Gary Schmidt
Author
Series
Description
Two-time Newbery Medal winner Gary Schmidt talks about the frequently comic mishaps and adventures of a 12-year-old Long Island boy in the Vietnam era. Actor Khris Lewin performs an excerpt from the book. Co-presented with Bank Street Bookstore. Thalia Kids' Book Club events are lively talks between children's book authors and their fans (ages 9-12), plus one event for teens. Each event includes a creative writing project, a free-wheeling discussion...
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 5.9 - AR Pts: 12
Appears on list
Formats
Description
"During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classrooom, where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in."--T.p. verso.
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG+ - BL: 4.4 - AR Pts: 4
Formats
Description
"Jack, 12, tells the gripping story of Joseph, 14, who joins his family as a foster child. Damaged in prison, Joseph wants nothing more than to find his baby daughter, Jupiter, whom he has never seen. When Joseph has begun to believe he'll have a future, he is confronted by demons from his past that force a tragic sacrifice"--
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 5.9 - AR Pts: 10
Formats
Description
In 1911, Turner Buckminster hates his new home of Phippsburg, Maine, but things improve when he meets Lizzie Bright Griffin, a girl from a poor, nearby island community founded by former slaves that the town fathers--and Turner's--want to change into a tourist spot.
5) Okay for now
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 4.9 - AR Pts: 11
Formats
Description
As a fourteen-year-old who just moved to a new town, with no friends, an abusive father, and a louse for an older brother, Doug Swieteck has all the stats stacked against him until he finds an ally in Lil Spicer--a fiery young lady. Together, they find a safe haven in the local library, inspiration in learning about the plates of John James Audubon's birds, and a hilarious adventure on a Broadway stage.
7) Trouble
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG+ - BL: 5.7 - AR Pts: 12
Formats
Description
Fourteen-year-old Henry, wishing to honor his brother Franklin's dying wish, sets out to hike Maine's Mount Katahdin with his best friend and dog. But fate adds another companion--the Cambodian refugee accused of fatally injuring Franklin--and reveals troubles that predate the accident.
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG+ - BL: 5.5 - AR Pts: 9
Formats
Description
In a desperate attempt for survival, a peaceful civilization on a faraway planet besieged by a dark lord sends its most precious gift across the cosmos into the lunchbox of Tommy Pepper, sixth grader, of Plymouth, Massachusetts.
10) Just like that
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG+ - BL: 5.9 - AR Pts: 15
Formats
Description
With insight and a light touch, best-selling, Newbery Honor-winning author Gary D. Schmidt tells two poignant, linked stories: that of a grieving girl and a boy trying to escape his violent past. Following the death of her closest friend in summer 1968, Meryl Lee Kowalski goes off to St. Elene's Preparatory Academy for Girls, where she struggles to navigate the venerable boarding school's traditions and a social structure heavily weighted toward students...
11) Almost time
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: LG - BL: 2.7 - AR Pts: 1
Formats
Description
Ethan eagerly anticipates making maple syrup with his father, but it will not be time until the days are warmer, the nights shorter, and Ethan's loose tooth falls out.
12) One smart sheep
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: LG - BL: 4.2 - AR Pts: 1
Formats
Description
Wilson is a curious sheep, and after he foolishly climbs into the back of a piano movers' truck, he ends up alone in the big city, far from the farm. But Wilson is also one smart sheep, and soon enough he's finding his way home to his worried owner by recognizing the sounds that he heard while he was trapped in the truck--a jackhammer, a calliope, a hotdog man. And could that be the excited barking of his friend Tippy, the border collie?
13) First boy
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 5.5 - AR Pts: 6
Formats
Description
Dragged into the political turmoil of a presidential election year, fourteen-year-old Cooper Jewett, who runs a New Hampshire dairy farm since his grandfather's death, stands up for himself and makes it clear whose first boy he really is.
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: LG - BL: 4.7 - AR Pts: 1
Formats
Description
Sojourner Truth was born into slavery but possessed a mind and a vision that knew no bounds. So Tall Within traces her life from her painful childhood through her remarkable emancipation to her incredible leadership in the movement for rights for both women and African Americans.
Author
Pub. Date
2009
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 5.9 - AR Pts: 12
Description
In this Newbery Honor–winning novel, Gary D. Schmidt tells the witty and compelling story of a teenage boy who feels that fate has it in for him, during the school year 1968-69. Seventh grader Holling Hoodhood isn't happy. He is sure his new teacher, Mrs. Baker, hates his guts. Holling's domineering father is obsessed with his business image and disregards his family. Throughout the school year, Holling strives to get a handle on the Shakespeare...
Author
Description
A testament to the power of stories, and how they may bring hope even in times of darkness.
"Everyone gathers around, and from her lips to their ears the stories go, and for a little while the camp disappears, and for a little while they are all free."
As night falls, the women gather their children to listen to Mara tell her stories. They are stories of light and hope and freedom, stories of despair and stories of miracles, stories of expected...
18) Straw into Gold
Author
Description
What fills a hand fuller than a skein of gold? By order of the king, two boys, Tousle and Innes, must find the answer to this puzzling riddle within seven days or be killed. A former nursemaid to the queen's child tells the boys that the banished queen may have the answer they seek. Danger presents itself at every turn, for the boys are pursued by the Great Barons, who are secretly plotting against the king. Another pursuer, the greedy King's Grip,...
Author
Description
National Book Award finalist and two-time Newbery Honor-winning author Gary D. Schmidt recaptures the classic tale of one man's spiritual journey in this contemporary retelling of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, masterfully illustrated with watercolors by artist Barry Moser.Here again is the tale of Christian's epic trek from the City of Destruction to the Heavenly Palaces - of the pitfalls that threaten to waylay him and the graces that strengthen...
Author
Pub. Date
2004
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 5.9 - AR Pts: 10
Description
A 2005 Newbery Honor Book It only takes a few hours for Turner Buckminster to start hating Phippsburg, Maine. No one in town will let him forget that he's a minister's son, even if he doesn't act like one. But then he meets Lizzie Bright Griffin, a smart and sassy girl from a poor nearby island community founded by former slaves. Despite his father's-and the town's-disapproval of their friendship, Turner spends time with Lizzie, and it opens up a...