Book

Middle (X) - Fiction (X) - Book (X)

James and the Giant Peach

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Copies: 28

Were the green, glowing crystals the little man gave James really magic? Maybe, but it was magic lost to James when he tripped and spilled the crystals by the old peach tree. Now it looked like he'd never escape his hideous aunts. But what was happening to that peach at the tip of the tree? It was growing bigger and bigger... it was as big as a house! And when James crawled inside, he met a houseful of friends: giant Grasshopper, Ladybug, Centipede, and more. Then with one snip of the stem, the peach was rolling away—and marvelous things started happening...

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Lexile: 
870L
James and the Giant Peach

The BFG

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Copies: 30

Captured by a giant! The BFG is no ordinary bone-crunching giant. He is far too nice and jumbly. It's lucky for Sophie that he is. Had she been carried off in the middle of the night by the Bloodbottler, the Fleshlumpeater, the Bonecruncher, or any of the other giants—rather than the BFG—she would have soon become breakfast. When Sophie hears that they are flush-bunking off to England to swollomp a few nice little chiddlers, she decides she must stop them once and for all. And the BFG is going to help her!

Author: 
Lexile: 
720L
The BFG

A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32

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Copies: 30

I, Catherine Cabot Hall, aged 13 years, 6 months, 29 days... do begin this book.

So begins the journal of a girl coming of age in nineteenth-century New Hampshire.

Catherine records both the hardships of pioneer life and its many joys. Even as she struggles with her mother's death and father's eventual remarriage, Catherine's indomitable spirit makes this saga an often-times uplifting and joyous one.

Quiet yet powerful, this award-winning book is sure to touch all who read it.

Winner of the Newbery Medal

Author: 
Lexile: 
960L
A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32

The Fighting Ground

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Copies: 30

April 3, 1778
Jonathan, 13, knows he's ready to fight the British. He can handle a gun. And he yearns to don a uniform and battle for glory, just like his brother and cousin.
So on this day when the tavern bell tolls, calling men to arms, Jonathan doesn't ask his father's permission. He simply goes. And to his joy, he's accepted.
In the next twenty-four hours, Jonathan learns what it means to fight, and to be a soldier. He also learns what it's like to meet death face to face.
It's a lesson he will never forget....

Author: 
Lexile: 
580L
The Fighting Ground

The Summer of Riley

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Copies: 25

William's new dog, Riley, is in trouble. He chased a neighbor's horse, and local law punishes any animal that chases livestock. William will do anything to save his dog's life. Riley has become the friend he's needed after his grandfather's sudden death and his parents' separation.

Will William and his friend Grace be able to save Riley—even if several citizens and the bully Ellis Porter think Riley deserves the most severe punishment possible?

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Lexile: 
540L
The Summer of Riley

Toliver's Secret

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Copies: 28

Ellen Toliver is shocked to learn that her grandfather is a patriot spy. Then he's injured on the day of an important mission - and she's the only one who can take his place. It's the last thing shy, timid Ellen wants to do, but her grandfather, and her country, are depending on her.

Lexile: 
740L
Toliver's Secret

Harris and Me

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Copies: 25

This summer will be different. That's for sure. When an eleven-year-old city boy is dropped off to stay on a farm with relatives, he doesn't know what to expect. His cousin Harris soon takes care of that. Harris is rude and crude and finds trouble at every turn. He leads his city cousin into everything from wrestling slippery pigs to catching mice to a daredevil jump out of a barn loft. And that's not all. There are swimming and cowboy movies and enough good food to fill the boys up for days.

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Lexile: 
1060L
Harris and Me

Maniac Magee

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Copies: 28

He came into this world named Jeffrey Lionel Magee, but when his parents died, his life changed and so did his name.

And Maniac Magee became a legend.

Even today kids talk about how fast he could run, about how he hit an inside-the-park "frog" homer, and about how no knot, no matter how snarled, would stay that way once he began to untie it.

Lexile: 
820L
Maniac Magee

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

Sarah, Plain and Tall

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Copies: 30

"Did Mama sing every day?" Caleb asks his sister Anna.
"Every-single-day," she answers. "Papa sang, too." Their mother died the day after Caleb was born. Their house on the prairie is quiet now, and Papa doesn't sing anymore.

Then Papa puts an ad in the paper, asking for a wife, and he receives a letter from on Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton, of Maine. Papa, Anna, and Caleb write back. Caleb asks if she sings.

Lexile: 
560L
Sarah, Plain and Tall

Mr. Tucket

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Copies: 25

Fourteen-year-old Francis Tucket is heading west on the Oregon Trail with his family by wagon train. When he receives a rifle for his birthday, he is thrilled that he is being treated like an adult. But Francis lags behind to practice shooting and is captured by Pawnees. It will take wild horses, hostile tribes, and a mysterious one-armed mountain man named Mr. Grimes to help Francis become the man who will be called Mr. Tucket.

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Lexile: 
830L
Mr. Tucket

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 Sign of the Beaver

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Copies: 30

Until the day his father returns to their cabin in the Maine wilderness, twelve-year-old Matt must try to survive on his own. Although Matt is brave, he's not prepared for an attack by swarming bees, and he's astonished when he's rescued by an Indian chief and his grandson, Attean.

Lexile: 
770L
The Sign of the Beaver

Shiloh

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Copies: 29

There's nothing eleven-year-old Marty Preston enjoys more than spending time up in the hills behind his home near Friendly, West Virginia.

But this time is different. This time Marty sees a young beagle on the road past the old Shiloh schoolhouse.

Marty feels sure the dog is being abused by his owner. When the dog runs away to Marty's house, his parents say he must bring him back. But it hurts Marty to return the runaway dot to his cruel master.

That's when Marty secretly decides he'll do anything to save the dog he names Shiloh.

Lexile: 
890L

Applewhites at Wit's End

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Copies: 7

Jack Semple and E.D. Applewhite are back, in this middle-grade sequel to Stephanie S. Tolan’s Newbery Honor Book Surviving the Applewhites.

Teenager E.D., the not so artistic, not at all eccentric member of the unconventional Applewhite clan, can't believe the plan her father has hatched to save the family from financial disaster. He’s decided to transform their rural North Carolina farm into a summer camp for creative children.

Lexile: 
840L
Applewhites at Wit's End

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