Children’s Book Discussion Titles

Check out a set of books for your class or book discussion group.

Sets consist of 20-30 books.  They are stored at the Lee Road Library, but can be picked up at any of our branches.

• Al Capone Does My Shirts
  Choldenko, Gennifer 2004
  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. Newberry Honor Book
• Because of Winn-Dixie
  DiCamillo, Kate 2000
  Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni describes her first summer in the town of Naomi, Fla., and all the good things that happen because of her ugly dog Winn Dixie. Newbery Honor Book.
• Belle Prater’s Boy
  White, Ruth 1996
  When Woodrow’s mother suddenly disappears, he moves to his grandparents’ home in a small Virginia town where he befriends his cousin and together they find the strength to face the terrible fears and losses in their lives. Newbery Honor Book.
• The BFG
  Dahl, Roald 1982
  Kidsnatched from her orphange by a BFG (Big Friendly Giant), who spends his life blowing happy dreams to children, Sophie concocts with him a plan to save the world from nine other man-gobbling cannybull giants.
• Bud, Not Buddy
  Curtis, Christopher Paul 1999
  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 a man he believes is his father. Newbery Medal Award and Coretta Scott King Award.
• Catherine, Called Birdy
  Cushman, Karen 1994
  The thirteen-year-old daughter of an English knight keeps a journal in which she expresses her longing for adventure and her efforts to avoid being married off. Newbery Honor Book.
• Charlotte’s Web
  White, E. B. 1952
  The story of Wilbur, the pig, smallest of the litter, who is raised by the farmer’s daughter, and who finds a friend in Charlotte, the spider. Newbery Honor book.
• The Chocolate Touch
  Catling, Patrick Skene 1952
  A boy aquires a magical gift that turns everything his lips touch into chocolate.
• City of Ember
  Duprau, Jeanne 2003
  In the year 241, Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions.
• The Crooked River
  Persell, Shirley 2005 
  When twelve-year old Rebecca Carter’s father brings a Native American accused of murder into their 1812 Ohio settlement town, Rebecca, witnessing the town’s reaction to the Indian, struggles with the idea that an innocent man may be convicted and sentenced to death.
• The Crossover
  Alexander, Kwame 2014 
  Fourteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health.  Newbery Medal Award and Coretta Scott King Honor Book.
• Dead End in Norvelt
  Gantos, Jack 2011
  Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore. Newbery Honor book.
• Ella Enchanted
  Levine, Gail Carson 1997
  In this novel based on Cinderella, Ella struggles against the childhood curse that forces her to obey any order given to her. Newbery Honor Book.
• Flipped
  Van Draanen, Wendelin 2001
  In alternating chapters, two teenagers describe how their feelings about themselves, each other, and their families have changed over the years.
• The Friendship
  Taylor, Mildred D. 1987
  Four children witness a confrontation between an elderly black man and a white storekeeper in rural Mississippi in the 1930s. Coretta Scott King Honor Book.
• Frindle
  Clements, Andrew 1996
  When he decides to turn his fifth grade teacher’s love of the dictionary around on her, clever Nick Allan invents a new word and begins a chain of events that quickly moves beyond his control.
• Gregor the Overlander
  Collins, Suzanne 2003
  When Gregor and his two-year-old sister are pulled into a strange underground world, they trigger an epic battle involving men, bats, rats, cockroaches, and spiders while on a quest foretold by ancient prophecy.
• Half Magic
  Eager, Edward 1954
  Jane discovers an ordinary-looking coin that seems to grant wishes, but only halfway. The summer quickly changes from boring to exciting for her and her brother and sisters, as they are thrust into one adventure after another.
• Hatchet
  Paulsen, Gary 1987
  After a plane crash, Brian spends fifty-four days in the wilderness, surviving only with the aid of a hatchet given to him by his mother. Newbery Honor book.
• Holes
  Sachar, Louis 1998
  At Camp Green Lake, a boys’ detention center, the boys build character by spending all day, every day, digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. What could the warden be looking for under the dried-up lake? Newbery Medal Award.
