Book-a-Trip Across the U.S.A.!
Why are you
planning on staying home
when you can travel all over the U.S.A.?
Chapter books are in blue letters.
Easy-chapter or picture books are in red letters.Why not start with California, our home state, and work you way out?
Alabama - Massachussettes and California
For : Michigan - Wyoming and Washington D.C.
California
Bandit's Moon - Sid Fleischman. Twelve-year-old Annyrose, left behind when her brother joins the Gold Rush, escapes the unscrupulous woman she is staying with and sets out on a grand adventure with the notorious bandit Joaquin Murieta and his band of outlaws.
Cat Running - Zilpha Keatley Snyder. When eleven-year-old Cat Kinsey builds a secret hideout to escape her unhappy homelife, she slowly gets to know a poor family who have come to California after losing their Texas home to the dust storms of the 1930s.
The Circuit ; stories from the life of a migrant child - Francisco Jiménez. Explores a migrant family's experiences moving through labor camps, facing poverty and impermanence, and discusses how they endure through faith, hope, and back-breaking work.
A Crazy Mixed Up Spanglish Day - Marissa Montes. In Northern California, Maritza Gabriela Morales Mercado struggles to deal with the third grade bully, to control her temper, and to remember to speak Spanish at home and English at school.
Dragonwings - Laurence Yep. In the early twentieth century a young Chinese boy joins his father in San Francisco and helps him realize his dream of making a flying machine.
Earthquake in the Early Morning - Mary Pope Osborne. The magic tree house takes Jack and Annie to San Francisco in 1906, in time for them to experience one of the biggest earthquakes the United States had ever known.
Earthquake Terror - Peg Kehret. When an earthquake hits the isolated island in northern California where his family had been camping, twelve-year-old Jonathan Palmer must find a way to keep himself, his partially paralyzed younger sister, and their dog alive until help arrives.
Esperanza Rising - Pam Muñoz-Ryan. Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.
Grandfather's Journey - Allen Say. A Japanese-American man recounts his grandfather's journey to America, which he later also undertakes, and the feelings of being torn by a love for two different countries.
Island of the Blue Dolphins - Scott O'Dell. Records the courage and self-reliance of an Indian girl who lived alone for eighteen years on an isolated island off the California coast when her tribe emigrated and she was left behind.
The Mystery on the California Mission Trail - Carole Marsh. Christina, Grant, Shelly, and Allison travel along California's historic Old Mission Trail, hoping to solve a mystery that has them all completely baffled.
One Crazy Weekend - Gary Soto. After their photograph of a robbery is published in the newspaper, Hector and Mando find themselves pursued by two goofy thieves.
Real : a novel - Felice Holman. In 1932, while exploring the California desert, Colly finds a Cahuilla Indian boy and his grandmother, who are trapped in a Forever Day that they are constantly repeating from their lives in 1774.
Riding Freedom - Pam Muñoz-Ryan. A fictionalized account of Charley (Charlotte) Parkhurst who ran away from an orphanage, posed as a boy, moved to California, and fooled everyone by her appearance.
Smokey Night - Eve Bunting. When the Los Angeles riots break out in the streets of their neighborhood, a young boy and his mother learn the values of getting along with others no matter what their background or nationality.
Stranger in Dadland - Amy Goldman Koss. Twelve-year-old John develops a new understanding of his divorced father during an eventful summer visit to California.
Zia - Scott O'Dell. A young Indian girl, Zia, caught between the traditional world of her mother and the present world of the Mission, is helped by her aunt Karana whose story was told in the Island of the Blue Dolphins.
Non-Fiction in California
G is for Golden ; a California Alphabet - David Domeniconi. An alphabet of things characteristic of the state of California, which consists of a short rhyme for each letter followed by further explanation of the item associated with that letter and its place in California history.
Forever Amber Brown - Paula Danzinger. Amber's life has changed dramatically: her parents are divorced, her father lives in France, her best friend has moved to another state, and now her mother must decide whether to remarry.
Picture Book of Rosa Parks - David Adler. A biography of the Alabama African-American woman whose refusal to give up her seat on a bus helped establish the civil rights movement.
Run Away Home - Patricia McKissack. In 1886 in Alabama, an eleven-year-old African-American girl and her family befriend and give refuge to a runaway Apache boy.
