Maury County Public Schools – Protected Choice Reading List grades 5-­‐8 – Revised April 2013 Grade Lexile Level 5 Common Core Exemplar CC (4-­‐5) Title Author FIC/ NF Annotation Ancient Mound Builders Kavash NF Not available.
Boy No More, A Mazer FIC After his father is killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, Adam, his
mother, and sister are evacuated from Hawaii to California, where he
must deal with his feelings about the war, Japanese internment camps,
his father, and his own identity.
The fate of a small California town rests on the outcome of one
baseball game, and Tom Gallagher hopes to lead his team to victory
with the secrets of the now disgraced player, Dante Del Gato.
The life of a ten-year-old boy in rural Virginia expands when he
becomes friends with a newcomer who subsequently meets an
untimely death trying to reach their hideaway, Terabithia, during a
storm.
5 Not Available 530 5 660 Boy Who Saved Baseball, The Ritter FIC 5 810 Bridge to Terabithia Paterson FIC 5 810 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Dahl FIC 5 810 CC (4-­‐5) History of US, A Hakim NF 5 930 CC (4-­‐5) Horses Simon NF 5 How the U.S. Government Works Immigrant Kids Sobel NF Explains the three branches of the federal government.
5 Not Available 1050 Freedman NF Text and photographs chronicle the life of immigrant children at
home, school, work, and play during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
5 990 CC (4-­‐5) Carlisle NF This activity book identifies ten steps to improve the counting of
children aged six to seven years old. It aims to help parents to
improve children's achievements at school.
5 940 Let’s Investigate Marvelously Meaningful Maps Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Lewis FIC 5 820 Maniac MaGee Spinelli FIC Introduces all kinds of maps including weather, topographic, road,
and undersea and explains such terms as scale, projections, symbols,
latitude, and longitude.
Four English schoolchildren find their way through the back of a
wardrobe into the magic land of Narnia and assist Aslan, the golden
Each of five children lucky enough to discover an entry ticket into
Mr. Willy Wonka's mysterious chocolate factory takes advantage of
the situation in his own way.
Master storyteller Joy Hakim has excited millions of young minds
with the great drama of American history in her award-winning series
A History of US. Hailed by reviewers, historians, educators, and
parents for its exciting, thought-provoking narrative, the books have
been recognized as a break-through tool in teaching history and
critical reading skills to young people.
A brief history of horses, their origin, how they have been used for
work, sports, and warfare, different kinds of horses, their physical
attributes, and breeding habits.
lion, to triumph over the White Witch, who has cursed the land with
eternal winter.
5 810 My Side of the Mountain George FIC With nowhere else to turn, a field mouse asks the clever escaped lab
rats living under the rosebush to help save her son, who lies in the
path of the farmer's tractor, too ill to be moved.
5 810 Summer of Monkeys Rawls FIC Ten-year-old Mary comes to live in a lonely house on the Yorkshire
moors and discovers an invalid cousin and the mysteries of a locked
garden.
5 Not Available CC (4-­‐5) They Were My People Nichols FIC When he finds a lost beagle in the hills behind his West Virginia
home, Marty tries to hide it from his family and the dog's real owner,
a mean-spirited man known to shoot deer out of season and to
mistreat his dogs.
5 770 CC (4-­‐5) Tuck Everlasting Babbitt FIC In rural Oklahoma at the turn of the century, fourteen-year-old Jay
Berry Lee discovers a tree full of monkeys, a find that leads to a
summer that teaches him about life.
5 900 CC (4-­‐5) Nelson NF Explores the history of Negro League baseball teams, discussing
owners, players, hardships, wins, and losses.
6 620 We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball Al Capone Shines My Shoes Choldenko FIC 6 700 Always War, The Haddix FIC 6 690 Archer’s Quest Park FIC 6 850 Bloomability Creech FIC Explores the history of Negro League baseball teams, discussing
owners, players, hardships, wins, and losses.
6 1180 Brian’s Hunt Paulsen FIC Moose Flanagan, who lives on Alcatraz along with his family and the
families of the other prison guards, is frightened when he discovers
that noted gangster Al Capone, a prisoner there, wants a favor in
return for the help that he secretly gave Moose.
