OFF THE SHELF -- Number the Stars

Number the Stars 

by Lois Lowry

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1989 Newbery Medal

Last year I had a fifth grader who was a ferocious reader.  She liked books that were realistic and gritty, but still was a Harry Potter fangirl.  I suggested Number the Stars, which is my favorite Lois Lowry novel.   This is not Anne Frank or The Book Thief: this is the story of a young girl growing up as she realizes that life is not a fairy tale.  Set against the Danish Resistance's drive to save the Jews from Hitler's machine, two 10-year old best friends see the world as a child where the Danish King lives well in his castle with his white horse and the Nazi soldiers are the big, bad wolves chasing small girls in red riding hoods.  As Annemarie's Danish family struggles to smuggle Ellen's Jewish family out of the country, the girls come to see the gritty underlying truth of war.  An excellent read for teens and adults.

Level:  4th and up

OFF THE SHELF--Caddie Woodlawn

Caddie Woodlawn 

by Carol Ryrie Brink

1935, Newbery Medal Winner

I would be remiss if I did not give recognition to one of my favorite books of all time, Caddie Woodlawn. It is a work of historical fiction written based upon stories told by the author's grandmother of her childhood.  Raised in the Midwest plains, with Indians for neighbors, young Caddie is brave, smart, and loyal, each of her adventures as harrowing as the next.  To this day, 30 years later, I can still hear the rattlesnakes rattling in this book.  When the 4th grade teacher said she wanted her kids to pick a work of historical fiction, it was the first book I grabbed off the shelf.