F BUN	The In-Between Days (age 9-12) by Eve Bunting growing up ... family Why doesn't Caroline Best stay off the island and leave his family alone? George doesn't want somebody from the mainland thinking she can suddenly become a replacement for his dead mother. So when George comes up with a mean prank that he hopes will get rid of Caroline, he is sure that he has found the perfect way to return their family to the way it should be.
F BLO	A Gathering of Days: a New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32, a Novel (age 9-12) by Joan W. Blos historical ... growing up ... letters/journal Catalog: The journal of a fourteen-year-old girl, kept the last year she lived on the family farm, records daily events in her small New Hampshire town, her father's remarriage, and the death of her best friend.
F TWA	The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (age 9-12) by Mark Twain adventure ... growing up ... humor The adventures of a mischievous young boy and his friends growing up in a Mississippi River town in the nineteenth century.
F RYA	Paint the Wind (age 9-12) by Pam Munoz Ryan family ... animals ... illness/loss ... growing up Maya is a captive. In Grandmother's house in California, every word and action is strictly monitored, and even Maya's memories of her mother have been erased, except within the imaginary world she has created. A world away, in the rugged Wyoming wilderness, a tobiano Paint horse called Artemisia runs free, belonging only to the stars. She embodies the spirit of the wild, and she holds the key to Maya's memories. How Maya's and Artemisia's lives intertwine, like a braided rein, is at the heart of this richly drawn adventure about captivity and freedom, about holding on and letting go.
F KIN	Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series (age 9-12) by Jeff Kinney letters/journal ... growing up ... humor ... school ... friendship It's a new school year, and Greg Heffley finds himself thrust into middle school, where undersized weaklings share the hallways with kids who are taller, meaner, and already shaving. The hazards of growing up before you're ready are uniquely revealed through words and drawings as Greg records them in his diary. title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffley's Journal title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
F EAS	I Am the Ice Worm (age 9-12) by MaryAnn Easley growing up ... adventure ... survival While traveling to visit her mother in the Arctic a California girl learns the meaning of hardship and survival when she is taken in by an Inupiat family.
F FOR	The Most Wonderful Movie in the World (age 9-12) by Barbara Ford the arts ... historical ... growing up It's 1941, and the movie Gone With the Wind is playing at all the theaters. Everyone is loving it, but Moira struggles with growing up Catholic, and respecting the Church's advice to avoid this nationwide hit.
F HOO	Only Child (age 9-12) by H. M. Hoover growing up ... adventure ... science fiction Twelve-year-old Cody discovers that the Terran Corporation, in colonizing the planet Patma, is illegally destroying the intelligent native inhabitants, giant insectlike creatures with their own language and religion.
F O'D	Agnes Parker Series (age 9-12) by Kathleen O'Dell growing up ... friendship ... school Agnes Parker isn't the class outcast or its queen bee-which is okay except that sometimes the middle just seems . . . really . . . ordinary. So Agnes sets out to be a different version of the girl she's always been. Someone who won't always get clobbered by bullies, who can some-times be cool and confident-and maybe catch the eye of that new boy in class? title: Agnes Parker, Girl in Progress title: Agnes Parker, Happy Camper?
F PAT	The Hard Pan Trilogy (age 9-12) by Susan Patron humor ... growing up ... survival ... illness/loss ... friendship ... family Publisher comments: Lucky, age ten, can't wait another day. The meanness gland in her heart and the crevices full of questions in her brain make running away from Hard Pan, California (population 43), the rock-bottom only choice she has. It's all Brigitte's fault ... for wanting to go back to France. Guardians are supposed to stay put and look after girls in their care! Instead Lucky is sure that she'll be abandoned to some orphanage in Los Angeles. She'll have to lose her friends Miles and Lincoln. Just as bad, she'll have to give up eavesdropping on twelve-step anonymous programs where the interesting talk is all about Higher Powers. Lucky needs her own ... and quick. But she hadn't planned on a dust storm. Or needing to lug the world's heaviest survival-kit backpack into the desert. title: The Higher Power of Lucky title: Lucky Breaks
F LOR	Rules (age 9-12) by Cynthia Lord growing up ... friendship ... family Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She's spent years trying to teach David the rules-from "a peach is not a funny-looking apple" to "keep your pants on in public"-in order to stop his embarrassing behaviors. But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a paraplegic boy, and Kristi, the next-door friend she's always wished for, it's her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal?
