Special Collections
Teacher Recommended Reading: Grades 3-5
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Amazing Grace
by Mary HoffmanAlthough classmates say that she can't play Peter Pan in the school play, because she's black and a girl, Grace discovers that she can do anything she sets her mind to do.
Class Clown
by Johanna HurwitzLucas Cott desires to be a good student while his classmates want him to be funny as the class clown!
Class President
by Johanna HurwitzA fifth-grade class election is full of surprises when Julio nominates his best friend but ends up becoming much more involved!
The Clue of the Broken Locket
by Carolyn KeeneWhen Nancy Drew and her friends arrive at Misty Lake, they meet pretty, red-haired Cecily Curtis, who seeks Nancy's help in solving two mysteries.
One concerns Cecily's fiancé, Niko Van Dyke, a popular singer who believes that his record company is cheating him of royalty payments. The other invovles a family treasure hidden before the start of the Civil War; Cecily's only clue is half of a gold locket. Nancy's investigations lead her to Pudding Stone Lodge, where the sinister Driscoll family lives. Strange coincidences give Nancy plenty of opportunity to test her sleuthing skills. Braving a series of dangerous situations and discouraging developments, the alert young detective perseveres in her attempts to solve both mysteries and reveal the astounding secrets of Pudding Stone Lodge.
Babe
by Dick King-SmithFarmer Hoggett and his wife discover that their new piglet Babe is no ordinary pig (made into a movie called Babe).
Pippi Longstocking
by Astrid LindgrenTommy and his sister, Annika, have a new neighbor, and her name is Pippi Longstocking. She is spunky with crazy red pigtails, no parents to tell her what to do, a horse that lives on her porch, and a pet monkey named Mr. Nilsson. Whether Pippi's scrubbing floors, doing arithmetic, or stirring things up at a fancy tea party, her flair for the outrageous always seems to lead to another adventure.
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.
Number the Stars
by Lois LowryAs the German troops begin their campaign to "relocate" all the Jews of Denmark, Annemarie Johansen's family takes in Annemarie's best friend, Ellen Rosen, and conceals her as part of the family.
Through the eyes of ten-year-old Annemarie, we watch as the Danish Resistance smuggles almost the entire Jewish population of Denmark, nearly seven thousand people, across the sea to Sweden. The heroism of an entire nation reminds us that there was pride and human decency in the world even during a time of terror and war.
Winner of the 1990 Newbery Medal.
Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Honor Book
The Paper Bag Princess
by Michael Martchenko and Robert N. MunschThe Princess Elizabeth is slated to marry Prince Ronald when a dragon attacks the castle and kidnaps Ronald. In resourceful and humorous fashion, Elizabeth finds the dragon, outsmarts him, and rescues Ronald --- who is less than pleased at her un-princess-like appearance. Images and image descriptions available.
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
Owls in the Family
by Farley MowatTwo owls from Saskatchewan come to a neighborhood and shake up the whole town.
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.
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 Knights of the Kitchen Table
by Jon Scieszka and Lane SmithThree friends, Sam, Joe, and Fred travel through time having action-packed, outlandish adventures. The snappy dialogue and classic ""boy"" humor in this series of chapter books will engage the most reluctant readers.
Jelly Belly
by Robert Kimmel SmithIt's tough for eleven-year-old Ned to stop eating. At four-feet-eight inches tall he weighs one hundred and nine pounds, and he keeps growing--wider. When his pareents send him to a summer diet camp, he and his bunkmates can't quite give up their old habits. The joys of candy and doughnuts are so appealing that "cheating" adventures seems to be the only answer. The problem, of course, is how to lose weight and keep eating sweets. When Ned finally realizes that there is only one way to lose weight for good, his whole family is glad to help, except Grandma. How can he resist temptation without hurting his grandma and himself?From the Trade Paperback edition.
The Egypt Game
by Zilpha Keatley SnyderThe first time Melanie Ross meets April Hall, she’s not sure they have anything in common. But she soon discovers that they both love anything to do with ancient Egypt. When they stumble upon a deserted storage yard, Melanie and April decide it’s the perfect spot for the Egypt Game. Before long there are six Egyptians, and they all meet to wear costumes, hold ceremonies, and work on their secret code. Everyone thinks it’s just a game until strange things start happening. Has the Egypt Game gone too far?
The Skirt
by Gary SotoMiata Ramirez is scared and upset. She left her folklorico skirt on her school bus, the skirt that belonged to her mother when she was a child in Mexico. Can Miata get the skirt back
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
Abel's Island
by William SteigAbel's place in his familiar, mouse world has always been secure; he had an allowance from his mother, a comfortable home, and a lovely wife, Amanda. But one stormy August day, furious flood water carry him off and dump him on an uninhabited island. Despite his determination and stubborn resourcefulness--he tried crossing the river with boats and ropes and even on stepping-stones--Abel can't find a way to get back home.
Days, then weeks and months, pass. Slowly, his soft habits disappear as he forages for food, fashions a warm nest in a hollow log, models clay statues of his family for company, and continues to brood on the problem of how to get across the river--and home.
Abel's time on the island brings him a new understanding of the world he's separated from. Faced with the daily adventure of survival in his solitary, somewhat hostile domain, he is moved to reexamine the easy way of life he had always accepted and discovers skills and talents in himself that hold promise of a more meaningful life, if and when he should finally return to Mossville and his dear Amanda again.
Abel's Island is a 1976 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and Outstanding Book of the Year, and a 1977 Newbery Honor Book.
The Cay
by Theodore TaylorPhillip is excited when the Germans invade the small island of Curaçao. War has always been a game to him, and he’s eager to glimpse it firsthand–until the freighter he and his mother are traveling to the United States on is torpedoed.
When Phillip comes to, he is on a small raft in the middle of the sea. Besides Stew Cat, his only companion is an old West Indian, Timothy. Phillip remembers his mother’s warning about black people: “They are different, and they live differently.”
But by the time the castaways arrive on a small island, Phillip’s head injury has made him blind and dependent on Timothy.
· A New York Times Best Book of the Year
· A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
· A Horn Book Honor Book
· An American Library Association Notable Book
· A Publishers Weekly Children’s Book to Remember
· A Child Study Association’s Pick of Children’s Books of the Year
· Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
· Commonwealth Club of California: Literature Award
· Southern California Council on Literature for Children and Young People Award
· Woodward School Annual Book Award
· Friends of the Library Award, University of California at Irvine
· Jane Addams Book Award
The Hobbit
by J.R.R. TolkienJ.R.R. Tolkien's classic prelude to his Lord of the Rings trilogy...Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum.Written for J.R.R. Tolkien's own children, The Hobbit has sold many millions of copies worldwide and established itself as a modern classic.
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.
Catwings
by Ursula K. Le GuinMrs. Jane Tabby could not explain why all four of her children had wings. But it meant that her dreams for her kittens would someday come true. Thelma, Harriet, Roger, and James could fly away from the dangerous city slum and find a safer place to live. The day came. But who could have known what the four kittens would find in the woods?