Grade: 4

Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can’t seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse — Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. When Percy’s mom finds out, she knows it’s time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he’ll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends — one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena — Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

Few stories are as widely read and as universally cherished by children and adults alike as The Little Prince. Richard Howard’s new translation of the beloved classic-published to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s birth-beautifully reflects Saint-Exupéry’s unique and gifted style. Howard, an acclaimed poet and one of the preeminent translators of our time, has excelled in bringing the English text as close as possible to the French, in language, style, and most important, spirit. The artwork in this new edition has been restored to match in detail and in color Saint-Exupéry’s original artwork.

In 1847 a group of Choctaw Indians collected $170 toward the relief of Ireland’s potato famine. This story is a fictionalized account of that little-known real event. Choona, now an old man, relates this story from his boyhood. Although 14-year-old Choona knew that his people had been forced to march from their homelands in Mississippi to Indian Territory, now the state of Oklahoma, the adults did not speak about this tragic event to their children. Then, during a tribal meeting, where the Choctaw meet to discuss sending relief to the Irish, Choona’s great-grandmother relates the terrible truth about the winter of the march — the starvation, the freezing, the deaths. She urges her people to help the Irish who are now going through their own “trail of tears.” At first Choona is so angry at the Europeans that he votes against helping them. But soon he, too, is able to put his anger aside as he realizes that through this act of giving the Choctaw will feel less helpless. In facing their past, they are able to move forward.

Sachar, who won the Newbery Medal for his 1999 book Holes, can find a kid’s funny bone as readily as he can identify what concerns kids most. This popular series of early-reader chapter books follows the trials and triumphs of Marvin as he confronts the ever-tumultuous third grade.

Once, in a house on Egypt Street, there lived a china rabbit named Edward Tulane. The rabbit was very pleased with himself, and for good reason: he was owned by a girl named Abilene, who treated him with the utmost care and adored him completely. And then, one day, he was lost. Kate DiCamillo and Bagram Ibatoulline take us on an extraordinary journey, from the depths of the ocean to the net of a fisherman, from the top of a garbage heap to the fireside of a hobies’ camp, from the bedside of an ailing child to the streets of Memphis. And along the way, we are shown a true miracle — that even a heart of the most breakable kind can learn to love, to lose, and to love again.

In this award-winning book, a traveling woolly mammoth helps demonstrate how things work, from levers and plows to zippers and microchips. With colorful, kid-friendly illustrations on almost every one of its 400 pages, this engaging reference covers electricity, computers, machines, motors, magnetism, and more!

The Spiderwick Chronicles leave the old-fashioned charm of New England far behind and head south for some fiendish faerie fun in the hot Florida sun. Eleven-year-old Nicholas Vargas only thinks his life has been turned upside down after his developer father remarries and moves his new wife and daughter into the soon-to-be completed Mangrove Hollow. But an “expedition” to a nearby lake turns up a little nixie with a giant problem - the huge, lumbering, fire-breathing variety - and it’s up to Nick; his stepsister, Laurie; and his big brother, Julian (plus a familiar face from the original Spiderwick Chronicles) to figure out the best way to stop a host of rampaging giants before all of Florida goes up in smoke.

L is for Lucky… And that’s just how Lucky O’Leary feels when the lottery ticket his grandfather sends him for Christmas turns out to be a million-dollar winner! But before Lucky can cash it in, someone sneaks into his house and steals it. Now it’s up to Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose to track down the thief and return the ticket… before Lucky loses out!