Great Reads - Ages 9-12

2007 Newbery Medal Winner

The Higher Power of Lucky written by Susan Patron,
illustrated by Matt Phelan

It's all Brigitte's fault-for wanting to go back to France. Guardians are supposed to stay put and look after girls in their care! Instead Lucky is sure that she'll be abandoned to some orphanage in Los Angeles where her beloved dog, HMS Beagle, won't be allowed. She'll have to lose her friends Miles, who lives on cookies, and Lincoln, future U.S. president (maybe) and member of the International Guild of Knot Tyers. Just as bad, she'll have to give up eavesdropping on twelve-step anonymous programs where the interesting talk is all about Higher Powers. Lucky needs her own-and quick.

But she hadn't planned on a dust storm.

Or needing to lug the world's heaviest survival-kit backpack into the desert.

The king's ministers set up an academy on the mountain, and every teenage girl must attend and learn how to become a princess.
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale (2006 Newbery Award Honor Book)

The convicts we have are the kind the other prisons don't want.
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

What a beautiful place!" said Violet. "Henry!" cried Jessie. "Let's live here!"
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

For the first time in his life he got up every morning with something to look forward to. Leslie was more than his friend. She was his other, more exciting self – his way to Terabithia and all the worlds beyond.
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Her face and hands and legs and neck, in fact the skin all over her body, as well as her great big mop of curly hair, had turned a brilliant, purplish-blue, the color of blueberry juice!
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Almost all spiders are rather nice-looking. I'm not as flashy as some, but I'll do.
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

When the plane crashes, Brian is the sole survivor. Right now I'm all I've got. I have to do something.
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Another roar of mean laughter went up from her followers as an ogre with a pair of shears came forward and squatted down by Aslan's head.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Once upon a time, sixty years ago, a little girl lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, in a little gray house made of logs.
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

She was a gigantic holy terror, a fierce tyrannical monster who frightened the life out of the pupils and teachers alike.
Matilda by Roald Dahl

“How brave are you, little Annemarie?” he asked suddenly.
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

With the land to hold them together, nothing can tear the Logans apart.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

I will come by train. I will wear a yellow bonnet. I am plain and tall. Tell them I sing.
Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

It was supposed to be only one story high, with thirty classrooms all in a row. Instead it is thirty stories high, with one classroom on each story. The builder said he was very sorry.
Sideways Stories From Wayside School by Louis Sachar

Whether he's throwing a temper tantrum in a shoe store, smearing mashed potatoes on the walls at Hamburger Heaven, or scribbling all over Peter's homework, Fudge is never far from trouble.
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume

Doomed to – or blessed with – eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family wanders about trying to live as inconspicuously and comfortably as they can.
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Birmingham was like an oven. That first night I couldn't sleep at all, me and By had to share a bed and we both were sweating like two pigs.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

“Wild nighs are my glory,” the unearthly stranger told them. “I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down a moment, and then I'll be on my way.”
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Ages 4-8 | Ages 9-12 | Young Adult