Hello!

Welcome to a blog full of 100 Children's Books!

Click the arrow tabs on the right side under "blog archive" to see the drop down list of various categories of books! > > >

Or, you can just scroll down and go through the pages to see them all! 

 

Within each genre are many books with the title, author, setting, characters, a summary, themes, and a picture.

Keep in mind, some of these books could belong in more than one category, but are placed in the most prominent one!


If you would like to go to my Children's Literature Information website, click here

Historical Fiction

Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past, but is not necessarily true. 

Elements of the story like historical events and places may be real, but the characters and their stories are not true.

 

 

Coming On Home Soon

Jacqueline Woodson

 Characters: Ada Ruth, Mama, Grandma
Setting: Wartime, Ada Ruth’s cabin
Summary: Ada Ruth’s mama decides to go to Chicago to get a job washing trains. Ada Ruth and Grandma wait everyday to get a letter from Mama telling them that she will be coming home soon. As the days go by, Ada Ruth finds a kitten who she takes in, even though Grandma says they can’t afford it. The postman eventually comes by with a letter enclosed with money that says Mama is coming home soon. The last page is wordless with an image of Mama walking to the house.
Theme: Patience

 

Milly and the Macy's Parade

Shana Corey

 Setting: new York City 1924

Characters: Milly, Mr. Macy, her family, other Macy’s employees

Summary: Milly goes to Macy’s department store almost every day because that is where her Papa works. She loves how big it is, and loves to ride the elevator, try on clothes, and look at the toys. Tons of people are there everyday with her, as it is one of the biggest stores. Occasionally, Milly and her family get homesick for Poland, but they still eat Polish food while trying new American things. Milly sees that many other families are homesick too, especially around the holidays. She runs to Macy’s and goes to the top floor one day, busting in to a meeting Mr. Macy is having, and explains to him that employees and customers would be happier if there was something to end homesickness around Christmas- Mr. Macy loves the idea to the dismay of his co-worker, and decides to have a big parade. The parade is a success, and Milly gets to ride on an elephant from the Central Park Zoo. People feel that this parade is a new, real, American celebration and Mr. Macy decides to hold it every year. In the back there is the true story of the Macy’s Parade and how it has evolved over the years.

Theme: Immigration, Homesickness, You can do anything, Traditons

 

My America: Our Strange New Land, Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary #1

Patricia Hermes

Characters: Elizabeth, her parents, Jessie, John Smith, Pocahontas, among other less-involved characters

Setting: Jamestown, Virginia 1609

Summary: In the first diary entry, 9 year old Elizabeth states that they have finally gotten off their boat after 71 days on the ocean. She has a friend named Jessie and she came with her mom and dad but her twin brother Caleb was left in England because of lung problems. Her mother is having a baby soon. During the trip, 5 of their ships, including food ships, were lost during storms. They live in a fort but will soon build their house. Elizabeth meets Indians on one of her first days there and finds them to be gentle. She explains that they came to America so her father could actually own land instead of renting it expensively, but she wishes they could own some riches as well, instead of sending them back to the Virginia Company in England. As days go by, 2 more ships land, but 3 are still missing, and a few more young girls like Elizabeth arrive from the ships. More days later, Elizabeth and her friends meet Pocahontas, who is only a bit older than they are. She speaks English and is shocked by her yellow hair, and invites them to climb trees with her but they cannot. Pocahontas is friends with John Smith, one of the colonies leaders. She saved him from death by her father Powhatan and now keeps the peace between the Indians and the settlers. The next month, Elizabeth is invited to go with John Smith and a few other men on a trip to the Indian village to make amends and promise more peace. She and the Indians are all thrilled to meet each other and touch her. People start to die by three’s everyday- Jessie’s mother dies and her father falls ill, their friend Claire is ill, and 2 boys that are Elizabeths’s neighbors are also ill. John Smith gets badly injured in fights between the settlers and the Indians and must to back to England, bringing along some settlers who want to leave, including Jessie and her father. Abigail, Elizabeth’s new sister, is born. When the ship leaves, the men take Elizabeth’s journal and promise to visit Caleb and give it to him.

Theme: History, Appreciate what you have/family

 

 My Freedom Trip

Frances Park and Ginger Park

Characters: Soo, her family

Setting: Korea

Summary: This story is a bout a young girls escape from a communist Korea. Soo is a child and is forced to flee North Korea to keep her freedom and her family. Each family member goes just a child when she was forced to flee to South Korea in order to keep her freedom. Each family member had to leave one at a time with guides. Soo’s father left first, and then she had to leave without her mother and was taken by a guide named Mr. Han. The escape was at night and was filled with fear as the soldiers were patrolling in the woods looking for any one trying to escape.  Soo was really scare but her lasts words she heard from her mother were to be brave, so she tries to be. Soo finds freedom and reunites with her father but never finds her mother.

Theme: Immigration, Escape, Freedom

Renior and the Boy with the Long Hair

Wendy Wax

Characters: Painter Renoir and his son

Setting: France in the past

Summary: Jean has very long blonde hair, and is often mistaken for a girl in his father’s paintings – his father is Pierre Auguste Renior. His father won’t let him cut his hair because he loves to paint it and says that he can cut it when he starts school. Kids tease Jean and it upsets him but he looks back on his father’s paintings and appreciates them. Throughout the book are awesome representations of Renoir’s paintings and what they are titled. In the end, Jean is allowed to get his hair cut and he grows up to be famous in his own way as a director.

Theme: Love yourself, Renoir

 

 Rudy Rides the Rails: A Depression Era Story

Dandi Daley Mackall

Characters: Rudy, his family

Setting: Great Depression, on the rails

Summary: Rudy is a thirteen year old boy whose family has become increasingly poor during the Great Depression. He lives in Ohio and his dad and other co-workers lost their jobs and couldn’t find more. His ma waits in relief lines to get old food, and his sisters go to missions and soup kitchens. Rudy feels that he will be less of a financial burden on his family if he leaves to find work elsewhere. He hops on a train going West and becomes a hobo. He wants to get to California and send money back to his family, and during his trips on the rails he is hungry, cold, scared, and tired. Not wanting to be a burden on his struggling family, Rudy decided to take a step similar to other teenagers he had heard about: he hopped a train to go West as a hobo.  Dreams of a better life in California and the chance to send money back home helped to sustain him as he experienced hunger, cold, fear, and fatigue while traveling. During his trip, he meets many kind strangers who help the hobos that pass along, and he starts to doubt his dad’s constant saying of only look out for yourself.

Theme: Great Depression, Family, Unemployment, Poorness, Homelessness

Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt

 Deborah Hopkinson

Characters: Clara, Jack, Rachel

Setting: The south during times of slavery

Summary: Written in southern dialect, this story is  told from Clara’s point of view. When she was 12, she was sent to work on a plantation without her mom. She makes friends with Young Jack who gives her hope that she can make it back home one day. Clara gets changed from field hand to a seamstress because of her amazing sewing skills. She and Aunt Rachel always hear people talking about the Underground Railroad being the only way to escape to Canada and freedom- if only they could get a map, they could go! Rachel tells her more about it which gets Clara thinking about it constantly and learning how to make maps. She starts to sew a quilt with leftover scraps of fabric and sews the thread in a map pattern as she learns about different fields and areas. Young Jack escaped but was caught, and he and Clara piece together more of the map because he had seen more, although it still takes a very long time to complete it because she needs to wait for the right color-coded fabric and information. Clara and Jack leave one day, but keep the quilt with Rachel. They go to get her mom and her newborn sister who agree to follow them to freedom, and she meets people later who say that her quilt helped them to freedom as well.

Theme: Freedom, Slavery

The Last Brother: A Civil War Tale

Trinka Hakes Noble

Characters: Gabe, Davy

Setting: Gettysburg 1863

Summary: Gettysburg has been untouched by the civil war, until one day two boys see that troops are moving into Pennsylvania. In a blue uniform, 11 year old and 16 year old brothers make up part of the army, after lying about their ages to get in because their older brothers had once been in war and never come back and they wanted to honor them. This was the first time the brothers were in actual war, and Davy volunteered to step into the frontlines right away, while younger Gabe goes away to practice battle calls. He meets another boy his age from the south and he becomes friends with Orlee. Orlee warns Gabe about his troops moving in, and Gabe gets away and finds Davy at night. Gabe worries about Davy and Orlee and cannot sleep that night through the fighting. As a bugler, he wakes up his soldiers to a day of intense Confederate troop movement and fighting. He sounds charge as his major commands him to, and right after blew retreat. His brother gets back to camp with only wounds, and Gabe etches a memorial into his bugle for all the lives lost at Pickett’s Charge on July 4, 1863

Theme: Civil War, Family, Fighting for what you believe in, Friendship

The Memory Coat

Elvira Woodruff

  Characters: Rachel, Grisha, Family

Setting: Jewish town in Russia, Ellis Island

Summary: Rachel and Grisha are cousins with a big family in a small town in Russia. Mass raids start who want to kill anyone Jewish. The family decides they nee to flea to America. Grisha’s jacket from his deceased mother is torn and looks bad but he refuses to get rid of it. They sell all their belongings and take a boat to Ellis Island. Once there, they wait in line and hope to not be seperated. Rachel and Grisha play around while waiting and Grisha falls on a basket which scratches his eye. During inspection, he gets a mark on his jacket for not being healthy enough due to his eye issue. The doctor doesn’t understand the families language so he can’t hear their explaination. Rachel decides to turn his jacket inside out and he moves into the next line undetected, and the second doctor passes him. The family has made it to America

Theme: Family is important, Immigration

 

When Jessie Came Across the Sea

Amy Hest

  Setting: The past

Characters: Jessie, her Grandmother

Summary: Jessie lives in a small house with her Grandmother, because her parents died when she was a baby. Jessie holds onto her mother’s wedding band kept in a laced box. Upon her Grandmother’s insistence, Jessie goes to the rabbi for lessons with all the boys. When she comes home, she teaches her grandmother how to read and write. The Grandmother keeps the rest of her time busy by sewing lace, and she teaches this to Jessie. One evening, the rabbi makes an announcement that his brother in America has died, and that he has a ticket to America that he had given him. The rabbi says he cannot leave his people, so he chooses someone to go for him. After many men begged him, he chooses Jessie. Jessie and her Grandmother are heartbroken, but she knows Jessie must go. During the voyage, she practices her needlework, and when she arrives in America, her skills provide her a job working for the rabbi’s sister-in-law. Jessie saves up enough money after many years and after learning English and falling in love and getting engaged to Lou, her grandmother makes the voyage to America. The book also incorporates letters sent between Jessie and her Grandmother while they are apart.

Theme: Immigration, Skills are useful, Love your family, Hope

Non-Fiction

The non-fiction category contains factual information. 

Non-fiction can be in the form of stories, biographies, informational texts, or historical moments - just to name a few.

 

 

Around the World

Matt Phelan

  Characters: Colonel Pope, Thomas Stevens / Nellie Bly / Joshua Slocum
Summary: In the first story, Colonel Pope imports bicycles to the U.S. and markets them, as they are not popular (the ones with very large front tires). A miner named Thomas Stevens decides that he is sick of working in the mines after 10 years and decides to ride a bike across America. After completing his 3,700 mile journey, he wants to ride across the world and asks Colonel Pope to fund it- he refuses to make it “professional” but will pay him to write about his journey, and so he embarks. Bicycle styles changed and automobiles were slowly being invented, but Stevens completes 13,500 miles on his bike until he takes a ship home when he reaches the water. His journey took about 2 years and his publishings went on for another 3 or so. 

In the second story, Nellie Bly wants to sail around the world to beat the story about “Around the World in 80 Days” (she says she can in 74) and report on it. She has already impressed people by pretending to be crazy to get into an institution for an expose, and her team finally allows her to go. She leaves the next day with only 2 dresses and a bag. During her journey, she is able to meet the author of the book that she is trying to beat. Later, one of her boats is delayed for 5 days, which will offset her journey- but the people at home are still deeply invested in her story. In addition, another reporter named Elizabeth Bisland starts a journey, trying to beat Nellie’s time. In the end, Nellie arrives home in 72 days- beating both the book and the other woman. 

In the third story, Joshua Slocum has a boat that many people look down upon and say it is no good, but he wants to sail it across the world- alone. One night he gets sick and a different captain helps him keep his ship on track during a storm. He has flashbacks of his deceased wife after seeing her grave from their trip years ago where she died in Buenos Aires, and keeps moving forward, soon celebrating his 52 birthday. The Spray eventually makes it back to the port in three years and two months. When he arrives home, people talk about his madness and eccentricity, and 1909 he sets sail again, never to be seen again.
Theme: Follow your heart and complete your goals

 

 Coming to America: The Story of Immigration

Betsy Maestro

Characters: Americans/Immigrants

Setting: America

Summary: This explains how America is made up of immigrants. It tells the stories of Native Americans, Christopher Columbus and other explorers who brought over Europeans, and slaves who were brought over. Conditions on slave ships and immigration ships are explained. It also tells where they live and moved to throughout the United States. Thousands came every year, especially through Ellis Island, where many were denied. We are a melting pot country! In the back of the book, there are dates and facts about immigration and major immigration points. The book has many more other interesting facts about every type of immigrant throughout the years as a country, and also has cute illustrations which help make the entire story very easy and kid-friendly.

