Take one last look! I’ve finalized the lists and you have till noon tomorrow (sorry, but I’m going away!) to comment/react. FYI, there are some repeats here. Certain books, like Pay it Forward, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, and Hidden Figures come in the adult edition, and the “young readers” edition. I’ve put the adult editions on the High School list, and the young readers editions at the appropriate grade levels.

Thank you to everyone who contributed ideas. Sometimes your ideas made the list and sometimes not (due to many factors on how they fit into the whole, whether or not they were on professional lists, whether they were in print, etc.) but I appreciate your help even if your suggestions aren’t here.

Here’s what’s on the lists:

Kindergarten to Grade 2

PICTURE BOOKS

Building Our House by Jonathan Bean

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

The Curious Garden by Peter Brown

Liam discovers a hidden garden and with careful tending spreads color throughout the gray city. | ALA | Lexile: 840

Maybe Something Beautiful: How Art Transformed a Neighborhood by F. Isabel Campoy & Theresa Howell

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. | ALA | Lexile: 580

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

As a child Great-aunt Alice Rumphius resolved that when she grew up she would go to faraway places, live by the sea in her old age, and do something to make the world more beautiful--and she does all those things, the last being the most difficult of all. | National Book Award Winner | Lexile: 680

Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena

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

Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music by Margarita Engle

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

The Night Gardener by Terry Fan

Everyone on Grimloch Lane enjoys the trees and shrubs clipped into animal masterpieces after dark by the Night Gardener, but William, a lonely boy, spots the artist, follows him, and helps with his special work. | ALA, NCSS | Lexile: 390

Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker

At sunset, when their work is done for the day, a crane truck, a cement mixer, and other pieces of construction equipment make their way to their resting places and go to sleep. | ALA | Lexile: 820

The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade by Justin Roberts

Sally McCabe is a very little girl, and nobody notices her, although she notices everything that goes on around her--but when she speaks out about the unkindness she sees, people start to pay attention. (CIP) Conduct of life. Human behavior. Stories in rhyme. Bullying. | Lexile: 1010 | [E.B. White Read Aloud Honor Book]

Construction by Sally Sutton

Big machines and their drivers work together to build a library. | NCTE | Lexile:

Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg

When he has a dream about a future Earth devastated by pollution, Walter begins to understand the importance of taking care of the environment. | Lexile: 550

The Water Princess by Susan Verde

The story of one young girl's quest to bring clean drinking water to her African village. | ALA | Lexile: 290

The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson

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

GRAPHIC NOVEL

The Flying Beaver Brothers and the Evil Penguin Plan by Maxwell Eaton

Two beavers thwart an evil plot by penguins who plan to turn Beaver Island into a frosty resort. | Nutmeg | Lexile: 290

FOLKLORE

The Three Pigs by David Wiesner

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. | ALA | Lexile: NP

NONFICTION

Can We Help?: Kids Volunteering to Help Their Communities by George Ancona

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 |

One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia by Miranda Paul

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

Follow the Moon Home by Philippe Cousteau

A book about loggerhead sea turtles, and a girl's attempts to help save their babies from man-made light. | Lexile: 520

Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building by Christy Hale

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. | Lexile: 550

BIOGRAPHY

The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever by H. Joseph Hopkins

Documents the true story of the nature pioneer and activist who, after becoming the first woman to earn a science degree from the University of California, took a teaching position in the desert region of San Diego and single-handedly launched a movement to transform the area with trees and gardens. | ALA, NCSS | Lexile: 760

Luna and Me: The Story of Julia Butterfly Hill by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw

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

A Boy and a Jaguar by Alan Rabinowitz

The renowned cat conservationist reflects on his early childhood struggles with a speech disorder, describing how he only spoke fluently when he was communicating with animals and how he resolved at a young age to find his voice to be their advocate. | ALA, NCSS | Lexile: 670

