Grade: 4

Many tales handed down from one generation to the next are about “tricksters,” characters who get into trouble and rely on their wits to save themselves. This collection features some of the most popular trickster stories.

Matt is missing. Bonnie’s brother left his classroom to use the bathroom –and disappeared. A police dog traces his scent to the curb, where he apparently got into a vehicle. But why would Matt go anywhere with a stranger? Overwhelmed with fear, Bonnie discovers that her dog is gone, too. Was Pookie used as a lure for Matt? Bonnie makes one big mistake in her attempt to find her brother. In a chilling climax on a Washington State ferry, Bonnie and Matt must outsmart their abductor or pay with their lives.

From his humble beginnings in a small log cabin, young Abe Lincoln knew “that being tall is not enough to make your way in this world.” He worked hard on a flatboat, in a general store, and then studying to become a lawyer, eventually making his way into politics. Along the way he married and had three boisterous sons: “They were like balls bounding down a road, and people said they had no manners or discipline. I thought happiness more important than manners, though I didn’t like it when Tad drove his cart and goats down the White House hall.” Deeply relieved when the Civil War is over, Abe Lincoln is finally ready to be happy on the fateful night that he sets out to Ford’s Theater to see a play with his wife.

The focus of this simple picture book is not on Lincoln’s death–the book concludes before Abe and Mary even leave the White House–but rather on the admirable life he led. Although many are well acquainted with the legendary story of young Abe’s rough upbringing in Kentucky and his unquenchable thirst for learning, Ann Turner’s fictionalized biography, told in a fresh and immediate first-person point of view, adds a sweet note of poignancy and humanity to one of America’s greatest heroes. With his historically accurate paintings, award-winning illustrator Wendell Minor captures the expressions and experiences of a man who, at the conclusion of the war, sees “how sorrow has dug lines in my cheeks.” –Emilie Coulter

He got out his worldly wealth and examined it — bits of toys, marble, and trash; enough to buy an exchange of work maybe, but not enough to buy as much as half an hour of pure freedom”. One of those most irrepressible and exuberant characters in the history of literature, Tom Sawyer explodes onto the page in a whirl of bad behavior and incredible adventures. Whether he is heaving clods of earth at his brother, faking a gangrenous toe, or trying to convince the world that he is dead, Tom’s infectious energy and good-humor shine through. The Adventures of Tom sawyer is Mark Twain’s joyful and nostalgic recollection of tall tales from his own boyhood by the Mississippi some “thirty or forty years ago”. It was an instant success on its first publication in 1876, and has continued to delight children of all ages ever since.

Here’s a picture book version of Aesop’s fables that should be in every classroom. Pinkney’s watercolor creatures illustrate more than 60 tales that end with one of Aesop’s moral lessons. Try it as a crowd-pleasing read-aloud for younger grades and as a wonderful resource for older children.

Airman is set in the 1890’s on the sovereign Saltee Islands, off the Irish coast. It is the story of Conor Broekhart, a young Saltee Islander whose father, Declan, is the King’s bodyguard. When Conor discovers that the power hungry Marshall Hugo Bonvilain is organizing a military coup, the king is murdered and Conor is blamed for the crime and thrown into prison. In prison, Conor passes the solitary months by scratching designs for flying machines into the walls. This has always been his dream, to win the race for flight. After two years, Conor now sixteen, plans and executes a daring escape to the mainland. Initially he plans to return home, but realizes that this would put his entire family in danger, so instead he builds a glider to fly to the prison island and reclaim the diamonds he buried there from the prison mine. Eight bags of diamonds, means eight trips. Conor’s father is beginning to question Bonvilain’s rule, and so the marshall decides to use his son to blackmail him. This is when he realizes that Conor has escaped. He also finds Conor’s drawings and realizes that he is the mysterious Airman who has been flying around the prison island. Bonvilain arrests Conor’s whole family to trap him. To save them, Conor will have to build the flying machine that he has been dreaming of all these years.

“Alison acquired an Amaryllis for Beryl. Beryl bought a Begonia for Crystal. Crystal cut a Chrysanthemum for Dawn.” See a pattern? And so goes this alphabetical flower alliteration book. The full-page floral paintings and the clever girl-verb-flower text link one page to the next and keep interest blooming. This book is a vocabulary stretcher, guessing game, and flower primer all in one!

There is lots of confusion in the English language. Some words sound alike but are not spelled alike. Some letters have no sound at all. This vocabulary builder reminds us that humor can be found even in an English lesson!