Hello to all, and apologies for coming back at you with summer reading lists again!

It’s just that I really do need your help… so please continue to think about suggesting titles.

Usually when I post my Pinterest links, I hear from a few people who wish that I would have an alternative to Pinterest. So here it is! Titles being considered for the annual summer reading lists are listed below, along with links to the Pinterest pages for those of you who prefer to look at it that way.

What I’m looking for is MORE suggestions. AND, importantly, have you read any of these titles and thought that they didn’t include a theme of Building a Better World (and I mean that loosely… sometimes, especially for younger readers, I am considering “building” literally)?

Another thing you can do is to start seeing whether you have the titles below (caveat: just because a book is on this list, doesn’t mean it will be on the final list). In one case I have included a title that will not be published until April 2017. The reviews made me think it was a perfect book for this theme and I DO make a few exceptions for brand new books.

I look forward to hearing from you.

K-2

https://www.pinterest.com/cchildrens/k-2-build-a-better-world-2017/

· E - Building Our House by Jonathan Bean (FSG, 2013 - 9780374380236 - $)
A young girl narrates her family's move from the city to the country, where they have bought a piece of land and live in a trailer while they build a house from the ground up, with help from relatives and friends. | ALA | Lexile: 820 |

· E - The Curious Garden by Peter Brown (Little, Brown, 2009 - 9780316015479)
Liam discovers a hidden garden and with careful tending spreads color throughout the gray city. Liam discovers a hidden garden and with careful tending spreads color throughout the gray city. | ALA | Lexile: 840

· E - Maybe Something Beautiful: How Art Transformed a Neighborhood by F. Isabel Campoy & Theresa Howell (HMH 4/16 - 9780544357693)
Mira lives in a gray and hopeless urban community until a muralist arrives and, along with his paints and brushes, brings color, joy, and togetherness to Mira and her neighbors. |

· E - Billions of bricks: A Counting Book About Building by Kurt Cyrus (Henry Holt 2016)
A counting book that leads readers through the day in the life of a construction worker building with bricks. (CIP) Building. Bricks. Construction workers. Counting. Stories in rhyme.

· E - Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena (Putnam's 2015 - 9780399257742)
A young boy rides the bus across town with his grandmother and learns to appreciate the beauty in everyday things. | ALA, ILA, NCSS, NCTE | Lexile: 610 |

· E - Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music by Margarita Engle (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2015 - 9780544102293)
Follows a girl in the 1920s as she strives to become a drummer, despite being continually reminded that only boys play the drums, and that there has never been a female drummer in Cuba. Includes note about Millo Castro Zaldarriaga, who inspired the story, and Anacaona, the all-girl dance band she formed with her sisters. | ALA, ILA, NCSS | Lexile: NP |

· E - Construction by Sally Sutton (Candlewick 2014 - 9780763673253)
Big machines and their drivers work together to build a library. | NCTE |

· E - The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam's, 2001 - 0399231161)
Two girls, one white and one black, gradually get to know each other as they sit on the fence that divides their town. | ALA, ILA | Lexile: 300

· FOLK - The Three Pigs by David Wiesner (Clarion, 2001 - 9780618007011 - $)
The three pigs escape the wolf by going into another world where they meet the cat and the fiddle, the cow that jumped over the moon, and a dragon. (CIP) Pigs. Characters in literature. | ALA |

· NF - Can We Help?: Kids Volunteering to Help Their Communities by George Ancona (Candlewick 2015 - 9780763673673)
Describes how children can help their communities in different ways, from tending a community garden and training service dogs to volunteering to help people with disabilities and mentoring younger students. | NCSS |

· NF - One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling women of the Gambia by Miranda Paul (Millbrook 2015 - 9781467716086)
Tells the story of a Gambian woman who came up with a way to recycle the plastic bags that had littered the landscape in her nation, an act that saved the environment and transformed her community. | ALA, Nutmeg | Lexile: 480

· NF - Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building by Christy Hale (Lee & Low 1996 - 9781600606519)
A collection of concrete poetry, illustrations, and photographs that shows how young children's constructions, created as they play, are reflected in notable works of architecture from around the world. Includes biographies of the architects, quotations, and sources. (Publisher) Architecture. | Lexile: 550 | NF: 720

