Willow Creek Summer by Kathleen Wiebe is the story of 15-year-old Mennonite Tina Wiens. It's 1970-something and Tina is trying to find her place in the world. Her sister becomes pregnant and has a baby without getting married. This changes Tina' perspective and she begins to question all that she's been taught. Nature facilitates an unspoken healing process when Tina spends a summer on her aunt's farm.

George's Marvellous Medicine: Another marvellous book by Roald Dahl in which George mixes up a terrific dose of "serves-you-right" to his really horrible grandmother. Very funny.

Whalesinger. Welwyn Wilton Katz is a Canadian writer of many YA titles. Whalesinger is an environmental mystery and involves young love and living on a sailboat.

Janey's Girl, Men of Stone, Losing Forever, The Isabel Factor, and For Now are all titles by Gayle Friesen. These books are about family. They are touching, funny, timely, and very, very readable.

The Blue Castle is an extremely romantic novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery. It's about Valancy Stirling, a well-bred Toronto old maid who discovers (wrongly) that she has a fatal illness. Valancy begins to live her life, spends a season as a housekeeper in Muskoka and takes up with a ne'er-do-well nature writer who turns out to be a wealthy heir. We're talking happy, happy, happy ending here. Better than the best fairy tale. And all done in inimitable LM Montgomery style.

Jane of Lantern Hill is my other favourite LM Montgomery book. This one set in Toronto and Prince Edward Island. It's the story of Jane who lives in Toronto with her society belle mother and formidable grandmother. Jane discovers that she has a father who lives on PEI and is demanding a visit from his daughter. This is a coming of age story, a story of reconciliation and love and self empowerment. The two locales contrast beautifully, with PEI appearing as Lucy Maud's usual symbol for hope, nurture, and generally all things good.

A list of books my grade 6 class are reading

The Pendragon Adventure is a young adult series of fantasy novels by D. J. MacHale. They follow the chronicles of Bobby Pendragon, a teenager who discovers that he, as well as his two best friends, Mark Dimond and Courtney Chetwynde, must try to save the universe. Each book switches between the first-person perspective of Bobby's journals and third-person narratives of other prominent characters. (link)

Sacred Leaf, Deborah Ellis: Sacred Leaf, which picks up Diego Juárez's story about a week after the conclusion of I Am A Taxi, sees the 12-year-old, having escaped the coca paste dealers, now temporarily staying with a cocalero family, the Ricardos. (link)

I am a Taxi, Deborah Ellis: Grade 5-8–Ellis's novel attempts to expose the strains that cocaine production and trade and the U.S War on Drugs have placed on Bolivians. Diego's parents have been wrongfully incarcerated for drug smuggling. While they serve their 16-year sentences, the 12-year-old, who would otherwise be homeless, lives in the women's prison with his mother and younger sister. He earns money as a taxi, running errands in the city for the prisoners. (link)

The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan, is a 2005 fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology. It is the first book in the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series, which charts the adventures of modern twelve-year-old Percy Jackson as he discovers he is a demigod, the son of a mortal woman and the Greek god Poseidon. Percy and his friends go on a quest to prevent an apocalyptic war between the Greek gods Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. (link)

Uglies, Scott Westerfeld. This one is really popular, and until I read the following I was really scandalized by the concept: Set in a future post-scarcity dystopian world in which everyone is turned "Pretty" by extreme cosmetic surgery upon reaching age 16. It tells the story of teenager Tally Youngblood who rebels against society's enforced conformity, after her new found friends Shay and David show her the downsides to becoming a "pretty". Written for young adults, Uglies deals with adolescent themes of change, both emotional and physical, and dealing with the revelation that "some of what you’re taught isn’t true, your parents are flawed human beings and the world isn’t constructed for your benefit." The book is the first installment in what was originally a trilogy, The Uglies series which includes Pretties and Specials, which now has been extended with the publication of a fourth novel, Extras. (link)


Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney. This book is so popular with middle years kids! It looks completely accessible, and expecially popular with boys: (also known as Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffley's Journal) is a realistic fiction novel. It takes me back to the days of Harriet the Spy (a classic!). "Synopsis: Boys don't keep diaries-or do they? The launch of an exciting and innovatively illustrated new series narrated by an unforgettable kid every family can relate to. It's a new school year, and Greg Heffley finds himself thrust into middle school, where undersized weaklings share the hallways with kids who are taller, meaner, and already shaving. The hazards of growing up before you're ready are uniquely revealed through words and drawings as Greg records them in his diary." (link)

Stephan King (not sure which one...) " It. Also, Carrie and The Talisman. King has never forgotten what it is like to be picked on in school. He understands about bullies and victims. In these books, we are rooted inside the consciousness of young teenagers. Carrie, of course, has extraordinary powers, which she neither understands nor is able to control, and takes inadvertent but hideous revenge on the casually malicious popular kids who have caused her pain. In both It and The Talisman, adults are oblivious to a danger only the kids are able to see, and therefore, they have the burden of saving the world. They feel hopelessly inadequate, but they know they have no choice, so they do it. These are wonderfully realized characters, and again, we are fully immersed in their sense of righteous grievance with the world." (link)

City of the Beasts (La ciudad de las bestias in Spanish) is the first young adult novel by Chilean-American writer Isabel Allende, who's uncle is Salvador Allende, a former ruler of Chile. Published in 2002, the story is set in the Amazon rainforest. The novel was translated by Margaret Sayers Peden from Spanish to English. Walden Media is said to be producing a movie. (link)

Watership Down

My favourite is Watership Down. It's about a bunch of rabbits who leave their warren in search of a new home. They have a language that they speak to each other - I think the technical word for it is "anthropomorhized" - anyway, it's cool.

the graveyard book by neil gaiman

think creepy and funny, the 'jungle book' for the ghost story generation.  it was compelling, scary (but not too much) and had a touch of that sick sense of humour of gaiman's. fantastic.  our family listened to it as a book on tape and we were all mesmerized.  in fact, the 13 y/o stole it and stayed up all night to find out the end, then listened to it all again.  fun stuff.

http://www.thegraveyardbook.com/story/

The BFG, Roald Dahl

Age 9-12

Boys/Girls

The Big Friendly Giant! Who can resist a story about a giant that creeps around London, snatches little Sophie out of her bed, and bounds away with her to giant land. This story, typical to Roald Rahl is all about imagination. After all, who else could conceive of a giant galloping off, with Sophie nestled into his ear, to capture dreams as though they were exotic butterflies; speaking his jumbled, squib-fangled patois; or whizzpopping for the Queen?

I must have read this book a million times. What I remember after all these years are the strong visuals- the dreams floating around in mason jars, Sophie sitting on the Queens windowsill, the strange language and the paradox of expectations (a kind giant??). On a pedagogical note I guess this book truly promotes imagination, proactive-ness (you want something done, do it!) and of course, there is a message about friendship that can't go unmentioned.

movie: yes (animated)

Beat the Turtle Drum, Constance C. Greene

Age 9-12

Main interest groups: girls

Kate plans to be a writer and tells this story in the first person. Joss, her 10 year old horse crazy sister, has been saving her money to rent a horse for a week. The girls build a stable in the garage. Finally, Prince is delivered and for one week, Joss has her own horse. Kate and Joss climb a tree in the yard to picnic in the branches as they had when they were younger. Obsessed about keeping an eye on Prince, Joss climbs too far out on a branch and falls to her death. Kate, her family and their friends must cope with the sudden loss of Joss.

I remember this story because I myself was horse crazy and secretly hoped I could stable a horse in MY garage. But it was a sad book and it was really the first book I had ever read that dealt with death. Looking back I think of The Horse Whisperer, which deals with similar grief, and the necessity of coping with loss.

Movie: yes

Similar stories:

Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Boyne

A Summer to Die, Lowry

Charlottes Web, White