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Al Capone Does My Shirts
by Jennifer Cholendenko
(Historical Fiction) IL: 5-8 RL: 4.0
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Murderers, mob bosses, and convicts . . . these guys are not your average neighbors. Unless you live on Alcatraz. It’s 1935 and twelve-year-old Moose Flanagan and his family have just moved to the infamous island that’s home to criminals like notorious escapee Roy Gardner, Machine Gun Kelly, and of course, Al Capone.
Now Moose has to try to fit in at his new school, avoid getting caught up in one of the warden’s daughter’s countless plots, and keep an eye on his sister Natalie, who’s not like other kids.
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A Dangerous Engine
by Joan Dash
(Genre: Biography) IL: 5-8 RL: 5.8
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At the time of his famous kite experiment, Benjamin Franklin was unaware that his theories about electricity had already made him a celebrity all over Europe, especially in France, where fashionable circles loved to
discuss scientific discovery.
Admired by the French court and beloved by French citizens, Franklin effectively became America's first foreign diplomat, later helping to enlist France's military and financial support for the American Revolution. A father of the revolution and a signer of the Constitution, Franklin was a lightning rod in political circles – “a dangerous Engine,” according to a critic.
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Elijah of Buxton
by Christopher Paul Curtis (Genre: Historical Fiction) IL: 3-6 RL: 5.6
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Eleven-year-old Elijah is the first child born into freedom in Buxton, Canada, a settlement of runaway slaves just over the border from Detroit. He’s best known in his hometown as the boy who made a memorable impression on Frederick Douglass.
But things change when a former slave steals money from Elijah’s friend,
who has been saving to buy his family out of captivity in the South. Elijah embarks on a dangerous journey to America in pursuit of the thief, and he discovers firsthand the unimaginable horrors of the life his parents
fled—a life from which he’ll always be free, if he can find the courage to get back home.
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Flush
by Carl Hiaasen
(Genre: Realistic Fiction) IL: 5-8 RL:5.0
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Noah’s dad is sure that the owner of the Coral Queen casino boat is flushing raw sewage into the harbor–which has made taking a dip at the local beach like swimming in a toilet. He can’t prove it though, and so he decides that sinking the boat will make an effective statement. Right.
The boat is pumped out and back in business within days and Noah’s dad is stuck in the clink. Now Noah is determined to succeed where his dad failed. He will prove that the Coral Queen is dumping illegally . . . somehow.
His allies may not add up to much–his sister Abbey, an unreformed childhood biter; Lice Peeking, a greedy sot with poor hygiene; Shelly, a bartender and a woman scorned; and a mysterious pirate–but Noah’s got a plan to flush this crook out into the open. A plan that should sink the crooked little casino, once and for all.
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The Good Dog
by Avi
(Genre: Fantasy) IL: 3-6 RL: 4.3
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In the Colorado mountain town of Steamboat Springs there must be three hundred dogs. Jack's malamute, McKinley, is the leader of them all. But Jack, being human, has no way of knowing that. For him, his family's dog is just a great pal. And protector. Jack cannot know that Redburn, a "leash-licking" Irish setter, is McKinley's rival for the job of head dog. The boy cannot know, with the sudden hillside appearance of a shewolf, Lupin, that not only McKinley's job -- but his life -- is in danger. Lupin's message: Dogs free yourselves from mankind. Come join us, we who need you to replenish our diminishing wolf pack in the wild. But imagine how a good dog, loyal to his human pup, would hear Lupin's call!
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Jim Thorpe: Original All American
by Joseph Bruchac
(Historical Fiction) IL: 5-8 RL:5.5
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Jim Thorpe was one of the greatest athletes who ever lived. He played professional football, Major League
Baseball, and won Olympic gold medals in track & field. But his life wasn’t an easy one.
Born on the Sac and Fox Reservation in 1887, he encountered much family tragedy, and was sent as a young boy to various Indian boarding schools—strict, cold institutions that didn’t allow their students to hold on to their Native American languages and traditions. Jim ran away from school many times, until he found his calling at Pennsylvania’s Carlisle Indian School. There, the now-legendary coach Pop Warner recognized Jim’s athletic excellence and welcomed him onto the football and track teams. This is a book for history buffs as well as sports fans—an illuminating and lively read about a truly great American.