• Hoot
  Hiaasen, Carl 2002
  New to Florida, Roy spots the running boy–running away from the school bus, carrying no books and wearing no shoes. Sensing a mystery, Roy sets himself on the boy’s trail, which leads him to potty-trained alligators, a fake-fart champion, and a renegade eco-avenger. Newbery Honor Book.
• The Hundred Dresses
  Estes, Eleanor 1944
  An immigrant girl in an American school is ridiculed for wearing the same faded blue dress every day. When she tells her classmates that she has one hundred dresses at home, she unwittingly triggers a game of teasing that eventually ends in a lesson for all. Newbery Honor Book.
• Island of the Blue Dolphins
  O’Dell, Scott 1960
  Accidentally left alone on an isolated island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl spends eighteen years surviving and finding a measure of happiness in a solitary life. Newbery Medal Award.
• Johnny Tremain
  Forbes, Esther 1971
  A silversmith’s apprentice becomes a messenger for the Sons of Liberty in the days before the American Revolution. Newbery Medal Award.
• Letters from Rifka
  Hesse, Karen 1992
  In letters to her cousins, a young Jewish girl chronicles her family’s flight from 1919 Russia and her own experiences when she must be left in Belgium for a while when the others migrate to America.
• The Lightning Thief
  Riordan, Rick 2005
  Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson learns he is a demigod, the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea.
• A Long Way from Chicago
  Peck, Richard 1998
  A boy recounts his annual summer trips with his sister to rural Illinois during the Great Depression to visit their larger-than-life grandmother. Newbery Honor Book.
• Maniac Magee
  Spinelli, Jerry 1990
  After the death of his parents, Magee’s life assumes legendary proportions, as he accomplishes astounding athletic feats which awe his contemporaries. Newbery Medal Award.
• The Mighty Miss Malone
  Curtis, Christopher Paul 2012
  With love and determination befitting the “world’s greatest family,” twelve-year-old Deza Malone, her older brother Jimmie, and their parents endure tough times in Gary, Indiana, and later Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression.
• Missing May
  Rylant, Cynthia 1992
  After the death of the beloved aunt who has raised her, twelve-year-old Summer and her Uncle Ob leave their West Virginia trailer in search of the strength to go on living. Newbery Medal Award.
• Mississippi Bridge
  Taylor, Mildred D. 1990
  In this pre-Civil Rights era story, a bus careens off a bridge, killing all of the white passengers, after an African-American family is ordered off the bus to make room for them.
• More Stories Julian Tells
  Cameron, Ann 1986
  More episodes in the life of Julian including a bet with his best friend Gloria, a secret project, and what happens when his brother Huey decides to be Superboy.
• Mr. Popper’s Penguins
  Atwater, Richard 1938
  The unexpected delivery of a large crate changes the life of Mr. Popper. Newbery Honor Book.
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
  O’Brien, Robert C. 1971
  Having no one to help her, a widowed mouse visits the rats whose former imprisonment in a laboratory made them wise and long-lived. Newbery Medal Award.
• My Side of the Mountain
  George, Jean Craighead 1972
  Finding a tree for a home and a falcon for a companion, Sam runs away to live in the woods of the Catskill Mountains. Newberry Honor Book.
• On My Honor
  Bauer, Marion Dane 1986
  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. Newbery Honor Book.
• The One and Only Ivan
  Applegate, Katherine 2012
  When Ivan, a gorilla who has lived for years in a down-and-out circus-themed mall, meets Ruby, a baby elephant that has been added to the mall, he decides that he must find her a better life. Newbery Medal Award.
• One Crazy Summer
  Williams-Garcia, Rita 2010
  In the summer of 1968, after traveling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp. Newbery Honor Book,  the Coretta Scott King Award.
• Our Only May Amelia
  Holm, Jennifer L. 1999
  As the only girl in a Finnish American family of seven brothers, May Amelia Jackson resents being expected to act like a lady while growing up in Washington state in 1899. Newbery Honor book.