The Watsons Go To Birmingham - Christopher Curtis. The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African-American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
Alaska
The Bravest Dog Ever : The True Story of Balto - by Natalie Standiford. Recounts the life of Balto, the sled dog who braved a snowstorm to deliver medicine to Nome, Alaska, during a 1925 diphtheria epidemic.
Call of the Wild - Jack London. The adventures of an unusual dog, part St. Bernard, part Scotch shepherd, that is forcibly taken to the Klondike gold fields where he eventually becomes the leader of a wolf pack.
Child of the Wolves - Elizabeth Hall. Gentle Ben - Walt Morey. Traces the friendship between a boy and a bear in the rugged Alaskan Territory.
Gentle Ben - Walt Morey. Traces the friendship between a boy and a bear in the rugged Alaskan Territory.
Julie of the Wolves - George, Jean. While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack.
Kavik the Wolf Dog - Walt Morey.
Annie and the Old One - Miska Miles. A Navajo girl unravels a day's weaving on a rug whose completion, she believes, will mean the death of her grandmother.
Brighty of the Grand Canyon - Margueite Henry. A little burro roams the Grand Canyon, hobnobbing with geologists, artists, and map makers.
Coyote School News - Joan Sandin. In 1938-1939, fourth-grader Monchi Ramirez and the other students at Coyote School enjoy their new teacher, have a special Christmas celebration, participate in the Tucson Rodeo Parade, and produce their own school newspaper.
Roxaboxen - by Alice McLerran. A picture book that is based on fact in Yuma, Arizona: A hill covered with rocks and wooden boxes becomes an imaginary town for Marian, her sisters, and their friends.
Mystery of the Lost Mine - Gertrude Warner. On a camping trip to Arizona with their grandfather, the Alden children search for a lost gold mine.
Tarantula Shoes - Tom Birdseye. After moving from Arizona to Kentucky with his parents, his five-year-old twin brother and sister, and his pet tarantula, Fang, an eleven-year-old works creatively to earn the money for a special pair of basketball shoes that will help him feel accepted.
Get Out of Here, Phillip Hall - Bette Greene. While trying to outdo Philip Hall, Beth learns an important but painful lesson about leadership.
Philip Hall Likes Me I Reckon Maybe - Bette Greene. Eleven-year-old Beth thinks that Philip Hall likes her, but their on-again, off-again relationship sometimes makes her wonder.
Summer of My German Soldier - Bette Greene. Sheltering an escaped German prisoner of war is the beginning of some shattering experiences for a twelve-year-old Jewish girl in Arkansas.
Beardance - Will Hobbs. While accompanying an elderly rancher on a trip into the San Juan Mountains, Cloyd, a Ute Indian boy, tries to help two orphaned grizzly cubs survive the winter and, at the same time, completes his spirit mission.
Bearstone - Will Hobbs. Sequel: Beardance. A troubled Indian boy goes to live with an elderly rancher whose caring ways help the boy become a man.
Dreamplace - George Lyon. A young visitor visiting the city that the Pueblo built describes the ruins where the Anasazi lived long ago.
Prairie School - Avi. In 1880, Noah's aunt teaches him how to read as they explore the Colorado prairie together, as Noah pushes Aunt Dora in her wheelchair.
The Secret School - Avi. In 1925, fourteen-year-old Ida Bidson secretly takes over as the teacher when the one-room schoolhouse in her remote Colorado area closes unexpectedly.
The Courage of Sarah Noble - Alice Dalgliesh. Remembering her mother's words, an eight-year-old girl finds courage to go alone with her father to build a new home in the Connecticut wilderness and to stay with the Indians when her father goes back to bring the rest of the family.
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - E. L. Konigsburg. Having run away with her younger brother to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, twelve-year-old Claudia strives to keep things in order in their new home and to become a changed person and a heroine to herself.
A Light in the Forest - Conrad Richter. After being raised as an Indian for eleven years following his capture at the age of four, John Butler is forcibly returned to his white parents but continues to long for the freedom of Indian life.
McBroom Tells the Truth - Sid Fleishman. An unfortunate land investment turns out to be a wonderful one-acre farm.