F MCE	The Daydreamer (age 9-12) by Ian McEwan adventure ... short stories ... growing up In these seven exquisitely interlinked episodes, the grown-up protagonist Peter Fortune reveals the secret journeys, metamorphoses, and adventures of his childhood. Living somewhere between dream and reality, Peter experiences fantastical transformations: he swaps bodies with the wise old family cat; exchanges existences with a cranky infant; encounters a very bad doll who has come to life and is out for revenge; and rummages through a kitchen drawer filled with useless objects to discover some not-so-useless cream that actually makes people vanish. Finally, he wakes up as an eleven-year-old inside a grown-up body and embarks on the truly fantastic adventure of falling in love.
F DIC	A Christmas Carol (age 9-12) by Charles Dickens traditions ... growing up ... folklore ... spooky A miser learns the true meaning of Christmas when three ghostly visitors review his past and foretell his future.
F KRU	...and Now Miguel (age 9-12) by Joseph Krumgold growing up The story of Miguel Chavez who yearned to go with the men of his family to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and trade boyhood for manhood.
F KJE	Big Red (age 9-12) by Jim Kjelgaard growing up ... nature ... animals From the moment Danny sees the beautiful Irish setter, he knows Red is the dog for him. Fast and smart, strong and noble, Red is the only dog Danny wants by his side. Soon, neither boy nor dog can stand to be apart. Together Danny and Red face many dangers in the harsh Wintapi wilderness that they call home. But the greatest test of their courage and friendship will come from an enemy more cunning than any they've known before--a bear who is the undisputed king of the wilderness, a savage killer called Old Majesty.
F CUS	The Midwife's Apprentice (age 9-12) by Karen Cushman growing up ... historical In medieval England, a nameless, homeless girl is taken in by a sharp-tempered midwife and, in spite of obstacles and hardship, eventually gains the three things she most wants: a full belly, a contented heart, and a place in this world.
F CAS	Lucie Babbidge's House (age 9-12) by Sylvia Cassedy family ... school ... growing up Having found a dollhouse full of dolls in the orphanage where she leads an unhappy existence, Lucie creates a secret life for herself.
F WOL	Toby Lived Here (age 9-12) by Hilma Wolitzer growing up ... family Toby's hope that she, her mother, and sister would be reunited on her thirteenth birthday, at the latest, is not met and she enters her teens in a foster home.
F WIS	Jericho's Journey (age 9-12) by G. Clifton Wisler family ... growing up ... historical As his family makes the long and difficult journey from Tennessee to their new home in Texas in 1852, twelve-year-old Jericho Wetherby, teased by his sister and brothers about his size, learns there are many ways to grow.
F WIG	Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (age 9-12) by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin historical ... growing up ... family Talkative, ten-year-old Rebecca goes to live with her spinster aunts, one harsh and demanding, the other soft and sentimental, with whom she spends seven difficult but rewarding years growing up.
F WES	With Love From Spain, Melanie Martin (age 9-12) by Carol Weston humor ... growing up ... friendship ... family ... voyages/journeys ... letters/journal On spring break in Spain, fifth-grader Melanie Martin decides to spy on her mother for her father when her mother starts spending a lot of time with her old boyfriend, Antonio, but when she meets Antonio's cute twelve-year-old son, her plans go out the window.
F WAR	Catty-Cornered (age 9-12) by Cheryl Ware growing up ... letters/journal ... school ... family Writing in her diary, twelve-year-old Venola Mae Cutright describes her trials and tribulations as she is forced to go live with her grandmother while she starts the seventh grade.
F SNY	Black and Blue Magic (age 9-12) by Zilpha Keatley Snyder growing up ... magic You'd think that someone with a name like Harry Houdini Marco would be deft and skillful, but Harry could only occasionally catch even an easy fly ball without making some dumb error. On top of that, most of his friends' families were moving to the suburbs. It would have been a long, dreary summer, but then a Mr. Mazeeck showed up and turned out to be more than he seemed.
