Hoot
by Carl Hiaasen
Genre: Mystery/AR 5.2
Newbery Honor Book
Roy Eberhardt is a new kid again. Instead of trying to blend in with the crowd, he ignores the warnings of one of the school's biggest bullies to investigate the mysterious boy that avoids school and can be seen running around town barefooted. He soon finds himself in the middle of an ecological mystery involving pancakes, owls, and one barefooted boy. Should Roy and his friends let the adults sort it out? What would you do?
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My Side of the Mountain
by Jean Craighead George
Genre: Adventure/A.R. 5.2
Newbery Honor Book
With no malice or ill feelings toward his family, just a calling to the woods, Sam runs away from his city apartment home to live in the Catskill Mountains. He is going in search of his grandfather's abandoned farm. I'm happy to say that a kind librarian in town helps him locate the needed information in books and even draws maps to help him find the place. Leaving four sisters and four brothers behind, Sam is surprisingly not very lonely. He is also incredibly resourceful and lucky as he learns to build a home out of a tree, scout for food, and make friends of various woodland animals that help him by bringing food and alerting him to changing weather conditions in the mountains. Sam also maintains sporadic contact with humans as they come on hikes, hunts, and other exploration trips. Eventually, he becomes known in town as the wild boy that lives on nuts in the woods.
Upon learning that the publisher had first declined to publish this book, the author reported thinking "better to run to the woods than the city." You'll have to read it yourself to see if you agree.
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Harriet the Spy
by Louise Fitzhugh
Genre: Realistic Fiction/AR 6.1
I kept wanting to find a way to like Harriet. Ole Goody who lived with her everyday obviously saw something in her. I definitely liked wise, Ole Goody. Harriet, however, is a character with serious flaws. She not only spies on all of her "friends," she writes unkind, hypercritical things about them. But when Harriet's friends read her diary and find out all the hateful things she has written about them, she is unapologetic and incensed that they violated her privacy by reading her diary. Never does she appreciate the absurdity of her actions given that she has made a habit of invading other people's privacy. In the end, her two best friends return to her not because she has apologized or even been kind, but because she tricks them by setting their new alliances against each other through more sneaky spying. I'll find it hard to recommend this one to anyone. So, if it's your favorite, feel free to leave a comment defending it.
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39 Clues
various authors
Genre: Adventure/A.R. 4.3-4.9 range
Amy and Dan were already orphans when their grandmother, Grace, died and left them with a choice between 1 million dollars (to be handled and likely spent by their caregiver), or the secret to power beyond their imagination. Of course, there is a catch. They have to compete against members of 4 branches of the Cahill family to discover the secret. The challenge is not to become vicious and cruel in the process. Amy and Dan are desperate to find their identity and place in the world giving their quest much more heart than the other teams competing. It helps if you read this series in order, but the author provides the basic back story for anyone reading them out of order. These have been a hit in my summer read alouds at home. Check them out or see if you can find another series to ignite the reading bug you have at home.
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