Favorite Juvenile Fiction
Discover the best favorite juvenile fiction books for young readers! Explore our curated list of top picks to inspire a love of reading in kids and teens.
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Word After Word After Word
by Patricia MacLachlan
A visiting author teaches five friends about the power of words and writing.
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Sarah, Plain and Tall
by Patricia MacLachlan
"Did Mama sing every day?" Caleb asks his sister Anna. "Every-single-day," she answers. "Papa sang, too." Their mother died the day after Caleb was born. Their house on the prairie is quiet now, and Papa doesn't sing anymore. Then Papa puts an ad in the paper, asking for a wife, and he receives a letter from one Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton, of Maine. Papa, Anna, and Caleb write back. Caleb asks if she sings. Sarah decides to come for a month. She writes Papa: I will come by train. I will wear a yellow bonnet. I am plain and tall, and Tell them I sing. Anna and Caleb wait and wonder. Will Sarah be nice? Will she like them? Will she stay?
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Countdown
by Deborah Wiles
Eleven-year-old Franny deals with the challenges of growing up against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Interspersed with the text are photographs, news items, and advertisements from the early sixties.
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Each Little Bird that Sings
by Deborah Wiles
Comfort Snowberger is well acquainted with death since her family runs the funeral parlor in their small southern town, but even so the ten-year-old is unprepared for the series of heart-wrenching events that begins on the first day of Easter vacation with the sudden death of her beloved great-uncle Edisto.
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Love, Ruby Lavender
by Deborah Wiles
A charming and hilarious coming-of-age story relates the trials and tribulations of two Mississippi chicken thieves--nine-year-old Ruby Lavender and her grandmother, Miss Eula. An ALA Notable Children's Book. Reissue.
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Freedom Summer
by Deborah Wiles
Two boys—one black, one white—are best friends in the segregated 1960s South in this picture book about friends sticking together through thick and thin. John Henry swims better than anyone I know. He crawls like a catfish, blows bubbles like a swamp monster, but he doesn’t swim in the town pool with me. He’s not allowed. Joe and John Henry are a lot alike. They both like shooting marbles, they both want to be firemen, and they both love to swim. But there’s one important way they're different: Joe is white and John Henry is black, and in the South in 1964, that means John Henry isn’t allowed to do everything his best friend is. Then a law is passed that forbids segregation and opens the town pool to everyone. Joe and John Henry are so excited they race each other there...only to discover that it takes more than a new law to change people’s hearts.
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The Aurora County All-Stars
by Deborah Wiles
After the death of the old man to whom young star pitcher House Jackson has been reading, House uncovers some secrets which may allow the annual Fourth of July baseball game to proceed, despite the county's anniversary pageant.
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To Come and Go Like Magic
by Katie Pickard Fawcett
In the 1970s, twelve-year-old Chili Sue Mahoney longs to escape her tiny Kentucky home town and see the world, but she also learns to recognize beauty in the people and places around her.
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The Naming of Tishkin Silk
by Glenda Millard
Griffin Silk feels responsible for the absence of his mother and baby sister, but he and his new friend Layla find the perfect way to make everyone feel a little bit better.
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Layla, Queen of Hearts
by Glenda Millard
Even though she loves the family of her best friend, Griffin Silk, especially grandmother Nell, Layla Elliott, who no longer has a grandmother, determines, despite many difficulties, to find an old person of her own to bring to the school's Senior Citizens' Day.
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January's Sparrow
by Patricia Polacco
Patricia Polacco's most powerful book since Pink and Say. In the middle of the night, The Crosswhites?including young Sadie?must flee the Kentucky plantation they work on. Dear January has been beaten and killed by the plantation master, and they fear who may be next. But Sadie must leave behind her most valuable possession, the wooden sparrow carved for her by January. Through the Underground Railroad, the Crosswhites make the slow and arduous journey to Marshall, Michigan, where they finally live in freedom. And there they stay, happily, until the day a mysterious package shows up on their doorsteps. It is January?s sparrow, with a note that reads, ?I found you.? How the Crosswhites, and the whole town of Marshall, face this threat will leave readers empowered and enthralled. This is a Polacco adventure that will live in the minds of children for years.
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The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
by Jacqueline Kelly
In central Texas in 1899, eleven-year-old Callie Vee Tate learns about love from the older three of her six brothers and studies the natural world with her grandfather which leads to an important discovery.
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The House at Pooh Corner
by A. A. Milne
One of the most beloved icons of children's literature, Winnie-the-Pooh! Return to the Hundred Acre Wood in A.A. Milne’s second collection of Pooh stories, The House at Pooh Corner. Here you will rediscover all the characters you met in Winnie-the-Pooh: Christopher Robin, Eeyore, Owl, Piglet, Kanga, tiny Roo, and, of course, Pooh himself. Joining them is the thoroughly bouncy and lovable Tigger, who leads the rest into unforgettable adventures. Since 1926, Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends have endured as the unforgettable creations of A.A. Milne, who wrote these stories for his son, Christopher Robin, and Ernest H. Shepard, who lovingly gave Pooh and his companions shape. These characters and their stories are timeless treasures of childhood that continue to speak to all of us with the kind of freshness and heart that distinguishes true storytelling. The adventures of Christopher Robin, Winnie-the-Pooh, and all their friends in the storied Forest around Pooh Corner. "This is an example of a sequel in which there seems to be no letdown, and from all sides I catch echoes of most joyous reaction to it." --- New York Herald Tribune, 1928
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Mary Poppins
by Pamela Lyndon Travers
The wind brings two English children a new nanny who slides up the bannister and introduces them to some delightful people and experiences.
