Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

Author: Thanhha Lai

Title: Inside Out and Back Again

Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books

Date: 2011

Reading Level: 8-11

Number of Pages: 272

Genre: Historical Fiction  

Summary of plot: The story is about a little girl named Ha in the year 1975. Her and her family have to leave their hometown of Saigon Vietnam because the communist are taking it over.  After their secret departure on a train they stay in two different refugee camps and then finally fine a place in Alabama with a family. In this new home they have to find out how to become Americans by learning a new language, go to school , find a job, make friends and stay away from bullies. In the end she finally starts to believe in herself again after much heartache.

Readers Reaction: I really loved that it was written in free style poem.

Potential Problems: bullies, name calling

Recommendation: anyone who likes to read books in a poem form

Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late by Mo Willems

Author: Mo Willems

Title: Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late

Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children

Date: 2006

Reading Level: 2+

Number of Pages: 36

Genre: Fiction- Picture Book

Summary of plot: The very first book a bus driver asks the reader to get the pigeon into bed while he brushes its teeth. All of the pages after that are about the reader getting the pigeon into bed and then the very last page they are congratulated for a job well done when the pigeon does finally get into bed.

Readers Reaction: I thought this book was really great. One that I will have to get for when I have children.

Potential Problems: no problems

Recommendation: The perfect go-to-bed book for stalling kids.

Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein

Author: David Ezra

Title: Interrupting Chicken

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Date: 2010

Reading Level:4-6

Number of Pages: 40

Genre: Fiction- Picture book

Summary of plot: This story begins with a Daddy Chicken trying to tell his Daughter a bed time story but when she keeps interrupting him it starts to get extreamly difficult. During the book he tries to read three fariy tales Hansel and Gretal, Little Red Ridding hood and Chicken Little, the little chicken literally jumps into each story and worns the charachters on the evils to come. At the end of the book she ends up reading him a story only to find him asleep.

Readers Reaction: I love how in the end it teaches you to not interrupt. It was a fun creative book on teaching not to interrupt

Potential Problems: No problems

Recommendation: Fun book for the whole family to read.

Library Mouse: A Friend's Tale By Daniel Kirk

Author: Daniel Kirk

Title: Library Mouse: A Friend's Tale

Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers

Date: 2009

Reading Level: 4-7

Number of Pages: 32

Genre: Fiction- Picture Book

Summary of plot: The story is about a shy boy named Tom who is suppose to write a story but when he finds himself with out a partner the Librarian offers to help. Tom declines and eventually finds himself writing the story with the library's mystery author named Sam who is really a Mouse. In the end Tom and Sam end up writing a very unusually story and solve the Library's mystery.

Readers Reaction: What a cute story... it started out a little strange but then by the end I really enjoyed it.

Potential Problems: no problems

Recommendation: Children learning to write their own stories

Clementine by Sara Pennypacker

Author: Sara Pennypacker

Title: Clementine

Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children

Date: 2006

Reading Level: 7-12

Number of Pages: 144

Genre: Fiction

Summary of plot: This story is told in a one week spand about a third grader named Clementine. At school she gets in trouble becaues she tries to help her friend Margret with her hair by cutting it and coloring it. Unfortently both girls parent and the princpale of the school are not impressed. The two girls end up not talking to each other ever again. At home Clementine helps her dad fight of peingons. Her cat dies so you read about her morning of its death. One things that you are constetnly hearing about is how she is convenced that her parents are going to trade her in. By the end her hair begins to grow back and her fears of being traded in are cleared up by her parents with a big suprise.

Readers Reaction: This book is really simmiler to the Ramona books. Because I loved the Ramona books so much this one I loved as well

Potential Problems: Clementine spies on janitor and lunch lady embracing.

Recommendation: Those who like the Ramona books will love Clementine

Billy Bones by Christopher Lincoln

Author: Christopher Lincoln

Title: Billy Bones

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Date: 2008

Reading Level: 9+

Number of Pages: 304

Genre: Fiction

Summary of plot: Billy Bones is a skeleton who lives in the secrets closet at High Manners Manor. Billy's parents organize the secrets, lies, etc., of the Biglum family, and they always have lots and lots to organize. When a new family member moves into the manor, things begin to change. New mysteries pop up, including secrets surrounding his own family. Billy and his new friend Millicent must unravel the mysteries before the evil Sir Biglum can wreak havoc on all their lives.

Readers Reaction: I thought that it was a fun spooky twist to a fun mystery

Potential Problems: Death trys to take a soul, Adult drinking.

Recommendation: boys that really like  mysteries

Dork Diaries: Tales from a NOT- SO- Fabulious Life By Rachel Renee Russell

Author: Rachel Renee Russell

Title: Dork Diaries: Tales from a NOT-SO- Fabulious Life

Publisher: Aladdin

Date: 2009

Reading Level: 10-12

Number of Pages: 288

Genre: Fiction

Summary of plot: When Nikki Maxwell starts eighth grade at a new school, her mother gives her a diary, Nikki would rather have a new iPhone so she can impress her schoolmates, but instead, she begins to chronicle her life through words and drawings. Readers learn about Nikki's irritating little sister, her crush on Brandon, her friends Chloe and Zoey, the popular mean girl, MacKenzie, and her tattoo art project for the art competition. The book does not follow one particular plotline, but instead, meanders through the daily life dramas of angst-ridden Nikki. It does culminate with some exciting developments -- both at the art show and with her heartthrob science lab partner.

Readers Reaction: It wasn't my favorite book. the language was bad and I don't think that I would recommend to any of my 3rd graders

Potential Problems: Language is the biggest problem that I saw

Recommendation: I wouldn't recommend.

Rosa by Nikki Giovanni

Author: Nikki Giovanni

Title: Rosa

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company, Inc.

Date: 2006

Reading Level: 4-7

Number of Pages: 40

Genre: Non- Fiction- History

Summary of plot: This book was the shorten down version of how she refused to give up her seat to a white person on the bus and how she was inspried by Dr. Martian Luther King Jr.

Readers Reaction: I went on a kick after reading the story of Ruby Bridges and I read books about amazing African American Heros. This book told the story of another amazing Hero.

Potential Problems: The Emmet Till lynching is mentioned.

Recommendation: Read around Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Of Thee I SIng by Barack Obama

Author: Barack Obama

Title: Of Thee I Sing

Publisher: Knopf

Date: 2010

Reading Level: 4-6

Number of Pages: 40

Genre: Non- Fiction - History

Summary of plot: the story is a letter to his daughters were he finds their winning attributes and then connects each attribute to an American Hero. For example, launches into a short bio about painter Georgia O'Keefe, who "helped us see big beauty in what is small: the hardness of stone and the softness of feather."

Readers Reaction: I'm not really a fan of President Obama but this story really mad me cry. It has a good back ground to it.

Potential Problems: No problems that I Could find

Recommendation: Read on Presidents day to your class or read to your children.

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People To Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford

Author: Carole Boston Weatherford

Title: Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People To Freedom

Publisher: Jump at the Sun

Date: 2006

Reading Level: 5-7

Number of Pages: 41

Genre: Non- Fiction Biography

Summary of plot: The book is about how Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in the mid 19th centery and then returns to first get her family and then again returns to lead other slaves into freedom by using an underground rail road.

Readers Reaction: I thought it was a good book. I really like how they compared her to Moses that was a really cool comparison.

Potential Problems: Whippings and it is mentioned that she was hit in the head and almost died.

Recommendation: When study Martin Luther King and other great African Americans

Ramona the Pest- Beverly Cleary

Author: Beverly Cleary

Title: Ramona the Pest

Publisher: William Morrow

Reading Level: 4-6

Number of Pages: 192

Genre: Fiction

Summary of plot: This is about Ramona who has waited her whole life to go to kindergarten and when she finally makes it she has to deal with all of the hard things that come with it. Which involves kids calling names and pulling hair. Ramona also things very literally and so when her teacher tells her to sit down for the present she thought that she was really going to get a present.

Readers Reaction: Like all the other Ramona books I loved it.

Potential Problems: Name Calling and Hair Pulling

Recommendation: Girls in Elementry School

Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary

Author: Beverly Cleary

Title: Beezus and Ramona

Publisher: HarperCollins Chilren's Books. 

Date: 2006

Reading Level: 7+

Number of Pages: 176

Genre: Fiction

Summary of plot: This is a simple book about how Beezus has a hard time getting along with her mischievous 4 year old sister, Ramona. The book is similar to real life (the stuff that goes on). In the beginning Beezus doesn't like Ramona very much, but as you read on Beezus learns to get along with Ramona easier. In the end she still doesn't love her sister.

Readers Reaction: Oh the classic story of Ramona and Beezus. I love these books. they are all favorties and I wish that I owned them and could read them to my children

Potential Problems: Fighting between sisters.

Recommendation: any 3rd grader looking for a great book.

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

Author: Christopher Paul Curtis

Title: Bud, Not Buddy

Publisher: Random House

Date: 1999

Reading Level: 9+

Number of Pages: 243 

Genre: Fiction

Summary of plot: Bud has run away from his abusive foster family. He's sleeping outside and can't find enough to eat. There's nothing left to do but go find Herman E. Calloway, the man whose picture used to make Momma upset. That man has got to be Bud's father! Orphaned Bud, not Buddy, Caldwell carries a ratty suitcase full of all his possessions wherever he goes. There's the picture of his Momma as a little girl. There's Momma's old pouch, full of smooth rocks with strange coded messages written on them. But the most important thing is a flyer advertising "Herman E. Calloway and the Dusky Devastators of the Depression."
Sure that this Herman E. Calloway is his father, Bud sets out to find him. But when Calloway turns out to be a grumpy old man, Miss Thomas, the Dusky Devastator's kind "vocal stylist," convinces him to give the ten-year-old a place to stay. Bud moves into the big house known as Grand Calloway Station and, with the help of Momma's rocks, soon discovers that Herman E. Calloway isn't his father at all--he's Bud's grandfather!

Readers Reaction: I loved the story of Bud and his adventures in trying to find his musican father. Really Great story.

Potential Problems: he tells a lot of lies, he get beat up by his foster brother and his foster parents lock him up in a shed, after he runs away he has to fend for himself.

Recommendation: People who love reading Historical Fiction

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder

Title: Little House in the Big Woods

Publisher:  HarperCollins Children's Book

Date: 2007

Reading Level: 9-12

Number of Pages: 256 

Genre: Non- Fiction Autobiography

Summary of plot: Laura Ingalls is a kid who loves to help her family, is afraid of wolves, and hates her "boring" brown hair. She lives in a little house in the big woods where she and her siblings work hard at their many chores like killing and preparing farm animals for the winter and dinner, mind their ma and pa which the book really emphasis as a really big deal, go to school where all of the children are  in one room, and have lots of frontier adventures with her sister and little brother. She loves her pa so much and wants him to be really happy.

Readers Reaction: This was the first chapter book I ever read all by myself when I was in the third grade so it has a lot of meaning to me. I love it so much. It was the book that helped me like reading.

Potential Problems: A gun is used, killing farm animals. everything is appropriated for the time.

Recommendation: Readers like me. Who didn't want to read.  

The BFG by Roald Dahl

Author: Roald Dahl

Title: The BFG

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Date: 2006

Reading Level: 6+

Number of Pages: 208 

Genre: Fiction- Fantasy

Summary of plot: One night when Sophie can't sleep, she goes to the window of her orphanage and sees a giant walking down the street, blowing something into the windows. When the giant sees her, he grabs her and takes her back to his desert cave home. There he explains, in his strange and garbled English, that he was blowing dreams into the minds of children, and that the other giants who live in the desert -- and are twice his size -- eat children all over the world. He, though, is the Big Friendly Giant (BFG), and eats nothing but disgusting snozzcumbers. But when the other giants head to England to eat children, Sophie hatches a plan, involving dreams, the Queen of England, and the BFG, to stop them once and for all.

Readers Reaction: This was one of my favorite books when I was little and I really loved reading it again.

Potential Problems: The other Giants eat children and they bully the BFG

Recommendation: Parents who are trying to find a good read aloud book.  

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

Author: Audrey Penn

Title: The Kissing Hand

Publisher: Child and Family Press

Date: 1993

Reading Level: 4+

Number of Pages: 32 

Genre: Fiction Picture book

Summary of plot: The book is about a little reacoon named Chester who is getting ready to go to his first day of school. He is really nervious to leave his mom and his friends and his toys. But his mother being the loving person that she is tells him a secret and a kiss on the hand that give him the courage to go to school and everything works out in the end. He goes to school and isn't scared anymore.

Readers Reaction: I thought that it was a really touching story. I really enjoyed reading it and it would be a great one for when I am a mother.

Potential Problems: No Potential Problems

Recommendation: For mothers that have preschoolers who are having a hard time leaving thier mommy

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Author: Gail Carson Levine

Title: Ella Enchanted

Publisher: HarperTrophy

Date: 1997

Reading Level: 11+ 

Number of Pages: 232

Genre: Fiction- Fairy Tale  

Summary of plot: Not even an hour after Ella is born a Fairy named Lucinda comes and give her a gift of obedience but this gift doesn't turn into a gift but a curse that discovered shortly after her mother dies. Her father gets remarried and she is sent to school with her evil step-sisters Hattie and Olive. Hattie soon discovers the curse and makes Ella into her servent. Ella then runs away and finds the Lucinda and begs her to lift the curse. But of course Lucinda refuses to lift the curse and Ella is left devistated not knowing what she is going to do. Ella must go home and resign herself to a life of drudgery. Her friend, Prince Charmont, is in love with her, but Ella knows she can never marry him--her curse would put him in grave danger. When he commands her to marry him, she struggles not to obey, cries out "No"-and breaks the curse! At last the liberated Ella and her beloved prince can truly live happily ever after.

Readers Reaction: This was a great book I really enjoyed reading it. The movie is similer but at the same time really different.

Potential Problems: Mother Dies and and Evil step mother takes her place. the herion gets captured.  

Recommendation: To anybody that would like a new twist to a classic fairy tale.  

Catching Fire- Suzanne Collins

Author: Suzanne Collins

Title: Catching Fire  

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Date: 2009

Reading Level: 12+

Number of Pages: 400 

Genre: Science Fiction

Summary of plot: Katniss and Peeta just one the hungergames and they are now seen as heros. This book is about how president snow is afraid that they are going to cause rebelion agaist the 12 districts that they are now touring as the new hunger game winners. Katniss is seen as a leader and she doesn't like it. The end it just kind of cuts off and you have to wait for the next book to come out.

Readers Reaction: This one is just as good as the first one. But it stopped in a horrible spot it just cut off and then left you hagging but it was amazing just like the first.

Potential Problems: Kissing, drinking,violence but not as gory as the first book.

Recommendation: I would recommand it to the same people as last time.

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Author: Suzanne Collins

Title: Hunger Games  

Publisher: Scholastic Inc. 

Date: 2008

Reading Level: 12+

Number of Pages: 374 

Genre: Science Fiction

Summary of plot: In the future, the U.S. is gone. In its place is Panem, in which the city of Capitol, somewhere in the Rockies, rules over 12 rebellious districts. To maintain their iron grip, they hold an annual televised reality show, a lethal form of Survivor to which each district must send one boy and one girl. Out of these 24 teens, only one will survive. Katniss, who volunteers to take her sister's place, and Peeta are District 12's competitors, but their competition is complicated by Peeta's announcement that he is in love with Katniss. Althought it is never said the reader starts to believe that Katniss as a secret crush on Peeta also. It comes to the end of the book and the only two people that are alive in the arena is Katniss and Peeta. Katniss then comes up with an idea of both of them dieing and then there would be no winner of the hunger games. To prevent this from happening the Capitol allows both players to win and they return back to their home in district 12.

Readers Reaction: I could not stop reading this book. I just kept reading and reading and reading and then started the next one as soon as I could. I thought that it was adventurace and really loved it so so so so so so much.

Potential Problems: Kissing, 24 teen age kids that are fighting until death, drinking.

Recommendation: I would recommend this book to anyone. I loved it!

My Many Colored Day's by Dr. Seuss

Author: Dr. Seuss

Title: My Many Colored Day's

Publisher: Random House Children's Books

Date: 1996

Reading Level: Pre school age children

Number of Pages: 40

Genre: Non-Fiction Reference Book


Summary of plot: This book goes thought the different colors and how each color can make you feel different ways. The first book starts out by saying Some days are yellow and then the next page says some days im blue and the it just continuses this way all the way to the very end.


Readers Reaction: I thought that it was a very cute book of colors and how they can make us feel. Not your usual Dr. Suess book that is for sure.

Potential Problems: No Problems

Recommendation: To kids learning their colors.

A Single Shard- Linda Sue Park

Author: Linda Sue Park

Title:  A Single Shard

Publisher:  Clarion Books

Date: 2001

Reading Level: Young Adult

Number of Pages: 160

Genre: Fiction

Summary of plot:

Readers Reaction:

Potential Problems:

Recommendation:

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy- Gary D. Schmidt

Author: Gary D. Schmidt

Title: Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy 

Publisher: Clarion Books

Date: 2005

Reading Level: 9+ 

Number of Pages: 219

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary of plot: Story is about a boy named Turner who is he new Prechers son in their home in Maine. He is kind of the out cast of the town when he can't play baseball like the rest of them when he refuse to jump off the cliff into the water and so forth. He ends up haveing to read and play the organ for an old lady name Mrs. Cobb who ends up leaving him her house when she passes away. He becomes friends with a girl named Lizzie Bright but isn't really allowed to hang out with her at first because she is black. In the end Lizzie and her people are pushed away and lizzie is killed. His father is killed and him and his mother move into Mrs. Cobbs house.

Readers Reaction: I really like this book until it got to the end. Then I just got really angry because I didn't like how everyone was dieing in the end.  

Potential Problems: Racism and fight that ended in blood and one ending in death, mild swearing.

Recommendation:  Teen age kids and even some adults might enjoy it.

A Year Down Yonder- Richard Peck

Author: Richard Peck

Title: A Year Down Yonder

Publisher:  Puffin

Date: 2002 
Reading Level: 9-12

Number of Pages: 144

Genre: Fiction

Summary of plot: the book is about Mary Alice and her adventures during world war two living with her grandmother. At first she doesn't really want to be there but when she starts to have adventures with her grandma like the time that stole pacons from the old guys house and all kinds of other adventures she eventully learns to love it there and then returns to grandmas house and gets married at the end of the war.

Readers Reaction: I thought it was a good book. The Grandma is really funny and reminds me of my grandpa. This one was fun to read. I think I read it to fast though so I missed some of the humor in it.

Potential Problems: Playing tricks on other people and un safe gun shooting.

Recommendation: Teen age kids might think its really fun to read.

Stargirl- Jerry Spinelli

Author: Jerry Spinelli

Title: Stargirl

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf 

Date: 2003 

Reading Level: 10+

Number of Pages: 186

Genre: Fiction

Summary of plot: Stargirl is a story told from a boys point of view named Leo. it starts out with the new girl who just moved is named Stargirl she is strange to say it nicely. She carries around a rat and sings Happy Birthday in the lunch room to everyone. Leo falls in love with her. She becomes popular and then just as fast as her becoming popular she becomes the class mate that everyone shuns and because Leo is her boy friend he two becomes shuned but the rest of the student body. Just like any other middle school aged kid Leo two soon to turn his back on stargirl and it ends up being the worst dissicion he ever made.

Readers Reaction: This is a book I wish I would have read in Jr High or even beginning of High School. It has a really good message but it makes me so sad that they are so mean to her.  

Potential Problems: The students are rude, There is one kiss, and one adult character smokes a pipe.

Recommendation: Middle School Girls before they go into High school

The Story of Ruby Bridges- Robert Coles

Author: Robert Coles

Title: The Story Of Ruby Bridges

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Date: 1995

Reading Level: 4-8

Number of Pages: 32

Genre: Non Fiction

Summary of plot: This book is aobut Ruby Bridges life as the first black girl to go to a white school. It goes throught all the days and the things that she has to do. In the end you find out that she had been praying to the white people everyday. What a lesson that is for the rest of us. WOW!!!

Readers Reaction: I had read this book a couple of times and everytime I feel more and more inspired to do good. She had some much faith as a little girl and it is truly and amazing story.

Potential Problems: Racism and Violance.

Recommendation: When teachers are studying history this is a great book

Love That Dog - Shannon Creech

Author: Shannon Creech
Title: Love That Dog

Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books 
Date: 2004

Reading Level: 8+

Number of Pages: 95

Genre: Fiction Poem

Summary of plot: This is a cute book written in the form of poems. it is about a boy who has decided that he can not write poems but in the end he writes a poem about how much he loves his dog and he ends up meeting his favorite poet.


Readers Reaction: I really really really loved this book!!! I thought that it was funny and great. It was a fast read and really so much fun

Potential Problems: No potential Problems that I could see.

Recommendation: For students who are reluctant readers or for a discussion group.

Children Just Like Me- Anabel Kindersely

Author: Anabel Kindersely

Title: Children Just Like Me

Publisher: DK Publishing Inc.

Date: 1995

Reading Level: 6-8

Number of Pages: 79

Genre: non-fiction, informational

Summary of plot: because this is a informational book there is no plot but it is about a bunch of different children around the world and how really we are all a like.


Readers Reaction: I thought this was a really cool book, they gave a lot of information about children from all over the world. It seemed a little messy sometimes but it was still fun.

Potential Problems: Some of the childrens stories were really sad.

Recommendation: Good book to show children different cultures.

Holes- Louis Sachar

Author: Louis Sachar

Title: Holes

Publisher: Farrar, Starus, and Giroux

Date: 2000

Reading Level: 9+

Number of Pages: 233

Genre: Fiction

Summary of plot: This book is about a boy named Stanley Yelnats who sent to a camp for bad boys when he is falsely accused for stealing shoes. At this camp he is forced to dig holes all day long in the hot sone looking for treatur for the worden. The story also jumps back to the past where there is a separate story about kate and sam. Stanely's family has a curse of bad luck that can only be lifted if the relative of the which in the second story is carried to the top of the mountain where they can drink the water and a song is sung. In the end the two stories meet up and Stanley ends up being saved by Zero who is the great great grandson of one of the characters in the second story and they all live happily ever after.


Readers Reaction: I loved this book when I read it in the 5th grade and I love it now. The movie isn't bad either.

Potential Problems: Racism, both past and present, is mentioned and some violance.

Recommendation: I would recommend it to any reader who wants to read about adventure.

The Great Gilly Hopkins- Katherine Paterson

Author: Katherine Paterson

Title: The Great Gilly Hopkins

Publisher: Harper Trophy

Date: 1978

Reading Level: 10+

Number of Pages: 148

Genre: Fiction

Summary of plot: Gilly is one tough kid. She intends to destroy every one of her foster mothers so she can live with her mysterious real mother. She meets her match in Mrs. Trotter, an overweight, uneducated woman who's only weapon is total love for her foster kids. In the end she ends up going to go an look for her mother. Her mother come and she isn't what Gilly was looking for and so Gilly returns to her true home at Mrs. Trotters house with her foster brother and the blind man next door.


Readers Reaction: I loved this book!!! I thought that she was clever and that she had some great stories to tell and do.

Potential Problems: Raceism, occasional religious views come up

Recommendation: to reluctant readers

Lincoln a Photobiography- Russell Freedman

Author: Russell Freedman

Title: Linoln a Photobiography

Publisher: Hoghton Mifflin Company

Date: 1987

Reading Level: 9-12

Number of Pages: 150

Genre: Non-Fiction

Summary of plot:This book is just a life sketch of President Abraham Lincoln and all of the trials that he went through and all of the happy moments.

Readers Reaction: I thought it was long and kind of boring to be honest. There were some intresting facts like him having depression problems that I thought were interesting but really I thought it was really long.

Potential Problems:  Slavery and Violance

Recommendation: Maybe I would recommend it to teachers who are teaching about our presidents.