For Grades 1-3

Buehner, Caralyn        I Did It, I’m Sorry.
Ollie Octopus, Bucky Beaver, Howie Hogg, and other animal characters encounter moral dilemmas involving such virtues as honesty, thoughtfulness, and trustworthiness. The reader is invited to select the appropriate behavior from a series of choices.

Davis, Deborah        The Secret of the Seal.
Ten-year-old Kyo, an Eskimo boy, faces a difficult moral choice between friendship for a seal and loyalty to his family.

Keller, Holly        That’s Mine, Horace.
Horace loves the little yellow truck that he finds in the schoolyard, but he has a problem when a classmate tries to claim it.

Kline, Suzy        Song Lee and the "I Hate You" Notes.
Song Lee is upset when she receives hateful notes in class, but she finds an appropriate and positive way to deal with them.

Lexau, Joan M.        I’ll Tell on You.
When his dog bites the coach's daughter, Mark pressures his best friend to keep the dog’s identity secret.

McCully, Emily Arnold        The Bobbin Girl.
A ten-year-old bobbin girl working in a textile mill in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1830s, must make a difficult decision--will she participate in the first workers' strike in Lowell?

Sheindlin, Judy        Judge Judy Sheindlin's Win or Lose by How You Choose!
This book poses questions which reflect dilemmas kids are faced with every day, offers four possible answers and asks the reader to decide which is the best response.

Willner-Pardo, Gina        When Jane-Marie Told My Secret.
When Carolyn's best friend, Jane-Marie, tells her secret to someone else, Carolyn must make decisions about their friendship.

For Grades 4-6

Flegg, Aubrey        Katie’s War.
Katie's father has come home from World War I, shell-shocked and convinced that fighting is not the answer. But her rebel brother is convinced otherwise. With Ireland still in turmoil after the War of Independence against the English, Katie must decide for herself which side she is on.

Hahn, Mary Downing        Stepping on the Cracks.
In 1944, while her brother is overseas fighting in World War II, eleven-year-old Margaret discovers the school bully Gordy hiding his own brother, an army deserter, and must decide whether or not to keep his secret.

Lowry, Lois        Anastasia, Absolutely.
Thirteen-year-old Anastasia Krupnick tries to deal with a new dog, her school values class, and a personal moral dilemma.

MacPhail, Catherine        Dark Waters.
Col McCann becomes a local hero when he saves a boy from drowning, but when his older brother is suspected of a serious crime, Col must decide if he should be loyal to his family or tell the truth about what he saw while under the water.

Naidoo, Beverley        The Other Side of Truth.
Sade must choose between the truth and safety for her family when she and her brother are smuggled into England after her mother is killed by assassins.

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.

Roy, Ron        The Chimpanzee Kid.
Harold considers taking the law into his own hands when he learns a local lab is conducting animal experiments.

Schnur, Steven        The Koufax Dilemma.
When opening day falls on Passover, star-pitcher Danny is upset when his mother insists he attend the family seder instead of pitching for his team.

Scribner, Virginia        Gopher Draws Conclusions.
When Kevin wins an art contest using a drawing that Gopher had given him, Gopher must make a difficult choice between revenge and saving their friendship.

Williams, Laura E.        Behind the Bedroom Wall.
Thirteen-year-old Korinna must choose between loyalty to her parents or her country when she must decide whether to report her parents to her Hitler youth group after she discovers that they are hiding Jews in a secret space behind Korinna's bedroom wall.

For Grades 7-8

Carvell, Marlene        Who Will Tell My Brother?
During his lonely crusade to remove offensive mascots from his high school, a Native American teenager learns more about his heritage, his ancestors, and his place in the world.

Cormier, Robert        The Chocolate War.
A high school student is first a hero and then a victim in this novel of intimidation and the misuse of power.

Herman, John        Deep Waters.
A summer at Camp Winasaukee leaves a teenaged camper with a moral dilemma following the mysterious drowning of a camp counselor.

Klass, David        California Blue.
When seventeen-year-old John Rodgers discovers a new sub-species of butterfly which may necessitate closing the mill where his father works, they find themselves on opposite sides of the environmental conflict.

Meyer, Carolyn        Drummers of Jericho.
A fourteen-year-old Jewish girl goes to live with her father and stepmother in a small town and soon finds herself the center of a civil rights battle when she objects to the high school band marching in the formation of a cross.

No Easy Answers:  Short Stories About Teenagers Making Tough Choices.
Sixteen short stories about teenagers in situations that test their character.

Salisbury, Graham        Lord of the Deep.
Working for his stepfather on a charter fishing boat in Hawaii teaches thirteen-year-old Mikey about fishing and about taking risks, making sacrifices, and facing some of life's difficult choices.

Spinelli, Jerry        There’s a Girl in My Hammerlock.
Thirteen-year-old Maisie must decide whether to remain on her school's formerly all-male wrestling team when she encounters opposition from the community, other students, her best friend, and her own teammates.

Tanzman, Carol        The Shadow Place.
Fourteen-year-old Lissa, sworn to secrecy but worried about her lifelong friend's weird behavior and increasing hostility toward his abusive father, learns in a chat room that he intends to buy a gun.

Woods, Ron        The Hero.
Despite his father's rules and his own fear of the water, fourteen-year-old Jamie joins his older cousin in taking the raft they made out onto the river, where a tragic accident leads Jamie to make the most difficult decision of his life.

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