Picture Books

Bean, Jonathan. At night

     A sleepless city girl imagines what it would be like to get away from snoring family members and curl up alone with one's thoughts in the cool night air under wide-open skies.

Blume, Judy. The pain and the great one

     A six-year-old (The Pain) and his eight-year-old sister (The Great One) see each other as troublemakers and the best-loved in the family.

Brown, Jeff. Flat Stanley

    Based on the original Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown

Fine, Anne. Jamie and Angus together

     Best friends Jamie and his toy Highland bull Angus tackle a lively playmate, become muddled by a pretend game and discover that playing is not fun unless they are doing it together.

Grogan, John. Bad dog, Marley!

     Marley, a rambunctious puppy, makes himself at home while causing lots of trouble but then proves in a very dramatic way that he is a valuable member of the household.

Mayer, Marianna. The unicorn and the lake

     When a serpent poisons the lake where all the animals drink, only the unicorn has the power to save them.

Pinkwater, Daniel. At the Hotel Larry

     Larry the polar bear and his adventures.

______. Young Larry   

Root, Phyllis. Aunt Nancy and the bothersome visitors

     Clever Aunt Nancy manages to foil all those who try to get the better of her.

Scieszka. Jon. Cowboy and Octpus .

     Peanut butter and jelly. George and Martha. Frog and Toad. Cowboy and . . . Octopus? Yes, that's right. Meet Cowboy and Octopus; the next great pair to become a household name. Cowboy likes beans and bacon. Octopus eats raw seafood. Octopus prefers knock-knock jokes, but Cowboy doesn't get them. How will these two ever be friends?

Snicket, Lemony. The latke who couldn't stop screaming: a Christmas story

     A particularly irate latke is the star of The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming, but many other holiday icons appear and even speak: flashing colored lights, cane-shaped candy, a pine tree. Santa Claus is briefly discussed as well. The ending is happy, at least for some. People who are interested in any or all of these things will find this book so enjoyable it will feel as though Hanukkah were being celebrated for several years, rather than eight nights.

Wheeler, Lisa. Dino-hockey

     The meat-eating dinosaurs challenge the plant-eating dinosaurs to a hockey match.

Willems, Mo. Knuffle bunny too: a case of mistaken identity   

     Trixie can't wait to bring her one-of-a-kind Knuffle Bunny to school and show him off to everyone. But when she gets there, she sees something awful: Sonja has the same bunny.

Young Readers

Brown, Jeff. Invisible Stanley.

     One morning after a thunderstorm, the Lambchop family is surprised to discover that Stanley is suddenly invisible.

Maguire, Gregory. What-the-Dickens: the story of a rogue tooth fairy

     As a terrible storm rages, ten-year-old Dinah and her brother and sister listen to their cousin Gage's tale of a newly-hatched, orphaned, skibberee, or tooth fairy, called What-the-Dickens, who hopes to find a home among the skibbereen tribe, if only he can stay out of trouble.

Pennypacker, Sara. The talented Clementine

     Eight-year-old Clementine, convinced that she has no talents, tries to find a way to avoid participating in the class talent show.

Smith, Alexander McCall. Akimbo and the lions

     When Akimbo and his park ranger father unintentionally capture a lion cub near an African game park, Akimbo wants to keep the cub.

______. The five lost aunts of Harriet Bean

     When her absent-minded inventor father suddenly remembers that he has five sisters, nine-year-old Harriet Bean, who has never heard of them before, determines to find her unknown aunts so that the unfinished family portrait can be completed.

Spinelli, Jerry. The bathwater gang

     Bertie's all-girl gang becomes involved in a harmless but heartfelt war with an all-boy gang, until Bertie's grandmother steps in with a perfect solution.

______. Who ran my underwear up the flagpole? .

     It's football season at Plumstead Middle School, and everything is up in the air. Sunny has become a cheerleader--the first ever to wear a frown and beat up fans who refuse to cheer. Eddie has gone out for football to prove that he's grown up despite his superhero underwear--and to try to impress a certain cheerleader. Salem has become the football team's manager, and she's starting a new time-out tradition that the team will never forget. And Pickles is leading Plumstead's pathetic marching band...to a very unusual beat.

______. Blue ribbon blues (A Stepping Stone Book)

     Ever since her family moved to Aunt Sally's farm, Tooter's known that farm life is definitely not for her. There's no pizzeria; for miles, her nearest neighbor is a dumb boy, and even her own pet chicken hates her! So Tooter decides to show everyone what she's made of by winning the blue ribbon at the County Fair's goat show. Now all she has to do is keep her little brother--and his paint brush--away from her prize goat!

Older Readers

Alexie, Sherman. The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian

     Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Barry, Dave and Ridley Pearson. Peter and the shadow thieves

     In this riveting and adventure-packed follow-up to Peter and the Starcatchers, Peter leaves the relative safety of Mollusk Island -- along with his trusted companion Tinker Bell -- for the cold, damp streets of London. On a difficult journey across the sea, he and Tink discover the dark and deadly, slithering part-man/part-creature Lord Ombra. It seems that the dreaded Ombra has a variety of mysterious powers, including the ability to make shadows disappear. When Peter reaches London, he sets out to find the indomitable Molly. Together they must combat Ombras terrible forces to both protect the Starcatchers and the treasured starstuff and, most important, to rescue Mollys mother from the clutches of evil.

