Along Came Spider

1. Along Came Spider • James Preller • Reading Level: 6.1 • Fifth-grader Spider Stevens--nicknamed for his climbing ability--wrestles with his loyalty to his best friend versus friendship with the popular crowd.

2. Alvin Ho: Allergic to girls, schools, and other scary things • Lenore Look • Reading Level: 3.8 • A young boy in Concord, Massachusetts, who loves superheroes and comes from a long line of brave Chinese farmer-warriors, wants to make friends, but first he must overcome his fear of everything.

3. Brendan Buckley’s Universe • Sundee T. Frazier • Reading Level: 4.0 • Brendan Buckley, a biracial ten-year-old, applies his scientific problem-solving ability to connect with his white grandfather, the president of Puyallup Rock Club, and to learn why he and Brendan's mother don’t talk.

4. Boys of Steel:The creators of Superman • Marc Tyler Nobleman • Reading Level: 5.0 • Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, two misfit teens in Cleveland, were more like Clark Kent than Superman. In 1934, they created Superman, but it was four years before they convinced a publisher to take a chance on their Man of Steel.

5. Dexter the Tough • Margaret Peterson Haddix • Reading Level: 4.2 • Dexter is the new kid in school. As if that wasn’t hard enough, he went and punched someone on his first day in his new school.

6. Eleven • Patricia Reilly Giff • Reading Level: 4.1 • When Sam discovers an old newspaper clipping just before his eleventh birthday, it brings forth memories from his past. Hopefully, with the help of a new friend at school and the castle they are building for a school project, his questions will be answered.

7. Knucklehead • Jon Scieszka • Reading Level: 4.6 • How did Jon Scieszka get so funny? He grew up as one of six brothers with Catholic school, lots of comic books, lazy summers at the lake with time to kill, babysitting misadventures, TV shows, and jokes told at family dinner.

8. The Leaning Dog • K.A. Nuzum • Reading Level: 3.1 • In wintry Colorado during the 1930s, eleven-year-old Dessa Dean mourns the death of her beloved mother. The arrival of an injured dog and the friendship they form is just what they need to change their lives forever.

9. The Magic Half • Annie Barrows • Reading Level: 4.2 • Eleven-year-old Miri Gill feels left out in her family, which has two sets of twins and her, until she travels back in time to 1935 and discovers Molly. Molly is her own lost twin, and Miri brings her back to the present day.

10. Pale Male: Citizen Hawk of NYC • Janet Schulman • Reading Level 5.8 • When Pale Male first decided to nest in Central Park, he nearly didn't last. He and his new mate built their nest atop one of the exclusive high-rise apartment buildings uptown. A battle between the residents and the many fans of the hawks ensued.

11. Puppy Power • Judy Cox • Reading Level: 3.0 • Boisterous Fran has trouble controlling herself, but learning how to train her gigantic Newfoundland puppy helps her gain enough self-control to win the part of princess in the class play. • Includes instructions on puppy training.

12. Rickshaw Girl • Mitali Perkins • Reading Level: 4.6 • In her Bangladesh village, ten-year-old Naimi excels at painting designs called alpanas. But in order to help her impoverished family she would have to be a boy--or disguise herself as one--in order to make any money.

14. Savvy • Ingrid Law • Reading Level: 6.5 • Recounts the adventures of Mibs Beaumont, whose thirteenth birthday has revealed her "savvy"--a magical power unique to each member of her family--just as her father is injured in a terrible accident.

15. The Seer of Shadows • Avi • Reading Level: 6.1 • In New York City in 1872, fourteen-year-old Horace, a photographer's apprentice, becomes entangled in a plot to create fraudulent spirit photographs. But when Horace accidentally frees a real ghost bent on revenge, his life takes a frightening turn.

16. Shooting the Moon • Frances O’Roark Dowell • Reading Level: 5.5 • When her brother is sent to fight in Vietnam, twelve-year-old Jamie begins to reconsider the army world that she has grown up in.

17. Someone Named Eva • Joan M. Wolf • Reading Level: 5.1 • In 1942, eleven-year-old Milada is taken from her home in Czechoslovakia with other blond, blue-eyed children to a school in Poland to be trained as "proper Germans" for adoption by German families. Will she be able to remember her true name and history?

18. The Stonekeeper: Amulet Book 1 • Kazu Kibuishi • Reading Level: 3.0 • After the tragic death of their father, Emily and Navin move with their mother to the home of her deceased great-grandfather, but the strange house proves to be dangerous. A sinister creature kidnaps their mom. Desperate not to lose her, they follow her into an underground world inhabited by demons, robots, and talking animals.

19. Squirrel World • Johanna Hurwitz • Reading Level: 2.7 • Lexi and Lenox decide to visit the New York City streets they were named after. When the two squirrels venture into the city, they soon realize that the human world is stranger and more dangerous than they'd ever imagined.

20. Tap Dancing on the Roof • Linda Sue Park • Reading Level: 3.7 • Presents twenty-six sijo, traditional Korean syllabic poems, on “inside” and “outside” themes.

21. Swindle • Gordon Korman • Reading Level: 5.9 • After unscrupulous collector S. Wendell Palamino cons him out of a valuable baseball card, Griffin Bing puts together a band of misfits to break into Palomino’s heavily guard store and steal the card back.