The fast-paced story captures the desperation some families experienced when the Berlin Wall was erected. As the protagonist and her brother face critical decisions, readers will explore their own thinking and possible choices given the story's extraordinary circumstances. The result is a reading-based thrill ride.

A young Jewish boy recalls life in Hitler's Germany. Although Daniel is a fictitious character, his story was inspired by the real experiences of many of the more than one million children who died in the Holocaust.

A poem cycle that reads as a novel, this Newbery Medal winner tells the story of Billie Jo, a girl who struggles to help her family survive the dust bowl years of the Depression.

Little Charlie is but a 12-year-old sharecropper’s son. When his father dies, Charlie is bribed to join a cruel slave catcher on a mission to Dee-troit for two runaways. The journey is bitter, and the Cap’n he accompanies is evil, lying to everyone along the way. Charlie desperately needs the money but does not trust the Cap’n. On his journey Charlie learns of the brutal punishments for slav ...

Time travel enables an intergenerational friendship (and interesting family relationship) that will ultimately change both boys beyond their on-stage experiences. A beautiful story that celebrates family and grit! Note: “fart|farting” is used in describing a dog

Bell Kirby is an expert at systems, whether he’s designing the world’s most elaborate habitat for his pet chinchilla, re-creating Leonardo da Vinci’s greatest inventions in his garage, or avoiding Parker Hellickson, the most diabolical bully Village Green Elementary has ever seen. Since third grade, Parker has tormented Bell, who’s spent two long years devising a finely tuned system that k ...

On August 6 each year the people of Hiroshima, Japan, set paper lanterns afloat in the river as a remembrance to those killed by the bomb dropped there in 1945. Three school children, Kozo, Shun, and Nozomi are budding artists challenged by their teachers to create a display the children choose to call Hiroshima: Then and Now for their families and classmates. Over the summer they ask friends and ...

Snow Hill, Alabama 1937 sets the stage for conveying important complexities Brother, a privileged white boy experiences when befriending Champion Always Luckey, a black boy from Detroit. While the plot isn't necessarily compelling, the power of healing a racial divide is as portrayed here. An excellent springboard for timelining events of that period.

An adventurous story of a frontier boy raised by Indians, The Light in the Forest is a beloved American classic. When John Cameron Butler was a child, he was captured in a raid on the Pennsylvania frontier and adopted by the great warrrior Cuyloga. Renamed True Son, he came to think of himself as fully Indian. But eleven years later his tribe, the Lenni Lenape, has signed a treaty with the white m ...

The great explorer and environmentalist, John Muir, first met the little dog Stickeen while exploring in Alaska. This is the true story of their challenging and memorable adventure climbing the glaciers of the north country.

Sensei Masa was a master swordsmith known throughout all of Japan. Young Michio is apprenticed to the master swordsmith. He watches and learns not only the skills to make a fine sword, but also lessons in humility, hard work, and compassion, elements of Bushido, the samurai code of honor. When he and Sensei create a sword that rivals all others, warriors from around Japan come to claim ownership o ...

Using a Q & A format, the book explores the details of the Louisiana Purchase, including its effects on the growing country, Native Americans, and the expansion of slavery.

Shackelton's story of survival and rescue is amazing enough on its own, but understanding the science involved makes the tale even more interesting. Fascinating details with scientific explanations accompany the brief retelling of Shackelton's expedition, which found success but not in the way the adventurer intended.

Readers sense a young girl's struggle between loyalty to her homeland and love for her parents. Hitler's Germany challenges her loyalties, her beliefs, and her trust.

Nine-year-old Mary Ellen Todd, filled with the pioneer spirit, treks cross country in 1852 with her family in search of a better life. The Todds survive Indians and swollen rivers, but what will happen when mother has a new baby and winter arrives? Jean Van Leeuwen has written highly acclaimed book for both children and young adults, including Dear Mom, You're Ruining My Life.

Eleven-year-old Willie Johnston is the youngest soldier to win the Congressional Medal of Honor. According to this outstanding fictionalized account, Willie got into the Union army Òby accident.Ó His courageous participation in McClellan's Seven Day Campaign on the Virginia Peninsula was no accident however, but the result of tremendous determination. His experiences are typical to those o ...

Once Jacob Gutgeld lived with his family in a beautiful house in Warsaw, Poland. He went to school and played hide-and-seek in the woods with his friends. But everything changed the day the Nazi soldiers invaded in 1939. Suddenly it wasn't safe to be Jewish anymore.

It is 1848 and 14-year-old Francis Tucket is heading west on the Oregon Trail. When he lags behind to practice shooting his new rifle, he is captured by Pawnees. It will take wild horses, hostile tribes, and a mysterious one-armed man to help Francis come of age and survive the gritty frontier.