Theme: Immigration

Day of the Dead

Tony Johnston

Characters: Mexican family

Setting: Mexico

Summary: This book has many Spanish words incorporated into it, which are italicized. A family makes empanadas, pick fruit, bake bread, get baked goods, make tamales, cut sugarcane, make mole, and get flowers. They have been doing this for weeks to prepare for the Dia de los Muertos. When the day finally comes, all families come out of their homes at night and walk to the graveyard with all of the things they have been getting and making. They sing and dance and eat in celebration of the deceased one’s lives. The back of the book then explains what the day means in general.

Theme: Holidays, Traditions, Diversity

Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave

Laban Carrick Hill

Characters: Dave

Setting: Some time during slave use/ in the south?

Plot:/Summary: This book introduces you to Dave the potter, a black slave. It mostly focuses on detailing how he made his clay pots and all the skills he had. He engraved some of his pots with quotes/poems and dates, which was uncommon that they would know how to write or read. At the end of the book, there is actual historical information on him and you learn that he was real and that these pots are still being found. Historical information in the end of the story is also included.

Theme: History

 

Do Tornadoes Really Twist? Q & A About Tornadoes and Hurricanes

Melvin and Gilda Berger

Characters: n/a

Setting: n/a

Summary: This book is a factual one that asks many questions about tornadoes. Some examples include: Are they always violent? How many occur a year? Who studies them? How do they get named? The answers are child-friendly and easy to understand. There are also realistic illustrations on each page that relate to the questions on that page.

Theme: Hurricanes and Tornadoes

 Francis Scott Key and the Star Spangled Banner

Lynea Bowdish

Characters: Francis Scott Key

Setting: War of 1812

Summary: This book tells the story of how the star spangled banner came to be. Francis was aboard a ship and saw a battle. He was captured on it because the British couldn’t let him go until the battle was over, so he could not tell anyone about their plans. Rockets lit up the night sky that night. When he woke up, the American flag was still standing and the Americas won. He wrote a poem about it to the tune of a song he knew. His poem was printed and everyone sang it and loved it. The entire song is in the back of the book.

Theme: American history

Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad

Ellen Levine 

Characters: Henry, Nancy, Dr. Smith

Setting: South, Philadelphia

PlSummary: Henry is a young slave boy, who doesn’t even know his birthday. One day, his family’s ill master tells Henry that he is giving him to his son because he is a good worker. He leaves his family while wishing he were free like the bird above him. In his new factory, the master beats the slaves if they make a mistake. When Henry is older, he meets Nancy, who he soon marries when their masters agree. They are lucky to live together and have three children, but Nancy is worried her master will sell them. The next day, his friend James tells him that his wife and kids were sold to the slave trade- and he must continue to work through his grief. Henry decides to send himself away in a box to a place with no slaves with the help of James and a man named Dr. Smith who is against slavery. Needing an excuse to stay home from work, Henry badly burns his hand on purpose, and the next morning Dr. Smith sends him to his friend in Philadelphia. No workers handle the box with care, and Henry is thrown around, upside down, and smushed, but he stays quiet. He finally gets delivered to the friend in Philadelphia, and considers his birthday to be the day he is free at last!

Theme: History, Perseverance 

 

Killer Whales

Seymour Simon

Setting: Oceans
Characters: WhalesSummary: This is an easy reader book about killer whales. It is an informational book, that gives the reader information on them such as what they like to eat, that they don’t hunt people, their size, where they live, etc. and filler pages that just say they are “exciting to watch and learn about”.
Theme: Whales

 

My Great Aunt Arizona

Gloria Houston

  Characters: Arizona

Setting: A small town, rural area

Summary: As a child, Arizona has her hair in braids and wears long dresses. She likes to grow flowers, read, and be carefree with her little brother Jim. They go to school in a one room schoolhouse. When her mother dies, Arizona takes care of the family until they get a step-mother. She can finally leave her family and go to school to become a teacher. When she returns, she teaches in the one room schoolhouse with her braided hair and long dresses and reading of books. She inspires all of her students with the far away places in the books, and makes their schoolhouse a delightful place. She teaches for 57 years until she dies, but she lives on in everyone’s mind.

Theme: Remembering loved ones, Follow your goals

 

 Snowflake Bentley

Jacqueline Briggs Martin

Characters: Snowflake Bentley, his family

Setting: His house, outside in the snow

Summary: This is the true story of Snowflake Bentley. As a boy, Willie Bentley loved snow. He looks through his microscope and loves to share the pictures he takes of snowflakes. Bentley wants a better camera but it is too expensive, yet his parents spend their savings on buying him the newest one. His photos start out bad but he slowly improves them and gives them as gifts and to his friends, as well as hosts slideshows. He was a snowflake expert but never got rich from his knowledge or photos that show every snowflake is unique. Bentley died after getting pneumonia while trying to get some great snow photos. People will always remember him and his statue. There are also facts about him throughout the story on the edge of the pages.

Theme: Biography, Passion

We the Kids: The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States

Dave Catrow

Characters: n/a

Setting: n/a

Plot:/Summary: The illustrator writes a forward in the book to explain why he decided to illustrate this and to talk a bit about the Constitution. Then there is a page that has easier definitions of some words like what the preamble is or what “secure the blessings of liberty” means. The book then tells you to follow the dog in the story, and each page is illustrated brightly using a few kids, the dog, and some lines from the Constitution. The dog somewhat acts out what the lines mean.

Theme: Learning about the Constitution

 

What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?

Steve Jenkins and Robin Page

Characters: Various animals   

Setting: n/a

Plot:/Summary: This book shows about 5 animals and a specific body part like a nose or a mouth, and encourages the reader to guess what the animals do with them on each page. The next page shows the whole animals and it explains how they use it. The whole book goes on like this. In the back pages, there are more details about every animal found in the book.

Theme: Learning about animals

 

Realistic Fiction

Books in the realistic fiction genre are stories that aren't real, but could actually happen if it wasn't just a story.

These stories have realistic characters, real places, and real life issues.

