Special Collections
Accelerated Reader Middle Grade Collection
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There Is a Bird on Your Head!
by Mo WillemsGerald and Piggie are best friends. In There Is a Bird On Your Head!, Gerald discovers that there is something worse than a bird on your head--two birds on your head!
Winner of the Theodore Seuss Geisel Medal
Watch Me Throw the Ball!
by Mo WillemsMeet Elephant Gerald and Piggie, winners of the Theodor Seuss Geisel medal for There Is a Bird on Your Head! Gerald is careful. Piggie is not. Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can. Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to. Gerald and Piggie are best friends. In Watch Me Throw the Ball!, Gerald thinks ball-throwing is serious business. But does Piggie know something about throwing that Gerald does not?
We Are in a Book!
by Mo WillemsElephant and Piggie are best friends. In We Are in a Book! Elephant and Piggie discover the joy of being read. But what will happen when the book ends? Using vocabulary perfect for beginning readers (and vetted by an early-learning specialist), Mo Willems has crafted a mind-bending story that is even more interactive than previous Elephant & Piggie adventures.
Winner of the Theodore Seuss Geisel Honor
We Are in a Book!
by Mo WillemsGerald is careful. Piggie is not. Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can.
Gerald and Piggie are best friends.
In We Are in a Book! Gerald and Piggie discover the joy of being read. But what will happen when the book ends?
Using vocabulary perfect for beginning readers (and vetted by an early-learning specialist), Mo Willems has crafted a mind-bending story that is even more interactive than previous Elephant & Piggie adventures. Fans of the Geisel Award-winning duo won't be able to put this book down--literally!
Now Is the Time for Running
by Michael WilliamsJust down the road from their families, Deo and his friends play soccer in the dusty fields of Zimbabwe, cheered on by Deo's older brother, Innocent. It is a day like any other... until the soldiers arrive and Deo and Innocent are forced to run for their lives, fleeing the wreckage of their village for the distant promise of safe haven in South Africa. Along the way, they face the prejudice and poverty that greet refugees everywhere, but eventually Deo finds hope, joining dozens of other homeless, displaced teens on the World Cup Street Soccer team--a possible ticket out of extreme hardship to a new life.Captivating and timely, Now Is the Time for Running is a staggering story of survival that follows Deo and his brother on a transformative journey that will stay with readers long after the last page.
Now Is the Time for Running
by Michael WilliamsJust down the road from their families, Deo and his friends play soccer in the dusty fields of Zimbabwe, cheered on by Deo's older brother, Innocent.
It is a day like any other . . . until the soldiers arrive and Deo and Innocent are forced to run for their lives, fleeing the wreckage of their village for the distant promise of safe haven.
Along the way, they face the prejudice and poverty that await refugees everywhere, and must rely on the kindness of people they meet to make it through. But when tragedy strikes, Deo's love of soccer is all he has left. Can he use that gift to find hope once more?
Relevant, timely, and accessibly written, Now Is the Time For Running is a staggering story of survival that follows Deo and his mentally handicapped older brother on a transformative journey that will stick with readers long after the last page.
The Pet War
by Allan WoodrowTHE PET WAR is a hilarious story about the timeless battles of dog vs. cat, brother vs. sister, know-it-all vs. know-nothing.Eleven-year-old Otto wants a dog. His twelve-year-old perfect sister, Lexi, wants a cat. Their mother, who works very long hours as a nurse, wants neither. Pets are expensive so who's going to pay for everything? And what happens to the pet when the siblings are at their dad's for the weekend? Otto has an idea. What if he got a job and earned enough money to pay for the dog? Then Lexi has to open her big mouth. She proposes that whichever sibling can raise enough money first will decide which pet they get. Oddly enough, their mom and dad agree. With Otto and Lexi each out to defeat the other, their business plans become more elaborate and involved. As the competition gets fiercer, the stakes get higher, and the battle lines have been drawn, so let the Pet War begin. . . .
Feathers
by Jacqueline Woodson“Hope is the thing with feathers” starts the poem Frannie is reading in school. Frannie hasn’t thought much about hope. There are so many other things to think about. Each day, her friend Samantha seems a bit more “holy.” There is a new boy in class everyone is calling the Jesus Boy. And although the new boy looks like a white kid, he says he’s not white. Who is he?
During a winter full of surprises, good and bad, Frannie starts seeing a lot of things in a new light—her brother Sean’s deafness, her mother’s fear, the class bully’s anger, her best friend’s faith and her own desire for “the thing with feathers.”
Jacqueline Woodson once again takes readers on a journey into a young girl’s heart and reveals the pain and the joy of learning to look beneath the surface.
