Armstrong, Jennifer

Kindling

HarperCollins, 2002

224 pages

5.0, UG

In 2007 children,earth's only survivors, search for others.

 

Ayres, Katherine

Stealing South

201 pages

Delacorte, 2001

4.5, MG

Sixteen-year-old Will Spencer leaves home to become a peddler, but gets more than he bargained for when he agrees to go to Kentucky, steal two slaves, and help them reach their brother in Canada.

 

Carbone, Elisa

Blood on the River: James Town 1607

Viking, 2006

224 pages

5.3 MG

Samuel Collier is John Smith's page on his voyage to the New World.  There he must learn hard lessons if he wishes to survive in the hostile environment, lessons of reliance on others and maturity.  This is a fine historical novel full of detail worthy of class study. 

 

Cummings, Priscilla 

Red Kayak  

Dutton, 2004 

208 pages 

4.9, MG

Brady is having serious problem with his conscience.  He and his friends see a Red Kayak going towards dangerous tides and do nothing.

 

Deuker, Carl

Runner

Houghton Mifflin, 2005

224 pages

4.3, MG

When Chance is offered a job running packages from one place to another for lots of money, he takes it, even though he knows it is probably illegal.

 

Draper, Sharon

Copper Sun

Atheneum, 2006

320 pages

5.2, MG

The Story of Amari, a girl stolen from her African village to be a slave in America, and Polly, a white indentured girl. Their paths cross and they become friends and runaways.

 

Duprau, Jeanne

City of Ember 

Random House, 2003

288 pages

5.0, MG

Two 12 year olds help their people out of an underground city.

 

Ernst, Kathleen

Hearts of Stone

Dutton, 2006

248 pages

Hannah tries to take care to her three siblings in Tennessee after the death of her parents during the the Civil War.  She finds it easier to develop a "heart of stone" because of all of the tragedy she must face in the midst of the war.  

 

Grant, K.M.

Blood Red Horse

Walker, 2005 

288 pages 

6.3, MG

Gavin, William, and Ellie are three teens caught up in the tumultuous times of the Crusades (1100 A.D.)  The two boys go to the Holy Land to fight under Richard the Lionhearted.  Ellie must stay in England and fight her own battles.  This is a fine coming of age story with much richness of historical detail.

 

Hahn, Mary

Hear the Wind Blow

224 pages 

Clarion, 2003

4.5, MG

A young man agrees to hide a wounded Confederate soldier on his family's Virginia farm, but the Yankees come searching for him.

 

Hobbs, Will

Crossing the Wire

HarperCollins, 2006 

214 pages

4.3 MG 

Fifteen year old Victor must leave his village in Mexico to illegally cross the U.S. border and try to make money to send to his family. 

 

Jaramillo, Ann

La Linea 

Roaring Brook, 2006

125 pages

4.3 MG

Miguel leaves his village in Mexico to join his parents in California.  But his sister Elena tags along after dressing in Men's clothing and foils his plans.

Martin, Ann

A Dog's Life: The Autobiography of a Stray 

Scholastic, 2005

192 pages

5.1, MG 

Told from the point of view of a stray dog, this engaging book has more to say about human nature than it does about the canine world.  The narrator dog is born a stray and stays one, observing humans with a non-judgmental eye until finally finding in her old age an old woman with whom she settles in as a companion. 

 

Mikaelsen, Ben

Touching Spirit Bear

HarperCollins, 2001

256 pages

5.3, MG

Cole is an angry teen who mauls of a fellow student doing brain damage.  He comes before the "Circle of Justice as a last resort and is sent to a remote island off the coast of Alaska.

 

Morpurgo, Michael

Kensuke's Kingdom

Scholastic, 2003

176 pages

4.7 MG

Michael, his parents, and his dog, Stella, are sailing around the world.  In a fierce storm, Michael and his dog are washed overboard and end up on a beach on an island where he soon realizes he is not alone.

Patneaude, David

Thin Wood Walls

240 pages

Houghton Mifflin, 2004

4.3, MG

Joe is a Japanese-American just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  His father is arrested by the FBI and taken away. Soon his entire family is sent to an internment camp in California.

 

Paver, Michelle

Wolf Brother 

HarperCollins, 2005 

304 pages

4.5, MG

In the time of the clans (6,000 years ago) twelve year old Torak goes on a vision quest to the Mountain to save the world from the Demon-Bear. 

 

Pearsall, Shelley

Crooked River

Knopf, 2005

236 pages

In 1812 Ohio 13 year old Rebecca witnesses ugly frontier justice when a native American is falsley accused of murdering a white trapper and tried by the white court system.  She is shocked by the town's refusal to see him as a human being.  

 

 

Philbrick, Rodman

The Young Man and the Sea

Blue Sky, 2004

192 pages

Skiff's dad has been lying on the couch drinking since his mom died.  All he wants is to go fishing on their boat off the Maine coast.  But then the boat sinks from lack of repair.  Can Skiff repair the boat and land the big one that will save his family? 

 

Smelcer, John

The Trap

Holt, 2006

170 pages

6.2 MG

Albert Least-Weasel is nearly 80 and knows he shouldn't be out trapping alone any more in the unforgiving Arctic wilderness.  Yet he has his pride and goes, becoming caught in one of his own traps as the temperature continues to fall dangerously low.  His grandson, Johnny, finally becomes concerned and sets out to find him.