  

 

A Sick Day for Amos McGee

Philip C. Stead

 Characters: Amos, zoo friends
Setting: The zoo, Amos’ house
Summary: Amos wakes up every day and goes to the zoo. He plays chess with the elephant, races the tortoise, sits with the shy penguin, gives the rhino tissues for his nose, and reads to the owl who is scared of the dark. When he does not arrive one day, the animals tire of waiting for him and take the bus to his house where they tend to him this time. They all go to sleep at Amos’ house that night, cuddled together as loving friends.
Theme: Being friendly, Taking care of others

 Axle Annie

Robin Pulver

Characters: Annie, Shifty, Hale, school kids

Setting: Town of Burskyville

Summary: Axle Annie is a school bus driver who all the kids love. Whenever it snows in the town, the superintendent of the school has Annie decide whether or not she can get up Tiger hill to pick up all her students. Annie always says she can, so the school never has a snow day. Shifty Rhodes, an angry bus driver, is always mad that he never gets a snow day. One night, at the Grump Club meeting he belongs to, a new member arrives named Hale Snow. Hale has a ski resort and is also mad at Annie because snow days mean more customers for him. The two guys work together to make a snow storm Annie must say no to. They decide to try and watch her get up the hill but while doing so they bump the snow machine which makes the entire hill be completely covered. Annie tries to get up the hill and almost can’t, but the town comes together to help her pick everyone up, even the two men. In the end, Shifty leaves town and Hale names a slope after Annie, which everyone loves to try and go down.

Theme: Perseverance, Working together

Bravo, Amelia Bedelia

Herman Parish

Summary: Amelia is late picking up the conductor for the orchestra, and says he was too heavy so she brought the train conductor. When the real one shows up, Amelia starts to count off to play music but she keeps talking, taps too much, and swats a bee which ruins the orchestra. She tries to play different instruments but the others don’t want her to play anything. Amelia sneaks off and finds a closet full of supplies that she makes into her own instrument. When she brings it on stage to play, she ruins the concert but all the kids watching it still love it! Amelia always takes things literally in her stories, which make them hilarious.

Theme: Be yourself, Try new things, It’s okay if things don’t go as planned

 

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Jeff Kinney 

Characters: Greg, Rodrick, Rowley, Parents

Setting: School, home

Summary: Greg’s mom gives him a diary, which he calls a journal. Greg is going into middle school and has an older brother Rodrick and a younger brother Manny. Rowley is Greg’s best friend but he pranks him all the time and is kind of a nerd. Greg writes and draws in his journal about his exciting and mundane parts of his life. The entries range from being grounded for listening to Rodrick’s music too loud, Rodrick getting in trouble for having almost-nude women in magazines he owns, and making haunted houses at Halloween to get money from the neighborhood kids. Halloween also brings them a night of being chased by older guys and losing all of their candy. Greg wrestles, is a tree in a play, and feels like he should have gotten more presents at Christmas. One day, Rowley injures his arm and the girls all flock to him, which eventually leads to him spending more time with another friend and Greg feeling jealous. He even tries to hang out with a geek named Fegley but he can’t handle his weirdness, all the while Rowley and Greg are officially ex-friends. Greg naturally becomes the cartoonist for the school paper. When they meet up again, they get chased by the same Halloween bullies but Greg outsmarts them. Greg wants to run for class clown but Rowley wins which makes him mad.

Theme: Friendship

 

I Can Be Anything

Jerry Spinelli

  Characters: Boy

Setting: Outside

Plot/Summary: Illustrated with a little boy, the book uses each page to detail things that you can be when you grow up, and they are all applicable to what kids can already be and do in their free time. Some of the things include dandelion blower, puppy-dog holder, puddle stomper, mixing-bowl licker, baby-sis soother, lemonade swigger, etc.

Theme: You can be anything, Enjoy the little things in life

 

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies

Laura Numeroff

Characters: Mouse, Boy

Setting: Winter

Summary: If you take a mouse to the movies, he will ask for popcorn. This leads to a chain of events such as making popcorn strings, hanging it on a tree, buying a tree, making a snowman, getting a carrot, building a fort, listening to carols, etc. In the end, the tree is decorated with many things, except the popcorn string is missing! They make a new one but the popcorn will make the mouse want to go to the movies again!

Theme: Series of events, Christmas, Friendship

Jessica

Kevin Henkes

Characters: Jessica, Ruthie, parents

Setting: Home and school

Summary: Ruthie has an imaginary friend named Jessica who she does everything with. She blames her for things and makes her come everywhere- even her first day of kindergarten. Ruthie only wants to play with her and doesn’t focus on making other friends until she meets a real girl named Jessica- who she loves even more!

Theme: Imagination, Making friends

 Joey Pigza Loses Control

Jack Gantos

Characters: Joey, Mom, Dad, Grandma

Setting: Pittsburgh

Summary: The story starts out with Joey and his Mom, with his dog Pablo, driving to Pittsburgh to meet his dad for the first time since he was little, and stay with him for 6 weeks. Joey notes that he is able to think clearly now after being in special ed classes and taking new medications. Mom thought it was a good idea to send Joey away with his dad because he had been driving her nuts at home, especially by throwing a dart through his dog’s ear. Grandma is introduced in the story as an old smoker who needs oxygen, and doesn’t like interruption in her own ways. Joey’s dad, Carter, has the same ADHD issue that Joey himself does, it seems. He coaches a little league baseball team in lieu of going to jail, and puts his son on it to find out that he is an awesome pitcher. Grandma tells Joey that his father can’t handle a girlfriend, a beer, or anything- he only thinks he can after his horrible past that he is trying to make better. One night Carter drinks a lot of beers after a baseball win and throws all of Joey’s medication patches in the toilet- triggering Joey to be very upset and scared that the ‘old Joey’ is going to come back but he also kind of wants to give himself another chance. After a few days of not being on his patch, Joey feels bad that he hasn’t told his mom all the things that his dad has done (Drinking, flushing patches, asking him to live with him permanently). Joey and Carter go bungee-jumping and that night is the semi-final game. Before they go play, Joey keeps scratching his head until it bleeds, and he realizes that he does need his medication- the baseball game that follows includes Joey stopping and starting for random reasons like wanting to talk and call his mom and to get batteries. The Grandma continually tricks Joey into buying her cigarettes with his emergency money- taking advantage of him while also trying to help him realize that his dad is not the best, which is does realize. Joey starts to worry that his mom can’t answer the phone or come get him and in a moment he decides that he needs to drive home so he gets in his dad’s car and tries to drive (just like dad had let him earlier) but then crashes it into the neighbor’s mailbox and runs back inside. His dad doesn’t think anything of it. During the championship game, Joey loses control and can’t handle his dad’s screaming so he just starts running away while his dad screams at him, even calling him ‘retard’. Joey runs to the mall and calls his mom who comes to pick him up in a few hours, and in the meantime his dad’s girlfriend Leezy hides him in her store. When mom comes, they go get Pablo and go back home without saying goodbye to the dad.

Theme: Mental health, Divorce, Self-control, Understanding yourself

Junie B. Jones, First Grader at Last!

