Emotions-Personal Issues
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > group
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > group > relationships
Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > group > relationships > friendships
145th Street: Short Stories
Engaging short stories written in Myers' natural writing styles that contain serious side plots and portray some of the people who live on one block of 145th Street in Harlem. Characters are portrayed honestly and jump off the page to keep the reader enga
| Author: Myers, Walter Dean |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | language arts - writing
|
Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, The
When Junior (Arnold) Spirit chooses to go to school off his North Dakota reservation to attend an all white farm school, he encounters a few new friends and loses an old one as he navigates the worlds of whites and Native Americans.
| Author: Alexie, Sherman |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
All I See
Shy Charlie admires the painter Gregory's work from afar. The child and adult become friends, and Gregory teaches Charlie about painting, senses, imagination, and friendship.
Androcles and the Lion
This book retells the fable of Androcles, a runaway Roman slave, who befriends a wounded lion.
| Author: Nolan, Dennis |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Angels in the Dust
A poignant story of a family living in the Dust Bowl trying to make ends meet.
| Author: Raven, Margot Theis |
HSE Descriptors:
science | social studies
|
Armageddon Summer
Fourteen-year-old Marina and 16-year-old Jed accompany their parents' religious cult, the Believers, to the top of a mountain to await the end of the world. The book is narrated in three "voices"--Marina, Jed, and objective accounts such as the newspaper
| Author: Yolen, Jane & Coville, Bruce |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
At Gleason's Gym
The story of Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn NY, and the many people who use it. It includes a brief story of Sugar Boy Younan, National Silver Gloves Champion 2006. The words and pictures tap into the senses. The illustrations demonstrate the rhythm to the mus
| Author: Lewin, Ted |
HSE Descriptors:
literature and arts | social studies
|
Big Mouth and Ugly Girl
In this engrossing 266-page book, Matt, age 17, is falsely accused of trying to blow up his high school. His friends desert him, but a girl who calls herself "Ugly Girl" befriends him, and together they weather public opinion, the police, parents, teache
| Author: Oates, Joyce Carol |
|
Bird House, The
This is a modern-day fairy tale that features a homeless girl, an old woman, and birds with magical powers.
Black and White Airmen: Their True Story
The history of airmen in WWII is told through the experiences of two men from Cincinnati, one African American and one Caucasian. Information about race relations at the time is woven throughout the narrative.
| Author: Fleischman, John |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Bluish
This is a warm, easy to read story of three young girls and their developing friendship. Natalie, whom the children call Bluish, suffers from leukemia.
| Author: Hamilton, Virginia |
|
Butterfly, The
During the Nazi occupation of France, Monique discovers that her mother is a member of the Resistance, and that a secret trap door conceals a Jewish family in hiding. Monique and the secret "guest" become nighttime playmates until terror threatens.
| Author: Polacco, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Chance of Sunshine, A
The pictures tell most of the story in this almost-wordless book. Two people chance to meet, become separated, and eventually find their way back together.
Chicken Sunday
Two African-American boys and their white friend, a girl, try to earn enough money to buy Miss Eula Mae the Easter bonnet she's been longing for. The children befriend a Jewish shopkeeper who helps them succeed.
| Author: Polacco, Patricia |
|
Chuck Close Up Close
This biography of the contemporary artist Chuck Close captures his inventiveness in text and vivid color photographs. An index of illustrations, an essay on portraits, a bibliography, and a list of museums that display the artist's work provide informati
| Author: Greenberg, Jan & Jordan, Sandra |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Dear One, The
15-year-old, pregnant Rebecca arrives at her mother's college friend's house to await the birth of her baby. She and others in the house learn to embrace differences and develop friendships.
| Author: Woodson, Jacqueline |
|
Ellen Foster
11-year-old Ellen tells her own story in this "Oprah Book about a foster childhood." She is an amazingly resilient child and an amazingly perceptive observer of others.
