Special Collections
Teacher Recommended Reading: Grades 6-8
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Summer of My German Soldier
by Bette GreeneIn Bette Greene's award-winning debut novel, a young Jewish girl in the postwar South finds herself drawn to a German prisoner of war
When the Army delivers a batch of Nazi prisoners of war to an internment camp in Jenkinsville, Arkansas, Patty Bergen is as anxious as any of her neighbors to get a glimpse of the monsters. The eldest child in the town's sole Jewish family, Patty is lonely and isolated, spending most of her time in the company of Ruth, her parents' black housekeeper. Then she meets Anton Reiker, an inmate in the camp. Even though he fought against the Allies, Anton seems to understand Patty in a way even her parents never have. When Anton escapes from the camp, Patty risks everything to keep him safe--but following her heart may come at a terrible price. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Bette Greene including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection.
The Outcasts of Poker Flat and Other Stories
by Bret Harte14 short stories by Harte, with an introduction by Wallace Stegner, a selected bibliography, and notes on the text.
The Gift of the Magi and Other Short Stories
by O. HenryHere are sixteen of the best stories by one of America's most popular storytellers. For nearly a century, the work of O. Henry has delighted readers with its humor, irony and colorful, real-life settings. The writer's own life had more than a touch of color and irony. Born William Sidney Porter in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1862, he worked on a Texas ranch, then as a bank teller in Austin, then as a reporter for the Houston "Post." Adversity struck, however, when he was indicted for embezzlement of bank funds. Porter fled to New Orleans, then to Honduras before he was tried, convicted and imprisoned for the crime in 1898. In prison he began writing stories of Central America and the American Southwest that soon became popular with magazine readers. After his release Porter moved to New York City, where he continued writing stories under the pen name O. HenryThough his work earned him an avid readership, O. Henry died in poverty and oblivion scarcely eight years after his arrival in New York. But in the treasury of stories he left behind are such classics of the genre as "The Gift of the Magi," "The Last Leaf," "The Ransom of Red Chief," "The Voice of the City" and "The Cop and the Anthem" — all included in this choice selection. A selection of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
That Was Then, This Is Now
by S. E. HintonAnother classic by S.E. Hinton, author of The Outsiders
Companion to The Outsiders, That Was Then, This is Now is S. E. Hinton's moving portrait of the bond between best friends Bryon and Mark and the tensions that develop between them as they begin to grow up and grow apart. This latest edition features bonus material, and, like The Outsiders, will also maintain the same pagination as the previous edition, making it ideal for continued classroom use.
Across Five Aprils
by Irene HuntThe unforgettable story of young Jethro Creighton who comes of age during the turbulent years of the Civil War.
Newbery Award Honors book
The Forgotten Door
by Alexander KeyLost in an unfamiliar world, a traveler searches for understandingAt night, Little Jon's people go out to watch the stars. Mesmerized by a meteor shower, he forgets to watch his step and falls through a moss-covered door to another land: America. He awakes hurt, his memory gone, sure only that he does not belong here. Captured by a hunter, Jon escapes by leaping six feet over a barbed-wire fence. Hungry and alone, he staggers through the darkness and is about to be caught when he is rescued by a kind family known as the Beans. They shelter him, feed him, and teach him about his new home. In return, he will change their lives forever. Although the Beans are kind to Little Jon, the townspeople mistrust the mysterious visitor. But Jon has untold powers, and as he learns to harness them, he will show his newfound friends that they have no reason to be afraid.
A Wrinkle in Time
by Madeleine L'EngleMeg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government.
[This text is listed as an example that meets Common Core Standards in English language arts in grades 6-8 at http://www.corestandards.org.]
Newbery Medal Winner
To Be A Slave
by Julius LesterA compilation of reminiscences of slaves and ex-slaves about their lives, from those leaving Africa through the Civil War into the 20th century.
Newbery Medal Honor Book.
The Call of the Wild
by Jack LondonFirst published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is regarded as Jack London's masterpiece. Based on London's experiences as a gold prospector in the Canadian wilderness and his ideas about nature and the struggle for existence, The Call of the Wild is a tale about unbreakable spirit and the fight for survival in the frozen Alaskan Klondike.
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson
by Bette Bao LordA young Chinese girl in 1947 comes to Brooklyn and discovers her love for baseball while adjusting to new life in America.
The Giver
by Lois LowryThis haunting story centers on twelve-year-old Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community.
Lois Lowry has written three companion novels to The Giver, including Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son.
Newbery Medal Winner
Winner of Pacific Northwest Library Association’s Young Reader’s Choice Senior Award
The Hundred Penny Box
by Sharon Bell MathisMichael loves his great-great-aunt Dew, even if she can't always remember his name. He especially loves to spend time with her and her beloved hundred penny box, listening to stories about each of the hundred years of her life. Michael's mother wants to throw out the battered old box that holds the pennies, but Michael understands that the box itself is as important to Aunt Dew as the memories it contains.