Barbara Park

  Setting: school and home

Characters: Junie, her friends, her teacher, family

Summary: Junie B. Jones is going to first grade. Her friend Lucille ditched her for new friends but she still has Grace on the bus ride. She calls her teacher Mr. Scary and she does not like how the school year is going. Junie often goofs off, talks loudly, talks to her neighbor, and other trouble making things. During an assignment, she gets all of the words wrong and Mr. Scary brings her to the nurse for an eye check. She gets glasses and brings them in for show and tell and everybody makes fun of her. Her new friend Herbert who she is slowly growing to like tells every one that they are really cool purple glasses and they they start to agree. By the end of the book, Junie thinks she likes first grade.

Theme: Be yourself

 

Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale

Mo Willems

Characters: Trixie, Daddy, Mommy, Knuffle Bunny

Setting: The city

Summary: Trixie can’t yet talk, but her dad takes her to help him do the laundry. They walk through town and then she helps him put all the clothes in the washer and insert the money. As they walk home, Trixie realizes that she lost her Knuffle Bunny and starts to scream, yell, babble, go limp, etc. to get her dad’s attention. Instead he takes her home where mom asks where Knuffle Bunny is. They all run back through the city and to the washer to rummage through all the clothes to find Trixie’s bunny. When they find it, her first word is Knuffle Bunny!

Theme: Be careful with your things

 

 Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse 

Kevin Henkes

Characters: Lilly, Mr. Slinger, her parents

Setting: School and home

Summary: Lilly loves school and her teacher, Mr. Slinger. When she gets a new purse, new glasses, and some quarters one day, she brings them to school and cannot contain herself because she wants to share them so badly. Mr. Slinger asks her to wait, but she does not and interrupts the class. He takes her things away and Lilly writes a mean note to give to him. When he gives Lilly her purse back, she sees that he wrote her a nice letter saying that tomorrow will be better. Lilly feels horrible and brings him food and a very nice letter and drawing to apologize to him. Mr. Slinger forgives her and she gets to share her items the right way the next day in school.

Theme: Guilt, Be nice, Wait your turn

 

Molly’s Pilgrim

Barbara Cohen

Characters: Molly, her mom, classmates

Setting: School

Summary: Molly and her mother moved to America from Russia. Molly feels that she doesn’t belong and will never be accepted by her classmates because they make fun of her clothes, her customs, her accent, etc. During Thanksgiving time, her teacher gives the class an assignment to make a pilgrim based on what they’ve learned about Thanksgiving in class. Molly comes home and her mom helps her make a pilgrim- but her mom makes the pilgrim based on them, not the Thanksgiving-related ones. The class makes fun of her but their teacher tells them that Molly’s is a true example of what a pilgrim is in the current time and she puts it on her desk for everyone to see.

Theme: Tolerance, Immigration, Thanksgiving

Olivia

Ian Falconer

Characters: Olivia

Setting: Home, out and about

Summary: Olivia is crazy, has fun, plays dress up, moves her cat, goes to the beach, builds sandcastles, and gets sunburnt, but she will not take naps! She likes to go to the museum and sees paintings that she thinks she can do just as well. Olivia’s mom finds her painting on her wall one day and gets in trouble. Olivia still claims that she isn’t tired, even by dinnertime. Her mom says that she is worn out, but loves her even with all of her antics.

Theme: Have fun, Love

Owl Moon

Jane Yolen
Characters: Pa and his daughter

Setting: Outside in the winter

Plot/Summary: A father and daughter go owling on a winter night. It is the first time the girl has gone and she are very excited but she knows the rules. They have to be very quiet and the dad calls out hooting noises to attract an owl, and eventually they see one very closely, and then they go home.

Theme: Family traditions/bonding

 

Ramona Quimby, Age 8

Beverly Cleary

Characters: Ramona, Beezus, Mrs. and Mr. Quimby

Setting: School, Ramona’s house

  Summary: Ramona and Beezus are off to their first day of school for the new year- Beezus is going to junior high and Ramona into 3rd grade. Their dad is also going back to school to become a teacher, so when he gives them new erasers for luck, Ramona is excited because money was scarce. After school, Ramona goes to Howie’s house where his little sister Willa Jean is- she has gone all summer as well. When she and Howie get on the bus, a boy named Danny steals her eraser and throws it around. Ramona cannot decide if she likes her new teacher Mrs. Whaley. One week, the kids had a fad of bringing hard-boiled eggs for lunch, so when Ramona’s mom finally gave her one, she was excited for lunchtime. The kids all broke the shells different ways, so Ramona smacked it on her head, but to her dismay it broke all over her- it wasn’t boiled at all! While she was in the office getting cleaned up, she hears Mrs. Whaley calling her a show-off and a nuisance, which hurts and embarrasses her. The next morning, her dad’s car breaks down, and Ramona does not feel well. In the middle of class, she throws up, and Mrs. Whaley makes a big fuss of it, making Ramona feel even worse. After she stays home sick for a few days, she gives a book report to the class and makes it like a tv commercial- everyone laughs and loves it. Mrs. Whaley laughs too, and Ramona confronts her about what she said about her in the office earlier that year, and the teacher denies it and says that she meant it affectionately and that Ramona misinterpreted it. When the Quimby’s go out for dinner, even though they can’t afford it, they try to be happy after a day of everyone being cross, but soon they really do enjoy themselves. When it comes time for the check, the waitress tells them that an old man already paid for their dinners, because he misses his family and thought they reminded him of them. The family agrees that they are a nice family, even though they have their ups and downs.

Theme: Family pressures from a young girls perspective, Do your best, Be yourself, Love your family

 

Superfudge

Judy Blume

  Characters: Peter, Fudge, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Alex, Jimmy, pets

Setting: Peter’s house in NY and then NJ

Plot: Peter’s family moves to a new state, therefore igniting a series of changes including his home, his school, his friends, and his family with a new baby sister.

Summary: Peter’s parents start the book off by telling him that he is going to have another sibling soon, and he is mad because he already doesn’t like his little brother Fudge. He tries to run away but decides to stay. Tamara/Tootsie is born, and Fudge doesn’t take to liking her either- he tries to sell her, get rid of her, trade her, and hides her in closets. The mom decides to go back to school and their dad is going to take off work for awhile, in addition, they will be moving to Princeton, NJ from central NY. The new house is older and Peter doesn’t like being away form NY, but he does make a new friend named Alex. Alex invites him to sell worms to the neighbor with him, and they make jokes that she eats them. Peter and Fudge go to their first day of school, with Fudge starting Kindergarten. During that day, Peter is called to the principal’s office to help them deal with Fudge because he has climbed on cabinets in his classroom because he hates his teacher, so he gets transferred to a different classroom. Peter, despite trying to act cooler than his family, breaks character one night and dances with his Grandma and Tootsie. On Halloween, Peter thinks that costumes are for babies, but when Alex is wearing one, Peter is embarrassed  and grabs stuff out of Fudge’s closet to wear.  When Peter and his friends go to the movies, they see Joanne from school, who holds hands with Peter. Later, Joanne kisses Peter’s cheek under the mistletoe, and everyone got what they wanted for Christmas. In the last chapter, Fudge and Daniel go missing with their piggy banks busted open. Their parents frantically find them later at a bakery and punish them by taking their bikes away. The story ends with the family deciding to move back to New York because their year is over- Peter is happy to go back to his normal friends and normal life.

