|
book lists |
fun & games |
homework help | reading programs | special events |
storytimes |
Character Mattersfor Grades 4-6
|
|
Citizenship
Avi
Poppy.
Poppy the deer mouse urges her family to move next to a field of corn big enough
to
feed them all forever, but Mr. Ocax, a terrifying owl, has other ideas.
Clements, Andrew
Frindle.
When he decides to turn his fifth-grade teacher's love of the dictionary around
on her,
clever Nick Allen invents a new word and begins a chain of events that quickly
moves
beyond his control.
Fleischman, Paul
Seedfolks.
One by one, a number of people of varying ages and backgrounds transform a
trash-filled inner-city lot into a productive and beautiful garden, and in doing so,
the gardeners
are themselves transformed.
Kehret, Peg
Cages.
After losing an acting role and fighting with her alcoholic stepfather, Kit is
arrested
for shoplifting and ordered to work, as part of her sentence, at an animal
shelter.
Lowry, Lois
Number the Stars.
In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns
how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the
Nazis.
McSwigan, Marie
Snow Treasure.
A group of Norwegian children hurtle down a mountain on sleds, running straight
through a Nazi camp while concealing gold they are trying to remove from the
country.
Miles, Miska
Pony in the Schoolhouse.
Amy has two great desires--to have a horse and to no longer be teased by a boy
at
school.
Wilson, Nancy Hope
Old People, Frogs, and Albert.
Fourth-grader Albert is afraid of the old people at the nursing home near his
school,
until he goes to visit Mr. Spear, the elderly man who has helped him with his
reading.
Fairness
DeClements, Barthe
Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade.
A fifth-grade class repelled by the overweight new student, who has serious home
problems, finally learns to accept her.
DeFelice, Cynthia
Weasel.
Alone in the frontier wilderness in the winter of 1839 while his father is
recovering
from an injury, eleven-year-old Nathan runs afoul of the renegade killer known
as
Weasel and makes a surprising discovery about the concept of revenge.
Jaffe,Nina
The Cow of No Color: Riddle Stories and Justice
Tales from Around the World.
In each of these stories, collected from around the world, a character faces a
problem
situation which requires that he make a decision about what is fair or just.
Slote, Alfred
The Trading Game.
During a summer of baseball and baseball card trading, eleven-year-old Andy
makes
discoveries about his father, his grandfather, who played professional baseball,
and
himself.
Honesty
Adler, C.S.
Winning.
Vicky is thrilled to be on the eighth-grade tennis team, until she realizes that
her new
playing partner, Brenda, is ruthless about winning and will even cheat to do so.
Bawden, Nina
Humbug.
When eight-year-old Cora is sent to stay next door with the seemingly pleasant
woman called Aunt Sunday, she is tormented by Aunt Sunday's mean-spirited,
deceitful
daughter, but finds an ally in Aunt Sunday's elderly mother.
Bowen, Fred
Winnners Take All.
When Kyle fakes a catch, his baseball team goes on to win the league
championship,
but Kyle doesn't feel good about winning by cheating. Includes a section on the
sportsmanship of Christy Mathewson, a pitcher who played professional baseball
in the
early 1900s.
Choldenko, Gennifer
Notes from a Liar and Her Dog.
Eleven-year-old Ant, stuck in a family that she does not like, copes by
pretending that
her "real" parents are coming to rescue her, by loving her dog Pistachio, by
volunteering
at the zoo, and by bending the truth and telling lies.
Coville, Bruce
The Skull of Truth.
Charlie, a sixth-grader with a compulsion to tell lies, acquires a mysterious
skull that
forces its owner to tell only the truth, causing some awkward moments before he
understands its power.
DeClements, Barthe Five Finger Discount.
Ten-year-old Jerry's attempts to adjust to his new school and make new friends
are
complicated by his determination to keep secret the fact that his father is
serving time in the local prison for theft.
DeClements, Barthe
Liar, Liar.
Sixth-grader Gretchen and her friends begin to have problems when a new girl
starts
telling some very believable, but untrue, stories.
Eyerly, Jeannette
Angel Baker, Thief.
Fifteen-year-old Angel, released on probation to a foster family after being
convicted of shoplifting, is anxious to make a fresh start and to be accepted by her new
family and
friends.
Hurwitz, Johanna
The Cold and Hot Winter.