Revolutionary War on Wednesday - Mary Pope Osborne. A Magic Treehouse book. Using their magic tree house, Jack and Annie travel back to the time of the American Revolution and help General George Washington during his famous crossing of the Delaware River.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Elizabeth George Speare. In 1687 in Connecticut, Kit Tyler, feeling out of place in the Puritan household of her aunt, befriends an old woman considered a witch by the community and suddenly finds herself standing trial for witchcraft.
A Light in the Storm: the Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin - Karen Hesse. In 1860 and 1861, while working in her father's lighthouse on an island off the coast of Delaware, fifteen-year-old Amelia records in her diary how the Civil War is beginning to devastate her divided state.
A Light in the Forest - Conrad Richter. After being raised as an Indian for eleven years following his capture at the age of four, John Butler is forcibly returned to his white parents but continues to long for the freedom of Indian life.
District of Columbia
Arthur Meets the President - Marc Brown. Arthur's essay wins a contest and he has to read it to the President in a special ceremony at the White House.
Double Fudge - Judy Blume. His younger brother's obsession with money and the discovery of long-lost ocusins Flora and Fauna provide many embarrassing moments for twelve-year-old Peter.
Spring Break - Johanna Hurwitz. Cricket's spring break turns out to be pretty eventful, even though her broken ankle means she cannot go to Washington, D.C. with her best friend as they had planned.
The Mystery in Washington, D.C. - Gertrude Chandler Warner. The Alden children suspect that the other guests are somehow involved when things begin to disappear at the bed and breakfast where they are staying in Washington, D.C.
The Wall - Eve Bunting. A boy and his father come from far away to visit the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington and find the name of the boy’s grandfather, who was killed in the conflict.
Because of Winn-Dixie - Kate DiCamillo. A fictional journal in which eleven-year-old Minnie Swift tells how her family dealt with the difficult times during the Depression and how the arrival of an orphan from Texas changed their lives in Indianapolis just before Christmas 1932.
Bigmama's - by Donald Crews - Children's author Donald Crews recalls a childhood visit to Bigmama's house in the country, where he finds his relatives full of news and the old place and its surroundings just the same as the year before.
The Boy Who Loved Alligators - Barbara Kennedy. After moving to Orlando, Florida, and befriending an alligator because he considers it to be as ugly and unwanted as he is, Jim starts to feel differently about his life.
The Goose's Gold - Ron Roy. When Ruth Rose and her friends, vacationing in Florida, discover that her grandmother is about to invest in a project to recover sunken treasure, they stumble upon evidence that the entire plan may be a fraud.
Hoot - Carl Hiaason. Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.
Flush - Carl Hiaason. With their father is jailed for sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his younger sister, Abbey, must gather evidence that the owner of this floating casino is emptying his bilge tanks into the protected waters around their Florida Keys home.
The Nixie's Song - Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. Eleven-year-old Nicholas Vargas's life is turned upside-down when his father remarries and moves him and his new family to Florida; but when an expedition to a nearby lake turns up a little Nixie, Nick, his brother Julian, and step-sister Laurie have to figure out a way to stop a horde of rampaging giants. Book one of three.
Panther Mystery. Gertrude Chandler Warner. When the Alden children and their grandfather visit Everglades National Park in Florida to solve the mystery of a missing ranger, they discover that a panther provides a clue.
Sam the Sea Cow. Francine Jacobs. Follows the adventures of a manatee, or sea cow, from birth till after he leaves his mother.
Shortcut - Donald Crews. Children taking a shortcut by walking along a railroad track find excitement and danger when a train approaches.
Halfway to the sky - Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. After her brother dies and her parents get a divorce, twelve-year-old Katahdin sets out to hike the whole Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine on her own.
The Hidden Harbor Mystery - Franklin Dixon. Despite attempts against their lives, Frank and Joe accept a case involving the most powerful man in a small town in Georgia and an allegation of piracy and smuggling.
Kira-Kira - Cynthia Kodohata. Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair when one sister becomes terminally ill.
Pink and Say - Patricia Polacco. Say Curtis describes his meeting with Pinkus Aylee, an African-American soldier, during the Civil War and their capture by Southern troops.
The PeeWee Jubilee - by Judy Delton. The Pee Wee Scouts and their parents fly to Atlanta, Georgia, for the first ever Pee Wee jubilee.
