Want to encourage your students to read for leisure and get more out of their reading? Every month we’ll choose one book
from each of three reading lists compiled by the Texas Library Association
and provide printable questions you can use with students for reflection or discussion. We’ll also link you to the Texas
Library Association’s selections for preschool through grade 2.
| Preschool - Grade
2 |
|
2008 2x2 Reading List and
activities |
| Grades 3-5 |
|
Texas Bluebonnet
Award reading list |
|
Just Grace by Charise Mericle Harper
There are four girls named Grace in the same third-grade class. When Miss Lois asks Grace what she wants to be called, her reply is, “just Grace”—and the name sticks. Grace prides herself in empathizing with others, but her attempt at helping her neighbor feel better about her lost cat backfires.
Questions
Poster |
|
| Grades 6-8 |
|
Lone Star reading
list |
|
Schooled by Gordon Korman
Cap lives in isolation with his grandmother, a former hippie, but when she falls from a tree and breaks her hip, Cap is sent to a foster home where he has his first experience with public school.
Questions
Poster
|
|
| High School |
|
Tayshas reading list |
 |
Incantation by Alice Hoffman
During the Spanish Inquisition, 16-year-old Estrella, brought up a Catholic, discovers her family’s true Jewish identity, and when their secret is betrayed by Estrella’s best friend, the consequences are tragic.
Questions
Poster
|
|
| Grades 3-5 |
| Team Moon by Catherine Thimmesh;
Questions |
| One-Handed Catch by Mary Jane Auch; Questions |
| Atherton: The House of Power by Patrick Carman;
Questions |
| Toys Go Out: Being the Adventures of a Knowledgeable Stingray, a Toughy Little Buffalo and Someone Called Plastic by Emily Jenkins;
Questions |
| Crossing Bok Chitto by Tim Tingle;
Questions |
| Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen;
Questions |
| Way Down Deep by Ruth White;
Questions |
| The Thing About Georgie by Lisa Graff;
Questions |
| How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O’Connor;
Questions |
The Earth Dragon Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 by Laurence Yep;
Questions
|
| Grades 6-8 |
| The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart;
Questions |
| Dark Water Rising by Marian Hale; Questions |
| Breathe: A Ghost Story by Cliff McNish;
Questions |
| The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt;
Questions |
| The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney by Suzanne Harper;
Questions |
| Peak by Roland Smith;
Questions |
| Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf: A Year Told Through Stuff by Jennifer Holm;
Questions |
| Chance Fortune and the Outlaws by Shane Berryhill;
Questions |
| What the Moon Saw by Laura Resau;
Questions |
Home, and Other Big, Fat Lies by Jill Wolfson;
Questions
|
| High School |
| Revolution is Not a Dinner Party by Ying Chang Compestine;
Questions |
| Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood by Ibtisam Barakat; Questions |
| The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty;
Questions |
| Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin;
Questions |
| Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson;
Questions |
| Enter Three Witches by Caroline B. Cooney;
Questions |
| The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield;
Questions |
| Blood Brothers by S.A. Harazin;
Questions |
| Tamar by Mal Peet;
Questions |
| Tallulah Falls by Christine Fletcher;
Questions |