Emily
This book tells the story of a young girl's encounter with the reclusive poet Emily Dickinson and of her friendship with the author. Although the picture book is a fictional account, Cooney's oil paintings and the afterword with biographical information
| Author: Bedard, Michael |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Faithful Friend, The
This is a retelling of the traditional tale from the French West Indies in which two friends, Clement and Hippolyte, encounter love, zombies, danger, and adventure on the island of Martinique.
| Author: San Souci, Robert |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Francie
This engaging novel shows a slice of life in small-town Alabama in the 1940s, as told from the perspective of 13-year-old Francie. Francie, her mother, and her brother anxiously await a chance to join her father in Chicago. In the meantime, Francie comes
Garden of Happiness, The
A young girl cares for a seed that she plants near a community garden in New York City.
Gowanus Dogs
A homeless man meets some homeless dogs. The meeting changes everyone's life.
Great Race, The
A grandmother helps her granddaughter arrange paper cutouts of the Chinese zodiac by telling her a story of how 12 animals race to reach the Jade City. The author includes an appendix with information about the Chinese zodiac.
Heart is Big Enough, The
Each of these five stories focuses on a protagonist with special challenges who is approaching adolescence. As author Steven Kellogg notes on the dust jacket, these stories "bring illumination and enjoyment to those of us who have already passed through"
Holes
This story-within-a-story tells of Stanley Yelnats (and his distant relatives, one of whom "cursed" the family), mistakenly sent to a juvenile corrections camp in Texas. At the corrections camp, Stanley finds a real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of
Home Lovely
Janelle and Tiffany move to a trailer, where Tiffany is alone after school while Janelle works. Tiffany finds some plants, makes a garden, and becomes friends with the mailman. (NOTE: Teachers may want to be aware that the child, clearly elementary-scho
| Author: Perkins, Lynne Rae |
|
I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This
A moving story of the friendship between two motherless 12-year-old girls--one black and one white--presents issues of racial prejudice, poverty, and child abuse.
| Author: Woodson, Jacqueline |
|
Invention of Hugo Cabret, The
Part fiction, part graphic novel, this winner of the 2008 Caldecott Medal tells the story of an orphaned boy who maintains and repairs clocks in a Paris train station and discovers the history of an automaton and its maker. When he meets a mysterious toy
| Author: Selznick, Brian |
HSE Descriptors:
science | social studies
|
Jip: His Story
Jip, a young orphan in the mid-1850s, lives on a farm, interacts with Put "the lunatic," and wonders about his past. Eventually he attends school and, with the help of Teacher (Lyddie from the Paterson book by the same name) and her Quaker friend, discov
| Author: Paterson, Katherine |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Josepha
A boy narrates the story of his friend and protector, the immigrant young man Josepha, who had to leave school to work.
| Author: McGugan, Jim |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Leonardo's Horse
Contemporary sculptors completed the horse that Leonardo da Vinci began but never finished.
| Author: Fritz, Jean |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Like Sisters on the Homefront
When 14-year-old Gayle gets into "trouble," she and her baby Jose leave New York City to live with family in rural Georgia. At first bored with and distressed about her situation, Gayle eventually makes friends with her cousin Cookie. Through "tellings" b
| Author: Williams-Garcia, Rita |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
This coming-of-age novel is a Newbery Honor Book. It tells the story of people in Maine in the early 1900s, a friendship between a minister's son and an island girl, and the ways greed and prejudice change all their lives.
Matchbox Diary, The
An Italian immigrant grandfather uses objects he's preserved in matchboxes to tell his granddaughter the story of his life. He created this unique diary because he could not read or write.
| Author: Fleischman, Paul |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Matilda Bone
Sometime in medieval Europe, a sombre-minded priest leaves a 14-year-old orphaned girl to be a bonesetter's apprentice. She reads and writes Latin but knows very little about the world and the people in it.
| Author: Cushman, Karen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Midnight Clear: Stories for the Christmas Season, A
Twelve modern-day stories focus on the "true meaning" of Christmas. Each addresses the tenacity of the human spirit; all are engaging stories.
| Author: Paterson, Katherine |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Missing May
A twelve-year-old girl named Summer and her uncle are dealing with the death of Aunt May (his wife). They decide, with the help of a strange boy from Summer's school, to try to contact May's spirit, and in the process learn how to let go.
