ANIMALS
Avi. Poppy. (RL 4.5). Poppy, a deer mouse, urges her family to move next to a field of corn big enough to feed them all forever, but Mr. Ocax, a terrifying owl, has other ideas (RL 4.5).
Dahl, Roald. Esio Trot. Shy Mr. Hoppy devises a plan to win the heart of his true love by teaching her a spell to make her tortoise grow bigger (RL 4.9).
Burnford, Sheila. The Incredible Journey. A Siamese cat, an old bull terrier, and a young Labrador retriever travel together 250 miles through the Canadian wilderness to find their family (RL 6.5).
Smith, Dick King. Martin’s Mice. A farm cat who doesn't want to catch mice keeps a family of them as pets in the barn; but then he is given away to a townswoman and acquires a new perspective (RL 4.5).
Vande Velde, Vivian. Smart Dog. Fifth grader Amy finds her life growing complicated when she meets and tries to hide an intelligent, talking dog who has escaped from a university lab (RL 5.8).
HUMOR
Blume, Judy. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Peter finds his demanding two-year-old brother an ever-increasing problem (RL 3.8).
DiCamillo, Kate. Bink and Gollie. Two roller-skating best friends--one tiny, one tall--share three comical adventures involving outrageously bright socks, an impromptu trek to the Andes, and a most unlikely marvelous companion (RL 2.5).
Di Salvo, DyAnne. The Sloppy Copy Slipup. Fourth-grader Brian Higman worries about how his teacher Miss Fromme will react when he fails to hand in a writing assignment, but he ends up being able to tell his story after all (RL 4.4).
Korman, Gordon. Maxx Comedy: The Funniest Kid in America. Eleven-year-old Max Carmody feels he has met his destiny when he sees an announcement for "The Funniest Kid in America" contest, but his quest to create a video that will get him into the running turns into a comedy of errors (RL 4.7).
Lowry, Lois. The Willoughbys. A tongue-in-cheek take on classic themes in children's literature, in which the four Willoughby children set out to become "deserving orphans" after their neglectful parents embark on a treacherous around-the-world adventure, leaving them in the care of an odious nanny (RL 5.2).
Manes, Stephen. Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days! Milo, tired of problems with his sister, parents, and classmates, finds a book in the library which promises to make him perfect in just three days (RL 4.5).
Peirce, Lincoln. Big Nate: In a Class by Himself. Supremely confident middle school student Nate Wright manages to make getting detention from every one of his teachers on the same day seem like an achievement (RL 3.1).
Sanderson, Brandon. Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians. On his thirteenth birthday, foster child Alcatraz Smedry receives a bag of sand which is immediately stolen by the evil Librarians who are trying to take over the world. Alcatraz is introduced to his grandfather and his own special talent-- and told that he must use it to save civilization (RL 5.6).
Smith, Robert Kimmel. Chocolate Fever. After eating too much chocolate, Henry breaks out in brown bumps that help him foil some hijackers and teach him a valuable lesson about self-indulgence (RL 4.7).
Urban, Linda. A Crooked Kind of Perfect. Ten-year-old Zoe Elias, who longs to play the piano but must resign herself to learning the organ instead, finds that her musicianship has a positive impact on her workaholic mother, her jittery father, and her school social life (RL 6.3).
SPORTS
Avi. S.O.R Losers. Each member of the South Orange River seventh-grade soccer team has qualities of excellence, but not on the soccer field (RL 5.0).
Christopher, Matt. The Hit-Away Kid. Barry McGee, hit-away batter for the Peach Street Mudders, enjoys winning so much that he has a tendency to bend the rules--until the dirty tactics of the pitcher on a rival team give him a new perspective on sports ethics (RL 4.0).
Gutman, Dan. The Million Dollar Shot. Eleven-year-old Eddie gets a chance to win a million dollars by sinking a foul shot at the National Basketball Association finals (RL 4.6).
Gutman, Dan. They Came from Center Field. Creatures from outer space land on earth and ask "Bloop" Jones and his team to teach them baseball (RL 4.5).
Lupica, Mike. Summer Ball. Thirteen-year-old Danny must prove himself all over again for a disapproving coach and against new rivals at a summer basketball camp (RL 5.3).
Montalbano, Andrea. Breakaway. When seventh-grade soccer star LJ befriends Tabitha, who could not be more different from her, LJ learns to curb her competitive nature, which has been slowly alienating her friends (RL 4.0).
Slote, Alfred. Finding Buck McHenry. Eleven-year-old Jason, believing the school custodian Mack Henry to be Buck McHenry, a famous pitcher from the old Negro League, tries to enlist him as a coach for his Little League team by revealing his identity to the world (RL 4.1).
Spinelli, Jerry. There’s a Girl in My Hammerlock. Thirteen-year-old Maisie joins her school's formerly all-male wrestling team and tries to last through the season, despite opposition from other students, her best friend, and her own teammates (RL 4.0).
Wolff, Virginia Euwer. Bat 6. In small town, post-World War Oregon, twenty-one 6th grade girls recount the story of an annual softball game, during which one girl's prejudice comes to the surface (RL 4.8).
Yee, Lisa. Stanford Wong Flunks Big Time. After flunking sixth-grade English, basketball prodigy Stanford Wong must struggle to pass his summer-school class, keep his failure a secret from his friends, and satisfy his academically demanding father (RL 5.3).
