This list of available titles is arranged in alphabetical order and provides the title, listening level and brief description of the story. Check for these titles at your local library.
| THE GIANT RAT OF SUMATRA, OR PIRATES GALORE! |
By Sid Fleischman
Listening Level: Gr. 3+
|
Edmund Amos Peters, known as Shipwreck, is a cabin boy on a Captain Gallow's pirate ship, and finds himself in San Diego in 1846 as war breaks out between the United States and Mexico. This story is humorous and a great adventure! Third in a trilogy that includes By the Great Horn Spoon and Bandit's Moon. (J)
|
| THE GIVER |
By Lois Lowry
Listening Level: Gr. 5+
|
In a future utopian society where there are no ordinary things like the sun, snow, colors, love, war or death, and where all controversy, pain, and choice have been eliminated, a boy named Jonas awaits the "Ceremony of Twelve" where he will be given his adult "Assignment." He is named "Receiver" and is to replace the Elder ("The Giver"), who transmits to him the community's memories. What is revealed to him is the terrible truth about the society in which he lives. (J)
|
| HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE |
By J. K. Rowling
Listening level: Gr. 5+
|
Rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves his worth while attending Hogwarts School for Wizards and Witches. (J)
|
| HATCHET |
By Gary Paulsen
Listening level: Gr. 4-8
|
After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the wilderness, learning to survive initially with only the aid of a hatchet given to him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents' divorce. (J)
|
| HECKEDY PEG |
By Audrey Wood
Listening level: Gr. K-4
|
A mother saves her seven children from Heckedy Peg, a witch who has changed them into different kinds of food. (EB)
|
| HOLES |
By Louis Sachar
Listening level: Gr. 4-8
|
A miscarriage of justice sends Stanley Yelnats to a boys' juvenile detention center in the Texas desert. While digging holes, five feet deep and five feet across, Stanley finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself. (J)
|
| HOOT |
By Carl Hiaasen
Listening level: Gr. 4+
|
Roy Eberhardt, who has recently moved to Florida from Montana, befriends a homeless boy, Mullet Fingers, and his cause; saving the burrowing owl's habitat from a proposed construction site for Mother Paula's All-American Pancake. A mystery, this story is filled with quirky characters and comic twists. (J)
|
| THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS |
By John Bellairs
Listening level: Gr. 4-6
|
Lewis must find the clock within his magician uncle's mansion walls before it destroys the world! The story combines the excitement, magic and suspense so craved by middle-grade listeners. (J)
|
| HOW TO EAT FRIED WORMS |
By Thomas Rockwell
Listening level: Gr. 3-5
|
Billy takes on a bet to eat a worm a day for 15 days to win $50. His family and friends help him outwit Alan and Joe in this humorous story. (J)
|
| IDA B…AND HER PLANS TO MAXIMIZE FUN, AVOID DISASTER AND (POSSIBLY) SAVE THE WORLD |
By Katherine Hannigan
Listening level: Gr. 3-5
|
In Wisconsin, fourth-grader Ida B spends happy hours being home-schooled and playing in her family's apple orchard, until her mother begins treatment for breast cancer and her parents must sell part of the orchard and send her to public school. With the help of a wise and caring fourth-grade teacher and the enduring love of Mama and Daddy, the girl slowly begins to heal. (J)
|
| THE INDIAN IN THE CUPBOARD |
By Lynne Reid Banks
Listening level: Gr. 3-5
|
Nine-year-old Omri learns that mere size does not give a person the right to manipulate people. A lively fantasy adventure. (J)
|
| ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS |
By Scott O'Dell
Listening level: Gr. 4-7
|
Young Karana, left alone by her tribe, spends eighteen years on an island off the coast of California. A survival story that is already popular as a school reading aloud title. (J)
|
| JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH |
By Roald Dahl
Listening level: Gr. 2-6
|
James and his six insect companions fly across the Atlantic in an enormous magical peach. Here is a story meant for reading aloud to enjoy the verse and fantasy elements to the fullest. (J)
|
| JOEY PIGZA SWALLOWED THE KEY |
By Jack Gantos
Listening Level: Gr. 1+
|
To the frustration of his mother and teachers, Joey has trouble paying attention and controlling his mood swings. When his prescription "meds" wear off, he starts getting worked up, acting wired, and causes an unfortunate accident. (J)
|
| JULIE OF THE WOLVES |
By Jean George
Listening level: Gr. 6-8
|
Lost in the Alaskan wilderness, an Eskimo girl is saved by a band of wolves and travels with them until tragedy strikes. In this taut story of survival and submission to change, Julie's need to make her own way parallels the changing Eskimo lifestyle. (J)
|
| THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE |
By C.S. Lewis
Listening level: Gr. 3-7
|
