• Walking with Miss Millie” By Tamara Bundy             

After moving with her mother and deaf brother to Grandma's small Georgia town in the 1960s, Alice copes with feelings of isolation by befriending the elderly black woman who lives next door.

Reading level 5.6

“Island of the Blue Dolphins” By Scott O’Dell

Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl spends eighteen years, not only merely surviving through her enormous courage and self-reliance, but also finding a measure of happiness in her solitary life.

Reading level 5.5

“Get Out of Bed”   By Robert Munsch                                              

Amy's mother, father, brother, and the school principal use very unusual measures to try to get the sleepy girl out of bed.                                                                

“William and the Good Old Days”   By Eloise Greenfield                                                                                                                               

A little boy remembers his grandmother before she became ill, and during her long recovery he tries to imagine how things will be when she comes home from the hospital.

Reading level 3.5

“Fever 1793”   By Laurie Halse Anderson

Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced to cope with the horrors of the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793.

Reading level 6.0

 “Angels on a Pin”   By Barbara Helen Berger                                                                                           

The people living in a tiny city on a pin, thinking that theirs is the biggest city in the world but feeling lonesome, discover another city on another pin and rejoice that they are not alone.   Reading level 3.0

“Fancy Party Gowns”   By Deborah Blumenthal            

As soon as Ann Cole Lowe could walk, her momma and grandma taught her to sew. When her mom died, Ann continued sewing dresses. It was not easy, especially when she went to design school and had to learn alone, segregated from the rest of the class. However, the work she did set her spirit soaring, as evidenced in the clothes she made. Rarely credited, Ann Cole Lowe became 'society's best kept secret. 

Reading level 2.9

 “Allie, First at Last”   By Angela Cervantes                                                                                                    

Born into a family of over-achievers, fifth-grader Allie Velasco has never finished first in anything, and lately things have been going badly: her science project is ruined by a well-meaning student, her former best friend is hanging out with another girl--but now she is determined to win the Trailblazer contest with a photographic presentation about her great grandfather, the first Congressional Medal of Honor winner from their town.

Reading level 5.0

“Piecing Me Together”   By Renee Watson                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Tired of being singled out at her mostly-white private school as someone who needs support, high school junior Jade would rather participate in the school's amazing Study Abroad program than join Women to Women, a mentorship program for at-risk girls.

Reading level 6.9

“After Tupac & D Foster”  By  Jacqueline Woodson

In the New York City borough of Queens in 1996, three girls bond over their shared love of Tupac Shakur's music, as together they try to make sense of the unpredictable world in which they live.

 Reading level 7

“The Day You Begin”   By Jacqueline Woodson

Other students laugh when Rigoberto, an immigrant from Venezuela, introduces himself but later, he meets Angelina and discovers that he is not the only one who feels like an outsider.

 Reading level 1.8

“This is the Rope (A story from the Great Migration)”   By Jacqueline Woodson

A rope passed down through the generations frames an African American family's story as they journey north during the time of the Great Migration.

Reading level 3.4