Theme: Changes, Love your family

 

The Tiny Seed

Eric Carle

Characters: Seeds

Setting: Outside

Summary: Flower seeds flow through autumn air and most of them land in oceans, deserts, or mouths of animals. The ones that lasted through the flow and the winter start to grow into plants during spring. One little seed does not grow as fast as the others, but as the others start to grow taller, they get stepped on, or picked, or ruined, and the tiny seed keeps growing. The seed is all alone after the other plants are gone, and it keeps growing and growing until it reaches the sky. In the fall, its petals fall and the seeds blow into the wind to make more seeds!

Theme: Love yourself, You can do anything

The Dot

Peter H. Reynolds

Characters: Vashti, teacher, boy

Setting: School

Summary: Vashti thinks she can’t draw well and is frustrated- she draws nothing. Her teacher asks her to just do anything to try and maybe just start with a dot, so she does. Then the teacher tells her to sign it, because that dot is still art. The next day, the dot is hanging in a frame as showcased art. Vashti thinks that she can make a better dot than that, and the following pages are of her different forms of dots. Soon, she has a whole art show just for her dot art and everybody loves it! A boy comes over to her and says he can’t draw either, so Vashti asks him to just draw a line, so he makes a squiggle. She tells him to sign it then, because even that is art.

Theme: You can do anything

 

The Snowy Day

Ezra Jack Keats

Characters: Peter

Setting: Outside on a snowy day

Summary: Peter plays outside in the snow during the day, he puts a snowball in his pocket, when he goes to sleep he dreams the snow melted, but then when he wakes up the snow is still coming down and he plays outside with his friend.

Theme: Playing in the snow

 

The Runaway Bunny

Margaret Wise Brown

Characters: A little bunny, his mother

Setting: Outside

Summary: The little bunny tells his mom that he wants to run away but his mother says she will come after him. The bunny then says he will become a fish to get away from her, but she says she will then have to just become a fisherman. This continues on- the bunny says he will join the circus, be a mountain, be a bird, etc, as the mother says she will be a tightrope walker, be a climber, be the tree he lives in. The bunny eventually gives up and says he will stay with her and just be her little bunny.

Theme: Don’t run away, Love your parents

 

When I Was Young in the Mountains

Cynthia Rylant

  Characters: Girl

Setting: The mountains, many years ago

Summary: A young girl details her life when she lived in the mountains- swimming in lakes, using outhouses, pumping well water, walking to church, etc.

Theme: Daily life

 

Yo! Yes?

Chris Raschka

Characters: 2 boys

Setting: n/a

Summary: This story is a very simple one. One black boy and one white boy say single words to eachother like “Yo!” “Yes?” and start conversation. The one boy asks the other what is up and he responds with nothing is up, because he has no friends. In shock, the boy points to himself and implies that they should be friends, and they walk away happily together shouting “Yow!”. Each page has one or two words on it.

Theme: Friendship

Fantasy

Fantasy is a fiction genre that often uses magic and other supernatural things as the main part of the story.

Wizards, imaginative lands, and talking animals are all possibilities in these stories.

A Bad Case of Stripes
David Shannon
Characters: Camila Cream, family, doctors, classmates
Setting: Home and school
Summary: Camila Cream is starting her first day of school and is worried about what her classmates with think- especially because she loves lima beans. During her worry, she starts to get dressed and tries on many outfits. Suddenly, she becomes covered in stripes and is forced to lay in bed and not go to school. The doctor gives her cream and tells her to go to school the nexy day. When she goes to school, her stripes turn from rainbow to stars and stripes, polka dots, checkers, etc., as her classmates catch on and start to call out designs to see on her. Doctors keep checking on her and giving her things, and the next day she’s shaped like a pill! Reporters follow her and therapists come to her and yet no one can stop her from changing. An old lady comes and says she can help, so she brings her lima beans. The lima beans bring her back to her true Camila self because she admitted that she loves them no matter what anyone else thought.
Theme: Be yourself

Charlotte's Web

E.B. White

  Characters: Fern, Wilbur, Charlotte, other main farm animals, other adults
Setting: Mostly in a barn
Summary: When 8 year old Fern wakes up one day, she hears that her father is going to kill the runt of their new pig litter. Fern is outraged, and begs her dad to save him, so he allows her to raise the pig herself- and names him Wilbur. When Wilbur gets bigger, Fern’s dad decides that he is sellable- Fern is sad, but her mom suggests that they sell him to her uncle so she can visit her pig whenever she wants, and so she does. Wilbur is lonely without being with Fern constantly, and he wants a friend in his new home but none of the animals want to be that friend- except Charlotte the spider. Wilbur learns from the sheep that he is going to be killed around Christmastime and starts to wail, but Charlotte promises to save him somehow. She devises a plan to write “Some Pig” into her web, and the next morning the farm workers notice it and think that their pig is very special, so special that soon the whole community knows about him. A few days later, she spins “Terrific” into the web, and then “Radiant” and people again are amazed. Meanwhile, Fern’s mother thinks that she is crazy because she hears animals talking, but the doctor says that she is perfectly normal. The two families take Wilbur and Charlotte and the rat as stowaways to the County Fair where they enter him in a pig judging contest. Wilbur doesn’t win the contest but wins a different prize of 25 dollars for being amazing and attracting so many people. When it is time to leave the fair, Charlotte says she cannot go because she is going to die soon because she is old. Having just laid eggs the day before, Wilbur begs the rat Templeton to bring them into the crate so that her babies will be taken care of. They save the eggs and the next day, in the empty fairgrounds, Charlotte dies. When winter is over, Charlottes 500ish eggs hatch, and wave happily to Wilbur. He cannot count them all but loves having so many friends, until one day they all catch a draft and all but 3 float away in the air, going to new destinations to live. The three spiders left- Joy, Aranea, and Nellie (who Wilbur named) stayed because they like the barn and Wilbur. The farmer never kills Wilbur, and he lives happily ever after, with each new generation of Charlotte’s children and grandchildren (and two or three of them stay with him every time).
Theme: Friendship, Gluttony, Selflessness

