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Browse by Lexile: 1100L - 1190L
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The Secret Bay
by Rebekah Raye and Kimberly RidleyAWARDS: *Moonbeam Silver*, *John Burroughs Association Riverby 2016 Award*
Estuaries form where river meets sea and fresh water mixes with salt. Teeming with life, these places of salt marshes, mudflats, and tidal backwaters serve as nursery areas for oceangoing fish, migratory stopovers for shorebirds, and homes for an amazing diversity of snails, bivalves, fish, mammals, horseshoe crabs, fiddler and blue crabs, terrapin turtles, plankton, and many others, all of whom we meet in the pages of this delightful book.
Narrated in the poetic voice of the estuary itself, and accompanied by natural-history sidebars about estuary plants, animals, and cycles, THE SECRET BAY is another topnotch nature book from the author and illustrator of the award-winning, bestselling The Secret Pool.
A stand-alone book and a stunning companion volume to Ridley and Raye’s award-winning Secret Pool. Ridley deftly augments the estuary’s lyrical narrative voice with sidebars about the plants, animals, and natural processes of an estuary. Raye’s gorgeous watercolors reveal new features and hidden treats with each reading. Back matter includes The Estuary Food Web, Great Escapes (how estuary animals avoid predators), and an author’s note about the challenges facing estuaries. A perfect book for the budding naturalist and for his or her parents and teachers.
Fountas & Pinnell Level S Lexile 1180
The Snow Walker
by Farley MowatFarley Mowat writes passionately of the bonds between a traditional people and the harsh world they inhabit, compiling a collection of stories that gives voice to a vanishing existence lived in the vast Arctic wilderness. The mythic Snow Walker traverses a place foreign to modern man -- a landscape where survival is simultaneously brutal and beautiful; a way of life embodied by fate, superstition and tribal connection; and a world where the ancestors wield an inexplicable magic.A story from this collection titled "Walk Well, My Brother" was adapted in 2003 for the acclaimed Canadian film titled The Snow Walker. First published in 1975, Douglas & McIntyre is pleased to add The Snow Walker to the Farley Mowat Library series, which includes the other recently re-released titles Sea of Slaughter, People of the Deer, A Whale For the Killing, And No Birds Sang and Born Naked.
Talking Walls
by Margy Burns Knight and Anne Sibley O'BrienIf walls could talk, what would they say? Perhaps they would tell us who built them and why. Maybe they could even tell us about people's lives today. In this book walls really do talk, and oh, the stories they tell. Talking Walls: Discover Your World combines and updates two earlier books, Talking Walls (1992) and Talking Walls: The Stories Continue (1996), which have sold 170,000copies. This new edition includes revised text that makes it more accessible to English Language Learners and easier to read aloud.
Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
by Maya AngelouMaya Angelou, one of the best-loved authors of our time shares the wisdom of a remarkable life in this bestselling spiritual classic. This is Maya Angelou talking from the heart, down to earth and real, but also inspiring. This is a book to be treasured, a book about being in all ways a woman, about living well, about the power of the word, and about the power of spirituality to move and shape your life. Passionate, lively, and lyrical, Maya Angelou&’s latest unforgettable work offers a gem of truth on every page.Maya Angelou speaks out . . . On Faith: &“I'm taken aback when people walk up to me and tell me they are Christians. My first response is the question 'Already?' It seems to me a lifelong endeavor to try to live the life of a Christian. It is in the search itself that one finds ecstasy.&”On Racism: &“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength. We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter their color.&”On Taking Time for Ourselves: &“Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us. A day away acts as a spring tonic. It can dispel rancor, transform indecision, and renew the spirit.&”On Death and Grieving: &“When I sense myself filling with rage at the absence of a beloved, I try as soon as possible to remember that my concerns should be focused on what I can learn from my departed love. What legacy was left which can help me in the art of living a good life?&”On Style: &“Style is as unique and nontransferable and perfectly personal as a fingerprint. It is wise to take the time to develop one's own way of being, increasing those things one does well and eliminating the elements in one's character which can hinder and diminish the good personality.&”
Avalon
by Stephen R. LawheadIt has been foretold:In the hour of Britain's greatest need, King Arthur will return to rescue his people.In Portugal, the reprobate King Edward the Ninth has died by his own hand.In England, the British monarchy teeters on the edge of total destruction. And in the Scottish Highlands, a mystical emissary named Mr. Embries--better known as "Merlin"--informs a young captain that he is next in line to the throne. For James Arthur Stuart is not the commoner he has always believed himself to be--he is Arthur, the legendary King of Summer, reborn. But the road to England's salvation is dangerous, with powerful enemies waiting in ambush. For Arthur is not the only one who has returned from the mists of legend. And Merlin's magic is not the only sorcery that has survived the centuries.AVALON"A rousing postscript to Lawhead's bardic Pendragon Cycle . . . Playing off snappy contemporary derring-do against the powerful shining glimpses of the historical Arthur he created, Lawhead pulls off a genuinely moving parable of good and evil."--Publishers Weekly
Born Free
by Joy AdamsonThere have been many accounts of the return to the wild of tame animals, but since its original publication in 1960, when the New York Times hailed it as a "fascinating and remarkable book," Born Free has stood alone in its power to move us. Joy Adamson's story of a lion cub in transition between the captivity in which she is raised and the fearsome wild to which she is returned captures the abilities of both humans and animals to cross the seemingly unbridgeable gap between their radically different worlds. Especially now, at a time when the sanctity of the wild and its inhabitants is increasingly threatened by human development and natural disaster, Adamson's remarkable tale is an idyll, and a model, to return to again and again.
