Kid Reads New Book Reviews
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Z is for Moose
Reading Level: Ages 3 - 6
Moose literally cannot wait for M to come up in this alphabet book so that he can have his turn to shine. Moose should meet Mo Willems' Pigeon.
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Tags: Kindergarteners, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, Animals--Talking, Humor, Picture Books, SH
Oh No, George!
Reading Level: Ages 2 - 8
George really wants to be a good dog when he is left home alone, but some things, like a cake and a cat are just too tempting.
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A Confusion of Princes
19-year-old Khemri is one of millions of princes. All were chosen as babies from across the vast empire. Khemri has been enhanced and trained all his life. He dreams of being the special one...THE prince who will become the one to control the mind of the vast empire.
On the day of his investiture Khemri learns it is much more likely that he will die. For on that day, the assassination attempts begin.
Reading Level: Grades 8+
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Other fast paced space fiction include::
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
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Also Known as Rowan Pohi
Reading Level: Grades 7+
Life is hard for 15-year-old Bobby Steele. Especially since he has the same name as his father...the man who made the newspapers when he attacked his wife with a hot iron. Bobby hates sharing his name. Bobby doesn't blame his mother when she walks out on them. He'd walk too if it wasn't for his little brother.
Bobby's name change started as a joke. When he and his friends find an application for a prestigious prep school at an IHop, they make up a kid and submit an application. When that pretend guy, Rowan Pohi, is accepted, the temptation is too great. Bobby decides he needs a new life, anything is better than the one he has.
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Other tales double identities include:
The Mark of Conte by Sonia Levitin
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Eye-Popping 3-D Bugs: Phantogram Bugs You Can Practically Touch!
Reading Level: Ages 4 - 10
This 3-D insect book will either make you want to reach out and touch the bugs or run away screaming!
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Question Boy Meets Little Miss Know-It-All
Reading Level: Ages 3 - 8
Young superhero, Question Boy, asks non-stop questions to poor unsuspecting everyday superheroes like Garbage Man until he meets Little Miss Know-It-All in the park. Has he finally met his match?
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The Contender
Reading Level: Grades 7+
"Boxing is a dying sport. People aren't much interested anymore. They want easy things, like television, bowling, car rides."
Alfred Brooks wants to be somebody special - a champion. Donatelli assures him that's impossible - first Alfred has to train - train so hard he'll start to feel like it's not worth it, that he should just quit - that he'll never be a fighter at all, let alone a contender. But Alfred is determined, and begins to train, hard. When he's boxing, Alfred doesn't have to think about all the bad stuff going on in his life, it's just him and the ring, nothing going on outside it matters at all. Inside the ring, Alfred can contend with his life.
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Marcelo in the Real World
Reading Level: Grades 7+
Marcelo, a high school junior with a somewhat undefined precise location on the autism spectrum, is wildly looking forward to spending his summer working with the ponies at his school, Paterson. He will be the stable man for the school, and in the fall will be promoted to training the ponies to work with all types of disabled students. Marcelo is really looking forward to his summer and senior year at Paterson.
But his father, Arturo, has other plans. Arturo wants Marcelo to work at Arthuro's law firm, in the mail room - and Arturo wants Marcelo to switch to public school in the fall.
Marcelo is not given much choice about working at the law firm, but he is told that if he spends three summer months working at his father's law firm - in the "real world" - Arturo will let him choose whether to return to Paterson or continue at public school.
For Marcelo, three months in the "real world" sounds incredibly difficult as he does not know all the rules of living in that world. But working at the law firm is what Marcelo will have to do to ensure his return to Paterson, and so he accepts his father's offer.
As Marcelo's summer progresses, he begins to become more comfortable interacting with others, but when he uncovers a disturbing photograph relating to one of his father's big cases, Marcelo is unsure how to proceed.
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More books by Francisco X. Stork
Other books about teens on the autism spectrum:
Mindblind by Jennifer Roy
Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Login or register to post comments | Printer-friendly version | Send to friend | PDF version | Tags: 7th Grade, 8th Grade, High Schoolers, Adults, Books for Boys, Don't Miss These, Family, Friends, Misfits, Mysteries, Read-Alikes, Realistic Fiction, Relationships, School, Self Image, Social Issues, JY Fiction, EF
Henrietta Hornbuckle's Circus of Life
Reading Level: Grades 3-6
Henrietta Hornbuckle is a clown in Filbert's Traveling Clown Circus, and has been her whole life. Used to the travelling life, loving to watch the world pass her by as she tumbles and exaggerates movements and brings cheer and laughter to each town the circus visits. To Henrietta, circus life is a fluid, dynamic constant in her life. Then suddenly everything changes - Henrietta learns that the circus is in danger of closing, financial problems having finally become insurmountable. Furthermore, her mother, Hortense, wants to reconnect with her estranged sister Carlotta - a woman with an enormous house (the first Henrietta had ever entered) and a butler - a lavish, expansive lifestyle absurdly foreign to the young clown. Then the unthinkable happens, and Henrietta's jolly life is thrust away from everything she loves.
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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Reading Level: Grades 7+
Life on a reservation isn't great to begin with, but when Arnold (Junior) sees his mother's name written in his geometry textbook, it's the last straw. He flings the book angrily across the classroom... hitting the teacher square in the face.
Realizing that as long as he stayed on the reservation, he was doomed to live a depressing, boring reservation life with no opportunities, Arnold tells his parents he is going to transfer schools - to the all-white, all-rich high school twenty-two miles away.
And so it begins.
Cleverly written, amusingly illustrated, and with wholly rounded characters, Alexie's first young adult novel is deserving of its high praises.
Login or register to post comments | Printer-friendly version | Send to friend | PDF version | Tags: 7th Grade, 8th Grade, High Schoolers, Adults, Award Winners, Books for Boys, Don't Miss These, Family, Friends, Humor, Misfits, Realistic Fiction, Relationships, School, Self Image, Social Issues, JY Fiction, EF