F SAL	Jungle Dogs (age 9-12) by Graham Salisbury growing up ... family ... animals While worrying about the wild dogs that supposedly lurk in the jungle along his paper route, Hawaiian sixth-grader Boy Regis also seeks to stop his older brother, Damon, from fighting all his battles for him.
F HUN	Across Five Aprils (age 9-12) by Irene Hunt war ... family ... growing up ... historical Young Jethro Creighton grows from a boy to a man when he is left to take care of the family farm in Illinois during the difficult years of the Civil War.
F HIL	The Burnt Stick (age 9-12) by Anthony Hill growing up ... family Growing up in Australia, in a missionary home run by white men, John Jagamarra, who is part aborigine and part white, misses the mother from whom he's been separated and the culture of his own people.
F GRI	The Way of Our People (age 9-12) by Arnold A. Griese illness/loss ... historical ... growing up In 1838 in the village of Anvik a young Indian boy, unable to overcome his fear of hunting alone, tries to find other ways of helping his tribe.
F GOR	The Miraculous Makeover of Lizard Flanagan (age 9-12) by Carol Gorman humor ... school ... friendship ... growing up As she enters middle school, athletic twelve-year-old Lizard is dismayed to see her friends change into weird strangers and struggles with her own transition from tomboy to "girly-girl."
F GIP	Old Yeller (age 9-12) by Fred Gipson adventure ... historical ... growing up ... friendship In the late 1860s in the Texas hill country, a big yellow dog and a fourteen-year-old boy form a close, loving relationship.
F GLA	Box Top Dreams (age 9-12) by Miriam Glassman friendship ... growing up When her best friend, Danny, moves away, leaving eleven-year-old Ariadne alone on the "brink of adolescence," she discovers that change is a part of growing.
F SOT	Baseball in April (age 9-12) by Gary Soto sports ... friendship ... growing up ... short stories In this unique collection of short stories, the small events of daily life reveal big themes--love and friendship, youth and growing up, success and failure. Calling on his own experiences of growing up in California's Central Valley, poet Gary Soto brings to life the joys and pains of young people everywhere. The smart, tough, vulnerable kids in these stories are Latino, but their dreams and desires belong to all of us.
F DAN	P.S. Longer Letter Later (age 9-12) by Paula Danziger and Ann Martin growing up ... friendship ... letters/journal Twelve-year-old best friends Elizabeth and Tara-Starr continue their friendship through letter-writing after Tara-Starr's family moves to another state.
F CRE	Replay: a New Book (age 9-12) by Sharon Creech family ... growing up ... the arts Leo's papa stood in the doorway, gazing down at him. "Leo, you make gold from pebbles," and the way he said it, Leo could tell that this was a good thing. He may have been given a bit part in the school play ... but Leo dreams he is the biggest star on Broadway. Sure, his big, noisy family makes him feel like a sardine squashed in a tin ... but in his fantasy he gets all the attention he wants. Yes, his papa seems sad and distracted ... but Leo imagines him as a boy, tap-dancing and singing with delight. That's why they call Leo "fog boy." He's always dreaming, always replaying things in his brain. He fantasizes about who he is in order to discover who he will become. As an actor in the school play, he is poised and ready for the curtain to open. But in the play that is his life, Leo is eager to discover what part will be his.
F CRE	Granny Torrelli Makes Soup (age 9-12) by Sharon Creech growing up ... family ... friendship Bailey, who is usually so nice, Bailey, my neighbor, my friend, my buddy, my pal for my whole life, knowing me better than anybody, that Bailey, that Bailey I am so mad at right now, that Bailey, I hate him today. Twelve-year-old Rosie and her best friend, Bailey, don't always get along, that's true. But Granny Torrelli seems to know just how to make things right again with her warm words and family recipes. She understands from experience that life's twists and turns can't rattle the unique bond between two lifelong pals.
F CLE	Strider (age 9-12) by Beverly Cleary school ... friendship ... growing up ... letters/journal Strider has a new habit. Whenever we stop, he places his paw on my foot. It isn't an accident because he always does it. I like to think he doesn't want to leave me. Can a stray dog change the life of a teenage boy? It looks as if Strider can. He's a dog that loves to run; because of Strider, Leigh Botts finds himself running, well enough to join the school track team. Strider changes Leigh on the inside, too, as he finally begins to accept his parents' divorce and gets to know a redheaded girl he's been admiring. With Strider's help, Leigh finds that the future he once hated to be asked about now holds something he never expected: hope.