The Bridges at Toko-Ri
by James A. Michener and Steve BerryIn one of his beloved early bestsellers, Pulitzer Prize-winning author James A. Michener crafts a tale of the American men who fought the Korean War, detailing their exploits in the air as well as their lives on the ground. Young and innocent, they arrive in a place they have barely ever heard of, on a ship massive enough to carry planes and helicopters. Trained as professionals, they prepare for the rituals of war that countless men before them have endured, and face the same fears. They are American fighter pilots. Together they face an enemy they do not understand, knowing their only hope for survival is to win. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from James A. Michener's Poland. Praise for The Bridges at Toko-Ri "A vivid and moving story, as well as an exciting one . . . The humanity of the people is deeply felt."--Chicago Tribune "The Banshees screaming over Korea, the perilous landings on an aircraft carrier deck 'bouncing around like a derelict rowboat,' a helicopter rescue from the freezing waters . . . all are stirringly rendered."--The Denver Post "Michener's best . . . a story of action, ideas, and civilization's responsibilities."--Saturday Review
Keys to the Repository (Blue Bloods)
by Melissa de la CruzLavish parties. Passionate meetings in the night. Bone-chilling murders. Midterms. The day-to-day life of Schuyler Van Alen and her Blue Bloods friends (and enemies) is never boring. But there's oh-so-much more to know about these beautiful and powerful teens. Below the streets of Manhattan, within the walls of the Repository, exists a wealth of revealing information about the vampire elite that dates back before the Mayflower. In a series of short stories, journal entries, and never-before-seen letters, New York Times bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz gives her hungry fans the keys to the Repository and an even more in-depth look into the secret world of the Blue Bloods. Won't you come inside?
An American Tragedy
by Theodore DreiserThis epic of class, ambition, and murder in the early twentieth century is &“[a] masterpiece…America&’s Crime and Punishment&” (Kirkus Reviews). Theodore Dreiser&’s An American Tragedy is the story of a weak-willed young man who is both a villain and a victim of the valueless, materialistic society around him. Inspired by the true story of an early twentieth-century murder and adapted into a classic film under the title A Place in the Sun, An American Tragedy follows Clyde Griffiths as he is drawn into a circle of wealthy friends despite his own poverty-stricken background. Leaving the needs of his family behind as he buys expensive presents to impress a rich girl, Clyde finds that his new life leads him into a tragedy born of recklessness. Yet he continues to yearn ambitiously for money and status—a desire that will be his downfall. &“Dreiser is widely regarded as the strongest of the novelists who have written about America as a business civilization. No one else confronted so directly the sheer intractability of American social life and institutions.&”—The New Yorker
The Namesake
by Jhumpa LahiriJhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies established this young writer as one the most brilliant of her generation. Her stories are one of the very few debut works -- and only a handful of collections -- to have won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Among the many other awards and honors it received were the New Yorker Debut of the Year award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the highest critical praise for its grace, acuity, and compassion in detailing lives transported from India to America. In The Namesake, Lahiri enriches the themes that made her collection an international bestseller: the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the conflicts of assimilation, and, most poignantly, the tangled ties between generations. Here again Lahiri displays her deft touch for the perfect detail -- the fleeting moment, the turn of phrase -- that opens whole worlds of emotion. The Namesake takes the Ganguli family from their tradition-bound life in Calcutta through their fraught transformation into Americans. On the heels of their arranged wedding, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli settle together in Cambridge, Massachusetts. An engineer by training, Ashoke adapts far less warily than his wife, who resists all things American and pines for her family. When their son is born, the task of naming him betrays the vexed results of bringing old ways to the new world. Named for a Russian writer by his Indian parents in memory of a catastrophe years before, Gogol Ganguli knows only that he suffers the burden of his heritage as well as his odd, antic name. Lahiri brings great empathy to Gogol as he stumbles along the first-generation path, strewn with conflicting loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs. With penetrating insight, she reveals not only the defining power of the names and expectations bestowed upon us by our parents, but also the means by which we slowly, sometimes painfully, come to define ourselves. The New York Times has praised Lahiri as "a writer of uncommon elegance and poise." The Namesake is a fine-tuned, intimate, and deeply felt novel of identity.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
by Muriel Spark&“A perfect book&”—and basis for the Maggie Smith film—about a teacher who makes a lasting impression on her female students in the years before World War II (Chicago Tribune). &“Give me a girl at an impressionable age, and she is mine for life!&” So asserts Jean Brodie, a magnetic, dubious, and sometimes comic teacher at the conservative Marcia Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh. Brodie selects six favorite pupils to mold—and she doesn&’t stop with just their intellectual lives. She has a plan for them all, including how they will live, whom they will love, and what sacrifices they will make to uphold her ideals. When the girls reach adulthood and begin to find their own destinies, Jean Brodie&’s indelible imprint is a gift to some, and a curse to others. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is Spark&’s masterpiece, a novel that offers one of twentieth-century English literature&’s most iconic and complex characters—a woman at once admirable and sinister, benevolent and conniving. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Muriel Spark including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author&’s archive at the National Library of Scotland.