Turn Homeward, Hannalee - Patricia Beatty. Twelve-year-old Hannalee Reed, forced to relocate to Indiana along with other Georgia millworkers during the Civil War, leaves her mother with a promise to return home as soon as the war ends.
The Broccoli tapes - Jan Slepian. During a stay of several months in Hawaii with her family, Sara reports her experiences by tape back to her sixth grade class in Boston, detailing her "adoption" of a wild cat, a friendship with a troubled Hawaiian boy, and the death of a beloved grandmother.
High Tide in Hawaii - Mary Pope Osborne. A Magic Tree House Series. Jack and Annie travel in their Magic Tree House back to a Hawaiian island of long ago where they make friends, learn how to surf, and encounter a tsunami.
Kaiulani: The People’s Princess (Royal Diaries: Hawaii, 1889) - Ellen Emerson White. Follows the life of Victoria Kaiulani Cleghorn from 1889 to 1893 as she studies to be a better princess, even as Hawaii's monarchy, and her throne, are being undermined by American businessmen.
Love, Ruby Lavender - Deborah Wiles. When her quirky grandmother goes to Hawaii for the summer, nine-year-old Ruby learns to survive on her own in Mississippi by writing letters, befriending chickens as well as the new girl in town, and finally coping with her grandfather's death.
Pearl Harbor is burning! : a story of World War II - Kathleen V. Kudlinski. Once Upon America Series. When his family moves to Hawaii in 1941, Frank feels out of place until he makes friends with a Japanese American boy--the day before the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Summer School! What Genius Thought That Up? - Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver. Stuck in summer school while his friends enjoy a "Passport to Hawaii," Hank needs to earn an A on an oral report about Einstein in order to participate in Magik 3's talent show act at the luau extravaganza.
Jenny of the Tetons - Kristiana Gregory. Orphaned by an Indian raid while traveling West with a wagon train, fifteen-year-old Carrie Hill is befriended by the English trapper Beaver Dick and taken to live with his Indian wife Jenny and their six children.
Tucker - Tom Birdseye. Eleven-year-old Tucker likes his life with his divorced father, until the nine-year-old sister he has not seen in years moves back in with them and claims that their mother wants them to become one family again.
Walk Two Moons - Sharon Creech. After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left.
Across Five Aprils - Irene Hunt. During the Civil War, nine-year-old Jethro must run the family farm in southern Illinois almost alone.
Cicada Summer - Andrea Beaty. Twelve-year-old Lily, believing she could have prevented the accident that caused her brother's death, has quit speaking leaving everyone to think that she is brain damaged, but in her silence she sees everything, and when sly newcomer Tinny comes to town, Lily suddenly has a lot to talk about--if only she can make herself speak the words.
Fair Weather - Richard Peck. In 1893, thirteen-year-old Rosie and members of her family travel from their Illinois farm to Chicago to visit Aunt Euterpe and attend the World's Columbian Exposition which, along with an encounter with Buffalo Bill and Lillian Russell, turns out to be a life-changing experience for everyone.
Game 3 : The Windy City - Loren Long & Phil Bildner. At the turn of the twentieth century, the Travelin' Nine baseball team travels to Chicago to play another game to earn money to pay off the Payne family's debts, and have another confrontation with the Chancellor.
The Great Fire - Jim Murphy. Photographs and text, along with personal accounts of actual survivors tell the story of the great fire of 1871 in Chicago.
Here Lies the Librarian - Richard Peck. Fourteen-year-old Eleanor "Peewee" McGrath, a tomboy and automobile enthusiast, discovers new possibilities for her future after the 1914 arrival in her small Indiana town of four young librarians.
A Long Way from Chicago - Richard Peck. A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to visit their larger-than-life grandmother.
On the Wings of Heroes - Richard Peck. A boy in Illinois remembers the homefront years of World War II, especially his two heroes--his brother in the Air Force and his father, who fought in the previous war.
Oprah Winfrey: Television Star - Steven Otfinoski. The life and career of the black talk show host who has become one of the most successful women in television.
Project Mulberry - While working on a project for an after-school club, Julia, a Korean American girl, and her friend Patrick learn not just about silkworms, but also about tolerance, prejudice, friendship, patience, and more. Between the chapters are short dialogues between the author and main character about the writing of the book.
Ruth Law Thrills a Nation - Don Brown. Describes the record-breaking flight of a daring woman pilot, Ruth Law, from Chicago to New York in 1916.
