We
Rode the Orphan Trains* 
by Andrea Warren
Between
1854 and 1929, over 200,000 orphaned and abandoned children
were sent from New York City to the burgeoning West. We Rode
the Orphan Trains is a compelling tribute to the many “throwaway”
children who were living on the streets or in orphanages and
foster homes in New York City during this era of American history.
Charles Loring Brace started the Children’s Aid Society
and developed a plan to give these homeless children a chance
to find families they could call their own. This nonfiction
book tells the stories of nine men and women who rode the trains
and helped make history. (6th grade & up)
Worth*
by A. LaFaye
Scott O’Dell Award Book
This
2005 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction winner
tells the story of two boys who were affected by circumstance
and the Orphan Trains. Nathaniel is unable to continue the
life of a farmer when his leg is crushed in an accident. His
father subsequently ignores him and brings in an Orphan Train
boy to do the work on the farm. John Worth had a dream of
an education before it was tragically denied after the death
of his parents. The work he must do on the farm does not allow
him to continue his education, much to his displeasure. The
two boys must forge a connection to make life bearable for
them both. (6th grade & up)
*Paired
books
The
City of Ember
by Jeanne DuPrau
It
is always night in the city of Ember. The only light during
the regular twelve hours of ‘day’ comes from floodlamps.
Beyond are the pitch-black Unknown Regions, which no one has
ever explored. For 250 years, the people of Ember have lived
pleasantly, because there has been plenty of everything in
the vast storerooms. But now there are more and more empty
shelves--and more and more times when the lights flicker and
go out, leaving them in terrifying blackness for long minutes.
What will happen when the generator finally fails? When twelve-year-old
Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow find a very old paper with enigmatic
"Instructions for Egress," they begin to puzzle
out the frightening and dangerous way to the city of light
of which Lina has dreamed. (6th grade & up)
A
Wreath for Emmett Till†
by Marilyn Nelson
Coretta
Scott King Honor Book; Michael L. Printz Honor Book
In 1955,
people all over the United States knew that Emmett Till was
a fourteen-year-old African American boy lynched for supposedly
whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. The brutality of
his murder, the open-casket funeral held by his mother, Mamie
Till Mobley, and the acquittal of the men tried for the crime
drew wide media attention. In a profound and chilling poem,
award-winning poet Marilyn Nelson reminds us of the boy whose
fate helped spark the civil rights movement. This martyr’s
wreath, woven from a little-known but sophisticated form of
poetry, challenges us to speak out against modern-day injustices,
to “speak what we see.” (8th grade & up)
Getting
Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case †
by Chris Crowe
With
lively narrative and illustrated with fascinating contemporaneous
photographs, this impressive, eye-opening work brings fresh
insight to the famous case that highlighted—and eventually
provoked changes in—race relations in America. (8th
grade & up)
†Paired
books
Hitler
Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow
by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Newberry
Honor Book; Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
The
riveting and often chilling tale of a generation of young
people who devoted their energy and passion to the Hitler
Youth organization and left an indelible mark on world history.
Award-winning author Susan Campbell Bartoletti infuses the
work with the voices of both former Hitler Youth members and
young people who resisted the powerful Nazi movement. These
voices stand alongside those of Jewish youths and others who
were senselessly and brutally targeted by the Third Reich.
What emerges is the story of average children and teenagers
faced with extraordinary and unenviable choices. The paths
taken by the Hitler Youth and their struggle to come to terms
with their actions at the end of World War II are sure to
spark debate among young readers faced with the question of
whether the horrors of Hitler’s Germany could ever cast
dark shadows again. (8th grade & up)
Burro
Genius/Burro Genio
by Victor Villaseñor
Victor
Villaseñor finds himself the keynote speaker at a conference
for the California Association of Teachers of English. Standing
at the podium, his mind fills with childhood memories of humiliation
and abuse at the hands of his teachers. As he speaks, he becomes
more and more enraged. When he is through, to his great disbelief
he receives a standing ovation. So begins the memoir of Victor
Villaseñor. Highly gifted and imaginative as a child,
Villaseñor coped with an untreated learning disability
and the challenge of growing up Latino in an English-only American
school system in the 1940s. The book conveys a young man in
the midst of living in and between two worlds: home (Spanish)
and school (English). Despite teachers who beat him because
he could not speak English, Villaseñor clung to his dream
of one day becoming a writer. (9th grade & up) English or
Spanish.
Becoming
Naomi Leon/Yo Naomi Leon
by Pamela Muñoz Ryan
Gram,
Naomi, and Owen are happy at Avocado Acres Trailer Rancho
until the day the children's mother arrives. After being gone
so long that they don't recognize her, Skyla enters their
lives, lavishing attention and presents on fifth-grade Naomi;
however, she never seems to include Owen. After several weeks,
the truth about her reappearance becomes apparent: Clive,
her new boyfriend, wants Naomi to live with them and become
the permanent baby-sitter for his daughter. The ensuing custody
battle forces Gram, Naomi, and Owen to make a hasty trip to
Mexico to look for Santiago, the children's biological father
and a well-known woodcarver. Ryan has written a moving book
about family dynamics. While she explores the youngsters'
Mexican heritage and gives a vivid picture of life in and
the art of Oaxaca, her story is universal, showing the strong
bonds and love that make up an extended family. (6th grade
& up) English or Spanish.
Love
Medicine‡
by Louise Erdrich
National Book Critics Circle Award Winner
The stunning first novel in Louise Erdrich’s
Native American series, Love Medicine tells the story of two
families—the Kashpaws and the Lamartines. Written in
Erdrich’s uniquely poetic, powerful style, it is a multigenerational
portrait of strong men and women caught in an unforgettable
drama of anger, desire, and the healing power that is love
medicine. (9th grade & up)
The Birchbark
House‡
by Louise Erdrich
Nineteenth-century
American pioneer life was introduced to thousands of young
readers by Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved Little House books.
With The Birchbark House, award-winning author Louise Erdrich's
first novel for young readers, this same slice of history
is seen through the eyes of the spirited, 7-year-old Ojibwa
girl, Omakayas. The sole survivor of a smallpox epidemic on
Spirit Island, Omakayas, then only a baby girl, was rescued
by a fearless woman named Tallow and welcomed into an Ojibwa
family on Lake Superior's Madeline Island. We follow Omakayas
and her adopted family through a cycle of four seasons in
1847, including the winter when a historically documented
outbreak of smallpox overtook the island. (6th grade &
up)
‡Paired books
Handbook
for Boys
by Walter Dean Myers
After
a fight gets out of hand, sixteen-year-old Jimmy is about
to be assigned to six months in a youth facility. Duke, owner
of the local barbershop, offers to take him into his "community
mentoring program." Initially Jimmy calls the shop the
"Torture Chamber," but as he shows up to the shop
to sweep, hang old photographs on the wall and polish spittoons,
his anger and resistance erode and he begins to absorb Duke's
advice. By the award-winning author of Monster and Bad Boy.
(9th grade & up)