• Out of the Dust
  Hesse, Karen 1997
  Fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family’s wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression. Newbery Medal Award.
• Ramona the Pest
  Cleary, Beverly 2006
  Ramona works hard at being noticed in kindergarten.
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
  Taylor, Mildred D. 1976
  A black family living in Mississippi during the Depression of the 1930s is faced with prejudice and discrimination which its children do not understand. Newbery Medal Award and Coretta Scott King Honor Book.
• Rules of the Road
  Bauer, Joan 1998
  Jenna Boller wishes there were as many warning signs on the highway of life as there are on the highways she drives from Chicago to Texas with her cranky shoestore-owning boss, Mrs. Gladstone.
• Sarah, Plain and Tall
  MacLachlan, Patricia 1985
  When their father invites a mail-order bride to come and live with them in their prairie home, Caleb and Anna are captivated by their new mother and hope that she will stay. Newbery Medal Award.
• Seedfolks
  Fleischman, Paul 1997
  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. In doing so, the gardeners themselves are transformed.
• Sees Behind Trees
  Dorris, Michael 1996
  A Native American boy with a special gift to “see” beyond his poor eyesight journeys with an old warrior to a land of mysterious beauty.
• Shadow Spinner
  Fletcher, Susan 1998
  When Marjan, a thirteen-year-old crippled girl, joins the sultan’s harem in ancient Persia, she gathers for Scheherazade the stories that will save the queen’s life.
• Shiloh
  Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds 1991
  When he finds a beagle in the hills behind his West Virginia home, Marty tries to hide it from his family and the dog’s real owner, a man known to mistreat dogs. Newbery Medal Award.
• Stone Fox
  Gardiner, John Reynolds 1980
  Little Willie hopes to pay the back taxes on his grandfather’s farm with the purse from a dog sled race he enters.
• The Tale of Despereaux
  DiCamillo, Kate 2003
  The adventures of Desperaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin. Newbery Medal Award.
• The Talented Clementine
  Pennypacker, Sara 2007
  Eight-year-old Clementine, convinced that she has no talents, tries to find a way to avoid participating in the class talent show.
• Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
  Blume, Judy 1972
  Peter finds his demanding two-year-old brother an ever increasing problem.
• True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
  Avi 1990
  Charlotte, the lone “young lady” on a ship in 1832, learns that the captain is murderous and the crew rebellious. Newbery Honor Book.
• Tuck Everlasting
  Babbitt, Natalie 1975
  A spring whose water prevents one from ever growing old is the secret of the Tuck family.
• The View from Saturday
  Konigsburg, E. L. 1996
  Four students, with their own individual stories, develop a special bond and attract the attention of their teacher, a paraplegic, who selects them to represent their sixth grade in the Academic Bowl competition. Newbery Medal Award.
• Walk Two Moons
  Creech, Sharon 1994
  After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother’s route. Sal knows this journey is the only chance to reunite her family. Newbery Medal Award.
• The Watsons Go to Birmingham
  Curtis, Christopher Paul 1995
  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. Newbery Honor Book and Coretta Scott King Honor Book.
• The Westing Game
  Raskin, Ellen 1978
  The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim their inheritance. Newbery Honor Book.
• The Whipping Boy
  Fleischman, Sid 1986
  A bratty prince and his whipping boy have many adventures when they inadvertently trade places after becoming involved with dangerous outlaws. Newbery Medal Award.
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond
  Speare, Elizabeth George 1958
  In 1687 in Connecticut, Kit Tyler, feeling out of place in the Puritan household of her aunt, befriends an old woman considered a witch by the community and suddenly finds herself standing trial for witchcraft. Newbery Medal Award.
• A Wrinkle in Time
  L’Engle, Madeleine 1962
  Meg Murry travels into the fifth dimension with her younger brother, Charles Wallace, and her friend Calvin to find her father, a scientist who disappeared during a top secret government experiment. Newbery Medal Award.