Sing a Song of Tuna Fish : Hard-to-Swallow Stories from the Fifth Grade - Esme Raji Codell. The egg patrol -- My neighborhood -- A different kind of schooling -- It snowed and it snowed and it snowed -- Stealing the Afikomen -- Love has no experts -- Grandma's fun house. Provides fictionalized anecdotes of the author's childhood as a ten-year old living in Chicago.
The Teacher's Funeral - Richard Peck. In rural Indiana in 1904, fifteen-year-old Russell's dreams of quitting school and joining a wheat threshing crew are disrupted when his older sister takes over the teaching at his one-room schoolhouse after mean old Myrt Arbuckle "hauls off and dies."
The Wright 3 - Blue Balliett. In the midst of a series of unexplained accidents and mysterious coincidences, sixth-graders Calder, Petra, and Tommy lead their classmates in an attempt to keep Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Robie House (Chicago, IL) from being demolished.
A Year Down Yonder - Richard Peck. During the recession of 1937, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice is sent to live with her feisty, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois and comes to a better understanding of this fearsome woman.
Christmas After All : the Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift - Kathryn Lasky. A fictional journal in which eleven-year-old Minnie Swift tells how her family dealt with the difficult times during the Depression and how the arrival of an orphan from Texas changed their lives in Indianapolis just before Christmas 1932.
The Teacher's Funeral : a Comedy in Three Parts - Richard Peck. In rural Indiana, in 1904, Russell's dreams of quitting school and joining a wheat-threshing crew are disrupted when his older sister takes over the teaching of his one-room schoolhouse after mean old Myrt Arbuckle "hauls off and dies."
Treasure of Bessledorf Hill : Bernie Magruder & the pirate's treasure - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. The people of Middleburg search for buried treasure around Bessledorf Hill and the Bessledorf Hotel.
Addie's forever friend - Laurie Lawlor. Sequel to: Addie across the prairie. While her father is looking for a homestead in the Dakotas, Addie and her mother and brothers spend the summer with her aunt and uncle in Sabula, Iowa, where she rescues her best friend during a flood and where her baby sister is born.
Kate Shelley and the Midnight Express - Margaret Wetterer.
McBroom Tells TheTruth - Sid Fleischmann. An unfortunate land investment turns out to be a wonderful one-acre farm.
Mystery of Pony Hollow - Lynn Hall. While exploring her family's new farm on her pony, Sarah stumbles upon a skeleton and a supernatural mystery involving the ponies who lived there forty years ago.
The Princess in the Pigpen - Jane Thomas. Elizabeth, a duke's daughter sick with fever, travels through time from Elizabethan England to a farm in modern Iowa, where she has difficulty convincing anyone of the truth of her story.
100 Cupboards - Nathan D. Wilson. Twelve-year-old Henry York and his cousin Henrietta discover 100 hidden portals to other worlds in the bedroom wall of his aunt and uncle's house.
Hard Times on the Prairie - Melissa Peterson. Laura Ingalls and her pioneer family struggle against hardships on the Kansas frontier, including a prairie fire, a grasshopper invasion, and a blizzard. Adapted from the Little house books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
In the Face of Danger - Joan Lowery Nixon. Deeply unhappy about her family's separation because of poverty, Megan gradually finds contentment and purpose in her new home on the Kansas prairie with a kind and loving adopted family.
Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder. A family travels from the big woods of Wisconsin to a new home on the prairie, where they build a house, meet neighboring Indians, build a well, and fight a prairie fire.
The Wizard of Oz - Frank L. Baum. After a cyclone transports her to the land of Oz, Dorothy must seek out the great Wizard in order to return to Kansas.
Chasing Redbird - Sharon Creech. Thirteen-year-old Zinnia Taylor uncovers family secrets and self truths while clearing a mysterious settler trail that begins on her family's farm in Kentucky.
Game 2 : River City - Loren Long and Phil Bildner. In 1899, the Travelin' Nine baseball team travels across the country playing games and earning enough money to pay off the Payne family's debts, when Griffith realizes there is more at stake than the family's finances if they don't win their next game.
Keeper of the Doves - by Betsy Byars. In the late 1800s in Kentucky, Amie McBee and her four sisters both fear and torment the reclusive and seemingly sinister Mr. Tominski, but their father continues to provide for his needs.
