F ALC	Louisa May Alcott's Little Women Books (age 10+) by Louisa May Alcott historical ... growing up ... family Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young ladies in nineteenth-century New England. title: Little Women
F VAN	Dear Mom, You're Ruining My Life (age 10+) by Jean Van Leeuwen realistic ... growing up ... family Samantha Slayton's eleventh year includes losing her last baby teeth, towering over every boy in dance school, and being mortified by everything her mother does.
F MAR	With You and Without You (age 10+) by Ann Matthews Martin family ... illness/loss A twelve-year-old faces the fact that her father is dying, and then his death, but dealing with the emptiness afterwards is hardest of all.
F DOW	The London Eye Mystery (age 10+) by Siobhan Dowd family ... mystery Publisher comments: Ted and Kat watched their cousin Salim board the London Eye, but after half an hour it landed and everyone trooped off, except Salim. Where could he have gone? How on earth could he have disappeared into thin air? Ted and his older sister, Kat, become sleuthing partners, since the police are having no luck. Despite their prickly relationship, they overcome their differences to follow a trail of clues across London in a desperate bid to find their cousin. And ultimately it comes down to Ted, whose brain works in its own unique way, to find the key to the mystery.
F LAW	Scumble (age 10+) by Ingrid Law growing up ... fantasy ... family Publisher comments: It's nine years after Savvy, and Mibs' cousin Ledge is on the verge of turning thirteen. More than anything, he wants the power to run like the wind. But when his birthday comes, he discovers that his savvy is actually making things fall apart. It starts out with small things, but then it gets worse. To top it all off, someone outside the family has witnessed his destruction. Now, in addition to trying to figure out how to control - or scumble - his savvy, he's got to worry about how to protect the family secrets. Over the course of one amazing summer, Ledge learns a lot about himself and his family, makes a new - and very unlikely - friend, and learns to appreciate his newfound skills.
F LAW	Savvy (age 10+) by Ingrid Law growing up ... fantasy ... family Publisher comments: For generations, the Beaumont family has harbored a magical secret. They each possess a "savvy", a special supernatural power that strikes when they turn thirteen. Grandpa Bomba moves mountains, her older brothers create hurricanes and spark electricity...and now it's the eve of Mibs's big day. As if waiting weren't hard enough, the family gets scary news two days before Mibs's birthday: Poppa has been in a terrible accident. Mibs develops the singular mission to get to the hospital and prove that her new power can save her dad. So she sneaks onto a salesman's bus...only to find the bus heading in the opposite direction. Suddenly Mibs finds herself on an unforgettable odyssey that will force her to make sense of growing up and of other people, who might also have a few secrets hidden just beneath the skin.
F SMI	Jaguar (age 10+) by Roland Smith nature ... family ... adventure ... action While accompanying his father on an expedition up the Amazon River to a jaguar preserve in Brazil, fourteen-year-old Jacob must contend with dangerous animals and fortune hunters.
F SMI	The Last Lobo (age 10+) by Roland Smith nature ... family ... adventure ... action Jacob returns with his grandfather to the Hopi reservation where he was born, and quickly discovers that the Hopi are divided over a lobo, a Mexican wolf, which some say is hunting on the reservation. The lobo is an endangered species, and Jake knows that if the lobo does exist, he must do everything he can to save it.
F LOW	Rabble Starkey (age 10+) by Lois Lowry family ... friendship Many things change for twelve-year-old Rabble Starkey, her mother, and her best friend, Veronica Bigelow when Veronica's mother becomes mentally incapacitated and the Starkeys move in with the Bigelows.
F PEC	Fair Weather: a Novel (age 10+) by Richard Peck family ... humor ... historical In 1893, thirteen-year-old Rosie and members of her family travel from their Illinois farm to Chicago to visit Aunt Euterpe and attend the World's Columbian Exposition which, along with an encounter with Buffalo Bill and Lillian Russell, turns out to be a life-changing experience for everyone.
F MAC	Journey (age 10+) by Patricia MacLachlan family ... illness/loss Two children, left by their mother with their grandparents, feel as if their past has been erased until Grandfather finds a way to restore it to them.
