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?