Sally Ann Thunder and Whirlwind Crockett - Steven Kellogg. Sally Ann, wife of Davy Crockett, fears nothing--and proves it when braggart Mike Fink tries to scare her.
Tarantula Shoes - Tom Birdseye. After moving from Arizona to Kentucky with his parents, his five-year-old twin brother and sister, and his pet tarantula, Fang, an eleven-year-old works creatively to earn the money for a special pair of basketball shoes that will help him feel accepted.
Non Fiction in Kentucky
Daniel Boone - by various authors. A biography of the pioneer who led the settlement of the area that is now Kentucky in the the late 1700s.
Blackwater Swamp - Bill Wallace. Having discovered the true nature of the old woman known as the Witch of Blackwater Swamp, fifth grader Ted must decide whether to come to her aid when she is accused of the thefts plaguing his small Louisiana town.
Home on the Bayou - G. Brian Karas. Because he loves cowboys but can't imagine one living in a swamp, Ned hates the move which he and his mom make to live with Grandpa near a bayou.
Mama Don't Allow - Thatcher Hurd. Miles and the Swamp Band have the time of their lives playing at the Alligator Ball, until they discover the menu includes Swamp Band soup.
A Million fish...More or Less - Patricia McKissack. A boy learns that the truth is often stretched on the Bayou Clapateaux, and gets the chance to tell his own version of a bayou tale when he goes fishing.
The Mystery of Alligator Swamp - Gertrude Chandler Warner. The Aldens investigate a Louisiana bayou to see if it is haunted by a ghostly alligator.
On the Banks of the Bayou - Roger Lea MacBride. When Rose moves to Louisiana to live with her aunt Eliza Jane to finish high school, she is exposed to new cultures, politics, and ways of life.
The Talking Eggs - Robert San Souci. A Southern folktale in which kind Blanche, following the instructions of an old witch, gains riches, while her greedy sister makes fun of the old woman and is duly rewarded.
Non-Fiction in Louisiana
The Story of Ruby Bridges - Robert Coles. For months six-year-old Ruby Bridges must confront the hostility of white parents when she becomes the first African American girl to integrate Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960.
Blueberries for Sal - Robert McCloskey. Little Sal and Little Bear both lose their mothers while eating blueberries and almost end up with the other's mother.
Calico Bush - Rachael Field. In 1742, Marguerite left France with her grandmother and uncle to seek a home in America. A year later, 13-year-old Marguerite is alone in the world and a "bound-out girl" on her way to Maine.
Following Fake Man - Barbara Ware Holmes. During his summer in Maine, twelve-year-old Homer, together with his new friend Roger, is determined to find the truth about himself, his long-dead father, and a mysterious costumed man.
Fudge-a-mania - Judy Blume. Pete describes the family vacation in Maine with the Tubmans, highlighted by the antics of his younger brother Fudge.
Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie - Peter Roop. In the winter of 1856, a storm delays the lighthouse keeper's return to an island off the coast of Maine, and his daughter Abbie must keep the lights burning by herself.
Halfway to the sky - Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. After her brother dies and her parents get a divorce, twelve-year-old Katahdin sets out to hike the whole Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine on her own.
One Morning in Maine - Robert McCloskey. Its a big day for Sally when she discovers her first loose tooth and makes a trip to the grocery store on the mainland.
Sign of the Beaver - Elizabeth George Speare. Left alone to guard the family's wilderness home in eighteenth-century Maine, a boy is hard-pressed to survive until local Indians teach him their skills.
Skylark - Patricia MacLachlan. When a drought tests the commitment of a mail-order bride from Maine to her new home on the prairie, her stepchildren hope they will be able to remain a family.
Time of Wonder - Robert McCloskey. Follows the activities of two children spending their summer vacation on an island off the coast of Maine.
The Young man and the sea - Philbrick, Rodman. After his mother's death, twelve-year-old Skiff Beaman decides that it is up to him to earn money to take care of himself and his father, so he undertakes a dangerous trip alone out on the ocean off the coast of Maine to try to catch a hugh bluefin tuna.
Aunt Flossie's Hats (and Crab Cakes Later) - by Elizabeth Howard. Includes an afterword with biographical information and photographs of the real Aunt Flossie. Sara and Susan share tea, cookies, crab cakes, and stories about hats when they visit their favorite relative, Aunt Flossie.
