"The Alchemyst" by Michael Scott

2007 Newberry Medal Winners:

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

Rules by Cynthia Lord

PREVIOUS   NEWBERY   MEDAL   WINNERS:

Criss Cross by Lynn Rae Perkins

Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck

Dear Families,

            Several of you have asked for ideas for books that your advanced reader may enjoy. As a parent of an advanced reader, I know the difficulty in finding books written at your reader’s independent reading level while still containing appropriate content. Hopefully some of these ideas will help you.

Madeline L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time trilogy by Madeline L'Engle

The Deltora Quest series, by Emily Rodda.

Mary Pope Osborne’s series of books based on Homer's Odyssey: Tales from the Odyssey (there are 5 in all).

Mythomania series by Kate McMullen (funny books based on characters from Greek      mythology, with Hades as the narrator).

Eragon & Eldest by Christopher Paolini

Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

The Dear America and Royal Diaries series published by Scholastic are quality

            Historical fiction.

Ann of Green Gables books by L.M. Montgomery

Many of these are “fantasy” books, which have been shown to have the most advanced vocabulary of any of the genres.

These are a couple of websites with other ideas. We will be reading a few of these in class this year.

             www.kidsreads.com/lists/adv-new.asp

             www.brockvillelibrary.ca/article2007-1.pdf

In addition, I suggest having students branch out to other genres. Biographies are often overlooked by students and can be very engaging and interesting. Non-fiction books on topics of their interest are great, too.