Mrs. Malecha Reads!

by Claudia Mills Lexile:  800 Genre: Realistic Fiction Most people think ants are boring, but not Nora Alpers.  She loves ants and wants to devote her life to the study of them.  She orders a constant supply of ants for her ant farms and when those don't work out, she finds ants from her backyard.  She watches them and records everything about them in her notebooks.  Unfortunately, nobody shares her passion!  So when she brings her ant farm to school, it is a disaster.  Now Nora's teacher has given the class an assignment to write a persuasive speech.  Can Nora persuade her class that ants are interesting?

by William Joyce Lexile:  830 Genre:  Fantasy Billy's mother made Ollie from hand when he was just a tiny baby.  She inserted a special bell into Ollie's heart that was part of her favorite toy from her childhood.  As Billy grows up, Ollie is his constant friend and companion.  They go everywhere together.  But one day Ollie asks Billy a question:  why don't grown ups have favorite toys?  That gets Billy and Ollie thinking about what is happening - Billy is growing and changing, but Ollie is not.  What does this mean for their future?  But just when they think this is their biggest mystery, Ollie disappears and it will be up to Billy to be brave and rescue him.  This will be an adventure with a capital A!

by Sara Pennypacker Lexile:  680 Genre: Realistic Fiction Everything is changing for Waylon now that 4th grade has started.  Arlo has divided the class into two teams and Waylon isn't sure where he fits in.  Some of his friends are on the Shark-Punchers and some of his other friends are on the yet to be named team.  Waylon just wants to hang out with everyone.  Things are confusing at home too, because his teenage sister has decided she no longer really wants to be part of the family in ways that she used to.  Then a new kid, Baxter, shows up.  Everyone knows Baxter is trouble and Waylon doesn't see how he is going to fit into the whole 4th grade craziness.  Waylon just wants things to stay the same, but sometimes being open to change isn't a bad thing.

by Alison K. Hymas Lexile:  630 Genre:  Mystery Jeremy Wilderson is a retrieval specialist.  If something has been stolen from you or lost, Jeremy is the one you hire to get it back for you.  So Jeremy isn't at all suspicious the day that Mark shows up at his back door asking him to help get his missing house key back.  However, when Mark tells him that he can probably find the house key in the janitor's closet at school, Jeremy should have seen that has a red flag.  Jeremy gets Mark the key which turns out to be the master key to the school so now Mark has access to everybody's lockers.  Soon, things start to disappear and Jeremy's enemy, Becca Mills, a self-proclaimed private investigator, is on the case.  Will Jeremy and Becca have to team up to put a stop to this middle school crimewave?

by Sandra Evans Lexile:  610 Genre:  Fantasy Raul is a student at One of Our Kind boarding school.  He has a hard time fitting in.  Other students call him "weirdo" and the PE teacher, Mr. Tuffman seems determined to make his life as miserable as possible.  Raul is hiding several secrets from the others though.  No one knows that his dad doesn't come to pick him up on Friday afternoons and no one knows that he shifts into his wolf self for the weekend and roams the woods around his school with a white wolf whom he thinks is his mother.  Raul has so many questions and he isn't sure who he can trust to help him figure out the answers.

by Margaret Peterson Haddix Lexile:  760 Genre:  Science Fiction Nick and Eryn's mom just dropped some big news.  She is getting remarried!  They are in a bit in shock when they hear the news, but then she goes on to tell them that they will have to move and that their future stepfather actually has 2 children that they have never met.  Their mother assures them that everything will be fine.  In fact, they will never even meet their step siblings.  Nick and Eryn are suspicious...something about all of this doesn't quite add up and they are determined to get to the bottom of the secrets they think the adults in their lives are hiding from them.

by Claire Legrand Lexile:  580 Genre:  Realistic Fiction, Fantasy Finley isn't happy about the fact that her parents have decided she should spend the entire summer with grandparents she has never met.  Her parents say they need some time alone to work out some issues they are having and Finley isn't happy about that either.  Her parents are so wrapped up in what is going on with themselves that they haven't noticed how hard it is for Finley to function some days.  She feels overwhelmed by feelings of sadness and fear and her only escape is to retreat into the Everwood, a fantasy forest that she has created in her notebook.  What will happen when she is left all alone with grandparents, aunts and cousins that she has never met before?

