Family life

Trouble the Water

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Copies: 6

There's an old yellow dog wandering around town, and you can bet that eleven-year-old Callie--fearless, a little stubborn, and a lot nosy--is gonna figure out who he belongs to. But her sleuthing causes her to cross paths with Wendell, a white boy her very same age. As the two try to find the old dog's owner, their segregated town doesn't take kindly to their new friendship.

Author:

Frances O'Roark Dowell

Lexile:

920L

Sweet Home Alaska

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Copies: 6

Terpsichore and her family are going to be pioneers in Alaska! Times have been tough in Wisconsin during the Great Depression, and she's eager to make a new start. Terpsichore has often dreamed about living like Laura Ingalls Wilder, but the reality of their new home is a shock. The town is still under construction, the mosquitoes are huge, and when a mouse eats her shoelace, causing her to fall on her first day of school, everyone learns the nickname she had hoped to leave behind: Trip.

Author:

Carole Estby Dagg

Lexile:

870L

Silas Marner

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Silas Marner is a grumpy weaver who is obsessed with making a lot of money. After he is accused of theft his fiancee leaves him, and he has little use for other human beings especially those who are religious. Later someone steals a large bag of cash he has kept in his home making his life more miserable. As the years pass, Silas adopts a young girl Eppie whose mother has died in a drunken stupor, and he becomes a compassionate human being again.

The Railway Children

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When their father is sent away to prison, three London children move to the country where they keep busy preventing accidents on the nearby railway, making many new friends, and generally learning a good deal about themselves.

My Antonia

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When Antonia arrives in Nebraska from the European province of Bohemia with her family, she is unprepared for the dangers and challenges she must face on the farm with its unproductive soil.

Little Women

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Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young women in nineteenth-century New England.

Binny in Secret

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Copies: 6

School has started, and Binny can't believe how terrible it is. She has a horrid hand-me-down uniform, and the kids make fun of her "posh" city accent.

Then a storm destroys the roof of Binny's house. Binny; her mother; her sensible older sister, Clem; and her rambunctious brother, James (and his chickens) are forced to move across town to a rental home at the end of a forbidding, unlit lane. Things only get worse when she calls their new landlady a "bossy old witchy woman" at school...in front of the landlady's daughter, Clare, who starts bullying Binny mercilessly.

Author:

Hilary McKay

The Sound of Life and Everything

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Copies: 6

Twelve-year-old Ella Mae Higbee is a sensible girl. She eats her vegetables and wants to be just like Sergeant Friday, her favorite character on Dragnet. So when her auntie Mildred starts spouting nonsense about a scientist who can bring her cousin Robby back to life, Ella Mae doesn't believe her - until a boy steps out of the scientist's pod and drips slime on the floor right before her eyes.

Author:

Krista Van Dolzer

Lexile:

750L

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

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Copies: 6

When a terrible famine struck William Kamkwamba's tiny village in Malawi, his family lost all of the season's crops, leaving them with nothing to eat or sell. The family could hardly find money for food, let alone school fees. forced to drop out of high school, William began to explore the science books in his village library. There, he came up with an idea that would change his family's life forever: He could build a windmill.

Author:

William Kamkwamba

The Penderwicks in Spring

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Copies: 6

Springtime is finally arriving on Gardam Street, and with it comes all the joyful chaos of the Penderwicks. The brood has grown to six with the addition of Lydia, the new youngest sibling, and there are surprises in store for all.

Author:

Jeanne Birdsall

Lexile:

880L

Family life

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