Special Collections
Browse by Lexile: 700L - 790L
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Sammy Keyes and the Power of Justice Jack
by Wendelin Van DraanenSammy thought she'd seen all the weirdness her town had to offer--and then she met Justice Jack, Santa Martina's very own superhero. Well, really he's just a guy in spandex and a mask who rides around town on a dirt bike, hoping to find some crime to fight.
The old folks in town think he's wonderful. So wonderful that they've asked him to track down Sammy's neighbor Mrs. Wedgewood, who seems to have disappeared--along with a lot of other people's cash. Sammy's friends think Justice Jack is funny and cool. Billy Pratt's even auditioning to be his sidekick!
But Sammy thinks he's kind of . . . lame. He's more of a showstopper than a crime stopper. And when a real mystery comes along, Sammy finds herself right in the middle of it. . . .
Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash
by Wendelin Van DraanenSammy Keyes has three wads of cold hard cash in her hot little hands. An old guy gave them to her. Well, actually, he told her to throw them away. Begged her. With his last dying breath. Which he was taking because Sammy had just scared the life right out of him.
So . . . she's got to get this man some help. She's got to do it without being seen herself. And she's got to figure out how to stash that cash. Aw, c'mon! You'd keep the money too, right? No one ever needs to know. . . . From the Hardcover edition.
I Survived the Nazi Invasion, 1944
by Lauren TarshisOne of the darkest periods in history...In a Jewish ghetto, Max Rosen and his sister Zena struggle to live after their father is taken away by the Nazis. With barely enough food to survive, the siblings make a daring escape from Nazi soldiers into the nearby forest.Max and Zena are brought to a safe camp by Jewish resistance fighters. But soon, bombs are falling all around them. Can Max and Zena survive the fallout of the Nazi invasion?
Mallory on Board
by Laurie FriedmanDespite her fears of being a "third wheel," Mallory goes on a cruise for the wedding of the mother and father of her two best friends.
Taking Sides
by Gary SotoFourteen-year-old Lincoln Mendoza, an aspiring basketball player, must come to terms with his divided loyalties when he moves from the Hispanic inner city to a white suburban neighborhood.
Talking Leaves
by Joseph BruchacA new work of historical fiction about Sequoyah and the creation of the Cherokee alphabet, from the acclaimed author of Code Talker Thirteen-year-old Uwohali has not seen his father, Sequoyah, for many years. So when Sequoyah returns to the village, Uwohali is eager to reconnect. But Sequoyah's new obsession with making strange markings causes friends and neighbors in their tribe to wonder whether he is crazy, or worse--practicing witchcraft. What they don't know, and what Uwohali discovers, is that Sequoyah is a genius and his strange markings are actually an alphabet representing the sounds of the Cherokee language. The story of one of the most important figures in Native American history is brought to life for middle grade readers.
Story Thieves
by James RileyA hilarious, action-packed series launches with a story-within-a-story, from the bestselling author of the Half Upon a Time trilogy.
Life is boring when you live in the real world, instead of starring in your own book series. Owen knows that better than anyone, what with the real world's homework and chores. But everything changes the day Owen sees the impossible happen--his classmate Bethany climb out of a book in the library.
It turns out Bethany's half-fictional and has been searching every book she can find for her missing father, a fictional character. Bethany can't let anyone else learn her secret, so Owen makes her a deal: All she has to do is take him into a book in Owen's favorite Kiel Gnomenfoot series, and he'll never say a word. Besides, visiting the book might help Bethany find her father... ...
Or it might just destroy the Kiel Gnomenfoot series, reveal Bethany's secret to the entire world, and force Owen to live out Kiel Gnomenfoot's final (very final) adventure.
The Van Gogh Deception
by Deron R. HicksDan Brown meets Jason Bourne in this riveting middle-grade mystery thriller.
When a young boy is discovered in Washington DC’s National Gallery without any recollection of who he is, so begins a high-stakes race to unravel the greatest mystery of all: his identity.
As the stakes continue to rise, the boy must piece together the disjointed clues of his origins while using his limited knowledge to stop one of the greatest art frauds ever attempted.
Digitally interactive, this breathtaking museum mystery offers QR codes woven throughout the book that bring renowned paintings to readers’ fingertips.
The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora
by Pablo CartayaSave the restaurant. Save the town. Get the girl. Make Abuela proud.
