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 |
|
Atherton: The House of Power by Patrick Carman
Edgar lives in a place of three distinct worlds: The Highlands, Tabletop and The Flatlands. He has a vague memory of a voice telling him that there is something hidden in the rock walls separating The Highlands of Atherton from Tabletop. When he finds the message, he knows that he may be the only one who can save Atherton from destruction
Questions
Poster |
|
| Grades 6-8 |
|
Lone Star reading
list |
|
Breathe: A Ghost Story by Cliff McNish
Jack is no stranger to death–he’s been close before when his asthma threatened to overpower him. When he and his mother move into an old farmhouse, Jack actually begins to see the spirits of the Ghost Mother and the four ghost children she is terrorizing. As the Ghost Mother decides she wants a real child to love, Jack is drawn into a struggle with the Other World to save not only his life and his mother’s, but also to reunite the ghost children’s souls with their loved ones.
Questions
Poster
|
|
| High School |
|
Tayshas reading list |
 |
The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty
Bindy is super-smart, very helpful and has great advice–just ask her! Unfortunately, no one else feels the same way about her at all. It might be because she spends her time comparing her classmates with unflattering animals, or because she listens in on conversations, or even possibly because she sounds sort of like a horse. So when it comes time to figure out who’s trying to murder her, it may be too late to ask for help.
Questions
Poster
|
|
| Grades 3-5 |
| 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 |
| Chicken Boy by Frances O’Roark Dowell;
Questions |
| Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo by Obert Skye;
Questions |
Roxie and the Hooligans by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor;
Questions
|
| Grades 6-8 |
| 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 |
| Born to Rock by Gordon Korman;
Questions |
| Heat by Mike Lupica;
Questions |
Avalon High by Meg Cabot;
Questions
|
| High School |
| 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 |
| Monkey Town: The Summer of the Scopes Trial by Ronald Kidd;
Questions |
| Just Listen by Sarah Dessen;
Questions |
| The Road of the Dead by Kevin Brooks;
Questions |
