Mrs. Olzen’s
Recommended
Grade
One
Bruel,
Nick. Poor Puppy and Poor
Kitty. Each book tells
the fun antics of a mischievous puppy and kitty.
Carlson,
Nancy. First Grade, Here I Come!
Henry tells his mother that he did not like his first day of first grade,
but as he describes what he did and learned, he begins to realize that he might
enjoy it after all.
Child,
Lauren. But, excuse me, that is
my book. When Lola's favorite
book is not on the library's shelf, her older brother, Charlie, tries to find
another book she will enjoy.
Silverman,
Erica. Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa.
Cowgirl Kate and her cowhorse
Cocoa, who is always hungry, count cows, share a story, and help each other fall
asleep. Series.
Grade
Two
Cronin,
Doreen. Diary of a Spider.
Spider writes of his daily life in his
diary, noting events like taking his molted skin for show-and-tell and learning
of the dangers of vacuum cleaners.
DiCamillo,
Kate. Mercy Watson to the Rescue.
After Mercy the pig snuggles
to sleep with the Watsons, all three awaken with the bed teetering on the edge
of a big hole in the floor. Series.
Erickson,
John. Hank the Cowdog.
Hank the Cowdog, Head of Ranch
Security, is framed for the murder of a chicken and becomes an outlaw with the
coyotes. Series.
Pennypacker,
Sara. Clementine.
While sorting through difficulties in
her friendship with her neighbor Margaret, eight-year-old Clementine gains
several unique hairstyles while also helping her father in his efforts to banish
pigeons from the front of their apartment building.
Series.
Schaefer,
Lola. Frankie Stein.
Mr. and Mrs. Frank N. Stein love their son very much, but despite their
best efforts and his, it seems he will never look or act as scary as a Stein
should.
Grade
Three
Abbott, Tony. The Riddle of Zorfendorf Castle. In this 25th volume of the Secrets of Droon series, Zorfendorf Castle holds a secret that Eric and his friends must keep from the evil Emperor Ko. Series.
Hannigan, Katherine. Ida
B: --And Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the
World. Ida B is happy in her
family's apple orchard, until her mother begins treatment for breast cancer, and
her family must sell part of the orchard.
Kline, Suzy. Horrible
Harry and the Locked Closet. Harry
and his detective classmates try to find clues relating to a mysterious locked
closet in 3B. Is it secret treasure or something more horrible than even Harry
can imagine? Series.
Look, Lenore. Ruby Lu, Brave and True.
"Almost-eight-year-old" Ruby Lu spends time with her baby
brother, goes to Chinese school, performs magic tricks, and learns to drive. Set
in Seattle's own Beacon Hill neighborhood.
Scieszka, Jon. Da
Wild, Da Crazy, Da Vinci. In
another time travel adventure, the trio meets Leonardo da Vinci and try to avoid
becoming toilet scrubbers in a sixteenth-century Italian army.
Series.
Grade Four
Armstrong, Alan. Whittington.
A feline descendant of Dick Whittington's famous cat of English
folklore appears at a rundown barnyard plagued by rats and restores harmony
through storytelling.
Choldenko, Gennifer.
Al Capone Does My Shirts. Moose,
a twelve-year-old boy, moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families
lived there; he has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in
addition to life with his autistic sister.
DiCamillo, Kate. The
Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a
Spool of Thread. The adventures
of Despereaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he
loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined
to bring them all to ruin.
Ibbotson, Eva. The Haunting of Granite Falls.
A millionaire moves a Scottish castle to Texas for his ailing daughter.
Along with the castle comes the 12-year-old orphaned former owner and 5
eccentric ghosts who want to keep their home.
Nimmo, Jenny. Charlie Bone and the Time Twister.
Charlie Bone, a boy of magical talents attending a wizarding school,
meets his young great uncle Henry from the past. Charlie must help Henry return
safely to his own time. Series.
Grade Five
Curtis, Christopher Paul.
Bud, Not Buddy. Ten-year-old
Bud, a motherless boy in the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and
sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father - the renowned
bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.
Feinstein, John. Last
Shot: A Final Four Mystery. After
winning a basketball-reporting contest, eighth graders Stevie and Susan Carol
are set to cover the Final Four tournament only to discover that a talented
player may throw the final game.
Haddox, Margaret Peterson.
Running Out of Time. When
a diphtheria epidemic hits her village in 1840, thirteen-year-old Jessie
discovers it is actually a 1996 tourist site under unseen observation by
heartless scientists. Series.
Korman, Gordon. No More Dead Dogs. Why does the dog in every classic dog story have to die at the end? Wallace Wallace, forced to attend rehearsals of the school play, finds hilarious ways to improve the script.
Smith, Roland. Thunder
Cave. After his mother's
accidental death, in order for fourteen-year-old Jacob to foil his stepfather he
travels alone to Africa in search of his father, a biologist studying elephants
in a remote area of Kenya.
Grades Six – Eight
Clements, Andrew. Things
Not Seen. When Bobby wakes up
and finds himself invisible, he and his parents and his new blind friend Alicia
try to find out what caused his condition and how to reverse it.
Higson, Charlie. Silverfin.
Young James Bond must battle against an insane arms dealer who, by
using killer eels, is attempting to create a race of indestructible soldiers on
the eve of World War II. First in a series.
Horowitz, Anthony. Stormbreaker.
After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, Alex Rider is
coerced to continue his uncle's dangerous work for Britain's intelligence
agency, MI6. First in a series.
Klages, Ellen. The
Green Glass Sea. In 1943, Dewey
moves to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where her father works for a top-secret
government program that could end the war.
Larson, Kirby. Hattie
Big Sky. Hattie, a teen orphan
on her own at the end of World War I, travels to a Montana homestead she
inherits from her uncle, only to learn she has less than a year to cultivate the
land or risk losing it. Eight
Nickerson, Sara. How
to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found.
With a swimming medal, the key to a mansion, and a comic book as her only clues,
Margaret seeks the true story of her father's mysterious death four years
earlier.
Oppel, Kenneth. Airborn. Mat and Kate team up to search for the existence of mysterious winged creatures living hundreds of feet above the Earth's surface. First in a trilogy.
Pattou, Edith. East.
A young woman journeys to a distant castle on the back of a great
white bear who is the victim of a cruel enchantment.
Riordan, Rick. The
Lightning Thief. Percy is always
in trouble. He discovers that being kicked out of a different school every year
and dealing with ADHD is nothing compared to the truth: he's a demigod, the son
of Poseidon.
Spinelli,
Jerry. Stargirl.
Eccentric Stargirl enrolls in Mica High School and stirs things up
considerably as she sticks to her nonconformist ways.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The
Hobbit. Bilbo Baggins, a happy
and comfortable Hobbit, is drawn into a fantastic adventure by Gandalf the
Wizard.
Weeks, Sarah. So
B. It: a Novel. Heidi knows very
little about her mentally disabled mother - a woman who knows only 23 words -
and she begins to resent the mystery.
Web sites with great reading suggestions:
http://www.islma.org/monarch.htm
http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/newberymedal/newberywinners/
Happy summer reading! Don’t forget to send a postcard to the St. Walter School Library to display in the fall!