My Life in Dog Years
Each chapter describes one of the amazing and unforgettable dogs Gary Paulsen has owned. As we read his dogs' stories, we also learn a great deal about the author.
Number the Stars
In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis. It is about the power of the Danish Resistance, heroes of a nation, the power of human decency over th
| Author: Lowry, Lois |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
One and Only Ivan, The
When Ivan, a gorilla who has lived for years in a down-and-out circus-themed mall, meets Ruby, a baby elephant that has been added to the mall,he decides that he must find them a better life. Although a work of fiction, this story comes from a true story
| Author: Applegate, Katherine |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | science
|
Picasso and the Girl With a Ponytail
The cubist artist Picasso met his model Sylvette when he was in his 70's. The book chronicles how they met and how she gained confidence to become an artist herself. The author includes a biography of Picasso and photographs of his paintings and sculptu
| Author: Anholt, Laurence |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Pink and Say
This long picture book tells the story of Pinkus Aylee, an African-American soldier in the Civil War, and of his mother, Moe Bay and of his friendship with a young White boy. A moving book that may be more appropriate for adults than for children, it cel
| Author: Polacco, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Puppies, Dogs, and Blue Northers
Paulsen shares his love of the Iditarod and especially of Cookie, his primary lead dog, and her pups. Descriptions of how the pups learn are alternately amazing, touching, and hilarious.
Saying It Out Loud
Mindy is a typical 16-year-old teenager when her mother develops a serious medical problem. This touching story alternates between Mindy's current feelings and actions and flashbacks to earlier memories to show her reaction to this terrible tragedy.
School for Pompey Walker, A
At the dedication of a school named for him, Pompey Walker tells how he and a white friend, Jeremiah, raised money to build a school for ex-slave children. With the help of his friend, Pompey allows himself to be sold over and over again, escaping each t
| Author: Rosen, Michael J. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Sir Gawain & the Green Knight
The author retells this famous tale of one of the knights of King Arthur's famous Roundtable, in which Gawain accepts a challenge of a giant green knight that leads to further trials at the end of one year. Vivid illustrations contribute to the sense of
| Author: Morpurgo, Michael |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Sold
Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a village in Nepal. Her stepfather sells her into sexual slavery and her life of prostitution begins in a large city in India. The book is written in short paragraphs, sentences, and phrases
| Author: McCormick, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Star of Fear, Star of Hope
As a young girl living in France during the Nazi occupation, Helen can't understand why her best friend Lydia must wear a yellow star. The friends part when Lydia leaves a birthday party to warn her family that the Nazis are rounding up Jews. The friend
| Author: Hoestlandt, Jo |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Time to Love, A
Beautifully illustrated and ably introduced by sons of the author, this book retells six Bible stories from different perspectives, all revealing aspects of love--father/son, friends, brothers, lovers, and daughters-in-law. Teachers can promote religious
| Author: Myers, Walter Dean |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
True Believer
This is not exactly a sequel to Make Lemonade, but the style is similar and many of the characters are the same-- LaVaughn, her mother, Jolly and her children [they have a minor role in this book]. LaVaughn is 15, lives in the inner city, and str
| Author: Wolff, Virginia Euwer |
|
Wake Up Our Souls
Well-written biographies and stunning reproductions of the work of approximately 30 African American artists introduce us to painters, photographers, and mixed-media artists born between 1830 and the present. The design makes the book beautiful and the e
| Author: Bolden, Tonya |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Yellow House, The
During a brief few months of their productive artistic years, the painters Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gaugin shared a yellow house in Arles, in southern France. The book is illustrated with their works of art and the illustrator's researched depiction of
| Author: Rubin, Susan |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
|
