Books for Middle School Readers

Just Right in the Middle
Julie Witt
Great Books for Middle School
Readers
Just Right
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Introduction and general ideas
www.cooper.ccsd21.org
Backpack express-outside reading
Read-Write-Think
Handouts
How the Books Were Chosen
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Reviews
I read and liked
Length
Variety
Popularity/recent copyright
A note about lexile
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(Novelist-MetaMetrics)
Semantic difficulty/complex-not
content
Immigration- Past and Present
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Drita , my Homegirl by Jenny Lombard
Any Small Goodness by Toni Johnston
La Linea by Ann Jaramillo
Crossing the Wire by Will Hobbs
Water Street by Patricia Reilly Giff
The Dragon’s Child by Laurence Yep
Uprising and Bread and Roses
Drita, My Homegirl
by Jenny Lombard
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2006-690L-4th-p135
Kosovo
Adaptation
Friendship
Alternating first
person narratives
Any Small Goodness
by Toni Johnston
2001-p128-600L-3rd
ELL choice
La Linea by Ann Jaramillo
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2006-p.144-650L4th
Mexican
immigration
Survival
Popular
Crossing the Wire by Will Hobbs
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2006-670L-4thp216
Mexican
immigration
Survival
Water Street by Patricia Reilly Giff
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2006-p170-740L4th
First generation
Americans
Discrimination
Dangerous jobs
The Dragon’s Child
by Laurence Yep
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2008- no lexile
available-grade 3-6133p
Question /answer
beginning
Based on family story
Chinses immigration
and discrimination
Uprising (2007)
Bread and Roses (2006)
Great Resources
Immigration:Past and
Present
Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/l
earn/features/immig/i
ntroduction.html
 Interviews,reource,
documents
 Hungry Planet and
Material World kits
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Boys
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Battle of Jericho by Sharon Draper
Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World by
E.L. Konigsburg
Peak by Roland Smith
Alabama Moon by Watt Key
Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen
Battle of Jericho
by Sharon Draper
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2003-p304-7004th
Peer pressure
Values
Hazing
Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World
by E.L. Konigsburg
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2007-p.240-no
lexile-older kids
Friendship
Nazi “art”
Heroic acts
Peak by Roland Smith
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2007-p256-grade 6
and up-no lexile
Mountain climbing
Father son
relationships
Finding out who you
are
Survival
China/Tibet relations
Alabama Moon by Watt Key
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2006-p294-760L5th
Caudill nominee
Orphan
Survivalist
Friendship and
family
Paired with
Hatchet or Spirit
Bear
Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen
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2007-96p-780L5th
Quick read aloud
Funny
Economics
Go Big or Go Home
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2008-185p-700L4th-Will Hobbs
site- lessons
Space/meteors
Martian microbes?
Adventure
Reluctant readers
Activities
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Obstacles/challenges (active
reflections)
Changes –static vs active
characters
Holocaust/Nazi Germany
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The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas by John Boyne
The Entertainer and the Dybbuk by Sid Fleishman
Emil and Karl by Yanek Glatshteyn
The Boy who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas
by John Boyne
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Teen-7th to adult
2006-284p-1080L8th
Point of
view/perspective
Gifted thinking
The Entertainer and the Dybbuk by
Sid Fleishman
2007-180p.-610L-3rd
 Post war Europe
 Ventriloquist
 Dybbuk-Jewish ghost
 Anti-Semitism
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Emil and Karl by Yankev Glatshteyn
translated by Jeffry Shandler
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2006/1940
208p-720L-4th
Friendship
Nazi power
Anti-Semitism
The Boy who Dared by Susan
Campbell Bartoletti
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2008-760L-5th202p
Fictionalized
biography
Nazi Germany
Anti-Semitism
Natural disaster/survival
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Life As We Knew It by Susan Pfeffer
The Dead and the Gone by Susan Pfeffer
Memory boy by Will Weaver
Night of the Howling Dogs by Graham Salisbury
Life As We Knew It /
The Dead and the Gone
by Susan Pfeffer
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2006-352p.-770L4th
2008-320p.-no
lexile listed
Survival on a
global scale
Life-Caudill list
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Memory Boy by Will Weaver
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2001-152p.-570L3rd
Volcanic eruptions
Survival
Past Caudill
nominee
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Night of the Howling Dogs by Graham
Salisbury
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2007-208p.-530L3rd
Friends/enemies
Survival skills
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Activities/Resources
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Supervolcano and If we had no
Moon videos
Survival activities mentioned with
boys
Current events/historical events
Myths or Ancient greece
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Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Nobody’s princess and Nobody’s Prize by Esther
Friesner
Dussie by Nancy Springer
Oh, my Gods by Tera Lynn Childs
Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
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2006-384p.-740L4th
Modern gods tale
Adventure
Friendship
Caudill nominee
Kid favorite..series
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Nobody’s princess and Nobody’s Prize by Esther
Friesner
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2007-320p-910L5th
More mature
Helen of Troy
Adventure
Historical fiction
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Dussie by Nancy Springer
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2007-166p-750L4th
Monsters/Gorgons
Finding yourself
A good story and
an easier read
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Oh.My.Gods.
