The Carrollton Public Library recognizes the fact that every child learns to read and develops as a reader at his/her own unique pace. The following list is very general, and is in no way designed to be prescriptive.

Abrahams, Peter. Behind the curtain.
An avid Sherlock Holmes fan, eighth grader Ingrid Levin-Hill is kidnapped while investigating mysterious happenings in her home town. Sequel to Down the rabbit hole.

Brockmeier, Kevin. Grooves: a kind of mystery.
After a seventh-grader discovers that the grooves in his Thigpen-brand blue jeans are encoded with a cry for help, he sets out to save the factory workers from greedy entrepreneur Howard Thigpen.

Choldenko, Geraldine. Al Capone does my shirts.
A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.

Coman, Carolyn. 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. First book in the Shakespeare stealer series.

Creech, Sharon. Replay.
While preparing for a role in the school play, twelve-year-old Leo finds an autobiography that his father wrote as a teenager and ponders the ways people change as they grow up.

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Curtis, Christopher Paul. 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.

Flake, Sharon. Money hungry.
All thirteen-year-old Raspberry can think of is making money so that she and her mother never have to worry about living on the streets again.

Funke, Cornelia Caroline. The Thief Lord.
Orphaned brothers Prosper and Bo, having run away from their cruel aunt and uncle, decide to hide out in Venice where they fall in with the Thief Lord, a thirteen-year-old boy who leads a crime ring of street children.

Han, Jenny. Shug.
A twelve-year-old girl learns about friendship, first loves, and self-worth in a small town in the South.

Henkes, Kevin. Olive's ocean.
On a summer visit to her grandmother's cottage by the ocean, twelve-year-old Martha gains perspective on the death of a classmate, on her relationship with her grandmother, on her feelings for an older boy, and on her plans to be a writer.

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Holt, Kimberly. When Zachary Beaver came to town.
During the summer of 1971 in a small Texas town, thirteen-year-old Toby and his best friend Cal meet the star of a sideshow act, 600-pound Zachary, the fattest boy in the world.

Johnson, Angela. Heaven.
Fourteen-year-old Marley's seemingly perfect life in the small town of Heaven is disrupted when she discovers that her father and mother are not her real parents.

Kongisburg, E.L. The outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place.
Upon leaving an oppressive summer camp, twelve-year-old Margaret Rose Kane spearheads a campaign to preserve three unique towers her grand uncles have been building in their back yard for over forty years.

Lowry, Lois. The giver.
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.

McCaughrean, Geraldine. The pirate's son.
Left penniless in eighteenth century England, fourteen-year-old Nathan Gull and his mousy sister Maud accompany Tamo, the son of a notorious pirate, to his homeland of Madagascar where they are all changed by their encounter with Tamo's dangerous past.

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Paulsen, Gary. Molly McGinty has a really good day.
When supremely organized seventh-grader, Molly McGinty, loses the notebook she relies on to keep her life in order she spends the day in chaos.

Philbrick, Rodman. Freak the mighty.
At the beginning of eighth grade, learning disabled Max and his new friend Freak, whose birth defect has affected his body but not his brilliant mind, find that when they combine forces they make a powerful team.

Ryan, Pam Munoz. Esperanza rising.
Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.

Sachar, Louis. Holes.
As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.

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Sheth, Kashmira. Blue jasmine.
When twelve-year-old Seema moves to Iowa City with her parents and younger sister, she leaves friends and family behind in her native India but gradually begins to feel at home in her new country.

Shreve, Susan. Kiss me tomorrow.
Confused by all of the males in her life, thirteen-year-old Alyssa "Blister" Reed wants to help when her best friend Jonah's quest for popularity lands him in deep trouble, but his desire to make her his girlfriend gets in the way.

Tarshis, Lauren. Emma-Jean Lazarus fell out of a tree.
A quirky and utterly logical seventh-grade girl named Emma-Jean Lazarus discovers some interesting results when she gets involved in the messy everyday problems of her peers.

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 its children do not understand.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The hobbit.
Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return.

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