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Last Shot
by John Feinstein (Genre: Mystery) IL: 5-8 RL:4.6
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Steven Thomas is one of two lucky winners of the U.S. Basketball Writer’s Association’s contest for aspiring
journalists. His prize? A trip to New Orleans and a coveted press pass for the Final Four. It’s a basketball
junkie’s dream come true!
But the games going on behind the scenes between the coaches, the players, the media, the money-men, and the fans turn out to be even more fiercely competitive than those on the court.
Steven and his fellow winner, Susan Carol Anderson, are nosing around the Superdome and overhear what
sounds like a threat to throw the championship game. Now they have just 48 hours to figure out who is
blackmailing one of MSU’s star players . . . and why.
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The Lightning Thief
by Rick Riordan
(Genre: Fantasy) IL: 5-8 RL:4.9
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Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school . . . again. But can he really be expected to stand by and watch while a bully picks on his best friend? Or not defend himself against his teacher when she turns into
a monster and tries to kill him? Of course, no one believes Percy about the monster; he's not even sure he
believes himself. Until the Minotaur chases him to summer camp.
Suddenly, mythical creatures seem to be
walking straight out of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. On a daring road trip from their
summer camp in New York to the gates of the Underworld in Los Angeles, Percy and his friends will face a host of enemies determined to stop them. To succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which
warns him of failure and betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.
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Lily’s Crossing
by Patricia Giff
(Genre: Historical Fiction) IL: 3-6 RL: 5.2
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The summer of 1944 was supposed to be as carefree as the past summers of Lily's life -- spent in Rockaway, in
her family's house by the Atlantic Ocean.
But World War II changes everything: Lily's best friend moves away to a wartime factory town, and Lily's father heads overseas to the war. Then Lily meets Albert, a refugee from Hungary who has a very tragic past. The secrets these two children share and the special friendship they form will change both their lives forever.
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Niagara Falls or Does It?
by Henry Winkler
(Humorous Fiction) IL: 3-6 RL: 4
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For Hank, fourth grade does not start out on the right foot. First of all, he gets called to the principal's office on
the very first day of school. Then the first assignment his teacher gives him is to write five paragraphs on
"What You Did This Summer." Hank is terrified-writing one good sentence is hard for him, so how in the
world is he going to write five whole paragraphs?
Hank comes up with a plan: instead of writing what he did on vacation, he'll show what he did. But when Hank's "living essay" becomes a living disaster, he finds himself in detention. Strangely enough, however, detention ends up becoming a turning point in his life |
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Ruby Holler
by Sharon Creech
(Genre: Fiction) IL: 3-6 RL:6.0
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Ruby Holler is a beautiful and mysterious place, deep in the country, a "basin in the hills. . .where cool breezes drifted through the trees, and where the creek was so clear that every stone on its bottom was visible."
An older couple, Tiller and Sairy, live in the holler and are looking for new adventures, each of them hoping to set off on a trip. When they invite the "trouble twins," Dallas and Florida, to join them, all of their lives take new turns.
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Travel Team
by Mike Lupica
(Genre: Baseball-Fiction) IL: 5-8 RL: 5.3
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Twelve-year-old Danny Walker may be the smallest kid on the basketball court -- but don't tell him that.
Because no one plays with more heart or court sense. But none of that matters when he is cut from his local
travel team, the very same team his father led to national prominence as a boy.
Danny's father, still smarting from his own troubles, knows Danny isn't the only kid who was cut for the wrong reason, and together, this washed-up former player and a bunch of never-say-die kids prove that the heart simply cannot be measured.
Travel Team is an inspirational tale in the tradition of The Bad News Bears and Hoosiers.
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The Wish Giver
by Bill Brittain
(Genre: Fantasy) IL: 3-6 RL: 4.7
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When a strange little man comes to the Coven Tree Church Social promising he can give people exactly what
they ask for, three young believers-in-magic each make a wish that comes true in the most unexpected way.
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