Books for Independent Reading
VERY EASY
- Eagle Boy
- retold by Gerald Hausman
(Multicultural)
Harper 1996 (32p)
In this retelling of a Navajo legend, a young boy must prove himself clever
and brave before he can receive a special gift.
- Fire on the Mountain
- by Jane Kurtz
(Multicultural)
Simon 1994 (40p)
Alemayu, a shepherd boy, is challenged to spend a bitter-cold night alone on a mountain in exchange for a bag of money in this well-known Ethiopian folktale.
EASY
A Picture Book of Thurgood Marshall- by David A. Adler
(Multicultural)
Holiday 1997 (32p)
This simple biography chronicles the life of Marshall, from his years as a boy getting into trouble with teachers, to his appointment as the first African American Supreme Court justice.
- Allie's Basketball Dream
- by Barbara E. Barber
(Multicultural)
Lee & Low 1996 (32p)
When Allie receives a basketball from her father, she is determined to become a good player despite the discouragement of the neighborhood boys.
- Brave as a Mountain Lion
- by Ann Herbert Scott
Holiday 1997 (32p)
The author tells the story of Louis Braille, who, blinded by an accident at age three, developed a code for letters in his teens that eventually became the system known as Braille used now throughout the world. A page of letters and numbers in Braille is included.
- Wilma Unlimited
- by Kathleen Krull
(Multicultural)
Harcourt 1996 (40p)
When she is stricken with polio at age five, Wilma Rudolph is told she will never walk again, but years later in the Olympics she became the first woman to win three gold medals in track.
- The Cloudmakers
- by James Rumford
(Multicultural)
Houghton 1996 (32p)
When a Chinese grandfather and his grandson are captured in the year 751, they win their release by teaching their captors the art of making
- Anthony Reynoso: Born to Rope
- by Martha Cooper
(Multicultural)
Clarion 1996 (32p)
A Mexican American boy wants to learn to rope and ride in the Mexican Rodeo
style handed down through many generations.
AVERAGE
- Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story
- by Ken Mochizuki
(Multicultural)
Lee & Low 1996 (32p)
Against his government's orders but encouraged by his young son, Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara hand-wrote visas that allowed thousands of Lithuanian Jews to escape the holocaust.
- Grace the Pirate
- by Kathryn Lasky
Hyperion 1997 (64p)
The author relates the true story of a young Irish girl who dreamed of becoming a pirate like her dad, Black Oak.
- The Divide
- by Michael Bedard
Doubleday 1997 (32p)
As a young girl, Willa Cather was sorry when her family left their home in Virginia for the plains of Nebraska but soon grew to love her new home.
- Trapped by the Ice: Shackleton's Amazing Antarctic Adventure
- by Michael McCurdy
Walker 1997 (40p)
When Sir Ernest Shackelton sets out to be the first to cross the Southern Polar Cap and his ship and crew are stranded miles from nowhere in a sea of ice, it takes years to get back to civilization.
- Dear Mrs. Parks: A Dialogue with Today's Youth
- by Rosa Parks with Gregory J. Reed
(Multicultural)
Lee & Low 1996 (128p)
Rosa Parks, known as the Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement, answers questions from young people and offers them encouragment in facing life's challenges.
- Girlhood Journeys: Shannon: A Chinatown Adventure
- by Kathleen Kudlinski
Simon 1996 (72p) also paper
In this book from the new Girlhood Journeys series, Shannon O'Brien, newly arrived in San Francisco from Ireland, rescues a Chinese girl from a life of servitude.
- A World of Knowing: A Story About Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
- by Andy Russell Bowen
(Social Studies)
Carolrhoda 1995 (56p)
Facing the challenge of his own ill health inspired Thomas Gallaudet to
found the Hartford Shool for the Deaf, the first school of its kind in the country.
- Tanya's Reunion
- by Valerie Flournoy
(Multicultural)
Dial 1995 (56p)
In this sequel toThe Patchwork Quilt, Tanya is initially disappointed by her visit to the Virginia farm where her grandmother grew up.
- Iditarod Dream
- by Ted Wood
Walker 1996 (48p)
Fifteen-year-old Dusty Whittemore and his dogs need intense preparation to
race the grueling 158 miles of Alaska's Jr. Iditarod.
- Animals Who Have Won Our Hearts
- by Jean Craighead George
Harper 1994 (64p)
The author relates the stories of ten outstanding animals, including Balto
the dog and Koko the gorilla, who have endeared themselves through acts of
bravery or perseverance.
CHALLENGING
- Out of the Darkness: The Story of Louis Braille
- by Russell Freedman
Clarion 1997 (80p)
Determined to communicate by the written word, a blind boy develops a system of raised dots known as the Braille alphabet, opening the doors of learning to blind people everywhere.
- Girls to the Rescue, Book # 3
- edited by Bruce Lansky
(Multicultural)
Meadowbrook 1997 (108p)
In his latest collection, Lansky offers ten more stories about resourceful, courageous girls from around the world.
- Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio
- by Peg Kehret
Whitman 1996 (184p)
Children's author Kehret, stricken with polio when she was twelve, recounts her struggle to survive and then to walk again.
- Girls to the Rescue, Book #2
- by Bruce Lasky
(Multicultural)
Simon 1995 (103p)
Lasky has collected ten more stories about clever, courageous girls from around the world.
- Girls to the Rescue: Tales of Clever, Courageous Girls From Around the World
- by Bruce Lasky
(Multicultural)
Simon 1995 (100p)
In this collection of amusing multicultural stories, resourceful young women
reverse the folktale tradition of helpless heroines.
Now Out of Print
- Ride the Red Cycle
- by Harriet Gillam Robinet
- How It Feels to Fight for Your Life
- by Jill Krementz
Now Available in Paperback
- Pearl Paints
- by Abigail Thomas
Holt Owlet
- Hattie and the Wild Waves
- by Barbara Cooney
Puffin
- Riptide
- by Frances Ward Weller
Philomel
- The Shiniest Rock of All
- by Nancy Ruth Patterson
Farrar
- The Losers Fight Back: A Wild Willy Mystery
- by Barbara M. Joosse
Dell
Now Available in Spanish
- Amazing Grace (Asombrosa Graciela)
- by Mary Hoffman