Anna All Year round - Mary downing Hahn. Eight-year-old Anna experiences a series of episodes, some that are funny, others sad, involving friends and family during a year in Baltimore just before World War I.
Chita's Christmas Tree - Elizabeth Howard. Papa and Chita leave downtown Baltimore in a buggy to find a Christmas tree in the deep woods.
Dicey's Song - Cynthia Voigt. Now that the four abandoned Tillerman children are settled in with their grandmother, Dicey finds that their new beginnings require love, trust, humor, and courage.
Non-Fiction in Maryland
A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman - David Adler. Biography of the African-American woman who escaped from slavery to become famous as a conductor on the Underground Railroad.
Alvin Ho : Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things - Lenore Look. A young boy in Concord, Massachusetts, who loves superheroes and comes from a long line of brave Chinese farmer-warriors, wants to make friends, but first he must overcome his fear of everything.
Amos Fortune, Free Man - Elizabeth Yates. The life of the eighteenth-century African prince who, after being captured by slave traders, was brought to Massachusetts where he was a slave until he was able to buy his freedom at the age of sixty.
Anastasia Krupnik - Lois Lowry. Anastasia's 10th year has some good things like falling in love and really getting to know her grandmother and some bad things like finding out about an impending baby brother.
Anastasia at Your Service - Lois Lowry.Twelve-year-old Anastasia has a series of disastrous experiences when, expecting to get a job as a lady's companion, she is hired instead to be a maid. Sequel to "Anastasia again."
Anastasia, Ask Your Analyst - Lois Lowry. Anastasia's seventh-grade science project becomes almost more than she can handle, but her brother Sam, age three, and a bust of Freud, aid her nobly.
The Bobbin Girl - Emily Arnold McCully. A ten-year-old bobbin girl working in a textile mill in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1830s, must make a difficult decision--whether or not she will participate in the first workers' strike in Lowell.
Comet's Nine Lives - Jan Brett. Comet the cat uses up eight of his nine lives trying to find the right place to live on Nantucket Island.
The Ghost Ship Mystery - Gertrude Chandler Warner. While visiting the seaport town of Ragged Cove, Massachusetts, the Alden children find the ship's log of the Flying Cloud, shipwrecked in 1869, supposedly during a mutiny.
An Island Far From Home - John Donahue. The twelve-year-old son of a Union army doctor killed during the fighting in Fredericksburg comes to understand the meaning of war and the fine line between friends and enemies when he begins corresponding with a young Confederate prisoner of war.
The Penderwicks : a summer tale of four sisters, two rabbits, and a very interesting boy - Jeanne Birdsall. While vacationing with their widowed father in the Berkshire Mountains, four lovable sisters, ages four through twelve, share adventures with a local boy, much to the dismay of his snobbish mother.
The Penderwicks on Gardam Street - Jeanne Birdsall. The four Penderwick sisters are faced with the unimaginable prospect of their widowed father dating, and they hatch a plot to stop him.
Make Way for Ducklings - Robert McCloskey. A family of mallard ducks searches for a new home in Boston.
The Penderwicks : a summer tale of four sisters, two rabbits, and a very interesting boy - Jeanne Birdsall. While vacationing with their widowed father in the Berkshire Mountains, four lovable sisters, ages four through twelve, share adventures with a local boy, much to the dismay of his snobbish mother.
She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head - Kathryn Lasky. A fictionalized account of the activities of Harriet Hemenway and Minna Hall, founders of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, a late-nineteenth-century group that would endure and have impact on the bird-protection movement.
Weetamoo, heart of the Pocassets - Patricia Clark Smith. The 1653-1654 diary of a fourteen-year-old Pocasset Indian girl, destined to become a leader of her tribe, describes how her life changes with the seasons, after a ritual fast she undertakes, and with her tribe's interaction with the English "Coat-men" of the nearby Plymouth Colony. One of the Royal Diaries series.
Non-Fiction in Massachusettes
Johnny Appleseed : a Tall Tale - Steven Kellogg. Presents a large-format version of the life of John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, describing his love of nature, his kindness to animals, and his physical fortitude.
For : Michigan - Wyoming and Washington D.C.
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