In Search of Bernabé
by Graciela LimonIn this well-constructed first novel about El Salvador during the civil strife of the 1980s, Limon tells a tragic family saga. Raped by her grandfather at 13, Luz Delcano bears a son, Lucio, who is taken from her and raised by other members of the grandfather's influential family. Lucio becomes a colonel in army intelligence and heads the death squads. Meanwhile, Luz has had another illegitimate son, Bernabe, who plans to be a priest. But Bernabe is separated from his mother during a funeral procession for the assassinated Archbishop Romero, and fleeing from government soldiers into the mountains, he joins the guerillas there. His mother begins a search for him that takes her from El Salvador to Mexico City to San Diego and back to El Salvador. There she eventually finds Bernabe, after the death squads, on orders from Lucio--who hates the brother he has never met--have done their worst.
Violet Mackerel's Pocket Protest
by Elanna Allen and Anna BranfordIn this sixth story of the Violet Mackerel series, Violet and Rose start a very small protest to make a very big impact.Violet and Rose have shared their best secrets under the big oak tree in Clover Park. And they have found some very good small things there too. So when Johnson's Tree Services stomps in and posts a sign that says PUBLIC NOTICE-TREE REMOVAL, they know that they must do something to stop them. When their first protest washes away in the rain, Violet and Rose feel discouraged. But then they realize that the sort of people who care most about small things, like birds not having nests and people not having a place to collect acorns, might also be the sort of people who notice very small protests. And that gives them a quite brilliant idea, one that just might save their tree, on behalf of all the small things--and small people--who love it.
For the Love of Texas
by George Christian and Betsy Christian and Chris A. GruszkaBefore Texas was a state in the United States, it was a state of Mexico called Coahuila y Tejas. Texans then--like Texans today--didn't like being told what to do. So in 1835, the land now known as Texas organized a revolt and fought for freedom from Mexico and for an independent Texas--that's right, Texas was a country But before it could gain independence, for over six months, Mexican troops under Santa Anna battled against the Texas colonists in a bloody war with effects Texans can still find today. Saddle up with Betsy and George Christian for an interactive, fun chapter in Texas history for kids that challenges them to ask questions about the history they're told and the world in which they live..
Ender's Game
by Orson Scott CardIn order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut — young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.
Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.
Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.
Hugo and Nebula Awards Winner.
Denied, Detained, Deported
by Ann BausumAnn Bausum makes the history of immigration in America come alive for young people.
Mothstorm
by Philip ReeveA sinister cloud is approaching the solar system. The closest planet, Georgium Sidus, is inhabited by the missionary Reverend Cruet and his daughter, Charity. Art, Myrtle, and the family decide to investigate after communication with them is lost.
They Had a Dream
by Jules ArcherTraces the progression of the civil rights movement and its effect on history through biographical sketches of four prominent and influential African Americans: Frederick Douglass, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King, Jr. , and Malcolm X. .
Muckrakers
by Ann BausumHold the presses! Here's the sensational story of the birth of investigative journalism in America. At the turn of the 20th century, news reporters and monthly magazines collaborate to create a new kind of journalism--in-depth, serialized exposés of corporate, labor, and political corruption. Many of these stories become instant bestsellers in book format: books like The Jungle, Upton Sinclair's classic account of corruption in the meat-packing industry. Ann Bausum's dramatic narrative follows a generation of dedicated journalists who force responsible changes in industry and politics as America thrives. Muckrakersis the inside story of public-spirited journalism right through its evolution, with profiles of latter-day practitioners like Woodward and Bernstein and today's Internet bloggers. Ann Bausum's storytelling savvy will engage and inspire young people to cherish age-old values such as truth and public accountability. Muckrakersis the scoop on American journalism.