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Mary Poppins Comes Back
by Pamela Lyndon Travers
Mary Poppins comes back on the end of a kite string, stays with the Banks family for a while, and then disappears on a merry-go-round horse. Children's BOMC.
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Mary Poppins Opens the Door
by Pamela Lyndon Travers
Mary Poppins returns to the Banks family in a rocket and involves the Banks children in more magical adventures including those with peppermint horses, the marble boy, and the cat that looked at the King. Children's BOMC.
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Mary Poppins in the Park
by Pamela Lyndon Travers
More adventures of Mary Poppins, Michael, Jane, the twins, and baby Annabel.
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Tollins: Explosive Tales for Children
by Conn Iggulden
These are the first three stories of the Tollins. Yes, they do have wings, but no, they aren't fairies. Tollins are a lot less fragile than fairies. In fact, the word fragile can't really be used to describe them at all. They are about as fragile as a house brick. In "How to Blow Up Tollins" a fireworks factory comes to the village of Chorleywood and the Tollins find themselves being used as industrial supplies. Being blasted into the night sky or spun round on a Catherine wheel is nowhere near a much fun as it sounds. It's up to one young Tollin to save his people from becoming an ingredient. In "Sparkler and the Purple Death" our hero looks execution in the face. Luckily, the executioner's mask in backwards. Finally, in "Windbags and Dark Tollins" Tollin society faces a threat from the Dorset countryside, which, again, is much more frightening and nail-bitingly dramatic than it actually sounds.
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Septimus Heap, Book One: Magyk
by Angie Sage
The Magyk Begins Here Septimus Heap, the seventh son of the seventh son, disappears the night he is born, pronounced dead by the midwife. That same night, the baby's father, Silas Heap, comes across an abandoned child in the snow -- a newborn girl with violet eyes. The Heaps take her into their home, name her Jenna, and raise her as their own. But who is this mysterious baby girl, and what really happened to their beloved son Septimus?
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Septimus Heap, Book Four: Queste
by Angie Sage
There's trouble at the Castle, and it's all because Merrin Meredith has returned with Darke plans for Septimus. More trouble awaits Septimus and Jenna in the form of Tertius Fume, the ghost of the very first Chief Hermetic Scribe, who is determined to send Septimus on a deadly Queste. But Septimus and Jenna have other plans—they are headed for the mysterious House of Foryx, a place where all Time meets and the place where they fervently hope they will be able to find Nicko and Snorri, who were trapped back in time in physik. But how will Septimus escape the Queste? Queste, like all the books in the Septimus Heap series, is filled with nonstop action, humor, and fantastical adventure as Septimus continues his journey of Magykal self-discovery.
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Al Capone Does My Shirts
by Gennifer Choldenko
The Newbery Honor Book and New York Times Bestseller that is historical fiction with a hint of mystery about living at Alcatraz not as a prisoner, but as a kid meeting some of the most famous criminals in our history. Al Capone Does My Shirts has become an instant classic for all kids to read! Today I moved to Alcatraz, a twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd and surrounded by water. I'm not the only kid who lives here. There are twenty-three other kids who live on the island because their dads work as guards or cooks or doctors or electricians for the prison, like my dad does. And then there are a ton of murderers, rapists, hit men, con men, stickup men, embezzlers, connivers, burglars, kidnappers and maybe even an innocent man or two, though I doubt it. The convicts we have are the kind other prisons don't want. I never knew prisons could be picky, but I guess they can. You get to Alcatraz by being the worst of the worst. Unless you're me. I came here because my mother said I had to. A Newbery Honor Book A New York Times Bestseller A People magazine "Best kid's Book" An ALA Book for Young Adults An ALA Notable Book A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year A Krikus Reviews Editor's Choice A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year A Parents' Choice Silver Honor Book A New York Public Library "100 Titles for Reading and Sharing" Selection A New York Public Library Best Book for the Teen Age *"Choldenko's pacing is exquisite. . . . [A] great read."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review *"Exceptionally atmospheric, fast-paced and memorable!"—Publishers Weekly, starred review *"The story, told with humor and skill, will fascinate readers."—School Library Journal, starred review "Al is the perfect novel for a young guy or moll who digs books by Gordon Korman, or Louis Sachar."—Time Out New York for Kids "Funny situations and plot twists abound!"—People magazine "Heartstopping in some places, heartrending in others, and most of all, it is heartwarming."—San Francisco Chronicle
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Al Capone Shines My Shoes
by Gennifer Choldenko
Moose Flanagan, who lives on Alcatraz along with his family and the families of the other prison guards, is frightened when he discovers that noted gangster Al Capone, a prisoner there, wants a favor in return for the help that he secretly gave Moose.