Chocolate Fever

Robert Kimmel Smith

Characters: Henry, parents, Mac, Sugar Cane

Setting: Home, school, on the road

Summary: Henry loves chocolate- it’s all he eats. One day he gets freckles everywhere in class and they grow and grow more as the day goes on. They start to grow into limps and they pop. His teacher takes him to the emergency room and the doctors are in disbelief. Tests reveal the dots are pure chocolate. Henry runs out of the hospital as everyone chases him. He stumbles into a schoolyard and kids make fun of him but he tells them he has chocolate fever and they’ll catch it if they touch him. He later gets on a diesel truck with a guy named Mac. They become friends because Mac is black and Henry is spotted so they both feel like outcasts. Men hijack the truck because they think it is full of expensive furs, but really its carrying chocolate bars. When the park, tons of dogs come out and attack them. The dogs knock the hijackers down and the dogs lick Henry as the police come. Mac and Henry deliver the candy to a man named Sugar Cane, who tells Henry the story of a boy just like him – him! Sugar Cane said  that the cure is vanilla pills. Henry decides that he has had too much of a good thing and goes home to sleep. When he wakes up he looks normal again and declines chocolate for breakfast- instead he puts cinnamon and gets hooked on that!

Theme: Too much of a good thing

Chrysanthemum

Kevin Henkes 

Characters: Chrysanthemum, parents, Victoria, Mrs. Twinkle

Setting: Mostly at school

Summary: When Chrysanthemum is born, her parents thought she was absolutely perfect. They give her a name to show just how amazing she is, and she LOVES it until she is old enough to go to school. On her first day, her classmates make fun of her (especially Victoria- who is the biggest bully), saying that her name is too long, it doesn’t fit on a nametag, and that she’s just a flower. When she arrives home, she is sad and embarrassed by her name and wishes it were different. Her parents tell her that her classmates are jealous and that she is beautiful. The next day does not get much better though- the students even say she looks like a flower now. When the class meets their music teacher, Mrs. Twinkle, she assigns them roles for the musical- and Chrysanthemum is assigned to be a daisy, which the students laugh at her even more for. When the music teacher hears this, she says that she has a long flower name too- her name is Delphinium! The class is astounded and immediately wish they, too, had flower names. Mrs. Twinkle says she loves the name Chrysanthemum and will name her baby that if it’s a girl! In the epilogue, the musical goes great, Victoria messes up, and little Chrysanthemum is born.

Theme: Love yourself, Don’t let others put you down

 

Epossomondas

Coleen Salley

Characters: Epossomondas, Aunt, Mama

Setting: Outside, at home

Summary: Epossomondas is a possom who takes things literally, and who has a human aunt and mama. His aunt gives him cake to bring to his mama, but he squishes it. His mama tells him he should have carried it on his head. So the next day, he gets butter from his auntie, and he carries it on his head back to his mom- but she says he should have used his hands cooled in water. These antics continue with a puppy and bread. Mama gets frustraed with him and goes to aunties herself. She tells him to be careful stepping on pies while she goes out, so he very carefully steps on all of them!

Theme: Listen carefully, Communication

Frog and Toad are Friends

Arnold Lobel

Characters: Frog, Toad

Setting: Outdoors

Summary: In “Spring”, Frog goes to Toad’s house and wakes him up since he has been sleeping since November and it is now April. Toad wants to keep sleeping until May so when he sleeps Frog tears the pages off the calendar until it says May and Toad happily gets up. In “The Story” Frog is sick, and asks Toad to tell him a story. Toad bangs his head against the wall, walks around, and pours water on himself but he cannot think of one. Frog feels better so Toad lays down and Frog tells him a story about everything Toad just did. In “A Lost Button”, the friends go for a walk when Toad realizes one of his buttons has fallen off. They search for it but they keep finding different buttons. When Toad gets home he sees that his button is on the floor in his house so he sews all the other buttons onto a jacket for Frog as a thank you for looking. In “A Swim” the friends go for a swim in the river. Toad does not want to be seen out of the water because he thinks he looks funny in his bathing suit. When it is time to get out, all of the other animals in the area want to see Toad looking funny so they wait and wait and wait until he finally gives up and gets out and they make fun of him in his suit, but he proudly walks away. Lastly, in “The Letter”, Toad is sad that he never gets mail, but waits for it every day. Frog runs home and writes him a letter and gives it to a snail to deliver it. Frog urges Toad to keep checking every day but he asks why, so Frog tells him that he wrote him a letter! Toad receives the letter after 4 days and is happy to have it.

Theme: Being friends

 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

J.K. Rowling

  Characters: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Prof. Snape, Dumbledore, Prof. Mcgonagall, Neville, Draco Malfoy, muggle relatives, other Hogwarts students

Setting: Real world and Hogwarts

Summary: When Harry’s parents are killed by evil Lord Voldemort, the magic community brings him to his muggle aunt and uncle Dursley’s home to grow up as a normal child- for he has not only survived, but he was strangely unable to be killed. Ten years later, Harry’s life is miserable- he is forced to live under the stairs and is hated by everyone he lives with and by classmates that know his horrible cousin Dudley. The family especially hates him when unexplainable things happen around him, like his hair growing back, or a big snake escaping from the zoo right in front of them. One day, a letter comes addressed to Harry, in the cupboard under the stairs, and his relatives steal it from him, freak out, and move him to a small bedroom. The next day another appears that they take as well, and the days after that letters come by the dozens. The day Harry turns 11, the giant Hagrid appears to the Dursleys and Harry and gives him his Hogwarts letter and is astonished to find that he knows nothing of his wizardry, family, or magic world. Hagrid takes him shopping in the magical world and soon hops on a train to go to Hogwarts, meeting Ron and Hermione. All three are sorted into Gryffindor. The three of them, and Neville, get locked out of their dorms one night after being set up for a fight, and as they run away from getting in trouble, they come upon a forbidden room with a three headed dog guarding something. After Harry becomes the youngest Quiddich team member because of his awesome skills, Ron and Harry save Hermione from a mountain troll and although they were completely annoyed by her before, they all becomes friends. Harry gets his fathers old invisibility cloak and is able to see his parents in a mirror he finds. The three learn that the monster dog is guarding the sorcerer’s stone and Snape is after it. They lose house points for being caught in the middle of the night to send a dragon away. Harry realizes that Hagrid’s dragon winning was a way of learning about the sorcerer’s stone hiding place magic, and the 3 try to warn Dumbledore that someone is going to break in that night, but he is not there. The three of them put the 3 headed beast to sleep, unhook vines, catch a flying key, win a chess game, walk past an already knocked out troll, and walk through fire with potions- the latter of which Harry is left to do on his own. He encounters Prof. Quirrel and realizes that Snape is not the bad guy, he is, and Snape had been trying to protect Harry. He fights Quirrel for the stone and Voldemort becomes in Quirrel’s body, and Harry wakes up days later to Dumbledore saying that he saved Harry just in time and that the stone has been destroyed. Dumbledore awards Gryffindor points to the 3 friends which tie them with Slytherin, then 10 points to Neville for bravery, which makes them win the House Cup for the first time in years. Then they go away for the summer and Harry goes back to his muggle home, excited to use magic on Dudley.

