ALA Notable Children’s Books
“Founded on October 6, 1876 during the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, The American Library Association (ALA) is
the oldest and largest library association in the world. Each year a committee of the Association for Library Service to
Children (ALSC) identifies the best of the best in children's books. According to the Notables Criteria, "notable" is
defined as: Worthy of note or notice, important, distinguished, outstanding. As applied to children's books, notable
should be thought to include books of especially commendable quality, books that exhibit venturesome creativity, and
books of fiction, information, poetry and pictures for all age levels (birth through age 14) that reflect and encourage
children's interests in exemplary ways.” (http://www.ala.org/)
The following list includes ALA Notable selections from 2008-2014 that are appropriate for readers in 6th-8th grade. Many of
these are available in our local libraries. Under the column labeled library, you will find the designations (R), (A), and (E).
These designations stand for the Redding public library, the Anderson public library, and the Happy Valley Elementary
library. The books are also designated as fiction or nonfiction (F/NF). The column labeled A.R. delineates the books that are
currently on the Accelerated Reading list. Their corresponding point values are listed also.
TITLE
AUTHOR
A.R. LEVEL
POINTS
F/NF
LIBRARY
the Real John Henry
Scott Reynolds Nelson
6.6
2.0
NF
R
Afghan Dreams: Young Voices of Afghanistan
Tony O’Brien
4.7
1.0
NF
Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream
Tanya Lee Stone
7.1
4.0
NF
Ain’t Nothing But a Man: My Quest to Find
Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance
R
Of Amelia Earhart
Candace Fleming
6.6
5.0
NF
R
Anya’s Ghost
Vera Brosgol
2.3
1.0
F
R
Anything But Typical
Nora Raleigh Baskin
4.1
5.0
F
E
of the Universe
Benjamin Alire Saenze
2.9
8.0
F
R
The Arrival
Shaun Tan
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets
Becoming Ben Franklin: How a Candle-Maker’s Son
Helped Light the Flame of Liberty
Russell Freedman
8.4
4.0
NF
Between Shades of Gray
Ruta Sepetys
3.6
9.0
F
R, E
Doreen Rappaport
7.4
7.0
NF
R, A
Story of Evolution
Laurence Pringle
7.5
2.0
NF
R
Black Elk’s Vision: A Lakota Story
S.D. Nelson
5.0
1.0
NF
R
Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor
Larry Dane Brimner
8.7
4.0
NF
Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax Explosion of 1917
Sally M. Walker
7.9
4.0
NF
R
Bluefish
Pat Schmatz
4.0
6.0
F
A
Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems
John Grandits
3.5
1.0
F
James M. Deem
8.3
2.0
F
Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of the Jewish
Resistance During the Holocaust
Billions of Years, Amazing Changes: The
Black & White: The Confrontation Between Reverend
Bodies from the Ice: Melting Glaciers and the
Recovery of the Past
R
Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless
Years of Prohibition
Karen Blumenthal
9.1
5.0
NF
R
Brave Story
Miyuki Miyabe
4.9
43.0
F
Chains
Laurie Halse Anderson
5.2
11.0
NF
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
Marcia Williams
6.3
1.0
F
Chess Rumble
G. Neri
3.5
1.0
F
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
Phillip Hoose
6.8
5.0
NF
R
Countdown
Deborah Wiles
4.4
9.0
F
R, E
Counting by 7s
Holly Goldberg Sloan
5.6
10.0
F
R
Nickles, America’s First Black Paratroopers
Tanya Lee Stone
8.0
5.0
NF
R, A
Darius & Twig
Walter Dean Myers
4.6
5.0
F
R
Dead End in Norvelt
Jack Gantos
5.7
12.0
F
R, E
Departure Time
Matti Truus
4.2
8.0
F
Diego Rivera: An Artist for the People
Susan Goldman Rubin
7.1
1.0
NF
Drama
Raina Telgemeier
2.3
1.0
F
Drawing from Memory
Allen Say
4.1
1.0
NF
R
The Dreamer
Pam Munoz Ryan
4.6
4.0
F
R, E
The Elephant Scientist
Caitlin O’Connell
8.4
2.0
NF
