Holes by Louis Sachar; Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day, digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep.
Circle of Gold by Candy Dawson Boyd; When Mattie’s father was alive, everything seemed perfect. But her world changed when he died.
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli; He wasn’t born with the name Maniac Magee. He came into this world named Jeffrey Lionel Magee,but when his parents died and his life changed, so did his name.
Forged by Fire by Susan Draper; When his loving aunt dies, Gerald suddenly is thrust into a new home filled with anger and abuse. A brutal stepfather with a flaming temper and an evil secret makes Gerald miserable, and the only light in his grim life is Angel, his young stepsister. Gerald and Angel grow close as he strives to protect her from Jordan, his abusive stepfather, and from their substance-addicted mother. But Gerald learns, painfully, that his past can’t be extinguished, and that he must be strong enough to face Jordan in a final confrontation, once and for all.
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper; On his 11th birthday, Will Stanton discovers that he is the last of the Old Ones, destined to seek the six magical Signs that will enable the Old Ones to triumph over the evil forces of the Dark.
Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper; Three children on vacation in Cornwall find an ancient manuscript which sends them on a dangerous quest that entraps them in a battle between the forces of the Light and Dark.
Watson's Go To Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis; The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watson’s, an African-American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
Brown Angels by Walter Dean Myers A collection of poems, accompanied by photographs, about African – American children living around the turn of the century.
The Hobbit by Tolkien Bilbo Baggins, a respectable well –to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return.
Sister of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares; Four best girlfriends spend the biggest summer of their lives enchanted by a magical pair of pants.
Hoot by Carl Hiassen; Roy is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy’s attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.
Eragon by Christopher Paolini In Aagaesia, a fifteen-year-old boy of unknown lineage called Eragon finds a mysterious stone that weaves his life into an intricate tapestry of destiny, magic, and power.
Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen Twelve-year-old Sarny’s brutal life as a slave becomes even more dangerous when a newly arrived slave offers to teach her how to read.
Loch by Paul Zindel; Loch and his younger sister join their father on a scientific expedition searching for enormous prehistoric creatures sighted in a Vermont lake, but it soon becomes obvious that the expedition’s leaders aren’t interested in preserving the creatures.
The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton; Retold African American folktales of animals, fantasy, the supernatural, and desire for freedom, born of the sorrow of slaves, but passed on in hope.