Book Finder

A field trip to the art museum becomes a mystery for the Breakfast Bunch to solve – perhaps without the help of Lunch Lady! Read more adventures of this unique superheroes team in Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians (opens in a new window), Lunch Lady and the Summer Camp Shakedown (opens in a new window), Lunch Lady and the Author Visit Vendetta (opens in a new window), and Lunch Lady and the Bake Sale Bandit (opens in a new window).

Meet the Breakfast Bunch: three regular kids, and their not-at-all-ordinary Lunch Lady! With the help of amazing and useful kitchen gadgets, Lunch Lady defeats a plot by cyborg subs to take Teacher of the Year Award. The launch of this graphic novel series for younger readers is sure to delight with its humor and recognizable situations.

This humorous and heartwarming novel takes place during the summer of 1962, when narrator Jack Gantos turns 12 and has been “grounded for life” by his parents. He takes on a summer job writing obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his Utopian town, Norvelt. Gantos expertly mixes truth and fiction in this book. For mature readers 9-12 and teens. (2012 Newbery Medal Winner)

Bits and pieces in Miranda’s life in New York City in 1978 mysteriously come together to reveal a surprising whole in which Miranda’s favorite book, Madeline L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time, figures prominently. (2010 Newbery Medal Winner)

Join Miss Pym’s students as they take a memorable train trip across the U.S. to a time and place where dinosaurs roamed. Humor and adventure combine as Miss Pym is horrified but her students delight in getting to know the huge creatures firsthand.

Gareth, Jason’s cat, knows that a cat’s nine lives are really nine trips. Since a cat can take a friend along, Jason & Gareth travel to long ago places and times. This modern classic is certain to intrigue readers while introducing them to a bit of history and historical sites.

The Great Depression changed everything for 11-year-old Oscar and his widowed dad. Oscar’s prized model trains are sold, his dad leaves Illinois to find work in California, and Oscar begins an adventure through time and places after he jumps onto a model train.

Annie and Jack travel to a long-ago Ireland to inspire Augusta to share her creativity with near calamitous results. How the sibling team solves the problem and achieves their mission is a worthy addition to the appealing Magic Tree House series.

It’s tough to be a scientist but especially hard when kids find out Fran’s middle name. To change it, Fran Kissypie Stein invents a machine to go back to change it with near-disastrous but with laugh out loud results.

Visit places and meet the characters who lived “once upon a time” during a dramatic moment from a well-known fairy tale. Highly detailed photographs accompanied by rhyme guide readers’ eyes. This book is sure to encourage multiple examinations.

Travel back in time with young Qwerty (aka Robert) as he finds research much more intriguing when it involves experiencing 1776 in person via a time machine. Action and humor bring the past alive in this fast-paced novel.

The narrator recalls his first Christmas in Japan and why his mother decorated a tree with a thousand paper cranes as she relives her holidays in California. Based on a family story, Say’s illustrations evoke a holiday in two cultures.

An elderly kamishibai man travels the route on which he once told stories using his paper theater. Though the city is now crowded and noisy, the children — now grown — remember and stop once more. A note about kamishibai and stunning illustrations create broad reader appeal.

Though Taro is known for his laziness, he is also clever and so finds a way to become wealthy. Realistic illustrations place Taro and his mother in a long ago Japan in this spritely retelling of a traditional trickster tale.

In this book, the supernatural is everywhere, and children of the Ojibwe First Nation learn the stories of their culture by living them — on a raft, catching a bird, or meeting a mysterious girl in the forest.

This summer vacation is different without father and the oldest Penderwick but offers lots of laughs along the way.

Nate’s prominence in his scout troop is threatened by a newcomer with hilarious results.

Chris’s life is complicated. At school, he’s been selected to lead a project on sports teams with Indian names. At home, where his father is battling alcoholism on the Penacook reservation, the Indians are divided about building a casino. It would destroy the beautiful island Chris thinks of as his own. What can one sixth-grade boy can do in the midst of so many challenges?

Bruchac frames 11 legends of Native American sacred places with a conversation between Little Turtle and his uncle, Old Bear, who says, “There are sacred places all around us…They are found in the East and in the North, in the South and in the West, as well as Above, Below, and the place Within.”…The text is printed in stanzas, enhancing the image of prose poems.

In this coming-of-age story, the children of the longhouse are 11-year-old Ohkwa’ri and Itsi:tsia. Twin brother and sister, they live in a Mohawk town in the traditional homelands of what is now eastern New York State in 1491. Reflecting the balance between male and female roles in Iroquois society, the book’s chapters alternate between the events and perspectives of Ohkwa’ri and Itsi:tsia, who very definitely see things differently. Bruchac seamlessly incorporates an impressive amount of information about pre-contact Mohawk culture, society, and beliefs, and tells a good story as well. — Oyate

An absurd but satisfying fantasy based on Eudora Welty’s only children’s work, is presented in lively music and narration.

Sophisticated listeners will appreciate the dramatic readings of Greek myths.

A guessing game is presented with die-cuts on sturdy board pages; the question is answered with a turn of the page. Bright but familiar colors and animals are used.

Puppies do lots of things including making a mess sometimes but what they do best is love the children in their lives. Motley children and their pets are lovingly depicted.