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Cultural
Literacy: Classic Fiction for Children Ages 9-12
This list was originally conceived as the
basis of an independent reading project for students enrolled in the
Literature for Children course offered by the high school's English
department. All of the works listed have a designated reading level of
ages 9-12 with a few exceptions, whose reading levels are noted.
Each entry includes author, title, and a
brief summary. Entries are arranged alphabetically by author's last name.
A
| Author |
Title |
Summary |
| Alcott, Louisa
M. |
Little Men |
Adventures
of Jo March and her husband Professor Bhaer at their school for
boys: a place of light, warmth, comfort, and delights, where self-knowledge and self-control are acquired along with book
learning.
Sequel to Little Women |
| Alcott, Louisa
M. |
Little Women |
The adventures of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy as they
grow into young ladies in mid-nineteenth-century New
England. |
| Armstrong, William
H. |
Sounder |
Angry and humiliated when his sharecropper father is jailed for stealing food for his family, a young black boy grows in courage and understanding by learning to read and with the help of the devoted dog
Sounder. |
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B
| Author |
Title |
Summary |
| Baum, Frank L. |
The Wizard of Oz |
After a cyclone, Dorothy find herself in the land of Oz, where she seeks out the great wizard, hoping he can return her to Kansas. |
| Blume, Judy |
Are You There God? It's Me,
Margaret |
Faced with the difficulties of growing up and choosing a religion, a twelve-year-old girl talks over her problems
with God. |
| Blume, Judy |
It's Not the End of the World |
When her parents divorce, a sixth grader struggles to understand that sometimes people are unable to live
together. |
| Blume, Judy |
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing |
Peter finds his demanding two-year-old brother an ever increasing problem. |
|
Burnett, Frances H.
|
The Secret Garden
|
Mary, a lonely orphan, finds life and spirit as she and a local Yorkshire lad help bring her sickly cousin Colin back to health when they discover a hidden, mysterious garden.
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C
| Author |
Title |
Summary |
|
Carroll, Lewis
|
Alice in Wonderland
|
A little girl falls down a rabbit
hole and discovers a world of nonsensical and amusing characters.
Young
Adult
|
|
Christopher, John
|
City of Gold and Lead
|
Three boys set out on a
secret mission to penetrate the City of the Tripods and learn more about
these strange beings that rule the earth.
|
|
Cleary, Beverly
|
Ramona the Pest
|
This engaging tale of young Ramona
Quimby's first days in kindergarten takes a pint-sized perspective on
the trials and delights of beginning school.
|
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D
| Author |
Title |
Summary |
|
Dahl, Roald
|
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
|
Willy Wonka, the
reclusive and eccentric chocolate maker, is opening his doors to the
public. For young Charlie Bucket, this a dream come true.
|
|
Dixon, Franklin W.
|
The Hardy Boys Books |
Frank and Joe Hardy are
known for their ability to solve even the most baffling of mysteries.
The first book was published in 1927, and over the years the series has
sold over 50 million copies.
|
|
Dodge, Mary M.
|
Hans Brinker, or, The Silver Skates
|
A young boy of the
Netherlands hopes to find the doctor who will help his father regain his
sanity. At the same time he encourages his sister to enter a skating
contest which offers a special prize to the winner.
Young Adult
|
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F
| Author |
Title |
Summary |
| Fitzhugh, Louise
|
Harriet the
Spy
|
An
intensely curious and intelligent girl, who literally spies on people and
writes about them in her secret notebook, is trying to make sense of
life's absurdities. When her classmates find her notebook and read her
painfully blunt comments about them, Harriet finds herself a lonely
outcast.
|
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G
| Author |
Title |
Summary |
|
George, Jean C.
|
Julie of the Wolves
|
A runaway from her husband's
parents' home, 13 year old Miyax hopes to reach San Francisco and her
pen pal. But she becomes lost in the vast Alaskan tundra, with no food,
no shelter, and no idea which is the way to safety.
|
|
George, Jean C.
|
My Side of the Mountain
|
Young Sam Gribley gets to
the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York, where he sets up house in a
huge hollowed-out tree, with a falcon and a weasel for companions and
his wits as his tool for survival.
|
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H
| Author |
Title |
Summary |
| Hope,
Laura Lee |
The Bobbsey
Twins |
Children solve mysteries in this
classic series.
