Special Collections
Teacher Recommended Reading: Grades 6-8
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The Pigman
by Paul ZindelNow, I don't like school, which you might say is one of the factors that got us involved with this old guy we nicknamed the Pigman. Actually, I hate school, but then again most of the time I hate everything. I used to really hate school when I first started at Franklin High. I hated it so much the first year they called me the Bathroom Bomber. Other kids got elected G.O. President and class secretary and lab-squad captain, but I got elected the Bathroom Bomber.
Dragonwings
by Laurence YepMoon Shadow is eight years old when he sails from China to join his father, Windrider, in America. Windrider lives in San Francisco and makes his living doing laundry. Father and son have never met.
But Moon Shadow grows to love and respect his father and to believe in his wonderful dream. And Windrider, with Moon Shadow's help, is willing to endure the mockery of the other Chinese, the poverty, the separation from his wife and country, even the great earthquake, to make his dream come true.
Inspired by the account of a Chinese immigrant who made a flying machine in 1909, Laurence Yep's historical novel beautifully portrays the rich traditions of the Chinese community as it made its way in a hostile new world.
Newbery Honor Book
Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Honor Book
Child of the Owl
by Laurence YepA young girl is sent to live with her grandmother in Chinatown and finds her Chinese heritage for the first time.
The Swiss Family Robinson
by Johann David WyssThe beloved adventure story of a family marooned on a deserted island and making a new home in the jungle wilderness Off the coast of New Guinea a storm rages for seven days, violently tossing the passenger vessel holding a family of six about the sea. Left behind by the crew and other passengers of their wrecked ship, the family has no choice but to go it alone. They fill tubs with tools and provisions they may need to survive, and set off for a nearby island--devoid of people but teeming with lush natural life. Once on the island, they build themselves a home, complete with livestock, a small farm, and a sturdy tree house for shelter. In no time, the four boys and their steadfast parents learn to thrive on the jungle island, learning just how much can be accomplished through hard work, cooperation, curiosity, and perseverance. First published in 1812, The Swiss Family Robinson is a rip-roaring adventure tale and an engrossing novel about self-sufficiency, responsibility, and the uses and wonders of the natural world. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
Journey Home
by Yoshiko UchidaYuki, a 12-year-old Japanese American girl, and her family were sent to a concentration camp in Utah. This is the story of their journey back to Berkeley, California after WWII is over.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark TwainMark Twain's classic story of a young boy's life in a small town on the Mississippi River. [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.]
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
by Mildred D. TaylorWinner of the Newbery Medal, this remarkably moving novel has impressed the hearts and minds of millions of readers. Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, this is the story of one family's struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice. And it is also Cassie's story--Cassie Logan, an independent girl who discovers over the course of an important year why having land of their own is so crucial to the Logan family, even as she learns to draw strength from her own sense of dignity and self-respect.* "[A] vivid story.... Entirely through its own internal development, the novel shows the rich inner rewards of black pride, love, and independence."--Booklist, starred review
Treasure Island
by Robert Louis StevensonClassic tale of the sea, a hunt for buried treasure, pirates and adventures. Features Long John Silver, one of Stevenson's most enduring characters.
Call It Courage
by Armstrong SperryMaftu was afraid of the sea. It had taken his mother when he was a baby, and it seemed to him that the sea gods sought vengeance at having been cheated of Mafatu. So, though he was the son of the Great Chief of Hikueru, a race of Polynesians who worshipped courage, and he was named Stout Heart, he feared and avoided tha sea, till everyone branded him a coward. When he could no longer bear their taunts and jibes, he determined to conquer that fear or be conquered-- so he went off in his canoe, alone except for his little dog and pet albatross. A storm gave him his first challenge. Then days on a desert island found him resourceful beyond his own expectation. This is the story of how his courage grew and how he finally returned home. This is a legend. It happened many years ago, but even today the people of Hikueru sing this story and tell it over their evening fires.
Newbery Medal winner
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
by Elizabeth George SpeareSixteen-year-old Kit Tyler is marked by suspicion and disapproval from the moment she arrives on the unfamiliar shores of colonial Connecticut in 1687. Alone and desperate, she has been forced to leave her beloved home on the island of Barbados and join a family she has never met. Torn between her quest for belonging and her desire to be true to herself, Kit struggles to survive in a hostile place. Just when it seems she must give up, she finds a kindred spirit. But Kit’s friendship with Hannah Tupper, believed by the colonists to be a witch, proves more taboo than she could have imagined and ultimately forces Kit to choose between her heart and her duty.
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
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
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.
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?|
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Tales of a Dead King
by Walter Dean Myers2 teenagers uncover a plot to rob the tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh.
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