· BIO - The House that Jane Built: A Story About Jane Addams by Tanya Lee Stone (Henry Holt 2015 - 9780805090499)

· This is the story of Jane Addams, the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, who transformed a poor neighborhood in Chicago by opening up her house as a community center. | NCSS | Lexile: 810

· BIO - Luna and Me: The Story of Julia Butterfly Hill by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw (Henry Holt 2015 - 9780805099768)

· Social activism combines with environmentalism in this picture book bio of Julia Butterfly Hill and Luna, the thousand-year-old redwood tree whose life she saved. | NCSS |

3-4

https://www.pinterest.com/cchildrens/3-4-build-a-better-world-2017/

· E - Dream Something Big by Dianna Hutts Aston (Dial 2011 - 9780803732452)
In Watts, California, over a period of many years, a man known to all as Uncle Sam spends his free time collecting broken bits of pottery, glass, and other scraps and turning them into a work of art. (CIP) Simon Rodia, 1879-1965. Simon Rodia's Towers. Watts. Los Angeles. | ALA| Lexile: 830 |

· E - Marvelous Cornelius by Phil Bildner (Chronicle 2015 - 9781452125787)
A man known as the "Trashcan Wizard" sings and dances his way through the French Quarter in New Orleans, keeping his beloved city clean, until Hurricane Katrina's devastation nearly causes him to lose his spirit. | ILA, NCSS | Lexile: 560

· FIC - Manatee Rescue by Nicola Davies (Candlewick 2016 - 9780763678302)
When her father successfully harpoons a manatee, leaving its baby orphaned, Manuela vows to rescue the calf and return it to the river, helping change the attitudes of the people in her village in the process. | NSTA | Lexile: 910

· NF - Brick by Brick by Charles R. Smith, Jr. (Amistad 2012 - 9780061920820)
Constructed brick by brick, the White House was created by human hands, many of them slaves', whose hard labor helped create the symbol of this country, in the story of how the official residence and principal workplace of the United States presidents was built. | x | x |

· NF - Energy Island: How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed Their World by Allan Drummond (FSG 2011 - 9780374321840 - 9781250056764)
It's windy on the Danish island of Samsø. Meet the environmentally friendly folks who, in a few short years, worked together for energy independence, and who now proudly call their home Energy Island. | Lexile: 920 | ILA [Teacher's Choices], NSTA | NONFICTION: 333.92

· BIO - Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909 by Michelle Markel (Balzer + Bray, 2013 - 9780061804427)
Describes how immigrant Clara Lemlich, fought back against the poor treatment of her fellow factory workers and led the largest walkout of women workers in the country. | ALA, NCTE | Lexile: 760 |

· BIO - Fur, Fins, and Feathers: Abraham Dee Bartlett and the Invention of the Modern Zoo by Cassandre Maxwell (Eerdmans 2015 - 9780802854322)
A biography of Abraham Dee Bartlett and how he helped to invent the modern zoo. | NCSS |

· BIO - Wangari Maathai: The Woman who Planted Millions of Trees by Franck Prevot (Charlesbridge, 2015 - 9781580896269)
Wangari Maathai received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her efforts to lead women in a nonviolent struggle to bring peace and democracy to Africa through its reforestation. Her organization planted over thirty million trees in thirty years. This beautiful picture book tells the story of an amazing woman and an inspiring idea. | ALA, ILA, NCSS | Lexile: 970 |

· BIO - A Boy Named FDR: How Franklin D. Roosevelt Grew Up to Change America by Kathleen Krull (Knopf 2011 - 9780375857164 - 9781101932513)
Focuses on Franklin D. Roosevelt's childhood years and summarizes his achievements as president. | Lexile: 930 | ILA |