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The Magician's Elephant
by Kate DiCamillo
When ten-year-old orphan Peter Augustus Duchene encounters a fortune teller in the marketplace one day and she tells him that his sister, who is presumed dead, is in fact alive, he embarks on a remarkable series of adventures as he desperately tries to find her.
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Elsie Piddock Skips in Her Sleep
by Eleanor Farjeon
Elsie Piddock has such a talent for rope skipping that the fairies on nearby Mount Caburn award her a magical rope and, many years later at the age of 109, Elsie returns to skip again and save the mountain from the destructive plans of the greedy new owner.
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Charlotte's Web (full color)
by E. B. White
Beloved by generations, Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little are two of the most cherished stories of all time. Now, for the first time ever, these treasured classics are available in lavish new collectors' editions. In addition to a larger trim size, the original black-and-white art by Garth Williams has been lovingly colorized by renowned illustrator Rosemary Wells, adding another dimension to these two perfect books for young and old alike.
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The Wind in the Willows
by Kenneth Grahame
Hailed as one of the most enduringly popular works of the twentieth century, The Wind in the Willows is a classic of magical fancy and enchanting wit. Penned in lyrical prose, the adventures and misadventures of the book’s intrepid quartet of heroes—Mole, Water Rat, Badger, and, of course, the incorrigible Toad—raise fantasy to the level of myth. Reflecting the freshness of childhood wonder, the story still offers adults endless sophistication, substance, and depth. The animals’ world embodies the author’s wry, whimsical, and unfailingly inventive imagination. It is a world that succeeding generations of both adult and young readers have found irresistible. But why say more? To use the words of the estimable Mr. Toad himself: “Travel, change, interest, excitement!...Come inside.” With an Introduction by Luanne Rice
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That Book Woman
by Heather Henson
A family living in the Appalachian Mountains in the 1930s gets books to read during the regular visits of the "Book Woman"--a librarian who rides a pack horse through the mountains, lending books to the isolated residents. At first only sister Lark reads the books but finally, Cal wants to know what's in them that's so important to the Book Woman.
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A Long Way From Chicago (Puffin Modern Classics)
by Richard Peck
Join Joey and his sister Mary Alice as they spend nine unforgettable summers with the worst influence imaginable-their grandmother!
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A Year Down Yonder
by Richard Peck
A Newbery Medal Winner Richard Peck's Newbery Medal-winning sequel to A Long Way from Chicago Mary Alice's childhood summers in Grandma Dowdel's sleepy Illinois town were packed with enough drama to fill the double bill of any picture show. But now she is fifteen, and faces a whole long year with Grandma, a woman well known for shaking up her neighbors-and everyone else! All Mary Alice can know for certain is this: when trying to predict how life with Grandma might turn out . . . better not. This wry, delightful sequel to the Newbery Honor Book A Long Way from Chicago has already taken its place among the classics of children's literature. "Hilarious and poignant." —Publishers Weekly, starred review A Newbery Medal Winner A New York Times Bestseller An ALA Notable Book An ALA Best Book for Young Adults A Booklist Best Book of the Year A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
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On the Wings of Heroes
by Richard Peck
A boy in Illinois remembers the homefront years of World War II, especially his two heroes--his brother in the Air Force and his father, who fought in the previous war.
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Here Lies the Librarian
by Richard Peck
Peewee idolizes Jake, a big brother whose dreams of auto mechanic glory are fueled by the hard road coming to link their Indiana town and futures with the twentieth century. And motoring down the road comes Irene Ridpath, a young librarian with plans to astonish them all and turn Peewee’s life upside down. Here Lies the Librarian, with its quirky characters, folksy setting, classic cars, and hilariously larger-than-life moments, is vintage Richard Peck—an offbeat, deliciously wicked comedy that is also unexpectedly moving.
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The Chronicles of Narnia (adult)
by C. S. Lewis
Journeys to the end of the world, fantastic creatures, and epic battles between good and evil -- what more could any reader ask for in one book? The book that has it all is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, written in 1949 by Clive Staples Lewis. But Lewis did not stop there. Six more books followed, and together they became known as The Chronicles of Narnia. For the past fifty years, The Chronicles of Narnia have transcended the fantasy genre to become part of the canon of classic literature. Each of the seven books is a masterpiece, drawing the reader into a land where magic meets reality, and the result is a fictional world whose scope has fascinated generations. This edition presents all seven books -- unabridged -- in one impressive volume. The books are presented here according to Lewis' preferred order, each chapter graced with an illustration by the original artist, Pauline Baynes. Deceptively simple and direct, The Chronicles of Narnia continue to captivate fans with adventures, characters, and truths that speak to readers of all ages, even fifty years after they were first published.