Elijah of Buxton
Christopher Paul Curtis
5.4
12.0
F
R, A, E
Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple
Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln and the
R, E
Dawn of Liberty
Tonya Bolden
8.9
3.0
NF
Etiquette & Espionage
Gail Carriger
5.4
11.0
F
R, A
Far Far Away
Tom McNeal
5.3
14.0
F
R
Feathers
Jacqueline Woodson
4.4
4.0
F
R
Fever Crumb
Philip Reeve
6.7
13.0
F
R, E
The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman
Meg Wolitzer
5.2
9.0
F
R
The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette’s Journey to Cuba
Margarita Engle
6.2
11.0
F
R
Flyaway
Lucy Christopher
4.0
10.0
F
A Game for Swallows: To Die, to Leave, to Return
Zeina Abirached
3.4
1.0
NF
The Giant-Slayer
Iain Lawrence
4.8
11.0
F
Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design
Chip Kidd
The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio
Lloyd Alexander
4.6
9.0
F
R, E
Laura Amy Schlitz
5.6
2.0
F
R, E
Stupendous Life of Showman P.T. Barnum
Candace Fleming
7.0
5.0
NF
R
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
J.K. Rowling
6.9
34.0
F
R, A, E
Heart of a Samurai
Margi Preus
5.4
8.0
F
R
Here Lies Arthur
Philip Reeve
5.6
11.0
F
R
Hidden
Helen Frost
3.9
3.0
F
The House Baba Built: An Artist’s Childhood in China
Ed Young
5.6
1.0
NF
NF
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a
Medieval Village
The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous,
R
How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of
the Awfully Famous
Georgia Bragg
6.8
4.0
NF
R
The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
5.3
15.0
F
R, A, E
Pirate Shipwreck
Margarita Engle
6.6
1.0
F
An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warmng
Al Gore
7.4
2.0
NF
Stuart Ross
7.9
4.0
NF
Never-Ending Search for a Cure
Jim Murphy
9.5
4.0
NF
R
Jefferson’s Sons: A Founding Father’s Secret Children
Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
3.9
11.0
F
R
Keeping the Night Watch
Hope Anita Smith
3.6
1.0
F
R
Lafayette and the American Revolution
Russell Freedman
8.4
3.0
NF
Leviathan
Scott Westerfeld
5.3
12.0
F
Abraham and Mary
Candace Fleming
8.1
14.0
NF
The Living
Matt de la Pena
5.0
11.0
F
R
The Lost Conspiracy
Frances Hardinge
6.8
22.0
F
R
Lost & Found
Shaun Tan
5.6
0.5
F
R
March: Book One
John Lewis & Andrew Aydin
4.6
1.0
NF
Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean
A
Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found
Their Way by Land, Sea, and Air
Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the
R
The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at
Marching for Freedom: Walk Together, Children,
And Don’t You Grow Weary
Elizabeth Partridge
6.6
3.0
NF
R
Jennifer Holm
4.7
1.0
F
R, E
And Little Misses of Color
Elizabeth Alexander
5.9
0.5
F
Mockingbird
Kathryn Erskine
3.6
5.0
F
R, A
A Monster Calls: A Novel
Patrick Ness
4.8
5.0
F
R
Moon Over Manifest
Clare Vanderpool
5.3
12.0
F
R
Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11
Brian Floca
4.8
0.5
NF
R
Moribito II: Guadian of the Darkness
Nahoko Uehashi
5.9
9.0
F
R
Mother Poems
Hope Anita Smith
Thomas B. Allen
8.9
7.0
NF
Reform, and Invent Investigative Journalism
Ann Bausum
9.2
3.0
NF
Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein
Susan Goldman Rubin
7.0
4.0
NF
My Family for the War
Anne C. Voorhoeve
6.2
17.0
F
R
My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece
Annabel Pitcher
5.2
9.0
F
R, A
Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf:
A Year Told Through Stuff
Miss Crandall’s School for Young Ladies
Mr. Lincoln’s High-Tech War: How the North Used
The Telegraph, Railroads, Surveillance Balloons,
Ironclads, High-Powered Weapons, and More
To Win the Civil War
Muckrakers: How Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair, and
Lincoln Steffens Helped Expose Scandal, Inspire
Nation
Terry Pratchett