Newbery Honor book
Hush
by Jacqueline WoodsonA powerfully moving novel from a three-time Newbery Honor-winning authorEvie Thomas is not who she used to be. Once she had a best friend, a happy home and a loving grandmother living nearby. Once her name was Toswiah.Now, everything is different. Her family has been forced to move to a new place and change their identities. But that's not all that has changed. Her once lively father has become depressed and quiet. Her mother leaves teaching behind and clings to a new-found religion. Her only sister is making secret plans to leave.And Evie, struggling to find her way in a new city where kids aren't friendly and the terrain is as unfamiliar as her name, wonders who she is.Jacqueline Woodson weaves a fascinating portrait of a thoughtful young girl's coming of age in a world turned upside downA National Book Award Finalist
Freedom's Wings
by Sharon Dennis WyethCorey Birdsong is a lively young boy in search of freedom in the same country that made an economy of slavery. He and his family are owned by the Hart family of Kentucky. But, when Corey's father, Roland, flees to the North and Corey and his mother follow. Corey records his daily life on the Hart farm with incredible insight and honesty, and later he describes the difficult journey along the "Underground Railroad" to the North to be reunited with his father. With the help of many kind strangers, Corey, his parents, and his new baby sister arrive safely in Canada.
Amos Fortune
by Elizabeth YatesWinner of the Newbery Medal!
When Amos Fortune was only fifteen years old, he was captured by slave traders and brought to Massachusetts, where he was sold at auction. Although his freedom had been taken, Amos never lost his dignity and courage. For 45 years, Amos worked as a slave and dreamed of freedom. And, at age 60, he finally began to see those dreams come true.
Breaking Stalin's Nose
by Eugene YelchinSasha Zaichik has known the laws of the Soviet Young Pioneers since the age of six: The Young Pioneer is devoted to Comrade Stalin, the Communist Party, and Communism. A Young Pioneer is a reliable comrade and always acts according to conscience. A Young Pioneer has a right to criticize shortcomings. But now that it is finally time to join the Young Pioneers, the day Sasha has awaited for so long, everything seems to go awry. He breaks a classmate's glasses with a snowball. He accidentally damages a bust of Stalin in the school hallway. And worst of all, his father, the best Communist he knows, was arrested just last night. This moving story of a ten-year-old boy's world shattering is masterful in its simplicity, powerful in its message, and heartbreaking in its plausibility.
Breaking Stalin's Nose
by Eugene YelchinOne of Horn Book's Best Fiction Books of 2011. Sasha Zaichik has known the laws of the Soviet Young Pioneers since the age of six: The Young Pioneer is devoted to Comrade Stalin, the Communist Party, and Communism. A Young Pioneer is a reliable comrade and always acts according to conscience. A Young Pioneer has a right to criticize shortcomings. But now that it is finally time to join the Young Pioneers, the day Sasha has awaited for so long, everything seems to go awry. He breaks a classmate's glasses with a snowball. He accidentally damages a bust of Stalin in the school hallway. And worst of all, his father, the best Communist he knows, was arrested just last night. This moving story of a ten-year-old boy's world shattering is masterful in its simplicity, powerful in its message, and heartbreaking in its plausibility.
Newbery Medal Honor book
Dragon's Gate
by Laurence YepIn 1867, Otter travels from Three Willows Village in China to California -- the Land of the Golden Mountain. There he will join his father and uncle.
In spite of the presence of family, Otter is a stranger among the other Chinese in this new land. And where he expected to see a land of goldfields, he sees only vast, cold whiteness. But Otter's dream is to learn all he can, take the technology back to the Middle Kingdom, and free China from the Manchu invaders.
Otter and the others board a machine that will change his life -- a train for which he would open the Dragon's Gate.
Newbery Medal Honor book
Commander Toad and the Big Black Hole
by Jane YolenFrom the Author's Website: I began the COMMANDER TOAD books because I saw an article in the local newspaper about a boy and his frog who had just won a jumping-frog contest. The frog's name was "Star Warts." I thought it would be funnier if the frog had been a toad, since the old superstition is that toads gives you warts. (It isn't true, of course.) So I invented frog and toads in space on a ship called "Star Warts." Every book is riddled with puns. (I love puns!) There are seven Commander Toad books altogether, though I have been thinking about possibly writing an eighth. A half-hour television show was made with puppets about Commander Toad but it wasn't very successful. For some reason, several of the characters were changed--Jake into a human boy and Doc Pepper into a turtle--and the ship's name was changed as well to "Stella." Also all the puns were missing. All the Commander Toad books were on Reading Rainbow. A PaperStar edition is in print.
Commander Toad and the Dis-asteroid
by Jane YolenYoung fans of Star Wars and silliness will toad-ally love Commander Toad! When Commander Toad and the crew of the Star Warts learn that a disaster has struck an asteroid, they race across the galaxy to the rescue. But it's hard to figure out just what is wrong, especially when there is a language barrier between the Star Warts' crew and the pigeon inhabitants of the dis-asteroid. A hero is needed, but is even intrepid Commander Toad brave enough to save the day?
Commander Toad and the Space Pirates
by Jane YolenIt's been a long trip, and Commander Toad and the crew of the Star Warts are bored. They've played all the games and watched all the movies and read all the books on the ship .Then, suddenly, the alarm goes off. Before they know what is happening, the Star Warts has been boarded by pirates, led by Commander Salamander, Scourge of the Skies and Goon of the Galaxies. He's ugly, green and very mean, and he likes to make his captives play Hop the Plank--an extremely dangerous game in outer space. Can Commander Toad and his crew escape?
Commander Toad In Space
by Jane YolenThe intrepid crew of the spaceship "Star Warts" lands on a water-covered planet inhabited by the Deep Wader, a horrible hungry monster.