by Alan Gratz Lexile:  800 Genre:  Historical Fiction, Realistic Fiction Josef and his family are trying to escape the Nazis by traveling from Germany to Cuba in 1933.  Isabel and her family are trying to escape Castro by traveling from Cuba to the United States in 1994.  Mahmoud and his family are trying to escape the war in Syria and are traveling to Germany in 2105.  All 3 are refugees at different times in history and all 3 face overwhelming obstacles in their quests to find freedom.  From Germany in 1933 to Germany in 2015, this is the story of 3 families whose stories overlap and intersect in a surprising way.

by Paul Griffin Lexile:  590 Genre:  Realistic Fiction Ben Coffin has finally found his forever home with his mom, Tess.  Bounced around in the foster care system, Ben has always had a hard time making friends and believing that good things will last longer than a few minutes.  Not only does Ben have an awesome adoptive mom, now he has a dog , Flip, and a best friend, Halley, who have adopted him as well.  Ben and Halley decide to write a novel together and train Flip to be a therapy dog and start a reading program at the library where Halley's mom works.  But just as Ben thinks he's got the stable life he has always wanted, tragedy strikes and his stable life gets turned upside down.

by Virginia Castleman Lexile:  640 Genre:  Realistic Fiction Sara has had to look after her older sister for a long time.  First their mother left them, and now their dad is struggling to hold their lives together.  He plays in a band and leaves the girls alone sometimes, but he has never been gone this long.  Sara and Anna have spent time in foster homes so when a knock comes on the door and they hear the voice of their case manager, Sara and Anna decide to run away.  Fortunately, they are able to find their way to a safe place where they have stayed before.  This time their dad is in big trouble and their case manager wants to find the girls a permanent new home.  Sara isn't sure what she wants anymore.  She promised her mom that she would take care of Anna, but that is getting increasingly more difficult.  Would living permanently with a new family provide the stability and safety that the girls desperately need?                                      

by Rachel Renee Russell Lexile:  660 Genre:  Humor, Realistic Fiction Max Crumbly has been homeschooled by his grandmother until the very moment that he sets foot in South Ridge Middle School as an 8th grader.  Max is excited about starting school until he meets Doug the Thug who is the school bully and manages to figure out a way to stuff Max in his locker. And so begins the adventure of middle school...trying to stay away from the Thug while also trying to make some new friends.  Max would love to develop some superhero powers that would help him out doing both of these things, but so far those are showing up only in the comics he loves to draw and read.  But you never know...when the going gets tough, you have to get creative!

by G. Neri Lexile:  690 Genre:  Historical Fiction, Mystery Tru is from New Orleans so he feels like an outsider in the tiny town of Monroeville, Alabama until he meets Nelle.  Nobody else has wanted to be his friend, but he and Nelle find common ground in the fact that they both love books and a good mystery.  And now there is a real mystery in Monroeville that needs to be solved.  Detectives Tru and Nelle are on the case and what begins as 2 innocent children investigating a drug store break in, leads to a dangerous discovery about what is really going on in Monroeville.

by Frances O'Roark Dowell Lexile:  920 Genre:  Historical Fiction, Fantasy Callie loves a good mystery so when she sees an old yellow dog wander by, she can't help but follow it.  On her quest to find out whose dog it is, Callie runs into Wendell and together they decide to work on the mystery.  Their adventure leads them to an abandoned cabin in the woods where they find the name "Jim" etched into the wall.  Callie and Wendell look for help at the newspaper office where Callie occasionally writes a story.  Callie and Wendell's friendship develops which is in itself unusual because Callie is black and Wendell is white and they are living in a segregated town where friendships like theirs are not encouraged.  Will they get to the bottom of the mystery of the yellow dog and will their friendship be able to withstand the disapproval that is sure to come their way?