|
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J
| Author |
Title |
Summary |
|
James, Will
|
Smoky the Cow Horse
|
The experiences of a mouse-colored
horse from his birth on the range, through his capture by humans and his
work in the rodeo and on the range, to his eventual old age.
|
|
Juster, Norton
|
The Phantom Tollbooth
|
Bored, bored Milo can't see the
point to anything, but he is knocked out of his glum humdrum by the
sudden and curious appearance of a tollbooth in his bedroom. Since he
has nothing better to do, he dusts off his toy car, pays the toll, and
drives through.
|
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K
| Author |
Title |
Summary |
|
Keene, Carolyn
|
The Nancy Drew Books
|
The famous girl sleuth, along with
chums Bess and George, solves mystery after mystery in the over 100 titles
in the series.
|
|
Kingsley, Charles
|
The Water Babies
|
A combination of social commentary,
natural history, and allegory, the moralistic Victorian fantasy relates
the story of small Tom, who undergoes a transformation from chimney sweep
to water-baby.
Interest Level Ages 4-8
|
|
Knight, Eric
|
Lassie Come-Home
|
After being sold to a wealthy duke
living in the far north of Scotland, a collie undertakes a 1000-mile
journey to Yorkshire in order to be reunited with her former master, the
son of a poor farmer. Interest Level Ages 4-8
|
|
Konigsberg, E.L.
|
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
|
Twelve-year-old Claudia Kincaid is restless, but won't run away to just
anyplace -- she likes her comforts. She decides that the Metropolitan Museum
of Art will do just fine.
|
|
Konigsberg, E.L.
|
Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me,
Elizabeth
|
Jennifer, a witch, and Elizabeth, the first-person narrator who
becomes Jennifer's apprentice, meet on Halloween morning in the woods just
beyond school.
|
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L
| Author |
Title |
Summary |
|
L'Engle, Madeline
|
A Wrinkle in Time
|
Spurred on by local rumors and
an unearthly stranger, the tesseract-touting Mrs Whatsit, Meg and
Charles Wallace and their new friend Calvin O'Keefe embark on a perilous
quest through space to find their missing father.
|
|
Lessing, Doris
|
The Giver
|
In a world with no poverty, no crime, no
sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is happy,
12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's Receiver of Memories.
Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known as the Giver, he
discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world.
Young Adult
|
|
Lewis, C.S. |
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe from The Chronicles of Narnia
|
They open a door
and enter a world. Narnia...the land beyond the wardrobe, the secret
country known only to Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy...the place where
the adventure begins.
|
|
Lewis, C.S.
|
The Magician's Nephew from The Chronicles of Narnia
|
Digory and Polly meet and become
friends one cold, wet summer in London. When Digory's Uncle Andrew, who
thinks he is a magician, sends them hurtling to. . . somewhere else, they
find their way to Narnia.
|
|
Lofting, Hugh |
The Story of Doctor Dolittle
|
Dr. Dolittle, a generous
old man who seems capable of doing anything -- including talking to
animals -- goes to Africa to save monkeys from an epidemic and has
adventures along the way.
|
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M
| Author |
Title |
Summary |
| Milne,
A.A. |
Winnie the Pooh
|
The original stories about the adventures
of the Bear of Very Little Brain and his friends in the Hundred
Acre Wood (all of them actually stuffed toys in Christopher
Robin's nursery) are simply delightful tales about well-meaning,
though slightly addle-brained characters. Half the fun of the
original Pooh stories is knowing more than the characters, and
laughing at the silly situations they create for themselves.
|
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O
| Author |
Title |
Summary |
| O'Hara,
Mary |
My Friend Flicka
|
Through his intense devotion to the colt Flicka, a young boy living on a Wyoming
ranch begins to learn
about responsibility and gain a better understanding of his
brusque father.
|
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R
| Author |
Title |
Summary |
|
Raskin, Ellen |
The Westing Game
|
The mysterious death of an eccentric
millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment of heirs who must
uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim their
inheritance.
|
|
Rawlings, Marjorie K. |
The Yearling
|
Fighting off a pack of starving
wolves, wrestling alligators in the swamp, romping with bear cubs,
drawing off the venom of a giant rattlesnake bite with the heart of a
fresh-killed deer--it's all in a day's work for the Baxter family of the
Florida scrublands. But young Jody wants a pet, and finds it in a frisky
fawn he calls Flag.
|
|
Rowling, J.K. |
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
|
Mistreated orphan
Harry finds that he is perhaps the greatest sorcerer of them all and
goes off to Hogwart's School where he and other young sorcerers can
learn their craft and battle evil along the way.
