Grades 3-5

Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2010
32 pages
Reading Level: 3.6
Artists, San Francisco

When Frida and her artist husband, Diego, moved from Mexico to SanFrancisco, Frida felt lost and alone in a foreign country. She spoke little English. While Diego spent his days and nights painting murals on the city's buildings, Frida started to explore the city on her own. She eventually grew to be an artist, as well, perhaps inspired by her love for her home country.

Scholastic Press, 2009
32 pages
Reading Level: 3.8

Liz's father just returned home from the war. She accompanies the father--a stranger--when he hunts crows on the farmland.

Random House, 2010
191 pages
Reading Level 4.1
Family, Key West, Great Depression, adventure

Eleven-year-old Turtle moves to Key West, FL, to live with relatives she has never met. Her spunky wit wins the hearts of the Key West residents, or Conchs, she has come to know. When her newly-married mother and step-father arrive in Key West to start life anew, Turtle is met with the reality of life's constant challenges.

Yearling, 2009
199 pages
Reading Level: 4.6

Horn Book starred (March, 2010)
Sixth grader Miranda's life is an ordinary round of family and school. But when she starts receiving anonymous notes that seem to foretell the future, it's clear that all is not as it seems. The story's revelations are startling and satisfying but quietly made. Their reverberations give plenty of impetus for readers to go back and catch what was missed.

Amistad, 2010
226 pages
Reading Level: 5.0

Uninvited, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters travel from Brooklyn, New York, to Oakland, California, to spend a month with Cecile, their mother who deserted them. A poet and printer, Cecile resents the visit the children's father forced upon her. Set during the Black Panthers' revolution, Cecile gets arrested, and yet another kind of revolution results.

Scholastic, 2007
341 pages
Reading Level 5.4
Slavery, North Buxton (Canada)

Elijah of Buxton is a heartwarming story of courage and honor set near the American border in Buxton, Canada, a free settlement of runaway slaves and an actual stop along the Underground Railroad. As he crosses the border into America, Elijah finds himself torn between his own safety and his burning desire to free the slaves. A most difficult decision lies before him.

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2010
216 pages
Reading Level: 5.7
Vietnam, Survival, Elephants

Peachtree, 2004
32 pages
Reading Level: 4.3
Grandmothers

Philomel Books, 1994
48 pages
Reading Level: 4.9
Civil War, Friendship