Grade 1-5 recommendations:
1. Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Harriet is an eleven-year-old girl whose past time is spying on people and writing down her brutally honest thoughts about them in her notebook. One day, the notebook filled with her rude comments is discovered by her friends! Read this story to see how she deals with her now, ex-friends...
2. Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
Set in Paris, this story follows one brave little girl, whose currently attending a Catholic boarding school, trip to the hospital. This is a great book to read if you're looking for a small bit of adventure in your life!
3. Grin and Bear It: The Wit & Wisdom of Corduroy by Don Freeman
This book is filled with tons of advice, that's been gathered over the course of 50 years from a teddy bear named Corduroy! A truly inspirational book and is a great gift to an elementary schooler!
4. The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
The wonderful story is about a bull named Ferdinand, who contrary to many stereotypes, isn't aggressive at all. He would much rather sit in the fields and smell flowers than participate in a bullfight. Sadly, he gets picked to by some men from the Madrid bullfighters to do exactly that. This book is a great read since it teaches students that it's ok to not follow the crowd.
5. The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
This cute story features anthropomorphic animals! The story follows a rabbit named Peter who against his mother's warnings goes into a human's garden. Follow Peter, as he goes on an adventure of a lifetime!
Grade 6-8 recommendations:
1. Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams
This beautifully written story talks about a topic not shown too often: internalized racism. This is shown through a girl named Genesis, who has 95 things she hates about herself. She knows this since she keeps a written list. One of those things is her own skin color. With no support from her family, especially her gambling-addicted father, and with her family constantly moving thanks to him, Genesis seems to have nobody to rely on. Follow this story to see the journey this young girl goes through in order to learn how to love herself for who she is.
2. When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
This story follows a girl named Lily who makes a deal with a magical tiger from one of her grandmother's Korean folk tales in order to save her sick grandmother. The deal is to return what her grandmother stole from the tigers. But one must always be wary when making deals, especially with Tigers...
3. They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera
In a time when people are told if they will die that day, two boys receive the dreaded phone call: Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio. Both hoping to go on one final adventure with a stranger, they end up meeting each other on an app called 'Last Friend'. This unique story isn't to read the character's ending, which is already revealed. But rather to see how these two boys spend their last day together.
4. On of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
5 people go into detention. 4 come out alive. Who's the murderer? Is it Cooper, the hardworking baseball jock? Maybe it's Nate, an obvious suspect for his history with dealing? Could it be Addy, the homecoming-princess who most girls wish to be? Or what if it's Bronwyn, who is getting ready to go to Yale, who is most parent's dream child? One things for sure, Simon, the creator of the notorious gossip app, had something on all four of them and now lies dead.
5. The Girl From Widow Hills by Megan Miranda
Arden Maynor is popular for all the wrong reasons. You see, when she was 6, she went missing for 3 days after sleepwalking. She was found clinging to a sewer drain. Her mother later wrote a book about it which made the incident famous leading to a ton of media coverage. Years later, Arden, wanting to get away from all the attention, changes her name. Years pass by and she receives some shocking news. Troubled, her sleep walking habit starts up again although one thing is different. This time, she doesn't wake up clinging to a sewer drain. This time, she wakes up with a dead body next to her.
Comments