F LUP	Heat (age 10+) by Mike Lupica family ... identity ... sports Michael Arroyo has a pitching arm that throws serious heat. But his firepower is nothing compared to the heat Michael faces in his day-to-day life. Newly orphaned after his father led the family's escape from Cuba, Michael's only family is his seventeen-year-old brother Carlos. If Social Services hears of their situation, they will be separated in the foster-care system or worse, sent back to Cuba. Together, the boys carry on alone, dodging bills and anyone who asks too many questions. But then someone wonders how a twelve-year-old boy could possibly throw with as much power as Michael Arroyo throws. With no way to prove his age, no birth certificate, and no parent to fight for his cause, Michael's secret world is blown wide open, and he discovers that family can come from the most unexpected sources.
F KAD	Kira-kira (age 10+) by Cynthia Kadohata bigotry ... family ... friendship ... illness/loss kira-kira (kee ra kee ra): glittering; shining. Glittering. That's how Katie Takeshima's sister, Lynn, makes everything seem. The sky is kira-kira because its color is deep but see-through at the same time. The sea is kira-kira for the same reason. And so are people's eyes. When Katie and her family move from a Japanese community in Iowa to the Deep South of Georgia, it's Lynn who explains to her why people stop on the street to stare. And it's Lynn who, with her special way of viewing the world, teaches Katie to look beyond tomorrow. But when Lynn becomes desperately ill, and the whole family begins to fall apart, it is up to Katie to find a way to remind them all that there is always something glittering, kira-kira, in the future.
F BLU	Here's to You, Rachel Robinson (age 10+) by Judy Blume brilliant protagonist ... school ... family ... friendship It's the end of seventh grade, and the stress of trying to be perfect is getting to Rachel. She's tired of being the straight-A student on every teacher's wish list. Plus she's busy dealing with her sister's junior prom mishaps, and harboring a secret crush on her brother's tutor. But most importantly, she's working to keep her friendship with Stephanie and Alison strong. Could it be that real life is much more interesting than perfect life? If you're equipped with a good sense of humor, it is!
F BLU	Just as Long as We're Together (age 10+) by Judy Blume school ... family ... friendship Rachel is Stephanie's best friend. Since the second grade they have shared all their secrets, good and bad. So when Alison moves in, Stephanie hopes that the three of them can be best friends because Stephanie really likes Alison. After all, they have even more to share now, including seventh grade and Jeremy Dragon, the cutest boy in junior high. Even though the three of them live in a quiet Connecticut neighborhood, there's a lot going on in their lives. Stephanie wishes her father didn't have to work so far from home and she worries that Rachel's talents will get in the way of their friendship. Rachel and Alison have to deal with the changes in their own lives, yet Stephanie is sure everything will work out fine--"just as long as we're together...."
F BLU	BFF: Best Friends Forever: Two Novels (age 10+) by Judy Blume school ... family ... friendship Contains two novels by Judy Blume including "Just as Long as We're Together," in which Stephanie's relationship with her best friend, Rachel, changes during her first year in junior high as she tries to hide a family problem and meets a new girl from California; and "Here's to You, Rachel Robinson," in which Rachel's life is disrupted when her brother Charles is expelled from boarding school and returns home.
F GRE	Out of Many Waters (age 10+) by Jacqueline Dembar Greene bigotry ... family ... adventure ... historical Kidnapped from their parents during the Portuguese Inquisition and sent to work as slaves at a monastery in Brazil, two Jewish sisters attempt to make their way back to Europe to find their parents, but instead one becomes part of a group founding the first Jewish settlement in the United States.
F LAW	Lord of the Nutcracker Men (age 10+) by Iain Lawrence family ... historical ... war Ten-year-old Johnny eagerly plays at war with the army of nutcracker soldiers his toymaker father whittles for him. He demolishes imaginary foes. But in 1914 Germany looms as the real enemy of Europe, and all too soon Johnny's father is swept up in the war to end all wars. He proudly enlists with his British countrymen to fight at the front in France. The war, though, is nothing like what any soldier or person at home expected. The letters that arrive from Johnny's dad reveal the ugly realities of combat ... and the soldiers he carves and encloses begin to bear its scars. Still, Johnny adds these soldiers to his armies of Huns, Tommies, and Frenchmen, engaging them in furious fights. But when these games seem to foretell his dad's real battles, Johnny thinks he possesses godlike powers over his wooden men. He fears he controls his father's fate, the lives of all the soldiers in no-man's land, and the outcome of the war itself.
F COU	Getting Near to Baby (age 10+) by Audrey Couloumbis illness/loss ... family Although 13-year-old Willa Jo and her Aunt Patty seem to be constantly at odds, staying with her and Uncle Hob helps Willa Jo and her younger sister come to terms with the death of their family's baby.
F YEP	Child of the Owl (age 10+) by Laurence Yep growing up ... identity ... family In Child of the Owl, a twelve-year-old girl who knows little about her Chinese heritage is sent to live with her grandmother in San Francisco's Chinatown.
F YEP	Dragonwings (age 10+) by Laurence Yep historical ... family ... enterprise In the early twentieth century a young Chinese boy joins his father in San Francisco and helps him realize his dream of making a flying machine.
F HEN	The Birthday Room (age 10+) by Kevin Henkes growing up ... family Benjamin Hunter gets two things for his twelfth birthday: a freshly renovated room in the attic from his parents and a letter from his uncle, Ian, whom he hasn't seen in nearly ten years. Ben isn't sure what he thinks about the room . . . but the letter! It's an invitation to visit, and Ben has an unexplainable urge to see, and know, this man who's been estranged from the family for so long. That is, if Ben's mother can let go of an old grudge long enough to let him have his wish.
F GAN	Heads or Tails: Stories From the Sixth Grade (age 10+) by Jack Gantos growing up ... letters/journal ... family ... humor Jack's life is a crazy roller-coaster ride. At his fifth school in six years, he has a crackpot teacher who won't give him a break about his lousy handwriting and a secret crush who wants to be a policewoman. At home, he has a pesty little brother with a knack for breaking an arm whenever Jack's supposed to be looking after him, a terror for an older sister, all sorts of weird neighbors, and, last but not least, ferocious alligators in the canal behind his house.
F CHO	Al Capone Does My Shirts (age 10+) by Gennifer Choldenko growing up ... historical ... family Publisher comments: Moose Flannagan moves with his family to Alcatraz so his dad can work as a prison guard and his sister, Natalie, can attend a special school. But Natalie has autism, and when she's denied admittance to the school, the stark setting of Alcatraz begins to unravel the tenuous coping mechanisms Moose's family has used for dealing with her disorder. When Moose meets Piper, the cute daughter of the Warden, he knows right off she's trouble. But she's also strangely irresistible. All Moose wants to do is protect Natalie, live up to his parents? expectations, and stay out of trouble. But on Alcatraz, trouble is never very far away. sequel: Al Capone Shines My Shoes
F BYA	The Pinballs (age 10+) by Betsy Cromer Byars growing up ... friendship ... family You can't always decide where life will take you--especially when you're a kid. Carlie knows she's got no say in what happens to her. Stuck in a foster home with two other kids, Harvey and Thomas J, she's just a pinball being bounced from bumper to bumper. As soon as you get settled, somebody puts another coin in the machine and off you go again. But against her will and her better judgment, Carlie and the boys become friends. And all three of them start to see that they can take control of their own lives.
F TAY	Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (age 10+) by Mildred D. Taylor family ... bigotry ... historical The story of one African American family fighting to stay together and strong in the face of brutal racist attacks, illness, poverty, and betrayal in the Deep South of the 1930s.
F RYL	Missing May (age 10+) by Cynthia Rylant illness/loss ... family After the death of the beloved aunt who has raised her, twelve-year-old Summer and her uncle Ob leave their West Virginia trailer in search of the strength to go on living.
F RIC	The Light in the Forest (age 10+) by Conrad Richter identity ... historical ... family Though reared as a Lenni Lenape Indian, fifteen-year-old True Son, once called John Camera Butler, was ordered back to the white man. It was impossible for True Son to believe that his people were white and not Indian. He had learned to hate the white man. And now he learned to hate his new father, his new house, his new family. He hated the name John Butler. Where did he belong now--and where could he go?
F PAT	Jacob Have I Loved (age 10+) by Katherine Patterson identity ... realistic ... growing up ... family Sara Louise Bradshaw is sick and tired of her beautiful twin Caroline. Ever since they were born, Caroline has been the pretty one, the talented one, the better sister. Even now, Caroline seems to take everything: Louise's friends, their parents' love, her dreams for the future. For once in her life, Louise wants to be the special one. But in order to do that, she must first figure out who she is, and find a way to make a place for herself outside her sister's shadow.
F MOW	Owls in the Family (age 10+) by Farley Mowat humor ... family ... realistic ... animals ... nature A young boy's life gets considerably more interesting when he adopts a pair of owlets as pets.
F LEV	Journey to America (age 10+) by Sonia Levitin survival ... historical ... family A Jewish family fleeing Nazi Germany in 1938 endures innumerable separations before they are once again united.
F HOR	Everything on a Waffle (age 10+) by Polly Horvath growing up ... family ... humor Eleven-year-old Primrose, living in a small fishing village in British Columbia, recounts with surprising humor her experiences and all she learns about human nature and the unpredictability of life after her parents are lost at sea.
F HOL	Following Fake Man (age 10+) by Barbara Ware Holmes identity ... illness/loss ... mystery ... family Homer Aldrich Winthrop was a neurologist who died of a neurological illness. That's all Homer Jr.'s mother will say about his father, who died when he was two. On an unexpected trip to Maine, 12-year-old Homer realizes there may be a reason his father is such a secret.
F PAT	The Same Stuff as Stars (age 10+) by Katherine Patterson growing up ... friendship ... family When Angel's self-absorbed mother leaves her and her younger brother with their poor great-grandmother, the eleven-year-old girl worries not only about her mother and brother, her imprisoned father, the frail old woman, but also about a mysterious man who begins sharing with her the wonder of the stars.
F TUR	Maroo of the Winter Caves (age 10+) by Ann Turnbull family ... historical ... survival ... nature Maroo, a girl of the late Ice Age, must take charge after her father is killed, and lead her little brother, mother, and aged grandmother to the safety of the winter camp before the first blizzards strike.
F RYA	Esperanza Rising (age 10+) by Pam Munoz Ryan identity ... historical ... family Esperanza Ortega has fancy dresses, a beautiful home filled with servants, and the promise of one day rising to her mother's position presiding over all of Rancho de las Rosas. But tragedy shatters that dream, forcing Esperanza and Mama to flee from Mexico to California and settle in a farm labor camp. There, Esperanza must confront the challenges that come with her difficult circumstances.
F PEC	A Year Down Yonder (age 10+) by Richard Peck short stories ... historical ... family During the recession of 1937, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice is sent to live with her feisty, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois and comes to a better understanding of this fearsome woman.
F CRE	Walk Two Moons (age 10+) by Sharon Creech illness/loss ... identity ... growing up ... friendship ... voyages/journeys ... family As Salamanca travels cross-country with her eccentric grandparents, she tells the story of Phoebe Winterbottom, who received mysterious messages, who met a ``potential lunatic,'' and whose mother disappeared--just like Sal's.
F BYN	Molly Moon Series (age 10+) by Georgia Byng identity ... mystery ... magic ... adventure ... friendship ... family Molly Moon is no ordinary orphan. When she finds a mysterious old book on hypnotism, she discovers she can make people do whatever she wants. But a sinister stranger is watching her every move, and he'll do anything to steal her hypnotic secret... title: Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism title: Molly Moon Stops the World title: Molly Moon's Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure title: Molly Moon, Micky Minus, and the Mind Machine title: Molly Moon and the Morphing Mystery

Palo Verde Elementary School, Sat Aug 25 11:55:34 2012 Other themes and genres