Theme: Bravery, Imagination, Humility, Dangers of desire

Interrupting Chicken

David Ezra Stein 

Characters: Chicken, Papa

Setting: Chicken’s house

Summary: Papa puts Chicken to bed by reading her a story. He starts out with Hansel and Gretel but Chicken interrupts, trying to save the children. Papa is annoyed, and reads Red Riding Hood- Chicken interrupts this as well. Then they read Chicken Little, but that is also interrupted and Chicken still isn’t asleep. Papa is out of books so he lays down and tells Chicken to write her own book, and as she is doing so Papa falls asleep.

Theme: Manners, Imagination

 

King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub

Audrey Wood

Characters: King Bidgood, his court

Setting: Palace, bathtub

Summary: King Bidgood refuses to get out of the bathtub! He wants to have battles, eat lunch, fish, and dance all while staying in there! His court constantly tries to get him out, but it only ends up with them doing the activity in the bathtub with him! The royal page refrains, “Oh who knows what to do?!”  before each trial and failure to get him out. Everyone in the castle helps by the end, until the page finally decides to just pull the plug out of the tub, forcing the King to get out. The illustrations in the book are also very awesome!

Theme: Teamwork, Cooperation, Perseverance

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Robert C. O'Brien

Characters: Mrs. Frisby, the children, Nicodemous, Justin, other rats

Setting: A farm
Summary: The rats of Nimh- a lab project to increase rat intelligence- escape the lab and come to live on a farm where they have stolen food and energy for a very long time and want to plan their own community. Mrs. Frisby, a mouse, and her family need to move their home or else they will die because the youngest son is unable to leave. She enlists the rats to help her and she learns about their history and how they connect to her late husband, and the two sets of animals help save each other.

Theme: Working together

 

 Skeleton Meets the Mummy

Steve Metzger

Characters: Skeleton, Mummy

Setting: Halloween night

Summary: Sammy skeleton wants to go trick-or-treating, but his mom makes him take soup to his grandma bones first. As he takes it, he gets scared of sounds he hears and tries to reassure himself. But something was behind him indeed- a mummy! The mummy chases him but Sammy decides to be brave so he pulls the mummy’s cloth until he unravels, showing it’s actually his best friend Derek the skeleton! Derek was just scaring him and then they both take the soup to his grandma before they go out.

Theme: Even skeletons get scared, Bravery, Friendship

Swimmy

Leo Leonni

Characters: Swimmy

Setting: UnderwaterSummary: A small, different, black fish survives an bigger fish attack on his family of red fish. Dealing with this, he swims all over the ocean seeing the amazing creatures. He meets another school of small fish and teaches them to swim like one big fish so they, too, can explore without being eaten. They successfully trick the big fish and can scare them away to enjoy their lives.

Theme: Leadership, Being different is okay

 

The Adventures of Captain Underpants

Dav Pilkey

  Setting: School, around town

Characters: George, Harold, Mr.Krupp/Captain Underpants

Summary: George and Harold are best friends who sometimes draw comics which they call Captain Underpants. The principal Mr. Krupp hates the comics and dislikes the boys and wants to bring them down. The boys do tons of pranks at the football game like putting soap in the instruments and pepper in the pompoms. They hope to not be found out, but Mr. Krupp calls them into the office the next day with video evidence that they did it. He blackmails them with the video, saying he will show it to the football team for worse punishment from them than just expelling them. The boys buy a hyptno-ring and use it on the principal so that he won’t make their life horrible. They replace the tape with a little sister’s dance video and then turn Krupp into their comic book character. He goes through the town trying to stop evil and the boys get into a lot of action situations throughout the town. There are small flip-books for “action scenes” but they’re not long enough to enjoy. When the boys defeat a robot that came for Captain Underpants, they escape and see that Captain Underpants has tied up Dr. Diaper. They snap the principal back into his former self and he gets back on with his blackmail. He shows the video to the team, who actually love it, and change their name to the purple dragon singalong friends. Anytime Krupp hears a certain noise, he snaps back into the superhero and they have to constantly watch him.

Theme: Think about what you do, Working together

 

The Hunger Games

Suzanne Collins

Setting: The ruins of North America, known as Panem, in the future

Characters: Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Prim, Hunger Games tributes, Haymitch, others

Summary: During the annual Hunger Games where 24 kids are put in an arena to fight to the death until one winner emerges, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her little sister’s place. Her natural fighter emerges and she fights to come back to her town, while saving the other tribute from her district, and showing hate towards the Capitol.

 

The Little Engine that Could

Watty Piper

Characters: The toys, the little engine that could

Setting: Outside

Summary: The train is carrying tons of toys and snacks for little boys and girls on the other side of a mountain. Suddenly, the train cannot go on, no matter how hard she tries. Some of the toys come out and ask a shiny, new engine to pull them over the mountain, but he says that he is too good for them because he carries passengers. Then another engine goes by and they ask him too, but he says that he is too good for them as well because he pulls big freight. A third engine comes and they ask him too, but he is rusty, old, and tired. Finally, a small, blue engine comes and they ask her. She says that she has never been over the mountain, but after seeing the tears in the toys’ eyes, she agrees to do it. She says “I think I can I think I can” over and over as she slowly goes up the mountain. As they reach the top and start go down the other side, the toys all cheer and she thinks, “I thought I could!”

Theme: Perseverance, you can do anything

 

The Magic Hat

Mem Fox

  Characters: magic hat

Setting: Outside

Summary: A magic hat floats around and appears in a town. It lands on heads, toads, baboons, kangaroos, bears, and giraffes until a wizard appears and says stop and takes the hat because it makes magic wherever it is at.

Theme: Imagination

 

The Magic School Bus: In the Time of the Dinosaurs

Joanna Cole

Characters: Mrs. Frisby and class

Setting: Our time at school, in the dinosaur ages

Summary: It’s visitors day at school and all the kids decorated the class with dinosaurs. They are invited to a dinosaur dig and leave on the magic school bus. They learn about paleontologists and fossils. Then they get back on the bus and it turns into a time machine, where they go back into the early days to the dinosaur time. The kids see and learn about them and keep going back on the bus to go to different periods like the Jurassic and Triassic. In each period, they learn about the dinosaurs and even see fights. Eventually they go back home. Throughout this book, the students talk in dialogue bubbles about dinosaur facts and the sides of the pages have more facts too!

Theme: Dinosaurs