Four English children discover an ancient wardrobe that is the entrance to Narnia, a bewitched land peopled with animals hoping to help. This is a Christian allegory enjoyed by children of all faiths. (J)
|
| THE LITTLE GENTLEMAN |
By Philippa Pearce
Listening level: Gr. 3+
|
When Bet is first asked to go into the meadow and read a passage aloud from a book, apparently to no-one, she wonders why. But then she realizes that her audience is a little mole who listens attentively. But this isn't just any mole; this mole can speak. He is more than 300 years old and has an amazing tale to tell. (J)
|
| LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS |
By Laura Ingalls Wilder
Listening level: Gr. 2-4
|
Recounts everyday life and happenings of Laura's childhood in a pioneering family that moved often as it struggled to survive. Experiences of delight, terror, and jealousy are the same for children today, although the setting differs. (J)
|
| LOCOMOTION |
By Jacqueline Woodson
Listening level: Gr.2+
|
Lonnie is eleven, and he misses his family terribly. His parents perished in a fire and his little sister, Lili, was put into a different foster home. Lonnie hasn't given up, his teacher, Ms. Marcus, is showing him ways to put his jumbled feelings on paper. Through Lonnie's poetry we learn of his heartbreak, his thoughtful perspective on the world around him, his love Lili and his determination to reunite his family. (J811.54)
|
| MARCO'S MILLIONS |
By William Sleator
Listening Level: Gr. 4+
|
Twelve-year-old Marco's love for travel and for his younger sister Lilly, who has psychic powers, leads to the discovery in their basement of a world of bizarre, sightless creatures. They believe that Marco and Lilly can help them save their planet from being destroyed by retrieving a box that has been stolen by a powerful force. The prequel to THE BOXES. (J)
|
| MIRACULOUS JOURNEY OF EDWARD TULANE |
By Kate DiCamillo
Listening level: Gr. 2-5
|
Edward Tulane, a cold-hearted and proud toy rabbit, loves only himself until he is separated from the little girl who adores him and travels across the country, acquiring new owners and listening to their hopes, dreams, and histories. (J)
|
| MISSISSIPPI BRIDGE |
By Mildred Taylor
Listening level: Gr. 4+
|
During a heavy rainstorm in 1930s rural Mississippi, a ten-year-old white boy sees a bus driver order all the black passengers off a crowded bus to make room for late-arriving white passengers and then set off across the raging Rosa Lee River. (J)
|
| MOLLY'S PILGRIM |
By Barbara Cohen
Listening level: Gr. 2+
|
When Molly shows the unusual pilgrim doll made by her Russian mother, she and her classmates hear about Sukkoth and the Jews leaving Russia to seek religious freedom. A touching multicultural story for Thanksgiving. (J)
|
| NO MORE DEAD DOGS |
By Gordon Korman
Listening Level: Gr. 4+
|
Eighth-grade football hero Wallace Wallace, gives a thumbs down to a dog story much loved by his English teacher. He is sentenced to detention attending rehearsals of the school play which is a stage version of the book., but the teacher is unaware that Wallace has suggested changes to the play that wind up altering the whole story. (J)
|
| THE OLD COUNTRY |
By Mordicai Gerstein
Listening level: Gr. 4+
|
A Grandmother, Gisella, looks back to her childhood and tells her story of being tricked into exchanging her young body with that of a fox-she stares a moment too long into the eyes of a fox, and she and the fox exchange shapes. Her quest to get her girl-body back takes her on a journey across a war-ravaged country that has lost its shape. This story has elements of fantasy and magic and questions the nature of power and justice. (J)
|
| OLIVE'S OCEAN |
By Kevin Henkes
Listening level: Gr. 5+
|
On a summer visit to her grandmother's cottage by the ocean, twelve-year-old Martha gains perspective on the death of a classmate, on her relationship with her grandmother, on her feelings for an older boy, and on her plans to be a writer. (J)
|
| THE PEOPLE WHO COULD FLY |
By Virginia Hamilton
Listening level: Gr. K+
|
A dynamic retelling of Afro-American folktales--animal stories, fantasy, the supernatural, and the desire for freedom. Born from the sorrow of slaves, the tales have been passed on in hope for the future. Southern dialect enlivens the telling. (J398.2)
|
| PINK AND SAY |
By Patricia Polacco
Listening level: Gr. 3+
|
Say Curtis describes his meeting with Pinkus Aylee, a Black soldier, during the Civil War, and their capture by Southern troops. (J)
|
| PRINCESS ACADEMY |
By Shannon Hale
Listening level: Gr. 3-8
|
Fourteen year old Miri lives with her family on Mount Eskel, in a village where her ancestors have quarried stone and lived a simple life. Word comes that the king's ministers have divined the small village as the home of the future princess. In preparation, the ministers set up the Princess Academy; every teenage girl must attend and learn how to become a princess. When bandits seek to kidnap the future princess, Miri must rally the girls together and use a power unique to the mountain dwellers to save herself and her classmates. (J)
|