The House that Jane Built: A Story About Jane Addams by Tanya Lee Stone

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

Grade 3 to Grade 4

PICTURE BOOKS

Dream Something Big by Dianna Hutts Aston

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. | ILA | Lexile: 830

Marvelous Cornelius by Phil Bildner

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

Buffalo Music by Tracey E. Fern

After hunters kill off the buffalo around her Texas ranch, a woman begins raising orphan buffalo calves and eventually ships four members of her small herd to Yellowstone National Park, where they form the beginnings of newly thriving buffalo herds. | ALA | Lexile: 860

CHAPTER BOOKS

Annie Glover is Not a Tree Lover by Darleen Bailey Beard

When her grandmother chains herself to the tree across from the school to save it from being cut down, fourth-grader Annie wants to die of humiliation, but when she discovers the town's history, her attitude changes. |  | Lexile: 630

Violet Mackerel’s Pocket Protest by Anna Branford

Violet and Rose organize a protest to save the big oak tree in Clover Park. | Lexile: 1110

Manatee Rescue by Nicola Davies

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

Book Uncle and Me by Uma Krishnaswami

Every day, Yasmin borrows a book from Book Uncle, a retired teacher who has set up a free lending library on the street corner. But when the mayor tries to shut down the rickety book-stand, Yasmin has to take her nose out of her book and do something. | Lexile: 580

The Wild Ones by C. Alexander London

After his parents are killed, Kit, a young raccoon sets off for the city with a stone that may be the key to finding the Bone of Contention, a legendary object that is proof of a deal giving the wild animals the rights to Ankle Snap Alley, which the dogs and cats--known as the flealess--want back and are willing to kill for. | Lexile: 810

Waiting for the Magic by Patricia MacLachlan

When Papa goes away for a little while, his family tries to cope with the separation by adopting four dogs and a cat. | Nutmeg  Lexile: 420

Lulu and the Dog from the Sea by Hilary McKay

Seven-year-old Lulu and her cousin think their vacation house is the most perfect place ever until they find a trouble-prone, stray dog living on the beach. | Nutmeg | Lexile: 770

Sydney & Simon Go Green! by Paul A. Reynolds

After discovering that a green sea turtle was harmed by plastic in the ocean, twin mice Sydney and Simon come up with a creative campaign to increase recycling and reduce the amount of trash created in their home, school, and town. | Lexile: 750

GRAPHIC NOVEL

The Legend of Hong Kil Dong: The Robin Hood of Korea by Anne Sibley O'Brien

Graphic novel treatment of the life and career Hong Kil Dong, the Korean equivalent of Robin Hood. | ALA | Lexile: 680

NONFICTION

Energy Island: How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed Their World by Allan Drummond

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. | ILA, NSTA | Lexile: 920

Ada's Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay by Susan Hood

A town built on a landfill. A community in need of hope. A girl with a dream. A man with a vision. An ingenious idea. | ILA, NCTE | Lexile: 820

Stay: The True Story of Ten Dogs by Michaela Muntean

Luciano Anastasini, a man who calls the circus home, and ten homeless dogs are brought together by fate. | Nutmeg | Lexile:

The Camping Trip That Changed America: Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, and Our National Parks by Barb Rosenstock

Introduces the story of how President Theodore Roosevelt, on a camping trip with naturalist John Muir in Yosemite National Park, decided to support the conservation of national parks. | NCSS | Lexile:

Brick by Brick by Charles R. Smith, Jr.

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.

BIOGRAPHY

Grandfather Gandhi by Arun Gandhi

Mathama Gandhi's grandson tells the story of how his grandfather taught him to turn darkness into light. | ILA, NCSS | Lexile: 600

Fur, Fins, and Feathers: Abraham Dee Bartlett and the Invention of the Modern Zoo by Cassandre Maxwell

A biography of Abraham Dee Bartlett and how he helped to invent the modern zoo. | NCSS | Lexile: x

Miss Moore Thought Otherwise: How Anne Carroll Moore Created Libraries for Children by Jan Pinborough

A picture book biography about librarian Anne Carroll Moore who, as the New Yorker said, "more or less invented the children's library. | NCSS | Lexile:

Wangari Maathai: The Woman who Planted Millions of Trees by Franck Prevot

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

Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909 by Michelle Markel

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

A Boy Named FDR: How Franklin D. Roosevelt Grew Up to Change America by Kathleen Krull