by Tera Lynn Childs
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2008-264p-750L4th
Greek Island
New Dad
New school
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Trade Unions and Child Labor
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Bread and Roses Too by Katherine Patterson
Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Factory Girl by Barbara Greenwood
Counting on Grace by Elizabeth Winthrop
Bread and Roses too
by Katherine Paterson
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2006-288p- 810L5th
Italian immigration
Bread and Roses
Strike of 1912
Textile work
Uprising by
Margaret Peterson Haddix
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2007- 346 p790L-5th
Immigration
Women’s rights
Labor union
formation
Strikes
Triangle Shirtwaist
Fire
Factory Girl
by Barbara Greenwood
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2007-136p-850L4th
Child Labor
Social activism
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Counting on Grace
by Elizabeth Winthrop
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2006-144p.-760L5th
Vermont textile
mill
Child labor
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Lewis Hines
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QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Bullies
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The Truth about Truman School by Dori Hillestad Butler
Schooled by Gordon Korman
Not my Fault by Leif Kristiansson
Poison Ivy by Amy Goldman Koss
The Truth about Truman School by Dori Hillestad Butler
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2008-170p.-no
lexile available
Cyberbullying
Middle school
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Schooled by Gordon Korman
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2007-224p.-740L4th
Funny…but serious
at times
Various points of
view
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Poison Ivy by Amy Goldman Koss
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2006-176p.-840L4th
Grade 7-8
Government class
Not a happy
ending
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Not My Fault by Leif Kristiansson
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2006-no lexileeasy read, but
serious topic
Multiple viewpoints
around one event
Though provoking
question at end of
story
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Civil Rights
 Yankee
Girl by Mary Ann
Rodman
 A Friendship for Today by
Patricia McKissak
 Fire From the Rock by
Sharon Draper
A Friendship for Today
by Patricia McKissak
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2007-240p.670L-3rd
Desegregation
Great characters
Easier read
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Yankee Girl by Mary Ann
Rodman
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2004-219p.550L-3rd
Integration
Civil Rights
Voting
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Fire From the Rock
by Sharon Draper
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2007-176p.-830L4th
Integration of
Little Rock High
Racism
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
War- conflict and perspective
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Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo
War Horse by Michael
Letters from Wolfie by Patti Sherlock
Sunrise over Fallujah by Walter Dean
Shooting the Moon by Francis
O’Roark Dowell
Shooting the Moon by Francis O’Roark Dowell
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2008-p176- 890Lolder kids
Vietnam
Photography
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Letters from Wolfie
by Patti Sherlock
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2004-760L-5thp.240
A Caudill nominee
Vietnam
Scout dogs
Patriotism
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Sunrise over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers
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2008-older kids780L-4th- 2008p.304
Operation Iraqi
Freedom
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Private Peaceful
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
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2004-860L-6thp.208
World War I
England
2007-1090L-8thp.176
World War I
Horse
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Wrap-up
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Tic-Tac Toe
Email- jwitt@ccsd21.org
Thanks!
Bibliotherapy for troubled and mature
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Get well Soon by Julie Halpern (2007-850L-6th-teensp193)-m(depression)
Jumping the Scratch by Sara Weeks (2006-p167-920L6th)(molestation)
Cut by Patricia McCormick (2000-p136-660L-4th)-m
(cutting)
Just Listen by Sarah Dessen (2007-810L-5th-teensp.384)(rape)
Hope and Healing for Those Who Cut(non-fiction 2008)
Three Little Words (foster care memoir)by Ashley
Rhodes-Courter
Dear Author..