The Original Adventures of Hank the Cowdog
by John R. Erickson

Hank the Cowdog, Head of Ranch Security, is framed for the murder of a chicken and becomes an outlaw with the coyotes. (127 pages)

Island Book One: Shipwreck
by Gordon Korman

Six kids. One shipwreck. One desert island. They didn’t want to be on the boat in the first place. They were sent there as punishment, or as a character-building experience. Now the adults are gone, and the quest for survival has begun. (143 pages)

Because of Winn-Dixie
by Kate DiCamillo

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. (182 pgs) Newbery Medal Winner

The War With Grandpa
by Robert Kimmel Smith

Grandpa moves in and fights with Peter over who gets to sleep in Peter’s room. (145 pages)

Sarah, Plain and Tall
by Patricia MacLachlan

Sarah arrives in an answer to a letter to bring joy to the household of a father and his two children. (58 pages) Newbery Medal Winner

Sadako and The Thousand Paper Cranes
by Eleanor Coerr

Based on a true story, this extraordinary book tells the story of a young Japanese girl who is gravely ill with leukemia, an after effect of the atom bomb that fell on her city when she was an infant. (79 pgs)

How Tia Lola Came to (Visit) Stay
by Julie Alvarez

Although ten-year-old Miguel is at first embarrassed by his colorful aunt, Tia Lola, when she comes to Vermont from the Dominican Republic to stay with his family after his parents’ divorce, he learns to love her. (147 pages)

Frindle
by Andrew Clements

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 move beyond his control. (117 pgs)

The Landry News
by Andrew Clements

A fifth-grader starts a newspaper that prompts her burnt-out teacher to really begin teaching again. (131 pages)

The Janitor’s Boy
by Andrew Clements

Fifth grader Jack finds himself the target of ridicule at school when it becomes known that his father is one of the janitors. (140 pgs)