F CAS	Behind the Attic Wall (age 9-12) by Sylvia Cassedy growing up ... family ... spooky In the bleak, forbidding house of her great-aunts, neglected twelve-year-old orphan Maggie hears ghostly voices and finds magic that awakens in her the capacity to love and be loved.
F BYA	Bingo Brown and the Language of Love (age 9-12) by Betsy Cromer Byars family ... friendship ... growing up As twelve-year-old Bingo Brown strives for the triumphs of today and steels himself against the tribulations of tomorrow, he discovers that he will have to undergo a few more trials and triumphs before growing up.
F BAU	On My Honor (age 9-12) by Marion Dane Bauer illness/loss ... growing up ... friendship On your honor?" Joel's father said. "You won't go anywhere except the park?" "On my honor," Joel repeated. During a bicycle trip to the state park, Joel dares his best fried Tony to a swimming race in the dangerous Vermillion River. The boys have been warned never to go near the river, but Tony can't let Joel think he's scared. Both boys jump in. When Joel reaches the sandbar, he turns and looks for Tony and finds that he has vanished. Joel is stunned. How can he face their parents and the terrible truth?
F HAN	Ida B: and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World (age 9-12) by Katherine Hannigan illness/loss ... humor ... school ... growing up Who is Ida B. Applewood? She is a fourth grader like no other, living a life like no other, with a voice like no other, and her story will resonate long after you have put this book down. How does Ida B cope when outside forces (life, really) attempt to derail her and her family and her future? She enters her Black Period, and it is not pretty. But then, with the help of a patient teacher, a loyal cat and dog, her beloved apple trees, and parents who believe in the same things she does (even if they sometimes act as though they don't), the resilience that is the very essence of Ida B triumph...and Ida B. Applewood takes the hand that is extended and starts to grow up.
F FIT	Harriet the Spy (age 9-12) by Louise Fitzhugh brilliant protagonist ... growing up ... realistic ... friendship Harriet M. Welsch is a spy. In her notebook, she writes down everything she knows about everyone, even her classmates and her best friends. Then Harriet loses track of her notebook, and it ends up in the wrong hands. Before she can stop them, her friends have read the always truthful, sometimes awful things she's written about each of them. Will Harriet find a way to put her life and her friendships back together? sequel: The Long Secret
F WOJ	Shadow of a Bull (age 9-12) by Maia Wojciechowska identity ... family ... growing up Manolo Olivar has to make a decision: to follow in his famous father's shadow and become a bullfighter, or to follow his heart and become a doctor.
F WHI	Belle Prater's Boy (age 9-12) by Ruth White illness/loss ... growing up ... friendship ... family When Woodrow's mother suddenly disappears, he moves to his grandparents' home in a small Virginia town where he befriends his cousin and together they find the strength to face the terrible losses and fears in their lives.
F STO	A Dog on Barkham Street (age 9-12) by Mary Stolz growing up ... adventure ... animals Edward Frost wants a dog of his own. And he doesn't want to be bullied by big, mean Martin Hastings anymore. Neither wish seems very likely to come true, until one day wandering Uncle Josh arrives with a beautiful collie named Argess. Suddenly everything begins to change. sequel: The Bully of Barkham Street
F SAC	Johnny's in the Basement (age 9-12) by Louis Sachar family ... growing up When Johnny has his eleventh birthday, his parents decide he is old enough for dancing classes, but too old for his life's work: The World's Greatest Bottle Cap Collection. How will Johnny manage such sudden, and mostly unwelcome, changes?
F RYL	A Fine White Dust (age 9-12) by Cynthia Rylant friendship ... growing up The visit of the traveling Preacher Man to his small North Carolina town gives new impetus to thirteen-year-old Peter's struggle to reconcile his own deeply felt religious belief with the beliefs and non-beliefs of his family and friends.
