SLJ’s Top 100 Chapter Books 2012

This is the Top 100 list that was published by School Library Journal in 2012, by Betsy Bird. This is the list of books that we are to choose from for our final projects for the History of Youth Literature class that I’m taking this semester. Books I’ve read are marked with an asterisk (*), favorites are marked with a heart (♥) at the end. I’ve written about some of them on this blog before, and I’ll have more to link to after April is over. 🙂

*#1 Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White (1952) ♥
*#2 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (1962) ♥
*#3 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (1997) ♥
*#4 The Giver by Lois Lowry (1993)
*#5 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (1950) ♥
*#6 Holes by Louis Sachar (1998)
*#7 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg (1967) ♥
*#8 Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (1908)
*#9 The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (1978) ♥♥♥
*#10 Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (1977)
*#11 When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (2009)
*#12 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (1999) ♥
*#13 The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (1997) ♥♥♥
*#14 The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (1938) ♥
*#15 The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)
*#16 Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (1975)
*#17 Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh (1964)
*#18 The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander (1964)
*#19 Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1932)
#20 Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (2000)
*#21 The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (1961)
*#22 The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper (1973) ♥
*#23 Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (1989)
*#24 Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary (1968)
#25 The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis (1995)
*#26 Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne (1926) ♥
*#27 Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1935)
*#28 The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (1995)
*#29 The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall (2005) ♥
*#30 Matilda by Roald Dahl (1988) ♥
*#31 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)
#32 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor (1976)
#33 Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien (1971)
*#34 Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls (1961)
*#35 Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume (1972)
*#36 The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (1958)
#37 The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (2007)
*#38 Frindle by Andrew Clements (1996) ♥
*#39 The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (2007) ♥
*#40 Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (1990)
*#41 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (1900)
#42 Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright (1957)
*#43 Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (1980) ♥
#44 Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt (2011)
*#45 Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell (1960)
*#46 The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi (1990)
*#47 Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868) ♥
*#48 The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket (1999)
*#49 My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett (1948) ♥♥♥
*#50 Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (1989)
*#51 The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, A Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo (2003) ♥
*#52 Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace (1940) ♥
#53 The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (2008)
*#54 Half Magic by Edward Eager (1954)
#55 All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor (1951)
*#56 A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1905) ♥
#57 The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken (1962)
#58 Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome (1930)
*#59 The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo (2006)
*#60 Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (1999)
*#61 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (1964)
#62 Clementine by Sara Pennypacker (2006)
*#63 The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson (1978) ♥
#64 The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois (1947)
*#65 Wonder by R.J. Palacio (2012) ♥♥
*#66 The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly (2009)
#67 A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck (1998)
*#68 The High King by Lloyd Alexander (1968)
*#69 The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan (2006) ♥
*#70 Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (1994)
#71 Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles (2005)
#72 Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (2009)
#73 The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson (1972)
*#74 Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume (1970)
#75 The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright (1941)
#76 Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney (2007)
*#77 My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George (1959)
#78 Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild (1936)
*#79 The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (1967)
#80 The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright (1942)
*#81 The Witches by Roald Dahl (1983)
#82 The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden (1960)
#83 Ozma of Oz by Frank L. Baum (1907)
*#84 The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1940)
*#85 Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (1997) ♥
#86 Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie (1911)
*#87 The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger (2010)
*#88 The BFG by Roald Dahl (1982)
*#89 The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary (1967)
#90 The Children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston (1954)
#91 Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren (1950)
*#92 Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen (2001) ♥
*#93 Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson (2001) ♥♥
*#94 Ramona and her Father by Beverly Cleary (1977)
*#95 The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1943)
*#96 The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis (1954) ♥
#97 The Diamond in the Window by Jane Langton (1962)
*#98 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (2000) ♥
*#99 The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner (1942)
#100 Love That Dog by Sharon Creech (2001)

Poetry for Kids

Summer has gone by really fast, and some of my students are already starting to get ready to go back to school. Between work, class, and volunteering, I haven’t had much time to read, but I have been reading a lot of poetry lately for work.

Last year, I noticed that my students didn’t get to do a lot of poetry at school with their teachers, but upper elementary students always have at least one or two poetry passages on the CST. Some of them are naturally good at understanding poetry, but others have a hard time wrapping their heads around the figurative language. The kids who have a hard time can identify the different types of figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification, etc.), but they just have a hard time understanding the big picture of the poem.

I totally understand where they’re coming from. Growing up, I always preferred reading novels and stories to reading poetry. I didn’t come to appreciate poetry until I learned how to analyze the different literary techniques in high school and college, but by then, I was just scrambling to finish all my papers, so I couldn’t savor the words.

I was looking for old poetry books on my bookshelf to bring to class yesterday, and I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t have very many. The one book I did have on my shelf with poetry for kids was my sister’s. I did have a couple of picture books written in verse by Graeme Base that I bought in sixth grade after reading Animalia in class (so I didn’t have Animalia because I’d read it already at that point, but I would want it now…).

I’ve done Shakespeare with my 5th graders, and compared to that, poetry is much easier for them to grasp on their own, but I want them to be able to discover the connections in poetry on their own so that they can start enjoying poetry while they still have time to savor it.

Poems that I’ve done with them in class that they have had fun with include:

• “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll (teaches portmanteau and understanding vocabulary in context)
• “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout” by Shel Silverstein (alliteration, repetition, and lots more)
• “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost (for symbolism and inspiration)

It’s also fun for them to try writing their own poems in different styles. A Google search for “National Poetry Month resources” will return a lot of great resources for teaching poetry to kids in any month. I also really like some of the printables and activities found on Shel Silverstein’s official website.

One thing that’s fun for students is to go on a poetry scavenger hunt for different literary devices that they already know the definitions for but may not have seen “in action” very much. My list is adapted from the literary terms in one of the standard literature textbooks my students already use. The idea is to get them to find examples of literary terms on their own, either in books or online.

Some great places to find poetry for kids include:

• The Children’s Poetry Archive – a UK site of poems for kids (part of The Poetry Archive) with author readings, interviews, and background. I especially like the poems by Valerie Bloom that I found on this site.
• Poets.org – the American counterpart of The Poetry Archive. It’s a great place to find classics to teach, but harder to find material for younger readers.
• Bartleby.com (section on verse) – great for if you want to browse through all the poems by a specific author. Indexes by title and by first line so you only need to know one or the other. I used some of Emily Dickinson (life and nature poems) and Robert Louis Stevenson (A Child’s Garden of Verses and Underwoods) for my students.

I gave my students these sites so they could look through them on their own for the scavenger hunt. I especially love the first one because it’s made for kids and has a mix of classic and modern poetry that is easier for the kids to understand.

I had only been planning a cursory look through poetry so they could practice their reading comprehension, but I kept dragging the unit out longer and longer so that they could keep exploring (and I could explore with them!). I’d love to do some of the Canterbury Tales with them next, but that may have to wait until the school year starts.

I’ve still got lots of books in my to-read list (that needs to be updated), but I think my old English poetry textbooks are getting added to the pile… (Once I find them, anyway…)

Newbery Medal Award Winners, 1922-present

I didn’t notice that Newbery was only spelled with one “r” until one of my fourth graders pointed it out to me last year… Books I’ve read are marked with an asterisk (*), favorites are marked with a heart (♥) at the end. I’ve read a number of them recently with my students, so I’ll link to reviews of those once I’ve posted them.

(from the ALA/ALSC site)

2012: Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos (Farrar Straus Giroux)
2011: Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool (Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books)
*2010: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books)
2009: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, illus. by Dave McKean (HarperCollins)
2008: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz (Candlewick)
2007: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illus. by Matt Phelan (Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson)
2006: Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins)
2005: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata (Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster)
*2004: The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press) ♥
2003: Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi (Hyperion Books for Children)
*2002: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park (Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin) ♥
2001: A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck (Dial)
2000: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (Delacorte)
*1999: Holes by Louis Sachar (Frances Foster)
1998: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (Scholastic)
*1997: The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg (Jean Karl/Atheneum) ♥
*1996: The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman (Clarion)
*1995: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (HarperCollins)
*1994: The Giver by Lois Lowry (Houghton)
1993: Missing May by Cynthia Rylant (Jackson/Orchard)
*1992: Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Atheneum)
*1991: Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (Little, Brown)
*1990: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (Houghton)
1989: Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman (Harper)
1988: Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman (Clarion)
1987: The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman (Greenwillow)
*1986: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (Harper)
1985: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (Greenwillow)
*1984: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)
*1983: Dicey’s Song by Cynthia Voigt (Atheneum)
1982: A Visit to William Blake’s Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard (Harcourt)
*1981: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (Crowell) ♥
1980: A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal, 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos (Scribner)
*1979: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (Dutton) ♥♥♥
*1978: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)
1977: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (Dial)
*1976: The Grey King by Susan Cooper (McElderry/Atheneum) ♥
1975: M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton (Macmillan)
1974: The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox (Bradbury)
*1973: Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (Harper)
1972: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien (Atheneum)
*1971: Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars (Viking)
*1970: Sounder by William H. Armstrong (Harper)
*1969: The High King by Lloyd Alexander (Holt)
*1968: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg (Atheneum)
1967: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt (Follett)
1966: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino (Farrar)
1965: Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska (Atheneum)
1964: It’s Like This, Cat by Emily Neville (Harper)
*1963: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (Farrar) ♥
1962: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
*1961: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell (Houghton)
1960: Onion John by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)
*1959: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
1958: Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith (Crowell)
1957: Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen (Harcourt)
*1956: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham (Houghton)
1955: The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong (Harper)
1954: …And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)
1953: Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark (Viking)
1952: Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt)
1951: Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates (Dutton)
1950: The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli (Doubleday)
1949: King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry (Rand McNally)
1948: The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois (Viking)
1947: Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (Viking)
1946: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski (Lippincott)
1945: Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson (Viking)
1944: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (Houghton)
1943: Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Viking)
1942: The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds (Dodd)
1941: Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry (Macmillan)
1940: Daniel Boone by James Daugherty (Viking)
1939: Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright (Rinehart)
1938: The White Stag by Kate Seredy (Viking)
1937: Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer (Viking)
1936: Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink (Macmillan)
1935: Dobry by Monica Shannon (Viking)
1934: Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs (Little, Brown)
1933: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis (Winston)
1932: Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer (Longmans)
1931: The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth (Macmillan)
1930: Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field (Macmillan)
1929: The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly (Macmillan)
1928: Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji (Dutton)
1927: Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James (Scribner)
1926: Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman (Dutton)
1925: Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger (Doubleday)
1924: The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes (Little, Brown)
1923: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (Stokes)
1922: The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon (Liveright)

Also, here are the Newbery Honor books that I have read (from most recent winner to oldest):

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury Children’s Books) ♥
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf)
Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath (Farrar Straus Giroux)
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (HarperCollins) ♥
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (Greenwillow/Morrow) ♥♥
Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman (Clarion)
The Ear, the Eye and the Arm by Nancy Farmer (Jackson/Orchard) ♥♥
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi (Jackson/Orchard)
Afternoon of the Elves by Janet Taylor Lisle (Jackson/Orchard)
The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
A Solitary Blue by Cynthia Voigt (Atheneum)
Homesick: My Own Story by Jean Fritz (Putnam)
Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)
A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L’Engle (Farrar)
Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)
Dragonwings by Laurence Yep (Harper)
The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper (McElderry/Atheneum) ♥
The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Atheneum)
The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander (Holt)
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George (Dutton)
Old Yeller by Fred Gipson (Harper)
Banner In The Sky by James Ullman (Lippincott)
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White (Harper) ♥
My Father’s Dragon by Ruth S. Gannett (Random House) ♥♥♥
Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper)
Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard & Florence Atwater (Little, Brown)

My Dusty Bookshelf

My pile of books to read that I am trying not to add to…

Books donated by my students:
Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson
Island of the Aunts by Eva Ibbotson

Borrowed from friends:
坊ちゃん by 夏目漱石

Purchases:
Shadows Over Lyra by Patricia C. Wrede
(includes Shadow Magic, Daughter of Witches, and The Harp of Imach Thyssel)
Caught in Crystal by Patricia C. Wrede
The Raven Ring by Patricia C. Wrede

君と僕。9-10 by 堀田きいち
聖☆おにいさん 4-5 by 中村光
しろくまカフェ 1-4 by ヒガアロハ
荒川アンダーザブリッジ 1-4 by 中村光
魔王 by 伊坂幸太郎
ドリトル先生月へゆく (Dr. Dolittle in the Moon) by Hugh Lofting
吾輩は猫である by 夏目漱石

To re-read:
Dragon Steel by Laurence Yep
Dragon Cauldron by Laurence Yep
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

To borrow from the library:
Can You Get an F in Lunch? by Nancy Krulik
Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Lulu and the Brontosaurus by Judith Viorst
Gator on the Loose! by Sue Stauffacher
Emily’s Fortune by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Green by Laura Peyton Roberts
Fish by Gregory Mone
Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm
Bink and Gollie by Kate DiCamillo
Trolls by Peggy Horvath
Younguncle Comes to Town by Vandana Singh
A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban
The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill
Dork in Disguise by Carol Gorman
Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief by Wendelin Van Draanen
The Skull of Truth by Bruce Coville
Feed by M.T. Anderson
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Book List

List of books I’ve read recently for work in approximate order of difficulty. Books marked with an asterisk (*) are part of a series. Check back for links to reviews for the books. Leave a comment if you have any review requests 🙂

Lower Elementary:
Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things by Lenore Look
Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything by Lenore Look

Middle Grade:
Tumtum and Nutmeg* by Emily Bearn
Which Witch? by Eva Ibbotson
The Giants and the Joneses by Julia Donaldson
Guardians of Ga’hoole* by Kathryn Lasky
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher* by Bruce Coville
Sideways Stories from Wayside School* by Louis Sachar
The Penderwicks* by Jeanne Birdsall
The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
Dragon of the Lost Sea by Laurence Yep
The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Advanced Elementary:
Granny Torrelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech
Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath
My One Hundred Adventures* by Polly Horvath
Jar of Dreams by Yoshiko Uchida
The Castle Corona by Sharon Creech
Anaptosis by Chris Abouzeid
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George
Project Mulberry by Linda Sue Park
Masterpiece by Elise Broach
The Lightning Thief* by Rick Riordan
Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
The Seven Towers by Patricia C. Wrede
Midnight Magic by Avi
The Mysterious Benedict Society* by Trenton Lee Stewart
A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz
What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy by Gregory Maguire
Magic by the Book by Nina Bernstein
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Tiger* by Jeff Stone
H.I.V.E.: The Higher Institute of Villainous Education* by Mark Walden
The Palace of Laughter by Jon Berkeley
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger
The Name of This Book is Secret* by Pseudonymous Bosch
The Strictest School in the World* by Howard Whitehouse
A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

Middle School/High School:
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
1001 Cranes by Naomi Hirahara
The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd
Shakespeare’s Secret by Elise Broach
The Shakespeare Stealer* by Gary Blackwood
The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman
The Goose Girl* by Shannon Hale
Flush by Carl Hiaasen
The Alchemyst* by Michael Scott
First Light by Rebecca Stead
Kingdom Keepers* by Ridley Pearson
Whales on Stilts by M.T. Anderson
Tunnels* by Roderick Gordon
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
The False Princess by Eilis O’Neal
Nobody’s Princess* by Esther Friesner
The Thief* by Megan Whalen Turner
Models Don’t Eat Chocolate Cookies by Erin Dionne
Bras and Broomsticks by Sarah Mlynowski
Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede
Shug by Jenny Han
Oh. My. Gods.* by Tera Lynn Childs
Emily the Strange* by Rob Reger
Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston
The Giver by Lois Lowry
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Nation by Terry Pratchett
The 10 P.M. Question by Kate De Goldi
A Step from Heaven by An Na
Nicola and the Viscount by Meg Cabot
A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn
The Hunger Games* by Suzanne Collins

High school:
The Native Star by M.K. Hobson
The Cardturner by Louis Sachar
The Magician’s Guild* (Black Magician Trilogy) by Trudi Caravan
Solace of the Road by Siobhan Dowd
How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier
Geektastic by Holly Black
I Was a Teenage Fairy by Francesca Lia Block
The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
The Pox Party: Octavian Nothing* by M.T. Anderson
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury