F
ROY
Where's Buddy? (age 8-11)
by Ron Roy
family ... illness/loss
Catalog: When Mike realizes that his diabetic brother, Buddy, is lost and doesn't have his medication with him, he begins a desperate race with time to find Buddy before it's too late.
F
CRE
Pleasing the Ghost (age 8-11)
by Sharon Creech
illness/loss ... humor ... spooky ... family
Ever since his father died, Dennis has been seeing ghosts. Lots of ghosts. They blow in on the breeze, visit for a while, and fly off again. But one night the ghost of his Uncle Arvie floats in the window. And Arvie wants to do more than chat. Together, they find a lost love letter, finish a special painting, and dig up buried treasure...all for Arvie's widow, Julia. Dennis loves having his uncle around again, but there's still one ghost he's longing to see. Perhaps on the next ghost wind . . .
F
ALE
To Live a Lie (age 8-11)
by Anne Alexander
family ... illness/loss
Hurt by her parent's divorce and living with her father, Jennifer changes her name and tells people her mother is dead.
F
BUC
The Big Wave (age 8-11)
by Pearl S. Buck
survival ... growing up ... family ... illness/loss
Kino lives on a farm on the side of a mountain in Japan. His friend, Jiya, lives in a fishing village below. Everyone, including Kino and Jiya, has heard of the big wave. No one suspects it will wipe out the whole village and Jiya's family, too. As Jiya struggles to overcome his sorrow, he understands it is in the presence of danger that one learns to be brave, and to appreciate how wonderful life can be.
F
LIT
Mine for Keeps (age 8-11)
by Jean Little
school ... illness/loss ... family
Sarah Jane Copeland expects special treatment when she returns home after spending five years at a cerebral palsy center, but her family treats her as an able member.
F
LOV
A Year Without Rain (age 8-11)
by D. Anne Love
illness/loss ... family
Her mother's death and a year-long drought has made life difficult for twelve-year-old Rachel and her family on their farm in the Dakotas, but when she learns that her father plans to get married again, it is almost more than Rachel can bear.
F
COE
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (age 8-11)
by Eleanor Coerr
war ... folklore ... historical ... illness/loss
Publisher comments: When Hiroshima-born Sadako falls gravely ill with leukemia, she recalls a Japanese legend that holds that if a sick person folds one thousand cranes, the gods will grant her wish and make her healthy again.
F
BRA
Weaver's Daughter (age 8-11)
by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
illness/loss ... historical
In 1791 after her family's journey from Pennsylvania, ten-year-old Lizzie suffers from the disease of asthma in her new home in the Southwest Territory (present-day Tennessee).
F
YAR
Tamika and the Wisdom Rings (age 8-11)
by Camille Yarbrough
family ... illness/loss
Tamika finds strength in her family, her friends, and herself as she copes with the murder of her father.
F
WIL
Each Little Bird that Sings (age 8-11)
by Deborah Wiles
friendship ... family ... illness/loss
Comfort Snowberger is well acquainted with death since her family runs the funeral parlor in their small southern town, but even so the ten-year-old is unprepared for the series of heart-wrenching events that begins on the first day of Easter vacation with the sudden death of her beloved great-uncle Edisto.
F
SMI
A Taste of Blackberries (age 8-11)
by Doris Buchanan Smith
friendship ... illness/loss
Jamie is special, full of surprises, unpredictable. He can get into trouble, and then out of it. He courts danger, and always escapes. And he has an answer for every impossible question. But when something sudden and terrible happens to Jamie, his best friend has to face the tragedy alone. Now there are questions that not even Jamie could have answered.
F
WIL
Love, Ruby Lavender (age 8-11)
by Deborah Wiles
letters/journal ... illness/loss ... family
When Ruby's grandmother, Miss Eula goes to visit her new grandbaby in Hawaii, Ruby is sure that she will have a lonely, empty, horrible summer without her in boring old Halleluia, Mississippi. What happens instead? She makes a new friend, saves the school play, writes plenty of letters to her favorite (and only) grandmother . . . and finally learns to stop blaming herself for her grandfather's death. Not too bad, for a nine-year-old.
F
GIF
Lily's Crossing (age 8-11)
by Patricia Reilly Giff
war ... illness/loss ... friendship ... historical
Every summer Lily and her father go to her family's house in Rockaway, near the Atlantic Ocean. But the summer of 1944 is different. World War II has called Lily's father overseas, Lily's best friend Margaret had to move with her family to a wartime factory town, and Lily is forced to live with her grandmother. But then a boy named Albert, a refugee from Hungary, comes to live in Rockaway. He has lost most of his family to the war. Soon he and Lily form a special friendship, and they have secrets to share. But they have both told lies, and Lily's lie may cost Albert his life.
F
CRE
Love That Dog (age 8-11)
by Sharon Creech
illness/loss ... animals ... authorship ... school ... poetry
Jack hate poetry. Only girls write it and every time he tries to, his brain feels empty. But his teacher, Ms. Stretchberry, won't stop giving her class poetry assignments, and Jack can't avoid them. But then something amazing happens. The more he writes, the more he learns he does have something to say.
sequel: Hate That Cat

Walter Hays Elementary School, Sat Aug 25 11:55:30 2012
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