6 1030 Brian’s Return Paulsen FIC In a war-torn future United States, fifteen-year-old Tessa, her
childhood friend Gideon, now a traumatized military hero, and Dek, a
streetwise orphan, enter enemy territory and discover the shocking
truth about a war that began more than seventy-five years earlier.
6 1120 CC 6-­‐8 Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction Maccaulay NF Text and detailed drawings follow the planning and construction of a
magnificent Gothic cathedral in the imaginary French town of
Chutreaux during the thirteenth century.
The Tuck family is confronted with an agonizing situation when they
discover that a ten-year-old girl and a malicious stranger now share
their secret about a spring whose water prevents one from ever
growing any older
In a war-torn future U.S. fifteen-year-old Tessa, her childhood friend
Gibson, now a traumatized military hero, and Dek, a streetwise
orphan, enter enemy territory and discover the shocking truth about a
war that began more than seventy-five years earlier.
Twelve-year-old Kevin Kim helps Chu-mong, a legendary king of
ancient Korea, return to his own time.
6 680 City of Ember Duprau FIC In the city of Ember, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment
Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but
beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions.
6 760 Come Sing, Jimmy Jo Paterson FIC After his experiences surviving alone in the Canadian wilderness,
sixteen-year-old Brian finds it increasingly difficult to live as a
normal high school student and begins planning to return to the place
where he feels he really belongs.
6 6 780 680 Crispin Dangerous Days of Daniel X Avi Patterson FIC FIC 6 750 Found Haddix FIC When thirteen-year-olds Jonah and Chip, who are both adopted, learn
they were discovered on a plane that appeared out of nowhere, full of
babies with no adults on board, they realize that they have uncovered
a mystery involving time travel and two opposing forces, each trying
to repair the fabric of time.
6 1100 CC (6-­‐8) Freedom Walkers (in text) Freedman NF 6 1000 CC (6-­‐8) NF 6 1020 Harriet Tubman: Conductor Petry of the Underground Railroad (in text) Hatchet Paulsen Presents the story of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and the
major persons and events that contributed to the year-long struggle for
equal rights on Montgomery's city buses.
A biography of the famous woman who worked to free her people on
the Underground Railroad.
After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in
the Canadian wilderness, learning to survive with only the aid of a
hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his
parents' divorce. Includes an introduction and sidebar commentary by
the author.
6 570 Life as We Knew It Pfeifer NF Through journal entries sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her
family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing
worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.
6 770 Lost Years of Merlin Barron FIC 6 790 Magician’s Nephew, The Lewis FIC 6 680 Maximum Ride Series Patterson FIC A young boy who has no identity nor memory of his past washes
ashore on the coast of Wales and finds his true name after a series of
fantastic adventures.
When Digory and Polly try to return the wicked witch Jadis to her
own world, the magic gets mixed up and they all land in Narnia where
they witness Aslan blessing the animals with human speech.
While on a mission to Antarctica to save the world from global
warming, fourteen-year-old Maximum Ride and the other members of
the Flock--a band of genetically modified children who can fly--are
pursued by their creator, the Uber-Director, who wants to auction
them off to the highest bidder.
6 670 Number the Stars (in text) Lowry FIC Fifteen-year-old Daniel has followed in his parents' footsteps as the
Alien Hunter, exterminating beings on The List of Alien Outlaws on
Terra Firma, but when he faces his first of the top ten outlaws, the
very existence of Earth and another planet are at stake.
In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old
Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps
shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.
6 470 Percy Jackson Series Riordan FIC After learning that he is the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god
of the sea, young Percy is sent to Camp Half-Blood for demigods like
himself, where he gets into adventures, battles evil, and proceeds
toward the prophecy that awaits him on his sixteenth birthday.
6 1160 Prince and the Pauper, The Twain FIC When young Edward VI of England and a poor boy who resembles
him exchange places, each learns something about the other's very
different station in life.
6 970 Rosa Parks: My Story Parks NF 6 730 Sabotaged Haddix FIC Rosa Park's life story reveals the deliberate choices she made that
earned her the title "Mother to a Movement."
Thirteen-year-old Jonah, stolen from the past as an infant, teams up
with his sister Katherine to help Virginia Dare, the first child born in
America to English parents.
