ethan?) But as you no doubt have already guessed, Ava’s lies begin to snowball – and fast.
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If you liked Pink, try reading these other books about:
Girls who lie about themselves:
Ten Things I Hate About Me by Randa Abdel-Fattah
Girls struggling with their own sexuality:
Login or register to post comments | Printer-friendly version | Send to friend | PDF version | Tags: 7th Grade, 8th Grade, High Schoolers, Adults, Books for Girls, Chick Lit, Don't Miss These, Family, Friends, LGBT, Misfits, Read-Alikes, Realistic Fiction, Relationships, School, Self Image, Social Issues, JY Fiction, EF