Grade: 6

For any child thoughtful about growing up and who may be looking for a champion, Jeff Kinney has delivered it. In this hilarious diary told through the eyes of a “wimpy kid,” the author tells the story of middle-schooler Greg Heffley, whose friend Rowley begins to move up in the social sphere. Greg decides to take advantage of the situation, and while his and Rowley’s friendship is put to the test as a result, readers are laughing all the way. The first book in a series based on the author’s online comic, this is a knee-slapping read that keeps fans anxious for more.

In this novel, the noted animal author transports two brothers named Ryan and Nathan to a Jurassic world in which giant insects swoop and dive and a volcano simmers. Their adventures–including an encounter with a doting dinosaur who mistakes Nathan for her newly hatched baby–will captivate any reader who has ever wished to meet a dinosaur face to face.

It’s a zoo in here! Have you ever . . . Seen a Gritchen in your kitchen? Dared to dance with the One-Legged Zantz? Declined to dine with the Glub-Toothed Sline? You haven’t? Well then, step inside—but only if you are ready to be amazed, tickled, astonished and entertained by this most unusual bestiary of silly and scary creatures.

Will Windrider take to the skies? Moon shadow is eight years old when he sails from China to join his father, Windrider, in America. Windrider lives in San Francisco and makes his living doing laundry. Father and son have never met. But Moon Shadow grows to love and respect his father and to believe in his wonderful dream. And Windrider, with Moon Shadow’s help is willing to endure the mockery of the other Chinese, the poverty, the separation from his wife and country’even the great earthquake’to make his dream come true.

Eleven-year-old Elijah is the first child born into freedom in Buxton, Canada, a settlement of runaway slaves just over the border from Detroit. He’s best known in his hometown as the boy who made a memorable impression on Frederick Douglass. But things change when a former slave steals money from Elijah’s friend, who has been saving to buy his family out of captivity in the South. Elijah embarks on a dangerous journey to America in pursuit of the thief, and he discovers firsthand the unimaginable horrors of the life his parents fled—a life from which he’ll always be free, if he can find the courage to get back home.

At her birth, a fairy blesses baby Eleanor with the gift of obedience. But for Ella this is a curse. She must spend her life doing literally everything that is asked of her, from sweeping the floor to handing over valued jewelry. When her mother dies, her father sends her away to boarding school with two cruel sisters. Ella’s spunk keeps her afloat until she meets her charming prince, breaks the wicked spell, and begins her “happily ever after” life.

Esperanza’s life takes a turn when her father is killed on their ranch in Mexico. She has been used to fancy clothes and a lovely home with servants. Suddenly she finds herself living in Central California in a one-room shack with another family, working along with migrant farm workers. Esperanza learns about surviving and that family and community hold riches of their own.

“Hope is the thing with feathers” starts the poem Frannie is reading inschool. Frannie hasn’t thought much about hope. There are so many other things to think about. Each day, her friend Samantha seems a bit more “holy.” There is a new boy in class everyone is calling the Jesus Boy. And although the new boy looks like a white kid, he says he’s not white. Who is he?

During a winter full of surprises, good and bad, Frannie starts seeing a lot of things in a new light—her brother Sean’s deafness, her mother’s fear, the class bully’s anger, her best friend’s faith and her own desire for “the thing with feathers.”

Jacqueline Woodson once again takes readers on a journey into a young girl’s heart and reveals the pain and the joy of learning to look beneath the surface.