6 730 Sent Haddix FIC Jonah, Katherine, Chip, and Alex find themselves in 1483 at the
Tower of London, and discover that Chip and Alex are Prince Edward
V and Richard of Shrewsbury, imprisoned by Richard III; but trying
to repair history without knowing what is supposed to happen proves
challenging.
6 1110 CC (6-­‐8) Short Walk Through the Pyramids, A Isaacson NF 6 900 Sounder Armstrong FIC 6 690 Things Not Seen Clements FIC Isaacson introduces art in all its forms: painting, sculpture, folk art,
crafts--even cities. He discusses the differences between realism and
abstraction, links between tribal art and modern sculpture, use of
color by diverse artists, and why everyday objects can be.
Angry and humiliated when his sharecropper father is jailed for
stealing food for his family, a young black boy grows in courage and
understanding with the help of the devoted dog Sounder.
When fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up and finds himself invisible, he
and his parents and his new blind friend Alicia try to find out what
caused his condition and how to reverse it.
6 720 Torn Haddix FIC Time travelers Jonah and Katherine arrive in 1611 to rescue John
Hudson, the missing son of explorer Henry Hudson, but just as the
mutiny on the "Discovery" is supposed to start, Jonah and Katherine's
knowledge of history is tested once again and they fear that more is at
stake than just one boy's life. Includes facts about Henry Hudson's
explorations.
6 1080 Voyage of the Frog Paulsen FIC 6 700 Where the Red Fern Grows Rawls FIC When David goes out on his sailboat to scatter his recently deceased
uncle's ashes to the wind, he is caught in a fierce storm and must
survive many days on his own as he works out his feelings about life
and his uncle.
The adventures of a ten-year-old boy and the two dogs he bought with
money he had earned.
7 780 Bearstone Hobbs FIC A troubled Indian boy goes to live with an elderly rancher whose
caring ways help the boy become a man.
7 690 Day No Pigs Would Die, A Peck FIC 7 730 Devil’s Arithmetic, The Yolen FIC To a thirteen-year-old Vermont farm boy whose father slaughters pigs
for a living, maturity comes early as he learns "doing what's got to be
done," especially regarding his pet pig who cannot produce a litter.
Hannah resents the traditions of her Jewish heritage until time travel
places her in the middle of a small Jewish village in Nazi-occupied
Poland.
7 580 Fever 1793 Anderson FIC 7 760 Giver, The (in text) Lowry FIC 7 810 Hunger Games (Trilogy) Collins FIC 7 960 Journey to the Center of the Earth Verne FIC 7 -­‐-­‐-­‐ Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, The (Twilight Zone) Serling FIC 7 NP Nothing but the Truth Avi FIC 7 NP Out of the Dust (in text) Hesse FIC In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of
living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl
years of the Depression.
7 750 Outsiders, The Hinton FIC 7 810 Rikki-­‐Tikki-­‐Tavi Pinkney FIC 7 870 Shane Schaefer FIC Rivalry between rich and poor gangs in 1960s Oklahoma leads to the
deaths of three teenagers and intense soul-searching for one of the
kids involved, a sensitive fourteen-year-old writer named Ponyboy.
A courageous mongoose thwarts the evil plans of Nag and Nagaina,
two big black cobras who live in the garden.
Shane rides into a Wyoming valley in 1889 and becomes involved in
a feud between big cattle dealers and homesteaders.
7 800 Shark Beneath the Reef George FIC Sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother,
learns about perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced to cope
with the horrors of the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793.
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas
becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his
community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which
he lives.
Contains "The Hunger Games" in which sixteen-year-old Katniss
Everdeen becomes a contender in a grave competition hosted by the
Capitol where young boys and girls are pitted against one another in a
televised fight to the death, "Catching Fire" in which Katniss and
Peeta win the competition and become the faces of an impending
rebellion, and "Mockingjay" in which Katniss and her family and
friends are in danger because the Capitol holds her responsible for the
unrest.
Jules Verne's classic nineteenth-century science-fiction story about a
scientist who leads a group on a treacherous journey to the center of
the earth and discovers a lost civilization
When, after seeing a meteor fall from the sky, citizens of a small town
discover that they have no power or telephone service, they begin to
panic and become increasingly violent as they await the arrival of
monsters from outer space
A ninth-grader's suspension for humming "The Star-Spangled
Banner" during homeroom becomes a national news story, and leads
to him and his teacher both leaving the school.