Fifth-grader Derek and his best friend Rory are delighted when their neighbor's
niece
Bolivia comes to town for another visit, until a lot of missing objects make
Derek begin to
doubt Rory's honesty.
Lowry, Lois
Your Move, J.P.!
Lovestruck J.P. finds himself doing all sorts of weird things to impress his new
interest, but his life becomes very complicated when a simple lie gets out of
control.
Myers, Bill
My Life as Dinosaur Dental Floss.
Bumbling but brilliant Wally McDoogle learns that honesty is the best policy
after a
practical joke snowballs into near disaster involving terrorists, tourists,
television news,
and the President.
Pfeffer, Susan Beth
The Pizza Puzzle.
Distracted by her worries that her parents may get a divorce, Taryn gets in
trouble
with her seventh-grade English teacher and is caught up in an increasingly
complicated
series of lies.
Sachs, Marilyn
Amy Moves In.
Amy, a habitual liar, finds that making friends in a new neighborhood is easier
if she
tells the truth.
Kindness
Bishop, Claire
Twenty and Ten.
Twenty school children hide ten Jewish children from the Nazis during the
occupation
of France during World War II.
Carlson, Natalie Savage
The Family Under the Bridge.
An old tramp, adopted by three fatherless children when their mother hides them
under a bridge on the Seine, finds a home for mother and children and a job for
himself.
Caudill, Rebecca
The Best-Loved Doll.
For a doll contest at a party, a little girl chooses to enter a doll that seems
least likely
to win a prize, but it does win a very special one.
Cooper, Ilene
Queen of the Sixth Grade.
After helping her supposed best friend Veronica found the sixth grade's secret
club,
the Awesome Kennedy Girls, Robin accidentally gets on her wrong side and
discovers
how bossy and cruel Veronica really is.
Curtis, Christopher Paul
Bud, Not Buddy.
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great
Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he
believes to be
his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.
DiCamillo, Kate
Because of Winn-Dixie.
Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni describes her first summer in the town of Naomi,
Florida, and all the good things that happen to her because of her big ugly dog
Winn-Dixie.
Fitzhugh, Louise
Harriet the Spy.
Harriet, a sixth-grader who wants to become a writer, constantly carries her
notebook with her so that she may record her observations about, and reactions
to, the
people around her.
Griffith, Helen
Caitlin's Holiday.
When her new doll comes alive, Caitlin's delight turns to frustration as the
doll
displays a nasty temperament.
Horvath, Polly
The Trolls.
Eccentric Aunt Sally comes from Canada to babysit the Anderson children while
their
parents are on a trip to Paris, and every night the bedtime story adds another
piece to a
very suspect family history.
King-Smith, Dick
Martin's Mice.
A farm cat who doesn't want to catch mice keeps a family of them as pets in the
barn;
but then he is given away to a townswoman and acquires a new perspective.
Vail, Rachel
Daring to Be Abigail.
During her summer at Camp Nashaquitsa, eleven-year-old Abby tries to reinvent
herself, while worrying about her mother, missing her dead father, and getting
to know
her equally self-conscious bunkmates.
Loyalty
Adler, C.S.
Winning.
Vicky is thrilled to be on the eighth-grade tennis team, until she realizes that
her new
playing partner, Brenda, is ruthless about winning and will even cheat to do so.
Blackwood, Gary
The Shakespeare Stealer.
A young orphan boy is ordered by his master to infiltrate Shakespeare's acting
troupe
in order to steal the script of "Hamlet," but he discovers instead the meaning
of
friendship and loyalty.
Burnford, Sheila
The Incredible Journey.
A Siamese cat, an old bull terrier, and a young Labrador retriever travel
together 250
miles through the Canadian wilderness to find their family.
Warner, Sally
Dog Years.
After his father is imprisoned, twelve-year-old Case switches to a new school,
where
he makes some important discoveries about friendship and honesty.
White, E.B.
Charlotte's Web.
Charlotte, a spider, is able to save the life of her friend Wilbur, a pig, by
writing
messages in her web.
Respect
Blume, Judy
Blubber.
Jill goes along with the rest of the fifth-grade class in tormenting a classmate
and
then finds out what it's like when she, too, becomes a target.
Byars, Betsy
The Summer of the Swans.
Sara becomes involved in an intense search for Charlie, her retarded brother,
when
he wanders off.
Christopher, Matt
Olympic Dream.
When overweight fourteen-year-old video whiz Doug Cannon is introduced to the
sport of cycling, he begins a transformation that leads him to health and
self-respect.
Cohen, Barbara
Thank You, Jackie Robinson.
A fatherless white boy, who shares with an old black man an enthusiasm for
Jackie
Robinson, takes a ball autographed by Jackie to his elderly friend's deathbed.
Curtis, Christopher
The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963.
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African
American
family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit
Grandma in
Alabama in the summer of 1963.
Estes, Eleanor
The Hundred Dresses.
Wanda, a poor girl with only one dress, is teased by her classmates when she
insists
she has a hundred dresses at home.
Fenner, Carol
Randall's Wall.
Artistically talented but socially underprivileged, a fifth-grade boy has built
a wall of
defense to protect himself from the pain of human relationships--a wall which
begins to
crumble when a dynamic and compassionate classmate decides to interfere in his
life.
Lee, Marie
F is for Fabuloso.
Seventh-grader Jin-Ha finds her adjustment to life in America complicated by her
mother's difficulty in learning to speak English.
Lord, Bette
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson.
In 1947, a Chinese child comes to Brooklyn where she becomes Americanized at
school, in her apartment building, and by her love for baseball.
Mills, Claudia
Standing Up to Mr. O.
Twelve-year-old Maggie comes to dread biology class because her favorite teacher
is
insisting that she dissect a worm, an assignment that makes her feel very
squeamish and
awakens her to the question of animal rights.
Skinner, David
The Wrecker.
Theo, the boy genius, enlists Michael, the new kid, as his ally in a secret plan
to
"wreck" the bully of the eighth grade once and for all.
Taylor, Mildred
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
A black family living in the South during the 1930s is faced with prejudice and
discrimination which the children don't understand.
Responsibility
Bauer, Marion Dane
On My Honor.
When his best friend drowns while they are both swimming in a treacherous river
that
they had promised never to go near, Joel is devastated and terrified at having
to tell both
sets of parents the terrible consequences of their disobedience.
Carter, Alden
Between a Rock and a Hard Place.
Although neither fifteen-year-old Mark Severson nor his diabetic cousin Randy is
looking forward to the canoe trip that is a family rite of passage, they begin
to enjoy
themselves as they make their way through Minnesota's lake country, until the
trip
becomes a fight for survival.
Clements, Andrew
The Landry News.
A fifth-grader starts a newspaper with an editorial that prompts her burned-out
classroom teacher to really begin teaching again, but he is later threatened
with
disciplinary action as a result.
Clifford, Eth
Family for Sale.
When their mother goes away for two weeks, five siblings take turns being in
charge.
Fox, Paula
One-Eyed Cat.
An eleven-year-old shoots a stray cat with his new air rifle, subsequently
suffers from
guilt, and eventually assumes responsibility.
Gardiner, John
Stone Fox.
Little Willie hopes to pay the back taxes on his grandfather's farm with the
purse from
a dog sled race he enters.
Hopper, Nancy
The Truth or Dare Trap.
As the summer progresses, Meg's feelings for the popular leader of her crowd of
girls
change as the group's activities become less fun and more dangerous.
Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie
In the Language of Loons.
During the summer that Arlis spends with his grandparents in Vermont, his
grandfather teaches him about loons, cross-country running, and responsibility,
and
when he returns home everyone finds out how much he has changed.
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds
Shiloh.
When he finds a lost beagle in the hills behind his West Virginia home, Marty
tries to
hide it from his family and the dog's real owner, a mean-spirited man known to
shoot
deer out of season and to mistreat his dogs.
Pearson, Gayle
The Secret Box.
A trip to San Francisco's Chinatown, a dog's funeral, and a shoplifting incident
reveal some previously unknown "secrets" and affect the relationships between
twelve-year-old Taylor and thirteen-year-old Lindsey and their respective older
brothers.
10/01
LW
Back to Special Books on Special Subjects
This page is maintained by the Youth Services staff of the Highland Park Public Library, 494 Laurel Avenue, Highland Park, IL 60035, (847) 432-0216, TTY (847) 432-7674. Please e-mail comments or corrections to the webmaster.
Copyright 2001, (written, graphic and pictorial
material) Highland Park Public Library, Highland Park, Illinois.
Permission for reproduction of any material included on this website must
be obtained from the Library.