5.2
16.0
F
Navigating Early
Clare Vanderpool
5.2
11.0
F
R
Never Forgotten
Patricia McKissack
4.1
0.5
F
R
The New Policeman
Kate Thompson
5.1
8.0
F
R, A, E
90 Miles to Havana
Enrique Flores-Galbis
4.8
10.0
F
R
Nothing
Janne Teller
6.1
5.0
F
R
Okay for Now
Gary D. Schmidt
4.9
11.0
F
R, E
One Came Home
Amy Timberlake
4.8
9.0
F
R
Paperboy
Vince Vawter
5.1
8.0
F
R
Juan Francisco Manzano
Margarita Engle
6.3
2.0
NF
R
Queen of Hearts
Martha Brooks
4.4
6.0
F
R
Musical Instrument Makers
Susan VanHecke
8.0
6.0
NF
Reaching Out
Francisco Jimenez
6.1
7.0
NF
R
Red Moon at Sharpsburg
Rosemary Wells
4.7
8.0
F
R
Return to Sender
Julia Alvarez
5.5
11.0
F
R
The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano
Sonia Manzano
4.6
6.0
F
Revolution is Not a Dinner Party
Ying Chang Compestine
4.7
6.0
F
R, E
Rex Zero and the End of the World
Tim Jones-Wynne
4.1
6.0
F
R
The Rock and the River
Kekla Magoon
3.9
8.0
F
The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of
Raggin’, Jazzin’, Rockin’: A History of American
The Scorpio Races
Maggie Stiefvater
5.5
17.0
F
R, E
Seraphina
Rachel Hartman
6.0
18.0
F
R
Ship Breaker
Paolo Bacigalupi
4.4
11.0
F
R, A
Sita’s Ramayana
Samhita Arni
4.6
1.0
F
Son
Lois Lowry
5.0
11.0
F
R
Son of a Gun
Anne de Graaf
4.7
3.0
The Hubble Telescope Saw
Elaine Scott
8.6
2.0
NF
R
Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different
Karen Blumenthal
8.2
9.0
NF
R
Stones for My Father
Trilby Kent
6.3
7.0
F
Magarita Engle
6.4
2.0
F
R, E
R
Space, Stars, and the Beginning of Time: What
The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s
Struggle for Freedom
Sweethhearts of Rhythm: The Story of the Greatest
All-Girl Swing Band in the World
Marilyn Nelson
Tales from Outer Suburbia
Shaun Tan
6.5
1.0
F
Tall Story
Candy Gourlay
4.3
7.0
F
Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood
Ibtisam Barakat
5.8
7.0
NF
Embraced Autism and Changed the World
Sy Montgomery
7.0
4.0
NF
Terezin: Voices from the Holocaust
Ruth Thomson
7.0
2.0
NF
Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows
They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of
R
an American Terrorist Group
Susan Campbell Bartoletti
9.2
7.0
NF
R
Tiger Moon
Antonia Michaelis
6.0
15.0
F
R
A Time for Miracles
Anne-Laure Bondoux
4.7
5.0
F
Tofu Quilt
Ching Yeung Russell
5.0
1.0
F
of Ocean Motion
Loree Griffin Burns
8.5
2.0
NF
Troll’s Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales
Ellen Datlow
5.6
6.0
F
in the Wild, Wild West
Sid Fleischman
7.5
5.0
NF
R
Truce: The Day the Soldiers Stopped Fighting
Jim Murphy
8.2
2.0
NF
R
Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature’s Survivors
Joyce Sidman
7.9
1.0
NF
R
Under the Mesquite
Guadalupe Garcia McCall
5.7
3.0
F
Waiting for Normal
Leslie Connor
3.7
7.0
F
R, E
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain
Peter Sis
5.2
1.0
NF
R
Washington at Valley Forge
Russell Freedman
8.8
3.0
NF
R
Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science
R, E
The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain
The Way We Work: Getting to Know the Amazing
Human Body
David Macaulay
We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball
Kadir Nelson
5.9
3.0
NF
R
The Wednesday Wars
Gary Schmidt
5.9
12.0
F
R, E
We Shall Overcome: A Song That Changed the World
Stuart Stotts
7.6
2.0
NF
R
We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham
NF
Children’s March
Cynthia Y. Levinson
7.4
8.0
NF
Who Was First? Discovering the Americas
Russell Freedman
8.6
3.0
NF
Wild Things
Clay Carmichael
5.3
9.0
F
7.8
4.0
NF
Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem Rosalyn Schanzer
R
Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown
and Colonial Maryland
Sally M. Walker
9.0
6.0
NF
R
Years of Dust: The Story of the Dustbowl
Albert Marrin
7.4
4.0
NF
Yummy: The Last Days of Southside Shorty
G. Neri
3.4
1.0
F