Book Finder

This thoroughly researched and compelling history looks at the editors, authors, librarians, and booksellers who helped answer the provocative and centuries-old question: What should children read? Discover how landmark children’s books like The New England Primer, The Cat in the Hat, and The Chocolate Wars helped define children, families, and the culture of their times.

Drama abounds in what might have happened if Austin Gollaher had not pulled the young Abraham Lincoln from a swollen Kentucky creek that day in 1816. This engaging tale was inspired and expanded from a real event noted by the author.

Maggie lives with her grandmother who is a veterinarian and owner of the animal clinic called Wild at Heart. In this first in the series, Maggie and other volunteers find the puppy mill responsible for the sick animals brought to the clinic — and help shut it down.

Sunita, a volunteer at the Wild at Heart Animal Clinic, desperately wants a cat of her own, but her parents won’t hear of it. Eventually, Sunita gets her animal as readers learn about feral cats and the need for animal control.

When yellow fever strikes 18th century Philadelphia, sixteen year old Matilda’s life is forever changed. Contemporary readers are likely to see themselves in Matilda while being transported back in time through striking smells and sights of an earlier time.

Lia and Cassie are both “wintergirls” — frozen in bodies and minds that strive for the impossible. Cassie’s death — was it accidental or suicide? — haunts Lia in this plausible, evocative, and unforgettable look at eating disorders.

Nine-year old Lowji Sanjana and his family move from a high-rise apartment in India to a garden-style apartment in suburban Illinois. Though lonely before school begins, Lowji befriends the landlady and a menagerie of animals as he adjusts to his new home.

Benjamin Franklin’s many talents are presented here in word and image. The organization from Ben’s childhood to the end of his life is enhanced by the use of a scrapbook-like format.

Life for immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was filled with challenges, documented here through the lives of five young people from different countries. Black & white photographs add riveting detail.

This book captures the voices of the forgotten men, women, and children who worked in the cotton industry in America over the centuries. The voices of the slaves who toiled in the fields in the South, the poor sharecroppers who barely got by, and the girls who gave their lives to the New England mills spring to life through oral histories, archival photos, and an engaging narrative prose style. 

A common love of Tupac Shakur unites three preteens: two from comfortable lives and one, D Foster, who can really relate to Tupac’s lyrics.

Two friends — one black and wealthy, the other poor and white — are united by their lack of mothers, but divided by the racism and classicism in their small Ohio town.

Disguised as boys, Lena and her sister Dion flee their father’s abuse. They hitchhike to their mother’s hometown in Kentucky in hopes of finding a relative to care for them.

Through a class poetry assignment, fifth-grader Lonnie reveals the house fire that killed his parents, his separation from his sister, his life in foster care, and his community’s struggle with poverty and racism.

Matthew Henson, an African American, accompanied Robert Peary to the North Pole where together they placed a flag. The courage and perseverance of this remarkable man is revealed through his voice and luminous illustrations.

Subtle references and evocative language introduce Jesse Owens and what he faced as a Gold Medalist — an African American in Hitler’s 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany. An endnote provides more information.

Lonnie, aka Locomotion (first introduced in Locomotion) tries to connect with his sister and to prevent forgetting their “real” parents. As he writes Lili, readers learn about his life including his foster brother who has returned from the Iraq war.

Not only is 14-year-old Staggerlee self-named, she is a child of the county’s only interracial marriage. Moreover, Staggerlee is struggling with an attraction to other girls, something that she can share only with a 14-year-old cousin who visits for the summer.

Growing up is particularly difficult for Evie Green as she has no past. She lost it when her father testified against fellow police officers in a racially motivated murder. Each family member must learn to deal with their new lives and identities alone.

Two 15 year olds — one black one white — meet and fall in love at an exclusive New York prep school. Both deal with their family issues as well as with how their growing relationship is received. This difficult novel is told in the couple’s alternating voices — until the wrenching and tragic conclusion.