5-6

https://www.pinterest.com/cchildrens/5-6-build-a-better-world-2017/

· FIC - Gaby, Lost and Found by Angela Cervantes (Scholastic 2013 - 9780545489454)
Gaby Howard loves volunteering at the local animal shelter. Her mother has been deported to Honduras and Gaby is stuck living with her inattentive dad. She's confident that her mom will come home soon so that they can adopt Gaby's favorite shelter cat together. But Gaby worries that her plans for the perfect family are about to fall apart. | NCTE, Nutmeg | Lexile: 640

· FIC - Operation Redwood by S. Terrell French (Abrams 2009 - 9780810983540 - 9780810997202)
In northern California, Julian Carter-Li and his friends old and new fight to save a grove of redwoods from an investment company that plans to cut them down. | ILA | Lexile: 700

· FIC - The End of the Wild by Nicole Helget (Little, Brown 2017 - 9780316245111)
Eleven-year-old Fern helps to take care of her impoverished family by foraging for food in the forest, but when a fracking company rolls into town, she realizes that her peaceful woods and her family's livelihood could be threatened. | x | x

· FIC - Hoot by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf 2002 - 9780375821813)
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site. | ALA, Nutmeg | 760

· FIC - Last in a Long Line of Rebels by Lisa Lewis Tyre (Nancy Paulsen 2015 - 9780399168383)
When the city of Zollicoffer, Tennessee, where her family lives, announces plans to seize their one hundred seventy-five year old house through eminent domain, twelve-year-old Louise Mayhew needs to come up with a way to save it--and her ancestor's Civil War diary linking the house to the Underground Railroad, as well as ... | ILA, NCSS | Lexile: 660

· BIO - Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford (Candlewick 2015 - 9780763665319)
A collage-illustrated collection of free form poems describing the life and work of civil rights advocate Fannie Lou Hamer. | ALA, NCSS | Lexile: 820 |

· BIO - Stand There! She Shouted: The Invincible Photographer Juia Margaret Cameron by Susan Goldman Rubin (Candlewick, 2014 - 9780763657536)
The story of British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron and her exotic bohemian life. | NCSS | Lexile: 980

7-8

https://www.pinterest.com/cchildrens/7-8-build-a-better-world-2017/

· FIC - The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier (Pantheon, 1974 - 0394828054)
A high school freshman discovers the devastating consequences of refusing to join in the school's annual fund raising drive and arousing the wrath of the school bullies. | ALA | Lexile: 810

· FIC - Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper (Atheneum 2015 - 9781442494978)
When a burning cross set by the Klan causes panic and fear in 1932 Bumblebee, North Carolina, fifth-grader Stella must face prejudice and find the strength to demand change in her segregated town. | ALA, ILA, NCSS | Lexile: 740

· FIC - Counting by Sevens by Holly Goldberg Sloan (Penguin, 2013 - 9780803738553)
Twelve-year-old genius and outsider Willow Chance must figure out how to connect with other people and find a surrogate family for herself after her parents are killed in a car accident. | ALA, NCTE, Nutmeg | Lexile: 770 | Fiction

· FIC - A Death-Struck Year by Makiia Lucier (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014 - 9780544164505)
When the Spanish influenza epidemic reaches Portland, Oregon, in 1918, seventeen-year-old Cleo leaves behind the comfort of her boarding school to work for the Red Cross. | NCSS, Nutmeg | Lexile: 600

· FIC - A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park (Clarion, 2010 - 9780547251271)
When the Sudanese civil war reaches his village in 1985, eleven-year-old Salva becomes separated from his family and must walk with other Dinka tribe members through southern Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya in search of safe haven. Based on the life of Salva Dut, who, after emigrating to America in 1996, began a project to dig water wells in Sudan. | NCSS, Nutmeg | Lexile: 720

· NF - Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations by Alex Harris (Multnomah, 2008 - 9781601421128)
Two Christian teenage writers challenge their peers to create a brighter future, combating the idea of adolescence as a vacation from responsibility and providing humorous personal anecdotes, practical examples, and stories of real-life "rebelutionaries" in action. | X | Lexile: | 248.83

· NF - The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club by Phillip M. Hoose (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2015)
The true story of a group of boy resistance fighters in Denmark after the Nazi invasion. | ALA, ILA, NCSS | Lexile: 970 | 640.534

· NF - How the Beatles Changed the world by Martin W. Sandler (Bloomsbury, 2014 - 9780802735652)
Fifty years after the British invasion began, Martin Sandler explores The Beatles' long-lasting impact on the world. | NCSS | Lexile: 1160

· BIO - Trailblazers: 33 Women in Science Who Changed the World by Rachel Swaby (Delacorte 2016 - 9780399553967)
Profiles thirty-three women who have made notable contributions to science, including Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Virginia Apgar, and Rachel Carson. | NSTA STEM | Lexile: 1130 |

· BIO - Hidden Figures: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch Our Nation Into Space by Margot Lee Shetterly (HarperCollins, 2016 - 9780062662385)
Explores the previously uncelebrated but pivotal contributions of NASA's African-American women mathematicians to America's space program, describing how Jim Crow laws segregated them from their white counterparts despite their groundbreaking successes. | |

· BIO - The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba & Bryan Mealer (Dial, 2015 - 9780803740808)
Presents a story of how an African teenager built a windmill from scraps to create electricity for his home and his village, improving life for himself and his neighbors. | ILA, NCSS| Lexile: 860 |

· BIO - Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip M. Hoose (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009)
Presents the life of the Alabama teenager who played an integral role in the Montgomery bus strike, once by refusing to give up a bus seat, and again, by becoming a plaintiff in the landmark civil rights case against the bus company. | ALA, NCSS | Lexile: 1000 |

9-12

https://www.pinterest.com/cchildrens/9-12-build-a-better-world-2017/

· FIC - Audacity by Melanie Crowder (Philomel 2015 - 9780399168994)
A historical fiction novel in verse detailing the life of Clara Lemlich and her struggle for women's labor rights in the early 20th century in New York. | ALA, ILA, NCSS | Lexile: 1120

· FIC - I am the Messenger by Marcus Zusak (Knopf, 2005 - 0375830995)
After capturing a bank robber, nineteen-year-old cab driver Ed Kennedy begins receiving mysterious messages that direct him to addresses where people need help, and he begins getting over his lifelong feeling of worthlessness. | ALA | Lexile: 640

· NF - Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M. T. Anderson (Candlewick 2015 - 9780763668181)
An account of the Siege of Leningrad reveals the role played by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich and his Leningrad Symphony in rallying and commemorating their fellow citizens. | ALA, NCSS | Lexile: 990 |

· NF - The Boys Who Challenged Hitler by Phillip Hoose (Farrar Straus Giroux 2015 - 9780374300227)
Presents the story of a group of Danish boys who formed a resistance organization against the Nazi occupation of their country. | ALA, NCSS | Lexile: 970 |

· NF - The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba & Bryan Mealer (Morrow, 2009 - 9780061730320-OP)
A true story of tenacity and imagination describes how an African teenager built a windmill from scraps to create electricity for his home and his village, improving life for himself and his neighbors. | ALA, NSTA | Lexile: 960 | Nonfiction: 621.453

· BIO - Ida M. Tarbell: The Woman Who Challenged Big Business - and Won! by Emily Arnold McCully (Clarion 2014 - 9780547290928)
Follows the life of Ida Tarbell, the nineteenth-century author/journalist whose articles on the corrupt practices of John D. Rockeller and Standard Oil Company resulted in legislation against trusts. | ALA, NCSS | Lexile: 1120

· BIO - Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly (Morrow, 2016 - 9780062363596)
An account of the previously unheralded but pivotal contributions of NASA's African-American women mathematicians to America's space program describes how they were segregated from their white counterparts by Jim Crow laws in spite of their groundbreaking successes. | x | | 510.925

· BIO - I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai (Little, Brown, 2013 - 9780316322409)
When the Taliban took over the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one fifteen year-old girl decided to speak out. | ALA | Lexile: 1000 | Nonfiction: 370.82

Linda

Linda Williams | Children's Services Consultant, Division of Library Development | Linda.Williams@ct.gov | Office: (860) 704-2207

libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/dld/children | 786 S. Main St., Middletown, CT 06457 | Phone: (860) 704-2200 | Fax : (860) 704-2228