ELA

Social Studies (X) - ELA (X) - Middle (X)

Lives of the Presidents: Fame, Shame (and What the Neighbors Thought)

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Which president had feet bigger than his ego? Washington. Which barked like a seal? Kennedy. Which joked about dating mummies? Clinton. These fun and quirky facts bring to light the human side of the 42 men who have served as U.S. presidents.

Grade Level: 
Lexile: 
1240L
Length: 
02:55
Lives of the Presidents: Fame, Shame (and What the Neighbors Thought)

Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (and What the Neighbors Thought) (Unabridged)

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Lives of Extraordinary Women turns the spotlight on the women who have wielded power, revealing their feats - and flaws - for all the world to see. You'll hear about 20 of the most influential women in history: queens, warriors, prime ministers, first ladies, revolutionary leaders. Some are revered. Others are notorious. And what were they really like?

Grade Level: 
Lexile: 
1150L
Length: 
02:14
Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (and What the Neighbors Thought) (Unabridged)

The Ballad of Lucy Whipple (Unabridged)

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In the summer of 1849, Lucy Whipple's mother packs up her household and her two young children, and leaves their home in Massachusetts for the gold fields of California.

Author: 
Grade Level: 
Lexile: 
1030L
Length: 
04:56
The Ballad of Lucy Whipple (Unabridged)

Streams to the River, River to the Sea: A Novel of Sacagawea (Unabridged)

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No woman in all of our history has captured the imagination like the young Shoshone girl Sacagawea, who served as in interpreter and often as a guide for Lewis and Clark on their famous expedition into our uncharted West.

Author: 
Grade Level: 
Lexile: 
740L
Length: 
04:50
Streams to the River, River to the Sea: A Novel of Sacagawea (Unabridged)

The Amethyst Ring (Unabridged)

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Spanish seminarian Julián Escobar, known to the Mayas as Lord Kukulcán and worshipped as a god, witnesses the fall of the Mayan and Incan civilizations with the coming of Cortés and Pizarro.

Author: 
Grade Level: 
Lexile: 
980L
Length: 
08:01
The Amethyst Ring (Unabridged)

The 290 (Unabridged)

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Jim Lynne is idly playing darts in Liverpool when his brother, Ted, calls him over to a table to ask a question about the ship that he's working on. It seems the ship, enigmatically named the 290, is not the cargo ship that people are saying it is. Whatever its purpose, it is certainly built for speed. But Jim thinks he knows that purpose: it is being built for the Confederate navy.

Author: 
Grade Level: 
Lexile: 
910L
Length: 
02:33
The 290 (Unabridged)

Esperanza Rising (Unabridged)

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Esperanza Ortega possesses all the treasures a young girl could want: fancy dresses; a beautiful home filled with servants in the bountiful region of Aguascalientes, Mexico; and the promise of one day rising to Mama's position and presiding over all of El Rancho de las Rosas.

Grade Level: 
Lexile: 
750L
Length: 
04:45
Esperanza Rising (Unabridged)

The Boy Who Dared (Unabridged)

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When 16-year-old Helmuth Hubner listens to the BBC news on an illegal short-wave radio, he quickly discovers Germany is lying to the people. But when he tries to expose the truth with leaflets, he's tried for treason.

Grade Level: 
Lexile: 
760L
Length: 
04:12
The Boy Who Dared (Unabridged)

My Brother Sam Is Dead (Unabridged)

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This young adult novel, which successfully captures the pain of the Revolutionary War, is a fine example of historical fiction. The American Revolution was a war that divided families (English loyalists versus eager Patriots) and one of the families being torn apart is the Meeker family.

Grade Level: 
Lexile: 
770L
Length: 
04:31
My Brother Sam Is Dead (Unabridged)

Across Five Aprils (Unabridged)

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This compelling classic of a boy's coming of age during the Civil War is based on stories the author's grandfather told her about his own life.

We also have a Multiple Copy Set of this book.

Author: 
Grade Level: 
Lexile: 
1100L
Length: 
05:50
Across Five Aprils (Unabridged)

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

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Copies: 29

Chizuko came to visit her friend Sadako in the hospital. She had a piece of gold paper that she had cut into a large square. "Watch!" she said, and she folded the paper over and over, and it turned into a beautiful crane.

"If a sick person folds one thousand paper cranes," Chizuko said, "the gods will grant her wish and make her well again." The girl handed the crane to Sadako. "Here's your first one."

Author: 
Lexile: 
630L
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

Max and Me and the Time Machine

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Copies: 28

When Steve brings home a time machine he bought for $2.50 at a garage sale, Max is suspicious. "There's no such thing as time travel. Or time machines." Then they both end up in the year 1250 in medieval England—Steve as Sir Robert Marshall and Max as his horse!—and Max must admit the machine works.

Sir Robert soon finds himself in the midst of a duel to the death with the Hampshire mauler, defending not only his honor, but his life. Can Max rescue him? Will the machine return him in time to spare his life? The 20th century never looked so good.

Lexile: 
860L
Max and Me and the Time Machine

Quake! Disaster in San Francisco, 1906

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Copies: 30

Buildings were weaving in and out. The street pitched like a stormy sea. Bricks were raining down all around him. The ground shook with such violence that Jacob thought the world had come to an end.

Lexile: 
770L
Quake! Disaster in San Francisco, 1906

Frozen Summer

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Copies: 29

It's 1816, and Remembrance Nye and her family are enduring a cold, hard summer in their new home in western New York. There's barely any food, since Papa's crops were destroyed by the late frosts. Mem's mama has never gotten used to their new home and finds it even harder to cope after she gives birth to baby Lily. Papa puts Mem in charge of caring for the baby, her younger brother, and their sick mother. Though Mem tries her best, it's hard to do the chores and watch them every moment. Then the worst happens: One stormy night Mama and Lily disappear.

Lexile: 
810L

The Watsons Go to Birmingham

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The Watsons are an African-American family that live in Flint, Michigan where they're raising three children in the 1960's. The oldest son, Byron, is hanging with the wrong crowd and his parents want to change his environment. The whole family piles into their old car for a trip to Birmingham, Alabama, where Byron's strict grandmother lives. While traveling in the South, they encounter overt racism and segregation, and a tragic event that will shake their world. They realize that the love of family gives them the strength to endure most anything.

Director: 
Grade Level: 
Middle
Length: 
01:26
The Watsons Go to Birmingham

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