F LOW	Anastasia Series (age 9-12) by Lois Lowry growing up ... realistic ... humor ... family To Anastasia Krupnik, being ten is very confusing. For one thing, she has this awful teacher who can't understand why Anastasia doesn't capitalize or punctuate her poems. Then, there's Washburn Cummings, a very interesting sixth-grade boy who doesn't even know she is alive. Even her parents have become difficult. On top of that, they're going to have a baby, at their age! It's enough to make a kid want to do something terrible. Anastasia knows that if she didn't have her secret green notebook to write in, she would never make it to her eleventh birthday. Fans of Anastasia will enjoy this author's books about her little brother Sam as well. title: Anastasia Krupnik title: Anastasia Again! title: Anastasia, Absolutely title: Anastasia at This Address title: Anastasia Has the Answers title: Anastasia, Ask Your Analyst title: Anastasia on Her Own title: Anastasia's Chosen Career
F APP	Animorphs Megamorphs Series (age 9-12) by K. A. Applegate action ... growing up ... animals ... science fiction ... adventure Fans of the original Animorphs series will love these heart-pounding adventures, told from each character's point of view. title: The Andalite's Gift title: The Andalite Chronicles title: The Hork-Bajir Chronicles
F APP	Animorphs Series (age 9-12) by K. A. Applegate action ... growing up ... animals ... science fiction ... adventure This fantastic, unpredictable, edge-of-your-seat series can best be described as an ``X-Files'' for kids--plus a whole lot more! Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Tobias, and Marco are the Animorphs--five kids who can change into any animal they touch. title: The Invasion title: The Visitor title: The Message title: The Capture title: The Stranger title: The Alien title: The Secret title: The Android title: The Forgotten title: The Reaction title: The Underground title: The Decision title: The Departure title: The Pretender
F OPP	The Silverwing Trilogy (age 9-12) by Kenneth Oppel growing up ... action ... adventure Shade is a young Silverwing bat, the runt of his colony. But he's determined to prove himself on the long, dangerous winter migration to Hibernaculum, millions of wingbeats to the south. During a fierce storm, he loses the others and soon faces the most incredible journey of his young life. Desperately searching for a way to rejoin his flock, Shade meets a remarkable cast of characters. But which ones are friends and which ones are enemies? In this epic story of adventure and suspense, Shade is going to need all the help he can find, if he hopes to ever see his family again. title: Sunwing
F HAM	M.C. Higgins, the Great (age 9-12) by Virginia Hamilton growing up ... family Mayo Cornelius Higgins sits on his gleaming, forty-foot steel pole, towering over his home on Sarah's Mountain. Stretched before him are rolling hills and shady valleys. But behind him lie the wounds of strip mining, including a mountain of rubble that may one day fall and bury his home. M.C. dreams of escape for himself and his family. And, one day, atop his pole, he thinks he sees it, two strangers are making their way toward Sarah's Mountain. One has the ability to make M.C.'s mother famous. And the other has a kind of freedom that M.C. has never even considered.
F CUS	The Ballad of Lucy Whipple (age 9-12) by Karen Cushman growing up ... historical In 1849, a twelve-year-old girl who calls herself Lucy is distraught when her mother moves the family from Massachusetts to a small California mining town, where Lucy helps run a rough boarding house and looks for comfort in books while trying to find a way to get ``home.''
F CON	Trout Summer (age 9-12) by Jane Leslie Conley growing up ... family A sister and brother spend a summer in a cabin near a river, where they try to come to terms with their parents' failing marriage and make decisions about their own lives.
F BUR	A Little Princess (age 9-12) by Frances Hodgson Burnett growing up ... friendship ... fantasy A Little Princess tells the story of Ann, whose comfortable life as the daughter of a wealthy and loving father is destroyed when he goes missing. Though she faces many challenges, we find that her strength of character makes her special indeed.
F BLU	Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret (age 9-12) by Judy Blume identity ... friendship ... growing up For Margaret, everything is different this year. She's just moved from New York City to the suburbs and is anxious to fit in with her new friends. When the girls form a secret club to talk about private subjects, Margaret is happy to belong. But in Farbrook, everybody joins the Y or the Jewish Community Center. Margaret doesn't have a religion, so what's she supposed to do? Suddenly life is very confusing. Maybe it's all part of growing up, but Margaret could really use some answers.

Barron Park Elementary School, Sat Aug 25 11:55:26 2012 Other themes and genres