Mockingjay

Name of Book:  Mockingjay Author:  Suzanne Collins Book Design:  Elizabeth Parisi Publisher:  Scholastic Press Audience:  Ages 12 and up Summary:  The third in a trilogy of science fiction stories, Mockingjay is written for adolescent youth and older due to graphic and violent content. Katniss Everdeen has survived two rounds of competition in the Hunger Games [...]

The Tiger Rising

Name of Book:   The Tiger Rising Author: Kate DiCamillo Cover Illustrator:  Chris Sheban Publisher:   Candlewick Press Audience:   Ages 9-12 Summary:  Twelve-year-old Rob Horton has recently moved with his father to a seedy motel in Lister, Florida.  Ever since his mother’s death, Rob has shut up his feelings in a big “suitcase” and clamped it down [...]

Henry’s Freedom Box

Name of Book: Henry’s Freedom Box Author: Ellen Levine Illustrator: Kadir Nelson Publisher: Scholastic Press Audience: 3 – 99 Summary: Henry’s Freedom Box is the poignant, harrowing and true story of Henry Brown, an African American slave, who in the mid-nineteenth century escaped slavery by mailing himself to freedom.  Henry traveled 350 miles in a [...]

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom

Name of Book: Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom Author: Carole Boston Weatherford Illustrator: Kadir Nelson Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children Audience: Ages 6 and up Summary: The story of a particular slave, Harriet Tubman, who escapes from slavery and is called by God to go back for the purpose of saving [...]

The Big Box

Name of Book:  The Big Box Author:  Toni and Slade Morrison Illustrator:  Giselle Potter Publisher:  Jump at the Sun Hyperion Books for Children Audience: Ages 8 – up Summary: Three children live inside a large box that is equipped with all that they need from swings to beds and an aquarium.  The box has locks [...]

I Want to Be Free

Name of the Book:  I Want to Be Free Author: Joseph Slate Illustrator:  E.B. Lewis Publisher:  Putnam Juvenile Audience:  Grades 3-6 Summary: This is the story of a young man who is a slave and wants to be free more than anything in the world.  The “Big Man” overseer has placed an ankle collar on [...]