Newbery Medal Honor book
Tales of a Dead King
by Walter Dean Myers2 teenagers uncover a plot to rob the tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh.
The Land I Lost
by Huynh Quang NhuongA collection of personal reminiscences of the author's youth in a hamlet on the central highlands of Vietnam.
Will's Choice
by Joan Lowery NixonIt's 1866, and twelve-year-old Will Scott is not happy to be riding the orphan train. That's because Will's not really an orphan. He has a father -- Jesse, a circus performer. But Jess tells Will that he'll have a better life with a new family out west. Will is placed with the kindly Dr. and Mrs. Wallace. Will assists Dr. Wallace on his rounds of the local farms and finds that he's really good at helping people who are sick or hurt. Still, Will misses his father terribly. Then one night Jesse's circus comes to town, and Will has to make a big decision.
Streams to the River, River to the Sea
by Scott O'DellIn this redesigned edition of Scott O'Dell's classic novel, a young Native American woman, accompanied by her infant and her cruel husband, experiences joy and heartbreak when she joins the Lewis and Clark expedition seeking a way to the Pacific.
Winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction
Lyddie
by Katherine PatersonWhen ten-year-old Lyddie and her younger brother are hired out as servants to help pay off their family farm's debts. Lyddie is determined to find a way to reunite her family. A story of determination and personal growth, "Lyddie" has already established itself as a classic.
Canyons
by Gary PaulsenTwo boys, separated by the canyons of time and two vastly different cultures, face the challenges by which they will become men.Coyote Runs, an Apache boy, takes part in his first raid. But he is to be a man for only a short time.More than a hundred years later, while camping near Dog Canyon, 15-year-old Brennan Cole becomes obsessed with a skull that he finds, pierced by a bullet. He learns that it is the skull of an Apache boy executed by soldiers in 1864. A mystical link joins Brennan and Coyote Runs, and Brennan knows that neither boy will find peace until Coyote Runs' skull is carried back to an ancient sacred place.In a grueling journey through the canyon to return the skull, Brennan confronts the challenge of his life.From the Paperback edition.
Hatchet
by Gary PaulsenThis award-winning contemporary classic is the survival story with which all others are compared--and a page-turning, heart-stopping adventure, recipient of the Newbery Honor.
Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father when the single-engine plane in which he is flying crashes. Suddenly, Brian finds himself alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but a tattered Windbreaker and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present--and the dreadful secret that has been tearing him apart since his parent's divorce. But now Brian has no time for anger, self pity, or despair--it will take all his know-how and determination, and more courage than he knew he possessed, to survive.
The River
by Gary Paulsen"We want you to do it again."These words, spoken to Brian Robeson, will change his life. Two years earlier, Brian was stranded alone in the wilderness for 54 days with nothing but a small hatchet. Yet he survived.Now the government wants him to go back into the wilderness so that astronauts and the military can learn the survival techniques that kept Brian alive. Soon the project backfires, though, leaving Brian with a wounded partner and a long river to navigate. His only hope is to build a raft and try to transport the injured man a hundred miles downstream to a trading post--if the map he has is accurate.From the Paperback edition.
The Light in the Forest
by Conrad Richter"True Son," born John Butler in a little frontier town, was captured by the Lenni Lenape Indians when he was four years old, and adopted into the tribe by the great warrior Cuyloga who renamed him and reared him as his son. True Son grew up to think, feel and fight like an Indian, to reverence their God. Then the Indians made a treaty and agreed to return all white captives to their own people. But True Son had learned to hate all white men. Though reared as a Lenni Lenape Indian, fifteen-year-old True Son, once called John Camera Butler, was ordered back to the white man. It was impossible for True Son to believe that his people were white and not Indian. He had learned to hate the white man. And now he learned to hate his new father, his new house, his new family. He hated the name John Butler. Where did he belong now-and where could he go?|
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
by J. K. RowlingA teenager pitching headfirst into the world of near-adulthood, Harry returns to Hogwarts for his fourth year. The fourth book in the series.
Shadow of a Bull
by Alvin Smith and Maia WojciechowskaManolo was only three when his father, the great bullfighter Juan Olivar, died. But Juan is never far from Manolo's consciousness--how could he be, with the entire town of Arcangel waiting for the day Manolo will fulfill his father's legacy?
But Manolo has a secret he dares to share with no one--he is a coward, without the love of the sport that enables a bullfighter to rise above his fear and face a raging bull. As the day when he must enter the ring approaches, Manolo finds himself questioning which requires more courage: to follow in his father's legendary footsteps or to pursue his own destiny?
Newbery Medal winner
The Sign of the Beaver
by Elizabeth George SpeareAlthough he faces responsibility bravely, thirteen-year-old Matt is more than a little apprehensive when his father leaves him alone to guard their new cabin in the wilderness. When a renegade white stranger steals his gun, Matt realizes he has no way to shoot game or to protect himself. When Matt meets Attean, a boy in the Beaver clan, he begins to better understand their way of life and their growing problem in adapting to the white man and the changing frontier.
Newbery Honor Book
Winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction