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.

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

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!

Junie B. Jones is (almost) A Flower Girl by Barbara Park

Author: Barbara Park

Title: Junie B. Jones is (almost) A Flower Girl

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

Date: 1999

Reading Level: 4-8

Number of Pages: 80

Genre: Fiction Chapter Book

Summary of Plot: In this book Junie B's Aunt is getting married and Junie B. is mad because she isn't going to be the flower girl although she really really wants to be. From the very beginning Junie B decides that she is going to be the flower girl even though her aunt doesn't know this. But when she is told that her aunts soon to be sister in law Bo is going to be the Flower girl Junie B gets really upset and tries everything she can to be the flower girl. In the end her aunt tells her that she is the alternate flower girl and that makes Junie B feel a lot better.

Readers Reaction: Like I sad on the other Junie B. Jones book I love Junie B. These stories and the Hank the Cowdog Stories are what got me to like reading books so I loved the book.

Potential Problems: Not Spelled Correctly and Not Grammatically Correct

Recommendation: Give it to those students who don't like to read, they will pick it up and then not be able to put it back down.

Missing May by Cynthia Rylant

Author: Cynthia Rylant

Title: Missing May

Publisher: Yearling

Date: 1993

Reading Level: 9-12

Number of Pages: 96

Genre: Fiction Chapter book

Summary of Plot: This book is about a little girls struggle to get over the fact that her aunt has died and that she isn't coming back. not only does she have to get over it but she also has to help her uncle Ob get over it too. So with the help of her friend Cletus Underwood they try to contact May so that Ob could move on and be good with everything that is happening. In the end they both find the strenight to move on but still knowing that they are never going to stop loving and missing May.

Readers Reaction: I thought the book kind of was really long and it dragged. I had a really hard time getting into it.

Potential Problems: Talking to Spirits,

Recommendation: I honestly would have a hard time recommending this book to anyone because I really didn't like it all that much.

Junie B. Jones and her big fat mouth by Barbara Park

Author: Barbara Park

Title: Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

Date: 1993

Reading Level: 4-8

Number of Pages: 80

Genre: Fiction Chapter book

Summary of plot: In this book Junie B. Jones is in kindergarten she explains all the different rules about being in kindergarten and talks about her friends. One day Mrs. (her teacher) gets up in from of the class to announce something really important and that was that they are going to have a Job Day. But Junie B. has a tendency to be really loud and talks before thinking and it gets her in trouble. So she gets in trouble and that makes her mad. So when she goes out to Recess she doesn't want to do anything but watch the janitors paint the trash cans. When all of a sudden she sees a red life savor on the ground and she puts it in her mouth when one of the janitors comes over and gets mad at her and tells her to spit it out. She then goes in to the classroom and they have to visitors one is a cop and the other is a dentist and they come and tell the class about their jobs. which gets everyone really excited about what jobs they want to do, except Junie B. because she still didn't know. when she got home she had the idea of a painter, a super hero and a guy who carries lots of keys. But who could that be. the next day she comes to school dressed up as a janitor and everyone makes fun of her but then in the end everyone wants to be a janitor.

Readers Reaction: I love Junie B Jones books. I was one of those students that didn't want to read when i was little so to get me to read any book was amazing and Junie B. Jones books were those books that i would read.

Potential Problems: Things aren't spelled correctly or aren't grammatically correct.

Recommendation: For students who don't really want to read.

Vampire Baby by Marcia Thornton Jones and Debbie Dadey

Author: Marcia Thorton Jones and Debbie Dadey

Title: Vampire Baby

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Date: 1999

Reading Level: 9-12

Number of Pages: 69

Genre: Fiction

Summary of Plot: The story is about three friends named Annie, Jane, and Ben. The three friend lived across the street from a haunted Inn. There is a new visitor at the haunted inn named Bathilda. She is a baby who they all think is a vampire. Throughout the whole book they are trying to figure out if Bathilda was a vampire or not. They later met up with the schools spoiled brat named Carey and her dog named Chewy. The four of them continue to blame all of the problems on Bathilda, until one day they realize that the reason why all of their tires and balls were all flat is because Carey's dog Chewy was chewing on everything and it wasn't Bathilda. What you never find out is if Bathilda is a vampire or not.

Readers Reaction: I thought it was dumb but the people I read it to thought it was funny.

Potential Problems: suspecting people for things without having proof.

Recommendation: For little boys who like mysteries.

No Flying in the House by Betty Brock

Author: Betty Brock

Illustrator: Wallace Tripp

Title: No Flying in the House

Publisher: HarperCollins publishers 

Date: 1970

Reading Level: 7 to 11

Number of Pages: 144

Genre: Fiction Chapter book

Summary of Plot: The story is about a little girl named Annabel Tippens who spent the first couple years of her life with out parents instead she has a tiny three-inch white dog named Gloria. What’s so neat about Gloria is that she can talk. Gloria and Annabel end up at Mrs. Vancourts home one day. Mrs. Vancourt is a lady of society she likes to be the center of attention and that fact that Gloria is only three inches tall and can talk and do different tricks she lets them stay. Over time an evil cat named Belinda shows up at the house and tells Annabel that she is not just any girl but that she is half fairy. Belinda tells Annabel how her mother is Princess Felicia and that her father was just and ordinary guy. 

Belinda also tells her that Gloria was mad into a dog to protect her. But Annabel is told not to tell anyone of Belinda’s visit so. After a while Annabel becomes friends with a girl and they decided that if Annabel was a fairy then she must be able to fly so for days and days Annabel tries to fly when she finally gets that hang of it she was told that she must never fly in the house. The rest of the book is about her adventures in talking to the evil cat that keeps getting her in trouble and then in the end Annabel’s parents come back and they realize that her father is really Mrs. Vancourt’s son.

Your Reaction to the book: I loved this book. I read it for the first time last summer when a girl that I worked with recommended it to me and I really did fall in love with it. It’s funny and different the other chapter books.

Potential Problems: I don’t see any potential problems with this book

Recommendations: I would recommend this book to those who are starting to get out of the little picture books and into chapter books because the chapters aren’t that long and there are still a few pictures in it.