Can thirteen-year-old Arturo Zamora do it all or is he in for a BIG, EPIC FAIL? For Arturo, summertime in Miami means playing basketball until dark, sipping mango smoothies, and keeping cool under banyan trees. And maybe a few shifts as junior lunchtime dishwasher at Abuela’s restaurant. Maybe.
But this summer also includes Carmen, a cute poetry enthusiast who moves into Arturo’s apartment complex and turns his stomach into a deep fryer. He almost doesn’t notice the smarmy land developer who rolls into town and threatens to change it.
Arturo refuses to let his family and community go down without a fight, and as he schemes with Carmen, Arturo discovers the power of poetry and protest through untold family stories and the work of José Martí.
Funny and poignant, The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora is the vibrant story of a family, a striking portrait of a town, and one boy's quest to save both, perfect for fans of Rita Williams-Garcia.
Weedflower
by Cynthia KadohataTwelve-year-old Sumiko feels her life has been made up of two parts: before Pearl Harbor and after it. The good part and the bad part. Raised on a flower farm in California, Sumiko is used to being the only Japanese girl in her class. Even when the other kids tease her, she always has had her flowers and family to go home to. That all changes after the horrific events of Pearl Harbor. Other Americans start to suspect that all Japanese people are spies for the emperor, even if, like Sumiko, they were born in the United States! As suspicions grow, Sumiko and her family find themselves being shipped to an internment camp in one of the hottest deserts in the United States. The vivid color of her previous life is gone forever, and now dust storms regularly choke the sky and seep into every crack of the military barrack that is her new "home." Sumiko soon discovers that the camp is on an Indian reservation and that the Japanese are as unwanted there as they'd been at home. But then she meets a young Mohave boy who might just become her first real friend...if he can ever stop being angry about the fact that the internment camp is on his tribe's land. With searing insight and clarity, Newbery Medal-winning author Cynthia Kadohata explores an important and painful topic through the eyes of a young girl who yearns to belong. Weedflower is the story of the rewards and challenges of a friendship across the racial divide, as well as the based-on-real-life story of how the meeting of Japanese Americans and Native Americans changed the future of both.
Esperanza Rising (Scholastic Gold)
by Pam Muñoz RyanEsperanza Rising joins the Scholastic Gold line, which features award-winning and beloved novels. Includes exclusive bonus content!Esperanza thought she'd always live a privileged life on her family's ranch in Mexico. She'd always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home filled with servants, and Mama, Papa, and Abuelita to care for her. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California and settle in a Mexican farm labor camp. Esperanza isn't ready for the hard work, financial struggles brought on by the Great Depression, or lack of acceptance she now faces. When Mama gets sick and a strike for better working conditions threatens to uproot their new life, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances-because Mama's life, and her own, depend on it.
As Brave As You
by Jason ReynoldsWhen two brothers decide to prove how brave they are, everything backfires—literally—in this piercing middle grade novel by the winner of the Coretta Scott King – Johnson Steptoe Award.
Genie’s summer is full of surprises. The first is that he and his big brother, Ernie, are leaving Brooklyn for the very first time to spend the summer with their grandparents all the way in Virginia—in the COUNTRY! The second surprise comes when Genie figures out that their grandfather is blind. Thunderstruck and—being a curious kid—Genie peppers Grandpop with questions about how he covers it so well (besides wearing way cool Ray-Bans).
How does he match his clothes? Know where to walk? Cook with a gas stove? Pour a glass of sweet tea without spilling it? Genie thinks Grandpop must be the bravest guy he’s ever known, but he starts to notice that his grandfather never leaves the house—as in NEVER. And when he finds the secret room that Grandpop is always disappearing into—a room so full of songbirds and plants that it’s almost as if it’s been pulled inside-out—he begins to wonder if his grandfather is really so brave after all.
Then Ernie lets him down in the bravery department. It’s his fourteenth birthday, and, Grandpop says to become a man, you have to learn how to shoot a gun. Genie thinks that is AWESOME until he realizes Ernie has no interest in learning how to shoot. None. Nada. Dumbfounded by Ernie’s reluctance, Genie is left to wonder—is bravery and becoming a man only about proving something, or is it just as important to own up to what you won’t do?
Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award
A Long Way From Chicago
by Richard PeckA summer they'll never forget.
Each summer Joey and his sister, Mary Alice—two city slickers from Chicago—visit Grandma Dowdel's seemingly sleepy Illinois town. Soon enough, they find that it's far from sleepy...and Grandma is far from your typical grandmother. From seeing their first corpse (and he isn't resting easy) to helping Grandma trespass, catch the sheriff in his underwear, and feed the hungry—all in one day—Joey and Mary Alice have nine summers they'll never forget!
A Newbery Honor Book
A National Book Award Finalist
An ALA Notable Book
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
A Corner of the Universe (Scholastic Gold)
by Ann M. MartinAnn Martin's phenomenal Newbery Honor book, now in paperback The summer Hattie turns 12, her predictable smalltown life is turned on end when her uncle Adam returns home for the first time in over ten years. Hattie has never met him, never known about him. He's been institutionalized; his condition invovles schizophrenia and autism. Hattie, a shy girl who prefers the company of adults, takes immediately to her excitable uncle, even when the rest of the family -- her parents and grandparents -- have trouble dealing with his intense way of seeing the world. And Adam, too, sees that Hattie is special, that her quiet, shy ways are not a disability,
After Tupac and D Foster
by Jacqueline WoodsonD Foster showed up a few months before Tupac got shot that first time and left us the summer before he died.
The day D Foster enters Neeka and her best friend's lives, the world opens up for them. D comes from a world vastly different from their safe Queens neighborhood, and through her, the girls see another side of life that includes loss, foster families and an amount of freedom that makes the girls envious. Although all of them are crazy about Tupac Shakur's rap music, D is the one who truly understands the place where he's coming from, and through knowing D, Tupac's lyrics become more personal for all of them. The girls are thirteen when D's mom swoops in to reclaim D--and as magically as she appeared, she now disappears from their lives. Tupac is gone, too, after another shooting; this time fatal. As the narrator looks back, she sees lives suspended in time, and realizes that even all-too-brief connections can touch deeply.
A Discussion Guide to After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson .
Newbery Honor book
When You Reach Me
by Rebecca SteadWinner of the 2010 John Newbery Medal
Four mysterious letters change Miranda’s world forever.
By sixth grade, Miranda and her best friend, Sal, know how to navigate their New York City neighborhood. They know where it’s safe to go, like the local grocery store, and they know whom to avoid, like the crazy guy on the corner.
But things start to unravel. Sal gets punched by a new kid for what seems like no reason, and he shuts Miranda out of his life. The apartment key that Miranda’s mom keeps hidden for emergencies is stolen. And then Miranda finds a mysterious note scrawled on a tiny slip of paper:
I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own.
I must ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter.
The notes keep coming, and Miranda slowly realizes that whoever is leaving them knows all about her, including things that have not even happened yet. Each message brings her closer to believing that only she can prevent a tragic death. Until the final note makes her think she’s too late.
One Crazy Summer
by Rita Williams-GarciaIn this Newbery Honor novel, New York Times bestselling author Rita Williams-Garcia tells the story of three sisters who travel to Oakland, California, in 1968 to meet the mother who abandoned them.
Eleven-year-old Delphine is like a mother to her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern. She's had to be, ever since their mother, Cecile, left them seven years ago for a radical new life in California. When they arrive from Brooklyn to spend the summer with her, Cecile is nothing like they imagined. While the girls hope to go to Disneyland and meet Tinker Bell, their mother sends them to a day camp run by the Black Panthers. Unexpectedly, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern learn much about their family, their country, and themselves during one truly crazy summer.
This moving, funny novel won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction and the Coretta Scott King Award and was a National Book Award Finalist.Readers who enjoy Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham will find much to love in One Crazy Summer. Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern's story continues in P.S. Be Eleven.
The Crossover
by Kwame Alexander2015 Newbery Medal Winner
2015 Coretta Scott King Honor Award Winner
"With a bolt of lightning on my kicks . . .The court is SIZZLING. My sweat is DRIZZLING. Stop all that quivering. Cuz tonight I'm delivering," announces dread-locked, 12-year old Josh Bell.
He and his twin brother Jordan are awesome on the court. But Josh has more than basketball in his blood, he's got mad beats, too, that tell his family's story in verse, in this fast and furious middle grade novel of family and brotherhood from Kwame Alexander.
Josh and Jordan must come to grips with growing up on and off the court to realize breaking the rules comes at a terrible price, as their story's heart-stopping climax proves a game-changer for the entire family.