On the Island of Coronado, a young Mexican fisherman comes of age
as he becomes aware of the politics, corruption, and changes around
him.
7 590 Stargirl Spinelli FIC Stargirl, a teen who animates quiet Mica High with her colorful
personality, suddenly finds herself shunned for her refusal to
conform.
7 670 Stormbreaker Horowitz FIC After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, fourteen-yearold Alex Rider is coerced to continue his uncle's dangerous work for
Britain's intelligence agency, MI6.
7 930 CC (6-­‐8) Tale of the Mandarin Ducks, The Paterson, K. NF A pair of mandarin ducks, separated by a cruel lord who wishes to
possess the drake for his colorful beauty, reward a compassionate
couple who risk their lives to reunite the ducks.
7 680 Tangerine Bloor FIC 7 740 True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, The Avi FIC 7 CC (6-­‐8) Greenberg NF 7 770 Vincent Van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist Walk Two Moons Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football hero
brother Erik, fights for the right to play soccer despite his near
blindness and slowly begins to remember the incident that damaged
his eyesight
Thirteen-year-old Charlotte Doyle, the only passenger on a voyage
from England to America in 1832, must take serious matters into her
own hands when she learns that the captain is murderous.
Biography of Vincent Van Gough.
Creech FIC 7 770 Weirdo, The Taylor FIC 7 750 Westing Game, The Raskin FIC 7 NP Witness Hesse FIC 8 520 Acquaintance with Darkness, An Rinaldi FIC 8 1050 Amistad: A Long Road to Freedom Myers NF 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
Seventeen-year-old Chip Clewt fights to save the black bears in the
Powhatan Swamp, a National Wildlife Refuge, in North Carolina.
The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an
unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of
his death before they can claim their inheritance
A series of poems express the views of various people in a small
Vermont town, including a young black girl and a young Jewish girl,
during the early 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate
the town.
When her mother dies and her best friend's family is implicated in the
assassination of President Lincoln, fourteen-year-old Emily Pigbush
must go live with an uncle she suspects of being involved in stealing
bodies for medical research.
In 1839, there was a rebellion on the slave ship Amistad. In a bloody
struggle, the African captives aboard rebelled against their kidnappers
and declared mutiny. While trying to sail the ship home, the Africans
accidentally ended up in New York. They were later imprisoned and
put on trial for murder.
8 570 And Then There Were None Christie FIC 8 1110 Call of the Wild, The London FIC 8 1150 Case Closed? Nine Mysteries Hughes Unlocked by Modern Science NF 8 860 Cay, The Taylor FIC 8 850 Code Orange Cooney FIC While conducting research for a school paper on smallpox, Mitty
finds an envelope containing 100-year-old smallpox scabs and fears
that he has infected himself and all of New York City.
8 890 Education of Little Tree, The Carter FIC The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Forrest Carter's controversial
work about an orphaned boy in 1930s Appalachian Tennessee who
learns about his cultural heritage when he is adopted by his Native
American grandparents and learns about prejudice when he is sent to
a boarding school run by Whites.
8 650 Fallen Angels Myers FIC 8 1340 Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Hugo FIC 8 840 Johnny Tremaine Forbes FIC 8 960 Marie Curie: A Brilliant Life MacLeod NF 8 660 Miracle’s Boys Woodson FIC 8 -­‐-­‐-­‐ Open Boat, The Crane FIC 8 950 Pigman, The Zindel FIC 8 1130 Sugar Changed the World Aronson NF Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school,
enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating
year on active duty in Vietnam.
Set in medieval Paris Quasimodo, the hunchbacked bellringer of
Notre Dame Cathedral, struggles to save the beautiful gypsy dancer
Esmeralda from being unjustly executed.
After injuring his hand, a silversmith's apprentice in Boston becomes
a messenger for the Sons of Liberty in the days before the American
Revolution.
Presents a short biography on the life and career of Marie Curie, the
first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and provides information on her
discovery of the element radium that helped to unlock the mysteries
of the atom.
