Eric A. Kimmel.  Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock

Anansi the Spider uses a strange moss-covered rock in the forest to trick all the other animals, until Little Bush Deer decides he needs to learn a lesson.

Jane Cutler.  The Cello of Mr. O

When a concert cellist plays in the square for his neighbors in a war-besieged city, his priceless instrument is destroyed by a mortar shell, but he finds the courage to return the next day to perform with a harmonica.

David Shannon.  Duck on a Bike

A duck decides to ride a bike and soon influences all the other animals on the farm to ride bikes too.

Sarah Stewart.  The Gardener

A series of letters relating what happens when, after her father loses his job, Lydia Grace goes to live with her Uncle Jim in the city but takes her love for gardening with her.

Won-Ldy Paye and Margaret H. Lippert.  Head, Body, Legs:  a

Story from Liberia   In this tale from the Dan people of Liberia, Head, Arms, Body, and Legs learn that they do better when they work together.

Audrey Wood.  Heckedy Peg

A mother saves her seven children from Heckedy Peg, a witch who has changed them into different kinds of food.

Megan McDonald.  Judy Moody

Third grader Judy Moody is in a first day of school bad mood until she gets an assignment to create a collage all about herself and begins creating her masterpiece, the Me collage.

Kevin Henkes.  Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse

Lilly loves everything about school, especially her teacher, but when he asks her to wait a while before showing her new purse, she does something for which she is very sorry later.

Joan Steiner.  Look-Alikes:  the More You Look, the More You

See!   Simple verses challenge readers to identify the everyday objects used to construct twelve three-dimensional scenes in Lookalike Land.

Mordicai Gerstein.  The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

A lyrical evocation of Philippe Petit's 1974 tightrope walk between the World Trade Center towers.

Denys Cazet.  Minnie and Moo Go to the Moon

Two cow friends, Minnie and Moo, decide to drive the farmer's tractor all the way to the moon.

Paul Fleischman.  Sidewalk Circus

A young girl watches as the activities across the street from her bus stop become a circus.

Rosemary Wells.  Wingwalker

During the Depression, Reuben and his out-of-work parents move from Oklahoma to Minnesota, where his father gets a job as a carnival wingwalker and Reuben has a chance to overcome his terror of flying.

Vera B. Williams.  Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart

A series of poems tells how two sisters help each other deal with life while their mother is working and their father has been sent to jail.

Jonathan Stroud.  The Amulet of Samarkand

Nathaniel, a magician's apprentice, summons up the djinni Bartimaeus and instructs him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the powerful magician Simon Lovelace.

Polly Horvath.  The Canning Season

Thirteen-year-old Ratchet spends a summer in Maine with her eccentric great-aunts Tilly and Penpen, hearing strange stories from the past and encountering a variety of unusual and colorful characters.

Pamela Munoz Ryan.  Esperanza Rising

Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.

David Almond.  The Fire-Eaters

In 1962 England, despite observing his father's illness and the suffering of the fire-eating Mr. McNulty, as well as enduring abuse at school and the stress of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Bobby Burns and his family and friends still find reasons to rejoice in their lives and to have hope for the future.

Philip Pullman.  The Golden Compass

Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.

Barbara Park.  Mick Harte Was Here

Thirteen-year-old Phoebe recalls her younger brother Mick and his death in a bicycle accident.

Garth Nix.  Mister Monday

Arthur Penhaligon is supposed to die at a young age, but is saved by a key that is shaped like the minute hand of a clock. The key causes bizarre creatures to come from another realm, bringing with them a plague. A man named Mister Monday will stop at nothing to get the key back. Arthur goes to a mysterious house that only he can see, so that he can learn the truth about himself and the key.

E. L. Konigsburg.  The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place

Upon leaving an oppressive summer camp, twelve-year-old Margaret Rose Kane spearheads a campaign to preserve three unique towers her grand uncles have been building in their back yard for over forty years.

Dennis Brindell Fradin.  The Signers:  56 Stories Behind the

Declaration of Independence   Profiles each of the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence, giving historical information about the colonies they represented. Includes the text of the Declaration and its history.

Sarah Weeks.  So B. It

After spending her life with her mentally retarded mother and agoraphobic neighbor, twelve-year-old Heidi sets out from Reno, Nevada, to New York to find out who she is.

Kate DiCamillo.  The Tale of Despereaux

The adventures of Despereaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin.

Cornelia Funke.  The Thief Lord

Two brothers, having run away from the aunt who plans to adopt the younger one, are sought by a detective hired by their aunt, but they have found shelter with--and protection from--Venice's " Thief Lord."

Peter Sis.  The Tree of Life

Presents the life of the famous nineteenth-century naturalist using text from Darwin's writings and detailed drawings by Sis.

Raymond Briggs.  Ug:  Boy Genius of the Stone Age & His Search

for Soft Trousers   To the dismay of his parents and friends, a prehistoric boy continually thinks of making things softer, warmer, and nicer, rather than being content in a world of stone.

Gennifer Choldenko.  Al Capone Does My Shirts

A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.

Jeanne DuPrau.  The City of Ember

In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions.

Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton.  Facing the Lion:  Growing Up Maasai on

the African Savanna   A member of the Masai people describes his life as he grew up in a northern Kenya village, travelled to America to attend college, and became an elementary school teacher in Virginia.

Wendelin Van Draanen.  Flipped

In alternating chapters, two teenagers describe how their feelings about themselves, each other, and their families have changed over the years.

David Macaulay.  Mosque

David Macaulay here reveals the methods and materials used to design and construct a mosque in late-sixteenth-century Turkey. Through the fictional story and Macaulay's distinctive full-color illustrations, readers will learn not only how such monumental structures were built but also how they functioned in relation to the society they served.

Jennifer Donnelly.  A Northern Light

In 1906, sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and fiance, takes a job at a summer inn where she discovers the truth about the death of a guest. Based on a true story.

Walter Dean Myers.  Shooter

Written in the form of interviews, reports, and journal entries, the story of three troubled teenagers ends in a tragic school shooting.

Mary Hoffman.  Stravaganza:  City of Masks

While sick in bed with cancer, Lucien begins making journeys to a place in a parallel world that resembles Venice, Italy, and he becomes caught up in the political intrigues surrounding the Duchessa who rules the city.

Eoin Colfer.  The Supernaturalist

In futuristic Satellite City, fourteen-year-old Cosmo Hill escapes from his abusive orphanage and teams up with three other people who share his unusual ability to see supernatural creatures, and together they determine the nature and purpose of the swarming blue Parasites that are invisible to most humans.

Paul Fleischman.  Whirligig

While traveling to each corner of the country to build a whirligig in memory of the girl whose death he causes, sixteen-year-old Brian finds forgiveness and atonement.