Mrs. Malecha Reads!

by Shari Green Lexile:  870 Genre:  Realistic Fiction, Novel in Verse Macy's life is changing...she and her mom have always done just fine on their own.  But now Alan wants to marry her mom and they will become a new family with his twin 6 year old daughters which means that they will be selling their house.  As Macy and her mom prepare for the move and the wedding, Macy's mom insists that she help out their neighbor, Iris, who is also going to be moving into a senior home where she can get more help taking care of herself.  Macy has no interest in packing up her stuff or helping Iris pack hers, but as she gets to know Iris, Macy starts to think about the possibility that maybe all these changes in her life will be okay.

by Lindsay Eagar Lexile:  670 Genre:  Realistic Fiction, Fantasy Carolina is not looking forward to her summer vacation.  She thought she was going to spend it with her friends...hanging out at the pool, going to the mall, etc.  But then her parents surprised her with the news that they were heading out into the desert to spend the summer with a grandfather she barely knows and get him ready to move into an assisted living facility.  When Carolina sees the ranch and meets her grandfather, she is convinced that this is going to be the worst summer ever!

by Tim Green and Derek Jeter Lexile:  750 Genre:  Sports Jalen loves baseball and would do anything to get the money to be able to pay the fee to be on the summer traveling baseball team.  He thinks that playing for the Rockets is the only way to guarantee that his baseball career moves to the next level.  He and his friends devise a plan where he will sneak into his neighbor's yard and steal some baseballs from James JY Yager, the second baseman on the Yankees.  But when Jalen gets caught, it looks like his dream of becoming a Rocket is over.  Will JY turn him in or help a future baseball star out?

by Marie Miranda Cruz Lexile:  700 Genre:  Realistic Fiction Nora and her mother are completely alone ever since a fire destroyed their home and killed her father.  Her mother was swindled out of her father's pension by an aunt who had agreed to take them in, but now Nora and her mother are living in the cemetery with other families who have nowhere else to go.  Nora has had to drop out of school and help her mother with laundry jobs to earn enough money to feed themselves.  But one night her mother doesn't come home and Nora doesn't know what to do.  She knows that her mother's gambling habit has been increasingly out of control since her father's death and when Tiger comes to the cemetery looking for her mother, Nora fears the worst.  Where is her mother?

by Sarah Weeks Lexile:  780 Genre: Realistic Fiction 2019-20 MHL Nominee Joe and Ravi are too completely different people, but they have one thing in common:  they both struggle with being in 5th grade at Albert Einstein Elementary School.  Joe has some special learning needs that make school difficult for him and he is continually made fun of because of his learning challenges.  If that wasn't enough, his mom has started a new job as a lunchroom monitor.  Ravi has just arrived from India where he had friends and was at the top of his class.  Everything at his new school is different and he is struggling with how to fit in.  Unfortunately, the one thing that Joe and Ravi have in common is being tormented by the class bully.  Would things get better for both of them if they were able to find a way to work together?

by Sharon Draper Lexile:  610 Genre:  Realistic Fiction Isabella is half of her father and half of her mother, which means she is half black and half white.  But now with her parents splitting up, she feels like she is even more split in two.  One week she is with her mother and then she has to change and move to her dad's.  And now her dad has a girlfriend and her mom has a boyfriend.  How can she feel whole when she constantly is having to switch between her two halves?

by Katherine Marsh Genre:  Realistic Fiction Ahmed is a refugee on the run from Syria.  His mother and sisters were killed in a bombing and now he has lost his father too.  He has made it as far as Brussels, Belgium, but it seems that he is not safe there either.  Max is also new to Brussels, but his background is much different.  His family has moved to Belgium from the United States for the year and his biggest problem is that they have decided to enroll him in the local elementary school where everything is taught in French.  Max and Ahmed come from two completely different worlds, but when they meet by chance and their friendship grows, they realize that despite their differences, they both need the other.

by Angela Dominguez Your friends want to know how you are feeling?  Are you hungry? Tired? Shy?  It's time to share your feelings with all of your friends because they want to know all about you!

by Anna Dewdney and Reed Duncan Llama Llama is learning to read and he is so excited!  He is learning to recognize letters and write his name and all the names of his friends.  How cool that each letter makes its own sound and when you put the letters together they make words!  And he gets to go to the library to find new books that are full of exciting stories.  Llama Llama can't wait to get home to tell Mama all that he has learned about reading because words have a lot of power!

by Hilda Eunice Burgos Genre:  Realistic Fiction Ana Maria Reyes lives in a tiny two bedroom apartment with her parents and 3 sisters.  It is never quiet and there is never enough time for Ana to be alone in the living room so that she can practice piano.  Ana Maria has big plans.  She wants to be part of the Winter Showcase and play piano at the Lincoln Center.  She also wants to earn a full scholarship to the Eleanor School, New York's best private academy,  so that she can get the best education possible.  But there is so much going on with her family...and then her parents announce that they are going to have another baby?  Ana Maria Reyes is going to have her hands full!

by Melanie Walsh Animals and insects move all around...just like we do.  What buzzes around flowers?  What leaps through the air?  Do donkeys dance like people do?  Read this book to find out all the fun ways animals and insects explore the world.

by Jim Averbeck and Yasmeen Ismail Sophia has one true desire for her birthday:  she wants a giraffe!  But there are four people standing in her way of making her biggest wish come true.  What will she have to do to persuade Mother, Father, Uncle Conrad, and Grand-mama that getting her a giraffe for her birthday would be the best thing in the world?

by Meg Medina Lexile:  700 Genre:  Realistic Fiction Merci is a 6th grader on scholarship and the exclusive Seaward Pines Academy.  While she may not have as much money as the other students there, she does have a vibrant, loving extended family who live together in three little houses and share lots of love, laughs, and fun times.  But lately, Merci has been noticing some changes in her grandfather.  He is getting confused and forgets where he puts things.  No one in her family is talking to her about this and Merci is getting more and more worried.  Things at school aren't great either.  Some of the girls are mean and make fun of her differences.  Merci is confused by life and all of the changes that are happening around her.  Why can't things just stay the same?

by Kekla Magoon Lexile:  510 Genre:  Realistic Fiction Caleb and Bobby Gene have lived a rather sheltered life in the small town of Sutton, Indiana.  Caleb longs to figure out a way for him to become extraordinary and would like to have a chance to see the world outside of Sutton.  His dad seemed determined to keep him safe and close to home.  But then, the boys meet their new neighbor Styx, a boy who is super cool and has all kinds of ideas about how to get what he wants.  Caleb and Bobby Gene are about to have the most exciting summer of their lives!

by David Shannon David doesn't try to cause trouble, but it seems that trouble always has a way of finding him.  David is used to hearing "No, David" all day long, but in this book, when he spends the day bugging his older brother, all he hears is "Grow up, David!"  Will David and his brother be able to find a way to get along?

by Rachel Renee Russell Lexile:  670 Genre:  Realistic Fiction When we last left our hero, Max Crumbly, he had managed to get himself out of his locker, but had stumbled across some crooks who were trying to steal the computers out of the school.  With the help up his sidekick, Erin, who has managed to hack into the school's computer system, Max is determined to defeat the 3 crooks, save his dad's valuable comic book, and escape the school alive.  Can Max be the superhero he has always dreamed of becoming?