Twelve-year-old Lafayette's close relationship with his older brother
Charlie changes after Charlie is released from a detention home and
blames Lafayette for the death of their mother.
The Open Boat, about the author's experiences aboard the steamer
Commodore when it sank in 1897.
Two high school sophomores from unhappy homes form a close
friendship with a lonely old man who has a terrible secret.
Chronicles the human pursuit of sugar to satisfy our collective sweet
tooth. The book describes this history in terms of ages, beginning
with the Age of Honey, built on local growth and consumption of
Ten strangers--each with a sordid past--are summoned by an absent
millionaire to a private island off the coast of Devon and begin to die
one by one upon arrival
Buck, who is half St. Bernard and half Scotch shepherd, is abducted
and taken to the Klondike where he reverts to the wild and becomes a
leader of a pack of wolves.
Examines how developments in modern science, such as DNA
analysis and spectroscopy, have helped to reopen archaeological
mysteries about ancient cities, Egypt's first female pharaoh, a missing
expedition to find the Northwest Passage, and more, with illustrations,
maps, and photographs
After the freighter on which Phillip and his mother were traveling
from wartime Curacao to the U.S. is torpedoed, the boy finds himself
dependent on an old West Indian for survival.
8 700 Tears of a Tiger Draper FIC 8 780 That Was Then, This Is Now Hinton FIC 8 670 Touching Spirit Bear Mikaelsen FIC 8 1090 War Horse Morpurgo FIC 8 850 Witch of Blackbird Pond, The Speare FIC 8 750 Yearling, The FIC Rawling comestibles; through the Age of Sugar and its slave-supported
"factory" plantation method of production; and into a period of
science and freedom, when enslaved workers claimed their human
rights and production of sweeteners shifted from the field to the lab.
The death of high school basketball star Rob Washington in an
automobile accident affects the lives of his close friend Andy, who
was driving the car, and many others in the school.
Sixteen-year-old Mark and Bryon have been like brothers since
childhood, but now, as their involvement with girls, gangs, and drugs
increases, their relationship seems to gradually disintegrate.
After his anger erupts into violence, fifteen year-old Cole, in order to
avoid going to prison, agrees to participate in a sentencing alternative
based on the Native American Circle Justice, and he is sent to a
remote Alaskan Island where an encounter with a huge Spirit Bear
changes his life.
A powerful tale of war, redemption, and a hero's journey. In 1914,
Joey, a beautiful bay-red foal with a distinctive cross on his nose, is
sold to the army and thrust into the midst of the war on the Western
Front. With his officer, he charges toward the enemy, witnessing the
horror of the battles in France. But even in the desolation of the
trenches, Joey's courage touches the soldiers around him and he is
able to find warmth and hope. But his heart aches for Albert, the
farmer's son he left behind. Will he ever see his true master again?
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 young boy living in the Florida backwoods is forced to decide the
fate of a fawn he has lovingly raised as a pet.
Common Core Suggested Lexile Measures 5 830-­‐1010 6 925-­‐1070 7 970-­‐1120 8 1010-­‐1185 9 1050-­‐1260 10 1080-­‐1335 11-­‐12 1185-­‐1385 NP code is for any book comprising more than 50% non-standard or non-conforming prose. NP books do not receive a Lexile measure, merely
NP The
the NP code. Some common examples of non-prose content are poems, plays, songs, recipes, and text with non-standard or absent punctuation.
Since the Lexile Framework is based on prose analysis, Maurice Sendak's Alligators All Around (HarperTrophy) is coded NP. The text of the book
is not in complete sentences and lacks punctuation entirely. The text difficulty of such a book cannot currently be assigned a Lexile measure.
Added Note: Selected short stories and poems will be determined by current textbook adoption and common core exemplars. *Maury County Schools Board Policy 4.901 Parent(s) may request that a student not be required to read a book, use certain materials, or participate
in an activity. If the request to the teacher is denied, then a written request may be submitted on the appropriate form to the principal.
No student who is granted such a request shall be penalized academically for his/her failure to participate in an activity, read a book or use certain
materials.
The final decision concerning the use of controversial materials shall rest with the Board.
Teachers may substitute a reading assignment appropriate to the skill, theme, or subject being taught.