The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Author: John Boyne

Publisher: David Fickling Books

Publish Date (Reprint): October 23, 2007

Summary: Bruno and his family moved to a new home in a new town, far away from his friends.  Bruno is very bored in his new home and begins wandering around the home.  He stumbles onto a concentration camp where he meets a boy in striped pajamas.  A friendship begins to blossom as the two compare lives and realize they are very different from each other.

AR Book Points: 7

Source: www.arbookfind.com

Age Range: 9th grade and up

Quality: This book is very tragic and might be hard for some students to understand. If used properly the book can introduce the atrocities of WWII and concentration camps.   

Life Connections

• Death
• Understanding history - WWII, concentration camps
• Friends in unlikely places

If I Stay by Gayle Foreman

Author: Gayle Foreman

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile

Publish Date (Reprint): September 17, 2007

Summary: The book is narrated by a 17 year old girl who is involved in a tragic accident involving her mother, father and her younger brother. She sees herself, after the accident, lying in a pool of blood, and then follows her body and her family members around a hospital she was life-flighted to. Throughout a 24 hour period, Mia remembers her first kiss, when her younger brother was born, when her dad returned to grad school and a myriad of other memories leading up to the accident. During this time period, Mia has to make one of the hardest decisions she ever has had to make, whether to return to her body on Earth, or die. Family members come and go throughout the whole book to visit the ICU where her body is struggling to survive, and she hears their deep pleadings with her to stay.

AR Book Points: 19

Awards: Alex Award/Honor

Source: www.arbookfind.com

Age Range: 9th grade and up

Quality: Excellent source for understanding death.  This book is non-religious with no mention of any higher being, but addresses death as a part of life. 

Life Connections

• Death
• Making educated choices
• Family
• Memories vital to remembering loved ones.

Cinnamon Girl: Letters Found Inside of a Cereal Box

 

Author: Juan Felipe Herrera

Publisher: Joanna Cooler Books

Publish Date: August 9, 2005

 

Summary: Written in free verse, this story describes how young Yolanda deals with the tragedy of September 11. She keeps poems and letters she finds in and around Ground Zero in a cereal box.  She collects dust around New York City with the intent of returning it to Ground Zero, hoping to silence the ghosts and bring her uncle back to life. 

Award: Americas Award Book

Source: www.arbookfind.com

AR Book Points: 2

Age Range:  13 and up

Life Connections

• Understanding Hispanic (Puerto Rican) culture
• Understanding events in history
• How to deal with tragedy and death

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

Author: Linda Sue Park

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Publish Date: April 23, 2001

Summary: Tree-Ear wants to learn to perform miracles.  He sees Min, the master potter, shape clay into beautiful things and he wants to learn the craft.  Because Tree-Ear is an orphan, he worries that Min will not take the time to teach him the art of pottery.  He offers to work for Min, free of charge, to prove his desire to learn.  Taking things one step at a time, Tree-Ear hopes that he can achieve his dream.

Source: My 11 year old sister's bedroom

Recommended grade: 6th-7th grade

AR Reading points: 6


Awards: Newbery Medal, Asian/Pacific American Award Winner, Booklist Editors' Choice, ALA Notable/Best Books, Young Reader's Choice Award
 Life Connections:

• Perseverance
• Sacrifice in order to achieve your dreams
• Having a dream is important
• Believing in yourself.

The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes

Author: Eleanor Estes

Illustrated by: Louis Slobodkin

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers

Publish Date: September 1, 2004

Summary: Wanda tells the girls in her class that she has one hundred beautiful dresses at home and yet she wears the same faded blue dress every day.  The girls don't believe her and tease her daily.  Her best friend begins to tease her too, but soon realizes it's not the nicest thing to do.  Unfortunately she realizes it too soon when Wanda doesn't show up for school one day. 

Source: My 11 year old sister's bedroom

Recommended grade: 5th grade

Awards: Newbery Honor

Quality: This book is well written for a younger crowd. While the main characters are female it could definitely apply to all children.  

Life Connections:

• Teasing does not make friends
• Life is short
• Creativity is important

Holes by Louis Sachar

Author: Louis Sachar

Publisher: Dell Yearling

Publish Date: May 9, 2000

Summary: Stanley Yelnats has been wrongly accused of stealing a pair of shoes belonging to a famous athlete. This accusation leads to his incarceration at Camp Green Lake—a camp for boys. During his stay he

learns that even the most unlikely of people can be great friends.  coupled with flashbacks of Stanley’s ancestors and a curse against his family, Stanley and his friend Zero overcome obstacles that lead to finding a huge reward for the both of them.

Source: 116B Spring 2014 Syllabus

Age range: 12 and up

Awards: Newbery Medal, National Book Award for Young People’s Literature,  and many more.

Quality: This book would appeal to pre-teen boys because of the word usage, the nicknames and the humor involved in the story.  The seriousness of the story can be understood by this age range as well.

Life Connections:

· Actions have consequences

· Not all people are trustworthy

· Even the unlikeliest of people can become really good friends

· Anyone can be courageous

· Things do work out in the end

Small Steps by Louis Sachar

Author: Louis Sachar

Publisher: Ember

Reprint Date: January 8, 2008

Summary: Following his stay at Camp Green Lake, Armpit is acclimating himself back into society.  He befriends a 10 year girl who is physically disabled.  He is conned into scalping tickets for a popular artist and through a series of events learns the value of friendship, honesty and that if you do the right thing good things will follow. 

Award/Source: Schneider Family Book Award for Teen Book (2007)

Age Range: 12 and up

Quality: The book is exceptionally well-written and includes a multicultural group of friends.  This appealed most to me because far too many books are only about one cultural group and the interaction within the group.  I believe this would appeal to children as well.

Life Connections

· Friends come in all shapes and sizes

· If you feel like it’s a bad idea, it probably is and you should remove yourself from the situation

· Bad choices can be rectified through hard work and determination.