______.   Peter & the secret of Rundoon.

     Fearing that the sinister Lord Ombra was not destroyed, Peter and Molly travel to the land of Rundoon, which is ruled by the evil King Zarboff.

Farmer, Nancy. The land of the silver apples

     After escaping from the Sea of Trolls, the apprentice bard Jack plunges into a new series of adventures, traveling underground to Elfland and uncovering the truth about his little sister Lucy.

Flanagan, John. The Icebound Land (Ranger's Apprentice, book 3).

     Chasing the Skandian slave-traders who kidnapped Will and Evanlyn, Ranger Halt and warrior student Horace find themselves in the frozen northern islands, where they battle a ruthless black-clad knight as they attempt to rescue their friends.

Goldman, William. The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's classic tale of true love and high adventure

Horowitz, Anthony. Snakehead (Alex Rider Adventure)

     While working with the Australian Secret Service on a dangerous mission, teenaged spy Alex Rider uncovers information about his parents.

Jacques, Brian. Eulalia.

     On his way to invade Redwall Abbey, vicious and tyrannical Captain Vizka Longtooth captures Gorath, the brave young badger whose predicted destiny is to become the next Badger Lord.

Kinney, Jeff. Diary of a wimpy kid: Greg Heffley's journal

     Greg records his sixth grade experiences in a middle school where he and his best friend, Rowley, undersized weaklings amid boys who need to shave twice daily, hope just to survive, but when Rowley grows more popular, Greg must take drastic measures to save their friendship.

Lawrence, Iain. The convicts

     His efforts to avenge his father's unjust imprisonment force thirteen-year-old Tom Tin into the streets of nineteenth-century London, but after he is convicted of murder, Tom is eventually sent to Australia where he has a surprise reunion.

McCaughrean, Geraldine. Peter Pan in Scarlet

     In August 2004 the Special Trustees of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, who hold the copyright in Peter Pan, launched a worldwide search for a writer to create a sequel to J. M. Barrie's timeless masterpiece. Renowned and multi award-winning English author Geraldine McCaughrean won the honor to write this official sequel, Peter Pan in Scarlet .

McKinley, Robin. Dragonhaven.

     When Jake Mendoza, who lives in the Smokehill National Park where his father runs the Makepeace Institute of Integrated Dragon Studies, goes on his first solo overnight in the park, he finds an infant dragon whose mother has been killed by a poacher.

Nimmo, Jenny. Charlie Bone and the beast

     When Asa Pike, a Bloor's Academy student with the ability to change into a beast at dusk, goes missing, twelve-year-old Charlie Bone suspects a new classmate, the magically gifted Dagobert Endless, of foul play.

______. Griffin's castle

     After years of having moved around, eleven-year-old Dinah determines to make a huge, dilapidated old mansion into a home for her mother and herself, but the wild beasts she summons from a stone wall to protect her may also imprison her.

Prevost, Guillaume. The Book of Time .

     Sam Faulkner travels back in time to medieval Ireland, ancient Egypt and Renaissance Bruges in search of his missing father.

Zusak, Markus. The Book thief.

     Set during World War II in Germany, is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist--books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau. This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

Non-Fiction

The Barefoot book of classic poems, compiled and illustrated by Jackie Morris

Bruchac, Joseph. How chipmunk got his stripes: a tale of bragging and teasing

______. Raccoon's last race: a traditional Abenaki story

______. Turtle's race with beaver: a traditional Seneca story

______. The First strawberries: a Cheroee story

Burns, Loree Griffin. Tracking trash: flotsam, jetsam, and the science of ocean motion

Carson, Rachel. The sense of wonder

David, Laurie and Cambria Gordon. The down-to-earth guide to global warming

Freedman. Russell. Who was first?: discovering the Americas

Gore, Albert. An inconvenient truth: the crisis of global warming

Guinness World Records 2008

Hampton, Wilborn. War in the Middle East: a reporter's story

Johnson, Rebecca L. A walk in the Tundra

Krull, Kathleen. Marie Curie: Giants of Science

Kuklinski, Kathleen. Rachel Carson: pioneer of ecology

Rumford, James. Beowulf, a hero's tale retold

Schulz, Charles M. The world accoring to Lucy.

______. It's great to be a superstar (Peanuts classic)

______. It was a dark and stormy night, Snoopy

______. It's a dog's life, Snoopy

Sullivan, George. Lewis and Clark (in their own words)

Watterson, Bill. There's treaure everywhere: a Calvin and Hobbes collection.

Worth, Valerie.  Animal poems

Faculty/Parent Collection

Beane, Allan. The bully free classroom

     Over 100 tips and strategies for teachers K-8

Levine, Mel.  The myth of laziness

     America's top learning expert shows how kids -- and parents -- can become more productive.

Palmer, Parker J. The courage to teach: exploring the inner landscape of a teacher's life.

Wood, Chip.  Yardsticks: children in the classroom, ages 4-14; a resource for parents and teachers

Zimmerman, Jean.   Raising our athletic daughters

     How sports can build self-esteem and save girls' lives.