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"I Have
This LEXILE List but I Sure Don't Feel Like Reading Homer In My Spare
Time"
Mystery/Adventure/Suspense
| Baird, Thomas. |
Walk Out a Brother. |
A backpacking trip through
Yellowstone Park turns into a flight from a murderer. |
| Bunting, Eve. |
Jumping the Nail. |
A craze for jumping off a 90 foot
cliff into the ocean leads inevitably to tragedy for a group of
California high schoolers. |
| Hahn, Mary Downing. |
The Dead Man in Indian Creek. |
Two boys discover a dead body. |
| Holman, Felice. |
Slake's Limbo. |
A boy lives a harrowing life
underground in the New York subway. |
| Mazer, Harry. |
Snowbound. |
Two teenagers must cooperate to save
their own lives. |
| Paulsen, Gary. |
Hatchet. |
Brian survives a plane crash in the
Alaska wilderness alone: a great book. Also many more great books by the
same author. |
Science
Fiction/Fantasy
| Dickinson, Peter. |
A Bone from a Dry
Sea. |
The daughter of an
archeologist discovers a fragment. Did humans evolve from apes that
lived in the sea? |
| Dickinson, Peter. |
Eva. |
Amazing medical
techniques save a girl from death by transplanting her brain into a
young female chimpanzee. |
| Gardner, John. |
Grendel. |
The Beowulf story from
the point of view of the monster. |
| Hesse, Karen. |
The Music of
Dolphins. |
A human child is lost at
sea and has been raised by dolphins. |
| Jones, Diane Wynne. |
Dogsbody. |
Sirius the Dog Star
comes to earth reborn as a real dog and fights against the Dark Powers.
Sounds dumb, but is a good story. |
| Voigt, Cynthia. |
Jackaroo. |
Is this legendary
character real? Hard times revive old stories about this Robin Hood-like
character. |
| Westall, Robert. |
Urn Burial. |
Ralph discovers the
burial site of a creature from another world. |
Real Life
| Childress, Alice. |
A Hero Ain't
Nothing But a Sandwich. |
Benjie is well on his
way to being a drug addict. His stepfather tries to help him. |
| Choi, Sook Nyul. |
The Year of
Impossible Good-byes. |
One of the best books I
have ever read: a picture of the Korean war through the eyes of a young
girl. |
| Cooney, Caroline. |
Driver's Ed. |
New drivers steal a stop
sign and cause a tragedy. |
| Cooney, Caroline. |
The Party's Over. |
When high school is
over, a small town prom queen/cheerleader is at a loss to find what life
holds for her. |
| Myers, Walter Dean. |
Fallen Angels. |
A powerful,
heart-wrenching story of the Vietnam war from the point of view of an
ordinary soldier: one of the best books I have ever read. |
| Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. |
The Year of the
Gopher. |
You saw the movie, now
read the book. A high school graduate disappoints his parents by not
going to college. He takes a job as a bicycle messenger and figures
everything out. |
| Peck, Richard. |
Princess Ashley. |
Chelsea is thrilled to
be picked to be rich beautiful Ashley's friend: but is it such a
wonderful honor? |
| Peck, Robert Newton. |
Arly. |
A migrant worker escapes
his life with the help of a schoolteacher. |
| Rawlings, Marjorie. |
The Yearling. |
This classic is still
good. A boy living in the Florida wilderness is forced to decide the
fate of a fawn he has raised as a pet. |
| Sleator, William. |
Oddballs. |
Short stories about the
hilarious family of famous author. |
| Staples, Suzanne. |
Shabanu, Daughter of
the Wind. |
One of my favorite
books. The sequel is not as good. 11 year old Pakistani girl is pledged
to marry a much older man. She must decide whether to accept the
decision or face the consequences. |
| Tate, Eleanora. |
A Blessing in
Disguise. |
12 year old Zambia
thinks life wit her aunt and uncle in Deacon's Neck, North Carolina is
mighty dull and dreams of living with her glamorous father. |
| Taylor, Theodore. |
The Weirdo. |
17 year old Chip fights
to save the black bear in a national forest in North Carolina. |
Books for Sports
Fanatics
| Crutcher, Chris. |
All of his books are great. |
Athletic Shorts.
Running Loose.
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes.
Stotan! |
| Lipsyte, Robert. |
All of his books are good. |
The Brave.
The Chief.
The Contender.
One Fat Summer.
The Summerboy. |
Opinions by Hannah Owen,
Youth Services Librarian
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