A New York Times Bestseller
The Journal of Jasper Jonathan Pierce
by Ann RinaldiThis book is historical fiction. Many of the characters did exist. The story is of a 14 year old boy Jasper Jonathan Pierce and his voyage on the Mayflower. After arriving at Plymouth, Jasper has many adventures. The book is well done, and accurate in most details.
Dreams in the Golden Country
by Kathryn LaskyZippy's Diary begins with her arrival on Ellis Island with her mother and 2 older sisters. Two days before a bit of soot irritated her eye and for that the 12 year old would have been sent back to Russia alone with the letter E for eye disease chalked on her back. Thinking quickly, her big sister, Tovah, with lightning speed, turns Zippy's coat inside out, and so begins the little girl's life in America, the land of dreams. She dreams of becoming an actress, Tovah dreams of unionizing the workers in sweat shops and Miriam dreams the unthinkable, of marrying an Irish Catholic boy. Zippy suffers the humiliation of being placed in first grade, but through intelligence and concentrated hard work and practice will reach eighth grade in a year and a half when her Diary ends. She uses and explains Yiddish words and Jewish proverbs as she goes along. She and her family struggle to decide which traditional and religious customs to keep and which American customs to adopt. Conflict arises when different family members make different choices. This story in which Zippy confides her most personal thoughts from being irritated because their boarder smells bad to wanting to contact Miriam, now married to her Irish boy and declared dead and even mourned by their mother. The pace at which this family adjusts to and makes changes is astonishing as are the many details of life in New York City in 1903 when the ice cream cone is an untried invention. There is meaningful information about immigrants from several countries, solid history and compelling human drama.
A Brand-New Me!
by Henry Winkler and Tim Heitz and Lin OliverIt's graduation time for Hank Zipzer and all his friends-- time to move on from PS 87 to middle school.
Trouble is, there are tests Hank has to pass to get into the same middle schools as his friends, and his learning differences might get in the way. Luckily, a life-altering audition at a performing arts middle school helps him find his true path.
The Life of Me
by Henry Winkler and Lin OliverWhen Ms. Adolf hurts her back in a tango contest and goes on longterm leave, Mr. Rock (the music teacher) is called in as the sub. Hank is psyched . . . until Mr. Rock suggests that Hank attend an after-school reading program, which means he'll miss tae kwon do. But when Hank gets a crush on a girl in the reading program, and when Mr. Rock says that instead of writing his autobiography (a class assignment), Hank can present his life in scrapbook form, well . . . life's looking good. Then Hank finds out that his crush is actually the cousin of his nemesis, McKelty! Readers will love Hank's newest adventure, plus they will adore reading Hank's scrapbook, which includes black-and-white photos of his school and neighborhood, newspaper clippings, memorabilia, and more!
My Dog's a Scaredy-Cat
by Henry Winkler and Lin OliverTeased by the school bully because of his Halloween costume, underachieving Hank, with the help of his friends, exacts revenge by creating the scariest and grossest haunted house ever and inviting the bully to visit.
Holy Enchilada!
by Lin Oliver and Henry Winkler and Tim HeitzPS 87 is having multicultural week, and Ms. Adolf's class is putting on a "Foods from Around the World" luncheon. Hank is thrilled, no reading, no outlining, and no review questions, just cooking! Hank makes enchiladas, and at the luncheon, Ms. Adolf piles her plate with lots of food. But after a few bites, her face turns bright red. One of the dishes is super-spicy!
Ms. Adolf accuses someone of playing a mean practical joke, and punishes the entire class with no recess until the guilty party comes forward. Hank realizes his trouble with numbers might have caused the problem. What if he accidentally used three cups of peppers instead of 1/3 cup? Will Hank be able to get recess back for everyone without getting detention for the rest of his life?
Lexile Level: 750L
Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher
by Wendelin Van DraanenFor junior high detective Sammy Keyes, eighth grade begins with an accusation, an inquisition, and several assorted death threats!
The history teacher, Mr. Vince, is being threatened, which at first seems funny. He's horrible! Every student wants Mr. Vince gone. But as the threats become more serious, the question becomes-who wants him dead and gone?
With her own name near the top of the suspect list, Sammy's determined to get to the bottom of things. But she's distracted by a mother bearing bad news, an almost-boyfriend ducking her calls, and a date with a poofy lavender bridesmaid dress.
This latest Sammy Keyes adventure blends mystery, comedy, and a dusting of fairy tale magic as Sammy takes off her high-tops, puts on some party shoes, and steps into a whole lot of trouble.