Strong Inside (Young Readers Edition)
by Andrew MaranissThe inspirational true story of the first African American to play college basketball in the deeply segregated Southeastern Conference--a powerful moment in Black history. Perry Wallace was born at an historic crossroads in U.S. history. He entered kindergarten the year that the Brown v. Board of Education decision led to integrated schools, allowing blacks and whites to learn side by side. A week after Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, Wallace enrolled in high school and his sensational jumping, dunking, and rebounding abilities quickly earned him the attention of college basketball recruiters from top schools across the nation. In his senior year his Pearl High School basketball team won Tennessee's first racially-integrated state tournament. The world seemed to be opening up at just the right time, and when Vanderbilt University recruited Wallace to play basketball, he courageously accepted the assignment to desegregate the Southeastern Conference. The hateful experiences he would endure on campus and in the hostile gymnasiums of the Deep South turned out to be the stuff of nightmares. Yet Wallace persisted, endured, and met this unthinkable challenge head on. This insightful biography digs deep beneath the surface to reveal a complicated, profound, and inspiring story of an athlete turned civil rights trailblazer.
Through My Eyes
by Tim TebowMeet Tim Tebow: He grew up playing every sport imaginable, but football was his true passion. Even from an early age, Tim has always had the drive to be the best player and person that he could be. Through his hard work and determination, he established himself as one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of college football and as a top prospect in the NFL. Now, in Through My Eyes: A Quarterback's Journey, he shares the behind-the-scenes details of his life, on and off the football field. Tim writes about his life as he chooses to live it, revealing how his Christian faith, his family values, and his relentless will to succeed have molded him into the person and the athlete he is today.
Bringing Down the Mouse
by Ben MezrichCharlie Lewis goes on a roller coaster ride of risk, math, and gaming in this middle grade novel that parallels the New York Times bestselling Bringing Down the House, which inspired the movie 21 with Kevin Spacey.Charlie Lewis is a nerd. All he's ever been good at is math--and he's really good at math. So good that he's recruited by a group of kids determined to game the system at the biggest theme park in the world--and win the grand prize. Soon Charlie is caught up in the excitement and thrill of using his math skills for awesomeness...but what's at stake may be more than he's willing to risk. How far will Charlie go for a chance at the ultimate reward?
The Borden Murders
by Sarah MillerHere's middle-grade nonfiction that reads like a thriller. With murder, court battles, and sensational newspaper headlines, the story of Lizzie Borden is compulsively readable and perfect for the Common Core. Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one. In a compelling, linear narrative, Miller takes readers along as she investigates a brutal crime: the August 4, 1892, murders of wealthy and prominent Andrew and Abby Borden. The accused? Mild-mannered and highly respected Lizzie Borden, daughter of Andrew and stepdaughter of Abby. Most of what is known about Lizzie's arrest and subsequent trial (and acquittal) comes from sensationalized newspaper reports; as Miller sorts fact from fiction, and as a legal battle gets under way, a gripping portrait of a woman and a town emerges. With inserts featuring period photos and newspaper clippings--and, yes, images from the murder scene--readers will devour this nonfiction book that reads like fiction."Sure to be a hit with true crime fans everywhere." --School Library Journal, StarredFrom the Hardcover edition.
Ghosts in the Fog
by Samantha SeipleFew know the story of the Japanese invasion of Alaska during World War II--until now.
GHOSTS IN THE FOG is the first narrative nonfiction book for young adults to tell the riveting story of how the Japanese invaded and occupied the Aleutian Islands in Alaska during World War II. This fascinating little-known piece of American history is told from the point of view of the American civilians who were captured and taken prisoner, along with the American and Japanese soldiers who fought in one of the bloodiest battles of hand-to-hand combat during the war.
Complete with more than 80 photographs throughout and first person accounts of this extraordinary event, GHOSTS IN THE FOG is sure to become a must-read for anyone interested in World War II and a perfect tie-in for the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Demigods and Monsters
by Rick Riordan and Leah WilsonThe #1 New York Times bestselling Percy Jackson series--including The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse and The Battle of the Labyrinth--features a 12-year-old dyslexic boy who discovers he is the son of a Greek god, the target of mythical Greek monsters and the center of a prophecy that could change the balance of power in the world forever.
In Demigods and Monsters, YA authors take on Greek gods, monsters and prophecy, to add insight and even more fun to Riordan's page-turner series.
The book also includes an introduction by Percy Jackson series author Rick Riordan, that gives further insight into the series and its creation, and a glossary of ancient Greek myth, with plenty of information on the places, monsters, gods and heroes that appear in the series.Demigods and Monsters is a collection of essays on Rick Riordan's wildly popular Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and is not authorized by the author, publisher or any entity associated with the series.