Focuses on Franklin D. Roosevelt's childhood years and summarizes his achievements as president. | ILA | Lexile: 930

Grade 5 to Grade 6

FICTION

Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea

Seven fifth-graders at Snow Hill School in Connecticut relate how their lives are changed for the better by "rookie teacher" Mr. Terupt. | Nutmeg | Lexile: 560

This Journal Belongs to Ratchet by Nancy J. Cavanaugh

Homeschooled by her mechanic-environmentalist father, eleven-year-old Rachel "Ratchet" Vance records her efforts to make friends, save a park, remember her mother, and find her own definition of "normal." | NCTE | Lexile: 830

Gaby, Lost and Found by Angela Cervantes

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

Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman

One by one, a number of people of varying ages and backgrounds transform a trash-filled inner-city lot into a productive and beautiful garden, and, in doing so, the gardeners are themselves transformed. | ALA, ILA, NCSS | Lexile: 710

Operation Redwood by S. Terrell French

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

The End of the Wild by Nicole Helget

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.

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

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 | Lexile: 760

One White Dolphin by Gill Lewis

When a baby albino dolphin caught in old fishing netting washes ashore, Paralympics sailing hopeful Felix and English school girl Kara work with veterinarians and specialists to save and reunite the dolphin with her mother, setting off a chain of events that might just save the reef from the environmental effects of proposed dredging. | NSTA | Lexile: 620

Bayou Magic by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Visiting her grandmother in the Louisiana bayou, ten-year-old Maddy begins to realize that she may be the only sibling to carry on the gift of her family's magical legacy. | x | Lexile: 410

Last in a Long Line of Rebels by Lisa Lewis Tyre

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

GRAPHIC NOVEL

Saving the Whole Wide World by Judd Winick

Hilo and his friends must save the world from monsters from another dimension. | Book 1 was a Nutmeg | Lexile: 260

NONFICTION

Fire in Their Eyes: Wildfires and the People Who Fight Them by Karen Magnuson Beil

Depicts in text and photographs the training, equipment, and real-life experiences of people who risk their lives to battle wildfires, as well as people who use fire for ecological reasons. | NCSS | Lexile: 1010

We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement that Defied Adolf Hitler by Russell Freedman

The true story of the White Rose, a group of students in Nazi Germany who were active undercover agents of the resistance movement against Hitler and his regime. | ALA | Lexile: 630

The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial by Susan Goodman

Shares the story of Sarah Roberts and her 1847 case petitioning that she be allowed to attend a white school, explaining how her heroic efforts established key precedents and paved the way for civil rights advancements. | NCTE, NCSS | Lexile: 770

Chasing Cheetahs: The Race to Save Africa's Fastest Cats by Sy Montgomery

Describes the cheetah's essential role in the ecosystem and the ways in which Namibia's Cheetah Conservation Fund is promoting cohabitation between cheetahs and farmers. | ALA, NSTA | Lexile: 1000

Heroes of the Environment: True Stories of People Who Are Helping to Protect the Planet by Harriet Rohmer

Highlights the accomplishments of twelve people from across North America who have worked to protect the environment, including a Mexican superstar wrestler who protects turtles and whales. | Lexile 1070

Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family's Flight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh

Years before the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education, Sylvia Mendez, an eight-year-old girl of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage, played an instrumental role in Mendez v. Westminster, the landmark desegregation case of 1946 in California. | ALA | Lexile: 870

BIOGRAPHY

Fannie Never Flinched: One Woman's Courage in the Struggle for American Labor Union Rights by Mary Cronk Farrell

Traces the life of Fannie Sellins, a union activist who traveled the nation promoting fair wages and decent working and living conditions for workers in the garment and mining industries. | NCSS | Lexile: 1020

Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World by Sy Montgomery

Examines the life and accomplishments of Temple Grandin, whose childhood diagnosis of autism and love of cows led her to revolutionize the livestock industry. | ALA, NSTA | Lexile: 960

Stand There! She Shouted: The Invincible Photographer Julia Margaret Cameron by Susan Goldman Rubin