|
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S
| Author |
Title |
Summary |
|
Saint-Exupery, Antoine de |
The Little Prince
(Le Petit Prince) |
This fairy tale, a 20th century fable of
love and loneliness, is a powerful story in which a pilot hoping to
repair his damaged plane after crashing in the desert encounters a
young prince, who describes for him his journey from planet to planet
in search of a place that can become his home. |
|
Sewell, Anna
|
Black Beauty
|
When a little girl is given the horse of
her dreams, the pair forms a bond of love and trust that will never be
broken.
|
|
Sperry, Armstrong
|
Island of the Blue Dolphins
|
The author based his
book on the life of 12-year old American Indian girl who, during the
evacuation of Ghalas-at (an island off the coast of California), jumped
ship to stay with her young brother who had been abandoned on the
island. He died shortly thereafter, and Karana fended for herself on the
island for 18 years.
|
|
Spyri, Johanna
|
Heidi
(1880)
|
Spyri's classic story of a young orphan
sent to live with her grumpy grandfather in the Swiss Alps has charmed
and intrigued readers since it's original publication in 1880.
|
|
Stevenson, Robert L.
|
Treasure Island
|
This story of high adventure is
the tale of a young boy who comes to possess a treasure map and goes off
on a whirlwind adventure filled with sea voyages, pirates, and treasure.
|
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T
| Author |
Title |
Summary |
|
Tolkien, J.R.R.
|
The Hobbit |
Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit (little people,
about half our height, and smaller than the bearded dwarves ) is well-off,
well-fed, and accustomed to his comforts. When Gandalf the Wizard tempts
him into joining a party of dwarves on a treasure-seeking adventure,
things change, especially when he comes to possess a magical ring.
Young
Adult
|
|
Travers, P.L.
|
Mary Poppins
|
English children Jane and Michael Banks
have no idea what's in store for them when nanny Mary Poppins blows in on
the east wind one autumn evening. Soon the children are having
tea on the ceiling, flying around the world in a minute (visiting polar
bears and hyacinth macaws on the way), and secretly watching as their
unusual nanny pastes gold paper stars to the sky.
|
|
Twain, Mark
|
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
|
This classic tale of mischief
and adventure on the banks of the Mississippi has it all: mischievous
boys, robbers, buried treasure, and a graveyard at midnight, not to
mention the irresistible title character and his adventurous sidekick,
Huckleberry Finn.
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V
| Author |
Title |
Summary |
|
Verne, Jules
|
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
|
The lives of a scientist, his
sidekick and a big strong sailor are changed forever when they are sent to
capture a giant octopus and instead, fall overboard and find out that what
they think is an octopus is really a giant submarine commanded by Captain
Nemo.
|
|
Verne, Jules
|
Journey to the Center of the Earth
|
The story is narrated
by Axel, who takes a trip to the center of the earth with his uncle, a
famous mineralogist. They start their journey from a mountain in Iceland
and end up..… ?
|
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W
| Author |
Title |
Summary |
|
White, E.B.
|
Charlotte's Web
|
Love really does have the power to change
the world, whether it's the love of farm girl for her pet, or the love
of two friends for each other (even if one of them is a pig and one of
them is a spider!)
|
|
White, E.B.
|
Stuart Little
|
The Little family learns that sometimes the
unexpected happens, like when their beloved second child, Stuart, is born
looking more like a mouse than a little boy.
|
|
White, E.B.
|
The Trumpet of the Swan
|
With the support of an unusual boy
named Sam, Louis, a trumpeter swan with no voice, learns how to read
and write, and to use the brass trumpet stolen for him from a music store
by his swan-father so that he can win the heart of a beautiful swan named
Serena.
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Wilder, Laura I.
|
Little House in the Big Woods
|
Anyone who has thought
about running off to live in the woods will enjoy this story of a girl and
her family as they manage a Wisconsin snowstorm, a panther attack, and a
wild sled ride with a pig as an uninvited guest, among others. This book
about pioneer life in the Midwest in the late 1800s is the first in the
Little House series.
|
|
Wilder, Laura I.
|
Little House on the Prairie
|
In this, the best known
of the Little House series of books, the Ingalls family travels to Indian
Territory (Oklahoma) and lives at first in a sod house while waiting for Pa
to build a real lumber house by the banks of the creek.
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