The story of British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron and her exotic bohemian life. | NCSS | Lexile: 980

Untamed: The Wild Life of Jane Goodall by Anita Silvey

A biography of one of the most recognized scientists in the world. | NCSS | Lexile:  1100

Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford

A collage-illustrated collection of free form poems describing the life and work of civil rights advocate Fannie Lou Hamer. | ALA, NCSS | Lexile: 820

Grade 7 to Grade 8

FICTION

Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper

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

One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

After heartbreaking betrayal, Carley is sent to live with a foster family and struggles with opening herself up to their love. | Nutmeg | Lexile: 520

Pay It Forward (Young Readers Edition) by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Trevor McKinney, a twelve-year-old boy in a small California town, accepts his teacher's challenge to earn extra credit by coming up with a plan to change the world. His idea is simple: do a good deed for three people and instead of asking them to return the favor, ask them to 'pay it forward' to three others who need help. | Lexile: 610

A Death-Struck Year by Makiia Lucier

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

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

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

All of the Above by Shelley Pearsall

Five urban middle school students, their teacher, and other community members relate how a school project to build the world's largest tetrahedron affects the lives of everyone involved. | ALA | Lexile: 950

Ghost by Jason Reynolds

Ghost, a naturally talented runner and troublemaker, is recruited for an elite middle school track team. He must stay on track, literally and figuratively, to reach his full potential.  | ALA | Lexile: 730

Faith, Hope, and Ivy June by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

During a student exchange program, seventh-graders Ivy June and Catherine share their lives, homes, and communities, and find that although their lifestyles are total opposites they have a lot in common. | Lexile: 900

Counting by Sevens by Holly Goldberg Sloan

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

Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick

When his younger brother is diagnosed with leukemia, thirteen-year-old Steven tries to deal with his complicated emotions, his school life, and his desire to support his family. | ALA, Nutmeg

Shadow on the Mountain by Margi Preus

In Nazi-occupied Norway, fourteen-year-old Espen joins the resistance movement, graduating from deliverer of illegal newspapers to courier and spy.  | ILA, Nutmeg | Lexile: 730

Endangered by Eliot Shrefer

Sophie is not happy to be back in the Congo for the summer, but when she rescues an abused baby bonobo she becomes more involved in her mother’s sanctuary–and when fighting breaks out and the sanctuary is attacked, it is up to Sophie to rescue the apes and somehow survive in the jungle. | ALA, NCTE, Nutmeg | Lexile: 900

GRAPHIC NOVEL

Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas by Jim Ottaviani & Maris Wicks

This is the true story of three scientists who risked their lives for research that forever changed the way we think of primates- including ourselves. | ALA, NSTA

NONFICTION

It's Your World--If You Don't Like It, Change It: Activism For Teenagers by Mikki Halpin

A how-to reference guide to becoming politically active for teens includes youth activists resources, contact lists for local and national governments, information on the upcoming presidential election, various success stories, and more. | NYPL Books for the Teen Age

The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club by Phillip M. Hoose

The true story of a group of boy resistance fighters in Denmark after the Nazi invasion. | ALA, ILA, NCSS | Lexile: 970

The Girl from the Tar Paper School by Teri Kanefield

Describes the peaceful protest organized by teenager Barbara Rose Johns in order to secure a permanent building for her segregated high school in Virginia in 1951, and explains how her actions helped fuel the civil rights movement.  | NCSS | Lexile: 1100

The Next Wave: The Quest to Harness the Power of the Oceans by Elizabeth Rusch

Explores the use of ocean waves as a renewable energy source. | NSTA | Lexile: 1070

How the Beatles Changed the World by Martin W. Sandler

Fifty years after the British invasion began, Martin Sandler explores The Beatles' long-lasting impact on the world. | NCSS | Lexile: 1160

BIOGRAPHY

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip M. Hoose

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

A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown's War Against Slavery by Albert Marrin

A biography of American abolitionist John Brown, discussing his childhood, his career and family, and his involvement in the abolition movement during the Civil War in which he led a raid on a military armory at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. | NCSS | Lexile: 990

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba & Bryan Mealer

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

Hidden Figures: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch Our Nation Into Space by Margot Lee Shetterly

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. | Lexile:  1120

Trailblazers: 33 Women in Science Who Changed the World by Rachel Swaby

Profiles thirty-three women who have made notable contributions to science, including Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Virginia Apgar, and Rachel Carson. | NSTA STEM | Lexile: 1130

Grade 9  to Grade 12

FICTION

Audacity by Melanie Crowder

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

Starbird Murphy and the World Outside by Karen Finneyfrock

Starbird has spent the first sixteen years of her life on a commune in the woods of Washington State. When she gets her Calling to become a waitress at the farm's satellite restaurant in Seattle, it means leaving behind the only place she's ever known and entering the World Outside. | Lexile: 820

Pay It Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde

A young boy who believes in the goodness of human nature sets out to change the world with his seemingly simple plan, but he soon learns that some people are not willing to help him. | ALA | Lexile: 630

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

Tired of living on a failing farm and suffering oppressive poverty, bored housewife Dellarobia Turnbow, on the way to meet a potential lover, is detoured by a miraculous event on the Appalachian mountainside that ignites a media and religious firestorm that changes her life forever.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

The sudden death of a Hollywood actor during a production of "King Lear" marks the beginning of the world's dissolution in a story told at various past and future.

A Step Toward Falling by Cammie McGovern

After failing to come to Belinda's aid while she was being attacked, Emily and another classmate are punished by being forced to work at a community center for people with disabilities, but they are put to the ultimate test when Belinda finally returns to school and they must find a way to make amends to her. |  Lexile: 730

Eight Girls Taking Pictures by Whitney Otto

A tale inspired by the lives of famous twentieth-century female photographers traces the progression of feminism and photography in various world regions as each woman explores private and public goals while balancing the demands of family and creativity. | ALA

Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian

Performing community service for pulling a stupid prank against a rival high school, soccer star Tom tutors a Somali refugee with soccer dreams of his own. | Nutmeg | Lexile: 670

The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr

With her chance at a career as a concert pianist passed, Lucy Beck-Moreau decides to help her ten-year-old piano prodigy brother, Gus, map out his own future, even as she explores why she enjoyed piano in the first place. | ALA Outstanding Books for the College Bound | Lexile: 610

I am the Messenger by Marcus Zusak

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

GRAPHIC NOVEL

March: Book One by John Lewis

A first-hand account of the author's lifelong struggle for civil and human rights spans his youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., and the birth of the Nashville Student Movement. | ALA | Lexile: 760

NONFICTION

Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M. T. Anderson

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

Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines by Paul Fleischman

A summary of today's environmental challenges also counsels teens on how to decode conflicting information, explaining the role of vested interests while identifying the sources behind different opinions, helping teens make informed choices. (BT) Environmental protection. Environmental quality.| NSTA | Lexile: 1080

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba & Bryan Mealer

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

Smarter Than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better by Clive Thompson

Shows how every technological advance, from the printing press to the Internet, has been disparaged, caused hand-wringing, and has generated anxious predictions of doom, but actually has augmented human life for the better. | ALA Outstanding Books for the Cllege Bound | 

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof

Discusses the oppression of women in the developing world, sharing example stories about victims and survivors who are working to raise awareness, counter abuse, and campaign for women's rights. | ALA Outstanding Books for the College Bound

BIOGRAPHY

Ida M. Tarbell: The Woman Who Challenged Big Business - and Won! by Emily Arnold McCully

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

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly

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. | ALA |

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

The founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama recounts his experiences as a lawyer working to assist those desperately in need, reflecting on his pursuit of the ideal of compassion in American justice. | ALA | Lexile: 1130

I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai

When the Taliban took over the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one fifteen year-old girl decided to speak out. | ALA | Lexile: 1000

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man who Would Cure the World adapted by Michael French

Chronicles the life of Paul Farmer, focusing on his efforts to diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring modern medicine to the countries and people who need them most.  | NCSS | Lexile: 1120

Linda

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

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